Putting a case's side back on will of course change the airflow dynamics, but ideally change it for the better. You should have about the same amount of CFM coming in as you do going out the rear. If there is an imbalance, overheating can occur.
You should have a cooling fan on the HD. If a front case cooling fan for it, then the HD cannot be directly in front of the fan since that is where the least amount of air flow is. It needs to be off of the fan's hub, either just above or just below. This method will restrict air coming IN to the case, so you need at least one more front case fan. You're getting good cooling when the HD temp is 31-350C, about 88-950F. It should not be above 88-900F idle. Best cooling for a HD is a cooling unit made for a HD. Either the kind that attaches below it, or putting the HD in a 5.25" bay behind a dual or triple fan cooling unit. In either case they should be filtered. AMD CPU's run hotter than Intel. The stock retail AMD HSF units are not very good and one should get an aftermarket HSF unit. Many times an additional fan(s) needs to be blowing towards the CPU & HSF unit area on an "arm" of some kind. 1180F is bit hot for idle for a CPU. Be sure you have good thermal compound between the CPU and HSF unit. Nanotherm PCM+ or Arctic Silver 5 is good. Thermal pads are not, nor is the typical white silicone compound. -Clint God Bless Clint Hamilton, Owner http://OrpheusComputing.com ) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Vern" < When I had the side cover off my computer the CPU was running around 43 C. and the harddrive the same. With the cover back on the CPU went up to 48 C. and the hard drive went down to 33 C. Is this normal? AMD 1.4 GH two hard drives but I only get a reading on the C: drive Vern ============= PCWorks Mailing List ================= Don't see your post? Check our posting guidelines & make sure you've followed proper posting procedures, http://pcworkers.com/rules.htm Contact list owner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribing and other changes: http://pcworkers.com =====================================================
