Heat wave and stress on computer?

[signmeuptoo]

Ok guys. I live in the area the Weather Channel is now calling "the ring of fire" where temps are set to exceed 100 degrees by a few in the coming days. Right now in my room it is 94 degrees.

I stopped my folding to ease up on my CPU and that helped my MCP too. My CPU is up to as much as 41 on light load, MCP up to 50, and GPU up to 64. I am only surfing/doing light stuff.

Now, my Infiniti supply is rated at 40 degrees C, which is, IIRC, 104 degrees F.

Do you all think I should shut down my system until tonight when it cools, or at what temperature WOULD you shut the system down at? I don't want to damage any parts and most of my system is built from parts I bought off of others, so I can't just send stuff in on warranty, heh.

Am I being too paranoid? Do Matt's and Jonny's tests approximate such temps?

What temperature should I shut down and live without?

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by signmeuptoo

Am I being too paranoid?

I think this is closer

Do Matt's and Jonny's tests approximate such temps?

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=102

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?...hlbnRodXNpYXN0

[signmeuptoo]

So exceeding rated temps isn't as serious? But what about my GPU and MCP? MCP is up to 50 and GPU up to 64 already...

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by signmeuptoo

So exceeding rated temps isn't as serious?

The unit simply derates...as long as you aren't near the full capacity of the unit you won't notice.

But what about my GPU and MCP? MCP is up to 50 and GPU up to 64 already...

Depends on your cooling and what you are doing. Surfing the web, and using office apps isn't going to cause the units to get hot enough for it to be a problem even with 100F ambients.

[signmeuptoo]

Ok. I was never able to get a straight answer in the DIY forums about what temperatures are bad for the MCP. I realize the MCP is a hot chip, it would have to be, after all, it is a NB and SB combined! I have a brand new Evercool VC-RE to put on it, but I still need to lap it and I don't feel up to removing the motherboard right now, not in this heat, heh.

What I was wondering is, well, how hard is this heat on the windings of the transformers and Toroids of the supply, and on the capacitors... I keep thinking that heat could cause caps to dry out faster, but I don't know how well sealed electrolytic caps are...

[GalvanizedYankee]

MOSFETs are rated at about 125C or higher. It is they, that drive heat into electrolytic caps because the copper traces in the PCB offer very short path to the caps. On main boards and cards MOSFETs are surface mounted but inside PSUs they are generally attached directly to the sinks. The secondary caps are buried under the PSU's output wiring and this will hamper cooling air flow. The secondary caps used in your PSU are an unknown brand, AFAIK, but they are rated at 105C and generally these are found to have a rating at 85C. No biggie either way. Generally 85C caps have a lower ESR than the 105C rated guys.
Note: This is why high-end motherboards are using heat-piped cooling for FETs and polymer or solid-state caps. Electrolytic caps still have a place in this world because of low cost and they can be had with very low ESR.

RubyCon(respected brand) says that for every 10C drop in working temp below the 85C rating, cap life doubles. So an 85C cap rated for 2000 hours working at 45C should live for 32000 hours...Simply! Do not worry.

willawake, a respected tech over at Badcaps.net put this site together. You may wish to look it over. http://www.capacitorlab.com/

[signmeuptoo]

Thanks GY, that was a very thoughtful post and great help. I think my biggest concerns now are simply the GPU and MCP. When I get a foothold financially I'll get a good cooler for the video card, but it is hard deciding which one.

I'll have to start lapping my VC-RE pretty soon, too. I'm a little nervous about the removal of the stock cooler...

I wonder if I should add HSs to my motherboard MOSFETS?

[GalvanizedYankee]

For some reason FETs are generally bigger squares on boards that use AMD procs. Sidewindercomputers.com and others sell small sinks that stick on with frag tape. My Asus Intel board has tiny self made sinks on its FETs that are bonded on with Arctic Silver epoxy.

The FETs that serve the CPU are the hot ones. They are between the proc and the I/O plate. The fets that serve the VGA slot are next then the guys that serve the RAM. The caps nearest these FETs serve them.

You will notice that many vertical CPU coolers have the lower fins bent on the exhaust side to direct air into the I/O plate area. As long as the case has decent air flow I would not worry. I know of hill-billies that draw filtered air from under the house because it is 15F cooler. All this cooling will improve componet life and add a little to a stable OC.

Read the pdf on the left well, study it if you must. I use full sheets of wet or dry. http://www.easypckits.com/

[signmeuptoo]

Yeah, I bought the lapping kit I have already from him! Good stuff, but I wonder if it is still good enough for more jobs, I think it is. What PDF?

[GalvanizedYankee]

The pdf is the set of instructions on the left of the easypckits link. Click on it.

A hillbilly over at Anandtech used this idea for a cool 'n clean computer. He used cloths dry ducting to come through the floor of a raised foundation house...it had a crawl space. He said his small computer office was cooler too(also ). A guy over in India used it because his factory comp was shutting down once a week from over-heating, cause by the dust of polymer part production. http://overclockers.com/tips1092/
A couple good used air filters with the wire mesh covering(like in the pic) to keep out bugs 'n small critters, a decent 100cfm 120x38mm fan or more and cool clean quiet air can be your's. No need to use steel plate, painted wood would do nicely. BGMicro.com and AllElectronics.com sell 120 fans that are 110VAC and high output. If you consider this, 100 to 130cfm is more than enough. Soft ducting will help kill fan noise. Hard ducting, like aluminum will direct the noise into the comp.


Now...listen to http://www.kfat.com/ I used to tune in back in the day when it was live. Good stuff!