GFX card/case mod, huge temperature drops but CPU still high!
With roughly 30 minutes of work.
Very simple.
1.) Remove GFX card (8800gts here)
2.) Take off crappy plastic airflow router - 4 screws hold it on, 2 near fan and 2 hidden in the semi-circular slots near the plastic exhaust grille (http://www.3dnews.ru/_imgdata/img/2007/02/11/40673.jpg). This will improve both airflow and make fan noise pretty silent and is imperative to this crap I just did. Either way, you want the heatsink of your GPU to be as exposed as possible. You also want to ensure the fan is out of the way, which is why it's best done on in-line coolers like the 8800GTS or x1950 series.
3.) Take side of case, mark 4 holes for a 120mm fan. This fan must be positioned as near to the exposed heatsink, and the top of the fan should be level with the red/green/whatever PCB of the card.
4.) Cut a huge fecking square hole into the side of your case using whatever you have, preferably a dremel tool. I used a hammer, chisel, and a roadside gutter cover thingy for the cutting (or rather, punching - something like THIS, yes, I REALLY did do it like that). Sorry neighbours :laugh:
5.) Fit the 120mm fan. I don't know the CFM rating of mine, but it would be "****loads of air @ ear-shattering noise". It MUST exhaust a lot of air, those 8800s can fry eggs with ambient temperature alone.
6.) Close case. You now have negative pressure differential assuming you did use a good fan. By good fan, I mean one that possibly blows your eardrums out, and replaces your room's air-conditioning. My feet are freezing. Also, beware of dust bunnies.
7.) Using Rivatuner or some other tool, stick your GPU fan at 100% permanently. Most of the noise comes from turbulence with the crappy plastic cover (it's not so crappy when you don't do this mod, since it kept the temperature down from 82*C to 72*C full load on mine previously).
Results
Warmed up:
Cooling down:
Notice the temperature graphs. It takes around 1-2 minutes to heat up to full temperature as opposed to 30 seconds previously. It also takes 30 seconds to cool down to near idle temp, 1-2 minutes originally. I'm too ashamed of my case to post it up. Actually, I have no camera because I'm a cheap bastard. Some of the temperatures are probably exaggerated since 5 minutes is hardly enough time to get an accurate reading, but meh.
Now, ending the e-peen fest (zomfg look @ teh clock ratez ololol!11!one1eleven), my CPU temp is insane. I don't want to open Intel's TAT because I know what the reading is going to be, and it's not going to be pretty. Any ideas on fixing that? It has one 120mm fan @1krpm piping air in, and 1 80mm fan perpendicular exhausting air, plus the exhaust effect of the 120mm fan underneath, I still have the stock Intel cooler with possibly damaged thermal pads.
Any ideas as to how to cool that crap right down?
:salute:
Very simple.
1.) Remove GFX card (8800gts here)
2.) Take off crappy plastic airflow router - 4 screws hold it on, 2 near fan and 2 hidden in the semi-circular slots near the plastic exhaust grille (http://www.3dnews.ru/_imgdata/img/2007/02/11/40673.jpg). This will improve both airflow and make fan noise pretty silent and is imperative to this crap I just did. Either way, you want the heatsink of your GPU to be as exposed as possible. You also want to ensure the fan is out of the way, which is why it's best done on in-line coolers like the 8800GTS or x1950 series.
3.) Take side of case, mark 4 holes for a 120mm fan. This fan must be positioned as near to the exposed heatsink, and the top of the fan should be level with the red/green/whatever PCB of the card.
4.) Cut a huge fecking square hole into the side of your case using whatever you have, preferably a dremel tool. I used a hammer, chisel, and a roadside gutter cover thingy for the cutting (or rather, punching - something like THIS, yes, I REALLY did do it like that). Sorry neighbours :laugh:
5.) Fit the 120mm fan. I don't know the CFM rating of mine, but it would be "****loads of air @ ear-shattering noise". It MUST exhaust a lot of air, those 8800s can fry eggs with ambient temperature alone.
6.) Close case. You now have negative pressure differential assuming you did use a good fan. By good fan, I mean one that possibly blows your eardrums out, and replaces your room's air-conditioning. My feet are freezing. Also, beware of dust bunnies.
7.) Using Rivatuner or some other tool, stick your GPU fan at 100% permanently. Most of the noise comes from turbulence with the crappy plastic cover (it's not so crappy when you don't do this mod, since it kept the temperature down from 82*C to 72*C full load on mine previously).
Results
- Ambient system temperature dropped from 46*C to 33*C (idle)
- CPU dropped from 46*C to ~40*C (idle)
- AUX dropped from 46*C to 45*C, have no idea what this reading is from
- HD0 (upper mounted) dropped from 42*C to 31*C (slight load), 40*C to ~26*C (idle)
- HD1 (bottom mounted) dropped from 39*C to 30*C (slight load), 38*C to ~24*C (idle)
- CPU core temperatures fluctuate too much to tell, approx 5*C drop
- GPU temperature (diode sensor) dropped from 82*C to 62*C (full load), 65*C to 52*C (idle) :shock:
- GPU temperature (ambient) dropped from 62*C to 52*C (full load), 54*C to 39*C (idle)
Warmed up:
Cooling down:
Notice the temperature graphs. It takes around 1-2 minutes to heat up to full temperature as opposed to 30 seconds previously. It also takes 30 seconds to cool down to near idle temp, 1-2 minutes originally. I'm too ashamed of my case to post it up. Actually, I have no camera because I'm a cheap bastard. Some of the temperatures are probably exaggerated since 5 minutes is hardly enough time to get an accurate reading, but meh.
Now, ending the e-peen fest (zomfg look @ teh clock ratez ololol!11!one1eleven), my CPU temp is insane. I don't want to open Intel's TAT because I know what the reading is going to be, and it's not going to be pretty. Any ideas on fixing that? It has one 120mm fan @1krpm piping air in, and 1 80mm fan perpendicular exhausting air, plus the exhaust effect of the 120mm fan underneath, I still have the stock Intel cooler with possibly damaged thermal pads.
Any ideas as to how to cool that crap right down?
:salute:
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