About overheating

Question

Hi everyone. I recently saw his post: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_desk_genhdw&thread.id=48273&view=by_date_ascending&page=1 and I was wondering: Ever since I got my new sound card (Xtreme Gamer) my computer temperature went up by about 10C...so While I play games it is 90 and they start artifacting(strange textures and weird glitches). Anyway my question is that if I get those fans from that post do I need a new power supply or anything extra? Or could I use the XPS 410's stock power supply. THANX

contrvlr · Answer

Vib91 wrote:
Hi everyone. I recently saw his post: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_desk_genhdw&thread.id=48273&view=by_date_ascending&page=1 and I was wondering: Ever since I got my new sound card (Xtreme Gamer) my computer temperature went up by about 10C...so While I play games it is 90 and they start artifacting(strange textures and weird glitches). Anyway my question is that if I get those fans from that post do I need a new power supply or anything extra? Or could I use the XPS 410's stock power supply. THANX

I'm having a hard time trying to imagine a sound card adding that much heat to the system.

In any case, the fans use only about 2 watts of power each , so there's no need to worry about your psu.

Vib91 · Answer

Ya i didn't beleive it either but I just took out the soundcard, and my idle went from around 65 to a nice 48 so ya. Same goes for gaming from a 98 to a 72

Bobman101 · Answer

Question? Are you getting the system temperature according to what the GPU Ambient Temperature reads, and did you install the sound card in the PCI slot directly below the video card? If so, that explains the increase. Otherwise, I'm with contrvlr. There's something wrong, and I'd discontinue use of the sound card.

pete661 · Answer

I've never heard about a sound card overheating a system...
The only way I think it could impact on cooling if its somehow disrupting or blocking air flow through your case.

I can't see how it would, but if it does keep your temps high just take it out & use stock sound on the mobo. It's usually pretty good unless your running a 5.1 or 7.1 system. gl mate!

Vib91 · Answer

I did put it on the slot right under the video card....do you know why? Because I'm an idiot....do you think that putting it lower will solve the problem?

x_lab rat · Answer

'somehow disrupting or blocking air flow '   True story.  Move the sound card.  BUT:  As late as 2005, audio cards could be fussy about what slot they were in.  I don't know if that's still the case, you'll soon find out.

x_lab rat · Answer

'there will be no blockage.'   Not outright, and you wouldn't think an adjacent card would alter the overall airflow that much.  But sound cards don't dissipate to speak of, and something is altering display card cooling when the sound card is installed.

contrvlr · Answer

x_lab rat wrote: 'somehow disrupting or blocking air flow '   True story.  Move the sound card.  BUT:  As late as 2005, audio cards could be fussy about what slot they were in.  I don't know if that's still the case, you'll soon find out.     In an XPS410 BTX style box the video card is mounted with it's cooler facing up, there will be no blockage. The disruption of airflow beneath the card shouldn't cause a +17c difference in temps at idle. Keep in mind that the lower case fan is blowing directly at whatever pci cards are installed.  The sound card should be able to be used in any available slot, it has long been recommended that it be placed as far from the cpu as is possible.

contrvlr · Answer

x_lab rat wrote:

Not outright, and you wouldn't think an adjacent card would alter the overall airflow that much. But sound cards don't dissipate to speak of, and something is altering display card cooling when the sound card is installed.

The Extreme Gamer is basically a low profile card, so it will alter airflow less than a full width card would, and it has a fairly substantial ( for a sound card ) heatsink, so it should dissipate any heat created. That heatsink ends up being almost directly below the graphics chip when installed directly below the video, so I could see video temps going up slightly, but 17c ?

Ledswinger · Answer

I've got a 410 (D9200) and following a long period tracing system stability and sound problems, I identified that the problems were caused by the Creative XFi having problems sharing an IRQ with all the other peripherals (Vista had allocated all PCI devices onto a single IRQ when installed). Moving the sound card up a slot solved these problems because Vista allocated a new IRQ to this "new" hardware, but I've noticed slightly raised fan noise levels - and looking at this thread, I thought it worth checking the GPU temp, and lo and behold, 64C at idle.

So, I don't think that the XFi has a problem with a specific PCI slot, but it can cause system problems and sound difficulties if sharing an IRQ with the graphics card and everything else. This may apply to XP just as much as Vista, because Creative cards have been notorious for not wanting to share IRQs for many years.

I also confirm that have the XFi in too high a slot interferes with air flow and causes the GPU to run too hot for comfort. At a guess, the XFi (and potentially any other PCI card in that slot) is stopping the GPU cooler picking up the cooler air from the bottom of the case, and instead taking it directly from the stream out of the CPU fan?

Either way, the original poster's problem is replicated, and the obvious solution is to move the sound card as low as possible, but to check those IRQ's. Symptoms of an XFi IRQ problem include loss of sound, loss of specific channels, channel mix ups, system sleep mode problems etc.

I'm going to try and sort this out on my machine, and I'll let you know how I get on. Pah! And I thought that having sorted the IRQ problem everything was hunkydory. So much for BTX!

Led

contrvlr · Answer

Ledswinger, what video card do you have ?

x_lab rat · Answer

The Intel 'windtunnel' directive, adopted by Dell starting with 5100, was supposed to solve all our thermal problems.  But as with most blanket solutions, it just moved them around.  It cools the Intel parts fine, but now, like with the 4700, peripherals have to dissipate into air warmed ~15F by passing first over the CPU sink.  Plus, the fan regulator now has no sense of how much heat peripherals are dissipating, since it's driven by the CPU which gets room air instead of case air.  I'm just an amateur aerothermodynamicist, but wouldn't it make more empirical sense to blow hot air out of the case instead of in?   In this pool of incoming warm air, adding baffles (cards) can create dead spots, where display card fans reinspirate their own exhaust.   So, sound cards are still territorial about their IRQ.  I thought they would have gotten over that long ago.

Ledswinger · Answer

Hi contrvlr,

it is an 8800GTX, on a Core 2 system, with the default Dimension 9200 2x160HDD=320 storage RAID0 setup. With the BTX placing of HDDs at the bottom of the cage, the airflow issue we've found also may mean that the problems of airflow at the back of the case impact on hard disk cooling. Sadly I can't be bothered to load up another set of software to find out what the temps on the HDDs are. Somewhere in my mix there's also a TV tuner card as well, but I can't remember which slot that's in.

I see the other comments about aero-thermodynamics, and tend to agree - I've half a mind to reverse the airflow on the CPU cooler and see what happens...

Incidentally, looking at your hardware sig, you've got RAID0 2x160=160, so you've either got RAID1, or you mean RAID0 2x160=320?

Regards,

Led

contrvlr · Answer

x_lab rat wrote:

The Intel 'windtunnel' directive

:smileyvery-happy:

Nice description

The cooling in the 410 is much different than the 4700 though, there is a fan dedicated to drawing cool air in over the cpu and another lower fan to cool the hard drives and pci slots. The fact that there is no exhaust fan has been a problem but is easily remedied by adding one.

Message Edited by contrvlr on 12-14-2007 12:18 PM

x_lab rat · Answer

Got to admit, I haven't seen any chassis later than 5100.  Workstations had 'stirrer' fans inside, but I don't have firsthand knowledge of how far that propagated.   4700 cooled MUCH better with the fan reversed from the way the factory installed it.  Can't say what would happen in a current chassis, but it seems at the worst the fan would run a little faster/noisier.  Noise is better than overheating though.   Test HDD temp the manual way--literally.  If you can't leave your finger on it comfortably after it's been running for an hour, it needs help cooling.

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About overheating

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