CPU heat problems

Aurora

My ISP gave me a computer they weren't using anymore (but without the hard drive, for obvious reasons). It had a P3 500, but I upgraded to dual P3 600 (the motherboard's max). I also added two hard drives, two optical drives, and upgraded the video card.

The original case doesn't allow for getting rid of much heat. Few holes and no places to add fans. And, no, I don't have the tools or skills to add them myself. The only way I can use the system is with the top and one side panel off. Even then, my CPU temp is 52. The motherboard's manual says they recommend setting thermal shutdown in the BIOS at 55 degrees.

I really don't like running like this due to dirt and the occasional arthropd. But I'm unsure if any case can allow for enough cooling, especially considering a dual P3 is worth spending only so much gil on.

I have one ATX mid-tower on hand that has a lot of holes on the back, some holes on the side, and a place for one front 80mm fan. I could also get a case identical to the case my A64 3200+ uses. It has quite a few holes in the back, a place for a 60mm fan in the back, a few holes in the front, some holes on one side, and places for two 80mm fans on the other side. My A64 gets CPU and PWM temps around 30, and GPU temp around 65 (passively cooled 6600GT). Could either of these case designs suffice for the dual P3 system?

Grace

The P3 systems shouldn't have a heat problem as long as their heatsinks are working well enough to begin with. The P3 is actually a low power, efficient processor, despite its age.

Which means, do the heatsink fans actually work?? Did you clean the possibly huge dust amount from them?

If the heatsinks are fine, a simple case with one exhaust or intake fan should be ok for the job. But the original case should work just fine, actually the maximum operating temperature for the P3 exceeds the 70 Celsius degrees.

Customgamer1

Make sure you have some thermal paste on the cpu?? Also if you want just buy a new cooler for the cpu's? I am sure you can get them very cheap!

H3X4D3C1M4L

You can use some video card coolers or anything that mounts on a socket A processor for those... I know for a fact some Zalman's will work quite nicely then you'd never have to worry

Aurora

I got the P3 600 CPUs through eBay. They are Slot 1's. They had big fanless heatsinks pre-attached. There was just a little dust, easily brushed off. I don't know if they used thermal paste.

The motherboard is a Supermicro P6DGE. If a P3 is ok at >=70 degrees, I wonder why the manual tells you set the BIOS threshhold at 55. Using the original case with its top off and one side panel off, I seem to peak at 57-59 under light to moderate load in Win2000. With the case fully closed, I reach 55 before Win2000 can finish booting.

Customgamer1

Maybe they tried to over clock a bit to much and overheated or damaged the cpu???

Grace

The manual takes maximum safety into account. Most motherboards won't even allow you to set a shutdown temperature lower than 65C.

Now, if they have big fanless heatsinks on them, the solution would be to attach fans on them or place a large 12cm fan blowing at them both. Just a little airflow will do the trick. Fanless heatsinks are somewhat dumb for a dual system.

H3X4D3C1M4L

Not if the case is designed right, some server chassis have just heatsinks on the CPU then a powerful windtunnel design on them to suck air over, which wouldn't make it a traditional HSF design but still effective enough I guess

Aurora

The original case and the extra case on hand don't provide any place for a 120mm fan. The extra case I already have allows for a 80mm front fan and no side fans, but there are rear holes from floor to (almost) power supply. If I go for a new case, how's this one for cooling: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811195022
They say it's good enough for a Preshot so surely it'll do for a dual P3?

Grace

We are talking about a case which barely has ventilation holes and no fans here. Nothing near a server specific high class case.


Any case will behave more or less the same unless the processors receive airflow. My suggestion is to keep the case you already have and merely install a fan blowing on the processor heatsinks. That will be more than enough.

H3X4D3C1M4L

Well it IS meant to house dual P3's which would mean accomodating quite a large mobo

Grace

It still has no fans or enough ventilation...

Housing dual P3's means nothing, the majority of P3's (and all of the socket 370 processors) use fan heatsinks. They most probably just stuck retail processors in there for some reason...

NUCLEARWINTER

that's how the 360's system was designed for both cpu and gpu.

H3X4D3C1M4L

Didn't retail P3's come with HSF's?

@Nuke: Yeah that's how most 360's work...except for yours of course