Cooling is a very important aspect of any PC.
AMD chips are notorious for running on the warm side so it is necessary to make sure they are properly cooled to avoid instability which can be the result of excessive heat. Liquid Cooling has become fairly popular in high-end machines, and is quite safe. There is a vast array of cooling components available now. See for example: »www.pcstats.com/articlesearch.cf···ort=date
The most important part of cooling is the heatsink and fan combination. The stock retail boxes of both AMD and Intel chips come with a heatsink fan (HSF) combination. The HSF units that the chips come with are not the best but are good enough to get the job done. For AMD chips buying your own HSF is recommended, but for Intel, the included fan is fine.
To obtain the best cooling results make sure that the thermal compound is properly applied to the core of the CPU and the HSF; the steps can be found here. After you get the HSF unit installed, next come the case fans.
Any front fans on your case should be intake; rear fans exhaust. Any fans on the side (blowholes) should be intake as well. It is important to try to balance the amount of air taken into the case with the amount of air being removed. In other words, you do not want to have 4 intake fans and 1 exhaust; try to have at least one intake and one exhaust. The fan on the heatsink should be blowing air on the processor and not away from it.
For a diagram of proper case airflow, see the following picture from AMD's guide to cooling. This also applies to Intel based systems.
Proper temperatures vary between systems but in general the case temperature (as reported by the onboard sensors) should be a few degrees celsius above room temperature. The temperature of the processor for AMD's should be in the mid-40's C ideally but can go to the mid-50's C without difficulty. Intel chips should run in the low to mid 40's C but unless you get above 50 C, do not worry. Of course, the lower the temperature is the better.
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by slash  edited by KeysCapt
last modified: 2008-01-28 08:53:00 |
