September 13, 2006
Upgrades and stability
Last week, my computer started making more noise than usual. No big deal, I've got a few fans in there, one of them must be a bit loose, right?
Then, last weekend, the thing just shuts down by itself while I'm in the middle of something. This is suboptimal. I boot it back up, and it gets to the Windows loading screen before shutting down again.
Huh.
So I go to the BIOS and hey, the CPU temperature is at 59C. It gets to 60C and shuts down.
Great.
Crack the case, bust out a can of air, hope it's just dusty, and leave the case open for more ventilation.
Works for about two days before shutting down on me again.
Time go look into cooling solutions.
I started out with this:
your standard comes-in-the-box AMD CPU fan - note the aluminum construction - which upon removal turns out not to have been making great contact with the CPU due to poor application of thermal paste on the part of the shop I sent it to this spring.
Now I've got one of these:
, a Zalman CNPS7700-Cu.
Freaking thing weighs two pounds and has a 120mm fan. Now my CPU runs at about 30C. It's quieter too.
Much better.
you need a mac.
Posted by: jolie at September 14, 2006 12:47 AM