Ideas for cooling an older, overclocked system

[ProviaFan]

I have a K6-2 400 that will run at 500 with the case cover off, but with the cover on it will frequently BSOD. Since I won't be able to get an Athlon system until next summer, and I need every MHz of speed that I can get, I'd like to find a way to cool this thing better without spending much money on it. (It's a standard AT case, with one fan in the PS and one fan on the processor.)
First thing we need to get straight is that water cooling is not an option.
Now, one idea I had was to make a sort of "air pipe" from a hole in the side of the case to the processor fan. This would allow it to take in the cooler air from outside (we air condition in the summer and don't heat the house really warm in the winter), instead of recycling the air inside a case that is small and doesn't have enough airflow (as far as I can tell). Does this seem to be a good idea? Do you have any other ideas? Thanks, Josh.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

What HSF do you have on there currently? IMO, if you pay some money ($30-40) to get a high quality HSF now you can consider it an investment in the future. Just make sure you get a HSF that fits both a socket 7 and a Socket A (462). There are several out there that do this. I persoanlly bought an Alpha Pep66 that is currently running on my 450 MHz k6-3+ and I can overclock it to over 600 MHz with it on there. I will be able to use it later on an Athlon rig that I will probably put together some time next year.

 

[ProviaFan]

It is a retail processor that has the retail heatsink on it. I'd love to be able to get a better heatsink, but right now my budget for the computer is extremely limited (being a highschool student sucks sometimes). Thank you for the suggestion about the heatsink that will work on both K6-2s and Athlons; I plan to get that or a similar heatsink as soon as I can.
However, for now, it appears that the problem isn't necessarily the heatsink/fan on the processor, but that cooler air can't get into the case as well as it needs to from outside. I wonder if my idea would work, or if there would be a better way to accomplish that.

 

[ChemMan]

I did exactly what you mentioned in your first post. My case draws air through a vent on the side. I made a cardboard duct that fit over my fan on the heatsink and extended to about a half an inch from the vent. It dropped my cpu temp 2C.

 

[ProviaFan]

I did exactly what you mentioned in your first post. My case draws air through a vent on the side. I made a cardboard duct that fit over my fan on the heatsink and extended to about a half an inch from the vent.

Hey, it's great to see somebody's already tried this. I was worried about the cardboard catching on fire, but apparently if it works for you, it should be fine. BTW, I had a light acrylic pipe that came from an old aquarium accessory. Do you think that would work better than cardboard?

It dropped my cpu temp 2C.

By this are you saying that it was worth the effort, or not? My CPU doesn't have a temperature monitor, and I'm not used to the metric system of temperature, so I can't tell if that's a good amount of temperature drop for the work required to produce it.

 

[ChemMan]

You shouldn't have a fire problem with cardboard unless you have an open flame. Plastic should work just as well, as far as I can see. I would guess that 2C would be about 4-5 degrees F. Is is worth the effort? That's up to you.