Need advise on new case&power.

[Vimp]

I have finnally acquired some money so I can now look into finnishing upgrading my PC. What I have:

prices are canadian
$39 18" noname case that came with a 350W L&C power supply.
Asus A7N8X-X motherboard
AMD Athelon XP 2500+ Barton
Samsung PC3200 512mb ram
Maxtor 60gb HD 7200rpm 2mb cache ATA133
WesternDigitel 80gb HD 7200rpm 8mb cache ATA100
Asus 52x CDrom
Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
Realtek network card
Floppy drive
Creative Geforce2 GTS/Pro (Plan on upgrading to ATI 9800 pro)

My main concern is overheating. Currently my cpu is 50Celcius on average with no games running and the cpu diode is 58Celcius. This is with my case side panels off. The cpu diode was upto 75C before I dusted out the case and kept the side panels off. At 75C the computer was locking up fairly often. My motherboard is usually at 31C.

I don't know if my power supply is any good or not and would like t know if I should get a new one with my new case or not. The specs for my current power supply are:

+3.3V = 28A, +5V = 35A, +12V = 16A
+3.3V and +5V combined 200W
All 3 combined 330W
While no large programs are open my rails are at
+3.3V = 3.30-3.28
+5V = 4.61-4.70
+12 = 13.12-13.25
They fluctuate between these numbers on average.

Is my PSU good enough? Do I need a better one for my system?

I would like to get a nice size case thats perhaps around 20" in size. Most importantly I'd like a case that will cool my computer and dosn't make much noise in the process. My price range is preferably in the area of $50-$100 canadian, but I'm willing to go a little higher if it means getting a good cool case that is pretty quiet. Additional features that allow easy access to computer components so that I can add or remove pieces of hardware easily would also be nice but not neccesary.

 

[jammydodger]

The power supply doesnt sound too bad at the moment, but im not sure how long a no name power supply will last in a high end system. I dont like the look of that +12 rail, seems a bit high to me, Crash would prob tell you its fine though and he knows a lot more than me. 75c is very high for a CPU, i think both the P4 and the athlon have an operating temperature limit of 75c, at that temp the P4 would probably be shutting itself down or at least frequency throttling a lot. I think the first thing you should spend you money on is a new HSF!

[Insert witty comment here]

 

[Vimp]

Thanks for the reply.
I hope though, that you arn't confusing the cpu temperture and the cpu diode temperture. I don't exactly know what the difference is but I do know that I got a seperate temp reading for each. The diode is usually close to 8 or 10C higher then the cpu. I think the highest the cpu has gone is around 65C which still isn't good. I was hoping that buying a big case with plenty of fans cooling its inside that that would be plenty for keeping everything cool. As it is now I have no case fans at all. Am I mistaken in thinking this? Do case fans not cool down the hardware much? I'm very reluctent to change the cpu heatsink and fan because I'm worried I'll mess up and ruin it. Plus I've always been told that the stock heatsink and fan are always enough for hardware inless your overclocking, which I'm not.

 

[jammydodger]

A bigger case with more fans would help, im just worried that the hsf might not have been put on correctly in the first place. It could explain the high temps. If i were you i would make a post in the CPU's section asking people what they think of those temps (The only AMD chip i have experience with is a 1.1Ghz T-bird).

[Insert witty comment here]

 

[Vimp]

Can anyone recomend any good cases to me with in the price range I mentioned above? Most paticularly I'd like to know what brand of case is best and then I can look at cases from that brand myself if need be.

<font color=blue>_____________________________________</font color=blue>
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Asus A7N8X-X, Athelon XP 2500+ Barton,
Samsung 512mb DDR400, Creative Geforce2 GTS,
SoundBlaster Live! Value.