Helix, Heelix, (H)elix1

Apr 21, '08 4:33 PM
for everyone

Added an EVGA coffee mug heater to my computer. Coffee cups sitting on the top of my computer chassis are kept at a comfortable 42.5 C (108.5 F) when the computer is doing light duty coding. Warmer if I do any gaming. The interior of the chassis is doing reasonable approximation of an easy bake oven with the cover on.

Gah. Looks like I need to put some fans and some duct work in the computer. The previous setup did not need anything but the passive airflow in a 4U rack mount chassis, but I thought things were toastier than they should have been. Glad I pulled out a thermometer and actually measured things. Ambient room temperature is 25C... so the lid comes off for now.

Tags: hardware

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talinom wrote on Apr 21

Allowing the heat to radiate into the room is nice, however you want to get rid of the heat in the first place.

Have you considered liquid cooling?

Seriously. It sounds like you may need that.

I can get away with large 120mm fans. One in the front doing pull duty, one in the back doing push and a CPU backvent system. I have the Antec Sonata II case and really like it.

neim0 wrote on Apr 21

talinom said

Have you considered liquid cooling?

Coffee is liquid.

Bad joke aside, yeah that case is a bit warm, but if the CPU is cooler than say 130 F, it's probably just fine. My old 1.2GHz Athlon reported as being between 130 and 140, but I always figured the mobo sensor was off in some way. My friend had the same chip but a different mobo and got far cooler readings.

heelix wrote on Apr 21

I'm considering it. The commercial water blocks are stupid expensive, so I might have to mill my own or wait for things to shake out or go for a more wallet efficient heat exchanger. Done it before - mostly to have a silent system, so I have many of the parts needed to pull it off.

Got an old Sun 180 chassis I'll use if I water cool. Spread things out a bit.

talinom wrote on Apr 22

You should notice a few days after installing a new CPU that the temperature DROPS. Check it again as your thermal paste settles in. You could also get a gargantuan heat sink to wick away the heat.

Have you ever used ATITool? I only really use it for video card temperature monitoring. Much better than any of the crap nVidia tries to shove down my throat. One bad experience with nTune is all you need to stay away from that crap.

You can also download, if you haven't already, TAT. Great for getting the CPU temp without having to resort to nVidia again.

Keep your northside bus cool, but you knew that.

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Helix, Heelix, (H)elix1