What to do with a tower?

[gshock]

I have a tower that's a couple of years old. I took some old hardware, HD's, Sound Blaster card, Nvidia card, NIC, etc, and patched together a DIY system. It worked okay, but the CPU would always overheat. Even now, it's creeping up to around +140°F. I've posted elsewhere on [H]. It's a socket 462 chipset on an ASUS N78X MB. I've gotten some really good suggestions for a new system, so I'll probably just mothball this one and start fresh. I've also got a couple of LG DVD/CD-RW drives, perfectly good, only a couple of years old, two 30GB HD's, and a 3.5" floppy. I'm guessing that this would be fine for family/friend, just browsing the internet, email, goofing, etc. But the CPU keeps cooking, and I can't seem to find a good way to cool it because the chipset is so old.

I was thinking about tinkering with LC, just to see if I could do an "at home" system and get it to work. I had a friend who made one from a heater core (from a car) and an aquarium pump. He had it oc'd and running at about 88°F. yeah, that would be fun to try.

Comments, questions, suggestions .... wild, crazy ideas, all are welcome.

TIA,

 

[leSLIe]

go crazy with CPU & Heatsink lapping!!! that along with some nice thermal paste and a big heatsink/fan ,cuz size does matter ,would make wonders for your temps!!!

 

[BinarySynapse]

Is that 140F (60C) at idle or under load? If under load that's not really that bad depending on the actual CPU (thunderbirds were hot SOBs),

( I see you keep saying chipset, but can't help to think you mean CPU. They are two different things).

 

[Dangman]

Make sure that the HSF is making enough contact with the CPU. Make sure that there is still some thermal paste between the CPU and HSF. Make sure that there is some airflow inside your case that passes through/over the HSF. Make sure that the HSF is cleaned of all dust, dirt and other residue. Make sure that the fan on the HSF is actually working at its full speed. If not, just use a new HSF fan.

 

[gshock]

go crazy with CPU & Heatsink lapping!!! that along with some nice thermal paste and a big heatsink/fan ,cuz size does matter ,would make wonders for your temps!!!

That was part of the problem originally. There weren't many choices for heatsinks when I bought the one I have, and the fan sizes didn't really get much bigger than what I've got. Of course, I'm a noob and don't really know what I'm doing. Maybe you should show me...

 

[gshock]

Is that 140F (60C) at idle or under load? If under load that's not really that bad depending on the actual CPU (thunderbirds were hot SOBs),

( I see you keep saying chipset, but can't help to think you mean CPU. They are two different things).

Yes, that's at idle. I went into the Setup when it boot up, and I was watching the CPU temp creep up from 140 to 143-144, and over right there. The system would never boot up Windows, but I could get into the setup.

Yeah, I keep saying chipset instead of CPU because I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I know enough to know that, this plugs into there, but not what they are, or why they work together.

Know what I mean?

 

[gshock]

Make sure that the HSF is making enough contact with the CPU. Make sure that there is still some thermal paste between the CPU and HSF. Make sure that there is some airflow inside your case that passes through/over the HSF. Make sure that the HSF is cleaned of all dust, dirt and other residue. Make sure that the fan on the HSF is actually working at its full speed. If not, just use a new HSF fan.

That could have a lot to do with it, now that I think about it. The fan is fairly clean, but could use a wipe. I'm sure I've taken the heat sink off at least once to check the socket # and didn't put more paste back on. I have one case fan, and I'd like to add a second, case came with two. Only using one currently. I just got the pigtail to run the second recently.

Sounds like my problem is more because I'm a knucklehead and less like a mobo issue.