Advice needed on temps and cooling.

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vultura
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Jul 17, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: UK

Advice needed on temps and cooling.

Post by vultura »

Hello all.

My BP6 powered setup (dual Cel 400s) has been setup and used for a little over 2 years now, running Win2K Pro.

I recently purchased 2 Celeron 500s from Ebay and yesterday installed them in the BP6. I used the original Coolermaster HSFs that had been on the 400s, but removed the pad and put a thin layer of thermal paste on instead.

Having run the unit for a few minutes, I decided to check temps with MBM 5.3.7.0, to my suprise they were higher than I recall seeing the 400's at.
So I made some notes and tried a couple of things to see if I could improve matters easily and here are my results (if you can call them that)

Note the following temps are at idle, ambient temp 26/27C approx.

Standard:
Proc 1 - 65c
Proc 2 - 54c
Case - 56c

With CPUidle Extreme:
Proc 1 - 46c
Proc 2 - 43c
Case - 50c

After those, I shut down and installed an 8cm Antec thermal controlled fan in rear of case, sucking air outwards. Again I took notes of temps.

Standard:
Proc 1 - 63c
Proc 2 - 50c
Case - 51

With CPUidle Extreme:
Proc 1 - 40c
Proc 2 - 37c
Case - 42c

I checked the HSFs for fluff/dirt before refitting them yesterday and have today used checked they are working, the bios reports speed on both is approx 5,000rpm. Caps on BP6 have also been checked for signs of leakage, etc, just in case and they look ok to me.

So it seems I need to look for alternative cooling solutions. Any suggestions all? Please bear in mind that ideally they should be:

1) Reasonably priced.
2) Preferably available in the UK or from reputable web vendor elsewhere.
3) Not too noisy.

Is there anything else I can try to improve matters?


Thanks in advance.
BCN
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Post by BCN »

watercooling custom made with swifttech waterblocks: 2x50€ more or less

20€ for bx waterblock.
70€ for a god waterpump, like eheim 1250 (1200l/h) - almost complete silence if put ojn silicon pads or rubber grommets
few € for 1/2 vinyl tubing and interconnections, barbs, clamps etc - maybe at 20€ in total

radiator: 200€ for an overkill full copper car radiator or cheapo junkyard heater core radiator.

you choose :)

oh then metyl alcohol, distilled water, antifreeze and some biocyde for coling liquid and you WANT your system to be a completely closed one :)
Dual C366@550MHz 1.90V :) (History)
yet single PIII-S 512Kb L2 cache at 1400MHz@700MHz
BP6 (not modded yet)
256MB PC133 C2
GF4Ti4200-8x
Maxtor 2x60Gb - all on promise ATA133
Lite-On LTR 40125S@48125W!!!
Plus P4 system
davd_bob
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Post by davd_bob »

Some things you can try. Some are free but take a little time. Others take a little money.

1) Make sure your psu is blowing its heat out instead of in.
2) Add another fan to the front of the case pulling cool air in.
(I scavange fans out of old ps units instead of buying case fans when possable.)
3) Assuming you are at 66FSB, lower the voltage to 1.8 or what ever the cpus will take.
4) Try a chipset cooler in replacement of the green one, and use greese on it.
5) Lap the hsf and processers in. You don't have to get a mirror shine but make sure you have smooth, flat surfaces with no detectable ridges or bumbs.
There are *almost* no bad BP6s. There are mostly bad caps.

No BP6s remaining
Athlon 2800
Sempron 2000
ViaCPU laptop with Vista.(Works great after bumping ram to 2Gig)
P-III 850@100
Holodeck2
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Post by Holodeck2 »

run the computer with the side panel off, if the temp drop by a lot then you may need couple more fans drawing fresh air into the case
yea, back from the dead

If it ain't broken, mod it until it is
vultura
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Joined: Sat Jul 17, 2004 3:15 pm
Location: UK

Post by vultura »

Thanks for the replies.

Today I decided to check voltages, just in case, nothing out of the ordinary seen with them.

My feeling is that the Coolermaster HSFs used on the 400s (66Mhz) are not quite up to the job of cooling the 500s (66Mhz), as I assume the 500s normally generate more heat than the lower spec Celerons running at 66Mhz FSB. Can anyone confirm that this is the case? If I assume they are not good enough for the job, then I'd need recommendations as to something better that will provide the cooling, but will obviously need to fit the BP6 correctly and not give the impression of an airport on my doorstep.

@BCN - Watercooling is not something I have tried, in this case I doubt its worth the expenditure and hassle.

@davd_bob - 1) My PSU is ATX 2.01 spec and so blow air out of case. 2) I too scavenge failed parts for components to use elswehere. 3) Might try lowering voltage, see what happens heat-wise. 4) I doubt the Northbridge is an issue at 66Mhz, paste was applied to greenie prior to board installation two years ago. 5) Thats quite a step to make on stock FSB processors, so will reserve that as a final resort.

@Holodeck2 - Might try that and see what happens temp-wise.
purrkur
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Post by purrkur »

Vultura: I went from 2 400MHz Celerons (overclocked to 466MHz) to 2 533MHz Celerons overclocked to 576MHz. I used the standard Intel coolers that came with the 400MHz and I can tell you that the difference is temperature between the 400(466) and 533(576) MHz processors was quite a step (especially under load). I looked around for some time before finding what I was looking for but I have it documented here in the forums. Check out this page for more info:

http://www.bp6.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=2186

I know that these coolers are widely available and very cheap. They are also extremely quiet. My BP6 is both quiet and well cooled now and I can also tell you that I have no extra fans in the system apart from the one in the PSU because they are not really needed. They would help but I can't say that I feel I need them because the temps are reasonable.
2x533MHz@544MHz, 2.0V
640MB PC100 memory
Realtek RTL-8139 NIC
Maxtor 6Y080L0 80GB hdd
Debian Linux stable with 2.4.8 kernel
davd_bob
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Post by davd_bob »

purrkur,
those big blues sure make me drool.
There are *almost* no bad BP6s. There are mostly bad caps.

No BP6s remaining
Athlon 2800
Sempron 2000
ViaCPU laptop with Vista.(Works great after bumping ram to 2Gig)
P-III 850@100
purrkur
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Post by purrkur »

davd_bob wrote:purrkur,
those big blues sure make me drool.
Yeah, they are nice. They may not be the best coolers on the market but they do a decent job plus they are quiet which is what I was looking for. I guess going for an all-copper solution would be better but I couldn't find any on the Swedish market that could fit on the BP6 (other than ones that were either tremendously expensive or way too loud).
2x533MHz@544MHz, 2.0V
640MB PC100 memory
Realtek RTL-8139 NIC
Maxtor 6Y080L0 80GB hdd
Debian Linux stable with 2.4.8 kernel
davd_bob
Confused
Posts: 1043
Joined: Fri Feb 13, 2004 2:30 am
Location: Houston, TX

Post by davd_bob »

I modified an all aluminum for my K6-III. I really don't like doing mods after that.
There are *almost* no bad BP6s. There are mostly bad caps.

No BP6s remaining
Athlon 2800
Sempron 2000
ViaCPU laptop with Vista.(Works great after bumping ram to 2Gig)
P-III 850@100
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