Cable Management Reduces Case Temps, Increases CPU Temps??

Hi,

Having browsed these forums for a long time and seeing some excellent posts on cooling, modding, decided to try some cable management to bring down my case temps as I anyways needed to add my new WD Raptor hard drive and reinstall my OS. Not that the cabling was bad to begin with, but even though I had kept the central area clear and tied cables to the sides, there was still a lot that could be done as you can see from the before pic.

I rerouted many cables to the rear of the case, especially the SATA and power cables (see rear.jpg), used antec green UV cable wrap to group all my sata power cables, and tied useless cables to the roof of the case.

This has made a huge difference and has dropped my case temps from ~44C to ~39C even with the addition of the new hard drive, especially as the airflow over the hard drive area is completely clear now as I have reversed the drive positions so that all cables run to the back.

The puzzling part is that now my CPU temps have jumped from around ~45c to ~50C averages. Any idea why this is happening. While rerouting the cables, I noticed a lot of dust on the CPU fan and dusted it completely and then turned the case upside down and tapped on the reverse end to dislodge all the dirt. I managed to remove great deal of dust this way. Is it possible the heatsink may have moved or loosened out during this to affect the temps? Or could this be related to the addition of the new hard drive?

any ideas?

 

I've attached a screenshot that shows the temps - another plus is that the GPU is running in the 21C range idle which is great, but im still puzzled with the CPU temps. Both GPU and CPU are running on stock cooling

 

Firstly your 6600gt isnt running at 21c idle its impossible theres something wrong with the temp sensor as you can see the temp bar is all the way up when its in the red like that your card should be dead,yet it only reads 21c

Its tricky to compare what your idle temps are before and after a mod,as the software and usage of your computer changes so can your temp ,the only sure way to compare what effect changes have had is to test the cpu under load to make sure its within safe ranges

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=867

I doubt the cpu heatsink has moved,the only way to be sure is to remove the HSF and reapply some thermal grease,even if just for peace of mind and to rule it out

 

i agree and the ambient temp shown on the vid card couldnt be 0deg c also. i have that same case , it an antec super lanboy right? one thing i did to reduce cpu temps is that little box that can be used to store stuff i took it completly out and mounted a small fan there and it will blow almost directly towards the cpu. it works the best for me with the front bay door open.

 

Thanks for the replies - Ricky, I did find the temps on the GFX card a bit odd, as the temps used to be in the 50-55C idle range. Also the machine has been reinstalled from scratch, so the software configuration has also changed. The MSI core centre used to measure the temps is also a newer bersion so I'm wondering if theres some change in that. However, the BIOS temp readings correspond to that so I'm guessing the case and sys temps are right. As for the GFX card, I had to change the drivers three times, first the 84.21, then the MSI 82 series and finally the MSI 66.81 that came with the card before I could resolve another problem - maybe this is the cause of the strange temp readout on the 6600 (mentioned in this post and finally resolved by using the driver that came with the card - http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=91546 - not the best situation but I'm still trying to fix this so I can update my drivers)

ej25lvr, thanks for the suggestion and that is a good idea, but I'm keen on keeping that toolbox in there and also like to keep the drive covers closed as I have frequently walked into it while open and nearly broken it off a couple of times

 

Ok the GFX card now shows the right temp (just restarted the computer and its been fine since), but the CPU temps are still hovering in the 50c range. If Im not mistaken, that is quite decent for stock cooling, but I'm still curious as to why it was lower earlier