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Air cooling question, recommendations.

  • Thread starter Deleted member 88301
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Deleted member 88301

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Hi all.

Dell Precision 3500, X5560, with the "better" HSF.

Idle: 50c
Max: 90C

Prime95, after 20 : 90 C

Gaming, 100c plus

GTX 750 Ti SC


Any help would be much appreaciated. It's an older computer, it was donated to me by a wonderful person from the {H}.

I don't really much from your input, just cooling ideases.

Thanks, in advave.

Wyo/Kevin.
 
What's your budget? I don't know what the "better" HSF is, but you will benefit with almost any aftermarket tower cooler. Just make sure it comes with LGA1366 mounting. The Nehalem chips were also pretty sensitive to memory settings where adding DIMMs and clocking over the baseline 1333MHz would significantly affect CPU temps.

I haven't followed cooling options in the sub-$50 range, but a used unit like this Noctua has terrific value for performance. Unfortunately it won't come with the NT-H1 thermal paste so you'll have to find an alternative elsewhere (or contact the seller for an alternative if they have any of those single use ones lying around)
 
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Well, you may have the "better" tower cooler, but I've never been a fan of Dell's ducted/ductless passive cooling system. But if you're set on keeping it here are some tips:
1) Are the front fan and heatsink clean of dirt/grime from front to back?
2) Remove the cooler and clean/scrape off the old crusty thermal stuff (it doesn't last forever) and apply something fresh, like Arctic Silver or Noctua's excellent NT-H1.
3) Apparently it will accept 60 or 70 mm fans. Find a quality small fan (something like a 60mm Noctua A6x25 or 70mm Evercool EC7025M12CA) and zip-tie it to the back side as a pull.
4) You might also get more airflow from a new 80 mm (best guess from pics) front fan.

If you can stomach the cost of a new cooler, you'll see massive improvement from Noctua's NH-D9DX i4. Height is a huge problem with this case, so don't bother with looking at 120mm fan based coolers, (sorry rastaban, I have 3 of them; fantastic, but way too tall), and even with this one that hard drive bracket will need to be removed (use the drive bays above, and no promises that the side panel will still close. Bust out the ruler, you'll need >110 mm of space between the top of the CPU socket and the side of the case.
 
Grebuloner said:
If you can stomach the cost of a new cooler, you'll see massive improvement from Noctua's NH-D9DX i4. Height is a huge problem with this case, so don't bother with looking at 120mm fan based coolers, (sorry rastaban, I have 3 of them; fantastic, but way too tall), and even with this one that hard drive bracket will need to be removed (use the drive bays above, and no promises that the side panel will still close. Bust out the ruler, you'll need >110 mm of space between the top of the CPU socket and the side of the case.
Click to expand...

Good call on the height. I should not have assumed it was a standard ATX midtower.
 
rastban, Grebuloner,

Thanks a lot for the info.

But my conundrum is this: how to better cool a Dell T3500 chassis. The X5560 seems to be running way too hot, as originally postet. Space is at a premium. It's just a mid tower. Any ideas?

I have zero money to throw at this problem, and as Summer creeps up to us here in Illinois, I'll just have to forgo computer usage. Honestly, Prime95 at 98C, X5560 is rated much lower, an old game, Left For Dead, still above 80C.


Can any kind of modern HSF solution help me? Keep in mind, Dell Precision T3500. X5560. Evga 430 Watt PSU.



Thanks!
 
The stock heatpipe cooler should work fine at stock speeds for that CPU. The problem is that the fan setup pretty much sucks.

Add a decent fan to the cooler in a pull configuration and it should drop your CPU temps significantly.

My recommendation if it will fit is a Rosewill dual ball bearing 120mm fan. $9 with free shipping should take care of your problem. Even if you have to make a duct out of cardboard or something to be able to mount the fan further back so it will fit, I would still go with that instead of a smaller, lower flow fan.
Rosewill RFX-120BL 120mm 2 Ball Bearing Blue LED Case Fan with Fan Controller Set - Newegg.com

And also make sure to replace the thermal compound. The stock crap tends to separate after a while and cause overheating.

No aftermarket cooler will fit as Dell uses a proprietary mounting system
 
What kind of fans are there in that chassis? Is it just a single 80mm exhaust fan and something similar on thr heatsink? If so, I would cut out all the mesh from where the rear fan mounts, there may also be some mesh and a spot in the front and add a fan in the front as well. Any pictures would be helpful as well.
 
Wyodiver said:
rastban, Grebuloner,

Thanks a lot for the info.

But my conundrum is this: how to better cool a Dell T3500 chassis. The X5560 seems to be running way too hot, as originally postet. Space is at a premium. It's just a mid tower. Any ideas?

I have zero money to throw at this problem, and as Summer creeps up to us here in Illinois, I'll just have to forgo computer usage. Honestly, Prime95 at 98C, X5560 is rated much lower, an old game, Left For Dead, still above 80C.


Can any kind of modern HSF solution help me? Keep in mind, Dell Precision T3500. X5560. Evga 430 Watt PSU.



Thanks!
Click to expand...

We can't help you too much if you don't have the money to spend, because at the absolute minimum, you need to replace the stock paste with a fresh application. If the cooling has never been touched as long as you've had it, the TIM has long worn out. Even the nice stuff I reapply every few years on my machines. You can buy a tube of the Noctua NT-H1 for less than $7, and it will last you awhile. If you don't address this at the least, summer/winter temps won't matter, the CPU will just fail, and it's already cooking itself.

Noctua is one of the few manufacturers of server-grade/compatible HSFs that aren't vacuum cleaners in noise output and still do an excellent job. The D9DX I linked should fit (again, ruler, and I suppose you should measure the distance between the mounting pins on the heatsink and make sure they are the same as the intel spec: 80mm hole to hole around the outside) and is well worth the investment. Replacing the front two fans with spare 80mm fans if you can get them will drastically improve airflow, then moving the old ones to the rear of the case where the open mounts are, or adding a small fan to the stock HSF.
 
NT-H1 is the only paste I've used for many years myself.

Not sure what I can say about the rest, have never owned a case myself that wouldn't take 120's, but have read over time Noctua makes some nice lower profile air ones, just never had the need to use one.
 
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I'm pretty sure the stock heatpipe cooler is enough for that cpu. If that pc has a duct to the cpu cooler you may need to remove it and add fans in the front. Dell seem to have deisgned cases like that to produce the least amount of noise and use least amount of fans while keeping things at "goog enough" temperatures. Unfortunately that means there is barely ant airflow. Probably just removing the side panel would improve temperatures.
 
There are tons of cheap cases out there -- throw your components in a $30 Rosewill or something, get rid of the tiny, poorly laid out Dell chassis.
 
silent-circuit said:
There are tons of cheap cases out there -- throw your components in a $30 Rosewill or something, get rid of the tiny, poorly laid out Dell chassis.
Click to expand...

The T3500 does look like it may use a standard ATX form factor motherboard so that may be an option.
 
Cooler master hyper 212 evo is an awesome unit. I've ran that for a while with good results. Really good price too, cant go wrong.
 
dabomb6 said:
Cooler master hyper 212 evo is an awesome unit. I've ran that for a while with good results. Really good price too, cant go wrong.
Click to expand...

Again, The Dell cooler mount is non-standard. A custom made mounting system would be required to mount a 3rd party cooler.. or even a stock Intel cooler.
 
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