I have a heating problem similar to viewtopic.php?f=11&t=13528 .

I'm idling at around 66-68 degrees Celsius. I opened up the case to allow more airflow, and it's staying around 62/63.

I have a Dimension E520, running Vista 32 bit (ACPI x86 based if this means anything).
3 gigs of DDR2 RAM, Intel Pentium Duo core (3 & 3 Ghz) processor, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE.

And if this makes a difference, I'm idling at 57.64% of my RAM (with windows sidebar running to keep track of everything - that's taking up 121.5k by itself) and both my cores are usually over 70%.

I have enough space in the back of my CPU case ( 3.5" wide, 6.5" high) to house two small fans, which I'm probably going to buy pretty soon.

So.... halp?

Do not even post in this thread again until you go through that thread and do everything that it says you should do. One of those things will solve your problem.

I have basically no idea what the other thread was saying.

All I really know about the very technical side of computers is how to change out certain devices, and how to write simple Java.

does not compute.

basically, check the heat sink is clipped down properly, if it is and isnt doing anything get a new heat sink, put your computer in a more ventilated spot, and clean out all the dust in your box.

Ok so..... Is the heatsink the big silver thingy on my motherboard?

I already opened it all up and blew out a crap load of dust. And ventilation hasn't been a problem, I've had my computer in the same spot (in my desk thing) for a year and a half.

60 idle isn't really to terrible a problem, especially if it's AMD. They run hotter but they handle heat better . Heatsink is probably copper and big. Clamped on top of the CPU. If it's loose or not perfectly stable it can create air pockets. Thermal paste conducts heat better than air, after all.

Uhhhh didn't see anything copper and big.

Is this big silver-ish thing it?

Far left side of the screen looks like it. It's on top of your CPU.

This giant thing?


Seems pretty secure to me.

Then it might be your thermal paste. I wouldn't know though. Arctic Silver is like five bucks, go check out youtube or something on how to apply it. TP is universal

When i move my hand around in the case, the coolest part is near the heatsink. I can feel the heat radiating from my power supply.

And btw I have my power settings turned on max for max performance.

Yeah your PSU emits a ♥♥♥♥ of heat.

So would a couple of fans take care of that? There is one built into it but it doesn't have variable speed, and it's pretty slow.

If you're idling at 60 C with an AMD processor, you're fine. Go buy some fans.

It's not an AMD, I just mentioned AMD because at some point in the future he may need the information :D. But yeah fans will take care of it, it's probably just Dell's poor case design.