Cooling Article #2

[aviationwiz]

Hello, and welcome to my second cooling article about cooling your PC efficiently. In the past article, I recommended products that would be great for cooling. Today, I am going to tell you about some other products and ways to cool your PC.

Having the right stuff to cool your PC is just step 1 of the job. You also need to have good airflow in your case. I am going to help you increase the airflow in your case. One of the easiest ways to increase airflow in your case is simply by using Rounded Cables. Since Rounded Cables take up less space in your case, they increase airflow, which can decrease your temperatures. Rounded Cables don’t cost much and I highly recommend them, especially if you have a window! I have all Rounded Cables except for my FDD cable; I am planning on upgrading that to a rounded cable soon.

Next, I will talk about some better products that you could use to cool your system. First, I will talk about other RAM heat spreaders.

Vantec, a company that is famous for making good cooling products has a RAM heat spreader that I have found to be better than the rest. The Vantec IceBerQ DDR Copper Memory Cooler is now my cooler of choice. In fact, I just purchased two of them and they shipped today! They will work on all DDR and SD RAM. You can pick it up at KD Computers. It costs 7.95 USD which is 11.63 CAD. That is much cheaper than the Thermaltake Copper and Aluminum RAM Coolers.

Next, is a video card cooler that I overlooked when I wrote my last article. I am sorry about that. The product is the Zalman HP-80A VGA Heatpipe Cooler. This product requires the PCI slot next to your AGP slot to be empty, as the heatsink will go into that space. All the tests I have found show that this is the best cooler for your video card. It is pricey at 29.95 USD which is 43.84 CAD.

Next, are case fans. 80mm fans are the standard in computers, and I laid those out in my first article. 92 and 120 mm are also available. For 92mm if you want a quiet system, I recommend the Vantec Stealth 92mm. It only displaces 28 CFM though. There is also an 80mm stealth fan that displaces 27 CFM, and a 120mm that displaces 53 CFM. All of those are less than the Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2 (80mm.) If you want great cooling, then go with a high quality 120mm fan, such as the YS-TECH 120mm fan that displaces a whopping 131.5 CFM. Of course, if you want to use that 120mm fan in an 80mm opening, you can get an 80mm-120mm funnel, which allows you to put a 120mm fan into an 80mm opening.

NOTE: I have no experience with this “funnel.” I also think that it is a weird concept, therefore, I am not recommending it. I am just stating that it is available and you can use it. To me, a 3 degree Celsius drop on a CPU is not worth the trouble of paying more for a 120mm fan and installing the funnel.

NOTE: Installing the YS-TECH 120mm fan with the 80mm-120mm funnel on the side of your case might not be a very good idea. It MAY touch your video card, or whatever it is blowing over.

Vantec Stealth 80mm 10.95 USD=16.03 CAD

Vantec Stealth 92mm 10.95 USD=16.03 CAD

Vantec Stealth 120mm 18.95 USD= 27.74 CAD

YS-TECH 120mm (Top Fan) 16.00 USD= 23.42 CAD

80mm-120mm Funnel 13.00 USD= 19.03 CAD

Of course, these cooling procedures are not critical in all situations. I do recommend that you have Rounded Cables, but otherwise it might not be best for you. You probably only want to upgrade your cooling supplies if you are having a loss of performance, such as lag in games, or lag in anything else. You also might want to upgrade if you have NO cooling on that part whatsoever. Remember, as far as RAM goes, buying higher quality RAM and no heat spreader is better than buying lower quality RAM and a heat spreader. Not to mention that higher quality RAM does sometimes come with Heat Spreaders. For RAM, I acknowledge the following manufacturers as “high quality RAM manufacturers:”

K-Byte
Kingston

That is only what I have used so I am sure there are more, such as Crucial. On video cards, if you are experiencing lag on games, it’s either time for a new video card, or some cooling products. NOTE: Many newer video cards come with cooling products already installed, to be specific, the Leadtek GeForce 4 Ti. 4600.

NOTE: Prices are in USD and prices are subject to change. Conversions are from the XE Universal Currency Converter

[aviationwiz]

Anyone have any comments, questions, etc.?

[BuddhaTB]

Good article.

I just want more info about water cooling.

[Wedge Maniac]

Thanks again aviationwiz!

I like the links you provided.
#1--- I had no idea what "rounded cables" looked like (or what the name implied). So they can really make an appreciable difference?

#2--- I have been interested in a 120mm fan, but had no idea how to make it work since my case grill only has the standard 80mm fan screw-holes. This funnel seems interesting. Again, thanks for the link.

#3--- I have a P4 that uses RD RAM in pairs. So far, no trouble in that area that I am aware of. They are Samsung and they have heat dissipators on them.
A good friend of mine has the same setup as I, but he upgraded his 256MB RD RAM by adding a pair of 256MB sticks to make his total come to 768MB. On the day that he installed them he called and explained that they made his WinXP lock up with a screen that reported an overheating problem. Mind you these have the heat dissipators just like mine, so this seemed strange to me.

Upon opening his case, he claimed the new sticks were scorching hot. This is the only case I have heard where RD RAM has had such an extreme heating issue. He remedied the situation by increasing the ventilation (opening the desk cabinet the case sits in) and adding, of all things, a fan that is used to keep people cool while they lie in suntanning beds. Loud as hell, he he, and I'm not sure how he mounted the beast, but he says it works like a charm.

#4--- I'm going research this heatpipe cooler, also. I beleive when I first received my Gateway the cooling must have been horrible on the video card (OEM GF2 Ultra that was actually made by Visiontek). Now, this is just a theory, but let me explain why I think the cooling was very bad.
I purchased a ViewSonic A90f Flat monitor a year after getting the computer. I wanted the refresh rate to be 85Hz, which is fully supported by both the card and the monitor. However, I was getting this weird "warping" effect of the vertical lines of all my windows, mainly to the left side of the screen. The lines simply curved inward -- it was a grotesque effect to see on my newly beloved monitor. At first I thought "bad monitor - lemon", but bumping the refresh down to 75Hz cured this problem.
I let the "issue" go, considered it a "non-issue" as long as I keep the refresh at 75Hz, which is respectable. Then, recently I added a case fan, and out of curiosity I bumped the refresh up to 85Hz just to see if the ol' warping effect would revisit me. But, as you might have guessed by now, it has not. Absolutely no problem whatsoever. I beleive it is because I am ventilating my case better now (it had no case fan at all until recently).
If this isn't the cure, then I have no idea why it has changed.

Keep the info coming aviationwiz should you come across anything else. I am all ears. Well, ....all eyes.

[kaga]

nice article

[aviationwiz]

Thanks guys,

I really should not say anything about Water Cooling since I do not know that much about it. There is some stuff here: http://www.1coolpc.com/water.htm


Wedge Maniac,

#1--- I had no idea what "rounded cables" looked like (or what the name implied). So they can really make an appreciable difference?

Yes, They can make a great difference.

#2--- I have been interested in a 120mm fan, but had no idea how to make it work since my case grill only has the standard 80mm fan screw-holes. This funnel seems interesting. Again, thanks for the link.

If you want it to be REAL easy to install, go with the Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2 that I have in my first article.

[Wedge Maniac]

Do any of you know about passive heat sinks for hard drives? I have a case fan blowing on my drives so maybe a passive heat sink could help, the advantage being that they are quiet. I can't seem to find any for purchase, only an article that mentions their existence.

[Wedge Maniac]

Also, I wanted to post this URL: http://www.quietpc.com/uk/materials.php

It is noise-dampening material that can be placed in the case. I don't know if it works or if it's even advisable and/or safe. If anybody has any experience with this please provide some feedback.

[Wedge Maniac]

I might as well post this too. Again, I don't know anything about this product, but the theory behind it seems interesting. You can "suspend" your hard drive with elastic, reducing the transfer of vibrations to your case.

http://www.siliconacoustics.com/novibes3.html

[Wedge Maniac]

I hope I'm not ruining this sticky by adding posts to it that might be considered extraneous. If so, then I want the mods to feel free to delete them with no offense taken.

That being said, I have been provided an excellent URL that deals with cooling and noise reduction. If this topic interests you then you MUST check this one out.