desk cooling

J

jslater25

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
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474
My computer tower resides on the inside of a desk's cabinet. The enclosure looks similar to this:
http://furnitureoutletamerica.com/images/products/secondary/800511-1.jpg

The cabinet has a door on the front (which I leave open when I am on the computer), plus a decent sized opening near my feet, and it also has a door on the back of the desk. That rear door is open roughly 3 to 4 inches, as that is all the room I can manage between the desk and the wall.

Unfortunately the computer still overheats whenever I start gaming, so I've had to resort to setting up an oscillating fan that points towards the enclosure. Because my wife doesn't like the aesthetics of this setup, and I don't like the excessive noise, I'm hoping to come up with an alternative solution.

Any suggestions on how to get better air flow through the enclosed cabinet (assuming that I leave the doors open when gaming)?
 
What type of system (CPU + GPU) are you cooling? Do you have an after market heatsink? Are you overclocking? Is water cooling an option? (Drill two holes in the back of the desk to an outside radiator)

What are your temps for CPU + GPU at full load? A picture of your exact setup would be very helpful as well or at least the type of case in what size desk area.
 
All dust has been cleaned out of both the computer and the desk enclosure.

The computer in my signature is what I have currently in the desk: an AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE and a Radeon HD 4850 GPU. I am using the stock coolers for both. I do not overclock either.

While watercooling could be considered, I'm not sure I understand how that would help (although that's due to inexperience with water cooling). I'm certainly willing to look into this option further.
The enclosure is what gets too hot as there is no air circulation. My understanding is that water cooling would still heat the enclosure, although it might take longer to reach alert levels.

As to getting the exact temps, I'll have to do that once I'm home. Same for the exact setup picture. The computer's case is an Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX midtower.

I have an intake fan (120mm), an exhaust fan (120mm), the GPU fan and the power supply's fan.

I'm considering getting a couple 120mm fans and setting them in the back of the enclosure to move air out the back. This would be fairly quiet (I think) and would not be noticeable because the fans would all be in the rear of the cabinet.
 
Can you take the rear door of the desk off? That sounds like the biggest restriction, and you don't need that door if the desk is next to the wall.
 
also what case do you have do you have any kind of intake or exhaust fans also
 
Try upgrading your case fans to Thermalright TY-120s or X-Silent 140s that move more air. Replace the rear door with a louvered door or grill.They would be a good choice outside the case too.
With the front door open or replaced with a louvered door you should be alright. A good aftermarket CPU Cooler will help move air, One that, when mounted blows air toward the rear fan.
The SLK-3000 is an older case, I do not know if it can move enough air.
In general, cheap (and some expensive) cases come with inadequate fans. There is a trade off between moving air and noise and cost. A gaming case is expected to move a lot of air, a lot of quiet fans, the bigger the better is the easiest way to accomplish this.
A Cooler Master HAF 912, if it would fit, comes with one fan front and one rear. You can mount two 120, or one 200mm on front, one 200 mm or two 120mm top and one 120 mm on bottom.
The Rosewill Challenger comes with three mediocre fans but will mount two on the side.offers good cooling.
Lian Li does some very good cases.
I suspect you need a case with a bottom mount PSU. Either you have one efficient enough not to move much air, or old enough to fight its own heat.

The idea for water cooling is you would mount water blocks on the CPU and GPU then mount the radiator
outside the desk removing the heat absorbed from the enclosed area. This would work but involve a great deal of effort.
 
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Good information all. And for those of you asking about case and fans, please see my previous post.

I will look to see if I can remove the rear door altogether, as that does seem like a good solution. With wtourist's information regarding water cooling, I'm not really sure I want to go that route. Just seems like a lot of trouble for little gain.

I plan on removing the door (if possible) and perhaps ordering a handful of 120mm fans. I'll swap out the fans that I already have in the case (there's two already in it) with the Thermalright TY-120's (if I can find them; I don't see them on Newegg) and perhaps build a row of 120 fans to mount at the back of the enclosure.

Swapping cases might be a last resort if I cannot get the airflow, but I think it's more the ambient air than the airflow inside the case.
 
jslater25 said:
I plan on removing the door (if possible) and perhaps ordering a handful of 120mm fans. I'll swap out the fans that I already have in the case (there's two already in it) with the Thermalright TY-120's (if I can find them; I don't see them on Newegg) and perhaps build a row of 120 fans to mount at the back of the enclosure.
Click to expand...

I think ordering the fans is a probably your best bet and installing as many as possible.

Which 4850 do you have? If it is one with a reference cooler than came out when the first 4850 came out you might want to think about replacing that cooler. I got the 4850 when it first came out and with the stock cooler I was getting temps in the mid 90's. I could not game in the summer without the case door off and A/C on until I replaced that cooler. That might be the first place to look if it is only happening while gaming.

It would look something like this

Look at the temps

In an enclosed environment it will get even hotter until it would shut down like your experiencing.
 
Your also running stock cooling on the cpu have you thought about going with an aftermarket cooler like the a50 a70 or the true something that will blow air out the back of your case rather than down at your mobo. as for the video card try adding a pci slot fan to also suck air away from and out of that case. Also do you have anything in the side panel fan slot??
 
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