Upgrade CPU, buy new case or install better CPU fan?

[imported_ultimus]

For the past 2 days, I've been smelling something burning from my computer but I didn't realize it was my CPU getting freaking hot until the computer crashed today. When, I read the CPU temperature from BIOS, the temp turned out to be a whopping 91C. FYI, I have 805D Pentium D 3GHz and a cheapo case that comes with the system.

Well, I'm contemplating to either upgrade my CPU, buy new case or install better CPU fan. Since my case is cheap, the power supply is near to the CPU and I suspect this is the case. I'm looking for a relatively good priced Antec or Lian-li case. Pentium D also has notorious reputation of running hot. If I upgrade my CPU to Core 2 Duo (3GHz), I can get a quite huge bump in performance and lower CPU running temperature. But I don't know if it worth 120 EUR investment. The cheapest option is to buy good CPU fan. I'm thinking about Zalman.

I dont know what should I do. help?

 

[Lemon law]

To a certain extent, you can get some of that answer from various temperature monitoring programs. That will report what temperature the HDD, the mobo, and the CPU are running at. Or just place your hand on the top of the computer case after the computer has been running a few hours and see if it seems warm. Do the same for the powers supply. If you are exceeding 40C on components other than the CPU, a better case or case fans are recommended. If not, look for a better CPU or a better CPU cooler. And with luck, you might find a CPU on the used market one hell of a lot cheaper.

And I also recommend you check out your power supply. And bios voltage setting for Vcore and other parameters.

 

[chizow]

At some point, I would upgrade everything, CPU, case, HSF. If you want the fastest/cheapest solution however, it would be to upgrade the CPU first. The problem is you'll end up doing a lot of the steps redundantly if you replace everything piece-meal. I'm assuming you have socket 775, just make sure your board supports 45nm, otherwise you'll have to stay with the 65nm Core 2. Both should be significantly cooler and ~50% faster clock for clock. They may still run hot in your case until you replace it, but they will still be cooler than the Pentium D.

 

[imported_ultimus]

I use SpeedFan for temperature monitoring.

Temp1: 25C (doesn't change)
Temp2: -128C (I dont think this is even correct)
Temp3: 45C - 54C (it hovers around 54C at almost full load)

HD0: 42C
Core: 61C

VCore1: 1.18V
VCore2: 1.81V

I have activated SMART fan on the bios, where it increases the speed fan 3PWM/C starting from 50C. I dont know if I should crank more PWM since I'm using stock fan.

 

[QuadDamage2k]

disable the smart fan, run it on disable and keep your fan going the whole time

 

[imported_ultimus]

well the fan does keep running the whole time. what do u mean?