BleepingComputer.com: Tips On Keeping Temperature Low?

I've been looking for a few tips to keep my computer cool.


Awhile ago, my motherboard's fan gave out. I bought a HSF (heat-sink fan) for my processor to counteract the rising temps. It lowered the temperature about 5 or 6 Celsius. It's been rising back up again to about 58 Celsius as of late, and I'd like to lower it again. Any ideas?

-eskEMO

well there are a few simple sloution i use to keep my laptop low are keep it a cool climate Dont have it near any heaters. if possible keep the Hardrive high of the ground. Make sure and vents are fans are not blocked to keep a clean cirulation off air goin into the fan also clean any dyst that may be lying in vents. This depends on ur processor if its like a core duo u can run to demanding operations at once ut if not keep it limited cause the more demanding programs u use the more demand on ur processor therefore making it heat up

Regards
Peter

An effective cooling solution can include fans, liquid cooling, and exotic methods like phase-change cooling. I don't think you need to go much beyond a fan or two. There are a number of fan types, but they all do the same thing. Blow air.

With my setup, I have several fans throughout the case, some sucking some blowing. Two fans are at the front of the case sucking cool air into to PC, one is a standard 90mm fan, the other is a HDD bay cooler that fits into a spare 5.25 inch bay. The others are another standard 90mm fan (that lights up!), a PCI slot cooler which is a fan that fits a spare expansion slot, and a turbofan inside the PSU (activated by a switch to suppliment the PSU fan). These three fans blow out.

Whatever you do, don't just put fans at random. Try to create a cooling breeze through the case by having fans that blow air in the front and fans that exhaust air out in the rear.

Either that or run your A/C full blast right next to your box.

I had a prblem w/ overheating after installing my 2nd HDD. what I at the time was take a spare case fan and zip tied it to the HDD mounting bracket. After a few months I came across another (larger) case and put spaceing between the 2 HDD's the new case had a fan mount in front of the HDD mounts so I moves the spare case fan there. I have yet to have the overheating issues again.

With your processor running cooler to start w/ and now starting to warm up again I would suggest checking for debris in the heatsink or dust on the fan. Case fans help out the CPU fansif you can push cooler air to the CPU fan it will help it cool better. IE have a small exhaust fan pulling the warm air out the rear of the case(possibly through the PSU if need be) and have a larger fan pushing air into the front/side/ or underside of the case (underside will only work if your case is elevated off the ground)

The more fans pushing cooler air in the better. Exhaust will take care of itself.

Additionally, you will need to experiment with your particular setup. An important point, however is that (with tower cases) the intake fan is at the front bottom and is sucking in cool air (from the room), and for this there needs to be an exhaust fan sucking air out of the case at the top rear (because hot air rises).

You will also need to play around with the way the air is either blown onto or sucked from the CPU. I experimented with my setup and had a 90mm side case fan blowing in (over the CPU area) and then the CPU fan (120mm panaflo) blowing onto the CPU over the Heatsink. This made a 5°C difference over all other setups with just these two fans.

You also must consider cable management - if you have cables going everywhere in a disorganised way, they are going to restrict the airflow in the case, so cable ties are essential.

Finally, you need to look at the fans you are using. For example, a larger fan at the same RPM as a small fan will push/suck more air per minute (measured in Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM)). Additionally, depending on the make, one may be quieter than another, so the choice of fan is very important - don't always go for the pretty or cheap fans. For example Panaflo 120mm can push 65 CFM (approx) at a fairly low 24dB.

Remember, the two most important parts of a system (and often the most neglected) are the Power Supply, and the Cooling...

Hope that helps!

JPHarvey made some very good points in regards to heat management. Efficient CPU fans (Mine is an Arctic Freezer for AMD processors), cabling, and case fans make all the difference. The local environment can play a minor role as well, if the room is hot the warm air coming out of the PC will make the area near the tower hot as well. This is especially true if there is insufficient space between the back of the computer and a wall. I noticed this first hand with my computer, it's a small difference in heat though.

Nice point there Pace! I did forget to mention why I had to put in the majority of the cooling is because of high ambient temps in the room. It was causing my graphics card to go into VPU recovery (ATI) - and I wasn't even overclocking!

DJBPace07, on Dec 11 2006, 04:21 PM, said:

Exactly the point i made in my first reply but not as detailed lol

BlackSpyder, on Dec 11 2006, 12:28 PM, said:

I disagree. While intake fans will aid exhaust to a small degree, the idea is to get the hot air out of the case. Plus, exhaust fans aid more in sucking air in than intake fans aid in exhaust in it. I read about an experiment in a case modding book I have where, by using a smoke machine and a plexigalss side panel (to see inside) they demonstrated that the most efficient cooling solution for most cases was to have a 3 to 2 ratio of exhaust and intake fans (that is 3 exhaust for every 2 intakes). While it may be only one opinion, one should never have more intake fans than exhaust fans.

And also, make sure that you don't have an intake fan right next to an exhaust fan, they would cancel each other out. I usually put my intake fans towards the front and the exhaust fans at the rear.

Another surprisingly effective cooling method for the CPU is the direct conduit method. That's where an specialized tube is fitted over the CPU's heatsink & fan and then attached to the rear panel to exhaust the CPU's heat directly rather than simply dispersing it into the case.

Amazing Andrew, on Dec 11 2006, 07:26 PM, said:

While Negative Pressure Ventalation (which is what you're describing) is very very effective it has its drawbacks 1)It creates a vaccum in the case 2) the vaccum can draw dust in the most unusual places (Ie behind the Mother board) 3) It is very hard to control your intake air unless your caes is sealed good.

Positive Pressure Ventalation (2) 70mm Intakes to (1) 120mm exhaust allows me to filter my intake air and reduce dust in the case

Which ever way someone goes Fan Placement is always key. if you draw cool air into the center of the case and exhaust it directly into the CPU or HDD's its not going to cool properly.
However if you draw cool air in over the HDD's (as in my case which are located at the bottom front) and the lower rear of the case over the video card. then exhaust hot air out of the top of the case or the far side of the case.(since the CPU uses localized NPV heated air is going that direction anyway so why not help it?)

BlackSpyder, on Dec 11 2006, 06:12 PM, said:

Truer words are rarely spoken.

Yea, good idea to make sure the air around the PC is cooler like stated. You should see how our family PC is set up, it's in a small (roughly) 8x6 office and once that door shuts, the temperature in the room can become unbearable within a half hour.

It's good in the winter I guess, heh heh.

Wizdabest, on Dec 20 2006, 04:15 PM, said:

Hehe, I have the exact situation. My family computer is in a comparable room and even with the door open the temperature gets a little warm. I had the same issue with my personal computer, the computer is always warm in my room. When I moved into my university's dorms the problem was fixed and now I'm cruising along with an average temp in the low 40 degree C range.

Hi, looking for ways to cool my system and came across this from member "amazing andrew"

"Another surprisingly effective cooling method for the CPU is the direct conduit method. That's where an specialized tube is fitted over the CPU's heatsink & fan and then attached to the rear panel to exhaust the CPU's heat directly rather than simply dispersing it into the case"

Does anyone know how to do this or where i could purchase something that will do this. My processor is by far the hottest item in the case and so if i could remove the heat directly like i do for my graphics card that would be great.

You mean something like this?

You could probably get the parts you need from a warehouse supplier and build a nice one yourself! Worth a look though...