Ambient Temperature Concern

Gamefreak501 · 17 Dec 2009 at 09:57

Hey everyone,

I have a (scavenged) X2 based setup - consisting of Corsair 2GB DDR2, 3800+ CPU, 640mb 8800 GTS and Asus M2N-SLI motherboard.

This is all housed in a really old beaten and bruised Lian Li PC60 which has 3 fans installed - all facing outwards (exhaust) fans - which is probably my first mistake. Powered by a 600W StealthStream OCZ PSU.

The front two fans are controlled by an inbuilt slide switch which I often have set to 'Low' rather than Medium or High. The rear fan is running at full speed.

I was playing some Left for Dead 2 last night and Fallout 3 and my ambient temperature went from the idle of around 44 degrees C to 65 degrees C, whilst my video card was up to around 75 degrees C I think.

I have no more space in the case for fans - short of modding the case really.

But I am concerned about the ambient temperature being too high for the motherboard.

Is there anything that I can do about this, or is a new case really the only option? If so, do you have any recommendations?

Kind Regards,

David

Aegis · 17 Dec 2009 at 10:01

Why are all your fans facing outwards? Get some cool air flowing through the case and check your temps before looking into any other solutions...

Gamefreak501 · 17 Dec 2009 at 10:33

Aegis said:
Why are all your fans facing outwards? Get some cool air flowing through the case and check your temps before looking into any other solutions...

Probably a silly thing for me to do - I thought that by exhausting all the air outside, it will push the warm air out - but I'll try with the fans the other way.

Kind Regards,

David

BigBruiserAl · 17 Dec 2009 at 10:41

Use the 2 fronts fans as intakes and the 1 rear to suc hot air out. This will provide a flow of air through the case at all times and will flow over the montherboard and gfx card and lower temp. Would guess at your going down by at leat 15c like that.

jeckulz · 17 Dec 2009 at 13:41

I was under the impression that it is usually better to have more exhaust fans than intake??

Id be tempted to just mod in a top fan for extra exhaust as the top is where all the heat will naturally gather.
This would equalise your intake/exhaust ratio allowing for smoother flow.
Intake- front and bottom, Exhaust- back and top.

Simples... eeeerk!

BigBruiserAl · 17 Dec 2009 at 13:55

well were onto the debate of negative/posstive pressure about which is better...however in the op case he 3 fans 2 being at the front would have been silly to use front fans as exhaust so is why i said intake for now

Gamefreak501 · 17 Dec 2009 at 18:46

I should get the Darwin award - my fans were already set up for intake (in the front) and exhaust in the back.

I'm thinking of putting an 80mm fan in the top - I know later Lian-Li PC 60s had one installed on the top.

I may also bring my sata drive to the 3.5mm drive bays - meaning I won't be blocking the intake fans at all.

I'll let you know how my temperatures go with these measures!

Thank you for your assistance so far all!

Kind Regards,

David

Corasik · 17 Dec 2009 at 20:13

Do you mean your idle went from 44 to 65, or just that the cpu temp was at 65C while playing the game... 65C for a cpu is nothing, quite cool

, and 75C for a 8800GTS 640 is just right too, thoses puppy's can high 85-90 with no problem at all.

I have trouble believing your ambient temps are 65C in the case unless the case is about the size of a matchbox.

Thinking about it, if the motherboard isnt very well designed, and the temp sensor is too close the the GeForce, it could just be getting warmed to unrealistically high levels. Seriously though 75 on the GPU is completely normal, and I doubt the rest of the system is unusually hot... a true 65 ambient would make the case itself feel like a heater / radiator.