Cooling options/suggestions for PC

[Wintermute]

Bought a PC last year and it's got the basic stock options by way of fans and works fine. Bit of a rumble under load and a humming when idle at night but nothing I'm not used to from using a laptop for years.

Thing is my room is a shoebox, so running the system 24/7 heats up the room a bit, and this summer made sitting indoors a bit unbearable.
There's also the slight concern that the air going in is air that left the tower a while ago.

Priority though is that since I'm living by the Med.Sea air is always hot and humid in the summer, and since summer gets hotter every year I want to do what I can to keep the system cool and chugging along whilst making sure my room isn't a furnace.

So I'm looking for cooling options to help keep exhaust/system heat down as much as possible.
Not so much worried about CPU/GPU strain/heat since I don't overclock and stick to older games that don't strain the system much.

Following questions might be stupid but it's 1am, I've been dealing with retard Poker Players and CS agents for 9 hours, and I'm a system building nub, so bear with me.


Will replacing the stock cooling fans on CPU/GPU actually do much in reducing the teperature of the air removed from the tower or would I be better off getting another fan or an exhaust PCI card to suck the hot air out faster?

If a better performance fan would help reduce the heat output would a CPU or GPU upgrade be the better option?

Fan-wise I've been looking around, at the moment my 8800 GTS has the stock fan any my CPU is running a Sanyo-Denki C25697-001 which I believe is also stock.

Currently the CPU cooler blows air direcly down towards the chip and it's got one of those funnels on the tower side to help it suck air in.
If I replace the CPU fan would I need to stick to a Top-Down stlye fan to accomodate the funnel?

If I did purchase a fan that incorporated a large heatsink with a fan blowing on the sink sideways (Zalman CNPS9500-AT) rather than down towards the chip would I need to modify the tower or current fan/exhaust setup to assist air flow?

Mobo is an ASUS P5B, and the manual tells me it's a LGA775, would a Zalman CNPS8700-NT be a decent replacement for the current cooler?

On the GPU side I was looking at the Zalman GV1000 or the Zalman VF1000-LED, the latter moreso because it's cheaper but looks like I'd also need to purchase a Zalman ZM-RHS88 Heatsink to mount it on to attatch it to my GTS 8800. Worth purchasing over stock considering the increased price tag from haivng to purchase multiple components?
Don't run SLI so taking up room isn't a concern.

Keeping in mind I want to cool the exhaust coming out the back to minimise how much my room resembles a furnace what would your recommendations be? Aiming for a cheap and cheerful option if possible but I understand system cooling options are long term investments.

Unfortunately "take side panel off and use a table fan" isn't an option, no room on desks for tower+fan and the dog would likely stick its nose in the tower if I took the panel off.

Considered building a makeshift panel from wire mesh but the dust buildup would likely increase quite a bit.

Also conisdered water cooling, but from what I read it's expensive and not worthwhile if you don't overclock so I'm a bit put off that option.

[Cephius]

The thing you have to remember about PC cooling is that it's largely dependent on your ambient room temperature, not the size or amount of fans you use. Before I answer your questions about fans and heatsink options, a better plan for you might be how you can make your room cooler. Can you use some fans in your room to get cross ventilation going? Invest in a portable air conditioner? Move your computer to a cooler part of your house? If you live close to sea, try to get to a part of the house where the sea breeze comes through your window, goes past your PC, and exits through a doorway or another window. Placement is everything with PC cooling, yet so few people take it into account. If you can lower your ambient temp by a few degrees, it's the same if not better as adjusting your internal cooling options.

That was longer than I intended it to be, but it is important. Anyway.

Replacing the stock coolers will have an effect, but remember the best you can do is equal your ambient temperature (unless you use water cooling) so keep that in mind.

A new CPU or GPU won't help with your cooling, but some are designed better to operate at high temperatures.

Most retail heatsinks are designed with cooper tubing or fins that absorb the heat from the processor and then blow cool air across them to cool them. Most blow across rather than down on the chip, so ideally your case will suck in cool air from the front and sides, and blow hot air out the back.

Water cooling is always an option, but it can be expensive (around $150-300 for a starter pack) and you need a case that is designed for it unless you're handy with a dremel and comfortable doing it yourself. You have to be very careful when using water cooling, because obviously water + leaks + sensitive electronics = bad. Like you said, for someone who doesn't overclock, this is kind of a waste. I'd try improving your room conditions, and if need be, buy some new cooling options.

[Avanarius]

Replacing the stock coolers will have an effect, but remember the best you can do is equal your ambient temperature (unless you use water cooling) so keep that in mind.

Water cooling is still entirely dependent on ambient temps unless your talking about using a compressor or other sorts.

What it does do better, though, is pull heat away from the chip faster. But to be perfectly honest, it's way too hard to upkeep and it's not worth the overclocking gain compared to a high end air heatsink.

BUT keep in mind you need really good airflow to keep the benefits of air. Watercooling doesn't suffer as much from poor airflow for obvious reasons except the radiator.


Also to expand: Heat coming out of the back of a computer = good. If you want less heat, you'll simply have to use lower powered parts equating to less performance. It's not something you can avoid unless you use a compressor which is noisy and not very practical. The only thing you can really do to cool down your room is to open the door or window.

[levish]

a better cpu heatsink won't change the wattage output of your system, it just moves heat away from the processor faster.

what you want to try is undervolting and turning on pretty much every power saving feature you can and possibly moving a high efficiency PSU "right sized" to keep it in the sweet spot.