need heat management help(?)

[CaptMyron]

hi everyone.
after having the same box since the days of my 484 dx4-100, i decided to upgrade. my motherboards is an asus p5a-b, which has both an at and atx plug-in on it. so i went out and got a 250w atx case (my old one was a 230w at). the rest of my system specs are as follows:
2x64 mb pc100 sdram (total 128)
asus voodoo 3-3000 agp vid card
13gb maxtor hard drive
sb live! value
now, since heat had been a problem in past, i also got what the guy at the local computer store told me was a great fan/heat sink combo (which, incidentally plugs into my mobo, as opposed to the old sink/fan combo, which just used a plug off the power supply), plus some bargain brand thermal paste (it was all they had). i rebuilt my box (found the atx plug-in was a little sticky, but after some monkeying around with it, got it to seat nicely). i finally manage to get it up and running. so i fire up winamp, start listening to some mp3's, gonna do some surfing. about three songs in, winamp crashes. hmmm. so i restart it...crashes trying to switch between 2nd and third songs. no prob...maybe it got corrupted, go to reinstall winamp. system crashes during reinstall. great. soft reboot. get a windows protection error...time to restart system...try another soft reboot...manage to get into safe mode. go to try norton diagnostics...another hard crash. soft reboot, got to bios, check out my cpu temp...and it's running 58/59 celsius. kind of toasty compared to the 51-53 i was getting when i had the old 486 box. power down, 30 seconds, turn machine back on. another windows protection error. power off, take side panel off of spanky new case. now, on this particular asus mobo, the socket for the chip sits right beside the agp slot...the mondo new fan and heat sink is plenty cool...but i could fry an egg on the video card. so i pulled off the new fan/heat sink combo, put my old, much smaller one, back on. i wait a few minutes then power up. that was last night. the system seems stable since then. i have checked chip and cpu temps several times. chip seems to top out at 54 C...if i just let it sit in the bios, it pretty much immediately cools off to 53. mobo temp is anywhere between 43-45. i guess my question is this: am i having heat management problems? what's a typical heat for chip and/or mobo? i have the capacity in this new box of adding a case fan...i was also considering a cooling fan for the video card. is either of those things a good idea...or would they just wind up adding heat to the inside of the box? can anyone suggest any good web sites on computer heat management? kind of long-winded, but a HUGE thanks to anyone who helps!
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif
steve the overheated

[Biff]

I'm not sure what CPU you have as you make ref to your old box. I know my P3 600E @800 idles around 29~33 oC and during heavy use goes up to around 40 oC. My P2-440 was simlar. Athlon, T-bird and others can be different, of which I know nothing about, other members can help you out there. Of course without active cooling the room temp is going to be a factor too, I know it sways mine several degrees. Myself I have my alpha cooler sucking the air off the sink and I exhast it out the case using a duct. I wasn't that crazy about blowing air onto the sink and having it fly around the case, but that is solely my thoughts and other members may not agree. I would double check the seating of the sink, and its real important to use the thinest layer of thermal paste possible, more is not better.

Your MB seems to me to be pretty hot, I would expect to see that around 30 deg C or so. Once I installed a case fan my mb temp dropped by 6 oC. I would run it with the side cover off and note the mb temp, that would give you some inclination as to wheither it's running hot or its running hot when the case is all together, if the later is evident - you need case fans, myself I would put one in right away.

here is some info on cooling http://www.7volts.com/cooling.htm

Good luck

[CaptMyron]

thanks biff!
my chip...oops http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif...is an amdk6-2 450
i think it may be a case factor as well...given the bios used to report the chip in the old 486 box was at about 51 or so. this new case has the double-walled side panels...maybe i'll try a case fan today...

[Richard_Cranium72]

I have a factory IBM pewter with a AMD K6-2 475.

The CPU thermal alarm is factory pre-set at 127F.

Does this box have a place for a extra fan, if so see which direction the p/s fan is blowing and add a extra fan in the fron bottom(wherever) to supplement a "balanced" draft system.
www.compgeeks.com (http://www.compgeeks.com) have some great little 80mm fans for $4-5 and one even has a third wire to monitor speeds..

On the video card, can you mount a 486 style fan or a blue orb, www.2cooltek.com (http://www.2cooltek.com)

I place fans wherever things are too hot, I've used Styrofoam cups glued to the fan to direct air in problem systems..

DrVette

[wildbuffalo]

You should look at the air circulation in your case. You can try setting up two fans, one front bottom pushing air in, and second back top (under power supply) sucking air out. Also look try to tuck away all the cables to improve air circulation. I am using just one set of fans sucking air out of the case at 80cfm ( http://2cooltek.safeshopper.com/5/34.htm?221 ) There are no other fans (except offcourse the CPU HSF and power supply fan) the motherboard/system temp is 20-22C(room temp) and CPU at 26-27C at idle, reaches 36-38C at full load. My system is SS7 K6-3+450@616 at 2.0volts.

Wild