Need Help to Fix Cooling

[animefreak316]

Well the problem is basically that my computer shuts down anytime the comp gets too hot. I recently got a ECS KN1 Extreme Motherboard, AMD 64 X2 4400+ and a Sapphire X1900XTX. They are great parts except that I don't know what to do to lower the heat. If I overclock my Processor, it shuts down during certain games. Also the video card runs hot at 86 - 89 degrees C. I want to overclock, but everything has to be stock because of the heat. I currently have a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case, but it doesn't have sufficient cooling. I haven't changed around anything on the parts, so they came with stock heatsinks and fans as well. I know the X1900XTX is supposed to run hot, but is there a way to cool it down? I also was thinking of buying a better case with sufficient cooling. I want to keep the budget within $250 - $300. Any help is appreciated and thanks in advance.

[bailey]

placeing intake fans in the front of the case and exaust fans in the rear of the case, and possibly a exaust fan in the top of the case helps a lot.
ambient temp is also a big factor, keep the room as cool as possible.

[jfk]

I agree with bailey as far as making sure you either add fans in the locations mentioned OR make sure those that are installed are pulling/pushing air in the direction that they are supposed to.

The X1900's run hot, mine went up to 90C stock. I got rid of the stock cooler and went with an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2. Temps went from 45-46C idle down to 41-42C, and from 90C load to a high of about 78C. A nice reduction. I've heard the crap on how these are junk 'cause they blow the exhaust air on the mobo by the PCI slots, yada, yada, yada. Bottom line, in my case they gave significant cooling and my case temps went up about 3C under gaming load. Hardly noticeable. If it's a problem, remove a few PCI slot covers to help let the warm air exhaust. It's a reasonable vid card solution for $30. Sounds like your heatsink might not be making good contact with the CPU if it keeps overheating. You could try re-seating it with a dab of AS5 to see if you seen an improvement.

Before you do anything, though, check the fans!

[David M]

If you want to overclock then you are not going to get very far with stock cooling. If you choose to stick with stock cooling them make sure your computer is dust free and the air flows from front to back and from bottom to top. Don't expect overclocking miracles with standard factory cooling.

[animefreak316]

Thanks for all the help. While checking out my desktop for fans that weren't working, I found that my intake 120 fan burnt out. So I replaced that to fix the cooling issue with my video card and now it overclocks great ^_^. As for the computer shutting off when I overclock, I just had to increase the voltage on my Dimm slots so it got enough juice. Now I don't have anymore problems. Once again, thanks for all the help ^_^.