Cooling suggestions in a HP Media Center (m7260uk)

[Maltbyite]

Hey all

I was wondering if I could have some of your wisdom and possibly solve a problem for me.

I bought the HP machine (in subject title) a year or so ago and all was fine but I decided I wanted more gaming performance so I ripped out the stock 6600GT and put in a Gainward 7900GT 512MB edition. Ever since then when I play a game or anything graphically intensive it dies. I think this is because of over-heating as sometimes it will go for hours before happeneing and sometimes minutes and it happens alot more now than it did in winter; underclocking also helps. When it isn't crashing it works perfectly fine. I don't know how to get temps as I don't think it has the temp monitors (any software I've used to find out the temps hasn't given results) but the ambient is around 25c.

So finally to my question(s); what would you recommend for cooling down my rig? I'd prefer not to have water-based cooling (my dad doesn't like the idea of mixing water and a PC) unless it's self contained. At present everything is as stock (including cooling) except the new GPU so space is a little tight!

Thanks for your help!

P.S on a side note, any-one know how to get the best out of a Toshiba WLT66 26" HDTV that'sbeing used as a monitor? Thanks!

 

[miahallen]

You'd need a lot of room for this one, so it may not work....but it's a great cooler Accelero S1

Here's another great option, as long as you have a slot open under the graphics card VF900-Cu

If you could post some pictures of your setup, we may be able to offer more suggestions for general cooling improvements.

For your monitor, not sure exactly what you're trying to find out, but here are two general sugestions.

1) Use a digital connection (DVI, not VGA).
The signal your graphics card produces is digital, and the display is digital, but a VGA connection is analoge. That means, if you use a VGA cable, the video card has to convert the digital signal to analoge, and then the monitor has to reverse the conversion....this causes a loss of signal quality, and typically creates a minor lack of sharpness.

2) Set computer to output the monitor's "native resolution".
Ever LCD screen has a fixed number of pixels, typically annotated as horizontalxvertical (ie 1366x768, or 1280x720). If your computer is outputting anything other that the native resolution, the monitor has to "scale" the input to fit into the pixels that are avalible....this has a drastic effect on picture quality when viewing anything with text.

 

[sailer]

I've worked on a few HP computers and all have had cheap, low wattage power supplies. So I wonder if your problem is not heat itself, but an overtaxed psu. Its worse in summer because as the psu heats, it quits. Find out how many watts your psu is rated at. If its under 400wts, figure on getting a new one, preferably one from Antec Seasonic, Enermax, Thermaltake, Hyper, or the like.

Next, unless we know whether the cpu is from AMD or Intel, its not easy to recommend a heatsink. The HP's that I worked on had very little room in them, so something from Sythe might work. On one HP with an AMD cpu, I put on a heatsink from a FX60 and it worked great for that computer.

Somehow I doubt this is you problem, though, as you don't mention overclocking the cpu at all. Underclocking will help heat problems and the psu because underclocking draws less power from the psu. But that points back to my original thought that you need a larger psu to handle the new video card.

 

[miahallen]

My first reply was assuming he was "underclocking" the GPU, but after reading through again, I'm not sure.

BTW - I googled the machine, it appears to be a 3.0GHz Pentium D. (LGA775)

 

[sailer]

Good point on the underclocking. Without it being specified what was underclocked, we assumed two different things.

You're correct, the HP in question seems to be Intel powered. Guess I've worked on too many HPs with AMD chips lately. I should have looked it up by the numbers myself.

 

[Maltbyite]

I've had the side off the case and the PSU is a Bestec (sounds good : :lol: ) ATX-400WF revision B. When the computer crashes all the fans still spin etc it's just that the computer locks and has major artefacts on screen.

Yea it's a 3gig Pentium D in a 775 socket. As far as I know I can't change the frequency of the CPU (either up or down) but I do underclock the GPU. Installed and ran speed fan ... there's no values for the CPU or GPU, only a value of 50c for 'remote' and 40c for the harddrive.

The inside of the case is simply a mess with wires (2 front loading DVD drives, 2 hard drives and a "contectivity centre") but there's nowhere to put them! There's a space under the GPU if I remove the GPU's stock cooler. From the looks of it and new CPU coller will have to be 'taller' and not 'wider' than the stock HSF. Will work on getting a photo.

 

[Onus]

Is there a space in the front of your case to add an intake fan? More airflow cannot hurt, and may help a great deal. If there's room for it, a PCI slot blower next to your video card may also help.
If you have a lot of cables blocking your airflow, replace them with round cables.
Although I'd be skeptical that your PSU is up to the load, your last message referencing artifacts suggest your GPU is locking up, not a PSU shutdown. Try improving airflow and see what happens.

 

[Maltbyite]

Managed to finally get the digital camara, here are a couple of pics to help you all





As you can tell, there is very little space inside and while it isn't tidy, it's as tidy as it can be. There's no room at the front to mount an intake and no spare PCI slots to put an exhaust fan. There's no space/the cables are too short to move the power cables beside the CPU fan.

Keep up the good work everyone!

 

[PCKid777]

My suggestion:

Move that PCI card down one slot and install the Azenx Blitzstorm Slot Cooler found at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835114024. That should help with GPU temps IF indeed your GPU is getting too warm.

In regards to your PSU, can you tell us how many amps it can supply on the 12V rail? Its all about the amperage, and without sufficient amperage, your GPU could artifact.

 

[bliq]

I'd bet dollars to donuts it's the PSU. Although giving the stock cooler a little more space couldn't hurt.

 

[nukemaster]

My bets are the PSU is a little too weak for that card.

Do you use the HP Personal Media bay? if not, I think it comes out. then you can mount the hard drive on the floor of the case and have some extra room for air flow. to your video

 

[boner]

why dont you just simply buy a new case that is cheap and big?

 

[nukemaster]

since i cant edit.....says i don't have rights to do so

you do know those 4 black dots on the bottom of the case are to mount a drive on the floor with screws from the bottom.

This would free up the space in front as an open area so the case cools better.

 

[nukemaster]

Once again...i can not edit

 

[sailer]

Keep up the good work everyone!

If the PSU is Bestec, then the psu is probably bad. Hp does not use a quality psu in its machines. Look for replacing it with something from Antec, Enermax, Hyper, Seasonic, or Thermaltake. Something in the area of 400- 500wts should do fine.

 

[dougwa]

I have the same problem. Its your gf 7900gt overheating--they are notorious for that. Look at the customer reviews for the 7900gt at new egg. You probably cant replace the cooler on the card without voiding the warranty. I have a bfg overclocked 7900 gt. I downloaded coolbits and set it back to 450mhz. Coolbits will give you the temperature by the way. Anything approaching 60c and I had the same problems you described. An inelegant solution--I bought a small fan. If you have a hp you probably have all those air holes on the left side panel. Aim it at that. It works nice, for me and my video card resolution and af settings i could actually ratchet back up by underclocking the card. Im personally hoping my card will burn out as i have a lifetime warranty and im hoping thell replace it with the 7950 gt which doesnt seem to have these problems.

 

[Maltbyite]

Done a bit of tinkering and installed a few new fans; the situation has improved but still the same problem still occurs. Below are the volt and amps values on the PSU exactly as it appears on the label;

+12V / 17A +12V / 10A
+5V / 20A -12V / 0.8A
+3.3V / 15A +5V / 2A

I would buy a new case or mount the media drive on the floor but unfortunatly its my dad's computer which I game on (far better than my laptop) and he uses all the front mounted features and doesn't want me messing about with "too" much. I can't wait for the days when I can afford to build my own system ...

 

[mal]

you will laugh but this is what i did. My back end had a bunch of openings. playing dod or editing movies i would get the overheat alarm. So i put a standard small housefan behind the computer. never get the alarm when the fan is on. cheap and ez. lol I should get a real computer fan.