Hi
I have a Dell Dimension 8300 on which I want to improve the cooling. I want
to do this because I know the PC overheats after about 1 hr and is quite
unstable. There is currently the fan in the PSU and a fan on the back which
is vented to act as the CPU fan. I also added a PCI fan to cool the VGA
card. I can't add a fan which goes into a 5.25" bay because I don't have a
spare bay, and I can't find any other pre-cut vents for fan addition. I
think a fan sucking air in would help a lot, but there isn't really anywhere
to put one. Does anybody have any ideas or advice? For example, would
changing the HS on the northbridge chip to a HS/fan be useful?
Thanks
Peter Cavan

how do you know the 'pc' overheats? do you mean you think that the
processor is overheating? what monitoring utiility are you using?
presumably there was a time when the 'pc' wasn't overheating - what changes
(software, hardware) have been made since the time when your attention was
not drawn to system instability?


"Peter Cavan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bioddt$11h$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 on which I want to improve the cooling. I
want
> to do this because I know the PC overheats after about 1 hr and is quite
> unstable. There is currently the fan in the PSU and a fan on the back
which
> is vented to act as the CPU fan. I also added a PCI fan to cool the VGA
> card. I can't add a fan which goes into a 5.25" bay because I don't have a
> spare bay, and I can't find any other pre-cut vents for fan addition. I
> think a fan sucking air in would help a lot, but there isn't really
anywhere
> to put one. Does anybody have any ideas or advice? For example, would
> changing the HS on the northbridge chip to a HS/fan be useful?
> Thanks
> Peter Cavan
>
>

"Peter Cavan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:bioddt$11h$(E-Mail Removed):

> Hi
> I have a Dell Dimension 8300 on which I want to improve the cooling. I
> want to do this because I know the PC overheats after about 1 hr and
> is quite unstable. There is currently the fan in the PSU and a fan on
> the back which is vented to act as the CPU fan. I also added a PCI fan
> to cool the VGA card. I can't add a fan which goes into a 5.25" bay
> because I don't have a spare bay, and I can't find any other pre-cut
> vents for fan addition. I think a fan sucking air in would help a lot,
> but there isn't really anywhere to put one. Does anybody have any
> ideas or advice? For example, would changing the HS on the northbridge
> chip to a HS/fan be useful? Thanks
> Peter Cavan
>
>

A 8300 should still be under warranty barring any mods you made to the
case. It should not overheat, if it does then it sounds like an issue that
Dell needs to resolve.

"Peter Cavan" wrote:
> How do I know it overheats? Motherboard Monitor 5 and some other program I
> can't remember both say its temps are 60-70. If I turn the PC off and then
> (after grounding) touch any of the heatsinks, they are actually sore to
> touch. With all of this, I'm pretty sure its overheating. It has been
> changed, Dell wouldn't touch it.

What has been changed?

Jon

failing that a decent case from www.ebuyer.com would be the best answer...
most the cases i see are far from suitable for a highish speed cpu.

"FatAntKnee" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns93E6AFB608FACfatanthony69hotmailc@65.32.1.7...
> "Peter Cavan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> news:bioddt$11h$(E-Mail Removed):
>
> > Hi
> > I have a Dell Dimension 8300 on which I want to improve the cooling. I
> > want to do this because I know the PC overheats after about 1 hr and
> > is quite unstable. There is currently the fan in the PSU and a fan on
> > the back which is vented to act as the CPU fan. I also added a PCI fan
> > to cool the VGA card. I can't add a fan which goes into a 5.25" bay
> > because I don't have a spare bay, and I can't find any other pre-cut
> > vents for fan addition. I think a fan sucking air in would help a lot,
> > but there isn't really anywhere to put one. Does anybody have any
> > ideas or advice? For example, would changing the HS on the northbridge
> > chip to a HS/fan be useful? Thanks
> > Peter Cavan
> >
> >
>
> A 8300 should still be under warranty barring any mods you made to the
> case. It should not overheat, if it does then it sounds like an issue that
> Dell needs to resolve.

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 22:23:58 +0100, "Peter Cavan"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>How do I know it overheats? Motherboard Monitor 5 and some other program I
>can't remember both say its temps are 60-70. If I turn the PC off and then
>(after grounding) touch any of the heatsinks, they are actually sore to
>touch. With all of this, I'm pretty sure its overheating. It has been
>changed, Dell wouldn't touch it.
>Any advice or ideas?
>Peter Cavan
>

For the optimal solution you need to determine if that CPU temp is
causing instability, or the northbridge, or ...

Generally speaking, the heatsinks on systems with the ducted-exhaust
cooling do get REALLY hot. That's the trade-off with a Dell system,
how they usually end up quieter. You might remove the duct and
install a traditional heatsink, but I'm surprised that a 60-70C temp
is causing instability unless it's overclocked.

Are you sure you can't "undo" whatever mods you've done to it, and
have Dell take a look, since it's presumably under warranty still?

More and more I find myself recommending addition of an intake fan to
the left-side panel, towards the bottom-front, since the panel can be
removed (assume it can on your Dell unless they're REALLY changed
'em), and a hole can be cut without having to disassemble the system.
So long as you have a place to do it and the tools it's a quick easy
way to add significant cooling. It's likely a low-RPM 92mm fan would
be enough to significantly decrease chassis air temps, though I can't
predict how much that would affect CPU temps, being unfamiliar with
their current heatsink/duct combo.

Also you might shave a couple more degrees off the CPU temp by simply
removing the heatsink and applying a decent heatsink compound. You
might shave another couple degrees off by lapping the CPU and
heatsink, I doubt that they're perfectly flat.


Dave

It's 60-70 degrees Celsius. I've done too much stuff to the machine to list
all the changes. There is no easy way that I can see to add a fan to the
front or side.
I was considering a new case that would easily accomodate better cooling,
this would involve simply moving everything into a new case. Does anybody
know if there would be any problems with moving a Dell system into a
non-Dell case? I was thinking, for example, about things like PSUs, power
buttons, and front panel USB, headphone etc.
Thanks
Peter Cavan

If your temperature reading is correct, then you are **DRASTICALLY**
overheated.

Is this a stock Dell box? Are you still in warranty? If so, let them fix it.

"Peter Cavan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:biog9l$qed$(E-Mail Removed)...
> How do I know it overheats? Motherboard Monitor 5 and some other program I
> can't remember both say its temps are 60-70.

Hi
The thing is, there isn't a CPU fan on the CPU itself. There is just a HS on
the CPU. There is a big fan on the back of the case which is vented over the
CPU's HS. I think the fan is 12cm, so I don't think you could add a bigger
one. Could I add a fan to the existing HS? I'm not sure if it would fit with
the vent on top.
Thanks
PC

"Peter Cavan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:bir2cr$r48$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
> The thing is, there isn't a CPU fan on the CPU itself. There is just a HS
on
> the CPU. There is a big fan on the back of the case which is vented over
the
> CPU's HS. I think the fan is 12cm, so I don't think you could add a bigger
> one. Could I add a fan to the existing HS? I'm not sure if it would fit
with
> the vent on top.
> Thanks
> PC

thats a poor design.
i would purchase a quality HS + Fan and remove that case fan. if there are
other case fans to move the air, it should be sufficient. or put a smaller
fan to replace that obstrusive case fan. there are other options on
circulating the case. but the most important part of your problem is getting
a proper HS + fan installed.