CPU fan Questions.

[TerrorX]

Recently I upgraded to an amd 1.8xp,got a new case but did not get a fan for the case in the front. I bought a Volcano 7 cu fan for the cpu, its loud as hell but seems to do the job. I was wondering if anyone would suggest more cooling power than what I have installed and at what threshold temp is a sign of a cpu getting to hot, I believe Ive seen my cpu running close to 120 degrees. Thanks in advance

[Schrullenhaft]

The temperature measurement that you get from your CMOS/BIOS is probably going to be a bit inaccurate, so don't count on it being an absolute indicator of CPU temp. That aside, if your CPU is running 120° Farenheit, then you're fine. With good cooling that is a common temperature, trying to go below that typically takes more expensive coolers and/or cooling methods.

A case fan is useful if you have heat build up from either the CPU, memory, hard drives or video cards within the case. The primary benefit of a case fan really isn't to lower the CPU temperature, unless you have quite a bit of heat build up and the air isn't circulating properly. If you have no case fans then I would suggest getting one. If you already have a fan, then unless it still isn't doing it's job or your case is jammed pack with peripherals another one probably won't benefit you much.

For heat build up from some CPU heatsinks some builders put a fan near the exhaust closest to the CPU (if the case has room for it). Most of the time this is setup to blow air OUT (drawing the warm air out of the case), but I've seen times where it was more effective to blow air in (if the ambient temperature outside the case is cool).

[TerrorX]

Thanks again for the speedy reply, as always your knowledge is useful and to the point. Thanks again

[murph2]

If you have one fan blowing out of your case this will tend to lower the air pressure inside which means that air will be drawn into your case through any crevice or hole available.

Dust etc. will be drawn in with this air and since it will tend to come in through any available hole like your CD rom you can end up with dust build ups in places you don't want.

For this reason it's a good idea to try to maintain a positive air pressure inside your case.

Also if you have the fan placed at the rear of your case it will more than likely be right beside your psu which will more than likely also have a fan blowing out.

Many cases will have holes to fit a fan to in the lower front of the case. Probably an 80mm one but sometimes 92mm. If you put one there sucking/blowing cold air into your case the air will rise as it warms and your psu fan will remove it at the top rear. A positive air pressure is more likely to be attained in this scenario as well as a nice circulating air flow - cold in front bottom, hot out top rear.

I hope this gives you something to think about. Removing the metal in front of the fan and replacing it with a chrome grill (and/or filter) can also improve the airflow considerably as well as lowering the noise.

Papst fans are very good if your looking for minimum noise but are on the dear side. Panaflo and the like can be had for much less and if your other fans are noisy you probably won't notice the noise they make.

[Sock Monkey]

Actually, an easy way to stress-test the cooling ability of your rig is to load up CM and let it sit in the unit selection screens, or almost anywhere in the scenario editor. I had an AMD 1.44 with insufficient cooling, and for whatever reason these two bits of CM proved to be the most reliable way to oveheat the system. Using the MB application, I could load up CM, put it on the unit selecion screen and watch the temperature creep up. Once a game started, you could check the monitor and watch it slowly go back to a lower, stable level.