CPU heat

Running the system means heavy loads not so rarely on the HTPC. So I considered it of high importance to test out thoroughly the CPU's temperature / system load relation - especially because by default I didn't put any kind of ventilation into it. The occasion come quickly: not much time passed using the system when I felt the necessity to build my custom kernel to be able to have the latest patches and bugfixes of the kernel tree.

I was compiling the latest kernel available at kernel.org and soon it turned out that unventilated CPU's temperature can climb up slowly to a top that's not really healthy on the long run - ~60+ Celsius degrees core temperature. The maximum recommended operating temperature of a dual core AMD is 65 Celsius degrees. I had to put the process into background with Ctrl+Z and let the system rest for some minutes and then use 'fg' command to get it back running. With this method I managed to compile it without risking the CPU's health.

Next day I decided to look for a final solution for the heat misery. The decision was to buy 2 case fans of 12 cm diameter and think out where to put them in the rig. I went for a cheap but silent solution called GlacialTech Silent Blade 120 Case fan Black. I thought I will have to fix them onto the case. But in the end remembering the review of the Thermaltake Sonic Tower I just tried to merge the passive cooler and the fan. (I put away the second case fan.) It was easy, the passive cooler had the screws and the metal part already in the package. A thin screwdriver helped to complete the operation smoothly. Gave it the 12 volt power cable and power on! Let's see what it does! Wow, it was just superb! The CPU temp started at 25-27 degrees and pumping the unit with heavy load could only make it climb around 40-45 degrees in the core of the processor. Yes, that's what I was in need of... One 950RPM ventilator with a 15 cm high passive CPU cooler tower + passively cooled motherboard + fanless PSU... the most silent and safely cooled PC I've ever put together. :-)