AMD Athlon 1900 (overheating)

[Mainframeguy]

OK - try to keep background to this short.... I have a low-profile (compact) machine along these lines except the CPU is an AMD Athlon 1900+ and it has been suffering BSODs which I am pretty sure are simply heat related. How do I know? Well during summer I removed the stock H/S and fan and replaced with a better fan and marginally larger H/S (there is very restricted room there to fit anything truly superior).

Reformatted and installed XP Pro - BSODs more or less eradicated, but lately (three months or so later) they are again reaching regularity where machine cannot hold up for 24 hours folding without a BSOD.

So I am thinking.... do I go in again and measure up for max size H/S and fan assembly I can install and change that to resolve? I know it cannot be any of the truly big boys (like my favourite Zalman 7000) maybe someone can recommend a compact unit that gives best cooling? Noise is irrelevant because this machine is about as loud as they come.

Other WTG for me is to strip out all I can easily take - certainly CPU, Optical Drive, and HD - possibly everything except case (this seems crazy, because retains some of the limits of existing system - but might be easiest for XP to stay installed troublefree). This latter option is a slightly tricky one, I happen to have built a custom desk/shelf place where the unit sits and it is EXACTLY the size of the box.... I suspect if I move to another box I might choose SMFF but budget (do not want to spend too much, main objective here is to make machine functional at smallest outlay... I may add second HD to extend life of machine beyond present 40GB HD).

So... opinions welcome... esp from anyone who has been presented with similar situation and resolved it OK...

[EDIT] Just realised - Low profile will be a factor - not sure if my mobo will be ATX compliant in every way from that.... plus my PCI cards (I think there is just one for firewire in there) will be "short" - can you get "extenders" or soemthing if I want to move to standard case? I'll have to look through my junk box - I have a funny feeling I got one when I bought a low profile USB2 card for another machine recently! Just thought I'd better put this considersation in since just thought of it [/EDIT]

 

[joko_xp]

Frostytech - Articles & Reviews
http://www.frostytech.com/articles.cfm
see that 1u coolers?

 

[Mainframeguy]

thanks joko - of course now I am not in the house with the overheating machine this is no longer a concern (aiming to gift them a whole new machine, my Linux dual booter AMD 2600+).... but thanks all the same for the solitary post!

 

[leedogg]

Is it an nforce2 board? if so, try this cooler patch:

http://www.newgenerationorder.org/

 

[Mainframeguy]

nope - MSI - but thanks to you too!

 

[LordOfLA]

Liquid nitrogen get the family playing mist

Id' hazard a guess at it being ram since the bsods go away on a clean install. Ram or ide controller slipping a bit every now and then which overtime elads to corrupted files leading to crashes and bsods.

 

[American Zombie]

I use this on my 3200+ and it keeps the cpu real cool plus it is quiet.

Silent Boost

But I agree that BSOD are most times ram related.

 

[Mainframeguy]

hey folks - almost certain due to compact case! Someone close down this thread! I mean - I cannot even get into the friggin house withthe machine! (some threads are meant to die a natural death..... although I LOVE Lords idea!!! what does that s**t do to people and pets though?!!!)