Mobo temp high when case door on causing instability

[SiM]

I have one of these Zalman chipset coolers on my motherboard chip because the old one started making high pitch whining sound... I suspect that it is crap at cooling or my 2 x 120mm case fans are not sufficient at cooling it and it is causing my overclock to be less stable. Can overheating mobo chip cause failed orthos? And windows to freeze completely after working fine for a few hours?

I was running orthos fine for about an hour with my case door off. As soon as I put it on it caused an error. So I lower the overclock a little and do some experimenting...

These are my temps with case door on.



and with door off.



Does higher fsb causes higher mobo temps and instability?

Thanks guys

[chuckskull]

First up, same screencap twice mate and yup, higher FSB = higher northbridge temps generally. 45c is acceptable and should be stable on a 939 board iirc, but I'm guessing that's probably the door off temp.

For extra cooling on the NB try a Thermalright HR-05 (there's an sli version too, that fits better on some boards, not used your though so couldn't say) very good, and easy as you like to fit. Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

EDIT: NVM fixed, if it's stable at 38 and not 45 then I'd give the HR-05 a shot if you got £15 to spare, or back off the OC.

[SiM]

I am thinking this would fix the problem. Or faster case fan. I'll put a photo of inside my case up later

[chuckskull]

I am thinking this would fix the problem. Or faster case fan. I'll put a photo of inside my case up later

They work fine passive and great with a 40mm fan. Knocked over 15c off my very hot (65c+ on stock cooling)P5N-E under load.

[SiM]

First up, same screencap twice mate and yup, higher FSB = higher northbridge temps generally. 45c is acceptable and should be stable on a 939 board iirc, but I'm guessing that's probably the door off temp.

For extra cooling on the NB try a Thermalright HR-05 (there's an sli version too, that fits better on some boards, not used your though so couldn't say) very good, and easy as you like to fit. Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

EDIT: NVM fixed, if it's stable at 38 and not 45 then I'd give the HR-05 a shot if you got £15 to spare, or back off the OC.

lol beat me to it. Since my gpu and cpu temps increases significantly too with the door on, would a faster 120mm fan would be a better solution though? As that will fix the problem properly. I am not sure if it is worth £15 for that though as this pc will soon be a htpc in a new case.

And the sli version definately won't fit as the chip is sandwiched between 9800gtx and scythe infinity cooler

Been running orthos now for 20 mins with door off and its fallen to 37C now!

[chuckskull]

lol beat me to it. Since my gpu temp increases too with the door on, would a faster 120mm fan would be a better solution though? As that will fix the problem properly. I am not sure if it is worth £15 for that though as this pc will soon be a htpc in a new case.

Been running orthos now for 20 mins with door off and its fallen to 37C now!

Get a 1 or 2 of new 120mm fans then. Use them til it becomes the HTPC and carry them over to the new build. Scythe S-flex shift a good amount of air and are reasonably quiet even on full tilt. If you want to be sure, there are some high airflow silverstone ones on scan to. Not very quiet even at low rpm, but they do move a lot of air.

Then again if you're replacing the PC soon, just leave the side panel off assuming you have no kids/curious pets.

[SiM]

Actually maybe this and an extra 120mm fan would be a possible solution. I already have an antec 120mm fan spare (the one that comes with sonata) so i will probably just use that. Noise isn't a concern at the moment. At the moment, I have an sharkoon 1000rpm intake fan at the front but it sucks through the hard drives. And I have an akasa amber outake fan at the back.

I will use the sharkoon on the bracket and put the faster antec fan as the intake, does that sound good?

Ideally I want to spend as little as possible on this as any upgrade might be superfluous when it becomes a HTPC.

Thanks for your help chuck

[SiM]

Temp has dropped even further even though system is on full load!

[chuckskull]

Assuming you have enough clearance to fit it and suck some air in with the door closed then it will knock the temps right down. The GTX will be dumping loads of heat into the NB/CPU area, from the back of the card. Fans or not heat still rises.

You can also get more than one fan on those if you have the room, but I'm pretty sure they only come with the fittings for one. You can buy the bits separate but I've not seen them on scan.

Before spending any money stick the hover in there, get in all the nooks and crannies and give it a good clean, depending on your definition of very dusty it might help enough to tide you over til the new build. End of the day it wont cost you anything.

[SiM]

Assuming you have enough clearance to fit it and suck some air in with the door closed then it will knock the temps right down. The GTX will be dumping loads of heat into the NB/CPU area, from the back of the card. Fans or not heat still rises.

You can also get more than one fan on those if you have the room, but I'm pretty sure they only come with the fittings for one. You can buy the bits separate but I've not seen them on scan.

Before spending any money stick the hover in there, get in all the nooks and crannies and give it a good clean, depending on your definition of very dusty it might help enough to tide you over til the new build. End of the day it wont cost you anything.

Hoovered it last week... Well anyway, I need to order a £19 icy box from scan so this thing will give me free delivery and I have the spare fan sitting here anyway... so I think I will try that and see how it works out

Clearance might be a problem... I'll put some photos up later...

[SiM]

Idle for comparison (door off):

[chuckskull]

Sounds like a plan, the bracket looks deceptively small in photos. It's a pretty solid lump of metal. In an average ATX case, with mounted on the top PCI slot the fan will sit right over the CPU. It's about 2-3CM deep, so it should clear the 9800. Overall roughkly the same size as a 120mm fan.



That's next to a 92mm fan and some other bits so you can probably eyeball it.

And you're welcome(missed the thanks a few posts back, been awake since monday )

[SiM]

after seeing this i doubt it will fit, I might have to use an 80mm fan instead...

[SiM]

Some pics, sorry about the quality. Do you think anything better can fit? Its sandwiched between graphics card and cpu fan...

I will either go for the HR05 (non sli) or the Noctua NC-U6... the noctua can rotate and work in different angles so I am leaning towards that at teh moment

Do you think there is enough space for the fan bracket too?

and yes, I have taped wires to the side and bottom of the case to keep it tidy (I'll sort that out some other time)
and the bend in the back of the case was needed to fit 9800gtx in lol

[nick1]

Have you checked you case fans are rotating the right way?

[SiM]

Have you checked you case fans are rotating the right way?

yup, front in, back out, cpu is blowing upwards (won't fit blowing back)

welcome to the forums btw