----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Whalen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Troubleshooting overheat matters...


>
> Incidentally, I turned the fan around last night so it blew air off the
core
> instead of at it. The system still became unstable, but it didn't seem to
> reach that point so quickly.

If you turn the fan around, that will usually make things worse (only in 1RU
or 2RU server case, you may need to reverse the fan), however, you've seen
some improvement, that sounds like a airflow problem to me.

>
> There is no doubt in my mind that one of the problems is airflow. There is
a
> dead-zone in the case toward the upper-front. The air the fans push
through
> the case would never reach the CD drives, the RAM, the CPU, or the HDD.
> Incidentally, this is where all the wires are as well.

The area where CD drives, is always the zone where case fan won't help much,
unless you mod your case, or there is a strong case fan at back (over
100CFM). you can have HDD cooler or place a case fan behind HDD (or beside),
that will take care of it.  CPU, RAM & AGP area is where case fan at back
should take care, idealy, if your case fan at back is doing its job, hot air
around this area should be sucked out of case, while the front case fan blow
in cold air from outside. That was the area you should check, I think the
fans inside your case is running too slow, that helps nothing. RAM doesn't
overheat usually.

>
> I'm a little unclear, however, on how to relieve the problem up there,
> though ... short of drilling a hole and attaching another fan.

A lot of case modding open a hole on top, fit in a 8cm or 12cm fan there.

>
> Plus, if I take the side-panels off, the system remains stable. This is
the
> most definitive result I've seen yet.

that's proof that airflow is the problem. you may need to run your machine
without side panel unless you found a solution.

>
> I also wonder if the case is a problem, too. It's a mini-tower. I imagine
> one could run an Athlon XP 1800+ in a mini-tower

Yes, you could build in any case, as long as you take care of cooling issue.

> Here are some pictures I took last night.
>
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/bottomup.jpg
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/cablemess.jpg
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/casefront.jpg
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/casethreeqtr.jpg
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/cpuandrearfan.jpg
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/rambehindmess.jpg
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/rearpanel.jpg
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/vidandnic.jpg
> http://www.spacetowns.com/otakuvidiot/withpaneloff.jpg
>
>

Your case seems fine to me, if those fans are doing their jobs.

Jun Qian

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