- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Removing the covers on a PC is a very short term fix. While it has the immediate effect of reducing heat, it forces the fans on your case and motherboard to work harder by circulating more air than they were designed to. It has the same effect as opening a window in an air-conditioned room might. The initial breeze feels good but soon the heat from outside overtakes the cold air the AC is creating, effectively rendering the AC useless and burning out the components faster than it otherwise would have.
In this case you're forcing the fans to move more air than they are designed to, making them usless at best, or break down completly at worst. Also, the air outside your box is dirtier than the air in your PC. With easier access to components dust will accumulate faster, making the fans less effective and burning them out faster too. Avoid taking the cover off your PC to cool it. In the end, even if they don’t get dusty (which WILL happen) the parts will grow hotter than when the cover was on (unless you're playing in an air filtered refrigerator...hmm)
If your heatsink just can't cut it for some reason, try switching to a Peltier effect heatsink or another coolant type (another Google; give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to Google, he'll buy online groceries for himself tomorrow and download recipes to boot).
DON'T TRY TO INSTALL THESE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
Air cooled heatsinks are easy; Peltier effect and coolant based heatsinks are the heatsinks that run in laptops and that's a whole other ballgame. But they're also in a whole other league when it comes to cooling your PC efficiently; they'll keep it nice and chilly when your BLAMing covenent, running a movie on your second monitor, and defraging your archive harddrive (at the same time).
There is a program called Hot CPU tester (Google Google Google) that might help. It’s designed to detect problems with hardware and (I think) CPU heat is one of the things it tests. It’s not an active program, like ZA or Bandwidth Monitor, but it should at least tell you what parts are running too much (and getting too hot) or not working efficiently (and getting WAY too hot). A freeware trial version can be found at their website.
There are also a few programs that allow you to manually control the speed of your exhaust and intake (if you have them) fans as well, but I don’t use them for the same reason I keep my box closed (afraid forcing them to work faster than normal would wear the fans and heatsink out sooner). Buy more fans if circulation is your problem; they’re cheap.
Another option is to go to a computer parts website and buy a larger case (or build one if you’re daring ;)). Even an air conditioned room has some ventilation, and your parts and fans will not work as well if they have been crammed into a one foot square cube. Mod cases are designed to hold just about any mother board, harddrive, and powersupply so you shouldn't have a problem swapping the guts from one rig to a new one. Add to that, they look cool!
How old is your PC? If it’s been a while, crack the box open (ONLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!) and spray some canned air onto the components. She might be getting hot because dust has accumulated on the fans and heatsink after years of use.
Hoped this helped
Play Fair and Good Gaming
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