Best way to cool an Athlon XP Barton?

[Glass]

My CPU temp is making me nervous. I recently installed a new hard disk drive, bringing it up to 5, all in my PC. That, coupled with a fanless Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB (It has two massive heatsinks on each side) I believe is what sent my CPU temp to it's record high of 75C/167F. So I took out all the hard disks and now the CPU is back where it was, idling at 58C/136F and peaking at about 63C/145F, but I need to put at least 3 hard disks inside the PC, and I would like to get the temp as low as absolutely possible.

The CPU is cooled by a Zalman CNPS5100-AlCu Heat Sink & Fan, and the temp readings are from CPU Socket, not Diode. I can't get a diode reading apparently, but my case temp is 33C/91F. Should I try to get it cooled more as well?

There is one condition for whatever cooling solution I employ. It has to be very, very quiet. I carefully built my PC from scratch with low noise in mind, hence the fanless graphics card, Zalman CPU cooler, etc.

All ideas appreciated, thanks!

 

[Glass]

I am considering getting the Asetek Waterchill Antarctica CPU Block Kit. It can be found here:

http://www.vapochill.com/default.asp?showPage=startside.asp&contentSection=2

Looks very promising.

 

[dreamliner77]

120mm panaflex fans.

 

[canadian_divx]

SLK 900 with eaither a evercool aluminum fan at 46.7cfm for something quiet or if not quiet then a panflow jet at 102cfm and 72db LOL but a SLK900 for the heat sink nad then for a fan well that is up to you on what u want

quiet or loud

 

[canadian_divx]

if possably a mod or 2 would help, first side fan right on top of spu with a duct to it, and also a top vent with an 80mm or 120mm fan there to vent heat from top. plus 2 fans for intake and 2 fans for exust. and yea get a HSF on that video card, that would help or at least a PCI slot fan

 

[toretto]

i have a gigabyte board that reads from the socket and i am only at 45 degrees celcius, if i were you, i would make sure the heat sink on that fan is properly seated.

 

[Maveric169]

If your idle at 57C there is something wrong. My Athlon 2100+ under full load tops out at 47C. And I maintain a 7C seperation from my case temp to my cpu temp. I have MBM5 set to shutdown my comp if my temps ever hit 55C.

If you must have a uber quiet cooling solution then you really need to break open the piggy bank and get a good water cooling solution or an active cooling solution like Promethia setup. Other than that, get out the power tools and start cutting some nice 120mm holes in that case and get some air flowing with 120mm fans.

The SLK900 heatsink is an excelent choice for a heatsink and handles many different fan sizes. But you really need to get some kind of cooling going there.

 

[Kendrilanthis]

Hey, I'm running a Barton 2500+ and was having probs with temps/noise prior with a Volcano 9 attached....put on A1889-01 Silent Boost from Thermaltake and my temps are some 15 degrees cooler and I hear nothing from the case anymore, nothing whatsoever.....I love it, and it costs all of 30 bucks CAD

 

[FastGame]

Water cooling is the best for a quiet PC. With the added heat from the extra HD's you should still increase the case airflow, as others suggest 120mm fans are the way to go.

 

[Howling Wolf]

I use a Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu on my Barton 2600+, works great (37-50°C), 27 euros (~30-33$), I lost 10-15dB compared to my old Volcano 7 (a vaccum cleaner !), what a relief !

 

[LeeJend]

Something is not right with your setup. Adding the HD should not have jumped up the CPU temp like that and your CPU temp was too high to begin with.

The rule to follow is "the case should be in the 33-38 C range and the CPU in the 43-48 C range at idle assuming no overclocking".

Your case temp of 33 deg C looks good if it is correct. Is the 33C with the all the HDs or just the minimum you need to run? Check the case temp as you add HDs. If the case temp satys in the mid 30's then the problem is with the cpu cooler or the extra cables and hardware choking off the fresh air flow to the CPU.

Suggestions:
1). With 5 HD you absolutely must use round cables. Flat ones will block off all airflow.
2). You need 2 intake fans. One blowing across the HDs. The other at the bottom. This will raise the case temp but save you from crashed HDs. These fans MUST have plenty of open area in the front of the case to get the air in. Some cheaper cases have inadequate grill opening in the front. Note - Opening the front grills up will increase noise.
3). With that much heat (5 HDs) you will need a big (120mm) rear exhaust fan and a power supply with 2 fans.
4). A top exhaust fan is advisable also.
5). Make sure the CPU cooler is seated correctly and that you used arctic silver thermal paste.
6). XP3200 is max speed for the athlons and the CPU may be thermally border line at that speed. Try dropping the FSB speed about 5% (~XP3000 rating). If the CPU temp drops sharply then your CPU is pushed too hard.

Posting a picture of the case and contents will help us make air flow suggestions.