There have been a number of discussions regarding CPU cards frying recently, and since I started paying attention to the temperature of my CPU I've started considering replacing the heatsink & fan.

Using an X-QPack case (quite small, no huge airflow), the CPU heatsink seems to hover around the 50-53 degrees Celcius region. I assume the CPU core itself is hotter than that. Should I be worried? My Athlon 64 runs at 40 degrees idle, peaks at 53 degrees if I'm running a huge compile job.

Trouble is, the temperatures I'm achieving are whilst under no particular workload.

I've seen gallery items of CPU cards with replaced heatsink and fans. The standard HSF has a silicon layer that probably doesn't aid heat transfer so well, so I'm starting to think that replacing the HSF and using a thinner transfer layer may help.

Has anyone replaced their CPU coolers? What with, where did you buy them from and what temperatures did you end up with?

Thanks!

[ Edited by nine on 2007/3/28 15:09 ]

Hi
You can use any standard PC VGA or Northbridge cooler for your peg cpu card. I have a nice copper vantec vga cooler that looks cool and works well. TEmp also depends on case and air flow and other factors. I get about 46 degrees here, but my case isnt the coolest..

magnetic

How could you see the CPU temperature?

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The X-QPack has an LCD panel on the front that monitors the temperature of two thermistors inside the case - one is taped to the hard disk, and I've carefully threaded the CPU one into the fins of the CPU heatsink.

Hence the temperature is gauged from the heatsink, not the actual CPU core (which is likely to be slightly higher).

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I thought the mounting holes looked as though they could fit a VGA cooler. I'll take a look for a cooler somewhere.

The case airflow is quite low - I've disconnected the rear extractor fan for noise reasons, but I'm tempted to reconnect it with an inline resistor to keep it at a lower speed.

nine
When you are considering buying the vga cooler, dont get one too heavy as the board is mounted vertically not horizontally.

magnetic

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Actually, that's another thing I thought about - the slot looks like it's about the same size as a Pentium II slot 1, so I might be able to recover a retention frame and slot 1 to s370 plastic clips to support an unusually heavy CPU card.

If it's needed, of course.

without a decent air flow, you will never get a good/decent cooling. Its not the CPU only that rise the themperature (as many thinks) inside a case.

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The temperature inside the case isn't all that high, actually. According to a digital thermometer that I've placed inside it's roughly 20 degrees Celcius (room temperature in my computer room). So it shouldn't have all that much effect on the CPU.

[ Edited by nine on 2007/3/29 13:53 ]

if you say so? nevermind.

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If the summer brings good weather, I might turn the fan on for some ventilation!

Not likely here though.