PC Cooling

[srcurtis]

Hi

I've put together a PVR in an Antec Aria MicroATX Cube case.

It consists of a Celeron D 2.4Ghz, MSI FX5200 Graphics Card, 512MB, 200GB EIDE, PCR250, USBUIRT and a DVD drive. As well as the fan on the 300W PSU and the CPU there is also an additional fan placed in a slot between the graphics card and the PVR250.

The unit seems to run fine with good ventilation. As soon as I place the unit into my entertainment unit and even half close the door, the unit seems to struggle to cool and is excessively noisy from the fans.

Can anyone suggest and changes to the build of the box to improve cooling?

I could cut some additional holes for ventilation in the back of the entertainment centre, but I'm not convinced that this will make enough of a difference as last night I left the door of the entertainment centre open a few inches and still woke up to a noisy PC.

Thanks

Steve

[hmca]

It is obvious the Entertainment Center is not allowing the expelled heat to escape and inside the Center sound is being reflected around, creating more noise.
What I did for my Entertainment Center was line, on three sides, excluding the bottom of the shelf with sound absorbing foam to dampen the echo of the fans. Then I cut out the back of the Entertainment Center the size of my CoolerMaster 620 case, for cable access and cooling. Then I used SpeedFan V4.17 to adjust the fan speeds, CPU and Case to optimal levels. This took several days of monitoring the internal MOBO sensor temps and making adjustments. I finally arrived at CPU 35% up to 145F (AMD 2000 Palamino Core), 55% above that and Case Fan of 40% to 98F and 50% above that.
Extended testing shows the CPU averages 138F (and increased speed does not do much (-3F) and a MOBO of 93-95F.
One more thing, it really helps to have a quiet power supply! I use the Zalman 300W. The variable speed fan is so quiet, you have to feel the heat being expelled to be sure it is running!

[korben_dallas]

The less components inside the case = less heat. If you can do any combining/removal of drives and PCI cards that aren't absolutely necessary, this will lessen the heat generation. Also, can you cut the number of ram sticks down? More ram sticks = more heat. Not sure if your motherboard will allow underclocking that Celeron, but this could help with heat also.

Since the PSU is going to be the main exhaust fan, you'll want that hot air to leave the entertainment center space as quickly as possible. And remember hot air rises.