Hot HTPC

adelburn

adelburn

adelburn

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8 Jul 2007
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321
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I've just been round to me dads and he was showing me his new HTPC. First thing I noticed was the heat being generated, top of the case is literally hot enough to fry an egg!

I've opened the case and it seems the heat is being generated from the northbridge. Looked in the BIOS and the temps were about 40C idle. installed speedfan and max temps were 65C.

This is the barebones system he bought. He has put a x2 4400+ in their aswell, the energy saving one 65w iirc.

Are these temps normal?
If so would their be anything I could do to reduce the heat?
 
Is it unstable at those temps? The case is probably carefully set up to run the components almost as hot as they can manage to reduce noise from cooling fans. You could add a fan at the front somewhere to help draw in air, and maybe one of those PCI fan things if he has the PCI slot spare.
 
No it's not unstable, it is running fine!

Perhaps I am just being paranoid. But the NB is too hot to even touch and on mine all components are relatively cool.

It wouldnt be the PSU would it? Can they distrubute too much power to cause this? I cant find anywhere on the MSI site stating what wattage e.t.c the PSU is!
 
I was looking for that same info on the PSU. I doubt its giving too much power, you could try undervolting some components to see if you can cut out some heat that way.

edit: Actually, I think its 300W, its listed on a competitior site as such
 
meh, I'll probably just leave it, it's running fine so with enough ventilation should:rolleyes: be fine.

Cheers for your help btw much appreciated:D
 
Why not arrange for some better cooling for the northbridge, then? You could choose from a number of active or passive coolers that should remedy such a situation.
 
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