Video Card / Power Supply - Overheating?

noisymonk

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Oct 19, 2008
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Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a new Gaming PC and I have a unique problem that I'm hoping someone here will be able to help me out with.

Here are the links to some pics (didn't want to embed them, cause they are large)
http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp262/noisymonk_sp/Overview.jpg
http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp262/noisymonk_sp/CloseUp.jpg

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Comp Specs

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Gaming Case
PowerSupply: Corsair TX 750W
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 running at 3.00 GHz (not overclocked)
MotherBoard: EVGA 780i Core2Quad Extreme
VideoCards: 2 x EVGA 9800 GTX 512Mb
RAM: Viper DDR2 4Gb Kit
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I have 2 9800 GTX cards running in SLI, and one of them is ridiculously close to the Power Supply as you can see in the pics above. Call me a noob for this, but apparently I never enabled SLI when I first got my PC, so for months I was only running the single top card. Then one day I was just exploring my comp (mostly messing with Vista) and then went into the Nvidia Control Panel and realized that SLI was currently dissabled. After kicking myself for a few minutes I turned it on and went on playing some games (mostly TF2 and some WoW(<--ewww :lol: )).

Anyways, after a few hours of gaming my comp suddenly locked up (nothing worked / Ctrl-Alt-Delete / Alt-F4) with some some weird graphical artifacts all over the screen. This had NEVER happened before, so my first thought was that my second card was probably overheating (because of its close proximity to the Power Supply). I've since dissabled SLI, and have yet to have the problem again (I'm hesitant to enable it again, to avoid any further damage).

To recap..
-Lower Video Card is extremely close to the PowerSupply (and the power supply is venting straight into the video card)
-Never had any problems with the PC with SLI dissabled
-System crashed and locked up hours after enabling the second card
-Haven't enabled the second card since then
-My Antec 900 case has plenty of ventilation. All fans running on Medium, but I don't have the extra side fan. Probably going to buy the extra fan soon anyways.
-Wondering if there is someway that I could redirect the air from the Power Supply away from the lower Video Card
-Maybe get some temperature monitoring software (any suggestions on a decent one?) and enable the second card and see what happens?


So.. any ideas on what I could do to fix this problem?

Thanks in advance,
NoisyMonk.
 

Kari

Splendid
the PSU fan is normally blowing out of the case, not inwards... or at least it should, maybe yours is assembled wrong or smthng. doublecheck it anyways... if it really is blowing into wrong direction just open her up and flip the fan, make sure to let it sit unplugged for a while before opening to let the caps discharge themselves, nasty voltages in there. this will of course void the warranty, so maybe you should just rma it :p

rivatuner, atitool or something like that for temp monitoring, maybe
 

noisymonk

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Oct 19, 2008
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My Power Supply has 2 fans, 1 is exhaust pointing out the back of the case (very small/weak fan though) and the other is also exhaust and it goes into the case (much bigger/better fan, you can sort of see this in the first link, its the fan pointing up on the power supply directly at the lower video card). I admit that the top (bigger/better) fan blowing hot air into the case is silly, but dismantling isn't something I feel comfortable doing myself.

I may just take the comp back to where I bought it and see if they have any suggestions, or other power supplies that may not have the same problem.

Noisymonk.
 


Why open the PSU when you can just flip it upside down.

The problem though is that when the fan blows down into the floor it won't evacuate the hot air properly. Read this:
http://www.houseofhelp.com/v3/showthread.php?p=342252

A PC P&C Silencer 750W would have done better here, because that one blows the air to the back of the case rather than vertically. With a vertical approach like in the 750TX your choices are the floor or the graphics cards, and both are bad. :( Maybe if you flip the PSU so it blows the hot air downwards, and install the case on something so there's 10 cm or more from the floor...

 

noisymonk

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Oct 19, 2008
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Yes, it appears that a different power supply may have been the best option, unfortunately its a little late for that.

Also, thanks for that link, seems that guy has roughly the same setup as me (antec 900 case with the corsair 750W PS at the bottom of the case, only his wasn't upside down like mine is, however, I don't think he had the video card as close as mine).

Apparently I was wrong about my PS having 2 fans (I never actually looked inside before), it actually only has the one large 140mm fan on the top (or bottom, depends on how you look at it), but there is a grate that some extra air is passed though at the back.

See is this pic--> http://www.techaddicts.net/reviews/corsair750tx/corsai4.jpg

Anyways, I think I will by the extra side fan for the case (haven't decided yet if I'll make set it to intake or exhaust yet) and then do some temperature monitoring and see how that goes and report my findings.

Thanks again,
NoisyMonk.

PS. if anyone has any other ideas, please let me know.
 
I'm going to say your problem is definitely related to your PSU and the lower video card. That Power Supply is designed for a top mount in the case. It's designed to pull air in from the case to cool itself (or blow air out of itself into case).

With that graphics card so close to it, neither of those directions will work. It won't have enough air to pull, and certainly has nowhere to blow the air (except onto your graphics card, which is already very hot). This is bad for BOTH components.

There are some power supplies (look at my Antec TPQ-850 for an example) that are designed for situations like this. Mine is vented on the end of the power supply (instead of on its bottom), and has an exhaust fan on the outside end of it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371009
 

Kari

Splendid
öö am I missing something here?

The OP said it was venting into the lower card, as in sucking air from the outside and blowing warm air into the lower card when it should be doing the opposite, blowing warm air out of the case...

I can see that there isn't much space between the card and the psu but still...
 

rgsaunders

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If the power supply is actually blowing air into the case, then it has been assembled incorrectly, as that power supply is supposed to exhaust air out the back of the case, in which event the power supply should be returned for one that works properly.
 

noisymonk

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Can you confirm this in any way? An article or something? Because I can confirm that the fan is blowing hot air INTO the case. I've searched around on google for the answer, but none of them specifically say whether its an intake or exhaust fan. If it truely is an intake fan, then I will promptly return it for a new one, and possibly a new video card if there is any damage to that aswell.

Thanks,
Noisymonk
 

noisymonk

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Yes Kari, the fan is facing the same way and spinning counterclockwise.

So I suppose that this means that this PSU was designed to blow air into the computer instead of blow the air out. Strange.

Thanks,
Noisymonk
 

Kari

Splendid

just in case you ever came back, here's anandtechs review of the psu, it clearly states it's an exhaust
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3445&p=2
 
noisymonk,

I'm a little late answering this one. I build pc's for other people and I use Corsair power supplies exclusively. Never had a problem. Every single psu has blown hot air out of the case. If it is blowing hot air into the case, then there is a problem. Any chance your second video card instead of the psu is blowing hot air into the case?