Pentium Dual Core E5700 - newbie trying to upgrade cooling, need help

[darker hei]

Hi, everyone.

I've never opened a pc case in my life, but my desktop pc is struggling with serious overheating issues. I don't do any serious gaming, just a few facebook games, but they seem to have pushed my cpu temperatures beyond the limits. At least speedfan has indicated temps anywhere from 60 to as high as 90 degrees celcius (plus, now in summer, my apartment temp easily reaches 30+ degrees celcius). Matter of fact, as I write this, the cpu is at 7% and the temp is showing at 71 degrees. 🙁

I have an acer emachines et1840 with pentium dual core e5700 cpu, definitely nothing fancy. But I can't really afford anything extraordinary anyway, so I need to find a somewhat affordable way to help my system out and keep from frying the cpu permanently.

I'd be ever so grateful for any tips and advice you can give me (especially regarding actual installation of whatever cooling systems you recommend) and please let me know what other info I have to provide for you to best help me out.

Thank you ever so much,
~hei

 

[sanilmahambre]

Cooler master TX3 evo CPU cooler should be the affordable solution.

 

[Zooshooter]

Hi, everyone.

I've never opened a pc case in my life, but my desktop pc is struggling with serious overheating issues. I don't do any serious gaming, just a few facebook games, but they seem to have pushed my cpu temperatures beyond the limits. At least speedfan has indicated temps anywhere from 60 to as high as 90 degrees celcius (plus, now in summer, my apartment temp easily reaches 30+ degrees celcius). Matter of fact, as I write this, the cpu is at 7% and the temp is showing at 71 degrees. 🙁

I have an acer emachines et1840 with pentium dual core e5700 cpu, definitely nothing fancy. But I can't really afford anything extraordinary anyway, so I need to find a somewhat affordable way to help my system out and keep from frying the cpu permanently.

I'd be ever so grateful for any tips and advice you can give me (especially regarding actual installation of whatever cooling systems you recommend) and please let me know what other info I have to provide for you to best help me out.

Thank you ever so much,
~hei

My best recommendation would be to clean your heatsink. Over time hair and dust accumulate on the heatsink and prevent air from flowing over the fins. I don't have any particularly good photos of your computer to guess from but I'm assuming there is a screw or two on the backside of the computer that hold the side panel on. You'll want to remove those to get the side panel off. Next you'll be unscrewing the fan from the heatsink.

If this is an accurate picture of your computer's insides: http://img.systemaxdev.com/productmedia/htmlimages/cten/ACR/ACR-1/170838-lineouts06-ar.jpg
then you'll want to be removing the black fan that is right in the middle of everything. Do NOT remove the metal piece underneath, we're just unscrewing the fan from that metal piece. Once you have that off it'll probably look all grey and nasty. If you have tweezers they are a fantastic tool for removing the build-up. If not you can just as easily use toothpicks to get between the fins and clean it out.

It is VERY important that you read this before attempting any cleaning of computer internals: http://www.kitchentablecomputers.com/static.php

Once you get the heatsink decently cleaned up, put the fan back on and screw it back in place. Don't use any sort of cleaning fluids whatsoever. This is a completely dry process, otherwise you'll short out the computer when you start it back up.

 

[1337rofl]

You definitely want to completely get your heatsink out and thoroughly clean it.
Over time, a lot of dust gets stuck in the heatsink which is causing the extreme temperatures.
Any fan, even the stock fan is perfect to keep your CPU cool.
No need to buy anything else, just look up a tutorial on how to get the fan out and use a small soft material to get all the stuff out. When I was cleaning mine my sink was almost completely black because of the thick dust that was stuck in there. Remember, just a quick session with the vacuum cleaner won't do anything. It's on the inside.

 

[darker hei]

Thank you all for your quick replies. I'll try out Zooshooter's and 1337rofl's recommendations first and if that doesn't yield satisfactory results, I'll look into sanilmahambre's suggestion. Will be back for updates.

 

[1337rofl]

Oh and since you never opened a case in your life I thought it was important to just note that you should re-apply new thermal paste when you put the heatsink back on the CPU.
Also make sure the power on your PC is switched off and the cord is not plugged in before touching any hardware.

 

[Zooshooter]

Thank you all for your quick replies. I'll try out Zooshooter's and 1337rofl's recommendations first and if that doesn't yield satisfactory results, I'll look into sanilmahambre's suggestion. Will be back for updates.

If you want I can write up a quick tutorial on removing the heatsink and cleaning it as well, but you're going to end up needing new thermal paste/grease if you remove the heatsink to make sure that the heat transfers from the cpu into the heatsink the way it's supposed to.

 

[darker hei]

@1337rofl: I'll be sure to follow all instructions to the letter.

If you want I can write up a quick tutorial on removing the heatsink and cleaning it as well, but you're going to end up needing new thermal paste/grease if you remove the heatsink to make sure that the heat transfers from the cpu into the heatsink the way it's supposed to.

Well, that would be just awesome. I'll have to get the paste and possibly some anti-static gloves, anyway, so I'll check back for the tut. I don't have any carpets, but the laminate floor appears to load me up with plenty of static all day long.