Cooling Atom CPU with 12cm fan?

24
2013-08
  • Questioner

    Before I go ahead and try to build my very own case to do this... has someone bought a mini-ITX board like the Atom-based Gigabyte GA-GC230D, and removed the small CPU fan that comes with it to replace it with a slower, quieter 12cm fan mounted on the case, right in front of the CPU heatsink?

    Here's the plan:

    enter image description here

    That way, the PC will be quieter, and thinner since I'll save room between the heatsink and the case.

    • Answers
  • LukeR

    I'd be more inclined to beef up the heat sink and go fanless. Better yet, build the heat sink into the case.

    To be honest, if you focus on ventilation and airflow for the case, going fanless probably wouldn't require much more than removing the fan.

    Something along these lines http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/562984

  • xeon

    I have an Intel Atom based motherboard and the fan is actually on the chipset not the Atom itself. The Atom does not produce much heat at all. So the CPU can be without a fan for sure, but the chipset will need some more cooling. A smaller fan and or larger heat sink with some airflow will work well.


    • Related Question

    cooling - CPU or Motherboard
  • LoveMeSomeCode

    I think i damaged my CPU, but I'm not sure. I got a new graphics card(GTX250) and so i imagine the inside of my case was a bit warmer, but after a week or two the CPU started beeping, so I installed CoreTemp32, and it says my Athlon 64 X2 4400+ is idling in the 50s and frequently getting into the 60s, which is clearly too hot.

    I replaced the heatsink with a bigger one, and put in a thermaltake case fan, same temp.

    I figure maybe because I took a week to deal with it and it beeped a lot I damaged the chip and now it's just heating up too fast, but is it possible that the MOBO is damaged and feeding too much voltage to the chip?

    the reason i ask is that i'd like to just go get a cheap AM2 chip and replace it, but if the MOBO is damaged and I need a new one anyway, i may as well just get an AM3 MOBO/chip combo. I just dont want to drop 60 on an AM2 chip and have that get burnt up as well.

    any thoughts on this? I really dont need any MORE cpu power than i had, i just want the best solution for the money.

    thanks

    EDIT: I should add that i'm pretty sure the chip itself is toast. the computer now locks up a lot and individual windows crap out alot when the system is under load for too long. So i'm replacing the chip for sure. It's really a cost effectiveness issue. Should I get a cheap AM2 chip and be done with it, or could the MOBO be bad and fry that too? It's safer to get a board/chip combo for twice the price, but do i need to replace the board? This chip normally idled at around 25-30 and now it idles at 45-50.


    • Related Answers
  • osij2is

    Since you didn't mention anything about thermal paste, I'll chip in my two cents. Often it (thermal paste) gets overlooked, over/under applied and is usually the main cause for CPU heating issues. Replacing Heatsink Fans (HSF) is typically a situation where the paste needs to be cleaned off (acetone works well) and reapplied, but like most people, we forget to do so.

    Ambient temperature from a video card would not be the most likely candidate in this issue (edit) unless ventilation is extremely poor. I'd have to wonder if you applied the right amount of paste and spread it correctly as well. I can see this may have been overlooked and gradually overtime, the effectiveness of the paste between the CPU and HSF slowly deteriorated.

    At this point, my bet would be on the CPU/thermal paste if you did not properly apply it the first or second time. Assuming that my hypothesis is correct, all you'll need is a CPU.

  • mosiac

    Is there good ventilation in the case to begin with? If you want to test and just see if HEAT is an over all issue open the case and point a large fan into it like a desk fan. This isn't a fix but a way to find out if heat in general is your problem. Without any issue other than shutting the system down it's hard to say if it is the mobo or the CPU.

    The beeps are they in a pattern at all? Or does it just beep a few times and shut down the machine?

    I would try another cpu that fits in the mobo if you don't mind using a slightly expensive test to see if that's an issue.

    EDIT: If you want to replace something. I would replace both. I'm not going to say you have to because it sounds like the mobo is ok, but you never know without proper testing. You could also keep that mobo around for a side project later if you wanted..