Cooling a Pc

Creamy Goodness

my brother is upgrading his pc and he has ask me to see what is the best cooling for a system that is going to have a

intel 3ghz 800FSB
Abit IC-7G motherboard
1gb corsair twinsticks DDR 400mhz (matched sticks of ram)
geforce 4 ti4200

the pc won't be overclocked. and since i've no idea on the cooling side of a pc i wanna know which is the best way for him to go?


P.S i've seen posts here saying ppl are mad for going for top end p4's well i think they are too but there is no convincing my brother so no posts like that please.


Thanks for you time!

Creamy Goodness

any help would be appreciated!

Mac daddy

have a look at this link for cooling systems

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Water_Cooling.html#awc_2d000_2dvp

:ninja:

Raz

Well you have two options really.
1. Air cooled ie. a number of fans strategically placed to either blow cold air or suck hot air.

2. Water cooled system.

From the specs you posted there I get the feeling it's going to be a gaming rig. If so then your processor, RAM and graphics ar going to be under a fairly constant heavy load while playing.
If you're going to go air cooled then you would want to know where you can put fans. If you don't think you have sufficient space you could cut more (if you feel up to the challenge ).
I recently cut a blowhole in the top of my case (see the "creating a window thread" in the HW Tweaking/Modding forum)
I feel it was very good because it's blowing out of the case and, as we know from physics, hot air rises so I'm pulling all the hot air at the top of the case out.
The trouble with going watercooled is the fact that it's very specialised. You'll be intimidated if you believe electronic components to be delicate.
It's also something that can go horribly wrong if not done properly. That is water you're putting in there!!
That said your CPU temp will always be around the 40 degree mark even under full load.

So in short,
Air cooled, simple and cheap (until you start cutting holes )
Water cooled, expensive and dangerous (but VERY effective!)

Creamy Goodness

thanks for your relpies guys i've been on to my brother and he said what would be the best case to house this in the more fan holes the better he said cause he doesn't want to start cutting his case up. he was looking at this one case


he also ask me to ask about the heatsink bundled with the p4 3ghz would this suffice if it's going be used as a games machine (it won't be overclocked)

also what's is the best power supply out there that he can get for under €100 but also is a good bit on the quiet side of things

if you could post links on what case fans he should get i'd be greatful

p.s the thought of having water running through my brothers pc sends shivers down his spine and i can't really blame him really.

50Cent

You dont need any water cooling for a standard non overclocked pc. No way near it. Unless its ridiculously overclocked and you said it isnt.

You dont need anything special at all. Just the standard stuff. the heatsink and fan which come with the intel processors are perfect.

id also recommend this case http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=25107&t=597&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=13&GrpID=2&s=pl (as i have it) and its got loads of ventilation and lots of space for extra fans...and it has a fan on the side door(you dont need it, but it keeps it slightly cooler anway).

50Cent

Oh ye, my pc is constantly at 28 - 30degree at bootup and for gaming its 36 degree(temperature).

A guy i know has a 3ghz pentium 4 pc with the new geforce graphics card. He brought it down last week and we hooked them up for some multiplayer action and his pc(which is in the same case as mine) had the same temperatures as my one and my one is a 2.53ghz one.

Creamy Goodness

so my bro shouldn't have to buy anything on the cooler side if he buys that case and uses the heatsink on the p4 that comes with it?

50Cent

Sorry i forgot the link, its in my message now. Click on it. Thats the case id reccommend and he wont need anything irrespect of whether he goes for that case or not...but thats a nice well ventilated large open case. That one in the link also has a power supply too. Its grand..

BKtje

raz: he has 2 more options

3:passive cooling (not recommended in this case)
4: vapo chill cooling.

Tbh fan cooling is ur best and cheapest bet as long as u dont mind sound of a fan or two(or three).

Creamy Goodness

right i showed him that case but he doesn't really like it so i was wondering would the coolermaster one be just as good?

also what's the best PSU for under 100 euros mainly the quietest

Creamy Goodness

this is what komplett said about the coolermaster case

Cool air is drawn through dual 80mm fan at front of case and blown directly onto motherboard and maximizes cooling; Drawer-style motherboard tray for easy installation and maintenance;
Full EMI shielding to protect user from harmful electronic emissions;
Entire case is constructed of aluminum to conduct and disperse heat like a huge heat sink;
Highly flexible power supply options of 300W, 400W;


the orange bit: right i know there are two fans at the front and one on top but should my bro need one at the back of the pc and if so what size (link would be handy) would 4 fans be enough to keep this machine chilled?

the red bit: does this mean i can have a maximum power supply of 400w? and what is the suffice for a pc like this?

Also 50 cent how would i check the temp. of my CPU

50Cent

Dude go to the Komplett website or get your brother to and look at the large Atx tower cases. pick one.

See this?

Cool air is drawn through dual 80mm fan at front of case and blown directly onto motherboard and maximizes cooling; Drawer-style motherboard tray for easy installation and maintenance;
Full EMI shielding to protect user from harmful electronic emissions;
Entire case is constructed of aluminum to conduct and disperse heat like a huge heat sink;
Highly flexible power supply options of 300W, 400W;

Its sales talk/marketing bull****. Its great for a heavily overclocked cpu. Your one is not overclocked as u said so why bother? You dont need it.

you dont need more than the standard amount of fans. One for the processor, one which comes on the graphics card. If you have more than one hard drive, you MAY need an extra fan. I dont. You dont need extra cooling unless your overclocking.

It came with my motherboard...msi 648 max ht(hyper threading). MSI make it. Its on the komplett site.

As for the PSU for under 100, i dont know, look on the site you lazy ****e(hey that rhymed). 400w is the max you can get but you dont need more than 300 unless your gonna overclock usually. 360 is more than enough for a non overclocked machine.

Im sure if you did a search on downloads.com for cpu temperature or something, you will find it...lazy bastard!!!

Creamy Goodness

cheers i thought u mighta been one of them guys with a LCD display (which i think are cool) but hey i'll check downloads.com out


thanks for your help man you've really help me and my bro out (well you helped me which in turn help my bro cheers)

50Cent

no worries man.

Good luck!