Need Help with Cooling

[Bert]

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. :)

[SirDrums]

im having my own cooling poblems as well, but from what I have learned so far, those temps are not bad. (i think)

I would suggest to keep the front of your cabinet open so it can pull in cool air from the room. I would think that by keeping the pc closed up it causes the front fan to pull the same hot air the rear just expelled back through the the case since there is no where for the hot air to go except the space around the case. In other words, you just keep heating, reheating and super heating the same air.

just my .02

[Cricket]

Nah, don't worry...those temps are fine. No need to do anything.

And it's normal to feel warm air coming out of the exhaust fan at the back of the computer.

:) Cricket

[BIG jay]

i would look at puting a fan at the front to suck in cold air, i would also use a filter on this fan, could you use some sort of duct on the exhaust fan to vent the warm air out of your desk and away from intake fans(it may look a bit poor but if you cant see the duct does it matter what it looks like) :confused:

[SirDrums]

UPDATE:

I went to my local CompUSA last night to pick up some 80mm fans. I ended up buying 2 antec fans (they didn't have a big selection).

When I opened up my case and looked at the front I was very happy to see that there is indeed a place for a fan!! :D Its a plastic housing that clips on to the inside of the case. It also covers the PC speaker (which is why I never gave it much thought in the past) The housing has clips in it that grab the fan and hold it in place. The fan fit in there perfectly.

Cricket, you were right about the face plate. There was a place on the bottom for air.

Any after hooking up the power to the fans and then hooking the fans to the MOBO and enabling the cool and quiet setting in BIOS. I powered it up and let it run for a few hours and played some Rome: Total War. I then placed my hand on the case and am pleased to say it was not warm like two days ago. I did not have the old fan on either. The air around the case was not as warm either.

I would like to thank all of you who have given me advice and those you maintain this forum. The help and research that I have received here has been invaluable.

Thanks! :cool:

p.s. If I can remember to take my camera home. I will post some pics of my new set up.

[Bert]

SirDrums, you have the wrong topic.

Anyway, my temps have gotten higher. After playing the Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo for several hours the temps went all the way to 49C when I checked. I know that's not dangerous or anything, but my CPU fan was spinning at 5700RPM as opposed to the 4000RPM it usually spins; and the computer was LOUD. I immediately shut off the computer after checking the temps; the sound was like a rocket taking off and it really concerned me.

So I'm thinking I should add a more power exhaust fan to exhuast any hot air around the CPU (apparently, the CPU fan spins faster the higher the CPU temp is); then move the Antec TriCool to the front of the case. There'll still be more air being blown out of the computer than comming in though.

So is this a good idea or are there better ways to quiet the PC? And would there be any recommendations for quiet 120mm case fans?

And BIG Jay: the rear case fan already has access to the semi-open air at the back of the computer desk, I'm hoping that it'll be fine.

[SirDrums]

sorry about that. It very rare that I do that.... O well.

[RazorDX]

I'm guessing the P4 duct is for a 60mm, but you can get one for Antec cases in other sizes... I think AMD64s have 80mm? I'm not really sure.