extra fans

[Guest]

Merry belated Christmas all. I have two questions that I am in need of assistance with. I'm new to this OC'ing business and just had a successful OC. The problem is, my temps are much higher than I want them to be (54 degrees Celsius). Basically my first question is what do you guys think I should do to add some extra/better cooling for the CPU and case? I have an Alpha PAL6035 w/Sanyo Denki 60mm fan. I guess its an adequate HSF, but would anyone recommend something better? since its obviously not powerful enough to handle my CPU temps. What do you guys think about the dual HSF's? they would fit on my mobo (ASUS A7V), but I don't know if they would help much more.

My next question is, I just bought some Panaflo P80L1A fans, why? I don't know, they were on sale for cheap. Well, I was wondering how I would connect these or any other extra fan I might buy to the mobo? As far as I can see there is only one 3 pin plug to PWR the FAN. Is there some kind of connector that connects multiple fans together to share one plug? I also see plugs for CPU_FAN and F_FAN, but I don't know if I could use those or not. And btw, Quiter fans preferred. Thats why I got the Sanyo Denki fan instead of the YS Tech.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

----------
T-Bird 900mhz @ 1030
ASUS A7V KT133 (1005a BIOS, VIA 4in1)
256mb PC133 CAS2 Crucial RAM
Alpha PAL6035 w/Sanyo Denki fan
ATI Radeon 64mb DDR
ATI TV Wonder NTSC
Sound Blaster Live! MP3+
ATX iColor Case
Windows 2000 Professional

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Rider on 12/27/00 06:30 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Bubba]

First, keep in mind, the A7V will make the chip run hotter than any other board due to instructions in the bios. So only compare your temps to other A7Vs with bios 1004 or greater.
Second, take the pink crap off the HSF and put some Arctic Silver on the core, this should get you down to the upper 40s.
Third, put one fan in the lower-front of the case blowing in and put one in the upper-rear of the case blowing out. I will probably get you down to 38-44C when idle.

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Rider,

Your heatsink should be fine. I use the PAL 6035 MFC and a YS Tech fan on my 950 Athlon running at 1100 (Abit kt7-raid). My temp maxes out at ~40C (this assumes I have the temperature probe in the socket bent over correctly). My room is fairly cool and my case has 3 120mm fans in it...one in and two out, not counting the PS fan. The case temp lately is ~22C.

I don't know the cfm of you fan, perhaps a more powerful one will be necessary. The first thing I'd do if I were in your shoes would be to take the heatsink off and re-clean the contact surface on it and the cpu. I don't know your method for this, but I use acetone-based nail polish remover and then isopropyl alcohol. Then reapply some new thermal compound. I currently use Artic Silver, but I've also had good luck with the stuff that comes with the Alpha.

I'm not familar with the A7V, but I would assume that your cpu fan would go in the CPU_FAN connector. I'll let someone who has the board comment on that.

Connecting the fans: You can by 'Y' cables for connecting 2, 3-pin fans. You can also get a 3-to-4 pin converter to connect 3-pin fans to the standard 4-pin power connectors. I get most of my cooling stuff at <A HREF="http://www.2cooltek.com" target="_new">http://www.2cooltek.com</A>, but there are a lot of other good places out there.

I assume the Panaflo fans are going to be mounted in your case?? You could even try taking the cover off your case and point a small household fan blowing accross your motherboard and cpu, just to see whether it makes a big difference....

Mike

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice guys. Yes, I'm using thermal compound, although its the cheap $1.99 radio shack brand, but I guess I might just suck it up and get the arctic silver. My Sanyo Denki has 19.2 cfm at 28dbA. Its quiet like I want it, but not nearly the power of a Delta or YS Tech.

I'm thinking about getting 3 120mm fans. 1 blowing in (on the bottom) and 2 right around my CPU (top back) blowing out. I thought that the fans should be blowing AT my CPU to decrease the CPU temp, would the 2 exhaust fans around my CPU help the temps much?

This is a dumb question, but what makes a fan an exhaust or an intake? The direction that it blows? So if I were to have a fan blow out, would it be sucking air out as well? thereby making it an exhaust?

And lastly, I didn't want to do it, but it appears that I'm gonna have to cut holes in my case, its a small (even for a mid tower) case, and there isn't much room for the fans, but I'll try to squeeze them in. I have an ATX mid tower iColor case which has a metal frame with transparent plastic pieces over it. Any recommendations on good tools to use for cuttin these holes? The plastic cover seems pretty flimsy and looks like it'll crack pretty easily. I was also looking at getting some plastic filters, but do I need them for "exhaust" fans? since they are blowing out, and not sucking air in?

Thanks again for the help!

----------
T-Bird 900mhz @ 1030
ASUS A7V KT133 (1005a BIOS, VIA 4in1)
256mb PC133 CAS2 Crucial RAM
Alpha PAL6035 w/Sanyo Denki fan
ATI Radeon 64mb DDR
ATI TV Wonder NTSC
Sound Blaster Live! MP3+
ATX iColor Case
Windows 2000 Professional

 

[Bubba]

Check out this article about putting in case fans and other cooling tips. Its pretty good.
http://www.guru3d.com/tech/casemod/index1.shtml

 

[Guest]

Oh yeah? Well check out this link for a whole sh*tload of case mod articles. Heh heh.

<A HREF="http://www.speedy3d.com/case_mod/" target="_new">http://www.speedy3d.com/case_mod/</A>

Seriously though, if you're thinking of putting in several 120mm fans, I don't think any cpu fan will be heard above the noise...you might want to consider a more powerful cpu fan. I'm not into case modding, so I bought a couple of LiteOn FS020 cases. If you're interested, you can see reviews on the included link.

Mike

 

[Bubba]

Mikem,
Excellent Site!
It has been added to my bookmarks.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, isn't it great? I found the link at Hard|OCP the other day. I had been looking for a couple of reviews I apparently had not bookmarked and there they were.

Mike

 

[Guest]

yeah mikem, great links as always. I got everything I needed to know from that site.

let me tell you guys about my little experiment today. I took a little generic 60mm fan from an old computer and hung it from the powersupply in my case so it would be directed at the base of my CPU from the side. To my surprise it dropped my CPU temp by a good 8 degrees! with a cheap little 60mm fan dangling from my PS. This changes my reasoning completely. As my past posts have said, I have a very tight small fitting case so I'll only be able to add 1 120mm fan from the side (right over top the HSF and CPU). I have no other place to put another blowhole, except possibly a little 60mm fan on top of the case (between the PS and the DVD drive). Although I do have room in the back of my case right on the side of the HSF and CPU where the I/O ports are. I can fit two 60mm fans there (vertically). So what do you guys think I should do? Should the 120mm fan from the side be an intake fan? blowing air right over the HSF and CPU, or should the two 60mm fans on the back be used as the intake fans blowing air at the left side of the HSF and CPU? Which produces more cooling (directly above or at the side)?

The little experiment I did today really astonished me. It got me thinking, so I thought I'd share it with you guys and see what you would suggest.

side-120mm intake
top-60mm exhaust
back-2 60mm exhaust

or

side-120mm exhaust
top-60mm exhaust
back-2 60mm intake

or can I do 1 intake and 1 exhaust in the back? I figure that would mess up the air flow circulatory cycle.

btw mikem- the 120mm panaflo fan is only 30dbA, so its very quiet. Only 2dbA higher than my 60mm sanyo denki on my HS.

--------
T-Bird 900mhz @ 1030
ASUS A7V KT133 (1005a BIOS, VIA 4in1)
256mb PC133 CAS2 Crucial RAM
Alpha PAL6035 w/Sanyo Denki fan
ATI Radeon 64mb DDR
ATI TV Wonder NTSC
Sound Blaster Live! MP3+
ATX iColor Case
Windows 2000 Professional
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Rider on 12/29/00 00:32 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[phsstpok]

I only have two case fans (not count the PSU's fan). The lower front is an intake. The rear is a exhaust fan. When I reversed only the rear fan my CPU peak temp went up 4 degrees C. I haven't yet tried reversing the air flow of both fans, making the air flow back-to-front (but I probably will out of curiosity).

 

[Unolocogringo]

from the configuration you have i would do the 120 in the side blowing in and the 2 60's in top and back blowing out as heat has a general tendency to rise so you blow it out the top and back

 

[phsstpok]

Thanks Rick, but I am not that handy with power tools and I don't want to drill holes in my case. Besides, my case is unusual in that it has aproximately 24 square inches of vented space on each of the side panels. If I feel I need it I can try to mount fans there.