New Chassis Fan

Jay1986 · 6 Jul 2006 at 14:56

Just installed a new 120mm chassis fan into my case. Just concerned that I might not have installed it the right way round. How can I make sure is it blowing in the right direction?

Jay1986 · 6 Jul 2006 at 15:28

Sorry for being soo ignorant, but so I want the fan blowing into the case or out?

Jay1986 · 6 Jul 2006 at 16:03

I'm using the Q-Pack case, with a the standard fans. The rear one is blowing out of the case, and I cant quite make out if there are any other fans. I can't see any though there may be one at the front. My temps are CPU - 50 idle, 59 under load, MB- 35, GPU - 53 idle, 70ish under load. I have a Zalman 7000 Cooler and the powercolour x1800xt card. Are these temps ok? I realize they'll be higher than usual due to the weather.

Jay1986 · 6 Jul 2006 at 16:28

mark1 said:
The only slightly worrying temp is the CPU temp. What type of CPU is it? Intel's tend to be hotter than AMD CPU's and therefore that temperature will be erfectly fine. If it's an AMD 64 then that idle temps may be a bit high but still no real cause for concern.

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego. What would be a good temp for this CPU at stock speed? I'm not entirely sure I applied enough thermal grease when applying the heatsink? How much should be put on it?

Jay1986 · 6 Jul 2006 at 16:49

mark1 said:
You don't need a lot of thermal paste, about the size of a rice grain is all that's needed.

Are you using the stock heatsink?

The temps should ideally be around 40-50 load temp. It's not really a major temperature problem but i would recommend that you try and get the temperature down a bit. Are there any unnecessary cables in the case that are blocking the airflow? Cable tidying helps a lot with improving airflow.

The Q-Pack is quite a small case so there's nothing much you can do other than improving the airflow with higher cfm fans or getting a new heatsink.

Hmmm thermal paste should be ok. I'll check its fixed properly though. Yeh quite a few power cables in front of the fan, I'll sort that out. Heatsink is a Zalman CNPS7000B, so I don't think its that.

Jay1986 · 6 Jul 2006 at 19:28

mark1 said:
Heatsink is fine. Reseating it can often help, as you said. A good place to hide power cables is behind the mobo tray or in spare drivebays (providing it doesn't obstruct any fans). There are normally little crags etc in cases which you can stuff cables into (that's what i do)

Compacted the cable as much as I could and have hid them in one of the drive bays, thanks for the tip. If I reseat the heatsink will I need to clean the CPU and apply another layer of thermal grease or can I just take it off and put it straight back down again?

Jay1986 · 6 Jul 2006 at 20:06

mark1 said:
You'll have to re-apply the thermal paste

Look here, it's for Arctic Silver paste but really applies to any kind of thermal paste you use. It gives a good idea on what to do

Thanks very much for the help mate, I'll try doing that and see if my temps improve.