In need of a cooling sollution / suggestion.

[Parm]

Firstly, my PC spec:

P4C 3Ghz
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Mobo
Asus 256mb Radeon 9800XT
Creative Audigy 2 ZX
1Gb Corsair TwinX Memory (forgot the speed now!)

Thats about it really, a few other bits and bobs.
The Coolermaster case has two intake fans on the front, one outtake on the top, one on the rear, and the PSU fan on the rear too.
Theres a zalman fan on the CPU, I've got a Vantec Tornado in a box somewhere, but its so noisy I won't be using it again.

I've had a new desk fitted, and here's how it is:


The trouble is, the space for the tower isn't ventilated. It has one hole in the upper left at the back to feed the cables through. The PC just exhales hot air and it circulates in that space and it just gets hotter and hotter in there. My PC used to run around 30 C, 40-45 C when gaming. Now its 39.5 C whilst I'm typing this, and 49+ when gaming.

What would you guys suggest for me to keep my PC cooler? At the moment I've just pulled the case forward as it is in the pic, brings the temp down a few extra degrees, but its still too hot.

Suggestions please.

[chriswood_7]

Get your hoover out and suck all the **** from inside the PC case. Make sure all your cables are tied together, sleeved or put some IDE rounded cables in. its amazing how much differnce it make! Also in your environment make sure you have more exhaust that intake, its more important in tight spaces!

Hope this helps

Chris

[zaphod]

Not to sure hoovering is a good idea....static and stuff, could be wrong. What is you CPU temp?

Try cutting the sheet of wood on the left of your case so there is a 6inc gap between the wall and the side panel of the shelfe. It would be hidden under the desk so no one would really see it. That would give the air some were to go?

[Russ]

you dont need to push cold air into your PC, just remove the hot air, change your fans accordingly

[Mesce]

You could always go water cooling? That would do away with the necessity of good air flow because you would only really need to cool the radiator/heatercore. The rest of your components will be cope easily with their own fans and a few case fans.

BTW 49 underload (whilst gaming) is a great temp for a northwood you really shouldn't worry too much about it.

[Kebab]

Put ur PC on the right hand side next to the drawers, there seem to be more room there for air to escape....

Yeah i know i'll leave

[chriswood_7]

Hoovering should be ok as long as you dont touch any of the components. Most hoovers come with plastic heads which should be relatively safe against static charges. Just make sure if you do it you dont just hoover the whole case, pick out the fans in particular and make sure they are free to move and free from any dust. Also buy fan filters! Seriously it will amaze you how much **** they pick up.

In your situation mate, basically what your doing is sucking already recirculated warm air back into your case... which is pointless really. Get all the fans to exhaust the flow as I suggested above, this way any air coming in is drawn over the components and the heat can then be extracted directly rather than one blowing in at a steady pressure and one sucking out. This way the pressure will tend to equalise in your case, and only the area around the fan will effectively remove air.

If your going for mega cooling go for a watercooling kit, it will get rid of all of your heat via the fluid in the system.. therefore technically not adding any heat to your system as most of the heat is taken away by the water. In an air cooled system, your heatsink fan blows already warm air which it previously used back over the heatsink fins (pretty pointless) as how hot the heatsink and chip gets will obvisouly be a function of the air temperature. Hence warm air over a heatsink wont cool as much as cool air (Naturally)

Hope this helps

[ANZAC_ELITE]

I'd take a hole saw to the desk and create ventilation holes to improve airflow around the case or move it to the desk top, i have 180mm intake front, 1 side, 1 exhaust rear, and psu has a 120mm exhaust. So you have plenty of cooling, that post about no intake is well , nicely put, personal opinion.

My pc idles at around 34C loaded 49C (in an ambient room temp of 30C) so if you're within that range I cant see any prob.

[Raggy]

I second modifying the desk for better airflow not the PC, looks simple enough to do without being visibly noticeable. Also you can add case fans to the desk to exhaust the hot air just as you would for your case, if you don’t have the room on your PSU then you can use 9v batteries on can run one 12v fan, but for best results use three fans on 4 batteries. (That’s 36v which devides by 12 perfectly into three). The less power the fans get, the quieter they are though less effective.

[Parm]

I do think modding the desk might be an option I prefer. The PC generally, is more than cool enough, and without creating too much noise level.

The only previous problems I had in my old room were in the summer, sometimes it would just get so hot in the room, that playing games on the PC would result in the machine beeping.

I'm curious about the suggestions for the fans though, you guys think there should be no intake at all and all the fans should be blowing outwards? Front top and rear?
The theory with the case I guess is cooler air comes in at the front, goes through the PC and out the top/rear.

The PC on the inside is generally very clean, I used my tornado fan to clean it...one spin from that thing and it blows the dust to kingdomcome!

I did think about water cooling a few months back, main reason being cooling AND noise, I gotta sleep in the same room so as little noise as poss is preferred. However, I just don't trust myself to put anything other than air in the case.

[chriswood_7]

Hey mate

If you think of it like the

You have two fans inside the case. Both at the same speed. You could rewrite this as:

Fan pressure in = Fan pressure out or there abouts. If you have two fans coming in and two fans blowing out then thats what your getting. Therefore the pressure in the case should be pretty much the same as atmospheric. If you have two fans sucking out and one fan sucking in, or even 3 sucking out, then technically what your doing is still having a cool supply, but your sucking that cool supply directly past components which need it ie the cpu fan

Dont mod your case, as those are expensive.. or the desk.. cause if you move it or want to sell it your up **** creek. My advice to you is to try a few different fan arrangements, and get them down by a few degrees mate.

Chris

PS can you send the specs for your zalman HSf?

[Raggy]

I don’t think changing your fans around to much will help you. Here is why: You want roughly equal amounts of air going out (and away from the PC, it can’t do that in a hole like that) as coming in for the most part that should be what was happening before you put it where it is. In this situation I don’t really count the PSU because for the most part it usually just takes care of itself and provides very little exhaust for the rest of the case as a whole. The only modification I would suggest to the case (which in your situation also requires moding the desk) is a vent and duct it to pull fresh air directly from the out side of the case blowing it onto your CPU. I don’t really have any good advise for you other than water cooling if you don’t want to make any changes to the desk. Though you already paid for the desk, do you want to spend more money and buy a water cooling system?

Maybe it would be a good idea to do some extra research on the topic your self:
The Ultimate Ducting Guide
Airflow Optimization Guide
These are just two guides I liked, but there’s a wealth of info out there on cooling and airflow.

[Lu-tze]

are those temps both with the zalman cooler set-up? case temps or cpu temps? because i would expect the zalman not to cool as well as the tornado.

before hacking away at the desk, have you thought about positioning the tower elsewhere, near the nesk? perhaps to the left of the drawers, or by your feet. i would say to the right of where it is already, but that would be near the radiator.

or maybe leave the side panel off

perhaps an acrtic cooler on the gpu would help get heat out of the case as well as reducing noise.

as for hacking at the desk, you could install a couple of 120mm fans at the top of the side panels in the wood and have them connected by molex to a molex pci adapter (i think acryan do these, otherwise www.kustompcs.co.uk probably). might need some molex extension cable/splitters too.

or remove the right hand panel of the desk. if the desk is attached to the wall under the monitor, then that panel probably doesnt add much support. if its not attached to the wall, then i wouldnt remove the panel

[chriswood_7]

Hey mate

Ill show you my setup at present, ill take a pic and post it to you.. give you an idea of what Raggy is saying

Chris

[noveltylamp]

Modify the desk (cut out air holes) or get a cage you can screw under the desk to hold the base unit in an open area. I think air holes are the best option.

You could cut some nice fan holes in the top of the case, heat rises and so most of the heat could escape through the top say with a nice 120mm or a couple of 92mm fans.

Water Cooling is an option, i'm looking into doing it myself for my PC in my bedroom. Starter Kits begin at £65. If you want to spend money the Zalman Reserator system does all of its cooling in a tower you place outside of your PC and is fanless.

Practice by setting up water cooling in an old case or something first. This is a good idea anyway to leave it running for a day to check for leaks.

[Raggy]

He already has one blow hole up top.