1 Year old Cyberpower PC Overheating problem

[no_RegretsYSL]

Hello everyone,

I put my specs down at the bottom, so here goes. My PC idles around 108 degrees F. When surfing the net and watching HD movies I get around 113 degrees. When playing 90% of games I get up to mid 120s. When playing Diablo 3 or Star Wars the Old Republic (MMO) I get up to 131 degrees F.

I specify 131 because that is when games start to stutter and soon I get a Blue Screen of Death. I avoid this by using the latest Catalyst Control Center to turn my GPU (AMD 6870) fan up from 40% to 60-65% This usually takes me out of 131 degrees down to a playable 127. As for fans I have 3, one a part of the Aprevia Xplorer 2 mid tower case.

I would very much appreciate some tips on how to keep my PC cooler as well as an answer to why I get Blue Screened at such a temp.

Specifications (Cyberpower pre-built):


CASE: Apevia X-Plorer 2 Mid-Tower Case w/ Side-Panel Window and MultiMeter Display with 200mm UV Green LED Fan

CPU: AMD Phenom™II X6 1055T Six-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
FAN: XtremeGear Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
HDD: 64 GB A-DATA S596 Turbo Series Gaming MLC Solid State Disk
HDD2: 1.5TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
MEMORY: 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module (Kingston HyperX)
MOTHERBOARD: GigaByte GA-870A-UD3 AMD 870/SB850
POWERSUPPLY: 800 Watts - XtremeGear Gaming Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready
VIDEO: AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 16X PCIe Video Card

Im guessing this might have something to do with the cheap cooling and/or cheap PSU. Even though its 800 watts it was the stock Cyberpower PSU a year ago as it doesn't say anything about being 80 Plus. Wouldn't be surprised if the specs were similar to what they have now :
• Model No: ATX-CB800W
• AC Input Voltage: 115/230V
• AC Input Frequency: 50~60Hz
• AC Input Current: 13A (RMS) for 115VAC Input
• Output: 6.5A (RMS) for 230VAC Input

I'm willing to upgrade anything. I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to check this out. Also my PC sits on top of a desk in a room with an avg 70 degree F ambient temp.

 

[cbrunnem]

is it the cpu or gpu thats getting that hot. either way neither temps are in the danger range. the max for that cpu is 63c and the gpu is like 105c i think.

its probably something else thats wrong.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Take the side off and airdust your fans out with compressed air. That would probably help a lot.

 

[Dogsnake]

Does the build have filters on the fans and are they clean. Have you checked the radiator to be sure it is clean? Most L.C. set ups bring outside air into the case across the radiator and then expel the warm air from the case. Are all the fan blades clean? An easy check to see if it is a heat issue is to remove the side panel and run the system open. If the issues go away then look to find what has decreased your air flow and ventilation.

 

[no_RegretsYSL]

Hey thanks for the quick replies. I took the side panel off and air dusted again and ran it with near same results (1 or 2 degree difference but my windows are open and its colder outside). The last time was a couple of weeks ago. I used about half a can with a vacuum cleaner near by to suck up all the loose dust. You guys don't think I need to replace any parts so far?

 

[Dogsnake]

So next easy test is to see if decreasing the game quality makes a change. Try setting all the eye candy to their lowest. If the game becomes playable then start to notch things up until the issues appear. Have you contacted Cyber Power, is any warranty in effect? It is possible the vid card have a defective component or solder point and as heat rises it's defect occurs. You seem to have isolated the issue to the vga as you say you can offset the issue by increasing the cooling on the card. I am sure the card is under warranty.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Also would be curious if the video card is using liquid cooling. It's possible it may need a fresh application of thermal paste.

 

[po1nted]

What exactly is getting hot? What are the specific temps of each component when heat reaches these levels?

What is the temp (in celcius) for the GPU at load and the CPU at load? Where are you taking the 131 degree temp from and how?

 

[no_RegretsYSL]

I have an LED on my case that gives out a temperature in Fahrenheit. However I used my Catalyst Control Center to handle my GPU fan. The temp at start up (when i get home after having my PC on sleep mode for 11 hours) is

89 degrees F on my case LED
51 degrees C via Catalyst Control Center

131 degrees F is what my case LED says when I play the 2 games mentioned.

I need to have a 2 foot fan running externally, not necessarily on high but running in order to keep my LED readout in the 120s. Yesterday I played without my external fan running (eye candy turned down) and I still got to 134 before getting blue screened. However when I put my 2 foot external fan on next to my PC I was able to play Diablo 3 will my case LED read 120 - 122 degrees F. I hope that helps.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Not really. Download HW Monitor

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Try reading temps with that app. It should give you a better picture of what's happening.

 

[Dogsnake]

Even though you used compressed air to blow clean the system please inspect the fan blades, covering grills and radiator slots to be sure they are clean and not obstructed. The case has a fan controller, what speed setting is being used. You can remove the video card to inspect the card fan. I have no idea what temp. location the case read out applies to. Since 134F=56.7C I cant think of any item that should fail at that temp. If that temp. applies to the interior case air then it is high. The video card is good to 80C easy. The cpu would be ok at the 56c. So can you tell us where that temp. is taken from in your system. What is the ambient air temp. of your location? This is critical. If you room location is very warm it would be helpful to know.