# Hi guys, cooling question.



## Joepro (Feb 21, 2006)

Hi guys, I have a dell 8400 series ( havent got the funds to build my own yet, hopefully next year) that I added an upgraded vid card and a second hard drive too. To begin with its a P4 3.2 with 1gb ram, and it always seemed a little stressed on cooling. It has a large(120? 150?) fan in the back with that big ol' hunking head sink. However, with the added heat of the card ad the HD, this thing goes crazy nuts when im doing anything that requires more funtionality than say a single program like IE. When running a game like CS:source, the fan goes nuts, I can hear it over my 5.1 speakers sometimes. The air is also extremely hot, I havent temped anything, for I dont know the process of going about that. So I guess there is two issues really. 1. what steps do I take to see if it is running hot(Sorry if this is a noob question, but I am) and will adding a second fan help cool and quiet this thing down? ( if so, I as questions on wiring and location later)

Thanks for any imput, Joe


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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2005)

Check inside the front of the case to see if there is a spot to
mount a fan to blow air into the case.
Your heat problem may also be caused by a stock
power supply that can't handle the extra load.


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## Joepro (Feb 21, 2006)

It would be tight, but I am pretty good at custom fabrication in general and think I could probably fit an 80mm fan under the front usb port(witch I would really like to relocate but the wires are too short, maybe i could find some longer ones, then Id have all the room in the world) Also, I dont know about powering the fan. I saw that they are 3 or 4 pins. I dunno if any of the available pins on this generic MB support fans( i dont know enough about them) Is it possible or same to splice into the power for the main fan, or grab power some where in the supply? I have wiring experience from installing car stereo for many years, so if need cut and soldered thats no problem.


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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2005)

If there is a 3 pin fan header on the motherboard,you can use that.
They are usually marked on the board.
It's just as easy to get a fan with a 4 pin molex connector and
connect it to the power supply.
You can use a splitter if you don't have an open connector.
No soldering necessary.
I would still look into upgrading the power supply,you have increased the
load on it quite a bit.


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## Joepro (Feb 21, 2006)

Is the 4 pin similar to that of the 4 pin for the HD's? I think I will look into doing both actually, I peeked through past the heat sink on the power supply and I think it said 150w, even I know thats a pos. I hate dell.


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## Fr4665 (Nov 18, 2004)

the 4 pin for the harddrive is called a molex connector. I know there are 3 pin Mother Board Fan plugs and also i have seen some 4 pin

you can just take a turkey thermometer and stick it in there and see how hot it is. Also check which part gets the hottest. Most of the time its either the CPU or the Video card.

Setup your cooling so there is an exhaust fan in the back pulling air out
<-[fan] computer <-[fan]
and an intake in the front to suck in cold air.
sometimes a PCI slot fan can also help on pulling warm air out those are cheap ~9$ and can just be added to any PCI slot.

To see if the CPU and or your video card is overheating you can download a program called Everest Home Edition by Lavasoft ( http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html )

if the video is onboard then i wouldnt worry so much about it but maybe get some chipset coolers to add :4-dontkno 

if the CPU is over heating then i would recommend 1. to get a bigger more efficient CPU fan then the stock one or 2.make a fan adapter to put a bigger fan on the heatsink.


Also make sure that the case is not to dusty because sometimes that causes alot of heat 

gl


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## timk9 (Feb 22, 2006)

Bingo about the need for additional fans. I would also say every couple months pop the case off and vacuum out all the dust, especially if it's a smoker's house. My first computer ever went over a year without me doing this (cause I didn't know) and burnt out the CPU and PSU within a couple months of each other.

Also keep in mind with Dell, the exhaust fan usually channels air through a plastic shroud directly over the CPU, inadvertently neglecting other components. So if you add intake fan(s) and/or a PCI cooler it would make a world of difference. I myself have 4 intake, 2 exhaust, and 2 PSU exhaust fans, running at low voltage so it's pretty quiet but moving a lot of air.

Others have pretty much answered your questions about cooling but I just wanted to add - you mentioned earlier wanting to relocate your USB ports. Take a look at http://www.frontx.com. They make modular drive bay panels (which look like they suck IMO) but also they sell the bare components to make or modify the cables - very handy! And if you're handy with tools you can mount them any place you want.

Tim


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