Do you use special items to cool down your computer in the heat?

yoda313 · Regular joe Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Location: sector 001

Well its summertime here in my part of the globe. Do you do anything special to cool down your computer when the temps go up? I really don't beyond the standard case fan that came with the computer. Though I do put it in standby or turn it off when I'm not going to be using it for any length of time.
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MOVIEGEEK · Make My Day Joined: 08 Mar 2002 Location: CA,USA

I made a mini swamp cooler for my case but it keeps leaking water on my motherboard.

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Shocker Milwaukee · Posted: Jul 07, 2007 13:07

I modified my case with the addition of another fan, so as to couple the intake fan with an exhaust fan. It has LEDs that change color with increased tempereatures.

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Soopafresh · Craptastic Joined: 01 Jan 2004 Location: United States

I have fans for each one of my drives. Just set up several new Mac Pro 4 and 8 cores for a client. You wouldn't believe how hot the RAM gets.

thecoalman · Member Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Location: Pennsylvania

Where's the "Screw the computer what about me?" option?
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budz · Posted: Jul 07, 2007 14:05

Got air condition in the computer room since it gets the afternoon sun.

Constant Gardener · Member Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Location: Canada

An "off" switch is very effective. I only run the computers 24/7 in the winter, when I want extra heat in the basement.

racer-x · Posted: Jul 07, 2007 16:16

What about "who cares......it's just a dumb computer, let it fry"

Anyway it's just a dumb computer and should be abused when ever possible. By the time it fries, it's time for an upgrade anyway.
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gadgetguy · Contestant Joined: 14 Feb 2002 Location: Michigan, USA

I don't do anything special because it's summer, but I usually outfit my cases with extra fans from the git-go. My equipment is in the basement and it stays close to the same temp year around.
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nic2k4 · Member Joined: 15 Dec 2004

All my PCs have intake and exhaust fans, the HDs are all relocated behind the intake fan. The video editing PC is the most powerful and will really heat-up a room, so when it's too hot I leave the video stuff for another day ('sides, I'd rather be at the beach then...).

The internet PC is the least powerful, but still puts out some heat. Solution, underclock and reduce voltage. As I write this, it is running 40% slower and .25V lower; I gain a good 8C CPU temp headroom.

Any other productivity usage is done on a laptop.

lordsmurf · Posted: Jul 08, 2007 23:53

I have 3-4 fans in each case. They are not all that loud (I paid extra for "silent" fans), but they keep everything very cool.
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dadrab · Posted: Jul 09, 2007 08:29

I built my system from the ground up. My case is nothing special, but has three silent 80mm intake fans and one silent exhaust – and that doesn’t include the power supply. The most effective thing I did, I believe anyway, was to substitute rounded ribbon cables in ALL instances and to utilize SATA drives (small cables). There is nothing in the case to impede air flow. I also carefully tied the cables together and away from moving parts.

One intake fan blows across the hard-drives, one blows on the motherboard, one just blows into the case at large. Of course the CPU has a fan, and my motherboard has a northbridge fan.

The air inside my box is only slightly warmer than ambient air temp. in the room.

Nelson37 · Member Joined: 14 Aug 2001

Testing on a 40% overclock that reached 72 degrees Celsius. Temps given are CPU temps unless otherwise noted.

Temps were checked in BIOS for one-half hour or more, then in Windows by running Bitrate Viewer several times or DVDShrink Deep analysis for 10-30 minutes. Several changes were applied together as the previous change was permanent, so some of these numbers are somewhat of a rough guess.

Clean CPU heatsink and fan, new Arctic Silver thermal paste - no noticeable improvement.

Enlarge front air intake holes and use low-restriction filter in place of foam = 1-2 degrees

Added second front intake fan - no change, interesting this agrees exactly
with a recent magazine article where they got the same results.

Rounded and redirected all cables, re-arranged drives farther away from each
other, enclosed main drive is seperate encolsure with small fans = 1 degree or less

Replace old PS with a dual-fan model with more available power = 1-2 degrees

Drill holes in side of case and install air duct to CPU, with various combinations of size and shape, fan and no fan in duct, currently using no fan at all = 2-3 degrees

Airduct made from plastic Pringles can, using the lid gave a removable
mount

Installing old CPU fan on mobo chipset directly, system temp -5 degrees, = 1-2 degrees

None of these were sufficient for a long XVID encode, temps still got to 67 or higher. Having an older Zalman cooler for a different board, I found and purchased the adapter. No go, wrong one. I did not actually use Duct Tape but several Zip ties and some electrical tape gave a good solid mount, CPU temp has not passed 60 degrees since. Since the air duct from the side reaches right up to the CPU fan, no need for an extra fan in the duct. = 5-10 degrees
Zalman Rocks!

Also - Two old Pentium slot-style heatsinks fit neatly on the top of the 400 GB sata drive, just a little hammer work to narrow the heatsinks to fit, Hd running MUCH cooler for zero expense.

Low-restriction air filter - Have often used thin sheets of open-cell packing foam for air filters, good at keeping dust out and seemed to pass air freely. Simple test, hold foam to mouth and inhale through it. New test, breathe through your nose. Holy shit, I had no idea the restriction these filters made. Using a home AC air filter, cut to shape and covered with ordinary vinyl screen to compress and contain the filter material, gave a very free-flowing filter with a smooth surface suitable for vacuum cleaning. Dust prevention seems to be similar to foam, more test time needed for this. But it definitely contributed to better air flow.

Shocker Milwaukee · Posted: Jul 09, 2007 19:54

TBoneit · Member Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Location: USA

One case I'm running in the basement only power supply fans and CPu fan. Using my digital probe (fingertip) the drives don't get that hot. No side on the case as I'm always in and out of it changing things. AMD 64 X2 4200

Old case was a LianLi Aluminum with two front mounted intake blowing over the drives, 1 in the rear as exhaust plus CPU and power supply fan. P4 3.0Ghz

Both configurations have been used at various times encoding overnight in batch mode and never overheat or get weird from heating. No rounded cables on IDE.

Anybody ever see the computer case that had a small refrigeration unit in teh base with coolant lines to the plate that clamped to the CPU for the ultimate in CPU cooling? They wer for the ultimate overclocker.

They were as I remember it a speciality production item.
http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h104.htm is an old page with pictures of that case

"The tower case is extra tall, as there's a refrigeration unit in the base, connected to the processor by a heat pipe. When you switch the power on, the fridge starts up first and drops the temperature of the chip down to -45°C before powering up the computer. At this low temperature, the chip can happily run 50 per cent over-clocked. A simple display on the outside of the case shows the current temperature and if for any reason the refrigerator cuts out the machine switches off safely."

Picture

Talk about cooling. And this was for a AMD 700 based computer @ £2,799 + VAT

redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

I like the fan on this case. But it's not available in the US, AFAIK. A review: http://www.dansdata.com/bigfans.htm

I try to use CPUs that don't run hot. The current AM2 CPU I'm using tops out at about 32C when doing a long encode. And the computer is virtually silent except for the drives. It has intake and exhaust fans, but all of them, including the CPU fan and the PS fan run at about 1100 RPM most of the time during encodes, down to 600 RPM at idle.

mats.hogberg · Modded Morloc Joined: 17 Jul 2002 Location: Sweden (PAL)

2 case fans, + this CPU cooler:

It's so heavy, I'm amazed the CPU socket still clings on to the circuit board.
Have a very good dealer contact, and ordered them to build me a really quiet box. The solution is many big and slow fans.

/Mats
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redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

I'm using Enermax case fans, very quiet, with magnetic bearings, about 14db for the 8CM and 17db for the 12CM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999199

I also went with a Thermaltake CL-P0371 CPU cooler at 16DB ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106086 ) and a PS with 12CM fans. It sits in the living room, so I needed a quiet setup.

TBoneit · Member Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Location: USA

I actually saw one of those Zalman Copper units that damaged the motherboard. Most likely the computer took an impact.

I also saw one in a 478 socket that kept breaking the plastic mounts that the heatsink clips into.

lordsmurf · Posted: Jul 11, 2007 23:21

I quit using CPU fans. They were buzzy little pieces of crap that caused dust to stay in the heatsink. I have a Zalman bracket mounted off the PCI slots, that has a niec big fan that blows on the heatsink. My CPU is cooler now than it ever was, and much quieter overall. Dust not long sticks the the heatsink.
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redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

budz · Posted: Jul 12, 2007 00:10

[quote="redwudz"]

redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

I have to use hearing protection at times when I'n around some heavy construction equipment. But not while I'm using my computer.