After recently replacing the case fan, CPU fan and power supply fan with cheap Antec $12 quiet fans... my gaming rig frequently reaches 170 degrees F and shuts down. I need recommendations.



Unless these components are really causing problems, i'd like to keep:

AMD 2000+ CPU - it's sufficeint for my RTS gaming and programming needs.

CPU HEATSINK:
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardw ... goliathse/ - nice thing is that it comes with a fan adapter so i can acommidate a small or large (case size) fan

EL CHEAPO CASE:
from New Egg - it's treated with Dynamat (sound dampening material) and doesn't rattle

HARD DRIVE:
6Y060L0 Fluid Dynamic Bearing 60 Gig drive

MEMORY:
2 512 MB Samsung DDR 400




Stuff i presume i need to replace:

MOTHERBOARD:
Biostar KT4V - It doesn't seem to reliably support my DDR 400 ram, and has problems letting windows XP run the intelligent CPU fan speed control. if it's really much quieter, i'll just go with an AMD 64 board and new CPU.

VIDEO CARD:
Nvidia Gforce FX 5600 XT - it's a fast card, with nice options. but, it's onboard cooling fan is louder than my CPU fans. can i replace this fan??

CPU fan:
plz recommend - as i mentioned, the heatsink can accomidate larger case sized fans

POWER SUPPLY:
Allied AL-A300ATXREV:B - came with the case. I'd like a new one with intelligent fan speed management

CASE FAN:
plz recommend

yeah, you can replace the 5600's fan with a VGA Silencer or zalman's heatpipe thingy or whatever. what were your temps like before? that seems weird, with that cpu/gpu your temps should be fine with one case fan. does that Antec fan you put on your cpu hs do rpm monitoring?
that all sounds weird, unless the fan you put on your CPU is like... 200rpm and your old case fan was a vantec tornado too.

I have a feeling you have a serious PSU problem. So before doing anything else, I'd be replacing my PSU. Look at the recommended list, there are lots of options there.

Next, I'd have a look at the CPU HSF. Did you replace the fan on that? If yes, then it probably was a bad idea. I'm sure they put a 8000 rpm 80mm fan on top for a good reason. (LMAO at the "quiet at 5000 rpm" bit )

Check your HSF mounting. Is it properly mounted? What's the thermal interface material (TIM)? Was it a thermal pad? If it's anything other than Arctic Silver, I strongly suggest you clean the surfaces and reapply TIM, preferably Arctic Silver 5.

Check these out first. I think after the PSU change, you may want to keep your mobo. If the TIM application doesn't solve your heat problems, I suggest you get a whole new CPU HSF (state your budget, and we'll suggest something) Bigger case fans on fan ducts is usually a bad idea.

Clean out the insides of your case (reroute your cables for max airflow) Then check if your case fans do the job or not.

These are all good suggestions to do BEFORE you consider changing over to an Athlon64. You may just get to keep your dollars or, if you still decide to upgrade, prevent you from overheating your new processor.

I'd also blame the dust bunnies. Most likely that 8000rpm beast has killed them all, but still...

Cheers,

Jan

I used to cool my 5600 with a 80mm fan suspended closely below it and shutting down the onboard gpu fan. With my Asus card I could do this through an Asus software utility called SmartDoctor (nice because I wasn't really comfortable with actually unplugging the gpu fan).

Do check your gpu temps before actually unplugging the gpu fan though; wouldn't want to leave you with a fried card And of course, the VGA Silencer mentioned before is a more elegant solution but this worked for me.