Subject: Experiences of a first timer
By: fezztah (IP: 212.159.47.*)
Written on: 26-07-2006 11:32
Suddenly my PC started crashing at odd times and the harddrive was generating file errors requiring regular error cehcking, it was all quite worrying. I wondered if heat was a problem, especially as here in the UK we are in the middle of a heatwave. I downloaded speedfan and discovered the system was running at 50c and the cpu at 70c under load - eek! Opening the case I discovered the one and only case fan had broken.
A quick trip to the PC shop and I had a front mounted case fan sucking and a rear mounted case fan blowing. Sadly both temperatures only dropped 5c so I was a bit disapointed. While looking around the case I noticed both harddrives were mounted on top of each other in the cramped 3.5inch bay and (incredibly) they were burning hot to the touch! I have the red mark to prove it. After moving some files around I got rid of one drive which allowed space for air to ciculate around the remaining drive. Now the system (and hdd) were running at 40c and the cpu at 57c under load. The PC has been stable for a few days now.
Still seemed a little hot to me though, so after reading through the article on this site about case cooling I built and fitted a duct to connect the cpu fan directly to the rear vents on the case. I was very disapointed when this actually made the cpu temp rise by 10c !! Why on earth would it do that? The psu does have a large fan sucking very close to the cpu heatsink and fitting the ducting obviously obstructed that, I'm guessing though. That would imply the cpu intake fan does a better job of cooling the cpu than the cpu cooler!
Current setup:
Athlon XP barton 2500
1 gig ram
psu with 1 fan sucking and 1 exhausting
1 front case fan sucking and 1 rear case fan exhausting
1 80gig SATA drive
1 stock AMD cpu cooler, not sure what make, it came with the chip
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