Doing my first case mod, NB temps shot up?

Trumandrummer

I decided to attempt my first case mod. Since I think my case looks kind of boring. (stock case) But there is a lot of room to mod.

I bought a 12" green cold cathode. And a sheet of green acrylic.

I am going to cut out some of my case door and put in the acrylic.

But for now, all I did was install the cold cathode. Thats it. I turned on my computer... started folding and then I got North Bridge temperature warnings (no overclock at all. Everything was at stock speeds) . This has never happened before. I would get some high cpu temps sometimes, but never before did I get North Bridge warnings. It happened right after I installed the light.
This does not make sense to me because the light is not hot.

I also just bought a new heatsink to keep the CPU temp down when folding (Xigmatek Dark Knight). I have not installed it yet though.

Can anyone tell me why this might be happening?
Thanks a lot

_k

Did you remove the light and see if the NB gave the same temps?

Trumandrummer

_k_ wrote:

Did you remove the light and see if the NB gave the same temps?

I don't know what happened. I shut the computer off, unplugged the light. Turned it on and the temps seemed fine. So I turned the computer off, plug the light back in, turn it on. Temps are fine. Running prime 95 and folding GPU right now... temperatures are perfectly normal on everything. I don't know what made it spaz like that.

EDIT:
It is acting really weird. When I shut off Prime 95, the temps shoot up. Its like since my heatsink fan isn't working as hard, the case gets hot. NB was at a steady 66 degrees with prime95 and folding. Without prime 95 on, its at 80 degrees. And that is without the light.... and everything at stock. I am so confused right now.

_k

Well there you go, rig up a small 40 or 60mm fan that is silent just to keep the air moving over it and call it a day.

Trumandrummer

_k_ wrote:

Well there you go, rig up a small 40 or 60mm fan that is silent just to keep the air moving over it and call it a day.

Yea. I guess I am going to add a case fan then. But the thing that gets me....... is right now this computer is exactly how it was when I bought it. (clock speeds set to normal. No light. Everything stock) When I bought it, it was not doing this.

I am thinking about adding a fan to the top or the side. What do you think would be more efficient? My power supply is at the top.

I am also worried about how much more my power supply can take. It is only a 500w...... running a gtx 260, 9gb of ram, an i7. Will adding a fan or two be too much for it?

Obsidian

What is the name of your case?

Trumandrummer

Obsidian wrote:

What is the name of your case?

It is just the case that came with my computer. I did not build it.
It only has one case fan.... and of course the heatsink. Thats it.

_k

more info on specs for PSU and a link to a review or manufacture's specs would help. Why all of a sudden? Change in the ambient, more water vapor, paste or pad TIM changed?????

Trumandrummer

_k_ wrote:

more info on specs for PSU and a link to a review or manufacture's specs would help. Why all of a sudden? Change in the ambient, more water vapor, paste or pad TIM changed?????

Here is a list for the full stats:
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/asus-essentio-cg5290-bp007/4507-3118_7-33703094.html?tag=mncol;psum

There hasn't been a change at all really. I did not change anything besides the clock speed of the CPU and the voltage of the CPU, which I have set back to default. As far as I know there is no change in ambient or water vapor or anything.

_k

Depends on how ugly you mind the case being. Pull PCI slot covers out, remove front 5.25 bezels. You can stick fans where the bezels are, most likely will have to rearrange things, and below the HDD in the open space. Whats the amperage on the PSU for the 12 rail?

Obsidian

They only put one fan in a system with an i7 and GTX 260? I'd definitely stick another fan or two in there. An alternative would be to buy a new case all together. The Antec Three Hundred is a pretty cheap case with good airflow and plenty of space.

Serp

It looks like the CG5290 uses the Rampage II Gene mobo and the northbridge runs quite hot on those. Some kind of active cooling like _k_ suggested should help to keep those temps down.

Also make sure the IOH/northbridge voltage is back to stock.

Trumandrummer

_k_ wrote:

Depends on how ugly you mind the case being. Pull PCI slot covers out, remove front 5.25 bezels. You can stick fans where the bezels are, most likely will have to rearrange things, and below the HDD in the open space. Whats the amperage on the PSU for the 12 rail?

I don't care what the case looks like on the inside. As long as it looks good outside. lol. I have plenty of room to shove a fan up top, or below the HDD like you said. Or even in the side where I am going to be putting the acrylic in.

The amperage on my PSU for 12rail is 30 I think. If I did that right.

My power supply reads "12v1 - 16A 12v2 - 18A 12v3 - 18A Max output (12v) 360w.


Also everything is back to stock. All the voltages are at default. I set everything in the bios all back to default.


I shut my computer off for a while.... Turned it back on, and the NB temp is at 75. It climbed up from about 60, but it does not appear to be raising anymore. I still think that is a little warm though, considering that the side of my case is off right now, and I am not running anything that would cause any temps to rise within the case.

_k

GO BUY A FAN AND RIG IT UP.

Trumandrummer

Alright. I got myself a fan and I am going to rig it into the top of the case. But the New Heatsink fan is so much bigger than the old one, that it keeps the whole case cool. My NB temps are fine now. (still gonna add that fan though)

Anyways.... back to the mod. In case anyone is interested I am going to show how the mod is going. I really like monster energy drink. I drink it a lot, not so much for the energy, but because they taste amazing.

Almost done with "M" But shortly after this I burnt up my dremel tool . So I am gonna have to get a new one. The bolt is supporting the piece there that connects to nothing so that I can cut without it flopping around.


Here is what it looks like so far in the dark.


I have to paint it. I have scratched it up quite a bit. You really cant tell in the pictures but there is a decent amount of scratches in the paint. I am debating whether to paint it silver again... or to paint the whole case black.

I rigged up an image of what it would look like, completely done and painted black.

_k

slick! A+ so far.

Trumandrummer

_k_ wrote:

slick! A+ so far.

Thanks. I am hoping to have it at least cut out completely tomorrow.


For the fan that I am adding to the top of the case, I was just gonna drill a bunch of holes (in a circular shape)

To speed things up, I was going to do this without removing the hardware from the case. I KNOW, that I can do this without getting any shavings on the hardware. But I am not very good with power and electricity etc. I know you are suppose to be grounded when working on computer hardware, and I use an anti-static wristband for that stuff. But does anyone know if drilling into a case with the hardware still intact would cause any weird electrical issues??? I am assuming if the case is grounded, it would be fine..... (forgive me if that is a dumb question, I do not know much about electrical currents and stuff like that)

Trumandrummer

Alright. Well I worked on this thing all day. As soon as I woke up until like thirty minutes ago.

I still have a few little things to do (drill holes in top of case, add fan)

It is mostly done though. Here are the mostly-finished results.

Right before I put the Plexi-glass in.


Plexi-glass


Lights on

Serp

That's looking awesome! GREAT JOB

Cliff_Forster

That is awesome, I love it.

Prime, I think we need a modding feature, what do you think?

Trumandrummer

Thanks a lot guys

Zuntar

Trumandrummer dude that looks nice!

Now on to your questions if it is not too late. Make sure the NB heatsink is squarely and firmly seated. Most NB heatsinks are held in by only two push in pegs and it is very easy to have it slightly lift off of one of the corners that doesn't have the retention pegs.

Trumandrummer wrote:

Thanks. I am hoping to have it at least cut out completely tomorrow.


For the fan that I am adding to the top of the case, I was just gonna drill a bunch of holes (in a circular shape)

To speed things up, I was going to do this without removing the hardware from the case. I KNOW, that I can do this without getting any shavings on the hardware. But I am not very good with power and electricity etc. I know you are suppose to be grounded when working on computer hardware, and I use an anti-static wristband for that stuff. But does anyone know if drilling into a case with the hardware still intact would cause any weird electrical issues??? I am assuming if the case is grounded, it would be fine..... (forgive me if that is a dumb question, I do not know much about electrical currents and stuff like that)

Obviously the power needs to be off. You can tape a newspaper drape under the hole to be drilled, but over the mobo to deflect all the shavings out of the case. I personally would remove all the hardware if it were mine though.

Trumandrummer

Zuntar wrote:

Trumandrummer dude that looks nice!

Now on to your questions if it is not too late. Make sure the NB heatsink is squarely and firmly seated. Most NB heatsinks are held in by only two push in pegs and it is very easy to have it slightly lift off of one of the corners that doesn't have the retention pegs.




Obviously the power needs to be off. You can tape a newspaper drape under the hole to be drilled, but over the mobo to deflect all the shavings out of the case. I personally would remove all the hardware if it were mine though.

Thanks a lot Zuntar!
Ill check the NB heatsink but, The NB temperature problem stopped when I added in my new heatsink for some reason. I also just decided that I am just going to take out the hardware when I go to drill the holes at the top.

Trumandrummer

I also Finished the case. The only thing left is to add the fan at the top.... and the reason I have not done it yet is because I am still debating on what I want to do with the hole at the top. I have a lot of green acrylic left over.... I might try to use some of it.

I left the middle of the case silver, and painted the "asus" logo black.

Without light


Side


With Light