I've got an Aopen EZ18, had it for a while now. I put 2 160 gig hard drives in which were running a bit hot, but a second fan directly blowing across them seemed to lower temperatures a bit. Nice and quiet, running the processor fan quietly. I then forgot all about temperatures and used the machine for tv viewing, recording etc.
Recently I started encoding some programs to DVD, and leaving it overnight to complete. I woke up in the middle of the night to find the overheat warning siren blaring. It didn't crash the machine but it was clearly getting hot (65 degrees C+) yet the cpu fan was still spinning slowly. I installed speedfan to better control the speed of the fan according to temps, but the upshot is that now when encoding DVDs the fan is repeatedly spinning up and down every few minutes to keep the temperature steady.
If I leave the case open, temperatures fall at least 10 degrees. Clearly, the problem isn't getting the air moving, its getting it out of the case. The CPU fan seems quite inefficient at pushing air out when running at 1900rpm.
Anyone with an EZ18 replaced the CPU fan? Maybe making some more exit holes might help?
Cooling Problems with Aopen EZ18
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Some mods tried on the EZ18 can be found here.
I had a lot less heat to deal with in my setup (2.5" HDD and undervolted mobile CPU) but with your setup/usage it maybe a real challenge to keep things quiet.
I am not sure changing the HSF alone will be enough. Cutting out the grills will surely improve airflow, but that also means changing the EZ18's clean look. Replacing the PSU fan with a larger fan and mounting it on the outside will also improve airflow.
Otherwise you might consider using a fixed fan speed setting when encoding (balance between acceptable noise/max temp) as I find a fluctuating fan noise much more irritating and noticeable than a fixed one. If that doesn't work, undervolting/underclocking your CPU will bring down heat levels, assuming the longer encoding times won't matter since you run overnight.
I had a lot less heat to deal with in my setup (2.5" HDD and undervolted mobile CPU) but with your setup/usage it maybe a real challenge to keep things quiet.
I am not sure changing the HSF alone will be enough. Cutting out the grills will surely improve airflow, but that also means changing the EZ18's clean look. Replacing the PSU fan with a larger fan and mounting it on the outside will also improve airflow.
Otherwise you might consider using a fixed fan speed setting when encoding (balance between acceptable noise/max temp) as I find a fluctuating fan noise much more irritating and noticeable than a fixed one. If that doesn't work, undervolting/underclocking your CPU will bring down heat levels, assuming the longer encoding times won't matter since you run overnight.