XP-90air in or out

Hi all

i have a Thermalright XP-90 fitted to a AMD 64 X 2-4800 with a 92mm Acousti fan pulling air into the cooler.unless I remove the side panel the cpu overheats and the game I am playing crashes. The RPM of the fan 1600rmp @ 12v. I have just bought a 92mm Zalman RPM 2800. Should I reverse the fan to draw air out of the CPU cooler or replace it with the faster fan.Noise is not a problem as I am very hard of hearing!
Your help on this would be very much appreciated
All the Best
Rex.

 

Blowing into it.

 

Hi Sleepy
Thanks for the confermation.
All the best.
Rex.

 

I also have an xp-90,you should really think about adding some more cooling to your case I have ran mine passively without the fan while gaming and not once did my computer lock up or stray above 60c,if removing the side of the case just about makes it stable even with a fan installed 'drawing air through the heatsink was only 1-2 degrees warmer than pushing air through when I tested' it would seem to me to be a clear indication more system cooling is needed

 

Hi Rikky.
I agree.I am going to liquid cool the cpu & n/bridge chipset with an external Koolance exos 2 system.and I will keep my air cooling fans as they are.and later I may expand to the gpu's. ( been very hard of hearing I can not hear my pc).The only problem with this system means no bottles for Christmas.
Thank for comeing back to me.
Merry Christmas.
Rex.

 

If you have to leave the side off your case, it sounds like you haven't got enough air moving through the case and the air temperature around your HSF is getting too high. You can't cool a CPU with warm air.

The Zalman is a good CPU cooling system. But it won't work much better than what you've got if the problem is high temperatures within the case.

Check the air intake and exhaust temperatures. If the exhaust temperature is much more than 5C above the intake temperature, you need to do something about that. More exhaust capacity would be your first choice. The object of the exercise is to get the warmed air out of your case before your CPU heats it by more than 5C.

Once you've got the exhaust capacity in place, make sure that air can get into the case to replace what's been sucked out by the exhaust fan(s). Some cases don't provide a lot of venting to let that happen. Ideally, there would be ample venting in the front, placed so that the incoming air passes through your hard drive cage to keep your drives cool.

One option that worked well for me is a hole in the side of the case right over the CPU, with a short duct that leads air coming in the side hole straight to the CPU's fan. That way, the CPU's heatsink gets the coolest possible air.

You'll see what I'm running below. The case has two 80mm fans; one intake in the front and one exhaust in the rear. The PSU is a double-fan model with its intake directly above the CPU. Under load (running SETI), I rarely get CPU temperatures above 46C. Idle temp is 40 or slightly below. Room temperature is about 22C. Blocking the side vent causes an idle-temperature rise of 10C over about 5 minutes. The motherboard temperature did not change, and neither did the case exhaust temperature.

My previous case for this system used a different approach to get cool air to the CPU, i.e., move more through the case. It had two 80mm fans in the back and a 120mm fan in the front, plus the PSU fans -- i.e., close to twice the air-moving capacity. But that case had no side vent. Temperatures were pretty much the same as the newer case, but the newer system is a lot quieter!

 

Hi Rob M
Thank you for the help.My case is the Lian-li PC60 it
as a 120mm(intake) front 80mm in the top (out)The 80mm rear fan should be intake through trunking to the CPU but due to the size of the cooler there was no room to fit the trunking.
This case should have a special extracter fan in the bottom rear of the case for the gpu's but this also would not fit due to the size of the 7800 cards. so the 80mm rear as been reversed to extract. this is leaveing the cpu short.
My solution is to buy the Koolance Exos 2 external liquid cooling system and just cool the CPU with it to start,noise is not a problem to me as I am very hard of hearing and do not hear the pc.
Thanks again Rob.
Merry Christmas
Rex
The PC/ ASUS A8N SLI Premum / AMD 64x2-4800 / 2x7800gt's in
SLI / 2gb Corsair TwinX / WD raptor & WD Caviar / 650w Akasa powerplus /

 

Given that the case can't be used as designed, the results may have left an area within the case that has inadequate air circulation -- right around the CPU and its heatsink.

While airflow within a case can be modified, it isn't all that easy and involves a lot of trial and error. Your fix is likely to be simpler in the long run.

 

Hi rexgrant
I have the same cooler with a zalman 92mm fan blowing down, never seen it get above 54c even playing fear for over two hours (1024 x 768, 4 x AA)
If you can fit them get a couple 120mm nexus fans (one intake on front of case and one exhaust on the back of the case).
This will keep it nice and cool. (idle temp 34c) P4 3.0 prescott cpu

 

Hi Morguex
The Lian-Li pc60 case I am useing will not accept more than a 80mm fan in the rear I am afraid the only way for me is with liquid cooling.
Thank you for the reply. Have a Merry Cristmas.
Rex