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Motherboard temperature
mal - May 6, 2004
  mal May 6, 2004
I had a quick look through the forum, but I couldn't find anything relating direct to this...

I've got a PC installed in a small shelving system that has very little ventilation. It's an Athlon XP 2400, isn't overclocked, but I'm worried that it's all running a bit hot. The CPU temperature is 52C and the motherboard is 50C. I'm planning on getting some fans to suck air out the front of the case, but that may be a few days away.

Am I likely to cook anything in the mean time?

 Dud May 6, 2004
That is running pretty hot, but you should be fine for the time being unless those temperatures get over 70. I've got a 2600; my temperatures are usually 40 (cpu) and 22 (mb) at idle with the case fans turned down all the way, and that's about where you want to be at.

 Pearl Jammzz May 7, 2004
yer mobo is pretty damn hot, haha. Mine's a lot lower than that. I would suggest against letting it go too long. get sum fans ASAP.

 Alexvrb May 7, 2004
His temps are ok. Does your motherboard's chipset (northbridge or combined, the one near the CPU) use a fan itself? Regardless, a slow-moving (quiet) fan venting some of the heat would suffice. Be careful that you don't end up fighting the airflow that your PSU is setting up too much.

 racketboy May 7, 2004
I've never even reached 50 even when working my machine hard.

I'm doing a full load right now for a few hours and am at 42

 mal May 7, 2004
What I'm planning on doing is adding two 60mm fans to the back of the case for intake and getting one of those 3 fan units that go in a 5.25 bay (but flipping the fans) for exhaust. I may even reverse the airflow of the PSU fan, we'll see.

Oh yeah, the chipset is passivly cooled.

As I said, the reason it's so hot is because it's in a closed shelving system that has close to zero airflow. The shelf is enclosed on 5 sides and is only a little bigger that the case itself. It's got nothing to do with CPU activity as it's only been playing mp3s.

BTW, this is the media PC that I built for work.

 Alexvrb May 7, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by mal@May 7, 2004 @ 06:42 AM



 What I'm planning on doing is adding two 60mm fans to the back of the case for intake and getting one of those 3 fan units that go in a 5.25 bay (but flipping the fans) for exhaust. I may even reverse the airflow of the PSU fan, we'll see.



Oh yeah, the chipset is passivly cooled.



As I said, the reason it's so hot is because it's in a closed shelving system that has close to zero airflow. The shelf is enclosed on 5 sides and is only a little bigger that the case itself. It's got nothing to do with CPU activity as it's only been playing mp3s. 



BTW, this is the media PC that I built for work.


Yeah, that's what I figured. I knew your northbridge shouldn't get that hot (not like it matters much at stock settings) if it had a fan. Of course most of them don't need fans anyway, I replaced the HS+dying fan on mine with a relatively large+passive zalman cooler. Obviously the performance of a passive sink is going to depend on your case temp + airflow, so that will get better too.

Anyway, they shouldn't need to be spinning that fast, so if they're too loud there are things you can do to slow them. Reversing the PSU fan could be bad in some ways as well, unless you isolate its air from the rest of the system. After all, it generates a good amount of heat and then it'd get dumped immediately into the case. But you could use some ducting and/or tape (I'm thinking of aluminum/steel tape but duct tape should be fine) to direct the airflow of your PSU right to and out the front.

Edit: Stupid question: Where is the airflow from the back coming from, in such a tight spot? In situations like that, I've always drilled a few holes in the back of whatever was holding it, if it was really tight. But I shouldn't assume anything like that.

 mal May 7, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Alexvrb@May 8, 2004 @ 02:30 AM



Yeah, that's what I figured. I knew your northbridge shouldn't get that hot (not like it matters much at stock settings) if it had a fan. Of course most of them don't need fans anyway, I replaced the HS+dying fan on mine with a relatively large+passive zalman cooler. Obviously the performance of a passive sink is going to depend on your case temp + airflow, so that will get better too.



Anyway, they shouldn't need to be spinning that fast, so if they're too loud there are things you can do to slow them. Reversing the PSU fan could be bad in some ways as well, unless you isolate its air from the rest of the system. After all, it generates a good amount of heat and then it'd get dumped immediately into the case. But you could use some ducting and/or tape (I'm thinking of aluminum/steel tape but duct tape should be fine) to direct the airflow of your PSU right to and out the front.



Edit: Stupid question: Where is the airflow from the back coming from, in such a tight spot? In situations like that, I've always drilled a few holes in the back of whatever was holding it, if it was really tight. But I shouldn't assume anything like that.


Just saying "reversing" was probably a bit misleading. I can't remember the specific layout of that case's power supply, but I was planning on making a new hole and mounting an extra fan to drag the heat towards the front of the case. From there the fans at the front will hopefully be enough to drag all the heat out.

I'll definitely be making some holes at the back of the shelf, but they can't be very big, so I guess I'll just have to make lots of them.

 Dyne May 7, 2004
dragging the heat to the front of the case i think me and alex understand, but if your enclosure is on 5 sides we have to assume the back part, in which you say youll be pulling the fresh air from, is also somewhat closed off? if so no matter how many fans or how you set them up will matter much. the quality of air being taken in is only as good as the air around it and from what it sounds like this thing will just be sucking in recycled warm air.

 mal May 8, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by mal@May 8, 2004 @ 10:06 AM



 I'll definitely be making some holes at the back of the shelf, but they can't be very big, so I guess I'll just have to make lots of them.



 Alexvrb May 8, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by mal@May 8, 2004 @ 12:06 AM



 Just saying "reversing" was probably a bit misleading. I can't remember the specific layout of that case's power supply, but I was planning on making a new hole and mounting an extra fan to drag the heat towards the front of the case. From there the fans at the front will hopefully be enough to drag all the heat out.



I'll definitely be making some holes at the back of the shelf, but they can't be very big, so I guess I'll just have to make lots of them.


Alrighty. If your fans are too noisy, a fanbus or something might be in order. But that should work fine.

 Dyne May 8, 2004
yeah mal, i saw that but i dont think in theory it would do a lot of good, is all im saying.

 Alexvrb May 8, 2004

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Dyne@May 8, 2004 @ 03:19 PM



 yeah mal, i saw that but i dont think in theory it would do a lot of good, is all im saying.


His temps aren't all that insane now, so with a little airflow he should be ok.

 mal May 12, 2004
Just adding the three small exhaust fans in 5.25 bay have reduced both temps to 44C. :thumbs-up:

 Alexvrb May 12, 2004
Good. A little intake and you'll be set.