XPS 420 upgraded to 6870 now cpu running 98 degrees

[N4tty]

Hi I have a Dell XPS 420 Q6600 (stock) 4GB with 4x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB internal Hard Drives, a few external USB devices (all powered) + a Xenta 80plus Certified 800W Modular 13.5cm Fan PSU which was running a XFX HD4770 connected to a 24" DVI monitor + Samsung 42" Plasma just fine. I've just upgraded my graphics card in to a XFX HD6870 (hd-687a-zddc). I upgraded as I want to add another 42" LCD HDTV in the bedroom to the setup & the card was only £127+vat & has a good cooling system from what I understand.

Now as soon as I installed the new card, I noticed the CPU fan was going crazy in what is normally a very quiet setup so I checked the temps & found the CPU is now running @ a constant 98 degrees & the card @ 59 degrees under normal load. Can anyone recommend some extra cooling that would fit on the XPS x38 BTX motherboard to bring the temperature down?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Tia

 

[mightymaxio]

I would do three things:
1) Reapply the thermal paste
2) Blow the dust out of the fan of the CPU cooler
3) Reseat the cpu cooler.

 

[wa1]

Normally, a stock cooler is more than enough to cooling Q6600 at stock even overclocked speed...
Agree with mightymaxio above, try clean your PC from dust and re-apply thermal paste and re-seat the CPU cooler. Report here back about the result.

 

[N4tty]

I would do three things:
1) Reapply the thermal paste
2) Blow the dust out of the fan of the CPU cooler
3) Reseat the cpu cooler.

Normally, a stock cooler is more than enough to cooling Q6600 at stock even overclocked speed...
Agree with mightymaxio above, try clean your PC from dust and re-apply thermal paste and re-seat the CPU cooler. Report here back about the result.

Thank for the tips guys, I took your advice but unfortunately this has ony reduced the temp by a few degrees...the cpu is still running in the low 90's.

When I went to my local computer shop after reading your advice to buy the thermal paste & after explaining my situation, the owner offered to sell me a Dell XPS 430 barebone system for £110 inc. He informed me that the 430 has a slightly better cooling system and a x48 motherboard that can take DDR3 simms where as the XPS 420 which I'm currently using only has a x38 motherboard which only accepts DDR2. I think I've pushed this board as far as It can go so I might go back & take him up on his offer as this should be sufficient until i7 motherboards drop a bit more in price.

 

[Dracconus]

If I were you I would just buy a custom case for about $50 bucks or so, buy a few fans for it, and re-seat the motherboard, and other components in it. Possibly look at a few aftermarket coolers for your CPU too, they're incredibly easy to install.
And you won't spend 110euro on that either, and will get way better cooling than dell could/would offer you.

 

[N4tty]

That is something I'm considering but the problem is that the Dell XPS range are BTX not ATX and many of the connections are proprietry. The XPS 430 is BTX like my current 420, I figure that this would probably be my best option as hopefully it would serve it's purpose until i7 boards come down in price as I dont intend to add anything else other than possibly DDR3 ram until then.

 

[mightymaxio]

I would advice against upgrading to another Dell case, one case might fit one motherboard but the next up in the series might not. Dell has very propritary motherboards and coolers which mean that you might not be able to fit the motherboard and cpu in that new dell case.

Did you reapply the thermal paste? And what i7 do you have? My dad has a dell xps 420 with a i7 920 and his temps are right about the same with a reseat and thermal paste reapply. The main reason for this is the way how Dell controls the fan speeds. The fans really dont kick in until 95 degrees celcius which really blows. Thats why hes never buying a Dell again, theres no way to change the fan speeds on that without buying another board.

 

[N4tty]

no my current motherboard is only a x38 socket 775 it's is only a Q6600 i'm using that's overheating since I put in the 6870 graphics card. The reason why I'm considering the XPS 430 barebone is because it includes a x48 socket 775 motherboard that I can fit my current chip/simms straight into & the x48 mobo supports DDR3 which my current board does not. I do plan to switch from Dells BTX cases at some point but with the prices for i7 cpu/motherboards being what they are, I thought I'd buy the XPS 430 bnarebone & continue using my q6600 until the i7 prices are @ little more favourable level then I would get an ATX i7 motherboard & case etc. as a future upgrade.

 

[N4tty]

*UPDATE* Bought a tube of Artic Silver 5, Cleaned of the Maplin thermal paste I originally applied which had only reduced the cpu temp by a few degrees, Applied the Artic silver 5 & "wow" temps down to 45-55 degrees, the whole system is now deathly silent including the fans on the XFX 6870 graphics card, Fantastic!!


Cheers guys.