Question on cooling & PC performance

[Thunderwind]

I am having a huge argument with someone concerning my PC. I have told this person that when my PC is on for an extended period of time and the heat builds up that it tends to slow down in performance & can cause crashes. The room that my PC is currently in is a bit stuffy and when I sit next to my PC (it is at shoulder level) the immediate area is quite warm.

She is telling me that this is nothing and the PC should run fine, therefore I should just keep it on all the time. I told her that the heat build up is a problem and I want the damn thing off when not in use!

Who is correct?

PC specs below

Thanks

[Matridom]

[quote]Originally posted by Thunderwind (Steven Henry):
<strong>I am having a huge argument with someone concerning my PC. I have told this person that when my PC is on for an extended period of time and the heat builds up that it tends to slow down in performance & can cause crashes. The room that my PC is currently in is a bit stuffy and when I sit next to my PC (it is at shoulder level) the immediate area is quite warm.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Ok, let's straighten out a few things.. P4's are DESIGNED to slow down when in a situation of overheating(60 celcius i think..) and will NOT cause system stability issues (AMD WILL cause system crashes) Second, heat does not "Build up". When properly cooled, the cpu will shed excess heat when idle and will stay at a reasonable tempurature when cranking the cycles. Third even though CPU's get hot, they do NOT get hot enough to heat the room.

Your monitor is probably putting out more heat than your computer is (unless you have an LCD panel)

[quote]<strong>
She is telling me that this is nothing and the PC should run fine, therefore I should just keep it on all the time. I told her that the heat build up is a problem and I want the damn thing off when not in use! </strong><hr></blockquote>

I have a p3-800 and it run 24/7 ALL the time, my average CPU temp is about 30(this is also case tempurature.. about 10 above ambient) when idle, when i'm cranking the cycles, I'll hit 45. Proper cooling is important, you need to get the heat of the CPU and ambient tempurature will have minimal effect on the system performance.

[quote]<strong>
Who is correct?

PC specs below

Thanks</strong><hr></blockquote>

Well, she is correct if the computer is properly cooled. If not properly cooled then you WILL experience slowdowns(not sytems crashes on your rig). It is however your choice on wether or not to shut down the system when not in use, many things need to be taking into account.

My recommnedation? Make sure that your system has sufficient cooling, Turn it on on the morning, leave it on for the day, then do a shutdown at night. Monitor of course, should be turned off/put to idle when not in use.

[gxavier]

Word to everything said above.

And crack a window...itll help ventalation a TON, allowing cooler air to get in.

[Thunderwind]

Real quick, late for work, the PC does warm the entire room with monitor off. not a big room, but it does. I guesss it could be the power supply that does that too.

[Matridom]

[quote]Originally posted by Thunderwind (Steven Henry):
<strong>Real quick, late for work, the PC does warm the entire room with monitor off. not a big room, but it does. I guesss it could be the power supply that does that too.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Uhm, I'd look somewhere else for the heat source. At most your using a 450 watt power supply.. i would suspect that you have a 350 watt. Now let's assume that your power suply is a perfect heater (I.e. 100% of energy is converted to heat) and we are running it for 1 hour, that would mean you could Evaporat about 0.1477 gallons of water(1195 BTU). Now lets assume that your components are inefficent and produce about 50% wasted energy(meaning heat being produced with 50% of the energy) Now your heating to the equivilant of 597.5 BTU of energy, or roughly the same has a 7x7 foot surface in direct sunlight for the same period of time. a point to note, most computers are efficent and only wast about 10-30% of energy into heat (a 4x5 foot surface in full sun). Oh, all numbers above are in the assumption that you are using 100% of the power output of the P/S (wich most don't)

What you need to remember is tha ALL components produce heat. Motherboard, Videocard, soundcard, hard drive, network card, modem, ram, fans, cdrom's.. erverything. If your room is heating up because of the computer, then it's only one part of the puzzle. i would make sure that the room has better air circulation has stated above.

[Kermit D. Frog]

I have come across an instance on a P3 machine where the power supply fan acutally blows down into the machine, and the case fan at the front blows out. But the grill in the back of the power supply got almost completely clogged causing enough heat to make the side of the case quite warm to the touch.....So in other words, just make sure you're cooling is setup properly.

[styxenstones]

My guess is the monitor, because in our old school the lab would get extremely hot with the 15" monitors but when we get new 17" ones we were having a problem keeping the room warm enough in the winter because they cut off the heat to the room from the 15" monitors.

[AlleyCat]

I think proper ventilation is in order. You should probably add a case fan or two. Do you have a side case fan in place that removes the heat from the inside system or something?

Maybe you just have sensitive skin?

[Thunderwind]

It is an alienware PC, so there are 1 power fan, 1 case fan in back, 1 on side, 1 in front, i did open a window and it help tons. I downloaded a heat gauge of cnet.com, it says the PC is ok around 81F. i am going to install the temp program that came with the intel board to see what it says. for some reason the temp gauge that i installed seems to be only reading the HD temp, not the board.