Keeping an OEM cool

Hey there it's you're friendly neighborhood Twistid with another problem on my mind (haha). This time it's something I've been struggling for a long while now.

Right now my computer is basically a natural (well, natural to my brain haha) oven for my room which is fine in the winter but in the summer it is terrible. My dad doesn't want to invest in a new cooling system for my Dell XPS (OEM system), of course, so I'm having to pay for this all myself (going to get a new cooling item every month until satisfied).

As I type right now my computer is currently running at about around 104F and 114F<----this particular temperature is probably my Processor temp (F stands for Fahrenheit, these temps are according to Motherboard Monitor) which is the usual temperature for my computer. Before I go any further I also thought I should mention that one of my main uses (24/7) for my computer is running Distributed Computing programs (for instance Folding@home) which is very computer intensive and is required to have a good cool computer basically. Anyways, this is probably my biggest reason for getting a completely new cooling system so that I don't have to worry all the time that something will fail on my computer because of this (surprisingly though I don't think I've ever seen it overheat). I also have a very good site specific to reviewing cooling products (without being biased and is about as factual as you can get) so knowing what kind of brand I need for whatever I get is not a problem (in case you're wondering the site is: www.frostytech.com).

What I really need help with is creating this custom cooling system (setting it up and knowing where to put things and such).

As for my computer specifications I have a Dell XPS with an Intel Pentium 4 (Northwood) Processor with Multithreading (2 CPUs) which can get up to 3.20 GHz (can use MMX, SSE, and SSE2).
My Motherboard is a Dell with the Intel i875 chipset.
The amount of memory I have on the system is 1024 MB (I also see programs say 1023).
Also, I have a 250 GB and a 160 GB Hard Drive (both are internal Western Digital) with an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro for my Video Card.

Mainly what I'd like to know is:

1. Where should I place the fans and anything else that would help cool my system?

2. What type of cooling system should I have and what are the specific items I should get (not referring to brand here but referring to an answer such as: "a heatsink" or "fans") (I would prefer not to use a water cooling system here because once there's a leak in the pipes the system would probably fail and hardware might be permanently damaged)?

3. Almost forgot, would an OEM system (as I have) hinder cooling in any way (I have read somewhere in my initial research that OEM systems set the fans to basically run faster or slower according to temperature changes and at the maximum "safe" operating levels of temperature)?

4. Any additional tips or recommendations would be much appreciated and encouraged.

If I have any further questions I will surely post them but for now that is all I can think of at the moment. Thanx very much.

 

By the way in the above I am talking about the site I am using for my reference of what brands I will get and said it in such a way that it looked like I was saying it was my site but this isn't true of course, just an accident on my part. The site is only used as a reference for me and is in no way my own. Also, I should also mention some other uses that I use for my computer which is important, which is ripping (which is the same as backing up if you don't know what this means) my CD collection to my computer and Capturing Videos from my TV with my ATI Video Card (which also involves directing recording the sound through my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Soundcard). By the way my current Operating System is (also an OEM) Windows XP Professional SP2.

 

Now have a 5th question:

5. What would be the ideal temperature to keep a computer running for optimal performance (a range of temperatures is perfectly acceptable here) (basically what my biggest concern here is making my computer too cool)?

 

have u upgraded it at all? You shouldnt have to worry about aftermarket cooling with a prebuilt, they do a pretty good job of that themselves

and your computer can never really be TOO cool unless you live in the arctic and you have your computer outside lol. As long as it doesnt get too HOT it will be fine. As long as you keep your intakes clean of dust and clean out your case every once in a while u shouldnt have a problem with heat

 

Well I haven't upgraded the cooling system at all (the originals are all in there and nothing has been changed). If you're talking software I always check Microsoft Update about once a week and have all drivers as updated as I possibly can (strange thing is that I never could get my Chipset drivers to actually install an update and really can't find a way to solve that problem). As for the hardware the only things that are updated from the original bought PC are the hard drives (all of them), the memory (I think), a CD/DVD Burner, and just recently I am having to get a new External (for backup) Hard Drive which will probably be an Iomega or Maxtor due to my Western Digital making clicking sounds and really slowing down the computer (which probably means it is failing or is going to fail, either way the preferred way of fixing this for me is to just get a new one and not repair it or anything like that). The thing is that I know basically for a fact that I need a better cooling system because:

1. My room is extremely hot all the time (even at night), which is around 100 degrees Fahrenheit all the time.

2. My computer is always very loud and compared to other computers in the house and at school (college) is much louder (at times it likes to make a loud high pitched sound just to show its dominance over its owner haha)

3. About 75% of time on my computer is used doing something that takes 100% cpu usage.

 

have u checked your CPU temps? try Speedfan or Everest

and by upgrading, im wondering if you've upgraded any hardware for example video card, more RAM, sound card etc....

 

Above is what I said earlier in case you didn't see it . I did already have Everest and looked at the OSD (which appeared to be the only way to see the temperatures in Fahrenheit) and around the same values in temperature were the same (give or take 2 or 3 degrees). All hardware is mostly upgraded, ATI card is not at the latest but its only .02 versions lower (which is pretty good for ATI since they tend to like to release a new version of their drivers almost every month) but basically anything else is just fine (I had to format my hard drive this past June or July so everything has been paid attention to pretty well). This problem has been going on for a couple of years now (since 2003/2004 which is when I bought this computer) but has recently seemed to get noticeably too bad for comfort. Most of the time the 1 GB of RAM is adequate except maybe when using the Distributed Computing programs (but this will always be the case since they use much of the system resources according to settings and just in general). Without the Distributed Computing programs running my CPU Usage is most of the time at a nice 10% or below (but is usually lower than 5%). Also, I am always using FreeRAM XP Pro which has an icon in the system tray which shows how much memory is free at that moment and usually has 500-700 MB free (unless using a Distributed Computing program which then leaves 350-550 free).