[SOLVED] I've got some thermal concerns ...

[droidhacker]

Originally Posted by dd_wizard

Hm, I'm not sure how you can measure the CPU temp with that device. The most likely thing you'd be measuring is the temp of the block that the heat pipes go through. I can't think of any easy way to get an image of the actual CPU die without removing the heat sink, which would be pretty hard on the CPU.

dd_wizard

Well, the utility of that does depend somewhat on the configuration of the heat sink, but generally, the ones with a good amount of space between the contact block and the cooling block will have a temperature *very* close to the actual CPU temperature. At least no LESS accurate than what would be picked up by a mainboard sensor...

[Dan]

Well ... the bottom line here is, whereas it does improve the situation a little to shove massive amounts of air through the cabinet ... that air can only take away what the CPU heatsink can successfully draw away from the CPU itself. And that's the bottleneck in the system here.

I've tried various configurations of fans in, around and on the case, and some are better than others for normal use, but no matter what I do, when HandBrake hammers all four cores at 97%+, the current stock heatsink just can't dump the heat load effectively. If it were a sudden temperature spike, I might suspect the thermal junction medium, but it's a steady climb up into the red zone. Takes about 5~7 minutes to peak out. Under "normal" use, there's no problem. It idles and generally works around 95F. (Depending on ambient, of course.)

So that means an after-market cooling solution. I'll get back to that in a few minutes. In the meantime, it was well over 100F today in Northeast Texas, and the nearest place to purchase a better cooler, is over in the DFW Metroplex, and to be blunt, I'd rather be tacked to a stump and shoved over backwards than to drive down there today in this heat.

So ... Time to raid the parts bin and see what I can redneck together to make believe I'm doing something constructive about the problem.

Hmmmm ... Back in a bit -- hopefully with a Rube Goldberg that at the very least ... didn't destroy the system. <....>

...


...

[Dan]

Awright!

I couldn't install what I want, so I decided to go for a different concept. Maximum Churn!

A caveat here. Sorry about the photo quality. The shutter hang time was around 1/13th of a second, and this was shot hand-held. I just wasn't willing to set up a tripod for something this silly.

Parts list:

• Assorted fan grills (120mm + 80mm) scavenged from assorted scrapped-out boxes over the years.
• Assorted HDD magnets.
• A dozen cable ties.
• Some 'lectrical tape.
• A scrapped out ThermalTake 450W power supply ... minus the magic smoke.
• A $2.00 yard sale special card-slot venting fan.
• Enough of a power supply to run all the bloody fans!

From the scrapped out power supply, extract:

• (2) 80mm "silent" fans.
• (8) Fan mounting screws (Won't use 'em here, but they're a handy thing to have around.)
• Some six inch chunks of wire.

...

My original plan was to magnetically attach two 120mm fans to the inside of the side cover grill, but after I got everything glued and assembled and ready to put in ... I discovered that although I could get them side-by-each on the grill ... other stuff in the box interfered. Back to the skull-work.

...


Ok! Plan "B"! Two thin 80mm fans strapped to the top rail, and two (one 120mm + one 80mm) Magnet attached to the grill to cover most of the rest of it.

I've still got kind of a "dead" spot in the middle, but I'm dang near out of daylight, too.

So ...

I give you ...

Over-engineered Case Churn!



Legend as follows.

Inlets -- in light blue:
1 Magnetically attached 120mm
2 Magnetically attached 80mm
3 Case standard mounted 120mm (in front of the drives)
4 Cable tie attached 80mm
5 Cable tie attached 80mm


There! That should get a little air inside. Now ... to shove it around a bit.

Component specific fans -- in light green:
1 CPU Stock cooler. I'm guessing ~60mm.
2 Video card Zahlman cooler. I'm guessing ~80mm.


And finally ... now that it's beaten silly by fan blades, and as warm as it's ever gonna get ... time to dump it to... The Outputs -- in pale orange:

1 Power supply out 120mm
2 Case out 120mm
3 Video area out 80mm






So ... if that ain't movin' enough flippin' air around in there ... I guess I need to go find a 30 horsepower squirrel cage blower motor ... and a 440VAC triple phase outlet.

<....>

[DBelton]

Ever thought about a true redneck heatsink?

[Dan]

Uhm ... Yeah. I spent almost a week trying to fit a pancake griddle onto the top of the ol' Fukushima Special.

Originally Posted by Dan

Awright!

I couldn't install what I want, so I decided to go for a different concept. Maximum Churn!

A caveat here. Sorry about the photo quality. The shutter hang time was around 1/13th of a second, and this was shot hand-held. I just wasn't willing to set up a tripod for something this silly.

Parts list:

• Assorted fan grills (120mm + 80mm) scavenged from assorted scrapped-out boxes over the years.
• Assorted HDD magnets.
• A dozen cable ties.
• Some 'lectrical tape.
• A scrapped out ThermalTake 450W power supply ... minus the magic smoke.
• A $2.00 yard sale special card-slot venting fan.
• Enough of a power supply to run all the bloody fans!

From the scrapped out power supply, extract:

• (2) 80mm "silent" fans.
• (8) Fan mounting screws (Won't use 'em here, but they're a handy thing to have around.)
• Some six inch chunks of wire.

...

My original plan was to magnetically attach two 120mm fans to the inside of the side cover grill, but after I got everything glued and assembled and ready to put in ... I discovered that although I could get them side-by-each on the grill ... other stuff in the box interfered. Back to the skull-work.

...


Ok! Plan "B"! Two thin 80mm fans strapped to the top rail, and two (one 120mm + one 80mm) Magnet attached to the grill to cover most of the rest of it.

I've still got kind of a "dead" spot in the middle, but I'm dang near out of daylight, too.

So ...

I give you ...

Over-engineered Case Churn!



Legend as follows.

Inlets -- in light blue:
1 Magnetically attached 120mm
2 Magnetically attached 80mm
3 Case standard mounted 120mm (in front of the drives)
4 Cable tie attached 80mm
5 Cable tie attached 80mm


There! That should get a little air inside. Now ... to shove it around a bit.

Component specific fans -- in light green:
1 CPU Stock cooler. I'm guessing ~60mm.
2 Video card Zahlman cooler. I'm guessing ~80mm.


And finally ... now that it's beaten silly by fan blades, and as warm as it's ever gonna get ... time to dump it to... The Outputs -- in pale orange:

1 Power supply out 120mm
2 Case out 120mm
3 Video area out 80mm






So ... if that ain't movin' enough flippin' air around in there ... I guess I need to go find a 30 horsepower squirrel cage blower motor ... and a 440VAC triple phase outlet.

<....>

That is a monstrosity
Wouldn't it have been easier to scrap the crappy stock CPU cooler? and get something that actually works!

[Bazu135]

Originally Posted by Yellowman

That is a monstrosity
Wouldn't it have been easier to scrap the crappy stock CPU cooler? and get something that actually works!

So that means an after-market cooling solution. I'll get back to that in a few minutes. In the meantime, it was well over 100F today in Northeast Texas, and the nearest place to purchase a better cooler, is over in the DFW Metroplex, and to be blunt, I'd rather be tacked to a stump and shoved over backwards than to drive down there today in this heat.

So ... Time to raid the parts bin and see what I can redneck together to make believe I'm doing something constructive about the problem.

In other words - yes it would be easier, but he's damned if he's getting it today!

[Colors]

Yea... it would be easier to buy a new cooler but no fun either. Tomorow, here, it will be 40 °C. Two days ago i have changed a stock cooler for somebody with this one:

http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/detail?sArticle=4.%3F

[Dan]

Originally Posted by Yellowman

That is a monstrosity
Wouldn't it have been easier to scrap the crappy stock CPU cooler? and get something that actually works!

Oddly enough ... not really. Although that certainly would have been both preferable and more effective. The Metroplex is two and a half hours ... and most of a full tank of fuel away. Figure an hour there, and that puts a five to six hour hole in your day, depending on traffic, which can easily add another hour each way.

Not my idea of a fun thing to do on a Sunday.

So today I get to play with the Newegg website.

Originally Posted by Dan

Oddly enough ... not really. Although that certainly would have been both preferable and more effective. The Metroplex is two and a half hours ... and most of a full tank of fuel away. Figure an hour there, and that puts a five to six hour hole in your day, depending on traffic, which can easily add another hour each way.

Not my idea of a fun thing to do on a Sunday.

Ever heard of mail order?

Originally Posted by Dan

Awright!

I couldn't install what I want, so I decided to go for a different concept. Maximum Churn!

A caveat here. Sorry about the photo quality. The shutter hang time was around 1/13th of a second, and this was shot hand-held. I just wasn't willing to set up a tripod for something this silly.

Parts list:

• Assorted fan grills (120mm + 80mm) scavenged from assorted scrapped-out boxes over the years.
• Assorted HDD magnets.
• A dozen cable ties.
• Some 'lectrical tape.
• A scrapped out ThermalTake 450W power supply ... minus the magic smoke.
• A $2.00 yard sale special card-slot venting fan.
• Enough of a power supply to run all the bloody fans!

From the scrapped out power supply, extract:

• (2) 80mm "silent" fans.
• (8) Fan mounting screws (Won't use 'em here, but they're a handy thing to have around.)
• Some six inch chunks of wire.

...

My original plan was to magnetically attach two 120mm fans to the inside of the side cover grill, but after I got everything glued and assembled and ready to put in ... I discovered that although I could get them side-by-each on the grill ... other stuff in the box interfered. Back to the skull-work.

...


Ok! Plan "B"! Two thin 80mm fans strapped to the top rail, and two (one 120mm + one 80mm) Magnet attached to the grill to cover most of the rest of it.

I've still got kind of a "dead" spot in the middle, but I'm dang near out of daylight, too.

So ...

I give you ...

Over-engineered Case Churn!



Legend as follows.

Inlets -- in light blue:
1 Magnetically attached 120mm
2 Magnetically attached 80mm
3 Case standard mounted 120mm (in front of the drives)
4 Cable tie attached 80mm
5 Cable tie attached 80mm


There! That should get a little air inside. Now ... to shove it around a bit.

Component specific fans -- in light green:
1 CPU Stock cooler. I'm guessing ~60mm.
2 Video card Zahlman cooler. I'm guessing ~80mm.


And finally ... now that it's beaten silly by fan blades, and as warm as it's ever gonna get ... time to dump it to... The Outputs -- in pale orange:

1 Power supply out 120mm
2 Case out 120mm
3 Video area out 80mm






So ... if that ain't movin' enough flippin' air around in there ... I guess I need to go find a 30 horsepower squirrel cage blower motor ... and a 440VAC triple phase outlet.

<....>

Ok that front fan is doing nothing because you have stuck 5 drives in the way which has totally restricted your case air flow.
To fix the issue move 2-3 drives to the bay above, leave a empty space between the drives to allow air flow.

[Dan]

It's kind of hard to see, but there are only three drives in there. One slot is empty except the drive carrier brackets. Doesn't make any sense to leave those out as they are equal in size and location to the support rails they ride in. Removing them won't make a difference in the airflow. That being said, you're absolutely correct. That front fan does little but cool the HDDs. There really isn't enough "push" left on that airflow to help move a lot of air around inside, and it's already warmed up by the drives anyway.

Thus the reason I'm saving all my loose pocket change to eventually replace those 3.5 drives with 2.5 SSDs, or at the very least, 2.5 HDDs.

Originally Posted by Dan

It's kind of hard to see, but there are only three drives in there. One slot is empty except the drive carrier brackets. Doesn't make any sense to leave those out as they are equal in size and location to the support rails they ride in. Removing them won't make a difference in the airflow. That being said, you're absolutely correct. That front fan does little but cool the HDDs. There really isn't enough "push" left on that airflow to help move a lot of air around inside, and it's already warmed up by the drives anyway.

Thus the reason I'm saving all my loose pocket change to eventually replace those 3.5 drives with 2.5 SSDs, or at the very least, 2.5 HDDs.

Ok, you could move all the drives to the upper bay and completely remove the lower cage.

[Dan]

That idea crossed my mind as I was typing that last response. I'll shut down in an hour or so and give that a try.

Now I'm wondering where the devil I put my old 5.25~3.5 adapter rails? Haven't seen 'em around in a while.

[Dan]

BTW, are you using your SSD for the OS base or data storage?