Reducing Temperature...

[Laudanum]

I have an AMD 1600XP and it runs at about 50 celsius. I noticed in past postings that people recommend it to be under 40. How do you get it so cool? I have a Thermaltake Volcano 6cu (I am using the pad instead of thermal paste). I have a fan on the side of my case blowing in and my enermax 365 blowing out. I have a fan on the front which I disabled after being told it messes up the airflow. I have a spot for a fan on the back but was told that 60mm are too small to do anything.
What are your suggestions? Should I get this lower? If so, what do you recommend

Much Appreciated
Laudanum

[Tommy Boomfiger]

im not exactly great at cooling myself, but the first thing you want to do is use thermal paste instead of the pad. im using micronized silver paste from compuse that chosenfool said he has good results with. it lowered my cpu temp by about 8 - 10C instantly.

before you worry about fans, make sure your case has good airflow. tuck as many cables into corners or better yet, tie them down. for ribbon cables like ide and floppy, you may want to get rounded cables to reduce clutter. this will not only increase airflow, but the inside of your case will look sweet.

last come the fans. remember the cpu can only get as cool as the air around it, thats why airflow is important. the fan on the front will not mess up airflow if it has clear access to cold air. this means that if the front of your case is solid (no holes or opening where air can smoothly flow in), all that fan is doing is moving air around inside the case. not exactly a whole lot of productive work. if this is the case, the best thing to do is to cut a hole in the front where the fan clips in. IMO the best place to put intake fans is near the bottom of the case because hot air rises. this makes it easier to cool if you are working with nature instead of against it. unfortunately many mobos put the agp slot under the cpu which can make that a hard thing to balance, but use your best judgement on where to place fans.

also your exhaust fans should move as much air out as your intake fans move in. if air isnt moving out as fast as it come in, you wont be able cool efficiently.

as for hsf, someone else should be more helpful with that cuz i dont know enough about those, especially for amd's

[sbp]

50 celsius is sort of high. Tommy has good suggestions for reducing the cpu temperature. Let us know how it goes Laudanum.

[Leon]

What case do you have? I've never seen a 60mm hole in the back of a case before. Are you sure it's not 80mm? Anyhow, if you use thermal paste (I use arctic silver), you should see a reduction in temperature right away. The degree of effectiveness will definitely depend on the ambient temperature of your case.

I would get that exhaust fan and just experiment with airflow. If it is a 60mm hole, just keep in mind that high output 60mm fans sound like jet engines.

[Laudanum]

I have a Directron SF860B...the back fan is indeed a 60mm. Noise is a big concern since I use my computer as part of my recording studio - thus I dont think a high rpm 60mm would be good.
I will experiemnt with the tips. If anyone has additional tips, please share. Otherwise, thanks for those who responded.
Laudanum

[Laudanum]

Alrighty - here is an update.
I increased breathing room for the computer in general. I also moved cables around my case to reduce clutter around the MB. I upped the RPM on my side fan. I also tested whether the front fan does anything (it doesnt make a difference).
That said, I went from 50-52 celsius to 44C. Is that good enough or should I mess with thermal paste (or other ideas)?

Thanks
Laudanum

[GraingerGuy]

Using Arctic Silver 3 will make that temp go down even more...not sure by how much...but it will go down.

The sk6 heatsink even with a slower fan cools really well.

[Kevster]

If you really want to cool it down you could always just go the watercooling route.

It's a heck of a lot quieter than a 60mm fan screaming out the back, but it definitely requires some initial invesment.

[mcs328]

Have you tried using rounded ide cables.
I just got some and it reduces some of the clutter and I haven't noticed a big drop..maybe 2 degrees which seems to me just random.

[DoPeY5007]

Originally posted by Laudanum
Noise is a big concern since I use my computer as part of my recording studio - then why do you use AMD :confused:



I know Alot of Pro Recording soft wont work with AMD

[Laudanum]

I have some rounded IDE cables but I am not overly impressed with them. I dont know that they do too much.
As far as using AMD for recording - I have had no issues with recording software not working. I use AMD because I like the company better, I believe the chips to be superior, and the price was right.

Laudanum

[Markel]

There are also software apps that can help to cool your system (when it's not running heavy cpu stuff). I'm partial to VCool (you can find a link to it at www.majorgeeks.com). Well, since I'm in a good mood, here's (http://www.majorgeeks.com/article.php?sid=436) a link to the page at majorgeeks.

If you're running XP, I've heard that it already has the smarts to halt cpu cycles when it's not being demanded (but I'm not entirely sure if this is true or not - I plan to run some tests sometime with and without VCool to see if it makes a difference).

[DoPeY5007]

Originally posted by Laudanum

As far as using AMD for recording - I have had no issues with recording software not working. well the guy I knows who works for a studio ( who only has AMD ) is having major issues and the companys for the soft say it is because he is running AMD :shrug:

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by DoPeY5007
well the guy I knows who works for a studio ( who only has AMD ) is having major issues and the companys for the soft say it is because he is running AMD :shrug:

You know, I heard the same types of things when I was putting together my K6-2 system, and I have NEVER run into any imcompatability problems with any software.

This also reminds me of something else. I wish we stil had the box for my parent's old 486 system, because, when we bought it, there was the Intel Inside logo on the box. About 4 years later, when I was taking the system apart, I was able to break the heatsink loose, and guess what? It was an AMD 486 processor. :hmm:

[ribitch]

very few incompatibilities exist from a AMD cpu when compared to an intel CPU. The only one that i know of was bleem. For some reason, it just didnt liek AMD's.

both cpu's use the same x86 assembly language, and they need to be backwards compatible with the 186 and 8008's i believe.

The PC market needs to decide to ditch all that legacy crap. As far as the software issues, the person doing the informing has no clue on what they are talking about, or the compnay needs a new tech.