Is Everything Cool??? Cabling Decent Enough???

Epyon

Epyon

Epyon

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Mourning OcUK, I built a new system a few days ago and just wanted to get some advice on my temps and cabling, I tried to manage them but it wasn't easy. Plus one of my SATA cables broke so I had to replace it, but I think maybe the replaced cable was better at transfering data, I wouldn't know, any idea? My spec is in the last image file :).

[IMG=http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/4930/computertemperturesrs1.jpg[/URL]

Those are my temps, what confuses me is how do I know what the unnamed temps are, and what the tick and down arrows mean, sorry it's my first time using such a program.

[URL=http://imageshack.us][IMG=http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/1674/cablemanagement3qo1.jpg]

This picture was taken from the front of the case with the front panel off. There's only one cable in the way and that's from the fans installed but otherwise I tried to make sure nothing else would stop airflow to the CPU cooler.

nvidia8800gts320mbinsidmy5.jpg


This one bothers me, according to Everest I'm getting 60 C on my GPU and I don't know if that's good or bad, before I started up the machine I went ahead and positions all the cables so they wouldn't block air flow in front of the GPU fan.

computerspecblackoutkw1.jpg


Thanks for the help and advice guys, these temps are just idle so got to do load temps too :).
 
Epyon said:
Those are my temps, what confuses me is how do I know what the unnamed temps are, and what the tick and down arrows mean, sorry it's my first time using such a program.
Click to expand...

Temp1 = Motherboard
Temp2 = CPU (outer)
Temp3 = Unused diode (PWM possibly)
HD0 = Hard drive
Core 1/2/3/4 = CPU cores

The blue down-arrow means it's below the temperature that Speedfan states is "average" for that particular item. Such as the motherboard (Temp1) is 31c, and well below it's average which'll probably be around 40c. Red arrows mean it's above the average temperature that Speedfan expects. Flame symbols are when something is really toasty, often seen on the CPU/Cores when the computer is heavily active on the CPU.

The graphics card 60c idle temperature is perfectly fine for a 8800 GTS, maybe 5c higher than others but you're in a shuttle so I'd say that's quite good. The only temperature I might be slightly concerned over is the hard drive, which is 42c whilst idle in Windows. Might be worth seeing if you can get any air flowing over it, over pulling away from it to suck away hot air.

Your cores look okay as well, normally you can tell temperature differences and non-flat IHS's a lot better on Quad core CPU's due to large gaps between temps, but 4c is fine and considering that core 1 and 2 do (albeit very minimal) work when the OS is loaded so I'd more place that are 2-3c apart.

Cabling also looks fine to me!
 
Thank you VERY much, that's really good to hear, I'll put a screenshot up of my temps when load once I take some benchmarks of the system. I'm running XP now and don't plan to run Vista until I get to Aston so do D10 benchmarks yet.

Regarding the hard drive, I'm not too sure on how I can do this, there's quite a bit of space between it and the lowest PCI card but not enough space for another fan, is it really that high for idle?

Also any suggestions for what I should do Windows-wise as the computer uses multiple cores? I installed a patch for multi-cores but I'm wondering if XP needs anything else, also in CPU-Z the multiplier for my CPU changes and I'm wondering if that should happy, I though only mobile CPUs change depending on useage?
 
Epyon said:
Regarding the hard drive, I'm not too sure on how I can do this, there's quite a bit of space between it and the lowest PCI card but not enough space for another fan, is it really that high for idle?
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You'll probably be okay mate I would think, the only reason is I would personally be a bit "nngh" about my hard drive running at that temp, and only because my Maxtor's used to blue screen when above 45c. Better hard drives probably can work up to 60c.

Epyon said:
Also any suggestions for what I should do Windows-wise as the computer uses multiple cores? I installed a patch for multi-cores but I'm wondering if XP needs anything else
Click to expand...
Not sure on that one :)

Epyon said:
also in CPU-Z the multiplier for my CPU changes and I'm wondering if that should happy, I though only mobile CPUs change depending on useage?
Click to expand...
All Core2 duo/quads come with Speedstep, this changes the multiplier of the CPU when the CPU is idle or doesn't need to stock speed, does it for heat purposes and lower power consumption. I'd suggest leaving it on as it's a really great feature. The cores will automatically return to normal speeds when you start needing the CPU to do stuff. If you want though, you can turn it off in the BIOS through the "C1E" option, normally in advanced bios features sub-menu.
 
Thanks again, I'm sort of using this thread to answer any other non coolng related questions while I'm here as I don't want to mash up the forum with 100 other question posts.

I'm using Zone Alerms as a Firewall, used to use Sygate, but I dunno I don't think Zone Alerms is as good as my old Sygate could I be wrong?

Also any useful utilises that you can suggest I download for the PC?
 
Epyon said:
I'm using Zone Alerms as a Firewall, used to use Sygate, but I dunno I don't think Zone Alerms is as good as my old Sygate could I be wrong?
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ZoneAlarm seriously slows computers down, has also been known to cause blue screens on machines, I personally hate it for how slow it is but credit where credits due, it's very secure. I would personally recommend however trying out the Eset Smart Security Beta (free!), it's much more light weight and based on Nod32 which is regarded as one of the best AV/Firewall options around. I used to also use Sygate, and loved it, was a sad day when Norton gobbled it up and closed it :(

Epyon said:
Also any useful utilises that you can suggest I download for the PC?
Click to expand...
My tools folder consists of the following, which I use frequently and considered worthwhile keeping:

CPU-Z
Orthos
PC Wizard 2007
AMD GPU Clock Tool
Guru3D Driver Sweeper
ATi Tool
HD Tach
HD Tune
 
Ok did a nTune stress test just now results:

System Stress Test status: 50 passes completed

I was expecting so much more ~.~, 10 minutes just to show that. Oh well according to the temps in nTunes the highest I got during the test was 71 C which I believe is good :), in SpeedFan, my CPU hit 55ish that was the only hot thing, my HDD stayed the same throughout o.O.
 
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Yeah those temps are very good :)

Hard drive won't alter much, maybe when doing large file loading (such as entering a new level in a game) or increasing temperature after a long gaming session due to ambient temp being raised cause of graphics card, but shouldn't change much.
 
Good to know paying all that money on the system and keeping it cool was worth it, £5 on artic silver does go a long way. Thanks again, now for my last and final question ... the firewall program you linked to it includes an anti-virus now I normally use AVG but I was wondering how this new one compares to it, otherwise I'll just disable the virus protection.
 
Epyon said:
Good to know paying all that money on the system and keeping it cool was worth it, £5 on artic silver does go a long way. Thanks again, now for my last and final question ... the firewall program you linked to it includes an anti-virus now I normally use AVG but I was wondering how this new one compares to it, otherwise I'll just disable the virus protection.
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The virus protection that comes with that is NOD32, the whole package however is a system suite. NOD32 was originally and Anti-Virus, then it started to come with Firewall-esque feature, and now they've turned it into a security suite which is great :) In my opinion, I'd take Eset Smart Security (ie. NOD32 with better Firewall stuff) over AVG anyway.

Also check out this thread, it gives NOD32 it's just deserves :)
 
I've heard very good things about NOD32, didn't know you could get it for free legally with this package, I've switched over, and gotten rid of AVG and Zone Alerms, just doing a HD Tune test and I'll post the results. As for transfer rates on the HDD can the cable have an effect on this? I ask because I had one of the giga-byte orange cables as shown in the picture connected but it snapped so now I've got an older SATA cable (the red one). Should I expect any difference in speed?
 
Epyon said:
I've heard very good things about NOD32, didn't know you could get it for free legally with this package, I've switched over, and gotten rid of AVG and Zone Alerms, just doing a HD Tune test and I'll post the results. As for transfer rates on the HDD can the cable have an effect on this? I ask because I had one of the giga-byte orange cables as shown in the picture connected but it snapped so now I've got an older SATA cable (the red one). Should I expect any difference in speed?
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NOD32 isn't really legally free, due to it being a public beta you will get a fixed time limit for the program. After that they'll either release another public beta with a new timer limit, or it'll turn retail and needs to be purchased. But after using it I'm sure you'll want to fork out the minimal amount for it :)

The SATA cable won't show any difference that I'm aware of, and only from the controller on the motherboard and the hard drive itself (just to note did you move the pin from the 1.5gbs setting on the hard drive to the 3gbs setting? some hard drives have a jumper that switches it but most, if not all, of them come set at 1.5gbs).
 
Took the pin out and did some gaming, my CPU cores reached about 55 C, HDD about 46 C (I'm worried) and motherboard got 53ish C.
 
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