Installing Fans On Top And Side; Is It Worth It?

[LedBelly]

I've spent the first week with my new upgrade trying to optimize the overclock and now I want to optimize my cooling. I found almost all the info I needed to oc in these forums, so thanks for the help!

 

So this is my setup:

Asus p4p800 deluxe, P4 2.6c, 2x256 pc3200 geil golden dragon, thermaltake spark7 and a geforce4 ti4200. I've upped the fsb to 250 (3.25ghz) and upped the vcore to 1.7 and the ram is at 2.5,4,4,8. I ran Prime95 for 3.5 hours with no errors and asus probe reported my highest cpu temp as 49C (although that was for less than 10 seconds, average was 47 under full load) and mobo temp as 40C. At idle cpu temps are around 30 and mobo temps are a little higher.

 

I'd like to drop load temps down, so is it worth cutting and installing fans in the top of the case (exhaust above cpu) and in the side (intake at cpu)? What kind of changes has this setup done for others? What about getting a hsf for the northbridge? Thanks for any help!!!

[exeter_acres]

Adding fans will help, but remember there will be a trade for noise....

You could even duct air into the CPU...

 

(do a search for Duct and you will find several hits)

 

IMHO NB cooling is not that important... You could add a fan to your NB heatsink if it is passive, or upgrade the heat sink itself....

[ravix]

I agree with exeter. The extra fans will really help for cooling, but as always will add some noise. How much it will help depends on how nice your airflow is already, but it could be a drastic change.

 

And I don't think the northbridge needs more cooling unless you are really gonna up the FSB.

[Guest Ballz2TheWallz]

asus probes suck you need a 3rd party one. and could you boot into windowss stable without vcore increase? cause that will extremely damage temps

[LedBelly]

When I had the vcore set to auto or set at 1.65, Windows would boot fine and everything seemed to work. But, Prime95 gave a rounding error within 1 minute of the torture test. When I bumped the vcore up to 1.7 the errors went away in Prime95.

 

What do you mean by 3rd party? A different software program or a new heatsink probe?? I've read other posts saying asusprobe was pretty accurate. I even touched the heatsink at 30C and it felt as cool as the case cover.. Anyways, I'm going to try and put the extra fans in and see if that helps. One more thing, I currently have the TT Spark 7 running on the auto feature, where the temp probe is under the heatsink. But the fan speeds never go above 4000 rpms (at the highest temp I've gotten of 48C). Should I not use the hsf's auto feature and have it controlled by the mobo?

 

Thanks for your help

[Guest Ballz2TheWallz]

asus probes seem to have wide spread temps like 28C idle but 51C max. most of the time there not accurate so people with these motherboards should go and buy a "3rd" party probe which isnt made by asus. and just install under cpu

[ShadowPaktu]

im gonna use some vacume tubing hose to duct air from my front case fan to my cpu, its about big enough and you can bend it.

[Tempesta]

I had the Blizzard 360 with 3 120MM fans in it. She was loud, but she cooled very very nicely. Under a full load during gaming, the mobo temp rarely got above 80F and the CPU right around 105F.

 

You have to remember that no program is going to be 100% accurate. These programs are merely for refernce and are no where's near scientifially accurate. Asusprobe for me has been great.

 

Back on topic - I recently bought an X-Dreamer II. The temps in there are higher than what I'm used to, and that's because I went from 3 120MM fans down to two 80MM fans. The temps are defintely acceptable; much better than a case without any sort of active cooling. I plan to get two more 80mm fans for exhaust fans in the back to see if it helps any.

 

Yes, the fans are worth it!