Hardware & Technical Not about Beta. General question to any PC buffs about my PC case

Hi, any help or suggestions appreciated.

Had a friend of mine build me a gaming PC and don't get me wrong, its awesome and very fast. Graphics are astronomical and the memory is great. When he built it he said it was future proof to a point which I believe as I have had no problems and the inner workings are sound, BUT the case he put the components in is a standard PC case. Since I got it playing simple games and running utilities has not been a problem but since I started playing Elite: Dangerous the fan has been going mental like it is about to explode and the PC is getting VERY hot. I am thinking I need a better case with more ventilation and fans but I don't know which case I should go for as there are so many on the market?

I have seen a few photo's of some of your set up's and I think Dang! they are in the know!

I have done the usual clean out of dust and such forth but I really don't think this case is helping.

Cant get hold of the guy that built the PC so over to you guys?
 
Whats the current case?

How many fans do you have?

What CPU and cooler? what gpu?

Do you know how to get the current cpu/gpu temps when playing? youtube is you friend here

all this will help people help you:)

edit you can pick up a good case for £60 and a super case for £160
 
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Pics would help - of the case and the internal layout.

Sometimes overheating can be solved by moving a single cable or reconnecting a fan.
 
ED does heat things up a little, it could just be a matter of cleaning the thermal grease from the CPU and replacing it. i had a similar problem with my PC and a basic £16 cooler and new grease sorted it out.
 
Whats the current case? - DABS online basic cheapy.

How many fans do you have? - one.

What CPU and cooler? what gpu? -M4A87TD EVO - 2x2GB PC3 12800

Do you know how to get the current cpu/gpu temps when playing? youtube is you friend here - NO. how can I check that?

all this will help people help you:)

Think that's right, trawling through the instruction manuals to find what is what!
 
Pics would help - of the case and the internal layout.

Sometimes overheating can be solved by moving a single cable or reconnecting a fan.

Ok I will open it up in the morning and take pics. (that sounds soooo wrong)

Its a lot of good boards running in a bad case though. Its like putting a Veyron engine in a robin reliant.
 

Vectorman

Banned
Hi, any help or suggestions appreciated.

Had a friend of mine build me a gaming PC and don't get me wrong, its awesome and very fast. Graphics are astronomical and the memory is great. When he built it he said it was future proof to a point which I believe as I have had no problems and the inner workings are sound, BUT the case he put the components in is a standard PC case. Since I got it playing simple games and running utilities has not been a problem but since I started playing Elite: Dangerous the fan has been going mental like it is about to explode and the PC is getting VERY hot. I am thinking I need a better case with more ventilation and fans but I don't know which case I should go for as there are so many on the market?

I have seen a few photo's of some of your set up's and I think Dang! they are in the know!

I have done the usual clean out of dust and such forth but I really don't think this case is helping.

Cant get hold of the guy that built the PC so over to you guys?

The fan sounds will be from your graphics card, my HD7970 runs at 100% fan speed with elite on.
You can buy an aftermarket cooling solution for your graphics card which will let you add water cooling or a better fan setup for the graphics card - this requires some computer knowledge as it would mean stripping the old heatsink and fan off the graphics card so i doubt you would want to do that.

You can purchase a larger case with more room inside which will allow the heat to dissapate better naturally - again, needs computer knowledge to transplant the parts out and im not sure what case you have at present?

Third option is just to fit more case fans to the PC, buy some more expensive ones online that are silent so dont make much noise, fit the front fans as intake and rear fans as exhaust.

Keep the PC away from sources of heat such as radiators or in conservatorys (thats torture for a PC in the summer)
In terms of very hot, how hot do you mean, have you ran any CPU/GPU temperatur monitoring programs?

Ive seen many modern graphics cards chugging away at 80'c without a problem so dont worry about your card overheating unless its going nuclear.

If its the noise of the fans thats annoying you and you dont want to do any of the above then you can always drop the resolution and graphics settings in elite to put less strain on your graphics card. ;)
 
I can highly recommend the Zalman Z9 Plus case. Don't let it's low price put you off - it's a fine case with awesome airflow, better in fact than cases 2 or 3 times the price.
Mine houses an i5 2500K O/C to 4.3gHz & a GTX 660, & it's internal temperature only gets over 26 degrees Celcius on the hottest days. Not a noisy case either. :)
 

Vectorman

Banned
I can highly recommend the Zalman Z9 Plus case. Don't let it's low price put you off - it's a fine case with awesome airflow, better in fact than cases 2 or 3 times the price.
Mine houses an i5 2500K O/C to 4.3gHz & a GTX 660, & it's internal temperature only gets over 26 degrees Celcius on the hottest days. Not a noisy case either. :)

Water cooling?

If my internal temp was only 26'c on air cooling i'd be inclined to think my sensor was out of calibration and do a BIOS update, but thats just me.
 
The fan sounds will be from your graphics card, my HD7970 runs at 100% fan speed with elite on.
You can buy an aftermarket cooling solution for your graphics card which will let you add water cooling or a better fan setup for the graphics card - this requires some computer knowledge as it would mean stripping the old heatsink and fan off the graphics card so i doubt you would want to do that.

- If im doing that then I might as well go for a new case which would cost less more than likely.

You can purchase a larger case with more room inside which will allow the heat to dissapate better naturally - again, needs computer knowledge to transplant the parts out and im not sure what case you have at present?

- Very cheap. It is a very basic case made for normal home PC's not gaming PC's

Third option is just to fit more case fans to the PC, buy some more expensive ones online that are silent so dont make much noise, fit the front fans as intake and rear fans as exhaust.

- Cant, there is only one fan input unless I start cutting holes in it.

Keep the PC away from sources of heat such as radiators or in conservatorys (thats torture for a PC in the summer)
In terms of very hot, how hot do you mean, have you ran any CPU/GPU temperatur monitoring programs?

-PC is in a room that max's 18 C in the middle of summer. I mean hot as in JEESH!!! That is border line burning my hand when I touch it and I have had to shut it down twice because the PC is actually heating the entire room. I have not done any heat diagnostics as I don't know how to.

Ive seen many modern graphics cards chugging away at 80'c without a problem so dont worry about your card overheating unless its going nuclear.

-Hope so! lol. Think my PC might go nuclear itself soon!

If its the noise of the fans thats annoying you and you dont want to do any of the above then you can always drop the resolution and graphics settings in elite to put less strain on your graphics card.

-The noise doesn't bother me. It just adds to the engine noise effect! :smilie:

;)

See altered quote. And thank you!
 
Had a similar heating experience

Yep - had that problem in Alpha, VERY HOT. But despite a high spec PC, they skimped on the graphics card. Tried an additional fan - did very little - and regularly froze running ED.

Was given a free GTX 750Ti, 2Gb graphics card to keep me from complaining too loudly - this has two fans - and it still gets hot running ED, but no fundamental crashing.

Have installed an additional fan - cause I had one spare. So ED is a hungry one ...... no other game comes close to hitting my graphics card as ED.

So consider upgrade if they skimped on the graphics card - or wait until they optimise the code etc.....
 
I can highly recommend the Zalman Z9 Plus case. Don't let it's low price put you off - it's a fine case with awesome airflow, better in fact than cases 2 or 3 times the price.
Mine houses an i5 2500K O/C to 4.3gHz & a GTX 660, & it's internal temperature only gets over 26 degrees Celcius on the hottest days. Not a noisy case either. :)

How much would that set me back? :)
 
Yep - had that problem in Alpha, VERY HOT. But despite a high spec PC, they skimped on the graphics card. Tried an additional fan - did very little - and regularly froze running ED.

Was given a free GTX 750Ti, 2Gb graphics card to keep me from complaining too loudly - this has two fans - and it still gets hot running ED, but no fundamental crashing.

Have installed an additional fan - cause I had one spare. So ED is a hungry one ...... no other game comes close to hitting my graphics card as ED.

So consider upgrade if they skimped on the graphics card - or wait until they optimise the code etc.....

Optimise the code? Could it be running so hot because ED is in BETA? My machine isn't crashing but I just don't want my PC melting for a demo!!
 
Not going to suggest a case (it's too personal a choice IMO), but you don't get a better case by paying more. Normally you are paying for the marketing hype.

It's all about the size that suits your needs and air flow.

I'd recommend a case with front back top and side fans (air in at front and side and out through top and rear.

If you can hide most cables behind panels and partition the psu from the rest of the machine you can keep cool with a clear path for the air (and run quieter).

A modular psu also helps keep cables to a minmum.

Read the reviews before you buy too.

Maybe have enough left over for a trackir. ;)


Water cooling?

If my internal temp was only 26'c on air cooling i'd be inclined to think my sensor was out of calibration and do a BIOS update, but thats just me.

My cpu runs at 26-29 on just desktop on air.

Never check it when playing ED (too busy to care) :cool:
 
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