I'm trying to get a extremely cool temprature in my computer case without the hassle of liquid cooling. My tower is about a 1 and 1/2 feet tall and 8 inches wide.I'm running a intel processor on a MSI motherboard. Can I put 3-4 Zalman cooling components in my case? Or would liquid cooling be easier than this? I would like to know your opinion on Zalman products also.
2007-12-28 20:04:35 · 4 answers · asked by Ted 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Forgot to mention a little somethin, I really want to step up my mediocre game play to high-performance gaming. My whole system was sweet about 4 years ago, but now.....its kinda lagging All my other applications like e-mail,word processing, internet, and other minor things take place on my new sleek HP. So i'm going to attempt to make this desktop computer into a badas* gaming machine. Nothin with a terabyte harddrive or two GeForce 8 series graphics cards(1 would be nice) , just enough to play 2008 PC games fluidly with crisp framerates. Everyone responding is bringing up "good airflow" and I know that this is imperative. I currently have 4 fans including the power supply's and the proccesor's. The other two are one dead center on top and one dead center on the left side of the case. I have a feeling that I should have a fan in the front near the bottom, but i have this weirdish multi-color LED xbox symbol going there. How would I want to go about putting a fan there?
2007-12-28 20:49:30 · update #1
To keep internal temp lower the following is more important than "lots of cooling compontnets"
1 : TIDY cabling, make sure air can flow freely, If U have parallel ATA use the newer rounded cables, and keey them tidy.
2 : Consistant fan unse : Make sure fans feed cool air in from the front and out the back of the case, add an exhaust fan close to the CPU if you can to draw air OUT from the warmest component
3 : General atmosphere . . . remember the warmer the room it sits in,the warmer the PC will be, if you can have room temp a degree or 3 lower, air into PC is cooler, temp in case is lower.
2007-12-28 20:09:14 · answer #1 · answered by stu_the_kilted_scot 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
After about 18 years of building computers and servicing them for others I can tell you this. A cool computer is a happy computer. I have seen lots of people put lots of money into fancy coolers just to let their systems get dusty and bake like an oven. The key is providing a good airflow through the system. Maximize the number of fans in the case with exhausts toward the top in the rear and intakes on the bottom in the front. If you are planning to overclock the system get a good quality CPU heatsink and consider heat spreaders for your RAM. Use a high quality thermal paste like articsilver and then Follow The Directions!! for applying it. Globbing it on is not the solution. Zalman makes good heat sinks but so does coolermaster. Check out Toms Hardware Guide http://www.tomshardware.com/ there are lots of good articles there. These include articles about acceptable temperatures. Liquid cooling in a case that small would be a pain but it is do able. Keeping your wires secured and out of the way helps increase airflow through your case so keep that in mind. I have seen lots of "gamer" computers with wires hanging everywhere so keep it neat. Keep it clean. Have fun.
Good luck
2007-12-29 04:22:11 · answer #2 · answered by Carl N 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Zalman products are pretty good so dont worry about that.
The first step is make sure that your case has AT LEAST one intake and one exhaust fan. And to help prevent dust buildup which can lead to excess heat make sure all intake fans have a filter on them. After that really the only things that need cooling are the power supply, cpu, gpu, northbride, southbridge, sometimes the ram and the power regulators on the motherboard. Try to check the air temp inside the case because if the case is warm adding heat sinks wont really help. Another worthwhile tip is to use rounded cables and try to prevent having large masses of cables as they restrict airflow.
Also, liquid cooling really isnt that big of a hassle. Just a little expensive. My case is currently a 120mm intake and 120mm exhaust fan. Heat sinks on ram, southbridge and power regs. Heatsink/fan on cpu, video card, and northbridge. Also there is a large hole with filter and duct leading to my processor fan so that it can use fresh air to cool the cpu.
2007-12-29 04:13:02 · answer #3 · answered by Ethan 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
all you need is a fan for your cpu and thermal glue to put between the CPU and the motherboard. warning, do not start up your computer without thermal glue.. you can ruin your CPU or motherboard by overheating it.
Response:
Having four fans is a little overkill in my opinion. But I suppose its better to be safe than sorry. I have a CPU fan, a case fan, and a power supply fan. You should be fine putting the Xbox LED thing you described as long as there is still air flow out of the case.
Please remember that you want the case to be sealed for the most part. When dust collects inside the case, hardware can be damaged.
2007-12-29 04:07:29 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋