Hi,
I have recently lost my MOBO and P IV CPU due to what was described as "heat - leak" :furious: . I was told I should have had a better cooling system and ventilation for my configuration and usage.

Well, it's a Intel 845 Mobo, p IV 1.7 GHz CPU and 256 MB SD RAM, 40 GB Samsung HDD, assembled 2.5 yrs back. I need to replace all these. I had one heatsink with a fan and ...... that's all ! Very ignorant of me ( gulp !). And it is hot here in Mumbai.

But I don't want to repeat my mistake. Can you give me some tips ?

Ash ;)

Get some case fans and hdd coolers.

HDD Cooler

Case Fans

Not sure what you'll be able to get in India but this is the sort of thing you'll need.

I'd also suggest getting a largish tower, this will give the air plenty of room to circulate around the case. At least have 1 case fan blowing in and 1 blowing out. Make sure your PSU has plenty of fans on as well to aid with cooling.

Or if you have plenty of money get a water cooled case
Water Cooled Cases

I couldn't find any examples but I'm certain you can get case's with similar cooling to your fridge, but these will be insanely expensive.

Yuhuuu Ash

Long time no see nor postings from you. Hope everything's fine with you and your family.

Stidyup's advices are great ones. You should add some more fans in your computer to make sure that the upheaten air can circulate in the chassis much better.

Your mentioned hardware isn't so critical to overheat too fast. You are using a slower Pentium IV and not an AMD processor, so that shouldn't be a problem.

First check for this:

1. Open the chassis and have a look inside. Can you see a lot of dust? If yes remove it by using a fine paint brush (unused of course ;)) and remove all the dust from the adapter cards, fans etc. Note: unplug your system from electricity first, kay?

2. If there are fans which have heavily dusted propellers, remove the dust carefully too. Do not use a vacuum cleaner holding it at the middle of the fan. That will destroy it for sure.

3. Purchase a new heat sinker for your processor. There are lot avaiable but do not buy an inexpensive (cheap) one. Stidyup has posted useful websites with recommended solutions.

4. Purchase 2 chassis fans (less), some fabric which is used for manufacturing mosquito nets and some good gluing tape.

In case of using a mini-, midi-, or big-tower chassis check please if there are inlets. Please do the same by looking for such outlets at the rear side (hint: there are outlets below the power supply pack).
Cut that fabric into pieces that it covers that in- and outlets. You can double the layers to keep as much dust outside of your inner computer as much.
Fix it with the tape at the farbics boarder. Do not cover the mounting holes for the extra fans.

5. Consult your MoBO manual looking for connections that will power up the extra fans. All modern MoBo's will have such connection sockets for adding extra fans.

If you can't follow my thoughts I'll take some pics from one of my systems and posting them in here, kay?

Greetz
B. Udo

Hi,

Yeah, I follow most of it, but pics would be even great.

Thanks big brother

Ash

Me again Ash

Udo a big brother being only 5' something tall ? :LOL:

Before I'm going to post the pics some more comments.

I'm using so called rounded data cables (white ones at the pics) for connecting the HDDs-, CD/DVD- and floppy drive(s).
Benefit of that cable type: air can "flow" much better in the chassis.

Try to place all other cables propper. For that use plastic straps but be carefull when closing that starps. Some cables are rather thin.

To mount the mosquito net fabric you can use self adhesive seals which have a self gluing back.
Benefit: Makes it easier to remove dusted mosquito net fabrics ;)

When you're mounting a new heat sinker for your processor check if there's a heat conducting pad (pink or white colored). If there's one its ok, otherwise you should purchase a good heat conducting paste.
But be aware: some are containing silver particles to increase the thermal conductivity. If you have used too much of this special paste it may drop and you can imagine what will happen, when such a contaminated paste will hit the MoBo ;)

Ok, that are my comments.. now fasten your seat belts and wait for the pics. I must admit some of them are a bit blure but I've taken all of them from my working system .)

Greetz
B. Udo

Here a high resolution of the mentioned mosquito fabric net (=MFN):

Click to view attachment

Next pic shows a side panel of the chassis with mounted MFN:

Click to view attachment

Next pic shows two mounted fans inside behind the front panel. The smaller one at the right side can get switched additionally. The larger fan isn't mounted plain cause that shown orientation guarantees a better air current. all that shown fans are pulling air from outside the chassis. Now you can understand why it's important to have MFN between the intake and the fan ;)

Click to view attachment

That pic shows a fan which is mounted at the rear side inside the chassis which removes the warm air from the inner chassis:

Click to view attachment

More pics and explantions in the follow up posting

B. Udo

More pics:

When you have a tower-like chassis and enough space you should reorientate the HDD-, CD/DVD and floppy drive(s) that way to have as much space between the devices as possible.
Benefit: The warm air will flow much better and not daming between them:

Click to view attachment

The last pic shows how all cables and devides are organized in the chassis. Main goal must be to have much free space at all components which are producing a lot of warmth:

Click to view attachment

Any more questions Ash? Ask please

Regards
B. Udo

Hi,

That completes the 'picture'.

Hey Udo, I noticed the dates on the pics. You specially snapped them for me ! Thanks a million.

Bye Big B

Ash