Any tips to improve this system?

SebKG · Post by **SebKG** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 12:14 am

This is my system:
AMD 1600+ XP cooled by Zalman CNPS3100-GP
GeForce 4 MX440 cooled by stock fan
Leadtek Winfast 2000XP TV Tuner
WD 8mb cache 80gb HD not cooled
WD 8mb cache 120gb HD not cooled
Antec Sonata

I am reasonably happy with the current setup but have a few questions. Basically I am running the zalman CPU cooler in silent mode which makes for a near silent system. Even though I have heard people say that the Sonata doesnt offer good airflow I am getting reasonable case and motherboard temps. However I find my CPU temps quite high.
Idle: Full load:
cpu - 46 cpu - 54
motherboard - 27 motherboard - 28
case - 20 case - 20

I would like to try and lower these temps slightly since they seem high to me... Does anyone else agree these temps are high? And if so are there any solutions to this while keeping noise to a minimum (I find running the Zalman fan at normal speed too loud)

SometimesWarrior · Post by **SometimesWarrior** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 1:20 am

Those temps aren't at all dangerous. AMD says those chips operate up to 90C. But don't just take their word for it...

I have two XP1600+ CPU on my dual-CPU machine. It's 2am here, about as cold as it's gonna get in the computer room, and the CPU's are idling at 61C and 58C. During the day, I sometimes play 3D games and run audio/video encoding batches. CPU temps climb into the high 60C's. Even with these "extreme" temps, I don't suffer from crashes or stability problems.

Those Palomino processors can take some punishment. Powergyoza, another forum member here, has a similar system to mine (but he's using MP1600+'s), and for a little while he ran his processors at over 80C without stability issues. It freaked him out a bit, natually, so he eventually went back cooling his CPU's again

.

My advice: try to relax about the CPU temps (which can be hard at first... 6 months ago, I would have died from a heart attack if I saw these CPU temps). If you think I'm just plain nuts, there are still many options at your disposal. You can try getting a fan speed adjuster which will let you more precisely tune your fan speed. Zalman's page says the fan that comes with your cooler runs at either 1450RPM in "quiet" mode or 2800RPM in "normal" mode: that's a huge jump, and you might find that using a Fanmate to run the fan at, say, 1800RPM will give you the temps and noise balance that best suits you.

If that doesn't do the trick, you can try replacing your fan with a quieter model, such as a Panaflo L1a, or experiment with ducting your flower cooler.

Good luck on your mission! Don't take my smart-ass comments too seriously, I'm just a bit delirious tonight.

SebKG · Post by **SebKG** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 4:22 am

Thx for your help!
I have heard similar comments about CPU temps from other people as well so I totally believe you but I have just 1 issue...
I use my computer to watch cable tv which utilizes ~99% cpu. The system seems to run fine but after running the cable tv prog for about 1 min the picture just freezes while the sound continues. If I put the fan back to normal mode I do not encounter this problem. I realize this may be out of the topic of this forum or even this site but does anyone know why the video would be freezing? All i have to do is close the prog and restart and it works fine... Could it be due to the high temp of the CPU or is the TV tuner perhaps getting to hot? That seems strange to me since the case has a low temp.
Any suggestions would be great.

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 5:35 am

I don't think your temps are going to be the problem. Your real problems will probably come later on in life when your lose the certain frequency in hearing that your dual WD HDDs kill because of their DBAs.

Well, maybe not THAT bad, but still...

Trade your disks in for either Seagates or Samsungs, and maybe try an 80mm CPU cooler.

You won't be disappointed.

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 5:35 am

Er, not CPU cooler...I meant GPU cooler. and not 80mm, but possibly another Zalman.

SebKG · Post by **SebKG** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 5:49 am

POLIST8 wrote:I don't think your temps are going to be the problem. Your real problems will probably come later on in life when your lose the certain frequency in hearing that your dual WD HDDs kill because of their DBAs.

What do u mean? I love my WD HDDs =) They seem to run at a low temp. To be honest I haven't measured the temp but I have used Barracudas and I compared them by touching the HD. The WDs were warm of course but a lot cooler than the Barras.

As for sound I cant hear any noise from them. Perhaps the Sonata gormets are helping or perhaps I am already deaf in the frequency you are talking about =)

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 5:52 am

I guess I just thought that this was silentpcreview.com, not warmcpu.com.

I mean if you're happy with your setup and all, cool (literally).

-Nate

SebKG · Post by **SebKG** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 5:59 am

POLIST8 wrote:I guess I just thought that this was silentpcreview.com, not warmcpu.com.

I mean if you're happy with your setup and all, cool (literally).

-Nate

Fair enough, but doesnt cool translate into silent since u dont need as many fans etc...

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 6:18 am

Usually it's the other way around...

Silencing usually increases temps, but your setup may vary. I like the 120mm you have blowing over the drives. I do the same thing, though with an 80mm

SometimesWarrior · Post by **SometimesWarrior** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 1:26 pm

SebKG wrote:I use my computer to watch cable tv which utilizes ~99% cpu. The system seems to run fine but after running the cable tv prog for about 1 min the picture just freezes while the sound continues. If I put the fan back to normal mode I do not encounter this problem. [...] Could it be due to the high temp of the CPU or is the TV tuner perhaps getting to hot? That seems strange to me since the case has a low temp.

Hmm, I guess you've already tested this several times to be sure that "silent fan" --> freezing, while "normal fan" --> no problems. You have the FB123 bracket holding your CPU fan, right? How much air is reaching the TV card? You could try positioning that fan directly over the TV card, or adding an additional fan to point at the card, and see if that helps at all. You don't say what motherboard you have, but I assume it's not so wacky that it reports CPU temps 35C below what they actually are. Try running the TV card with the fan on low-speed until it freezes, then quickly shut down the computer and open the case (or don't shut down the computer, if you like to live dangerously). Feel the CPU heatsink and the TV card to see if they're burning up. Careful, don't burn yourself or break anything!

What kind of cooling does the TV card have? Is it a glued-on heatsink (if so, how big)? Heatsink with fan? No heatsink at all?

It doesn't make much sense for a TV card to freeze up without additional cooling, but it isn't likely that a 55C CPU temp will cause system instability, either. It's hard to believe that either one is happening, but it's happening nonetheless. Try adjusting the fan position, and see what happens.

SebKG · Post by **SebKG** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 2:00 pm

thx for the comments SometimesWarrior!
The TV Tuner has no form of cooling....
I have a Gigabyte 7DXE Motherboard and I tend to believe the temps that its telling me. In fact the temps that I get in BIOS instead of from MBM are a few degrees lower.

Ill try cooling the TV tuner and see if that makes a dif....

Keel · Post by **Keel** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 2:17 pm

SebKG wrote:thx for the comments SometimesWarrior!
The TV Tuner has no form of cooling....
I have a Gigabyte 7DXE Motherboard and I tend to believe the temps that its telling me. In fact the temps that I get in BIOS instead of from MBM are a few degrees lower.

Ill try cooling the TV tuner and see if that makes a dif....

what kind of tv tuner is it SebKG? Using a program called dscaler i was able to watch tv with it consuming <5% cpu. plus (maybe it's just in my head) the quality is slightly better than the stock program (i have a ati tv wonder ve) and powervcr II

Cosine · Post by **Cosine** » Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:38 am

Seems odd that your TV tuner requires that much cpu power to run, are you sure this is normal? My ATI tuner takes up ~5% cpu...

Cos