Round IDE cables

[mrtristan]

After fiddling around with some heatsinks (caused my motherboard and one AMD MP chip to fry), I've decided to go with rounded IDE cables, to attempt to lower the operating temperature of my chips. My case already has four fans and the power supply has one intake and one exhaust fan, for a total of six.

Even if I tie the power cables out of the way, the IDE and floppy cables block a lot of airflow coming in from the two fans on the front of the case.

Any opinions?

[Bob W]

I buy all my round IDE and round floppy cables here.
http://www.bestbyte.net/Category.cfm?CategoryID=9&Keyword=

For cooling devices or fans and heatsinks I go here.
http://www.nexfan.com/

[mrtristan]

Thanks for the links. Bestbyte is a lot cheaper than the places I was looking.

Have you noticed any difference in operating temperature since you switched?

[Bob W]

Thanks for the links. Bestbyte is a lot cheaper than the places I was looking.

Have you noticed any difference in operating temperature since you switched?

No but I'm not monorting the temps. I just use round cables because they are easy to install and look great.

[rallynavvie]

I've only ever had rounded cables in this PC so I don't know about differences in temps. I can help you out a LOT with cooling supplies as it's a pet peeve of mine. In addition to rounded IDE and FDD cables I also suggest getting lots of zip ties and split side tubing (like what's used in automobiles to bundle wires). Not only does it help with airflow but it also cleans up the inside of the case.

I get cooling supplies from www.sidewindercomputers.com
Also look up a DigitalDoc5 if you want to map temperatures and control fans in your case. I've got one and it helped me a LOT to determine if the fans were doing their job properly.

[gf]

Hi Mrtristan,
How hot does your case & cpu get? What kind of compound did you use on your cpu? What heatsink/fan are you using? What kind of power supply is in your unit? I have 2 AMD systems and I did not have any overheat problems. I hope I could help when I have a little more info.

Steve

[mrtristan]

Well, my chips aren't overheating, but they're running hotter than I feel comfortable with. I checked around and the AMD MP 1600+ chips that I have will run fine up to 65°C. It's hotter in Hawaii, so they idle at around 50-52°C and the hottest that I've seen them run is 60°C.

I've had some bad luck with heatsinks, so I'm sticking with thermal tape. Aside from it being harder to take off, I haven't noticed any difference between thermal grease and thermal tape. Specifically, I fried one chip and a motherboard just by changing a heatsink and switching to thermal tape. Getting the replacement parts for all of them took almost a month, so I'm looking for something else that might help just a little with the cooling. I also fried my old motherboard and chip, when I tried to get it running while I was waiting for the parts. I've changed heatsinks before with no problems, but I seem to be having bad luck with them.

Anyway, the heatsinks are Dynatron something something. They're the retail box processors, which use the Dynatron brand. I'm not sure on the specific model, but it's a decent heatsink. I thought about going with a copper heatsink or one with more airflow, but like I mentioned earlier, I'm going to stay away from changing the heatsinks for a while.

My power supply is an Enermax 550W with two fans.

Anyway, I tied up the power cables as much as I could and the case has a sufficient amount of fans. The IDE cables block a lot of the airflow coming in from the front, so it's most likely a problem with airflow. The temperature of each chip drops about 2°, when I open up the side panel of the case.

[defense]

After fiddling around with some heatsinks (caused my motherboard and one AMD MP chip to fry), I've decided to go with rounded IDE cables, to attempt to lower the operating temperature of my chips. My case already has four fans and the power supply has one intake and one exhaust fan, for a total of six.

Even if I tie the power cables out of the way, the IDE and floppy cables block a lot of airflow coming in from the two fans on the front of the case.

Any opinions?

mrtristan, my advice to you would be to increase the size of your case. I know people seem to want "smaller" electronics products of everything these days..myself included..but we aren't talking about a cell phone or PDA here.

This case I got from a friend has a WHOPPING EIGHT fans and I guess one of those on the "top" is what you would consider a "HEAT SINK." It runs so damn quiet you can't hear it and with THREE DAYS OF ENCODING OVERCLOCKING A 2.4 GHZ processor about 2.7 GHZ..it gets NO HOTTER then 110 degrees Farenheit. That is NO HOTTER..it's usually after countless hours only at about 87 degrees MAX...but three straight days or more without shutting down it has gotten to about 110.

Apparently that is nothing, and my suggestion is a HUGE ALUMINUM case with plenty of room..like mine. The case I have also has two huge Neon Windows and a ton of other HELLIFIED things. This case is seriously HELLIFIED and it retails for over $300, but I got it for half that. Anyway, just my two cents...but it damn sure works for me. Good Luck

[zzyzzx]

If your overclocking stop that! your generating tons of extra heat if you are (and I read and you didn't mention that but I'm asking just in case).

[musher70]

you also need =major cooling options for cpu
think about a swifttec heatsink, its alum w/copper base
for about 40 bucks, and get a tmd magnetic fan that
run 6k rpm, it run 5-8 degrees cooler, here a link...

http://www.3dgameman.com/vr/swiftech/swiftech_mcx462_t/video_review.html

http://www.crazypc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=120199&Product_Code=50900

[mcubed91]

http://www.pro-pcs.com/gallery/images/gallery_4/ed_silver_006.jpg

Here's what round cables and wire wrapping the power cables look like, really clean.
Don't use thermal tape, use thermal paste, artic silver.

[MikeV]

For my AMD XP2200+ i got the Thermaltake Volcano9 fan and used the manual setup and set the speed to 5000rpm(quieter) and my idle temp is about 46 C and full load is about 52 C. I also took the dual fan power supply and cut a hole in the bottom of the case to allow the hot air from the CPU to rise into the P.S. and be forced out of the case by the P.S. fans. I also use a hard drive fan (fits a 5 1/4 slot) that blows directly back to the CPU.

[Gazorgan]

I consistantly run about 50 C for my Athlon 2400+. It's a midsize cheap tower, and not reccomended for Athlons. I attribute my adequate cooling to good airflow: 2 fans sucking in on the front and 2 blowing out on the back. Also all my cabling is such that it doesn't obstruct the air flow(that's why I got the case, because of where my controllers were located in relation to the drive bays). Stock CPU fan.

Here's a tip: Your CPU can't be any cooler than the internal temperature of your case(barring semiconductor and water coolers). Having the best $60 cooler is USELESS if you only have the cooling fan on your powersupply. You have a forced air oven, not a computer :P

[kitty]

Intel & some other manufacturers have temp probes built into the motherboard. You can download the Intel monitor program and it will tell you the CPU & other MB temps and the fan speed. Way cool (no pun intended). The one I have is the D845BG - a list is here:
http://www.intel.com/products/browse/motherbd.htm?iid=sr+board&

Most mfrs do not include the utility so you have to d/l it from Intel.

[rallynavvie]

Totally true about making sure you have adequate cooling in the case first, all else second. I've got a big Lian Li case and absolutely love it. The only thing I don't like about it is only one place for an 80mm exhaust fan in addition to the PSU fans. I figure I'm still not creating pressure inside the case, but still... Maybe I can cut room for a 120mm fan on the side of the case one of these days.

Remember this thread started as "rounded cables", thus he was trying to maximize airflow in the case to begin with A friend just put a 120mm fan on the side of his case ducting air right onto the CPU fans and heatsink. He get considerably lower temps that way and allows for other case fans to not work so hard getting air to all necessary fans/heatsinks. Another neat idea you can utilize in some cases is to isolate the PSU. In mine I can cut off the upper optical drive bays and put an intake fan so the PSU only draws from fresh air and exhausts without increasing case heat (other than conduction through the case frame). I still highly recommend gettings some wrapping for other wires bundled in your PC. It gets them out of the way and promotes airflow.

When you do get to heatsinks get good all-copper ones with room for larger fans atop them. Pelletiers aren't a terrible idea. And don't use Arctic Silver for CPUs unless you're very careful. They've come out with ceramic-based thermal paste called Arctic Alumina which is non-conductive. As long as you monitor the effectiveness of the new heatsinks you shouldn't run into the processor-melting scenario again.

If all else fails go get a VapoChill and never worry about overheating again. The latest water cooling systems are pretty good too. I'm surprised that the VapoChill systems are almost equivalent in cost to water-cooled systems though

[defense]

Most mfrs do not include the utility so you have to d/l it from Intel.

The disk that came with my ASUS motherboard has a program called ASUS PROBE which gives all of that info and then some. I'm sure if people have the driver disk that came with their motherboard..they can check and it may have extras such as that on it. I will check the INTEL one though to see if it differs at all...or has more options.