Help: need cooling advice

dprocket

Member
Jun 30, 2003
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0
Hi, I am a newbie that has just completed building my first computer.

AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (Thoroughbred) w/packaged heatsink
Abit KD-7 MB
Maxtor 160GB
Antec SLK3700AMB Super Mid Tower (350 Watt p/s)
(2) Kingston 256MB PC 2100 DDR
(2) K-Byte 256MB PC 2700 DDR
PNY GeForce4 MX440se 64MB DDR AGP Video Card

I am wondering about the temperature of my system. I have not found anything reliable to tell me what temperature I should keep my CPU/system at. Obviously, "as cool as possible" is preferred, but what is realistic for me to be shooting for?

Also, I recently added a front case fan. I am sure this is helpful (I used AMD's reccomendation for air flow) but this fan is extremely noisy. I want to take it out because it's just too loud. Any suggestions on an alternative for keeping the unit cool AND quiet?

I am on a pretty tight budget so keep that in mind when offering tips (I'm sure a water cooling unit would be nice, but's its a little out of my price range.)

Also....I know I know my RAM is cheap (it was free, not much cheaper than that!). Eventually I'll get some good stuff so feel free to comment on this as well....

thanks!
 

masterosok

Member
Apr 30, 2003
140
1
81
For reference my xp 2500+ run around 36-38 C idle when im at stock settings.

This is with a Epox 8rda (just got my Abit NF7-s rev 2.0 today, whooo hooo) board and a SLK-800 with Thermaltake Smart Fan II (running full speed)

The temp varies depending on the HSF, motherboard, CPU, room temp, etc.

Some people dont mind running systems a lil hot. I like to stay under 50 C but thats just me, Im picky.


Hope that helps a lil, I really don't know exactly what you should be getting with your specs, What temps are you getting?

 

dprocket

Member
Jun 30, 2003
38
0
0
I have to plead a little ignorance on this. The only way that I know to check the temperature is to go into BIOS. I'm sure there are some nice tool applications that do this, but I don't know which one to use. I can give you temps, but not sure the best way to do that....
 

masterosok

Member
Apr 30, 2003
140
1
81
Most apps just show you what the bios is reporting as the temps. Lots of people use Motherboard Monitor , but I dont like it.

Just tell me what the bios temps are, those should be as accurate as your gonna get, however you may wanna update the bios, my board has a bug that was reading the temps wrong in the bios, updated and its fix.

However from what I read that bios isnt completely accurate either, but its a good reference point.