PCMech Forums - View Single Post

Bert · 07-21-2005, 02:39 PM

I've just built a new PC and I need some help cooling it. The case is an Antec SLK3000B midtower. It has one rear 120mm fan, a place for one front 120mm fan and a place for a side 80mm fan with and air duct designed for a P4 (but I'm using and AMD64 so only half the CPU fan has access to the air duct). My motherboard temps are 39C at idle and my CPU temps are about 35C at idle and I believe 43C under load. The video card's GPU runs at 50C and the ambient air around the graphics card's GPU is 40C. The harddrive runs at about 38C; all these temps are at idle.

But what concerns me is that the rear 120mm case fan and the PSU fans are blowing out hot air. And I can also feel warm air ontop of and behind the computer. The PC is in a cabinet on my desk designed to hold a computer tower so I'm concerned that it may be restricting airflow. It has about 2 inches of clearance on each side of the case and an inch of clearance at the front. At the back of the desk, the top half of the back is about 2 inches away from the tower but the bottom half of the cabinet is open and probably has about a foot of clearance to the wall; the rear case fan is below this point and has access to this "open" air. And when I pull out the keyboard tray of the desk the top of the cabinet becomes "open."

So I'm wondering if this cabinet is causing any issues and if I should install a more power exhaust fan or install a front intake fan. The current exhaust fan is an Antec TriCool and it pushes about 39CFM of air. I could set it higher but it becomes too noisy (which is a problem for me). I appreciate any help.

07-21-2005, 02:39 PM	#1
Bert Member (5 bit) Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 27	Need Help with Cooling I've just built a new PC and I need some help cooling it. The case is an Antec SLK3000B midtower. It has one rear 120mm fan, a place for one front 120mm fan and a place for a side 80mm fan with and air duct designed for a P4 (but I'm using and AMD64 so only half the CPU fan has access to the air duct). My motherboard temps are 39C at idle and my CPU temps are about 35C at idle and I believe 43C under load. The video card's GPU runs at 50C and the ambient air around the graphics card's GPU is 40C. The harddrive runs at about 38C; all these temps are at idle. But what concerns me is that the rear 120mm case fan and the PSU fans are blowing out hot air. And I can also feel warm air ontop of and behind the computer. The PC is in a cabinet on my desk designed to hold a computer tower so I'm concerned that it may be restricting airflow. It has about 2 inches of clearance on each side of the case and an inch of clearance at the front. At the back of the desk, the top half of the back is about 2 inches away from the tower but the bottom half of the cabinet is open and probably has about a foot of clearance to the wall; the rear case fan is below this point and has access to this "open" air. And when I pull out the keyboard tray of the desk the top of the cabinet becomes "open." So I'm wondering if this cabinet is causing any issues and if I should install a more power exhaust fan or install a front intake fan. The current exhaust fan is an Antec TriCool and it pushes about 39CFM of air. I could set it higher but it becomes too noisy (which is a problem for me). I appreciate any help.