1U Heatsink in Tower Case: Will it Melt?

C

Chris_Lonardo

[H]ard|OCP Storage Engineer & Editor
Joined
Feb 10, 2002
Messages
1,726
I have a 1U Supermicro system with two Xeon L5639s that I would like to move into a tower case. Obviously, the 1U heatsinks are designed for forced airflow (a bunch of annoying little 40mm fans blowing through the chassis)

The L5639 runs pretty cool, as it's only a 60W chip. I don't want to shell out for new heatsinks if I don't have to- the Xeon LGA1366 mounts HSFs differently than the i7 flavor, and requires a different HSF in many cases.

If I just use the 1U heatsinks with a 120mm fan rigged to blow across them, do you think that will be reasonable, or should I rig up some sort of baffle to force cool air through?
 
I think the 120mm would be a good solution, if that doesn't work, then get a a higher speed fan to blow on top (2000rpm is still quite tolerable). Just zip tie the fan down to the heatsink mounting hardware.
 
I'm getting temps like 30-35C idle, but going up as high as 70C under sustained load. Think I need more cooling?
 
70C is just a touch on the high side (I don't like seeing above 65C personally). Try directing the air using a bit of cardboard or try positioning the fan so the deadspot is smaller/less centered.
 
cwaffles said:
70C is just a touch on the high side (I don't like seeing above 65C personally). Try directing the air using a bit of cardboard or try positioning the fan so the deadspot is smaller/less centered.
Click to expand...

I agree with this post. 70 isn't exactly problematic, but you should go for 65 or lower ideally. Also, depending on your environment, temps may eventually go up somewhat as your computer gets dusty. Of course at some point that would just mean you've gotta go in and dust it off and it's fine again, but imagine you were already running your CPU quite hot at 70-75, and with dust it starts hitting 75-80+...
 
Thanks guys. I'll throw some more wind at it and see what happens ;)
 
FYI Your TJ max is 79C, so 70C may be a little warmer for your CPU then I previously though, extra wind sounds like a good idea ;)

Though you should still be fine at 70C I would set it to shutdown or throttle at 75C/76C if possible
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top