How are you guys cooling your systems

[BaldEagl]

Are you actually measuring case temp or system temp?  Mine monitors system temp, which to my understanding is the temp of the North Bridge of the mb.  My mb has a North Bridge fan and heat-sink (as I think most current boards do).

If that's the case, then it makes sense that the system can run warmer than the processor.  My system temp (North Bridge) is always ~10C warmer than the processor and my GPU is about 10C warmer than that.

[NHawk]

My northbridge runs near the same temperature as the case itself. Usually 2-3 degrees C warmer. So, it's in about the same range as what you stated for your system.

My current GPU does not have a temperature sensor on it. But, the new one that's on the way should and it will exhaust to the outside of the case.

[Hamltnblue]

His temps are too high for water on an X2. My Koolance idles at 77F with room temp of 69.
He was showing 60C which is way too hot.  His heatsink might not be seated correctly or he might not be using heat sink compound.

Razer and I have been having a discussion about this(http://forums.checksix.net/showthread.php?t=4281 if you want to see his setup, etc).  His system seems to be running rather hot and is thinking about liquid cooling.

The reviews I've seen about it seem rather...well...uninspiring.  I know for some folks, it works great and gives good results.  And I know others who have seen little real change compared to a regular system.

So...we're kinda looking for what others are doing.  Water. Air.  Cooking oil (kidding!)

Thanks

[Charge]

Water. I've had it for three years now and all the leaks there has been have been my own fault and caused by piping connections in DIY watertanks. I have water blocks only on CPU and GPU, chipset and memories rely on the airflow from front fan. I have one 120mm fan in the front pushing air inside and one 120mm in the back pushing air out of casing and through the cooler. The forward fan operates at 6-7 volts, and the rear fan in the cooler is controlled by the BIOS and aims to keep the temperatures at 50C. Normal temp for CPU is between 40-55C depending on the load and GPU rarely peaks at 60C under heavy load.

The most problematic for me was to find silent 120mm fans. After a few bad purchases I tried two fans tested by some overclockers site and those were really silent, especially if run at low voltages. Fluid bearings and as many blades as possible and it will move air even at low speeds. The comp still keeps noise but its a very low monotonous hum and doesn't bother me at all.

On water tank i have located the incoming flow higher so that it starts to keep a bubbling noise when the water is low so I know when to add some.

AMD 4600XP DC, NV8800GT, 2xKingston HyperX 400MHz 1Gb, 3xHDD, Cooler: Black Ice GT Extreme 120.

-C+

[alskahawk]

 My system runs 35-40 degrees after exiting the game. Antec 900 case. Asus MB, 3.2Ghz AMD, 10k HD, 8800GTS Video card and a Thermaltake V1 cpu cooler. I think the Antec 900 is worth about 5 degrees.

[SD67]

Zalmann Flower with Thermaltake fan, 1 inlet case fan in side and 1 exhaust in top, both 80mm and one huge heatsink and fan combo on NVIDIA GPU.

[Twist]

I just looked and the mobo and CPU are running at 38C with only explorer, Kaspersky and SB X-fi sound panel running in the taskbar. There is a 120mm intake in the front and one in the back and one on the side pulling in fresh air. The PS has it's own venting out the bottom. The CPU fan is blowing away from the processor. I was thinking about reversing the fan on the side to blow out but wasn't sure what that would do to the air flow inside.

I experienced the BSOD a few days ago but discovered the cause was having my joystick and headphones plugged into adjacent USB ports. Problem solved.

It can't hurt to flip the fan, will post results. Aces doesn't seem to cause as much heat as does WOW. We turned down the graphics settings in both until I resolve this.

Thanks for all the replies.

7Razer

Edited to add these links on the case:

http://www.hardwarezone.com.au/reviews/view.php?cid=22&id=2336

http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cases/coolermaster/cases/cm690/

The last link is similar to my setup with a few exceptions. The temps he got were what I expected to get, not the 54c I'm currently getting after game play.

[BaldEagl]

I just looked and the mobo and CPU are running at 38C with only explorer, Kaspersky and SB X-fi sound panel running in the taskbar. There is a 120mm intake in the front and one in the back and one on the side pulling in fresh air. The PS has it's own venting out the bottom. The CPU fan is blowing away from the processor. I was thinking about reversing the fan on the side to blow out but wasn't sure what that would do to the air flow inside.

I experienced the BSOD a few days ago but discovered the cause was having my joystick and headphones plugged into adjacent USB ports. Problem solved.

It can't hurt to flip the fan, will post results. Aces doesn't seem to cause as much heat as does WOW. We turned down the graphics settings in both until I resolve this.

Thanks for all the replies.

7Razer

Edited to add these links on the case:

http://www.hardwarezone.com.au/reviews/view.php?cid=22&id=2336

http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cases/coolermaster/cases/cm690/

The last link is similar to my setup with a few exceptions. The temps he got were what I expected to get, not the 54c I'm currently getting after game play.

Your rear case fan is supposed to exhast air out the back of the case, as are any top fans.  All others, front/side, etc. are intake fans.

Your CPU fan is supposed to blow from the top of the heatsink down into it (toward the CPU) and out the sides to take the heat out of, and away from the heatsink.  The side vent or duct is supposed to allow fresh air IN for the CPU fan.

I'm not sure how you got the fan to blow the opposite direction but that's likely the problem.

Also, the PSU has an intake in either the front or bottom (possibly both) and an exhause out the rear.

[OOZ662]

Because of the way the air flows around the enclosure that my PC was stuck in, I've rearranged and reversed a lot of the fans. It just takes common sense.