Cooling my optiplex 755

[Justin McCrea]

cooling options for Optiplex 755, suggestions plz??
Dell Lga 775 mobo
Seagate Constellation 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3. 5"
8 gb Crucial Ballistix sport 1333 mhz
hd radeon 7750
creative xi-fi sound blaster
Linksys 10/100 ethernet pci

Also, I know my HD is at the top of my bottel neck right now, what the fastest hd i can support and how would you set that up with the games on the fast hard drive and the os on the existing hd??

 

[bambiboom]

Justin McCrea,

As far as I know, the Optiplex 755 came in three case sizes and so the choices for cooling and for video card upgrade would be different. If you have the slim desktop one, anything resembling a full size card would have to go on the optional riser and even with the mini-tower case, the card is limited. I think there were single height HD 7750's- check carefully to see if your case can accommodate a dual height card. Also, I think there was a choice of two PSU's (375 and 525W?) which would also affect video card choice. Besides the case format and PSU, could you also mention the CPU model and speed? OS? Also, importantly, for what do you use the Optiplex? Finally, when you use "HD" as the bottleneck do you mean HD Radeon or the hard drive?

Sorry- all questions!

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[Nikolay Savov]

Hi
System Front Fan and system back Fan are the easy to add but i`m not sure you can in you current PC Case - i believe you have MT Dell Optiplex 755
The other issue is you don`t have fan`s connectors on the mobo - you must seek fans with Molex power connectors.
http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_755_techspecs.pdf

About the HDD.
You can support drives up to 3Gb/s you can add SATA 2 or SATA 3 but SATA 3 will work on 3 Gb/s instead of 6 Gb/s.

I preffer system with SSD for OS and second HDD drive for gaming , movies and data.
The main bottleneck is OS performance and random R/W is the main reason.
Adding SSD will "give an litle air " of you system

 

[Justin McCrea]

My apologies its the mid tower, i allready have all mentioned components (hd 7750 and yes its single hight cause the cpu fan shroud gets in the way.) I have a logi sys 550w psu, core 2 duo e8400 3.0 ghz win 7 64 bit, it's my temperary gaming pc till I get my build done but I still would like to invest in the cooling as when I am done with my build I will be giving this machine to my nephew. sorry I was refering to my hard drive.

 

[Justin McCrea]

The most upgradeable tower of the series

 

[Justin McCrea]

ok and what about cpu fans?

 

[Kisianik]

ok and what about cpu fans?

Why do you need cooling? Do you have overheat? Per Optiplex design, front fan is CPU fan, and there is no official place for an exhaust fan. Also, you most likely have aluminum heatsink, which should be enough for your CPU, there is one more copper heatsink available, which used with Quad processors (yes, you can upgrade to Quad). Those heatsinks are Dell proprietary and can not be upgraded very easy, actually I did not see different heatsink yet.
So, one more time, where is you problem? If you need more cooling, how do you come up to this conclusion?

 

[Justin McCrea]

I ran a load test with occt and I set the program to stop if the temp hit 85, well it hit 100 before it could stop the testing. Ive read anything over 90 can hurt your machine and anything over 80 for any sustained period is not good either? I'm more than comfortable to modify the case! I mean really it's a refurbished machine with a limited warranty that I don't really care about! Yes I am aware I can go quad but like I previously said I am giving this machine to my nephew eventually and as I do not do photo editing or anything like that, and pretty well just game and browse the web, videos, email, music, etc. I do not need the multi cores as i would see no real benefit from them and if my bro wants to shell out the cash for it later he can. But as I am ordering parts for a completely different build as we speak I'll pass but thank you Tell me more of this copper heat sink! And you say not very easily, what would it entail to do so? Plus I would like to increase air flow around my 7750 as I would like to try to make it a little more stable at desired clock speeds, I have been doing a bit a searching around and I am comfortable to mod the back for a exhaust fan and the removable side panel with a large fan if I can find one to hook up to my power. I have also been looking at some software for overclock the cpu, which yes I realize the mobo is locked but I have been reading it is possible to squeeze a little more out of them and was thinking of trying. Regardless I haven't had this machine long and as winter is winding down I am having to reduce clock speeds on my 7750 to maintain stability due to heat and I can see this problem getting only increasingly worse as the summer sets in.

 

[Cazalan]

If you have free PCI slots these can work wonders and they're relatively cheap and quiet.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200018

You may need a 4pin splitter to accommodate it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812201006

 

[bambiboom]

My apologies its the mid tower, i allready have all mentioned components (hd 7750 and yes its single height cause the cpu fan shroud gets in the way.) I have a logi sys 550w psu, core 2 duo e8400 3.0 ghz win 7 64 bit, it's my temperary gaming pc till I get my build done but I still would like to invest in the cooling as when I am done with my build I will be giving this machine to my nephew. sorry I was refering to my hard drive.

Justin McCrea,

From my experience with an Optiplex 740 in the slim desktop case the stock fan and Aluminum heatsink worked well with a 3.0GHz dual core AMD X2 64.

But, as your test ran quite hot, or think you're nephew might upgrade to a quad core CPU, as this thread has discussed, there are few options unless you add fans. You might start with changing the stock Aluminum heatsink- it's a casting with vertical fins in a V pattern, for the Copper/Aluminum version that has parallel plate fins with a Copper tube running through from bottom to top. As far as I know, the CU/Al heatsink was supplied when there was a higher clock speed "Extreme" or a quad core CPU. Here's an example>

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Optiplex-745-755-760-320-330-360-Heatsink-With-Shroud-/261196689364?pt=US_CPU_Fans_Heatsinks&hash=item3cd0892fd4&nma=true&si=hx0slaT%252B8%252BFhIQYLLiGpKQYv5tg%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I saw on eBay completed listings what appeared to be an all-Copper heatsink which would probably be the best for heat transfer, but that one might also be the one for the slim desktop format case.

I think - not absolutely positive- the heatsink shrouds are the same- there are a series of holes on the top that with the stock heatsink are empty and with the Cu/Al the Copper tubes show projecting tips in those holes.

as you can see form the eBay completed listing, these heatsinks / shrouds are seen often on Ebay- are not expensive- I see the Optiplex 755 Cu/Al including shroud for as little as $10-15. I bought a similar- if not exact set for a Precision 390 just this morning for $10, shipping included, as that 390 may be changing to a quad core.

Check the condition (RPM) of the CPU fan too. You might also see if there's a software control that could run the CPU fan faster. I was thinking of adding a 92mm fan to back of the case of a Precision T5400, but the PCI slot fan as suggested by Cazalan looks interesting and space efficient.

Cheers,

BambiBoom