CPU Temperature

Ack, no temp sensors? Hmmm, seems like I've finally found my first flaw with Dell comps.

Any suggestions on how to keep things cool inside, then? Any suggestions how I can avoid frying my system due to overheating?

Thanks again,
James.

Dell has no temp sensors.

short term, take the case cover off......long term, put some more fans (maybe drilling a hole in the side of the case w/ a fan).

AMD Athlon XP 1900 w/AGOGA
Soltek Purple Ray 75DRV5 mobo
512mb DDR2700 Corsair XMS
80gig Maxtor 7200 ATA133
Lite On 40x12x48 CD-RW
Lite On 16x DVD
Gainward GeForce3 TI200 128mb
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Viewsonic 19" Perfect Flat
Windows XP Pro

There is something that you can stick inside your computer, that connects to a open drive port, that will beep if your computer's heat rises to an unsafe level. Here are some links to such items:

http://www.aapspower.com/110alert.html

http://www.directron.com/sensors.html

I say that your best device to alarm you of overheating is the 110 alert.

Good luck

One nifty fan I found was this:

http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=370003

What you do with it is stick it inside any empty slot (doesnt connect to motherboard, just slot) and then it inhales all the hot air from inside the computer that builds up and blows it out through the back. I have 1 of these on my custom built PC and also added a new power supply, that has 2 fans, not 1. One fan blows air inside the power supply, and the other blows it out thru the back, keeping it cooler. Along with that I also have 1 fan in the front that inhales air in and another fan that exhales air out thru the back. So in total, I have about...hmm...6fans:
2 fans on the power supply...1 is monitored by motherboard (as heat increases, rpm increases)
1 on front of case, monitored by motherboard
1 on back of case
1 slot cooler
1 fan on CPU heatsink

The computer stays quite cool now. Even though the P4 can take alot of heat, I'm kinda paranoid of keeping it as cool as I can.
The guy who posted before me is right, the DELLs dont have onboard heat sensors, but there are def ways to add one like someone has mentioned before. I also heard from someone else that DELLs also dont have fans on the heatsinks themselves, but have this plastic tube thing that takes away all the heat from it. Weird design...since I see things like that being sold on websites, but they help more air get blown towards the heatsink/fan.
This website also offers some neat cooling items, such as better fans and whatnot:
http://www.crazypc.com

Hope this helps. I def reccomend those slot coolers. Theyre awesome


-Silent Service Agent157

"Custom built PCs are the BEST. so beware all you companies who think you can rip ignorant people off. Its only a matter of time now..."
"Does anyone use CDRW discs anymore?" (so far one person has said yes)
"Do to your PC as you want done to you"

"Angelina"
ABIT TH7-2 RAID Soc478 Motherboard
Pentium4 1.7Ghz CPU @ 400Mhz FSB
1028MB RDRAM
80GB 7200rpm (8MB Buffer....better than 2) Western Digital Hard Drives on RAID0
80GB 7200rpm (8MB Buffer...yumyum) Western Digital Hard Drives on RAID0
21" SONY G520 Monitor
Visiontek Xtasy GeForce4 4600 TI 128MB DDR
SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum
Sigma Designs XCard (DVD Decoder....hardware is always better than software)
US Robotics V.92/56K Fax Modem
3COM Ethernet Card (RoadRunner kicksbutt)
ASUS 16x48x DVD-ROM ATA100 (ATA100 on a DVD drive? Believe it)
Plextor 16x/40x CDRW (Plextor's the best)
Logitech Internet Keyboard & Optical USB Mouse
Windows XP Pro OS


Message Edited on 08/25/02 12:42AM by Silent157

Dells do have temperature sensors.  They are standard on all P4 chips.  Try using Motherboard monitor  http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

cyro-case??? explaination please.

I mean a case which a mini-freezer element built in  :-)

http://www.nventiv.com/index.php?pageid=15

http://www.technoyard.com/hardware/miscellaneous/prometeia/page_3.html

 

Actually,
removing the case cover REDUCES the cooling effect.

If you're into mobile computing, Dell makes excellent laptops (besides, it's nearly impossible to build one yourself). They also make excellent desktops and monitors as built. However, if you think you'll ever want to upgrade (rather than buy a new system), BUILD YOUR OWN. Dell motherboards, heat sinks, power supply units, fan connectors, cases, etc. are all proprietary. This basically means that if you would like to upgrade beyond the basics (memory, hard drive, CD-ROM) you can forget it. Anyway, the alternate reason that you would want to build your own is so you can choose which components to put in and make it quieter, cooler, more reliable, more configurable (a Dell BIOS is crippled), and faster than a Dell. NO company builds the best of everything and every company has their forte.

So, although it will be more expensive in the short term, you can easily swap out parts as needed in the long term. The following is a list of parts that I would suggest from years of experience:

Coolermaster or LianLi case (make sure it's at least a mid-tower and aluminum)
Coolermaster round cables (they are the most flexible I've found)
Zalman case fans, CPU heatsink (the huge flower-type), and VGA cooler (after trying many others, Zalman, by far, makes the best and quietest air-cooled systems)
Antec or Enermax power supply unit (get more power than you think you need)
Intel motherboard
Intel CPU
Kingston or Corsair memory (don't settle for the "value" memory either)
Artic silver 5 thermal paste
D-link router and adapters (if you network)
Logitech mouse, keyboard and speakers (which are awesome)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 soundcard
Hitachi hard drives...very fast, reliable and quiet (SATA RAID 0, buy two)
Sony or NEC CD-DVD-RW drives
Sony floppy (if you still use floppies)
NVidia graphics card (I've had better luck with NVidia than with ATI)
Samsung, Sony, Hitachi, or Dell LCD monitor
Brother laser printer
Win XP Pro
Mozilla Firefox browser; available for free (ditch Internet Explorer...if you can)
Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail; available for free (ditch Outlook Express...if you can)

Of course, there are many other companies that make comparable products, but I don't have the budget to try them all.

If you can avoid it, try not to buy a motherboard with on-board video or sound (this defeats the purpose)

Who exactly are you talking to? The last post to this thread before your 2 today was 1.5 years ago...

Myself, I guess :( I didn't realize the age of the post...my bad!