I've been having a discussion over at the Tom's Hardware Guide Forums and I was directed here to get some more specific advice. I was wondering if somebody could advise me?
I built the following system a few weeks ago:
Antec Solo Case
Antec NeoHE 500W PSU
Gigabyte 965P-DS4 (rev 1.0)
Core 2 Duo E6600
Corsair TWIN2x2048-6400 (DDR2-800, 2x1GB, CAS5)
MSI GeForce 7900GTO 512MB
2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB drives running in RAID-0 configuration
Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T PCI
Philips 190CW 19 inch Widescreen LCD 5ms
It's been running fine, but I got the Antec Solo case because I wanted it to be really quiet, and starting to get greedy about this I asked over at THG about whether it might be worth getting a replacement CPU fan for the original Core 2 Duo one, purely to reduce the noise level further. The discussion goes on for a couple of pages, but one issue that arose is a general consensus that my temperatures are a little too high (though not imminently dangerous), and that much of this is to do with a lack of active air intake on the Solo case as it stands.
As it stands, the CPU idles at about 40-45 (though Intel TAT, reporting separate temperatures for each core, says a bit higher) and under maximum TAT stress load, it tops off at about 65ish, occasionally a degree or two more. The "system" temperature (which believe refers to the internal case temperature) is always around 40, regardless of load of any component. GPU "idles" at about 42 and reaches about 62 under load (I believe this one is ok, and I'm not really prepared to change the GPU fan anyway). I know of no way that I can monitor the HDD temperatures since they're behind the RAID controller.
My questions are:
-Are my temperatures high enough to warrant concern, given that I want the system to last a reasonable while?
-Should I install intake fans on the Solo case (if so, one or two?), given that I want to keep the noise level at a minimum? If so, would this be sufficient to keep the CPU temperatures at an acceptable level, or is a new CPU heatsink/fan also desirable.
-Would replacing the CPU fan give me a significant drop in noise? (i.e. would it be worth the cost?)
I would also appreciate advice on any specific product recommendations for my system, given that:
a) I would really like to spend as little as possible. This computer has cost me a fortune and I now have little money left to spend!
b) I must be able to get hold of the product easily in the UK: some products I've read about don't seem to exist here.
c) I would really like to avoid having to remove my motherboard from the case if at all possible!
Thanks very much in advance for any advice that anybody can offer.
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