Temperature madness

[Kr1z]

It goes that everytime I fix one temperature problem another one arises...
The last temperature problem was with my CPU. I can say I have some nice air cooling power all around the system. It would idle way in the 40s and low 50s, load was around the 70s. Decided to switch the case, P182 to a Antec 1200, great news, idles low 30s, load at low 50s. Couldn't be loving the new temps any more, but now I noticed my GPUs were now in serious heat. Now my motherboard, evga 780i, was also another problem in my other case, but that wouldn't really affect the temperatures this high. My first 8800GT would idle in the 60s and loads in the 70 and even higher. Second card was better, not going much higher than 60 load. Those were my temperatures with zero overclocking on the GPUs. Can't even play a game without crashing within 10 minutes. I only had SLI for a while, and it doesn't seem worth it, even at my resolution@ 1920x1080. So now I want to get a new single slot GPU, new CPU cooler, and possibly a new motherboard. Even with around 9 120mm fans and massive 200MM can't cool down the GPUs and motherboard.

To sum it all up for people who can't follow that -

* New CPU cooler
* New GPU
* Possible motherboard upgrade

I was possibily thinking a GTX280 and TRUE black edition?
I really don't want to mess with watercooling just yet. But I would like the most extreme, over the top air cooling stuff in my case ;]

System
Antec 1200 Case
eVGA 780i
Tuniq Tower 120
Q6600@ 3.15GHZ 1.24v
eVGA 8800GT 512MB SLI both with S1 REV2 coolers
Auzentech Prelude
4x2GB RAM @ 1000MHZ

 

[Xeth]

60/70 load is not a high temperature at all for 8800's. Have you considered the possibility that this is due to instability from overclocking?

Also it sounds like you're trying to use the heat issue as an excuse to just upgrade, period..

 

[Kr1z]

Heat issue or no issue, I was still planning on upgrading lol. CPU oc is rock solid, and never had a problem with gpu oc, with the oc off for the gpu it didn't crash on less intensive games. But I don't see why all of a sudden I had problems, even with the coolers.

 

[pbXassassinX1524]

Those temps seem plenty manageable to me, I have run my CPU and GPU much hotter then that and not had any problem.

Another thought, I had what I thought was a rock solid OC on my system (IBT, Prime 95 24+ Hours, Memtest 86+ 13+ hours) but it kept crashing in games. The only time I was able to make it crash outside of a game was simultaneously running GPU and CPU stress tests (Prime & RTHDRIBL was enough). I don't know FOR SURE what the problem was, but I think it had to do with the OC for that vcore was so borderline that any drop at all in voltage (like when really loading up the PSU) caused it to crash. 1 notch higher vcore (which was at stock setting) fixed it.

Don't know if thats the case for you system but it took me a while to work that one out.

 

[BillParrish]

Its your money and do what you want, I tend to agree with Xeth.

Do you have fans on the S1's ? Are they controlled by the video card ? If not is the lower side fan on the case set to blow inwards ?

8800GT's are known for running hot and not overclocking much over the factory settings and the first ones had a bios that ran the fans too slow. There is an updated bios on the EVGA site.

Again do what you want, however imo the only thing about your post that makes any sense to me is the upgrade to the single more powerful video card. There is something wrong with your setup and I cant quite figure out what it is without a lot more information. With that case set up properly nothing should be even close to getting too hot. I suspect the NB as it is the component that gets the workout when the video gets added to the mix. Have you modified/enhanced the cooling for it ?

I also suggest you try orientating the TRUE to point (exhaust) upwards and flip the upper rear fan around so it blows in onto the TRUE. If you have room to do that it will drop your temps by 4C or if on PWM you will notice the heatsink fan running much slower at idle and load. Or rip it all out and replace everything. /shrug.

 

[Kr1z]

Its your money and do what you want, I tend to agree with Xeth.

Do you have fans on the S1's ? Are they controlled by the video card ? If not is the lower side fan on the case set to blow inwards ?

8800GT's are known for running hot and not overclocking much over the factory settings and the first ones had a bios that ran the fans too slow. There is an updated bios on the EVGA site.

Again do what you want, however imo the only thing about your post that makes any sense to me is the upgrade to the single more powerful video card. There is something wrong with your setup and I cant quite figure out what it is without a lot more information. With that case set up properly nothing should be even close to getting too hot. I suspect the NB as it is the component that gets the workout when the video gets added to the mix. Have you modified/enhanced the cooling for it ?

I also suggest you try orientating the TRUE to point (exhaust) upwards and flip the upper rear fan around so it blows in onto the TRUE. If you have room to do that it will drop your temps by 4C or if on PWM you will notice the heatsink fan running much slower at idle and load. Or rip it all out and replace everything. /shrug.

Theres zero space to put fans on either. Theres a PCI card in the middle of the two GPUS and the PSU gives little room to add a fan to the bottom S1.
Yes its set to blow inwards, and the side fan on the case door is set to blown outwards.

 

[Bunkey]

First off, I could never tame an NVidia board, Abit 680i or XFX 780i. But most of my problems from a game crashing was from the Video Driver and, or, Video Software Utility. I suggest a good uninstall, back to MS generic video drivers, and a fresh install. Be sure to disable programs or applets and, especially security (firewall, antivirus) during the install. This might cure the game crashes and come to think of it, I went so far, as doing a new install on the game itself to finally make it playable.