I just replaced my motherboard & processor. I put in a P4 3.0GHz, and a new 400W power supply. And boy does that thing get hot. Real hot. I think I need to get this things temp way down. The case top is getting almost too hot to put your hand on. So I shut it down for the night, and tomorrow I’ll get to fixing what I can. I really can’t afford to put anymore money in this, so I’m looking for simple, do-it-yourself type solutions.
For starters, the mini tower sits inside a desk designed to house these things. (read: tight fit) The desk is easily 10 years old, so I don’t think these temps were a concern back then. So obviously the tower has to come out of there.
Then I’ll go back inside, and try to clean up the cables and wires to increase airflow. Could I wire tie the IDE cables into a more round shape? Is that bad for them?
When I replaced the side covers, I could hear the fans wind up more as the case was closing. Seems it’s trying to draw more air in. The case doesn’t seem to be that well ventilated. Perhaps I’ll cut some holes in the sides and top? Could I use the fans from the old power supply in some way?
If it’s inside a desk, there isn’t going to be much dust getting to it anyway, so the cover isn’t helping any.
Other than that, I’d say go to your manufacturer’s website and see if the have additional ducts and fans and thingies you can attach to your machine, and then see if you can cobble something up on your own without having to pay $17.50 for a plastic tube.
Are you certain that the CPU fan is seated properly and making full contact with the CPU? Check the clips/connectors to make sure they’re securely fastened. If so, double-check that you didn’t use too much/too little thermal paste. Either way will result in inefficient heat transfer.
Do you have a temperature monitor util? What temperatures does the CPU run at? Modern P4s run hot but they shouldn’t be making the case too hot too touch.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the sink and fan are seated right. The fan is connected to the sink, and the whole assembly clips into receivers on the board, then latched down. The paste was already on there.
I was hoping to get a temp utility with the board; my old ASUS had one, but this one doesn’t. Is that something I can d/l somewhere? Recommendations if so?
I think I may have discovered one problem. When I took the front cover off, the intake fan vents were clogged up good. I cleaned up the wiring, and I’m going to run it awhile to see if there’s any dif.
Another question - I was thinking of leaving the floppy drive out. My laptop didn’t even come with one. What do you all think? Will I ever really need that thing?
There’s a freeware app out there called “Motherboard Monitor”. It’s been a while since I used it last, but if I remember right it was pretty nifty. A quick google will get you many download sites.
The only thing I use my floppy drive for now is BIOS flashing, but it’s not like that’s done every week.
Do you want to cut your own fan holes, or perhaps retool existing holes where you can. If so, swapping out 80mm fans for 120mm fans will help, as will a blowhole at top. Fewer bigger fans are better than many smaller fans, unless you want your PC to sound like a fighter jet.
Round IDE cables are pretty cheap. They’ll improve airflow, but I wouldn’t expect drastic changes.
My desk has a similar enclosure for a PC. I put in a shelf and put my scanner and printer in there. There was nowhere near enough air circulation.
Make sure your CPU fan is working properly (which should probably be #1 on the list). Make sure the PC is not near a heater.
You can likely flash the bios on a newer mobo from CD, or even a USB memory stick.
A good case, one with 120mm intake and outtake, might be all you need. Antec has a couple of models, including the Sonata, for less than $100. You didn’t mention if you replaced your case when you upgraded.
There are water cooling kits if you are feeling adventurous. Some of them are geared towards the neophyte water cooler. I haven’t tried any, and don’t think I’ll be doing so in the near future, but it’s an option if you want to take the plunge (pun intended).
Well, clearly I’m in over my head here. Putting these things together used to be easier, it seemed. I d/l’d some monitoring apps - and they were all giving me different readings. MBM 5 was telling me my CPU was @ 260 F, and the case was at 188 F. Upon start up. The other app says 194 F.
:eek:
But it doesn’t feel that hot now that the case is out of the desk, and the side panel is open. The m/b says it has integrated CPU overheat protection, so I’m relying on that for now. Just how hot can a P4 3.0GHz get anyway?
Also, when the side panel door is closed, the fans wind up considerably. It gets LOUD. As soon as I take the panel off, they wind down immediately. Hmmm.
Maybe I’ll get some thermal paste and redo that.
Maybe I’m just paranoid.
Maybe this will be the last time I get anything less than a pre-made barebones system. :wally
True Geek: use a (something) to cut out a rectangular hole LOW in the front, and then cut a piece of open-cell foam to put in that hole as a filter. The hole in front should be the intake. This way you can easily see when it is dirty.
Also another possibility is that the exhaust air can’t get out the back area easily. You might have to cut a hole in the desk back there, up high, and then make sure the desk is at least a couple inches from the wall. This is not as horrible as it sounds, unless the desk is a family heirloom – because the hole will not be visible normally anyway.
…
I don’t know how hot a P4 gets specifically, but I think it is the hottest CPU out now.
~
I’ve got an overclocked P4 2.8 GHz proc at home, and it’s merely warm.
The processor heatsink/fan (aka HSF) - if it came with a retail-boxed Pentium from Intel, it’s more than enough to keep your proc cool. But, MBM says it’s running at 260 degrees F? Something’s not right there. IIRC, mine’s runing at around 60 decrees C, or 140 degrees F, and that’s with a little nudge of overclocking.
Rounded IDE cables help, but if you don’t want to replace the existing flat ones, they can be folded lengthwise without trouble. Just be sure they’re all tucked to one side so air flow can get past them.
My guess is your HSF’s not seated right, even though that should be pretty near impossible with Intel’s included HSF. Mine was a fairly brain-dead operation since there was a patch of heat-transfer putty (definitely not the white paste stuff) on the HSF - press the HSF against the proc and snap down the spring clips, plug in the fan and call it done.
The good news through all of this is you’ve got a Pentium as they handle overheating gracefully - the clock self-reduces to run cooler, and if it’s really hot, it just shuts itself off. AMD chips have a nasty way of running full tilt until they cook themselves to death.
Thanks - that info is somewhat reassuring. I took the HSF off, and reseated it. I’m really not crazy about screwing around with those kinds of things. Alot of the heat putty came off. When I replaced the hsf, and turned the system on - it stayed on for about 10 seconds, then shut off.
:eek:
I tried it again, and it shut off after 3 seconds.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
I took it off again, and then put it back. It booted normally.
(Where’s the “whoo boy, I didn’t fry my system” smiley?)
It’s running slightly higher without the paste, as per the monitoring programs - but I don’t think those are accurate. MBM 5 doesn’t list my specific board.
Anyway - it’s outside the desk now, with the cover off, and I just played some HL2 - everything seems to be fine temp wise. But I reckon I gotta replace that putty.
Well I found this pretty neat program. It’s a one-stop-shop program for all your computer specs. It says I’m running my CPU @ 90C, which is what another program said as well. In doing a little research, I guess the Prescott P4 will run up to about 115C before shutting down. But due to the infinite amount of variables in todays computers, standards are hard to nail down for one specific chip. Once I get the thermal paste back on, it’ll be down to about 80C.
Some case fans at the mall today, my handy-dandy dremel and I think I’ll be all set.
DougC, I do have a front intake fan (which was clogged), and the holes providing air to it are inadequate. I’ll definitely be modifying that. This thing requires all the air it can get, or it winds up like a jet.
That’s generally not good. Best practice is to remove all traces of the previous putty/paste/tape and reapply. You don’t want to scratch the heat sink bottom. I generally will use a combination of a credit card (or other hard plastic card, such as an old library card, work ID, etc), with a gently touch, as a scraper (NOT a hobby knife or other metal scapper, which will scratch the aluminum or copper bottom very easily) and the PUREST isopropyl alcohol you can find (90% or better) on cotton swabs, and clean both the processor and the heat sink (don’t scrape the processor). Some people will go out of their way to lap (finely sandpaper) their heatsinks so that they can comb their hair in the reflection, but I do this to those people: :rolleyes: Then reapply a thin layer of new paste. Sure, some compounds are better than others, but anything you can find in a Best Buy or CompUSA or sometimes even Radio Shack will work fine.
Well, I followed your advice D_Odds, and I think I’m good to go. I got some thermal paste at Best Buy, and three different fans. Two of the fans are installed. (one of which is a PCI slot fan - how cool is that?) I’ll install the 120mm fan later as a top vent. Anyway, checking my BIOS hardware monitor, I was at about 80C, now I’m down to mid 50’s - which is within the parameters from Intel’s spec sheet. (All the d/l apps are giving me much higher temps for some reason)
