Running Too Hot?

[CompXT]

Ok I have a Dell 4550 thats a little modded. Its in a Raidmax Case with 5 case fans, vantec card fan, etc... I thought the cooling would be a lot better in this case since the stock case only had 1 fan. The stock heatsink is just that, a heatsink and no fan. It's getting hot enough to were I can't even touch it. Since I don't have a temp moniter like my other rig I have no idea what the temp is (mbm5 is not supported). Anyone think that is too hot? Do I need to try to find a new heatsink and fan for it or will it be ok. It's my wifes comp so I dosent need to run extremly cool just enough to be safe. Also anyone know what socket this crap rig is. It's a P4 2.53ghz, 512ram, 9500 pro, wd 10k hd.

[Dr_Frankenstein]

go on ebay and get a cheap p4 cooler or even a stock you can pick them up well cheap if u only need it for ya wife

[Nuclear]

I would go to RadioShack and for $20-$25 buy a outdoor/indoor temp monitor w/ probes. It will monitor temps down to -50C and is very accurate. Your temps may not be as bad as you think, and I would check before you drop some coin on a new HSF.

[Sly_C]

thats wrong, just wrong, putting a dell in a modded case. i wouldn't worry about it dells are made so u do't ahve to worry abotu that stuff cause most people don't.

[CompXT]

I got tired of looking at that ugly gray plastic case one day and had a perfectly good raidmax so I swaped it over and gave it to my wife. The only problem is I can't put the 120mm fan with the cowl on the back to route air to the hs. But on the otherhand I plugged that 120mm stock fan up and it pushes about as much air as a 40mm.

[Rick_fourdumbkids]

at the end of the day alot of people get really paranoid about overheating processors one of my friends ran her computer for years on end and it accumulated dust and wen i went round to fix it all i found was a big pile of dust tottally engulfing the heatsink fan and most of the components on the board, cooling only becomes crucial when you start to oc so if it's for your wife she's not gonna be doing anything demanding on it right? so you can set it up leave it to run and send the 9500 pro my way

[CompXT]

Well I did OC the card about 40mhz both sides but I think I'm gonna buy a cheapo card and put in there and take that one to my new rig, until I can get a 9800 pro

[TheSternMystic]

Paint the Dell case, it's plastic, so really any kind of spray paint would work fine. Thing is, Dells are designed to cool, quite well actually, for the average user. If it's for your wife, stick the thing back in the old 4550 case, paint it first of course, then there ya go.

 

On Dells, the stock heatsink is just a heatsink, with a big 120mm/92mm fan stuck on it-ish. They have a big green shroud that goes overtop of the heatsink and sucks the air across the fins and exausts it outside. Ultimatly, that's a superior cooling solution to a stock heatsink with a fan stuck on top. If you took the board with the stock heatsink, put it in a new case without the green shroud, you really need to be shot. The heatsink really does need a fan to be stuck on top of it, or, take my earlier recommendation and stick it in it's old case.

 

As far as safe temps go, it was safe in the old case, Dell makes sure of that.

[CompXT]

I got a temp probe and checked the hs. With the stock fans from the raidmax case it was running around 130f. I took 2 of my vantec tornadoes and replaced the old stock fans and I running 96f (the hs is freakin huge on dells). I also changed the stock fan in the front with a tornado so it seems to help out a lot. I think I might take your advice and paint the dell case. I also want to see what the temps are in the dell case just to get an idea, but ill do that when I get the time to swap everything over.