Have this HSf on my XP2800.
Temp stays at around 50c when not doing aything and around 52c when I run
any prog.
No difference in temp regardless of what thermal grease/compound/thickness
used.
If I take the side off the case then cpu temp drops to 42-43c.
If I connect the fan directly to one of the four pin power connectors will
the system think there is no CPU fan?.
Thanks.
If the temp drops when you take the side off the case, then there cannot
be enough air flow through the case under normal conditions.
The small difference between idle and busy doesn't make much sense.
Try running Prime95, which will keep the machine busy if you use the
torture test option. I bet the temp will shoot up well above 52C,
perhaps to the point of shutting down the machine on overheat.
With regard to your question about the motherboard, and monitoring
the fan RPMs:
To make the system see the fan, all you need to connect to the
fan header, is the tachometer signal from the fan. On one of my
computers, I have a Volcano7+, and it has an adapter that gets
power from a drive power cable, yet it has a three pin connector
with only the tachometer wire on it, and that three pin connector
plugs into the CPU fan header. That way, the fan doesn't draw current
from the CPU fan header, and the tachometer signal is still connected
so that the monitor chip can see it.
Here is an example of an adapter cable, which has three ends. The
four pin connector goes to a drive power cable. One three pin connector
with three wires on it, connects to the fan three pin connector. A
yellow wire from this connector, goes to a second three pin connector,
and that connector, with its tachometer signal, goes to the motherboard.
http://www.bigfootcomputers.com/Mer...=PROD&Product_Code=2904CGWA&Category_Code=120
Using that adapter, no power is drawn from the CPU fan header, and
the motherboard can still monitor the fan.
HTH,
Paul
