5punk

After an unexpected and sudden shutdown the other night, which I'm putting down to heat, I've decided to upgrade my CPU fan. The one it came with was the generic retail Athlon fan, which I assumed would do the job. Maybe it does and I've mis-diagnosed. Assuming it doesn't though (the CPU's an Athlon 64 4200+ I think, which is pretty high in the range so presumably gets pretty warm), are there any things I should be considering about CPU cooling? I'd probably just go for the prettiest otherwise.

Get this one. Keeps your CPU nice and cool, but it's big. Only 12 quid as well! Make sure you mount it the right way (I mounted mine backwards).

Before you do anything, hoover the crap out of your case and use Speedfan to check it is heat.

If you're running folding@home, you should see a reasonably high temp (sub 50 degrees) all the time, if you're not, run folding to see the max-ish temp you're likely to get

Dog Pants wrote:After an unexpected and sudden shutdown the other night, which I'm putting down to heat, I've decided to upgrade my CPU fan. The one it came with was the generic retail Athlon fan, which I assumed would do the job. Maybe it does and I've mis-diagnosed. Assuming it doesn't though (the CPU's an Athlon 64 4200+ I think, which is pretty high in the range so presumably gets pretty warm), are there any things I should be considering about CPU cooling? I'd probably just go for the prettiest otherwise.

You can monitor temperature from within the BIOS and using various bits of software to see if the temperature inside your PC is high. There are usually a few places where it is measured, so you can see if it's just the CPU, or the inside in general that needs cooling.

There is usually an alarm that sounds when the CPU gets too hot, although my alarm is set way below what some people commonly run at: 50ºC - although I rarely exceed 45ºC.

And steal a compressed air can from work. I blew all the desert dust and sand out of my laptop the other day and it dropped by something like 15 degrees

friznit wrote:And steal a compressed air can from work. I blew all the desert dust and sand out of my laptop the other day and it dropped by something like 15 degrees

This. It stopped HalfLife2 from crashing all the time for me. Well, apart from Episode One. That still crashes loads at the moment.

But yes! Clear out the gunk.

If that's true, will bleach destroy viruses on my PC?

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:If that's true, will bleach destroy viruses on my PC?

No, you have to stick a antibiotic tablet in the CD drive.

TezzRexx wrote:No, you have to stick a antibiotic tablet in the CD drive.

I use urinal cubes then flush the cache.

Bah, foiled at every turn. Speedfan just stops responding when I try to run it, and I can't find the temperatures in my bios (Phoenix - Award if anyone else is wiser than me). I did manage to procure a can of air though and I've managed to not use it all to freeze stuff. For now.

does your motherboard maker give any monitoring tools?

Hmmm, possibly. I'll check that out cheers. Also, running speedfan in win95 compatibility mode makes it work, but it doesn't pick up any of the sensors.

weird.

probably just some odd mobo mojo somewhere

Arses, the motherboard utilities (which I suspect don't contain temperature monitors) bork too. I think my computer is poorly

Dog Pants wrote:Arses, the motherboard utilities (which I suspect don't contain temperature monitors) bork too. I think my computer is poorly

Weird, doesn't sound healthy.

try a bios flash and make sure all your mobo drivers are up to date

I've updated my drivers and got scared when trying to update my bios so gave up (actually I couldn't be arsed working out why my floppy drive doesn't work). Still getting the resets. So I decided to overkill on cooling and got <a href="http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/revi ... 90C_1.html" target="_blank">this</a> and <a href="http://www.delta.com.tw/product/cp/dcfa ... x381mm.pdf" target="_blank">this</a>. Apparently it runs at about 56dba. Deject and Nickface should be able to hear it.


And I've just realised I've bought the wrong sized fan. Fucksocks.

Dog Pants wrote:And I've just realised I've bought the wrong sized fan. Fucksocks.

delta screamers FTL.

seriously though, i suspect it'd just fuck the mojo of your airflow

That did cross my mind - massive fucking turbine sucks in/blows out air far faster than the two case fans can. Also, now I've researched just how loud 56dba is I'm not finding it quite as amusing

Dog Pants wrote:That did cross my mind - massive fucking turbine sucks in/blows out air far faster than the two case fans can. Also, now I've researched just how loud 56dba is I'm not finding it quite as amusing

yup, 56dba is too loud. you will be able to hear the whine for at least 2 rooms.

Really good for avoiding conversation though

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:yup, 56dba is too loud. you will be able to hear the whine for at least 2 rooms.

Just like Mrs Pants then

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Really good for avoiding conversation though

See comment above

Nah, I've emailed them and changed it to <a href="http://www.vantec.com.tw/_en/01_product ... d=24&id=93" target="_blank">this</a>. Not as much of a talking point but it still shifts a fair old amount of air.