Fan upgrade- General questions

[dsigma6]

This relates to my T20 but is general in nature. It has a T22 fan in it with an 800mhz processor. The thing runs up to about 68C before the fan kicks in, and that's certainly bothering me.

Now the question- If there were another fan that would offer more cooling power and proper fit (t23?), how would it make a difference? I mean to say, how does it do a better job of cooling when I imagine the instructions given to the fan aren't going to change, so why should the temperature it kicks in at change?

I want to get the temps down, so short of taking out the processor and applying arctic 5 (which ive never done, but understand how to), i don't know what else to do.

And I've looked at tpfancontrol, but that doesn't work on the T20.

Just so you know I'm not asking which fan to get, just trying to understand how it would work..

[agarza]

It's cheaper to replace the TIM to Arctic Silver 5

[dsigma6]

Nice bump...

I already did the arctic 5, which made little to no difference.

[proaudioguy]

I was given a T20 that I originally bought for my parents from Ebay a few years ago. The original heat issue (when I bought it) was bandaged by reworking the heat pad (like silly putty), but after 2 years of use it was all cracked again so I used the Arctic Silver. I cleaned off the silly putty, put Arctic Silver in and installed mob meter and it's running at 68 Degrees C. This is insanely hot. The fan doesn't come on until it's very hot. This computer came with a 700MHz PIII, but at some point was factory replaced with a 900MHz.
It will NOT run at 900MHz without shutting down. When the heat pad was reworked it did run 900MHz Now with Arctic Silver it won't run at 900.

So, what I would really like to do is get the fan to come on a lot sooner. I would not be apposed to having it run full speed the whole time. Basically as long as it's keeping cool, I'll be happy. I would wire it directly to a power source if that would help. The way the heat sink is set up, there are contacts that connect the fan and a thermometer to the MB. I could put tape over those if needed.

If there was an upgraded fan assembly for the higher speed PIIIs, maybe that would help, but as the OP said, it would still not turnt he fan on until it was too hot.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[dsigma6]

You certainly can just try the T21-22 fan to see if it makes a difference, as it's only a $5 part. The fan cannot be controlled on the T20-22, so I have stopped caring about the T20, and have been happy to be able to use tpfancontrol on the T23.

I'm assuming you didn't really use silly putty...right?

68C can be considered extremely hot, but it's also not high enough to make the machine freak out. My T20 fan usually doesn't come on until 82C, and even at that, the machine runs fine. I've noticed if it sits in the mid 60's for a prolonged period, the fan also kicks in.

How thick of an arctic 5 layer did you put on?

[proaudioguy]

You certainly can just try the T21-22 fan to see if it makes a difference, as it's only a $5 part. The fan cannot be controlled on the T20-22, so I have stopped caring about the T20, and have been happy to be able to use tpfancontrol on the T23.

I'm assuming you didn't really use silly putty...right?

68C can be considered extremely hot, but it's also not high enough to make the machine freak out. My T20 fan usually doesn't come on until 82C, and even at that, the machine runs fine. I've noticed if it sits in the mid 60's for a prolonged period, the fan also kicks in.

How thick of an arctic 5 layer did you put on?

No, it's not silly putty. It's the stuff that was on there. It's not heat sink grease, it's a pad of some sort.

I put a thin layer of the arctic 5. Whoudl I put more on there?
It's inpossible to put pressure on the CPU. There is a gap between the CPU and the heat sink, so the PAD that was there filled it in. The heat sink screws down, and it's as tight as it gets. I put the Arctic on with the applicator it came with from Comp USA. You can see it in the picture. If you think I need more, just say so. I always thought you used as thin a layer as possible with old school heat sink grease.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... ode=310882
CompUSA.com: Mad Dog Multimedia Arctic Silver 5 Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound - MD-ARCAG-5 - Computer Upgrades » Cooling