Modding a very hot Athlon XP Presario - help!
Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 9:15 am
I bought my Presario s6000z (Athlon XP 2600 / mATX) before I became aware of modding and the possibility of having a silent PC. In the process of researching how to quiet this thing down (it's my main entertainment PC), I discovered that the CPU is running at ~50 idle, ~70+ under stress (e.g. playing games).
In addition to the lobotomized mainboard (supposedly an Asus A7V8X-LA, though the BIOS is from AMI), I've got some fairly heavy-duty hardware in there, including an Audigy 2ZS-Platinum and an Arctic Cooled Radeon 9800 Pro.
I've had no serious problems with this setup, and everything seems to be running stable, but I would like to see if I could improve the CPU cooling with a secondary goal of quieting the system.
I'd love to thrown in a Zalman 7000, but looking at the mobo I'm not sure it will fit. The current heatsink about 65mm x 82mm, with 22mm-tall capacitors very close to the sides (the 82mm width). From photos and descriptions I don't know that anything I've seen will fit this space -- maybe the taller/narrower setups like the Scythe?
The CPU fan also has mainboard-controlled (I think?) speed settings; the fan kicks in when the temperature hits about 72 Celsius. I presume that without any tweakable BIOS settings that I can't change this... will that affect my ability to put in an aftermarket cooler? Do aftermarket coolers have connectors that will report properly to the mainboard?
I just realized this is a very long post... since I'm a total n00b I can't tell what information I need to describe and what I can skip. I appreciate any suggestions or help anyone might have for me!!!
In addition to the lobotomized mainboard (supposedly an Asus A7V8X-LA, though the BIOS is from AMI), I've got some fairly heavy-duty hardware in there, including an Audigy 2ZS-Platinum and an Arctic Cooled Radeon 9800 Pro.
I've had no serious problems with this setup, and everything seems to be running stable, but I would like to see if I could improve the CPU cooling with a secondary goal of quieting the system.
I'd love to thrown in a Zalman 7000, but looking at the mobo I'm not sure it will fit. The current heatsink about 65mm x 82mm, with 22mm-tall capacitors very close to the sides (the 82mm width). From photos and descriptions I don't know that anything I've seen will fit this space -- maybe the taller/narrower setups like the Scythe?
The CPU fan also has mainboard-controlled (I think?) speed settings; the fan kicks in when the temperature hits about 72 Celsius. I presume that without any tweakable BIOS settings that I can't change this... will that affect my ability to put in an aftermarket cooler? Do aftermarket coolers have connectors that will report properly to the mainboard?
I just realized this is a very long post... since I'm a total n00b I can't tell what information I need to describe and what I can skip. I appreciate any suggestions or help anyone might have for me!!!