Built an HTPC with the following components:

Habey EMC-800B Mini-ITX Chassis
Intel DH67CFB3 Mini-ITX Motherboard
Intel 2.5 GHz i3-2100T Processor
Kingston KVR1333D3N9K2/8G 2x4GB DDR3 1333
Crucial CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 64GB SSD
LG GT30L Slim DVD-RW Drive
Evercool EC5010M12CA 50mm x 10mm Case Fan

PC is located inside a kitchen cabinet. It's replacing a Mac Mini, which did run warm but reliably.

The Intel motherboard gives pretty good control over the fans. Sinice this particular unit is located in a cabinet, I was able to up the fans a bit but small and quiet is still important to me.

After testing the PC at higher than typical load I'm getting readins in this range:

CPU: 61 - 70 degrees celcius
Voltage Regulator: 51 - 58 degrees
DIMM: 45 - 49 degrees
PCH: 68 - 76 degrees

I know that cooler is obviously better, but from the research I've done this temps seem to be within an acceptable range. When idling or under light use the temps are obviously on the low-end of this scale or even lower.

Can anyone confirm that these temps are acceptable?

FYI, this system is idling at 16 watts and running at 21-22 watts playing back a 15Mbps high def MKV over the LAN, according to my Kill-A-Watt.

Thanks!

What are the temps under typical use? I would expect them to be lower than merely the low end of the above ranges.

Inside the cabinet? The low-end of the #s listed above.

Outside the cabinet they were more like:

CPU: ~46-49 degrees celcius
Voltage Regulator: ~45 degrees
DIMM: ~39-40 degrees
PCH: ~67 degrees

I never used the stock cooler but from MissingRemote Intel Core i3-2100T and DH67CF Mini-ITX Motherboard (apparently he is using the stock cooler)





I have similar results with my build, lower cause of the massive heatsink, it idles between 25C to 30C (depending on the ambient temp), 38C to 42C on load (again depending on the ambient temp).



From intel specs, Intel® Core™ i3-2100T Processor



Im not sure thats the max temp intel recommends, but personally i would look to be at that at the most or lower. Imo a normal setup (again never used the stock cooler) would be in the 30s for idle, in the 60s for load, preferable under 65.

Thanks for the reply! I did some searching and can't determine how the tcase temp relates to the processor temp I'm seeing in the BIOS. I did see some people mention that the process temp can typically go higher than the tcase temp safely.

Did some more fan tuning today, upping the fan speeds while making sure I could not hear them through the cabinet. After MKV playback I'm getting the following temps:

CPU: ~57-59 degrees celcius
Voltage Regulator: ~47 degrees
DIMM: ~43 degrees
PCH: ~63 degrees

Seems more reasonable, think I'd be happy if I can maintain these temps.

I'd obviously like them to be lower, but not sure how feasible that would be without a serious cabinet ventilation project that I'd really like to avoid. And I really don't think having the PC on the counter would be a good idea... Ugly too.

There is not much room for cooler in the Habey case, I don't think a standard i3 cooler would fit (which is why the 2100t was a nice processor to go with). I was looking at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... =NT07-1156

..but I'm not sure how much cooler that would get me, and not 100% sure it would fit because it does look a bit taller than the stock cooler.

These temps are fine and won't degrade the life of the parts. If you can't hear the PC, then the primary benefit to lowering temps further is you'll lower your power use a watt or so when streaming and a couple of watts at high load.

The 2500K spec'ed Tcase temp is 72.5C while the 2100T's is 65C. I'm not sure this difference is meaningful but it's not large (why would it be?). And crazy overclockers make their 2500K go 10C higher or even more. And why not? CPUs can typically handle 90C or more without issues.
Your CPU will most likely not get that hot anyway. Isn't it supposed to throttle itself automatically as it gets hot?


These temps are OK but your methodolgy isn't. CPU temperature wouldn't be my main concern with your setup. You have poor ventilation need to make sure your other components will not become too hot. They're not all designed to take CPU-like temperatures. More efficient CPU cooling would also help some motherboard components but will obviously be of limited use if the air in your case get really hot.
If you want to test your cooling system, you need to put the maximum load on your system, not watch videos. You do this by using programs which stress your CPU and GPU like prime95 and furmark at the same time. You may dispense with GPU-stressing if you don't need hardware-accelerated 3D and can reliably disable the functionality.
If your system get too hot under load and you'd rather not use more ventilation, you could configure it so that it won't go so fast (underclocking) because Sandy Bridge doesn't use much power if you don't push it and I suspect you wasted your money buying a more powerful CPU than you need.
It's interesting to know what temperatures you get at idle and under typical load but you also need to consider the situation where abnormal load might but put on the system due to a buggy program, malware or operator error. This is where underclocking comes in handy: it acts as a safety of sorts. It's best done is the BIOS but you can also do it in software if your BIOS is not clever enough to manage the CPU as you'd like in your somewhat unusual situation. Typically, emdebbed software only needs to keep the CPU from overheating but it sounds like your whole system might overheat due to lack of ventilation.

Thanks, I understand what you're saying.

I'm testing based on what the PC will be doing, not what could possibly happen if the stars align. The PC is dedicated for HTPC use, there will be no keyboard or mouse, so the chance of a malware infection is incredibly slim. Although I'm sure it's possible a buggy program would do something strange and kick CPU usage through the roof, the likelihood of that happening I think is pretty low. In the 5-6 years I've had a dedicated HTPC in that cabinet that has never happened.

If one of those things were to happen and I can kill the CPU or some other component so be it. One of my kids could also spill something on the counter and have fluid get into the cabinet and onto the PC, but those are the chances I'm willing to take.

I just wanted to make sure my normal use temps were within reason, and I think they are.

Thanks

Heresy!

Seriously, unless you hate fiddling with this stuff, adding a safety would cost you nothing. Even if your BIOS can't do it, you could have a process which does something like: if VRM temp reaches 55, underclock. Or even shutdown at 60 if you can't find an easy way to underclock automatically. A software bandaid wouldn't be guaranteed to work (if your OS crashed and burned for instance) but might save the day if your ventilation is lacking.

Thanks. That makes sense, I'm just not willing to start cutting holes in my cabinets unless there was going to be an issue during normal use, or close to it.

There are BIOS settings that I've adjusted regarding fan speed control based on CPU temps, though I don't see anything that will shut the PC down due to temp issues.

I did think that there was thermal shutdown capabilities built into the i3 if temps exceeded a certain value, however.

These will work in many cases but might not work for you. They implicitely assume the cooling problem is with the CPU and not the whole system.
That's the point of stress-testing: if you try it you'll know what cooling problems you have, what solutions would really work and what solutions would only give you a false sense of security.

Hi,
Im using the DH67CF B3 mobo with default cpu fan, inside a mini.itx case with a 4x4cm case fan.

If i start the PC, then go to BIOS, these are the temps i get on/within 10 minutes:

CPU:45-46-47-48-50-51-52-53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60-64-66-67-68-69ºC
PCH: 43-45-47-48-49-50-51-52-53-54-56-57-58-60-61-66-69-70-71-72ºC

Problem is that during some task (like video capture), lets say once 15 minutes has been passed, the system freezes, due to the high temperature.

CPU Fan is ever around 1050 RPM and i don't know how to change to be ever more,
I enter on the BIOS/Config/CPUFan/ but then i cannot figure how to up the speed of CPU fan,

Can anyone help me ?

Thanks

You can change the minimum %, my Intel DLH61 comes with 30% i think (20% for the system fan), you can increase this and it will start a higher range, put 50% or 70% and see if the rev increases.