Reasonable Cabinet Temp.

Discussion in 'hardware' started by Rico, May 15, 2015.

  1. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    Hi,

    I have a PC (Dell XPS 8700 16 gb RAM), in a wooden cabinet 25" W x 18" H x 24" D.

    Current temp. 87.4 is this too hot? I have an exhaust fan, but am not sure what a dangerous, or relatively safe cabinet temp. might be. The little 5" exhaust fan is on a stat set at 82. It runs continuously.

    Thanks
     
  2. CrusherW9

    CrusherW9 Registered Member

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    I'm going to assume you have a hard drive in there and 87.4 is REALLY hot for a hard drive and could drastically increase the chance of failure.
     
  3. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    87 F isn't too bad. But 87 C would be frying stuff. Which is it?
     
  4. CrusherW9

    CrusherW9 Registered Member

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    Yea, I just assumed it was C, not F. It's kinda important to know :p
     
  5. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    OOps! Here in USA we still use the antiquated F Fahrenheit. It's truly amazing were also one of the very few countries not using the metric system as well. The little fan runs kind of continuously, can' achieve it's set point, so the upper range, of what is a reasonable box temp., is what I'd like to raise the fans set point to, thus giving the fan a rest.
     
  6. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Not for CPU temps! At least not in the technical circles. Note Intel and AMD are US companies and all their specs are in Celsius.

    And for the record, there are still many countries who are not fully metric, including the UK and Canada.

    Anyway, so it seems you are saying 86°F which is 30°C and that is an awesome temp. Very cool - in both senses of the word.
     
  7. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    Yes Bill some endeavors due use, Celsius scientific community adopted it ages ago, but for the most part (majority) in the US due not use metric or Celsius. Regarding Canada road speed signs are in kilometers hour, newscast announces the temp. in Celsius, offhand I can't think of an area that Canada does not use metric system.

    Cool I'll run the box temp higher by it's fan's stat, setpoint
     
  8. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    It would help if the whole world used the same. But the general public in America is not likely to change completely for some time. Once you learn inches, feet, miles, tablespoons, cups, quarts, and gallons, ounces and pounds, and Fahrenheit, it is hard to change to another system, even if based on 10 is easier.
     
  9. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    True! Today's youth in Canada, have only known the metric system, as Canada changed along time ago. I can remember Canada's formal adaption, it was chaotic, but as time progressed, the merits of the change were appreciated. Unfortunately the US lacks the desire/effort to change, & struggles (comparatively), with non-metric system, I believe came from early/ancient Rome.

    Cool box temp 85F, set point 87F rest little fan. OSA 79F, indoor temp 77F, so cooling is taking place. As heat "always" goes hot to cold. Either #1 or 2 law of thermodynamics:argh::D:)
     
  10. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Maybe Rome - a bit lazy to do my homework to verify but I note the UK uses a mix of both and Wikipedia claims King David I of Scotland in his Assize of Weights and Measures (c. 1150) first defined the inch as the width of an average man's thumb at the base of the nail.

    At any rate, in the world of computers world wide, Celsius is the standard unit of measure for temps.
     
  11. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    And should it overheat resort to:

    C = (F -32) X 5/9 then solving for F becomes F = (C X 9/5) + 32 :rolleyes::D:argh::p:cool:

    Little Fan Don't Fail Me Now.

    Thanks!!!!!
     
  12. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Much easier to just start typing in your favorite browser 86 degrees f... into your favorite browser and typically 30°C will pop up for you.
     
  13. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    Bill, I just kidding & "And should it overheat resort to:" If it overheats the computer may not be available for that "online" conversion
     
  14. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    OK, here's a fun fact: -40 C = -40 F. I've lived in far too many places where this is not an uncommon temperature :eek: Indeed, where going above -40 is a heat wave o_O
     
  15. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Well, I've never seen or felt real temps that low, but here in Eastern Nebraska, wind chills of -40° (and below) are not uncommon. And when the winds are whipping up that much, you can't hide from it. :(
     
  16. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    I have found that equipment starts to act flakey at 84F or above, with 87F or above causing lockups or failure. 68-78 seems to be the ideal range. That's room temp, not the temp of the components, which can be much higher (well, CPU and GPU anyway.)
     
  17. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Ideal range? Ummm, sorry, but no way!

    First, "ideal range" suggest that 55° is too low and will cause problems too and that is definitely not true.

    But more importantly, the fact of the matter is for many CPUs, 78° is too hot! Take the popular i7-4790 and note it has a maximum Tcase rating of just 72.72°C. Or the very popular i5-3470 is rated for maximum Tcase of just 67.4°C.

    And check out the popular AMD FX-6200 with a Max Temp rating of 61.1°C.

    So even your low end is too high!

    I don't let my CPU temps sit above 60°C for more than a couple seconds. If they start sitting up there longer, that is notice to me it is time to clean out the heat trapping dust.

    On new builds, if my temps are sitting above 60°C, that means my case cooling is inadequate and I need to add more fans to increase the flow of cool air through the case (assuming standard clocking). I note it is the case's responsibility to provide an adequate supply of cool air flowing through the case. The CPU fan need only toss the CPU's heat up into that flow.

    There really is no "ideal" low end. That said, lower does not automatically mean better. That is, a computer running at 40°C will NOT perform better, be more stable, or have a longer life expectancy than a computer running at 55°C. For this reason, the OEM coolers on today's Intel and AMD CPUs are more than adequate to properly cool their assigned CPUs - even with mild to moderate overclocking.
     
  18. Triple Helix

    Triple Helix Specialist

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    I have the i7-4980HQ on my Laptop and it runs about 60C and the specs say it's good for 100C

    TH

    2015-05-18_12-51-44.png
     
  19. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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  20. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Doh! :ouch: :oops:

    My apologies to xxJackxx - but it illustrates the point that CPU temps are typically posted in Celsius to avoid confusion.

    But still, 68 - 78°F is what most would consider normal room temperatures. So even while I was way off base, I would not call normal room temperatures for the CPU ideal or realistic as it is perfectly normal for CPU temps to be above ambient temps, unless you are using some form of active, alternative cooling - like refrigerants.
     
  21. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    When I read your first reply I figured that. Since the title of the thread was "Cabinet Temp" I was shooting for that. CPU temps are of course higher, and had I specified one, it would have been Celsius. Under 60c is good (in most cases). I've seen one run at 80c for a while and it was fine, but we fixed it and I would not recommend it long term. I think mine runs about 45c and I am good with that.

    Sadly the one that was running 80c was a warranty return on a machine from ASUS. We sent it in because it died and we got it back with only 2 of the CPU heatsink pins attached and the biggest glop of thermal paste I have ever seen. No more ASUS PCs for us.
     
  22. CrusherW9

    CrusherW9 Registered Member

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    Fun fact, under extreme cooling situations like phase change, dry ice, or liquid nitrogen, processors can get so cold that they hit a "cold bug" which causes instability. In those cases, more heat is desired in order to push higher overclocks.
     
  23. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

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    According to the manual for your PC the environment temperature range is 10 °C to 35 °C, 32º to 95º F. This is the room temperature range it was designed to run in and warrentied for.
    Your PC should not malfunction due to running in a room at 87.4F. As you are close to the limit you need to be sure the temperature does not go much higher.
     
  24. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    I have a not-so fun fact - and one I have witnessed myself, twice, with alternative cooling solutions.

    What happens when you put a glass of ice water on a table in a warm room? Condensation forms on the outside of the glass, and eventually runs down and onto the table. Twice I have seen the after effects of this.

    One used a home-made refrigerant CPU cooler system to get near freezing temps with extreme overclocking (and it worked very well, BTW - except for the noise). The other stuck his computer inside a refrigerator! In both cases, no problems while the computer was running. But after they turned them off (and removed the one from the refrigerator), condensation formed, then ran down onto the motherboards and into CPU sockets.

    If both had let the computers sit for a couple hours and become acclimated to the warmer ambient environments, allowing all the condensation to evaporate, there probably would not have been a problem when they powered them up again. But they didn't wait. :( :eek:

    Note - this is why when bringing new electronics home during the winter, you need to let them sit in the home for a couple hours before plugging them in.
     
  25. CrusherW9

    CrusherW9 Registered Member

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