Author Topic: Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling  (Read 2707 times)

Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #15 on: April 08, 2008, 23:52:30 PM
can you take some photos ?

you need nice smooth air flow through the case, tury cables etc...


tho, going with niges post, a duct onto the CPU fan so it has fresh air from outside the case makes a MASSIVE difference to cpu and case temps :D
(and lower case temps mean lower shipset, ram and gfx temps too!)


  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #16 on: April 09, 2008, 09:44:25 AM
I can do photos though theres not much to look at. When I said about the 80mm fan on the bottom, I should have been more specific and said 80mm fan below the 120mm on the side panel.

I was wondering about the ducting and stuff, but lets face it, if Im not overclocking is there really any point?

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #17 on: April 09, 2008, 10:09:09 AM
Pic of my case in situ:


You can see my classy and hi-quality attempt at cutting bigger air holes, it actually looks BETTER in the pics than it does in real life haha. Function over form though hah.

Also note how close the back is to the wall, and the book shelf basically creating a channel for the hot air to go up or stay at the case

The place where the 120mm fan is going is obvious, the 80mm fan is going on the bottom row of air holes to the left. Reckon I could put the 80mm sucking and the 120mm blowing, if hot air rises surely the 80mm should be ok getting the bottom air? Or both blowing? The 120mm should be directly over the CPU etc whether that helps.

There is a fan at the front that does something but to be honest I cant really see or feel if its blowing or sucking when its on as its so inaccessible and the holes again are tiny, this time pin sized!

And Ive never been that great at tidy cables. Add to that 2 more sticks of ram to warm things up and another 500Gb SATA HDD going in when the new fans and heatsinks and things should look a bit messier again!

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #18 on: April 10, 2008, 16:39:45 PM
New fans and stuff in and idling at:

Mobo: 36
CPU: 44-45
GFX: 54
HDD: 35

Cpu would probably be more efficient as well if I had bothered reading the instructions more carefully, had to quickly take the HS off and turn it around before whacking on, no doubt therell be air bubbles in the thermal paste!

  • Offline Serious

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #19 on: April 10, 2008, 19:12:53 PM
The amount of thermal paste should be minimal. the pressure will push out any air bubbles anyway

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #20 on: April 10, 2008, 19:43:28 PM
Aye, the thermal paste Im referring to is what came on the heatsink, it was quite tough and actually seemed to be gluey in terms of sucking the HS to the heatspreader when I tried to take it off.


Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #21 on: April 10, 2008, 22:21:07 PM
if I were you Id have both the side fans blowing in, the front fan blowing in and just the back fan blowing out ;)

what are your max temps / gameing temps ?

you might have already done enough already ;-)

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #22 on: April 11, 2008, 09:28:47 AM
max temp on the cpu seems to be about 55.

I might see about reversing the bigger fan to blow in, only problem is the warm air around the case...

  • Offline Liam

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #23 on: April 11, 2008, 13:49:18 PM
It might be worth as well replacing the Intel stock cooler as other people have said and infact they are crap, try getting the latest Zalman CPU Cooler that is avaliable on the market now (i dont think the CNPS9500 is the latest one anymore?) but i used to use the CNPS9500 cooler and it was brilliant - on my old athlon rig temps would neve reach over 40C! :D

Liam

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #24 on: April 11, 2008, 14:21:31 PM
I replaced the intel cooler with an Artic Cooling 7 thingymajig :D

Worth noting that it appears the Intel reference cooler is better (in my experience) than the Akasa cooler I previously had. Quieter AND cooler!

Idling at 44-45 to me is an improvement of 5 degrees hehe. Will try the 120mm fan blowing air in, as the AC cooler is set up to be blowing the warm air off of the HS and to the rear fan, having a fan blowing cooler air from outside the case onto the HS might also help...

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #25 on: April 11, 2008, 14:29:52 PM
With both side fans blowing air in...now idling at 40 hehe!

Mind you I dont think the fan liked me ramming it with my thumb as I pulled the cable...seems to be a little louder now!

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #26 on: April 12, 2008, 10:01:01 AM
Figure this one out...now I have swapped out the mobo, the temps are:

Mobo: 35
CPU: <20
GFX: 55

When idling. Thats halved the CPU idling temperature? My only ideas are that I either have gotten used to the process of cleaning and applying thermal paste, and did it right for once. Or the mobo/bios in the P5B was badly configured by me and voltages or something were effecting temp (Ive left all that on auto at the mo, have yet to stress test in games to see if the ram voltage is set right...) OR the bios is reporting a faulty temp?

Everything is in pretty much the same place, except the IDE cable is stretched across the case pretty much. Upgraded from a P5B to a P5KC.

Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #27 on: April 12, 2008, 10:12:41 AM
Mobo & CPU temps are reversed.

That or the CPU sensor isnt reporting correctly.

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #28 on: April 12, 2008, 10:26:05 AM
Could it be that it wasnt reporting properly on the old mobo? Any way of checking without reseating the HS? Im thinking that I shouldnt look a gift horse in the mouth if  it is actually keeping cool?

I mean, what temps should a Core 2 Dueo E6400 idle at when it isnt overclocked?

  • Offline zpyder

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Re:Couple of upgrade questions...RAM and Cooling
Reply #29 on: April 12, 2008, 11:12:25 AM
Thought it was too good to be true. Updated the BIOS (Youd have thought Id learn my lesson haha)


Its now reporting similar figures to before :(

Nevermind heh.

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