OK i just bought this micro atx case http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage...03-06.jpg/11-190-003-01.jpg/11-190-003-02.jpg My system specs XP 2600 Biostar mobo 40gig 7200rpm harddrive 9700pro 768meg ddram The damn thing stays at 45-50 cel. and when i play games it crashes out sometimes. I have a factory heatsink and fan on the cpu 2 small rear case fans and a sorta crapy front case fan. I have noticed that the 9700pro is getting pretty hot too. If anyone can give me any ideas on how to cool this thing down please let me know. Also if anyone knows a good, quiet, not to big, HSF please let me know. Thanks,
Hello Alden, It is so hard to find crash problems. If your system is running at a constant temp yet crashes while playing games it could be a heating problem, but on a new system it could be simple things. My friend had a similar problem and it turned out to be the power supply that came with the case. He changed it with an Antec PS and never had another crash. He did not even have to be playing games. It just crashed once in a while when it felt like it. His motherboard came with a program to monitor system heath. He found the +12 vdc to be way to high. You also may need to just stop over at your motherboards web site and download the newest bios and flash your bios. It also could be that you need the newest video card driver. Sometimes motherboards have drivers that need to be updated also. Check the mobo's web site for all updates that are listed. Example newest 4in1, Patches for ... Hope one of these things help you. I know how much it can be a pain, but stick with the investigating.
i think it might be your graphics card overheating that is casuing the problem. Before it crashes do you get artfacts (things that dont look right) on the screen? it wouldnt hurt to have a 80mm case fan on the side blowing onto the radeon.
9700pro cards do get hot. The heatsinks arent the best either. This may or may not be the problem but you might want to do this anyway, especially if you're overclocking (which should yield good performance improvements with that card).... If you're not scared of hacking up some stuff you might want to remove the heatsink, scrape off the thick layer of thermal gunk, mill around the centre + refix it on with better thermal paste. look here for a good guide on removing + milling the heatsink. This person puts a different heatsink on but the theory works well with the stock heatsink also.
Im not convinced yet that it is overheating. It is more than possible but that CPU temp is fine. I had a GFX card overheat that caused random BSODs. Have you tried running the system with the side off and a house fan pointing in? If it does not crash then i expect it is GFX and the fan in the door that shogun reccomended will work fine but basically you need more air flowing through the case.
i will run it a couple days with a fan on it and the side off and see what happens. The hard drives are getting super hot too though cause they are at the top and right on top of each other. If i have no problems after doing that I might try to find a new psu. Thanks guys
The video card should in all rights run with no additional devices. I still say try the drivers. But I am posting a picture showing you a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro that I added 8 RAM Heatsinks. These heatsinks are made for this size ram. You glue them on with Arctic Silver 2 part thermal epoxy. Do not use standard 5 minute epoxy. You need the thermal transfer of heat from the ram via thermal glue via heatsink and out. Eight heatsinks required You would not be removing the fan, so disregard that part of the picture. Remember this is permanent. If the board ever goes bad or is bad now, you will not be able to get these heatsinks back off. On the upside they are really attractive shinny chrome and reduce the ram temp a lot. In the photo above you can see 4 heatsinks already glue on this side of the board and 4 heatsinks are in the top right of the picture. They are for the other side of the board. Good picture to show what the Ram heatsinks look like. You can also see you have to mix the Arctic Silver. It sets up fast so only try and do one side of the video card at a time. Hope this helped.
redhawk - Ram sinks are all well and good, especially those tweekmonster ones, but they will make next to no difference if there is not enough air flowing through the case. alden - If it runs fine with a house fan pointing inside then a new PSU will not help (well it might if it runs cooler / or has more fans than the old one). You should look at how you can improve airflow. I expect you have to make a choice of cutting your case or swapping the fans for some more powerfull, and probably louder, ones.
You are 100% correct. I agree with you. Here is a Card Cooler fan I used. to keep the ram heatsinks cool. An yes he should have good airflow in and out of the case too.
Thanks for the input again. Just curious if you think the psu can power 2 harddrives, dvd rom, 2 small case fans, and another case fan, along witht he motherboard and everything. Also is there anyway to monitor the power consumption to make sure im not overloading it? I will also try running it today with the side off and a fan on it to see if its heat related or power related.
O yea ive looked everywhere for another micro atx power supply but the highest watts ive seen is 200 which is what i have. So if its a power overload i dunno what to do.
thats quite a bit off a 200w powersupply. how are the voltage rails? Should really get a new case and a much larger powersupply
Hello alden , That is way to much for a 200Watt. AMD has size req. on their web site. You can calculate the size you would need. Off hand no new AMD and computer should be less then 300 Watt Minimum. You can pick up an Antec 350 Watt fairly cheap on the web. I am surprised you haven't smelled any burning with that load on a 200 Watt supply. I think your problem is solved. AMD click here
yea but this is a micro atx board made to use with this case along with the amd processor. It even says amd approved on the thing.There is no way i can fit a full size psu in this micro atx case.
im quite sure its the power supply now, its so underpowered. Try buying another power supply and run it out of the case with the powersupply either ontop of the case or on a shelf or something. I bet it wont crash anymore.
i honestly dont think its the power supply read the reviews on new egg and the system specs people are running with this exact micro atx pc. We built two computers with this case and the ASUS P4P800-VM mainboard. One has a 2.0 Celeron and one has a 2.4 P4. The Celeron runs cool with one WD 80 hard drive and is a great computer. The 2.4 P4 has 2 WD drives and an ATI 7500 All-In-Wonder. While it's a sweet and really fast computer, it runs very hot in such a small case. Safe, but really hot. This case has a good power supply with a variable speed fan. This case is strictly top shelf. 5 stars. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HTPC Specs: Athenatech A100SC.200 Case Asus A7N266-VM AA Athlon XP 1700+ COOLERMASTER DP5-7JD1B-0L CRUCIAL 256MB DDR 2100 Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM Blk Seagate HDD 120GB Sapphire 9200 128MB Specs: AMD XP1800 Biostar M7NCG 400 WD 80GB 7200 HD Corsair XMS 2700 2x256
ok i took a fan and put it beside it and the thing runs fine. So it has to be the cooling. Now to find a way to tackle that.
You may well be getting close to the limits of the PSU but i would doubt it. The micro atx boards are ment to be very conservative on PSU but i have never used one so im afraid i couldnt comment. I have had a closer look at the case, its hard to see the inside front. Are there any fans there? Or is it just the 2 at the back that you can see. If there are none at the front then airflow will be hard to achieve. Dont forget you need to roughly match intake with exaust for effective cooling. The grills at the back look very restrictive so my first job would be remove them and get some standard fan grills to protect wandering fingers. See how that goes stability wise. It may be worth seeing if you can fit some larger fans in the same space (doesnt look like it would be easy though). If you still have a problem, and i expect you will because you have a pocket of air at the bottom buy the GFX card that will just sit there and get hotter and hotter, then you will need to thing about an additional fan. Probably the optimal place would be in the side positioned so it is blowing at the GFX card, also moving the stagnant air under it, and if poss blowing on the motherboard. Have this as an intake and if its an 80 or 120mm you may be able to have the rest as exausts which would most likely be the best airflow. (if it was me id have a 120mm fan on the side running from a fanbus to mimimise sound). Good luck alden, HTH
