Hi, I've noticed my cpu temp has crept up a bit recently, idle 50ish and 65 under load (BF2). Its now the summer and quite hot here at the mo (unsual for us brits!) does that make much difference?. Should I be worried about these temps?. Is it worth me taking the CPU fan of (AMD Original retail fan) and re-applying the paste?. I've got one side 80mm fan in the case to. I've seen some blowers that fit a PCI slot, are these any good?. I've left a few pci slots spare at the back to get more air in. If I bought a decent CPU Fan (recommendations?) how much difference would it make at a guess?. Thanks in advance. DB

You can't keep your CPU temp down if you cool using air & the room temp is high. I live in NY & it's been a particularly brutal week...highs in the mid 90s (32-35C) with high humidity. I've noticed my CPU temp is climbing too, but there's not much I can do about it...you can't cool something very well by blowing 90 degree air on it...LOL! As long as your system is stable, just hang in there...eventually things will cool down. How many case cooling fans do you have & how are they configured? Asus A7N8X-X 1800+ @ 8.5 x 200MHz 768MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-7 Asus A9550GE/TD 128MB WinME/WinXP Pro

65 is on the warm side of acceptable - the ambient temperature can make a difference. Where is this 80 mm Fan? The best place for it is at the back just below the PSU fan sucking air out. You might also benefit form another fan at front sucking air in. I don't reckon much to a PCI blower. The idea is to establish an air flow from front to back and bottom to top. Therefore all a PCI mounted fan will do is just circulate hot air within the case and possibly then interfere with the correct air flow. Remember hot air rises, so there is no need to force the air to the top of the case, it will find its own way there For the same reason, having uncovered PCI slots could be counter productive as cool air coming in from the front could be going straight out the slots at the back without moving to the top of the case where the CPU is. Make sure your cables are well routed so that they are not restricting air flow around the case. IDE cables can be notorious for that. Just re-routing them and tucking the out of the way can make a dramatic difference. Stuart

I've got the CPU fan and the one 80mm fan in the side cover sucking air out. Thanks so far.

I would reverse the side fan so it is blowing air in and install another fan below the CPU fan to extract the hot air. With both the PSU fan and the 80 mm fan sucking air out, cooling is dependant not on how much air these fans can shift, but on how much cool air is actually getting into the machine. With the empty PCI slots, most of it will be coming in there and going straight out again without going anywhere near the CPU. The CPU is probably operating in a partial vacuum generated by the PSU fan. Stuart

40°C in central california this week...turn the ac on and make sure your system is stable. You should already have a good cpu heatsink and fan...a little noisy but, a good cooler. Pay particular attention to the reply from Stuart and post back. Skip

Hi possibly time to replace the cpu heat sink/fan check what rpm speed its running at (check in bios pc health ?) or just for now take a side off the case to allow heat out, 'deffo too hot this week were not used to it ;) i run my 2.8 on http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?TT-A1745 at 38C @ 3600 rpm (too noisy other wise) cooler weather on its way, bah :)