I'm looking for opinions, so here's my situation. What I've done is a Power Mac (Sawtooth) Mod, fitting a PC inside. The specs:
Aopen MK77-8XN
Athlon XP 3000+ (Barton)
Spire heatsink with glacialtech fan (removed the Spire fan because the case wouldn't close)
512Mb TwinMOS 400Mhz
160Gb 7200RPM HD
NEC 3500A DVD+-R
Enhance 300W PSU
FireWire PCI card
I don't care about games or 3d power so I just installed an old TNT2 AGP card I had laying around.
The case itself is not made for a PC (duh), and on the original Mac mainboard (or logicboard as Apple calls it) the processor is located on a different location. On mATX mainboards the processor is located very close to the backplane connectors and in my case (i.e. situation) the processor with heatsink and fan almost touches the PSU when the case (i.e. the Mac case) is closed. Hence the airflow isn't really what it should be.
On full load the cpu reaches about 67C (which is insane, I know) and even higher because once the system shut itself down when I wasn't there (probably the 70C setting in the BIOS). I know it's not really a good setup to run your system like this, but I don't really care about the lifespan as long as it doesn't burn through my mainboard or sets my house on fire. I have managed to put another processorfan somewhere in the case and I am currently waiting for another 120mm casefan (does about 37CFM) that will replace the defective fan that was originally in the case, hoping it will lower the temperature a bit. The AGP graphics card will be blocking quite a bit of airflow from the new fan though...
- The problem is definitely the airflow, with case open the processor runs at 35-40C full load
- I don't want to start with watercooling or liquid nitrogen or anything like that, it needs to be air-cooled.
- I want to keep components in the space that was designed for them as much as possible
Does something like a half height ATX powersupply exist, creating more space between the cpu and psu allowing for a better airflow?
All ideas welcome!
Aopen MK77-8XN
Athlon XP 3000+ (Barton)
Spire heatsink with glacialtech fan (removed the Spire fan because the case wouldn't close)
512Mb TwinMOS 400Mhz
160Gb 7200RPM HD
NEC 3500A DVD+-R
Enhance 300W PSU
FireWire PCI card
I don't care about games or 3d power so I just installed an old TNT2 AGP card I had laying around.
The case itself is not made for a PC (duh), and on the original Mac mainboard (or logicboard as Apple calls it) the processor is located on a different location. On mATX mainboards the processor is located very close to the backplane connectors and in my case (i.e. situation) the processor with heatsink and fan almost touches the PSU when the case (i.e. the Mac case) is closed. Hence the airflow isn't really what it should be.
On full load the cpu reaches about 67C (which is insane, I know) and even higher because once the system shut itself down when I wasn't there (probably the 70C setting in the BIOS). I know it's not really a good setup to run your system like this, but I don't really care about the lifespan as long as it doesn't burn through my mainboard or sets my house on fire. I have managed to put another processorfan somewhere in the case and I am currently waiting for another 120mm casefan (does about 37CFM) that will replace the defective fan that was originally in the case, hoping it will lower the temperature a bit. The AGP graphics card will be blocking quite a bit of airflow from the new fan though...
- The problem is definitely the airflow, with case open the processor runs at 35-40C full load
- I don't want to start with watercooling or liquid nitrogen or anything like that, it needs to be air-cooled.
- I want to keep components in the space that was designed for them as much as possible
Does something like a half height ATX powersupply exist, creating more space between the cpu and psu allowing for a better airflow?
All ideas welcome!