computer knowers unite plz

[Commasterharry]

i have a couple questions concerning computer temperatures

first of all, i dont have a case fan. the only fans i do have are the power supply fan, the CPU fan, and 2 fans on my video card(more about the video card later)

1. my case temperature is around 50C, is that too high?
2. how effective is a fan? will it bring down the temp a lot? or only a little?
3. this is the graphics card i have. as you can see it has 2 fans on it, and a gay HUGE box around it. Can this box be taken off? i'm going to try to do it later, that is if u guys say otherwise. The reason i'm doing this is yesterday i checked the case ambience and GPU temperature after an hour of doom3. the ambience temperature was 65. the GEFORCE's temp was 89 THATS ALMOST BOILING.


All temperatures are in celcius

[sgtfuzzbubble011]

Get a 95 Chevy Silverado 1500 with a 454 Big Block in it. Take the entire cooling system out. Put the cooling system in your computer... because it looks like you need it.

[mark]

dont remove the box, it helps cooling!

a case fan or two would help, possibly a pci slot filling exhaust fan as well ( dont know how good/loud they are but it might help the gfx card.


Wait for Atmo to reply before doing anything.

[billyvnilly]

yeah you better watch you hard drive or it will be gone one of these days! do you have a monitor for you hd or just you case?

i have my case fan, my powersupply, my heatsink, and a pci fan card i found.

my pci card has adjustable speeds, two fans, not noticable on slow, noticable on max but who cares(i never run it max all the time unless gaming, then speakers drown that out) yes i think it helps my gfx card...

[Commasterharry]

are you sure the video card case cant be removed? is it possible the fans are not on the box but on the card? (which would mean getting rid of the box doesn't get rid of the fans) remember..it was as hot as 89 C!! keep in mind that 100C is boiling temperature

[mark]

THE BOX HELPS!

it channels the hot air out the vent. I am fully aware how hot it is, and agree some more cooling would help.

[griffinn]

The case likely has fins to guide the cool air through.

[Russ]

If the temperature inside the case is 65C then that's your problem, and you need to sort that out before thinking of doing any crazy box-removing. Case temperature should be as close to ambient as possible, and preferably not more than 10C or so above. That's of course assuming that your motherboard isn't completely mis-reading it.

As for the box thing, it looks like it's an integral part of the cooling for the card - if you remove it it might get even hotter. Those things are designed to cool effectively as shipped, so if they're not doing so it's more likely to be a problem with your case than with the construction of the card...

[Atmo]

Dont take the 'box' of your video card. That's actually the heatsink. Removing it and not replacing it with another (preferably better) heatsink and fan combo before you use it will kill your video card.

As for the other questions, an ambient temp 50 degrees is warm. Very warm....Too warm in fact.

Ambient temp of 65 degrees under load? No way...That thing would be flakier than a really flaky thing with sunburn. I doubt your video card would 'only' read 89 degrees with an ambient temp that high.

I think you're reading the cpu temp as the ambient temp. 65 degrees is still a bit warm, but if the system's stable then there's really nothing to worry about. The video card temp seems a bit warm too, but if it's not crashing, it's really not a problem.

Add another fan or two if it'll make you feel better. Since you dont have much airflow at the moment it should make a noticeable difference to temps...cant say exactly how much, but 5-10 degrees wouldnt be out of the question.

However, if it's stable, all you'll really be doing is adding extra noise. Yes your components will run cooler, components that run cooler will generally last longer. But unless they're running so hot that it's crashing every time you put it under heavy load, or there's a manufacturing fault, it's unlikely the components will fail before they become so outdated that it's unlikely you'll use them anyway.

If it's unstable, and you suspect heat is the problem, then by all means add a case fan or two.

[Russ]

Damn, I couldn't have said it better myself... even if I'd have had the patience to write that much...

[Commasterharry]

Originally posted by Atmo
Dont take the 'box' of your video card. That's actually the heatsink. Removing it and not replacing it with another (preferably better) heatsink and fan combo before you use it will kill your video card.

As for the other questions, an ambient temp 50 degrees is warm. Very warm....Too warm in fact.

Ambient temp of 65 degrees under load? No way...That thing would be flakier than a really flaky thing with sunburn. I doubt your video card would 'only' read 89 degrees with an ambient temp that high.

I think you're reading the cpu temp as the ambient temp. 65 degrees is still a bit warm, but if the system's stable then there's really nothing to worry about. The video card temp seems a bit warm too, but if it's not crashing, it's really not a problem.

Add another fan or two if it'll make you feel better. Since you dont have much airflow at the moment it should make a noticeable difference to temps...cant say exactly how much, but 5-10 degrees wouldnt be out of the question.

However, if it's stable, all you'll really be doing is adding extra noise. Yes your components will run cooler, components that run cooler will generally last longer. But unless they're running so hot that it's crashing every time you put it under heavy load, or there's a manufacturing fault, it's unlikely the components will fail before they become so outdated that it's unlikely you'll use them anyway.

If it's unstable, and you suspect heat is the problem, then by all means add a case fan or two.

my computer autorestarts itself once or twice everyday, so i guess ill just stick a fan in and see what happens. Thanks for your help guys.

could you also tell me about the kind of fans i need to buy? where to buy? where does fan get plugged into?

[mark]

80mm fans probably. look in your case for square grills to fit them. I'd buy at least 2 if i were you, and consider an pci cover exhaust fan too.

Remember, you want a lot of air going in the front and out the back/top. If you have a blowhole above the CPU, fit a fan there too. If theres room at the front at the bottom, fit a fan.

When you put the fans in, remember to check theyre facing the right way.

You can get fans that use 3 pin connectors on teh motherboard, or pass-through molex connectors (the drive ones) Molex would be better as it can draw more voltage and current (to spin faster and move more air) and 3pin connectors are often allready filled by the cpu fan and psu fan.

[mikm]

Your case manual should tell you the size you need...

[dlichterman]

if you buy a fan look for an adapter that works witht he HD power plug. Also those PCI ones look cool cause they push air out back. Yeah its running way hot dude

[mikm]

Better yet: buy a watercooling or nitrocooling kit.

[squakMix]

89 degrees!? That's approx: 200 degrees (F)!

[mark]

dude, farenheit sucks!

[squakMix]

Celsius sucks...

[mark]

celcius is easy!

0 freezes water
100 boils it
37 is body temp
14 is the temperature at the moment where i live
14 is too damn cold!

[Atmo]

my computer autorestarts itself once or twice everyday, so i guess ill just stick a fan in and see what happens. Thanks for your help guys.

could you also tell me about the kind of fans i need to buy? where to buy? where does fan get plugged into?

Before you do that (i should have mentioned it in my first post), take a side off the case and see if that helps. If you have a floor fan (or even a small heater with a cold air setting) try aiming it towards the case. If you find it's stable, then look into buying more fans.

Most cases will have at least one opening for a 60 or 80mm fan (generally on the rear of the case, below the power supply). Using it to exhaust hot air rather than blowing in seems to be the best option (otherwise it can draw in the warmed air exiting the psu). If you have an opening on the side or front of the case you can also place a fan there to draw in cool air.

Any fan will do, as long as it runs from 12v. You can buy 5v fans, but i dont reccomend them as they dont work well with fan controllers.

Make sure whatever you buy wont be too loud. An 80mm Delta EHE will move a lot of air, but the noise will drive you nuts after about 5 seconds...They're great for benchmarking with a highly overclocked pc, for anything else they're just too damn noisy.

If you dont know much about fans, go to a store and just ask for a quiet case fan. Most will come with a 4 pin molex connector, but as long as it only has a 1-2watt rating, the 3 pin type that plug into your motherboard are fine.

PCI slot fans suck. Big time. Sure, they're better than nothing, but due to the restrictive design they cant move anywhere near as much air as a standard fan mounted to an exhaust opening on the case....they do make just as much (or more) noise though. Unless you dont have any normal openings, avoid them like the plague.

[deeder7001]

i have my side panel off and a floor fan pointed at my computer because my HD gets kind of warm. it gets around 115 degrees farenheit on a regular basis. this is until i get an HD fan/cooler thing. unless i don't really need to worry about the HD temp.

[mark]

Originally posted by Atmo
...but due to the restrictive design they cant move anywhere near as much air as a standard fan mounted to an exhaust opening on the case....Read: 120mm fan attached with zip ties...they do make just as much (or more) noise though.

[Xeaq]

Unlike Atmo, I have no idea what I'm talking about for cooling, or computers in general. But, Staples has 80mm Blue LED Fans for $10.00, I just bought one.