...and all i have to say is wow!
I added two fans to my case, bringing the total to 6 (2 intake, 2 exhaust, 1 top, and one side panel).
I also bought a new hsf (volcano 7+, newegg has them for $17 now!) and used some AS3 on it (on sale at fry's) which made a HUGE difference. For the speed control i couldn't just let it hang inside my case, so i mounted it to the top of my case as well.
The results:
my cpu temps went from averaging 48C to 34C at medium fan speed!!! full speed (which i like to call jet turbine speed) would be even better. Keep in mind i have an xp1700+ palamino core too. The reason i switched was partly temps (Sometimes ranging into the mid 50s on a hot day at full load), but also my previous hsf started to make some noise in the fan and i was afraid it was starting to have issues...also the average temps of the proc have risen a good 5 degrees over the last few months, and they were really stable for the first year i had it. turns out i had a little too much artic alumina (ceramic compound) and it squeexed out the side. never touched anything...but it did dry a little and crack slightly, so i think that had something to do with it too. In any case it needed to be redone right. This time i spent a LOT of time to make sure i got it right. I cleaned my cpu core very well (it shined almost as much as the hsf...although i can only imagine what would have happened if i had mirrored the hsf). I also cleaned the hsf really well...i made sure there were no foreign materials on either the core or hsf. And of course i followed the AS3 instructions to the t...in retrospect i wish i had taken a picture of the core with the AS3 on it...it looked almost as good as the pics on the AS sight.
Then there is also the case of the system temps. I had been having issues with this too. I was averaging around 35C system temps, even tho i had decent ventilation so i decided to work on that. I think the main reason for the rise in temps is my new vid card, which is an FX5900 ultra which essentially creates a wall in the middle of my comp cause it actually is flush with my hard drive (and only about half an inch above it) which created some air flow issues i couldn't do anything about. So i added two case fans (also on sale at newegg). and this made a fairly large difference too. my temps dropped from 35C to 28C, although i've discovered part of the reason is the temp diode placement on my mobo...it's between my ram, video card, and proc, which basically creates 3 walls around it so they're actually quite a bit lower than that i'm sure. Also (and perhaps more importantly) my GPU temps dropped. we all know the cooling issues with the FX cards, and i can vouch for those. My GPU was averaging around 52C with a max load around 58C. now it's averaging 47C (this is due to the new case fan blowing partly on it).
So all in all a very succesful project. These temps were taken about an hour after boot. I'll keep you guys up on the temps if i see a major change. And now for your viewing pleasure, some pictures of the final product. (side note: i had to boot into windows to get the GPU temps since i have no way of viewing them in linux. also sorry about the quality, the only digital camara i have is on my phone...ironically enough)
Everything Side Fan Top items
In the future i'm thinking about adding an LCD displaying temps in front of the top fan and adding a chrome plate on the top to frame everything. just some ideas i'm throwing around.
Linear Mode
