Author Topic: Holy cow that's hot!! (Read 8005 times)

ZWarrior · « **on:** September 18, 2007, 08:11:59 AM »

Have to make a mod to my system. I noticed that my game PC was off yesterday morning but didn't have time to look into it.

I fired it up last night and went into WoW to check mail, etc. It seemed to be a bit quiet, but I wasn't to worried. I started chatting with Snauz and suddenly my system turned off. I powered it back on and the PSU fan was roaring and blowing some serious hot air out the vent. It calmed down and I did a search for tools to monitor the heat.

I found something called SpeedFan that would monitor the 3 fans that are hooked to the motherboard and also the temps in the system. Unfortunately it only picks up one of my two video cards. I had to load the nVidia performance tool (mostly worthless I might add) to see both cards.

That is where I found that one of my cards, the primary is idleing at 144F and goes to 190+F when I go to the character selection screen in WoW. Believe it or not, it actually is hotter on that screen than if I go into the game and sit in Stormwind at the mail box with a ton of toons around.

I plan to move the PC out from the cubby hole it's in, check the connections on the fan controller for the PSU, buy a 2-slot card cooler for the GPUs, and get a few power converters so that I can control the other fans as well.

We'll see where this goes. Suggestions are welcome as well.

JollyRoger · « **Reply #1 on:** September 18, 2007, 08:30:48 AM »

Hmm, Thats not good at all. But I think that you solution should work. How about power whats you PSU rated, it may not be putting out enough. I know When I switched out my PSU I got a close to ten degree drop in temperature, across all my system. went from 450Watt to 500watt. not sure if that would work for you but...

ZWarrior · « **Reply #2 on:** September 18, 2007, 09:12:35 AM »

Running a Thermaltake 500W modular with the fan on the inside of the case instead of the outside.

I may also add a new cut out to the window and mount another 80mm there. But before I do that I think I will replace the 80mm that is there with a new one that has more flow (this one is slow and quiet) and is lit. Need more air and blue lights!!

This all started after going down to Spade's house and getting pummeled there.

JollyRoger · « **Reply #3 on:** September 18, 2007, 11:48:19 AM »

hmmm, Don't know what to tell you I hope it all works out though.

Mr_Anderson · « **Reply #4 on:** September 18, 2007, 03:31:43 PM »

I blame Spades house then. Otherwise my best guess would of been that the power supply wasn't getting enough air flow or that there can be a short in one of the cables.

Boomslang · « **Reply #5 on:** September 18, 2007, 03:53:50 PM »

Your V/C fans need to be at 100% I had the same problem. There are two way to do that. The best way is this program.

http://www.pcstats.com/NewsView.cfm?NewsID=61771
http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=rivatuner

the other thing I did is set the bios settings to the fans was take it off auto and go to manual. set at 100%
I did the same for my cpu fan.

ZWarrior · « **Reply #6 on:** September 18, 2007, 03:56:37 PM »

The PSU fan has a bay controller and I think it may have been turned all the way down. That may have the been the initial cause, but now I know about the temps so I need to take care of that as well.

As far as the other fans, I think they are all running at full speed, although the 120 on the back plate is apparently only spinning about 800-900RPM right now, and the side fan is either running slow or a low CFM fan.

opiesilver · « **Reply #7 on:** September 19, 2007, 05:13:28 AM »

We can always upgrade the cooling on the vid cards too.

ZWarrior · « **Reply #8 on:** September 19, 2007, 04:59:42 PM »

OK, here is the skinny. I bought a new 80mm for the window, but it needs a 90mm. I will order that later this week.

However, I did pick up a VCool (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=978) from BestBuy. I installed it and the idle temps went from 138F to 122F on the primary. Because of the way it moves air there was some change on the secondary card, to the order of -7F change, but nothing major. However... the loaded temps is another story. I loaded WoW and sat at the character select screen and there was a BIG difference. Before installing the VCool, which takes up two slot spaces, I was seeing temps up to 190F just idling at the character select screen, but after it was sitting at 150F - 160F. MUCH BETTER!

I also bought a SB Audigy ES to put in the old box so I could move the high dollar card to the new gaming system. Yeah, that was a bad idea. It seems that this board (Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe) is setup that if you go SLI you have 3 open slots 2 of which are between the cards and teh other is at the bottom of the case. Any idea of the problems here? yeah, the VCool took my only slots I could use for my sound card. I guess I stick with on-board sound for now, not that it all that bad.

I think I may still think about putting a blowhole in the top where the audio connections are now, but we'll see.

Boomslang · « **Reply #9 on:** September 20, 2007, 06:33:16 AM »

Sounds like you need a cooler running case. Might want to think about modding that little refrigerator you have.

JollyRoger · « **Reply #10 on:** September 20, 2007, 06:56:25 AM »

Get two pounds of dry ice
Clean out you shopvac
Load the shopvac with the dry ice
Attach the hose to the blow side
Attach the other end of the hose to the front of you case wit a bit o nylon around the outlet
Add some salt water to the dry ice
Put the lid on you shopvac and turn it on
After a few minute you should be running cooler

(note this is Jolly talkin out his backside again...but it could work)

ZWarrior · « **Reply #11 on:** September 20, 2007, 08:08:43 AM »

And the final step...

Charge Jolly for the repairs to the shopvac and the computer.

JollyRoger · « **Reply #12 on:** September 20, 2007, 08:26:32 AM »

Hey if you do that its on you, I take no responsibility for damage....

By the way hows you lawn should I stop by?

Mr_Anderson · « **Reply #13 on:** September 20, 2007, 06:35:32 PM »

You can come on down and do some yard work for me!

ZWarrior · « **Reply #14 on:** September 20, 2007, 10:35:13 PM »

It will be ready for a doing this weekend I am sure. Cool weather is slowing it down.

Anderson, ya gotta have a lawn first!

ZWarrior · « **Reply #15 on:** March 08, 2008, 10:28:19 AM »

Well, it has been months since I took the hit and had to work on the PC. It has been running great ever since. However, about a month ago I noticed that the front panel lights were off and I just figured that I had unplugged them at some point and needed to plug them back in, no biggie.

So I am in the process of moving my desks together and figure this is a great time to get those light working. Yeah, I opened the case; no, they weren't unplugged. The line was fried. Toasted. Burnt to a crisp. maybe a picture will tell it better

There is a connector that is supposed to be on the end of that cable.

As I tried to remove the very risky, very dangerous cable, I trace it to the bundle I had zip tied in the backside of the case. There I find that it was bundled with the power connector for the FRONT FAN!!!

Yepper, all the high temps were because th fan isn't running. Great, time to order a new 120mm fan. *sigh*

Apparently the front panel wire must have been skinned by the aluminum case when I installed, and at some point it shorted to the case, burning the wires and surging the PSU.

Mystery solved, now on to rebuild.

Mr_Anderson · « **Reply #16 on:** March 08, 2008, 12:06:05 PM »

Yay fires! Well I got my computer together, just trying to find someone with a floppy drive to get some floppies made so I can use the new sata hard drive as my main drive but not only was it the motherboard and hard drive but it was also the psu that burned out... fun times and thanks Z for sending it to me!

ZWarrior · « **Reply #17 on:** March 08, 2008, 12:12:11 PM »

The new PSU was burned, or the old one and I blissfully replaced it for you?

opiesilver · « **Reply #18 on:** March 08, 2008, 07:33:51 PM »

I just bought a new case, the old one was getting ugly, dented and the side panels no longer fit. Being a cheap SOB I sought out a small computer store that might have a display model missing a front panel or something a case with now power supply and thats exactly what I found. This case was only $10, very generic but had mounts for four, that's 4, 120mm fans. Needless to say I managed to spend another $70 on 4x 120mm fan and 2x 80mm fans for the case. I was able to use low rpm fans to move massive air thanks to the fan size and now I have a nearly silent computer that is no longer overheating , and crashing every 2 hours, from having a raid full of raptor drives in the same case. I learned, as did ZW above, that heat is a real bitch.

Mr_Anderson · « **Reply #19 on:** March 08, 2008, 08:57:02 PM »

Quote from: ZWarrior on March 08, 2008, 12:12:11 PM

The new PSU was burned, or the old one and I blissfully replaced it for you?

The new one replaced it perfectly!

ZWarrior · « **Reply #20 on:** March 08, 2008, 10:01:59 PM »

Quote from: opiesilver on March 08, 2008, 07:33:51 PM

This case was only $10, very generic but had mounts for four, that's 4, 120mm fans. Needless to say I managed to spend another $70 on 4x 120mm fan and 2x 80mm fans for the case.

Ya know, you could have been a truly cheap person and shopped at CoolerGuys.Com. Would have saved you a ton of money on the fans.

opiesilver · « **Reply #21 on:** March 08, 2008, 11:57:03 PM »

Those fans are loud. I got the 14db ones. Also, I wanted it now!!!!!!

ZWarrior · « **Reply #22 on:** March 09, 2008, 04:34:54 AM »

14dB?!? Holy crap that's quiet!

JollyRoger · « **Reply #23 on:** March 10, 2008, 05:53:40 PM »

I think I have a fan like that on my lap top....14db that is. I can just barely hear it. By the way nice nab on the on the case Opie.

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Author Topic: Holy cow that's hot!! (Read 8005 times)