Argh, too hot...

Hello everybody!

I'm having some trouble with overheating. I have an ATX case, one of those with the lighted fans on the side. I've never had a problem with overheating before, but all of a sudden every time I run a game that involves my graphics card, the temp shoots up to 65+ C. I've cleaned out ALL the dust, oiled my side fan, am running CPUidle, etc. Idle temp is around 45 - 47 C. All 5 fans are functional, here's a list of what I've got:

Side of case fan -- blowing air out, not against a wall
Graphics card fan -- moved modem from directly underneath it to bottom of case, blowing downwards from back of case
Front of case fan -- blowing air towards back of case
Power supply fan -- located top rear of case, blowing out (I think... if I hold my hand near it I feel air, but not a lot)
CPU fan -- located in the center of mobo, blowing towards side of case fan
CPU heatsink -- located directly behind CPU fan

The only other thing I can think it would be is an open slot on the back of the case... will somebody tell me if I'm doing something wrong?

Thanks for your help.
-Josu

 

what graphics card do you have and how do you check the temp?

i have a 'side of case fan' and that is blowing inward and my CPU fan is blowing onto the heatsink ... but that would not help your graphics cards temp and your CPU temps seem fine to me depending on what CPU you have

 

I have an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro -- I check the temp with either Motherboard Monitor or the diagnostic software that came with my motherboard (both are reading the same). They also both tell me that that temperature is bad and they beep at me a lot if I don't stop playing games.

So should I switch my side fan?

 

Oh, and I'm running a Pentium 4 2.7 Ghz processor.

 

im thinking it isn't going to matter which way your side fan is pointing(so long as it's pointing the same same as your CPU fan) at any rate that would only affect your CPU temp not your graphics cards temp ... have you ever replaced or modified the heatsink on your graphics card? it may be you didn't apply the thermal grease properly, but if you haven't i don't think replacing the stock grease will help

btw ... are you overclocking? if so you may want to set stock speed then see if the temp drops

 

Nope... never replaced the heatsink.

I tried switching the side fan and that seems to be working for now... but I'll have to try a game-intensive test before I know for sure.

Thanks for your help.

 

Someboday else already said it -- those idle temps could be a lot worse. But a 20C rise from idle to full load isn't good at all.

A couple of suggestions:

I think your case side fan should be blowing air in at your HSF (if the side location is appropriate for that). I also think that your CPU fan should be blowing air into your heatsink.

If you follow AMD's cooling recommendations (click here), you should have an exhaust fan drawing the HSF exhaust out of the case. I didn't see a rear exhaust fan in your list.

You've already turned your case side fan around so that it is now an intake fan. You now have two intake fans and one exhaust fan. AMD suggests that you should have at least one exhaust fan for each intake fan, if not more than one. I'd suggest that you dismount the front intake fan and set it up as an exhaust fan at the rear, or add another fan as a rear exhaust.

I'm also not enthused by fans that try to blow hot air downward, as with your GPU fan. Hot air rises. You're fighting Mother Nature, and even if she doesn't win, she'll still mess you up.

I also have five fans in my case, arranged thus:
HSF - blowing air into the heatsink.
PSU - 2 fans. PSU intake fan is on the bottom of the PSU case, and removes air heated by the CPU heatsink. The PSU exhaust ejects warm air from the case.
Case rear exhaust - also removes hot air from the area occupied by the CPU. It's temperature-controlled, and speeds up as the exhaust temp rises, and sucks more air out of the case.
Case side intake - blows air into the case, directly at the HSF.

I don't have a front intake fan. My GPU uses a passive heatsink.

The two case fans are only 80mm fans, selected for quiet operation, not high-volume air movement. In other words, I don't think my system has a better capacity for moving air than yours. But AMD's cooling recommendations do seem to make for more effective use of that capacity.

At idle (25-30% load), I get CPU temps quite similar to those you have reported, i.e., 21-22C above room temperature. Running at 100% load (crunching numbers for SETI@Home), my CPU runs only 3-4C hotter, or about 25C above room temperature. And all that is in a really cheap case that has such a lousy provision for a front intake fan that it's not worth installing it. (It made a 1C difference when I installed one.)

BTW -- I'm using the stock heatsink & fan that AMD provides with the retail-box Athlon XP 2500+ CPU. Nothing fancy there, but it works.