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Graphics and system cooling causing my problem?

Stearsy

Stearsy

Stearsy

Associate
Joined
26 Dec 2005
Posts
103
Hey Guys,

Basically I fixed up my system in March of this year and have been playing games on it fine up until about November when Far Cry 2 was released, I updated my graphics drivers, started playing and all was well until my screens shut off and then 5 seconds later, blue screen and Nvidia display error. I recently reverted back to my older drives and as much as that didnt fix far cry, it did resolve my other games that had started to crash due to the drivers.

I started to monitor the temperatures of the system and I have now noticed when playing the 'bigger graphic hog' games the temperatures are exceedingly high. Take for example tonight I was testing Tomb Raider, I played for around 30 mins and my graphics were hitting 99 degrees, I know the card can run stable at 90 but nearly 100? Surely not good. So I removed the side panel to let a bit of air in, and it actually dropped 15 degrees! I played for a further 2 hours and the temperature remained 79-84 max with the side panel off with no crashes etc. I've yet to test Far Cry 2 but I imagine results will be similar. My questoin is, why is my pc getting so hot with the case I'm using, and what would you recomend to help cool it, I'm using the stock graphics cooler but tbh not sure I want to tamper with it too much. I used to run games such as Crysis btw with no issue with erros etc, and I cant say I monitored the temperatures so I cant really compare what they used to be like. I dont really want to leave the side panel off all the time, but 15 degrees is quite a massive difference.

My System

BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ)
Coolermaster RC-1000 Cosmos Silent Full Tower Case - Black (No PSU)

Using two monitors 28" 1920 x 1200 and a 22" 1680 x 1050.

Cheers for any advice :)
 
Yea I plan on giving the system a good clean (I only blew some of the dust out but not very thoroughly).

The case is using the standard stock coolers. Are they really that bad? There are 4 of them I think and they seem to blow a fair bit of air around the system. As for a fan controller unit I will defintily get one of those as I had one on my older system and agree they are effective.

Do you think I will see huge difference from replacing a few fans with slightly better ones? Or are they really THAT bad that it will be a massive improvement? (Also those other fans are out of stock atm :/)
 
Stearsy said:
Do you think I will see huge difference from replacing a few fans with slightly better ones? Or are they really THAT bad that it will be a massive improvement? (Also those other fans are out of stock atm :/)
Click to expand...

Well iirc the fans used in the Cosmos are same ones used within Cooler Master 690, used both cases for custom builds in the past and the stocks fans are only OK at best. You will see a difference in overall temps with some quality fans, and to me it does sound like there is a real big problem with airflow within your case, for example should I take the side off my P182 case the GFX card temp drops by 5c maximum (And same goes for my former 8800GTS 512).

If you have spare fans slots then use them, 4 stock case fans doesn't sound right, did it not come with 7 or was that after the model re-fresh?
 
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It does sound very much like air flow is the main problem I agree. 15 degree drop from opening the side panel came as a big shock to me also.

I'm really no expert on air flow so I've posted some pictures to see if there are any instantly notable faults. Cables could be tidier I know :)



There are only four fans, the red circles are the fans, 2 up top one on bottom and 1 at back. Green is the gfx card obviously.



Is it best to keep the coolermaster side cover that covers the gfx card? I assumed that helped the air flow so have always kept it on. On another note the fan at the back is being half blocked by the back of the desk almost? I guess that could block air being vented out also? Where should the air be flowing in a case exactly? If you need different angles let me know.

Cheers
 
Yeah that be the fans with Cooler Master hologram sticker in middle, have a 25+ stack of them fans in loft as spares. They only spin at 1200rpm, and the airflow CFM is not great even for a 1200rpm fan. I would suggest you replace them all, including placing a 5th in front of HDrive cage (Iirc an option?) with quality 1400rpm fans or better. As for that side cover air channel, well I left it on when asked, it seemed to make little diff in temps either way.

Really nice case, just comes supplied with very average fans like most, though they are nowhere near bad as the leaf blower 4 pin molex Tri-cool’s that came with my P182 :)
 
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Alright, I'll give it a good clean over the weekend and might move the location of the case itself (its probably not ventelating well under a desk tbh). Are there any other decent fans to recomend, really want to get the order in before the weekend and those are out of stock. I'll probably go for 5 of the 120mm and a controller as recomended.

I monitored my CPU temps also yesterday and they were hitting 80 also so it will be good all round for the system I think.
 
Obviously it’s down to opinion, but from experience and to solve your Cosmos case heat build up; then I would recommend Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000 120mm (‘silent’ would be a lie, no 1400/2000rpm fan is silent), real solid build quality, look great, supllied with rubber mounts to reduce any case vibration (Mounts should fit the Cosmos) + reviews of Sharkoon fans from the so called pro websites tend to be very favourable. Also coupled with a fan controller set to low they only spin at about 800/1000rpm (for Desktop/browsing etc), and allows you the option crank them up a bit when required for gaming etc.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-006-SH
&
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BB-001-ZA

If you’re not bothered about finish then to save £’s>

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BB-002-ZA

Zalman black version and out of stock fans are available elsewhere^ ;) However Scythe fans are decent, for moving air then>

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-005-SY
 
Cheers Sean, have gone with 4 of the Sharkoon Silent Eagle 2000's and the Zalman black version fan controller.

Will give the system a good cleanup, install the new fans and controller and will let you know the differences over the weekend. :)
 
Hey Guys,

I actually managed to install everything today, which was quite pleasing. CPU temperatures have not changed but that was not the main issue. I cant say I've fully tested much, but leaving Tomb Raider on for 15 mins and having a little play kept my GPU at about 77 degrees max, it would probably have slowly crept up a bit more, but cant see it going past 85-90 at abosulte max.

One problem I have at the minute is I cant get the fan controller working (and without control of these fans the pc is now VERY loud :P), I remember installing one fine before on an old system but just could not get my head around why they were not working. They are all powered on and the lights flash up on the controller but I may have them set up wrong.

The fan has a 3 pin connection, which i plug into another lead that has a 3 pin and 4 pin (x2) extension off it, the four pin I connect into a spare plug from the PSU and the other 3 pin I plug into the controller, isnt this standard way of doing this? I did the exact same for all four and dont think any of them are actually working. The controller has blue and white slots for the fans but all the connections are the same atleast.

Any ideas guys? I got to the stage where I just had enough for the evening and left it on auto, but the pc really is loud :P Do i need to plug anything into the main board etc?
 
Hello again, the Zalman fan unit should be straight forward (Use one myself on home pc), 4 pin Molex connector powers the controller, fan control 1 & 2 can also be used for CPU's hence the additional 3 pin header on wires. Should just be a case of connecting the fans up, blue/red LED’s on control unit light up confirming fan is powered, and then adjust control dials till your happy. 2000rpm fans are loud yes (These Sharkoons are actually more quiet then most), hence the fan control, just adjust them to a pleasing level via a fan control unit, once working :)

Don’t overload each fan control unit, should be one fan to one control dial, no more. Seems GPU temps have improved a decent amount going by your quick TR test, so it shows air circulation has somewhat improved. Your CPU temps are high mainly down to stock quad core cooler been bit rubbish, some of the £12 to £14 Akasa/Arctic coolers are far better.

Let me know if you still have problem and I’ll upload a picture of my PC’s wiring for the Zalman unit.
 
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Hey Sean,

I fixed the fan controller today, I suddenly realised that I was powering the fans from the PSU directly as well as from the controller. I guess I was just really tired yesterday :)

I now have the fans set to the lowest setting when just browing and when gaming I crank them up to max pretty much and so far so good :) Thanks for all your help mate.

As for the CPU cooler, I actually bought the Coolermaster Hyper TX 2 CPU Cooler back when I ordered the PC, I managed to snap one of the clips when trying to connect it. Ended up getting really frustrated with it and gave up, I installed the stock cooler and havnt really tried since. The max i've seen it is around 77-80, which I know is high, but not alarmingly high right? I still have the clock setting at 2.4 too, the overclocking I tried was unsuccesful back in March (was a weird one, I overclocked to 3.0, it ran fine, could turn the pc on and off and it would boot and play games, but as soon I left it for any decent length of time like 8 hours it would just boot and display no signal, the only way to get signal back was to switch the Ram DIMMS from 1 and 3 to 2 and 4 and then visa versa, the clock reset itself each time, yet when into windows everything ran with no sweat, really odd) Any ideas on that btw, it didnt make much sense 9 months ago wondered if it made any sense now?
 
No problem and glad to hear you got it sorted :)

CoolerMaster Hyper TX 2 looks decent, most likely very similar cooling ability as Akasa AK-965 & Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 etc. Send CoolerMaster customer support an email as they might send you a replacement clip for free. Might be worth re-seating stock Intel cpu cooler as temps shouldn't be that high, might have bad thermal contact and during warmer summer months you could hit 90c+ which certainly won’t be ideal. Sometimes the pins look like they have clicked into place and yet are only partially locked down, thankfully most top end aftermarket coolers don’t use plastic clamp/pins design.

No point currently discussing CPU over clocking tbh, as I would advise not to bother trying with temps that high unless you change cooler. :)
 
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