Air Flow / Cooling Advice

[wellmad]

Ok, my machine has been running ok for a couple of weeks now, no major problems at all.

CPU temp seems to fluctuate around the mid to high 30's and mobo temp is pretty stable at 31 most of the time

Here's is the inside of my case:



Sorry about the flash glare...Apart from the ribbon-style IDE cable, it's pretty clear I think. There's a fan in the front and one at the back, the airflow I guess should be like this due to location of fans:



The graphics card also has a heatsink and fan sp I guess the majority of hot air from the card will just go straight down:



I was thinking about getting a PCI slot exhaust fan to go under the graphics card, and maybe a couple of cool spots to blow on the RAM and Southbridge. The rest of the heatsinks should be covered by the CPU cooler as it blows cold air out of the sides (gigabyte 3d rocket pro).

Would you say this would be enough cooling to do a moderate overclock, as described in Cluck's OC guide?

[Fraz]

I wouldn't bother with the extra cooling - I think you'll be alright as long as you don't take the p;ss.

And since when did hot air start going down?

[-N!CK-]

get a scythe karma bay if you want more cooling

[wellmad]

And since when did hot air start going down?

lol, I know, convection and everything, but the fan should make the hot air go down, then come back up into the main body of the case, I thought maybe an exhaust fan would catch it...

I don't know that much about thermodynamics so I thought I'd check

[acrobat]

What CPU is that? Either way, I think thats cool enough to OC. Just keep an eye on your temps as you increase the speed.

[Pob255]

Most graphics card fans Suck air in from brlow the card and force it across the heatsink, the warm air then flows around the card and up. (in theory)
You can sometimes get a thermal pocket building up under the card, but I don't think an exhaust fan below the graphics card will help that much as the two fans would be working against each other as they both try to suck in the same air.

Depending what your side pannel is like you could mount a fan on it to suck in cool air below the graphics card, however I'd only do that if the card is getting hot.

A couple of questions.
What CPU do you have?

What are the case fans? (make & rpm, as they both look like 120mm)

Are thoes temps Under load or idel?

What the heck is that CPU cooler?

And out of intrest is that a Antec NeoHE PSU?

[shadowmaster]

It an Antec Smartpower 500watt (modular) psu. It actually says 'Smartpower' at the bottom of the psu, but you have to look really carefully.

And what cpu cooler is that? Looks interesting.

[wellmad]

The CPU is a Q6600 and the temps are idle-ish (browsing, word doc open)

The CPU cooler is a gigabyte 3d rocket pro

The case fans are standard 120mm, unsure of the make but they came with the case which is a Thermaltake shark. RPM of the case fans is about 1400 I think, the front one doesn't seem to register although it is connected to the board and working

Don't think I could mount a fan on the side because of the cutout panel, but I guess that helps with the cooling anyway...

yup, its an antec smartpower 500

[Pob255]

Ahh I saw the "power" not the "smart" didn't know they did that one in modular, which is did notice which is why I thought it was the NeoHE.

EDIT: If you've got the honey comb mesh sides You should be able to screw a fan on to the mesh without and major problem
31 for a motherboard temp at idel is ok and mid 30's on a quad core is not unuseally high I think.

Just did a quick test
P4 D & AC freezer7Pro, freezer at 1600rpm, 2x120mm Sharkoon power case fans at 1400rpm, a couple of far weaker xcilo 120mm fans (droped to min, fan speed doesn't like these fans says 3100rpm no matter how I set it with the fan controller but at max I'd say they push out slightly more air than the sharkoons at min)
sits around CPU 36.5c and motherboard 34c
wack them all to max, freezer and sharkoons 2000rpm, xcilos at max (flip know about there true rpm)
CPU 34c and motherboard 32c and sounds like a vacume cleaner

[acrobat]

I think you could do with checking the temps under load, because idle temps don't really mean a whole lot. For example, some chips can be very cool when idle, but they get really hot when put under load.

Your case layout certainly looks good though. Your airflow is about 10 times better than mine. An 8800GTX really screws with your air flow... Its like having a piece of pavement in the middle of your case. So yeah, yours looks nice and clear, and all those fans look good. So check the load temps and you should know if you are ready to go.

To check the load temps, I recommend getting Intel Thermal Analysis Tool (intel TAT).

Can get it from here.

[Fraz]

To check the load temps, I recommend getting Intel Thermal Analysis Tool (intel TAT).

I don't recommend that for q6600... it doesn't seem to work at all with mine.

CoreTemp certainly seems to work well, although get the latest version if you have a G0 Q6600.

[wellmad]

mines a B3 revision, will it work with coreTemp ok?

[Fraz]

Yup - it should work fine. You can find it here:

http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/CoreTemp/

Just above the list of temperatures there will be a row labeled TJunction - I think this should be 85C for a B3 Q6600. If it isn't saying 85C for your chip, then the temps it reads will be incorrect, but that is unlikely I think.

[wellmad]

the Tjunction stays on 100C...

[Fraz]

the Tjunction stays on 100C...

Gah! Maybe I got that wrong for the B3 then... I'm honestly not sure, as I only researched this for my G0 stepping.

Google no-doubt has the answer... but if TJunction really is 85C for the B3 stepping, and coretemp is saying TJunction as 100, then you subtract 15 from your temperature results.

[acrobat]

try intel TAT aswell. And CoreTemp might still show the right temp, even if that Tjunction isn't.

Theres also speedfan which works a treat for me, but not for everyone, and then theres stuff like PC Wizard which you can get a trial of. TAT and CoreTemp are usually the best though.