Dell optiplex gx620 SFF cooling issues

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collegegrad2005

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optiplex gx620 SFF (small form factor)..
one of the worst design flaws for getting rid of heat.

yet its what i have. and i'm getting my motherboard recapped.

i was wondering if they make a 3.5" floppy-drive sized fan that will fit under the dvd-rom and help suck cool air into the case..

thanks
john
 
Solution
king smp
The optiplex 745/755 will accept C2D/C2Q but not the 620
they all do look alike by the way
The 620 from all my research will only use a Pentium D and
not the C2D
I could be wrong
I never tried putting a C2D in a 620 but all over the web
they say it cant be done

as far as cooling
I have the same design tower (Optiplex 745) and I removed an unused
pci slot blank
then I used a smaller sized fan connected by 4 pin molex
I used a small strip of velcro and have it blowing out the empty
pci slot across the video card

also I velcroed a fan in the center of the mobo
it takes air from the northbridge and cpu and exhausts out
the back

tower with an OCd C2D E4500 at 2.93ghz and a OCd Hd4650
runs at 25-30c idle with 60 c max load in a 70F room
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Thanks for the response.. Sadly, that device on newegg (item# N82E16817122110) is a 5.25" drive-bay intake fan that provides 3.5" harddrive cooling hookup. - it wont fit in a 3.5" floppy bay.

It seems I have searched the web high and low for a 3.5" floppy bay intake fan... NO LUCK! I think there's a huge market for floppy bay intake fans, but no one seems to make them. One dude said he could construct one for me, but before I pay him money, I'd like to find a professionally fabricated one.

In regards to motherboard re-capping, $60 parts and labor, for the rubycons. I did look at used/cheap motherboards but I dont trust the life of the capacitors on them.

I love my gx620 sff, i just wish it had better ventilation.
 
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You are right on the dimensions, sorry I didn't read more closely. Mea culpa.
 
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What about a small pci cooler if you have a slot open.
Or is it possible to cut/drill into the case preferably dead center of case or near pci bus?
I have a Dell Precision 450 workstation that I used a PCI cooler and I cut the front of the case(drills and jigsaws do wonders) it lays flat longways across and used a Dell cpu shroud (green) and created a ducted intake.
I also drilled extra vent holes above the pci bus.
Kinda looks a little Frankenstein but my cpus stay at 41c and my GPU OC'd stays at 40c at idle in a 77f room.
It depends on your level of handtool skill and how far your willing to go (the look of the tower might be important to you for example) with chopping the case.
Be careful if your not sure what you are doing.
 
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You could try one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835236001) or a 3.5 inch HDD cooler mounted in your available 3.5 inch bay. Both of these solutions may move around enough air to cool down your hot spot. You could also try to cable tie an 80MM fan (tilted slightly) in the bay as well.
 
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We have these Dell Optiplex SFF machines at work, nearly 5 years old now but my company has no interest in replacing them since they "work" :pfff:

It's true I suppose, but I've upgraded mine with a dual-monitor graphics card. Nothing fancy just a basic Nvidia NVS280, which has passive cooling so I thought it would be ok even in my little Dell case...

I was wrong. The cooling is utterly hopeless, there are two weedy little fans in the whole system, one in the front and one in the PSU. After about 7 or 8 hours use the side of the case is hot to the touch! Not good at all. I've already lost a hard drive due to the heat.

Now it's a cumulative effect, the heat only builds up after several hours and even then it's still working, just very hot... Which tells me that A: There's little / no air moving through the case and B: It's not going to take a lot of airflow to get the temps down.

My options are:

Something to go in the 3.5in bay (seen plenty of devices for a 5.25 bay but so far nothing for a 3.5)
Something to go in the slimline DVD bay (unlikely lol)
Something to go in the PCI slot that vents out the back of the case (I've seen hundreds of full-height PCI blowers, but no half height)
Something to strap on to the graphics card that vents out the back of the case (same as above there's loads of custom GFX coolers but nothing in half-height.
Replacing the case blower with an uprated fan. (Probably the most feisable solution)
Attaching a fan somewhere else...


Anything I've not thought of? Come on Dell Small Form Factor owners, someone must have conquered this??
 
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is this the pc?
gx260SFF_frontback.gif
 
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That's old Betsy alright, or one of her sisters at any rate. Mine doesn't have a floppy drive installed though.

I've been with her several years now and have spent more time amongst her ports and connectors than I'd really like to admit to.

 
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Riiight.

One problem with that. It's a work machine, located at work. I can't take it home to cut a hole in it as it has sensitive company files on it.

Also it's less than 120mm wide, so any large fan would need to go in the metal side panel. I doubt my colleagues would appreciate the unique tone of a Dremel being used to cut metal in the office.

I've bought a 40mm fan which I hope to attach to the vents at the back using zipties.

Ghetto modding at its finest, but might just work.
 
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Let me see if I got this right:
You are saing that you sucessfully replaced the stock processor of a dell optiplex gx620 (I suppose it was a pentium 4) with a core 2 duo processor? And that it works? With no mods?...

I'm asking because since I have the desktop version, I would like to do the same, but everywhere I read that it's not possible because the BIOS wont allow it (its no limitation of the chipset). I even found a forum where a guy tried a e4000 (I think...) cpu and it didnt turn on, folks even said he probably might have burned the cpu...
 
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The optiplex 745/755 will accept C2D/C2Q but not the 620
they all do look alike by the way
The 620 from all my research will only use a Pentium D and
not the C2D
I could be wrong
I never tried putting a C2D in a 620 but all over the web
they say it cant be done

as far as cooling
I have the same design tower (Optiplex 745) and I removed an unused
pci slot blank
then I used a smaller sized fan connected by 4 pin molex
I used a small strip of velcro and have it blowing out the empty
pci slot across the video card

also I velcroed a fan in the center of the mobo
it takes air from the northbridge and cpu and exhausts out
the back

tower with an OCd C2D E4500 at 2.93ghz and a OCd Hd4650
runs at 25-30c idle with 60 c max load in a 70F room
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
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