What heat temp indicates a potential problem ?

Cyber_Surfer,

Thanks for the response and info ! I concur with your logic that I'm probably OK given that while the machine has been loaded, it is probably not past what I could have originally purchased by Dell. The key additions are additional two drives, a Promise TX2000 raid controller , memory to 1.5G and the older Nvidea Gforce4 video card.

This has been running for a while and to date I've seen no signs of trouble that I would associate with heat and indeed the fan is not running at full bore all the time.

However I am considering upgrading the machine from a 2.2Ghz P4 to a 2.8GHz and with that I'm thinking in more depth about the heat.

You mentioned sensors that are placed within the machine and read out externaly. Do you have any brands and/or types that you'd recommend and/or have experience with? In searching the forums I came across one that was simply a thermal alarm rather than a readout.

As to the inserted post regarding adding/drilling air inlets to the case, I came across that just before posting this thread and asked a question on it. I may simply be mising things, but I envision he's describing holes on the bottom of the case, facing the floor and thus I expect he must have the machine supported so there's airflow underneath and a filter. Is that how you've read it too ?

I'd have been a little more comfortable if others had tried the trick although it does seem an idea worth investigating. As an EE the conservative side of me is considering the counter arguements against changing the case designer's airflow plans.

Thank you for your input, very much appreciated,

Cheers, Peter

You don't say what you added but it probably doesn't go beyond what Dell would have sold you originally if you really loaded it up. You probably have no problem.

If heat were a serious problem you should be noticing the fan running at max speed all the time. Noise would be noticeable.

There are many devices available to monitor heat at several points inside you computer and report on a small screen or alarm.

The more heat load you add the more important a good cleaning of the dust from inside your machine becomes. You want the fans and heatsink to operate at peak efficiency.

I have two Dell 8200s and found the following information interesting from another forum member (8250 uses the same case).

Forum member - Dadnelion - 07/27/04

Well, when I first bought my Dimension 8250 I had no heat problems.  But that was when I was running 1 hard drive, 256 mb of pc1033 ram and a MX440 video card.  I have since upgraded to 2 hard drives 768 mb of ram and a 9800 pro with an arctic cooler.  Now that stock case was gasping for air.  The problem was that there was not near enough air able to get into the case.  The rear 92mm fan would wind up into hoover (very loud) mode even with the cpu running on idle.  It was getting VERY hot inside the case.  Of course I cleaned everything but still the airflow was severly lacking.  The 9800 pro was obviously the biggest contributor, they are well known for being heaters.  But this upper end computer from Dell should have been able to handle it.  But alas I was forced to do some modding.

If you check out the bottom side of your case underneath the hard drives you will find an area about 6"x6" or so that is void of any use.  This is normally where you find an intake fan of some sort.  But because of the Dell case design it is very difficult to put a vent out the front of the case.  So what I did was drill a series of holes with a hole drilling bit.  You want your holes to be at least 1/2" diameter, mine range from about 1" to 1/2" in diameter(I placed mine in a circular design from biggest to smallest in diameter, it makes it look fancy, and cool!![no pun intended]).    So now that I opened up the right front side of this case for airflow, what difference do I notice?  Well first of all if I put my hand near the opening it feels like a fan is right at the opening moving air in!  Thats how bad this case is starving for airflow!  The only non-stock fan in my case is the Arctic Cooler, which blows a small amount of air out the back through a PCI slot.  Everything else is stock, and I can guarantee you it was starving for air even without my Arctic Cooler.  My computer runs quieter now because the fans can work less to get the CPU heatsink and vid card cooled, (power supply especially pumps much more air out) and it runs cooler (I can actually touch the metal vents on the arctic cooler without it feeling hot).

So if your Dell 8200 - 8300 computer is seeming a little louder these days maybe its time you give it a chance to breathe!