Ambient Temp Question

[Sadistic]

I recently replaced the AMD stock cooler and fan (which I lapped from 220 to 2000) with a SLK 947U + 92mm Tornado. So far my load core temps have dropped from 53.5-54C down to 42C. This is obviously expected since the sink is better.

What wasnt expected was my abient temp dropped. Im not sure what caused this but I was hoping to list a few of the changes I made and maybe get everyones opinion as to which one was the likely culprit for the temp drop:

-My SATA drive (which has the converter to mount into a 5.25 bay) as well as my burner were moved from the lowest 5.25 bays all the way to the top. The hard drive being at the very top bay.

-I replaced the flat IDE cables with rounded ones.

-The SLK is oriented in a verticle direction such that the air from the fan can only go in 2 directions, down towards the northbridge cooler or up towards the bottom PSU fan. The old cooler mounted to the ZIF lugs and was oriented left to right, blowing air over the mosfets and memory.

I think that the temp sensor on my NF7-S Rev2 is just to the right of the CPU, near the memory slots (At least the winbond chip is there). Since the Tornado is rather large, about a half inch on either side over laps and is blowing on either side of the Zif socket. Other than the changes above nothing else was altered about the case or components therein.

For reference, my load ambient dropped from 33C to 23C.

Any light you all can shed on this would truly be appreciated.

[Crax]

Think of it this way. Your cpu produces lots of heat. The heatsink then draws that heat out... and the fan blows onto the heatsink to 1. cool it off, 2. push the hot air so its not just sitting their continually heating up. If your cpu was 53C then the heatsink was probably anywhere from 50 to 52 or 53C all over and the fan was just pushing that hot air off it and all around your case. A 10C drop would drastically reduce the ambient case temps because now your heatsink isnt so hot and that hot air is bit cooler. Hope that explains a little. Also it sounds like youve got some better airflow now, nice work on droppin those temps too!

[bluegreenshxt]

sadistic...you figured it out already..LOL...

[ElrichMeister]

yea the tornado does that, it happened to me too

[Ginsu543]

Crax, your reasoning is a bit flawed... his ambient temp is not lower because the hot air is cooler. If anything the air around the heatsink (if it were standing still) is going to be hotter because the heatsink is doing a better job of taking away heat from the cpu die and holding it within itself. The key difference is the Tornado. It's blowing more volume of air over the heatsink surface, drawing the heat away from the heatsink into the air, and then blowing that air away from the heatsink. I agree with EM that it's his Tornado that's responsible for getting cooler ambient temp readings.

[Crax]

I think you said what I said (or at least what I meant to say). Just in different wording. A better heatsink will disipate the heat better, and I see what your saying about that raising the ambient temp, but once that air gets moving the air blown onto the heatsink will help cool it, thus making a cooler all around cycle. If that makes sense, haha...

[Ginsu543]

It made much more sense this time around, LOL! :D

[Sadistic]

sorry it took so long for me to respond. I currently reside in florida and just recently got hit with yet another silly hurricane. I think based off what you all said I understand whats going on now inside the case. Im almost used to the sound of the fans now, I spent a day or 2 during the hurricane at a friends place who had a generator. Having both of our tornados in the same room was a good way to get my ears used to the sound :).

I took the power outage time during the hurricane to completely sleeve all my powersupply wires with 3/8th inch corrugated split tubing. All the wiring is nice and neat inside. I also found that those twisty ties used for bags of potatoe chips are great for wire management when you dont have access to zip ties and whatnot ;).

The only thing left to mod on my case is the stock fan grils. The case came with those plastic mounting brackets to hold the fans in place. Behind the fans is a square grid of holes. Enclosed is a link of my exact case which I picked up from newegg

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=11-144-018-01.JPG/11-144-018-09.JPG/11-144-018-07.JPG/11-144-018-10.JPG/11-144-018-06.JPG/11-144-018-04.JPG/11-144-018-08.JPG/11-144-018-02.JPG/11-144-018-05.JPG/11-144-018-03.JPG&CurImage=11-144-018-07.JPG

Picture 2 shows what im referring to really well. The case is made entirely of aluminum cept for the plastic front panel. There is a similiar such grill just behind the front 2 fans (picture 9, behind that removeable grill below the frontmounted stuff). I was thinking about using a metal cutting wheel in a dremel to cut that grid but after spending 3 hours routing the wires to perfection Im not in the mood to pull everything out again to do some cutting.

Any recommendations on something else to use to cut this? Also, I was kind of worried that by cutting away these grills (which are probably making airflow noise and restricting flow) I would compromise the structure of the case itself. Is this fear unfounded?