Underclocking a PC

[LCJr.]

What's the temp of the room you have the computer in? Can you mount a fan on the front of your case to bring in some more cool air?

Water coolers make me nervous. The thought of condensation or leaks around my valuable electrical components just doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Redeye]

...
Nope, I just used a brush and a hoover lol...

I'm paranoid about getting a vaccuum cleaner motor anywhere near a hard drive.

 

[Carrie Underwood]

I replace my expensive 600W super-special intel-compatible PSU with the 400W thing I got pre-installed with the box and whaddaya know, boots perfectly, GPU temp down to 59 celsius, CPU down to 43 celsius and motherboard is at 39 degrees. (just went down to 40 and 37 now)

My motherboard manual says minimum 550 Watts are needed but I have my hard-drive, graphics card, about six USB devices plugged and it makes less noise. The only problem is that there is apparently no sensor for that basic power unit so I'm getting warning signs saying it's failed (0 RPM).

Now I just hope my warranty is still valid.

So the PSU fan is busted. Wow. I didn't see that one. I didn't know you had kept the 400W and could hook it up.

Your motherboard says 550 watts are needed? So your motherboard needs more power than a GeForce 8800 GTS?

Nope, I just used a brush and a hoover lol

http://www.nextag.com/canned-air/products-html

I have two fans. One is integrated in the power unit and one is fitted over the CPU, that's it. I got two 'optional fans' with my motherboard which are meant to go over the heat dissipator things (look like small radiators), but the instructions say not to use them along with an 'active' CPU cooler because they conflict. Not sure if it would be better to get rid of the Intel base fan and use two fans on the side plus a 'passive cooler' on the CPU, I used the Intel included cover fan since the optional ones are smaller and looked less powerful.

I have no idea about passive CPU coolers. I've heard if you get one that's big enough it works, but I've never had the balls to try. Well, my wallet has never had the balls to try. The CPU generates so much damn heat I really don't see how they work at all, because you need something to cool that off or get rid of it.

You should at least have a fan on the back of your case, usually a 120mm, pushing air out.

Are water coolers a good idea or not, if you don't overclock?

Liquid nitrogen!

Nah, if you're not X-TREME overclocking, you don't need a water cooler. I mean, would you really want gallons of water being pumped so close to electrical components?

My motherboard is says it has it's own unique 'cooling solution' I think it dissipates heat pretty much everywhere.

Here's the alternate fan setup they suggest:

Cool. Just making sure you've got a heatsink on both instead of a fan on the southbridge, or nothing at all (yes, there are a few mobos out there with NOTHING on the southbridge).

The alternate fan setup looks cool, but I wouldn't get rid of my cpu fan for it.

 

[Destroid]

Running without a fan on the cpu is a bit pointless, for it to work you need good airflow through the case and that means fans. Of course, you can typically mount much larger slower fans on the case but eh, the gpu usually makes much more noise than the cpu anyway.

Also, I have a 8800GT OC and an E2180 with a 50% overclock running happily from a 380w PSU.

 

[GeneralSamov]

I have 7 fans in my case, it's not a pretty sight. That said, I also made myself a conduct (out of thin cardboard) in which I put the gfx card, for the air that is pushed in by a 12 cm fan on the front and goes through the whole length of the case, exiting at the back, thus making sure the temperature whoring gfx card outputs everything outside, not affecting the overall temperature of the remaining components.

It still overheats.

Will try replacing the PSU, in fact I have a crap one. Helpful thread.

 

[Micmu]

I'm paranoid about getting a vaccuum cleaner motor anywhere near a hard drive.

My tip on getting rid of the dust: don't use vacuuming, it's very ineffective. Use blowing instead. Even a hair dryer (cold air!) does a better job.
With compressed air (for example, they have a compressor at most gas pumps) you can clean your box and all heatsinks as if they were new. Just be very careful you don't tear something off and don't let the fans spin into overdrive.
No need for buying air cans.

 

[dagorkan]

What's the temp of the room you have the computer in? Can you mount a fan on the front of your case to bring in some more cool air?

I don't know 17-18 degrees celsius maybe, it feels the middle of autumn though I haven't put on heating yet

Water coolers make me nervous. The thought of condensation or leaks around my valuable electrical components just doesn't appeal to me.

Same here, I was recommended to get one when I first bought my PC but it was more expensive and without knowing more about it I decided against.

Another update, I tried running Civ4 with FFH (resource intensive) yesterday, it went fine though initially GPU temperatures went up into the mid 70s and the environment into the mid 50s. Turned down the graphics to medium quality (no noticeable difference) and it went fine for a couple of hours until I got a CTD, but that's to be expected with FFH

So the PSU fan is busted. Wow. I didn't see that one. I didn't know you had kept the 400W and could hook it up.

Your motherboard says 550 watts are needed? So your motherboard needs more power than a GeForce 8800 GTS? Confused

550 with a 'normal' load, the manual talks about 650 for a high load (two GPUs, 4 MB RAM etc) and 425 for the lightest (obsolete CPU and graphics)

My tip on getting rid of the dust: don't use vacuuming, it's very ineffective. Use blowing instead. Even a hair dryer (cold air!) does a better job.
With compressed air (for example, they have a compressor at most gas pumps) you can clean your box and all heatsinks as if they were new. Just be very careful you don't tear something off and don't let the fans spin into overdrive.

Sounds interesting I'll try that next time



Anyway my theory is that the PSU was the only thing fucked, I just read the box and it says operating conditions are up to 40 degrees celsius with a loss of 1% output voltage per degree above "40 to 50" (how scientific is that??). So maybe it deteriorated and had a lower potential while having to consume more energy to produce the same wattage, which heated the rest of the components.

 

[Destroid]

Canned air ftw, don't air compressors have a lot of moisture in them? (not that it will damage your computer if you let it dry, but still probably best to avoid making things damp).

 

[someone else]

When I bought my new rig last year, the lastest AMD CPU with 8800GTS I was shocked that I can feel the heat emitting from my PC and after an hour, there will be a funny burning smell in the air.

My solution: Take off the side panel of the tower and place a ground level fan directly beside it. Problem solved. Air blasting through the casing works pretty well.

One useful tool is WInthrottle, which I use to slow down the cpu to play old games, but it was actually designed for Laptops to slow and cool down the CPU. I tried it and I don't feel the heat from the PC even with the fan is off. It doesn't consume CPU resources to slow down the PC unlike most other programs.

 

[GeneralSamov]

If you just sweep a few times over your hardware it won't really get wet. Humidity starts being an issue if you use the compressor for a prolonged period of time, thus heating the stuff up. Me and a friend of mine use a compressor from time to time to de-dust and so far it hasn't been an issue. (Though you better watch out for those loose screws/jumpers :wink: )