NEW Silverstone LC03 Case

[ukmgranger]

Here we go - my new case fully installed!

It is a VERY tight fit inside, but looks good from the outside!

my case is running in the high 40c and my CPU is running at about 69c. Is this ok or should I be taking drastic action?

Let me know your thoughts!

Laterz

[JasonJoel]

I have my sage server shut up inside a cabinet (and have for months). My CPU is always 65-72C, because of the lack of ventilation.

This is WELL withing the acceptable temperature rating of the CPU. Would it be nice if it were cooler? YES. Will it hurt anything, NO.

So, don't worry about it.

Jason

[ukmgranger]

You say don't worry about it but the actual outside of the case (on the PSU side) gets very hot. You wouldn't want to keep your hand on it for too long.

Surely this is not good for the internal components?!?

[insomniac]

Although that is within the "acceptable range" for a cpu, I wouldnt be so sure that it isnt nuking all the other valuable components in your computer(HD, vid card, chipset, etc). If it were mine, I would look into venting the power supply exhaust with some 3 in dryer tubing or conduit through a neatly cut hole in the immediate back of the (normally) thinly backed entertainment center.

Some people would consider this drastic, but I like to look at the big picture:

Will this or another device always be there to cover the hole in the back of the entertainment center?

Is the Entertainment center a family treasure?

Do I care in general?

Do I want to turn my entertainment center into a radiant heater for all my other components (that arent rated for that heat)?

etc etc


I.

Originally posted by ukmgranger
Here we go - my new case fully installed!

It is a VERY tight fit inside, but looks good from the outside!

my case is running in the high 40c and my CPU is running at about 69c. Is this ok or should I be taking drastic action?

Let me know your thoughts!

Laterz

[mwhite]

I have the same case (really like it) and my power supply doesn't heat up the side of the case hardly at all.

This may come down to the power supply you are using, especially if its a big 450 Watt unit or something similar.

I'm using a Zalman ZM300A-APF . Runs very quiet and cool.

-mark

[insomniac]

Its usually never the power supply, but the power supply is usually integral to venting the rest of the case out its exhaust(if its a now standard, 2 fan supply). If the heat exhaust has no where to go, then ambient heat will rise greatly.

I.

Originally posted by mwhite
I have the same case (really like it) and my power supply doesn't heat up the side of the case hardly at all.

This may come down to the power supply you are using, especially if its a big 450 Watt unit or something similar.

I'm using a Zalman ZM300A-APF . Runs very quiet and cool.

-mark

[Lucas]

CPU utilisation and ambient room temperature are significant factors, I see that your LC03 is in an open rack, so there's nothing more than you can do apart from improving airflow through the case. Your CPU runs pretty hot. Intel specifies the max operating temp for the Prescotts at 71C if I remember correctly.

Well since we have very similar setups here's my experience.
I installed my LC03 about a month ago with the following components as follows:

BeQuiet 450W PSU
ASUS P4P800 Deluxe MoBo
P4 Prescott 2.8 with standard Intel fun/heatsink.
1xPVR250
1xAsus 9600XT
2x 80Gb Drives RAID1
1x 250Gb Drive

With the single LC03 6inch fan and the standard Intel cooler I initially (as soon as I put the cover on the case) got high temperatures. Mobo temp around 41-45C and CPU from 60 to 70C (idle to high utilisation). All this with an ambient room temperature of around 30C, since it gets pretty warm in Greece during the Summer!

I replaced the CPU cooler with a Zalman 5700 (without the plastic air flow duct) running at full speed and installed a Zalman 8inch silent fan on the underside LC03 fan slot blowing air upwards towards the drives.

Now with an ambient room temp of 30C mid afternoon I get 51-60C on the CPU and still 40-41 C on the MoBo. I am less worried with this but still when away on the weekends I turn the thing off because the ambient room temp goes up.

Late at night/morning or with the aircon on and a room temp of 23-25C the temps fall to 47-52C on the CPU and 37C on the Mobo.

The PSU (2-fan) pulls air from the CPU area and blows it out the back.

The only thing that makes a lot of noise is the LC03 6inch fan.
I will be replacing that with a more silent 8inch + 6 to 8 inch adaptor.

The key I believe, is to increase airflow through the case.

With the winter coming, I expect temps will come down a lot and by next summer I will have to think of something more drastic......

[Lucas]

I forgot to mention that even though I have ffdshow installed I don't use it since it raises CPU util to approx 30% raising the CPU temp.

CPU for the most part hovers between 5 and 10% during normal Sage TV use and only moves above that when I do something like moving, editing mpeg files.

[insomniac]

ahhh...I did not realize that was an open back. Yep..all you can do is increase air flow from the case and lower your household ambient temp.

Might want to look into a pci bay cooler fan or similar. It will help draw air out of the back with minimal extra decibles.

I.

[JasonJoel]

You know Lucas brought up a good point. The maximum rated temps for Prescott CPUs is actually 69.1C by the documentation I found... So you might want to see what you can do to lower that.

When I said it wasn't a big deal, I was thinking AMD Athlon's... Those are rated to 85C or 90C (depending on which Althon XP model you have).

So, 70C on an Athlon is still WELL within the safe operating temperature, but is NOT on an Intel Prescott.

Just thought I would clarify my original post.

Jason Bottjen

[ukmgranger]

OK - so yesterday I got jiggy with the dremel!

I have cut away the grill on both the 60mm fan on the back and the 80mm fan on the base. I also put in another 80mm fan on the base directly next to the current one.

with the system under load I am now getting temps of about 41c in the case and 63/4c on the CPU. (it was about 49c case, 69c CPU).

these temps are with the fans all on their lowest speeds, including the PSU fan turned right down.

I have yet to check out the temps with fans on full (this does get a little noisy though).

[ukmgranger]

here is another pic of the fans

[Lucas]

Hmmm, that looks good, I will do the same by next summer!

One question though, with what average CPU utilisation are you getting the 69C on the CPU?
Is it with normal SageTV operation when the CPU rarely creeps above 10%?

Because it still looks a bit hot for UK ambient temperatures.

For example, this morning when I checked, the room temperature was about 21C, my CPU temp was 52C and the Mobo temp 37C.
Acceptable.

Also, were do you get the temp readings from?
In my case, the reading from BIOS setup are 4-5 C higher than the Win ASUS probe utility reports. I 've checked and the ASUS Win base utility is accurate so I disregard the BIOS readings.

I also noticed that you run the Zalman 7000CU cooler, which in theory is better than the 5700 I have. Maybe if you boost that to full speed, it will still be barely audible and reduce the CPU temp by 4-5C.

[insomniac]

Your on the right track there. I would think that your cpu is still way too hot per normal operating conditions. Case looks good for flow now, but If I were you, I would consider looking into a different cpu fan/heatsink. Im thinking yours is a little on the weak side or something. Ive had a few stock ones that sucked in the past.

I.

Originally posted by ukmgranger
here is another pic of the fans

[ukmgranger]

I am getting my CPU temp while Sage is running. This makes my CPU run at about 40%.

The ambient temp in my appartment is pretty high (about 28c). the HTPC is not helped by the fact the it is near some sliding patio doors, so the sun hits the side of the case.

I get the case temp from the guage that came with the fan controler. In the picture you can see it circled 'A'

I have now moved the guage to the circled 'B' position. Here, I now get a case temp of about 33c whilst using Sage.

I have also just installed a Zalman ZM80C-HP instead of the noisy little fan on my VGA card.

Another point which has helped slightly is removing the 'akasa' foam from the inside of the lid to the case where it was pressing against the PSU. This has ceartainly stopped the lid getting so hot.

I think you are right about the Zalman CPU cooler. I should probably remove it from the fan controller and just have it connected to the motherboard to get it to run at full speed.

[Lucas]

40% on 3GHz P4 while running just SageTV sounds strange!

Are you running FFDShow or something?!

Do a CTRL - SHFT - ESC and have a look which process uses that much CPU.

That's one of the reasons the CPU gets warm.

The Zalman CPU fan controller should be set-up at max before connecting directly to the MoBo.

[ukmgranger]

My system Idle Process is at the top with 60-70%. Then there is Sage.exe with about 30%. After that there are a few processes that flick about ata about 3%.

Does this sound about right?

I don't actually know what the 'System Idle Process' does, but it seems to be taking up a lot of power.

[kny3twalker]

My system Idle Process is at the top with 60-70%. Then there is Sage.exe with about 30%. After that there are a few processes that flick about ata about 3%.

that all adds up to 100%

do not account for the system idle process when adding up the current CPU usage

hehe

30% from SageTV guess you are running VMR9, right?

go download some WMV HD clips from www.wmvhd.com

the 1080p ones should put that CPU usage up there

I could not get them to run smoothly at 1080p (just a slide show)
720p for the most part was fine with the exception of Dawn of the Dead which was more MBPS than the others

[ukmgranger]

Sorry to sound like a dumbass Kny3 , but what will this achieve? Are we checking something in my system or something - or do they just look great?

Also - should I play them through Sage or WM9?

Also (again) should I put them on my drive or just burn 'em to DVD?

I'll let you know the results though!

[kny3twalker]

they are just clips but you can buy the full DVD
they are just for fun and look very good
(just commenting you are not using that much CPU but guessed it was VMR9 for the speed of your processor)
and you need Windows Media Player 10 to playback the 1080p files
the 720p files will playback in Windows Media player 9
and play them from your drive if you download them