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Originally Posted by WebSlave
Well I have seen one drawback from this big system, so far. HEAT! This thing generates an enormous amount of heat when running. I'm afraid to leave it running for too long for fear of having component failures from excessive heat. I did get the three year warranty on it, but still........
I guess it will come in handy if the stove breaks and I need to fry some eggs, though..  |
I know it probably puts out a lot of heat from having the Core 2 X6800 and dual 8800GTX cards and a lot of other high end parts running, but unless the computer is making a strange succession of beeping noises (from the onboard speaker) and has a problem with turning off suddenly or locking up, there really isn't a problem.
It really takes a while for component fauilure to occur (due to heat) and they would have to be running at their highest acceptable levels for a 'while' before it's an issue (I'm not sure how long that is and there are a lot of different factors of course). If you check the component manufacturers webby (Intel, nVidia and the maker of the motherboard, memory & power supply etc) there will usually be guidlines on how much heat they generate and how much is considered too much.
Something else to look at is how the computer is being cooled to gauge how effective the setup is. Just looking at the case shows it to have a 120mm intake/exhaust system (one 120mm fan infront of the hard drives and another to exhaust in the back). The power supply has a single 80mm fan on the rear and a 120mm fan on the bottom that cools itself and does help exhaust some of the warm air under it. The only "flaw" with this setup is that the front intake is blocked by the front of the case. There's a space on the bottom for air to be drawn in, but it's not as good as having direct access to an air source (a good example of that is the rear fan: nothing is blocking its airflow). There's also the CPU fan and heatsink or water cooling device (some are better than others, but I don't know what you've got exactly) and the heatpiped heatsink/fan combos on the video cards (they're heatpipe cooled slot blwer types). The Raptor hard drives also create a bit of heat: if my 74gb Raptor is quite hot, having two 150gb versions infront of a limited airflow fan could be adding to the issue. You've also got DDR2 1066 and if that's running at 1066 (it would mean that your CPU is overclocked) it's definitely adding to the heat output. My DDR2 667 is running at 340Mhz (a little over 667 speeds: for the actual speed of the memory, cut the number -1066- in half) and it's almost finger burning intense. The cooling system could simply be running into too much heat to be effective and the there is sao much heat that the fan are recycling heated air.
The ambient air temp outside the case and inside the PC room is also another factor. If the ambient air is hot, then the PC air will be as well no matter how strong the fans are: the air is only as cool as the ambient temp will allow (but I'm sure you already know this stuff so I'll skip the rest).
How much is a problem, or even if it is a problem is debatable though. If you run a graphically intense program like 3D Mark 2007 (or whatever the latest is), does it lock up or shut the system down? You might also try running a CPU program like Orthos and Prime 95 (Google for info, I don't have their URLs on-hand) to check for system stability. You can also set those program to loop endlessly to check for stability issues too. Id' do that and if there's no problem, the heat output isn't too bad.
Is this the CPU cooler:
http://www.coolitsystems.com/index.p...ask=view&id=81 ?
Something else could be finding out what the make and model of the system fans are to find out their CFM rating. Getting fans with a higher rating may help (but the front fan might always have the same issue). Another thing to look at is having a case modder add another fan to the side panel over the video cards. A place like Performance-PCs.com can do that sort of stuff for you. Or you could always have MNPCTech.com build your dream case (if you can imagine it, he -Bill Owen- can build it: Bill's the most talented case modder/builder I've ever seen!)
That Slot blower won't do much for this system Mooing. The video cards already have slot blower type coolers on them which and that might render the stock coolers a little inefective. Since there are two, where would they need to be placed to be effective? You'd need one for each card, but then it would make the space inside a lot more cramped.
The stock nVidia coolers are very effective for what they are.
Inside my case, I have a low CFM (a purple LED Coolermaster fan with a 22 dB noise and 40 something CFM airflow rating) at the bottom front (there's direct access: a mesh filter is all that sits between the fan and air). The PSU (a Silverstone ST60F modular power supply) sits behind the HDD area away from every other component. Above the bottom compartment is the motherboard/CPU and video card area with a 120mm fan exhaust (a Vantec Stealth with 43 CFM @ 28 dB). Directly infront of that area are 7 5.25" bays. On top of that area there is another 120mm Stealth pulling air in over the CPU heatsink and fan (the heatsink is a Thermalright XP90 made of copper cooled by a 92mm Stealth). The airflow comes in the top (and side if I decide to use the side fan) and is exhausted out the rear. On the bottom the air comes in the front and exhausts out the back thru the PSU. I have no noise problems (it's very quiet) and there air movement scheme is very effective. The Case is Lian Li's PC-A10B (yours is a Lian Li too, but the insides are like the PC60 Plus and the outside is like the V1100).
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