PC Overheating problems...

[cdietschrun]

I have a self built PC and the only major flaw I have with it is sometimes it overheats (I think its overheating) and freezes or restarts.

I have a

ASUS P5ND2-SLI
Pentium D 805
GeForce 7900GT 256MB
ArcticPro cooler 7 CPU fan

The case itself is pretty airated, I'd say, with 2 fans in the case running off the PSU, a walmart fan from behind just helping to move the air. I put in thermal paste about 10 months ago onto the CPU itself.

And I can browse no problem, anything other than gaming. When gaming I can watch the in-case temperature rise a little bit (4-5 degrees F) and then it's quitting time.

The case reads 69-70 F in the summer is the crazy thing. It reads off of a wire that is unstrategically placed inside, its probably lying on the motherboard or close to it. The CPU calls it quits at like 72-73F.

I don't feel like it should be overheating, there's not much else I can do.

What are some good options to do? What tools can I use to look at the CPU and see if I can prevent it from shutting itself off? (Possible it may be trying to protect itself) What can I buy to put in the case to cool it off ?


Any advice would be nice.

[Roufuss]

Buy an aftermarket cooler to stick on the CPU.

Look into getting some Arctic Silver 5.

Your case isn't getting enough air, despite what you may think, with temps like that. You probably need a much stronger fan. Also, you have an outside fan blowing into the case? Most of the time that just disrupts the air current the fans inside are generating, trapping heat inside the computer because you're breaking the current.

Wait, you already have a CPU cooler? There is no reason your temps should be this high, there is something wrong with the air flow inside your case.

[cdietschrun]

Yea I have the aftermarket cooler on the CPU. Ive got a fan on the outside of the case blowing in, and then there are 2 fans on the case itself doing more blowing.

[Vinny]

I think he does have an after market cooler... ArcticPro Cooler 7 sounds a lot like ArcticCooling Freezer 7 Pro.

What are you using to monitor temps?

If your processor is calling it quits at only 72F... then there's definitely something wrong. Pentium Ds are known to run hot, I think around 130F is normal for them.

You might have a bad sensor and bad cooling. What kind of a case do you have?

[cdietschrun]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144076

Yes, I'm fairly sure the readings I'm getting aren't valid, but they are reliably innacurate, like I said. I need some program to get actual temps, as I don't have one.

[Roufuss]

Yea I have the aftermarket cooler on the CPU. Ive got a fan on the outside of the case blowing in, and then there are 2 fans on the case itself doing more blowing.

Move the fan blowing on it from the outside and see if temp's go up... no computer should *ever* need outside ventilation.

If I blow an outside fan into my system, temps rise, because it's breaking the current, so hot air is not escaping while more air is being pumped into the case... the air never escapes so it just gets hotter and hotter.

So yea, you might be breaking the current, which is very very bad.

In every example I've seen, one of two things are important - either the outside fan is rising temps, which means you don't need, or the outside fan is actually LOWERING temps, which means your airflow inside the case is wack.

Turn off the outside fan and see what happens.

[cdietschrun]

OK, turned the outside fan off, but left the 2 case fans running.

What other options are there to
A)Monitor the actual CPU/RAM temps?
B)Replace the Arctic coooler possibly.

[Roufuss]

OK, turned the outside fan off, but left the 2 case fans running.

What other options are there to
A)Monitor the actual CPU/RAM temps?
B)Replace the Arctic coooler possibly.

You can use Speedfan to monitor temps, it's a free and small program.

How strong are your case fans? You might just need a stronger case fan.

[cdietschrun]

OK I just installed SpeedFan and its showing me:

Temp1 (hot) 55C
Temp2 (hot) 52C
Temp3 (check) 25C
HD0 (hot) 50C
HD1 (hot) 59C
Temp1 (check) 40C

I can't tell which one is my CPU, Im assuming Temp1 the first reading...

What are your thoughts?

[cdietschrun]

[quote=Roufuss;3029205

How strong are your case fans? You might just need a stronger case fan.[/quote]

Theyre stock with whatever the case came with, looks like 2x80mm fans. Unfortunately now that I check, looks like the side one is broken. And the top on had to be moved halfway blowing out of the case, halfway under the case itself.

Looks like this:

------___ ------- (case edge with hole as underscores)
__----- -------(Fan is the dashes on the left, space, big PSU)

The back also has a spot for a 120mm fan to be put in.

Any thoughts/ideas?

[Animeguy]

Are the fans in some order ? What I mean is are the front fans blowing in and the back fans blowing out (or the other way if you want). If they are not try to make it that way so that there is no place hot air can be trapped.

If so, try placing every fan you can that the case supports. 80mm fans are cheap at newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150007
10 for $12.90 shipped

[cdietschrun]

Illl check to see which way each working fan is going, and you think I should get the 120mm fan too?

[Vinny]

Ok... now that's NOT normal. Either your system is really smoking hot or all of you sensors are bad.

I've never seen a HD run above 45C even at the toughest of loads.

Try this, disconnect your two 80mm fans but leave your CPU fan on. Pull out your computer into an open area and take off both side panels. Now, take a regular fan, place it about 4 feet away, and have it at a low speed (since a regular fan is much larger, you need to limit it's speed so lessen the air flow as most cases can't get that much airflow from smaller computer fans) blowing direct at your mobo and see what happens to the temps.

See if that helps. If it does, that it's most likely that you aren't getting enough airflow. In that case, then you might need more/bigger fans.

Also, what's your airflow? You should try and have at least one intake and one exhaust... you shouldn't count on your PS's fan because that's usually too busy keeping the PS itself cool.

[cdietschrun]

I'll try doing that tomorrow and let you know.

What numbers should I be looking for for the CPU and HD? Approximately?

[Vinny]

I'd say that you should look for a 1 hour idle temp of 90F-110F for the processor. And load temps are around 118F-154F. Those are just numbers I've randomly found using Newegg's reviews. It seems like a good range but I could be wrong. I'm assuming ambient temp (your room temp) is around or close to 70F.

As for the HDs, you can find the average temps for your HDs by using SpeedFan's S.M.A.R.T. Start up SpeedFan, click on the S.M.A.R.T. tab, from the drop down list, select the HD you want info on, and then click the 'Preform an in-depth analysis' button. The info will pop up on your internet browser.

You should see a line telling you what your HD's model is and then the average temps for that HD and what your average temp is. Don't bother with the other info on S.M.A.R.T... it's not a good way to analyze your HD but it does provide good temp info.

[cdietschrun]

"The average temperature for this hard disk is 37C (MIN=28C MAX=47C) and yours is 56C."

Yea, wtf?

I just ordered 2 80mm fans and a 120mm fan off newegg that I'll try after I test this out tomorrow.

The only problem with your assumption is this room is quite damn hot in the summer especially, I don't know the exact temps, but It's definatly above 70F.

And I'm going to write down the #s here at 1:00am in the cool for the Fahreneit readings so I can compare to them tomorrow:

124
120
75
118
133
104

[Vinny]

If you don't have AC or anything, then why not just check weather.com's local forecast. Then compare the outside and inside temps and guesstimate.

[Roufuss]

"The average temperature for this hard disk is 37C (MIN=28C MAX=47C) and yours is 56C."

Yea, wtf?

I just ordered 2 80mm fans and a 120mm fan off newegg that I'll try after I test this out tomorrow.

The only problem with your assumption is this room is quite damn hot in the summer especially, I don't know the exact temps, but It's definatly above 70F.

And I'm going to write down the #s here at 1:00am in the cool for the Fahreneit readings so I can compare to them tomorrow:

124
120
75
118
133
104

Where are you living at?

I'm in FL right now, so some of my temps are few degrees hotter than normal, so this is an important factor too.

I mean, it's always hot here, but my temps aren't sky high.

[cdietschrun]

Before I loose it, I ran the PC all day and had about these temps:

49C
44C
23C
35C
45C
40C

Those are probably a little bit higher

I live in a town near Boston, MA.

It's like 80 every day this week.

[cdietschrun]

While the case fans are on the way...what are some good HD cooling options? I think that might hopefully help the problem.

[cdietschrun]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835166013

VANTEC HDC-502A Aluminum Aluminum Hard Disk Cooler - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835888105)

Those are two Im thinking about

[Vinny]

Yeah, your temps are a bit lower... but still high.

I think your ambient temps might be what's causing the problem combined with that hot processor. As I've said before, you have a naturally hot processor and your ambient temps are hot as well. All of that running inside an enclosed box with very little airflow is what's hurting it.

I'd try and run a game or two with the case completely open but no fan. See if that helps.

[cdietschrun]

I'm not gonna bother moving it and doing it agian...we know that there is a problem in the room and the case I have now. I need to now remedy it because there's no other option for placement of the computer. The only real options I have are new fans (which I'm trying) or a new case.

[Vinny]

Your HD cooling will help you HDs but those fans won't actually help cool down your whole computer... they'll just move the hot air away form your HD but that heat will still be in your case.

Look at some fans with a high CFM... high CFM means more airflow.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835129245

[cdietschrun]

Yea, In total I ordered:

2 80mm Fans for the case
1 120mm fan for the case
2 HD coolers for the 2 HDs...

hoping to set that up in such a way to cool the entire case down.

[SOSTrooper]

Good luck! I have a Shuttle XPC and my temperatures are extremely horrible! Even during idle!

CPU: 63C
Temp1: 54C
Temp2: 59C
HD: 43C

I don't even want to know what will happen when I play games. There's nothing I can do to improve my temps since I have a Shuttle case other than putting a walmart fan next to the case and eventually they'll drop about 15C. I'm getting rid of this setup soon so I just need to suck it up for another month.

[cdietschrun]

Well I put in the 120mm fan, two 80mm fans next to the HDs, the HD cooler on the HD1, the one that was hot:

And here are my preliminary results from Speedfan at night here in the room:

T1:35C
T2:32C
T3:37C
HD0:25C
HD1:30C
T1:40C

So far, a VASTTTTTT improvement. Will try under load and in the hot room tomorrow or Sunday...

[CappyCobra]

Just out of curiousity, how may watts is you power supply? I've seen it where underpowered setup will reboot if its drawing too much power.

[cdietschrun]

Ive got an Antec 500W supply. I'm fairly sure it should be ok for what I'm using...

[SOSTrooper]

Ive got an Antec 500W supply. I'm fairly sure it should be ok for what I'm using...

You're right, it's more than enough to support the setup you have. Congrats on cooling your system down :)

[cdietschrun]

Thanks! Pretty sweet help here if I do say so myself.