Cooling

[pvr02]

Of course my computer is overheating.  After folding for 5 or 10 minutes at full power the motherboard will start beeping at me.

I have 1 fan spot (60mm) in the back that doesn't have a fan in it, but the rest do, I was lookiing into getting the PCI exhaust fans and one of the 5.25in hard drive cooling fans (i think they are called) to get more in and out.  Anyone use these before?

[neb1211]

I have used slot coolers before and they really aren't all they are hyped up to be.  I would suggest reapplying the thermal paste on cpu.  If possible try using Arctic Silver 5 as it seems to work the best.  You only need a even layer no thicker than a piece of paper.  Also make sure the heat sink sits firmly on the cpu.  Try doing a little cable management if you haven't already.

[pvr02]

That's already been done.

I used artic silver 5 when I did the initial setup and my cables are pretty much hidden. The only thing is that I went from a standard tower case to a rackmount case.  I know the cooling isn't as good in those, but it saves me space.

[pvr02]

The more I think about it, I should probably go water cooling instead.  It would probably work ALOT better than those fans idea.

What do you think of this:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118111

Any other recommendatons (It is a server case remember so it has to have an external reservoir)

[Kalo]

Welp, watercooling is a very delicate thing because if you screw up...bye bye hardware.  Can't say i'm a big fan because of that.  I recommend Zalman coolers because they are awesome.  Stock coolers suck.    Never used those coolers you are talking about, but another fan in the case would be a good idea, although I don't think it will solve your problem.

[pvr02]

It currently has a Zalman heat sink on it.  I just have some sneaking suspicion that standard air cooling isn't going to be enough to let me run this cpu at 100% again.

I've actually changed my mind and have pretty much decided on which watercooling setup I want to get.

Either:
http://www.frozencpu.com/ex-wat-52.html  $265
or
http://www.frozencpu.com/ex-wat-53.html  $290

Basically the same setup one just has an extra fan.  They get great reviews and have alot of options that you can buy.

[Kalo]

Just out of curiosity have you used a program that tells you your temps?  I once had a motherboard with Dr. Voice built into it and it beeped when I used certain programs and held down certain keys.

[pvr02]

I haven't ran any program to tell me the temps on it in a long time.  I had this board folding in a chieftec server tower case for a year or so until I moved it to a rack mount case.  Not too long after getting it into the new case and restarting the folding process, it started beeping at me (never heard it do this prior to moving it into the new case).  I will run the motherboard temp prog when I get time.

[Kalo]

I haven't ran any program to tell me the temps on it in a long time.  I had this board folding in a chieftec server tower case for a year or so until I moved it to a rack mount case.  Not too long after getting it into the new case and restarting the folding process, it started beeping at me (never heard it do this prior to moving it into the new case).  I will run the motherboard temp prog when I get time.

Yeah, just thinking it might be a good idea before you go and spend money on something you may not have to, could be other things. 

[neb1211]

You don't really need to use a temp monitoring program to figure out it is overheating.  Most motherboards will beep when the cpu is overheating.  You might want to go into your bios and just make sure that the temperature that the overheat warning goes off at didn't get changed.  However, not all motherboards allow the temp for the overheat alarm to be changed.

[Kalo]

You don't really need to use a temp monitoring program to figure out it is overheating.  Most motherboards will beep when the cpu is overheating.  You might want to go into your bios and just make sure that the temperature that the overheat warning goes off at didn't get changed.  However, not all motherboards allow the temp for the overheat alarm to be changed.

Yep, but mine beeped and it wasn't overheating at all.  Darn annoying that. 

[neb1211]

Some temp monitoring programs have the ability to trigger the overheat alarm.  However, your computer really isn't overheating in many cases like this because the defualt settings are usually set pretty low in these programs.

However, if no program is installed, then you can be almost certain that it is in fact the computer overheating.

[Kalo]

Right, like MBM etc.  Interesting that.  Having said that my last pc actually 'blew up' more or less.  I never really did any checking, MBM listed temps were normal constantly.  I scrapped the mobo and heatsink, rest worked fine in this new computer - although really it's not new...see below:

CASE: APEX PC-132
POWER SUPPLY: APEX 300W
MOTHERBOARD: ABIT VA-20
PROCESSOR: AMD ATHLON XP 2600+
MEMORY: CRUCIAL 1GB PC2100 DDR
HARD DRIVE #1: WESTERN DIGITAL 80GB, 7200RPM, 8MB CACHE
HARD DRIVE #2: MAXTOR 40GB, 7200RPM, 8MB CACHE
GRAPHICS CARD: PNY VERTO GEFORCE 4 TI4400 AGP
CDROM: SONY 52X
CD-RW: PHILIPS 8X
SPEAKERS: LOGITECH Z-640
MONITOR: VIEWCONIC E70f+
MOUSE: LOGITECH MX310
KEYBOARD: GENERIC
OPERATING SYSTEM: WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION

Works for most games, obviously I can't play BF2, etc...but I can play CNC: Source on high fairly easily. 

[pvr02]

Well.  I checked the temps with MBM. 

At roughly 10% CPU usage i'm getting a temp of 93f.
At roughly 50% CPU usage i'm getting a temp of 104f.
At roughly 75% CPU usage i'm getting a temp of 113f. - And the alarm started going off.

[Kalo]

Ouch.  Ok well, full steam ahead...literally.

[neb1211]

The temp alarm shouldn't really be going off at 113*F.  You might want to check your bios and see if you can't change the alarm temperature.  I personally wouldn't worry too much about anything below 130*F.  Any higher than that and your getting close to the max temp which is usually around 158 - 167*F

[pvr02]

The only thing is that it was 113f at 75% power and that was right after it hit 75%.  It wasn't running for more than maybe 2 minutes.  If I let it go really any longer than that, the whole system starts to get jerky.  Usually to a point where I have to just power off the computer and turn it back on.