Cooling a Prescott Down

I got a Pentium 4 3GHZ Prescott with stock HSF. I'm wondering what are some practical ways to cool it down. During the day, it goes up to 60+ and the fan noise becomes very unbearable.

I can only shell out a few bucks...nothing much. My house doesn't have air conditioning as well. >_<

What are the room temps? Do you have good air flow in the case? What's the internal case ambient temps? How many case fans do you have, and what's their configuration...i.e. how many and what size are blowing in, and exhausting out? How much is a little money?

peace

1 CPU Fan
1 Side Panel Fan (Outtake)

Room and case temperatures...I'm unsure of. Computer is in the kitchen.

Would a pic of my case help?

Holy crap! That's all the air cooling you have in the case + a stock hs. No wonder you're having heating problems. Also you might want to rethink the location of your system. The jkitchen is not a good place for a system...with all the cooking = steam/mositure, airborn grease = gums up internal components, the unfortunate spills, extra heat from the oven....I'd say move it. Next, you need to have good air flow within the case if you're going to air cool a hot cpu...i.e. the prescott.

First, tie back all the internal cabling to help promote goo air flow.
Next, you really need a front intake fan, 99% of all cases have slots for such fans, usually just underneath or next to the hd bay.
To increase air flow, install a top blow hole/exhaust fan.

Make sure you match up the airflow CFMs (cubic feet per minute) of your intake and exhaust fans. i.e. match up like type/make/model fans for each.

Fans are not expensive at all, and you can do the top blow hole in 20 minutes or less with a Dremel or a little longer with the Nibbler ( link )

peace

Oops...just realized the side panel fan was actually an intake (Blows air in the case).

2 Questions:

1. Would removing hte PCI slot covers help improve airflow?
2. Should I move the side panel fan and switch it around to make it blow air out and put it on the back panel?
3. I have a small CPU fan from my old computer, should I add it?

You'll want front to rear ventilation, its best to have larger slower quiter fans then the small faner noisier fans. Look for 120mm front intake and rear exhaust. You'll want a blowhole too, leave the side as an intake. That should help alot.

I feel as though I say this too much: Tape a 20" box fan and take off both sides of the case. This should really help with cool and will cost 10$ for the fan and 5-10$ for the duct tape.

exhaust is more important then intake. a case with 1 exhaust fan will have lower temps then that with 1 intake fan

Should I move the side panel fan to the bottom front?

no leave it and get an exhsaust fan

Outside Case (Front):
http://img53.exs.cx/img53/7605/OutsideCaseFront.jpg

Outside Case (Side):
http://img69.exs.cx/img69/8509/OutsideCaseSide.jpg

Inside Case (Main):


Inside Case (Bottom Front):
http://img59.exs.cx/img59/7772/InsideCaseFront.jpg

You should get two rear exhaust fans (see those 2 fan spaces) and a good intake fan under the HDD.

What I did was switch my side panel fan to an intake, and all the rears as exhaust. With the front-bottom one as an intake as well.

This dropped all my temps dramatically. I use to be on the same setup as you but then I went out and spent $20 on some good fans. Helps alot.

Those fan grills...if I cut them out, will it void my warranty?

I wouldn't worry about the warrentee on the case, it's not going anywhere. You can cut them out or not, but cutting them our will increase the CFM you can push out. 2 in back blowing out a goo one in front blowing in, and you should be good.


peace