Worried about my current PC (heat levels)

Irene · Post by **Irene** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:32 pm

Hi!

About a week ago I asked my friend to build me a PC for audio post production use. He recommended the Nexus Breeze case which I like a lot as well, but even if it is very silent I am not that sure about the heat levels.

On bootup the heat levels are as follows: CPU 38C, GPU 40C, Motherboard 20C. After 15 minutes, the CPU has a temperature of 47C (it's a Core 2 Duo), the GPU 63C (a Quadro NVS) and the motherboard around 38C.

Is it vital for the components like the graphics card to ramp up so fast with so much heat? My knowledge of PC case modding is zero and about airflow I know only that it's good to have a balance between intakes and exhausts.

I am worried about the temperatures (even if they might look good) because the PC should be able to run at high load for long hours (after all it's a PC for audio post production). Problem is, I can't just take any high end configuration with lots of fans, because recording from microphone should be possible with very little background noise if possible. Also, going for a water cooled solution is going to cost me more than my audio interface ergo I don't have the money to buy such expensive parts.

What I am worried about even more is that the same CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo E630, not overclocked) was running at an idle temperature of 37C in my earlier much more noisier case (a CoolerMaster Cavalier) which is around 10C lower than on my current configuration. However, in the CoolerMaster case even moderate load caused the CPU to get up to 45C while in this current configuration even high load leaves the CPU at around 47-48C.

Thanks for any help, I'm really lost here! Cheers, Irene ^.^

KarLKoX · Post by **KarLKoX** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:34 pm

Hi !
There can be several reasons :

- did you enable Intel SpeedStep (in bios + power energy to lowest) ?
- did you use a non buggy monitoring software, like CoreTemp ?
- did you use the same thermal pate, i use the one provided with my fan and save me up to 6° C !
- did you check the airflow inside the case, ideally, put one in the front (where hdd lives) and one back, like this :

Only the cpu temp is strange for me.
Btw, i also use my PC for audio "post" production (as amateur) with ... a X-Fi Elite Pro and it have circuits wich "cancel" static/electric parasits though i think that a true soundcard have, at least, this feature.

EDIT : did you really buy a E6300, these are really old cpu architecture and not sold for a long time

utopiomania · Post by **utopiomania** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:38 pm

because recording from microphone should be possible with very little background noise if possible

Buy some cheap extension cable so that you can take your mic somewhere else?

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:20 am

The GPU temp is the most worrisome to me.

I'm not that familiar with the Quadros but that temp seems a bit high if you're just in Windows (no heavy 3D graphics running).

CPU is OK though maybe just a few degrees high for idle.

Motherboard seems OK.

I'd look at what additional fan mounts are available in the case and add some fans to it to improve air flow through the case.

Irene · Post by **Irene** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:49 am

Hi!

Thank you all for the help so far, I will try to explain everything as good as I can! My case is, like I said, the Nexus Breeze: http://www.nexustek.nl/breeze_500_watt_ ... r_case.htm

The Breeze has a single intake fan in the bottom and the only exhaust fan is the PSU fan. Here's a picture:

In order to place a front intake I would need to mod the case and I am a null in that category. To answer KarLKoX's answers, SpeedStep is disabled, I used GKrellM in Debian GNU/Linux to monitor the temperatures and I'm not sure about its reliability... My friend installed and used the same thermal paste, yes.

???
Cheers, Irene

Mistrel · Post by **Mistrel** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:02 am

Seeing as how my PIII flip chips ran at ~65-70C I think you're doing ok.

Irene · Post by **Irene** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:05 am

Mistrel wrote:Seeing as how my PIII flip chips ran at ~65-70C I think you're doing ok.

Yes, but the Core 2 Duo has a maximum temperature of ~61.5C. Also, it's my older Core 2 Duo (didn't buy it new). Also adding to the problem is that I have a SCSI RAID installed (2 x 147GB Ultra 320)

Maybe I should hook up the drives in a separate external case?

Joakim Christiansen · Post by **Joakim Christiansen** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:26 pm

Mistrel wrote:Seeing as how my PIII flip chips ran at ~65-70C I think you're doing ok.

Yeah, my CPU reported that it was 60C on boot once I think, sounds crazy, maybe it measures it wrongly. But I could play Half Life 2 all day if I wanted without a problem.

I would say, as long as your computer doesn't start crashing or show messed up graphics then relax, hehe.

KarLKoX · Post by **KarLKoX** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:12 pm

Hi !
I didn't use GKRellm for a long time but check that it is (or the plugin) is linked with an up to date lm_sensors release or just use Wine and launch CoreTemp :p
Btw, i think you could add a 12cm fan like this, no ? :

* the pic take all the place just to show where the fan could be

Irene · Post by **Irene** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:47 pm

Hi KarLKoX! Unfortunately, adding a fan there is also nearly impossible and requires heavy modding of the case. Here's a picture from the back of the case:

Believe me, the only place for any fan is the bottom of the case. I got an idea though. Unfortunately I can't add a 120mm fan in the front (as in occupy three DVD bays for a single intake fan, because I have two DVD drives and a DAT drive installed), but I might make a slight modification in that I remove the plates for the two external floppy bays, remove the cage and try to fit in a 92mm fan (120mm seems too big). I would then need to buy a new Nexus 120mm fan filter, but this time cut it to fit in the floppy bays. Hard to explain and hard to accomplish (I need to hunt for silent fans), but I will see if I ever make it happen.

Another thing I am going to try is to have all hard disks mounted externally. In addition to this I am considering of getting an external audio interface with FireWire interface (versus current model of a PCI card + special breakout box).

Thanks and cheers, Irene.

SFSxOI · Post by **SFSxOI** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 5:09 pm

The core 2 thermal specs for the E8000 gives a max temp of 72.4C at 65 W.

47C (116.6F) isn't that bad for air cooling only, but it could be better. I think mine runs at like 34C at idle and the max i've ever seen it get was 42C under heavy gaming load of a few hours. Of course tho the computer room (in the back of the house) is kept at an almost constant temp of 60F with regulated air conditioning year round, drives my wife nuts when she comes in here.

Have you considered a blow hole in the top of the case to exhaust hot air? How about modding the side of the case to have a fan that draws air in and blows it directly across the graphics card and CPU - that works well with a blow hole at the top also because it creates a sort of "faster" air flow at the CPU that draws heat away more quickly.

Pupil · Post by **Pupil** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:54 pm

What kind of heatsink are you using, the one that is included with the CPU? My old Core2Duo E6850 is usually idling @ ambient +8ºC using a heatsink from Thermalright.

Num3 · Post by **Num3** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 10:33 am

The temperatures are OK!

On my system i get, with an air temperature of 20ºC:

Code: Select all

CPU: 35ºC idle - 47ºC full load
MotherBoard: 36ºC idle - 38º full load 
GPU: 45ºC idle - 68º full load
HardDrives: 38ºC idle - 45º Full Load
(And that's because i have a coolmaster HD bay cooler! or the HD's would reach 55ºC pretty easly)

Not many people know this, but HardDrives do make a lot of heat!

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:15 pm

I have about 6 HDDs in my system and I can atest to that. For airflow my case has a hole on the side "above" the CPU and then a tube that goes from there to the top of the Sythe CPU sink fan so that the CPU fan is sucking air from outside the box directly and not the headed air from inside the box.

When I had the stock fan and no tube my quad core hit 80c once

so I got the new heatsink/fan and put the tube in to get through the summer.

Actually, I think if your GPU is 63c under load then it's not too big a deal. (Having said that, I haven't read the find print on the card to know that for a fact)

Irene · Post by **Irene** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 1:53 pm

Actually, the Quadro is at 63C idle. Under load it puts up to 67C. However, that is only when both the CPU cooler (ZALMAN CNPS-7700 Cu) and the bottom intake are run at 5V (~1000 RPM). I am now running the bottom intake at 9V and the CPU cooler at 7V (I have a fan controller in the front). Now temperatures are much better:

Idle CPU: 43C
Idle GPU: 61C
Idle Motherboard: 35C

Light load CPU: 45C
Light load GPU: 62C
Light load Motherboard: 35C

Heavy load CPU: 49C
Heavy load GPU: 64C
Heavy load Motherboard: 36C

Idle temperatures taken after one hour with nothing else than Debian GNU/Linux and KDE loaded. Light load temperatures taken after 15 minutes when LAME was encoding my WAV recordings (~97GB) to MP3. Heavy load temperatures taken after 15 minutes when Cubase SX was loaded through Wine with a 48 track song with 16 instances of Cakewalk Dimension Pro VSTi while JACK/WineASIO was routing the audio output to Cakewalk Project5 with 3 instances of Cakewalk EQ plugins while the audio output was recorded to a WAV and encoded to a MP3 through a pipe with LAME.

There was no skipping under heavy load and the PC did not slow down at all. I think this is great, because what I am doing is most likely the same like with my above "heavy load" test.

Of course now the fans make more noise but I thought that it's time to buy closed headphones versus my current semi-open ones. By the way, a professional sound card does not "have" a background noise cancelling "chip/circuit" nor does it have what is known as "X-Fi Crystalizer". My friend, the same who built this PC, has the X-Fi Platinum (or whichever comes with the external breakout box) and trust me, the so-called circuits which perform what is known as "noise cancelling" is truly a software noise gate. Also, the X-Fi Crystalizer is simply a software equalizer with bass and treble boost. Little advice: don't even try to talk about sound cards with me if you don't have the same or a better sound system than mine ^o^ (just kidding, please don't feel offended).

Also, heavy load isn't the real word here for the GPU because I didn't play a game or do something heavy on graphics, but when there's a lot of heat in the case and the GPu has passive cooling it's good to look at its temperatures as well.

Now it's better, but I think I know how I can make it even more better. I need to find a way to creatively manage the cables inside the case so that they don't block the air coming from the bottom of the case.

Any more ideas to keep this sytem cool? Temperatures are still high (as in could be better) and I would like to know how I can keep it cooler without sacrificing silence. Thanks in advance!

Cheers, Irene.