3/8     What is an acceptable temperature in a computer case? I'm asking
        because as summer is approaching, my case is already 90 something
        farenheit, and I know that it'll probably jump to 100 something
        during the summer. My CPU is currently 134F and system (mother
        board) is 96F. I'd hate to fry my CPU and HD. Should I be
        concerned and get those fancy heat exchange things from Frys?
        \_ Dear posters, I bought a heat paste from Frys (it was a whopping
           $8.00) and got the CPU to go down to about 122F. Thanks. Now I
           worry about my HD because that's where the data is, but that's
           gonna be another post.
           \_ Consider placing the HDD in the lowest available bay and moving
              optical drive(s) as far away as possible.
           \_ do you have case fans in the front? you should have a 1:1 ratio
              of fans sucking air in and fans blowing out. i have my HDD
              directly in the airflow path. it never reaches above 42C.
              \_ Why do you need front case fans?  As if the rear fans won't
                 draw air through from the front?  They'll create a complete
                 vacuum inside your case?
        \_ I had a MB/HD death when the case was 150 and the cpu was 190 --oj
        \_ You're getting into the danger zone.  CPUs in the 60-65C range will
           run normally but ocasionally have 'soft' errors.  You will have
           shortened CPU life also.  Try to keep your CPU under 50C (122F).
           A MB temp of 96F doesn't sound too bad, but the ambient case temp
           affects your HDD temp.  Try running with your case open and see how
           it helps...
        \_ Why go fancy?  Just go low-tech and buy a $10 fan from Walgreens,
           then open the PC case and blow on it.  It's going to carry away more
           heat than most fancy PC fans.
        \_ I agree, < 50 deg C is good for CPU temperature.  You should
           buy some thermal paste and re-seat your fan with it.  Remember,
           just enough paste to make a very very thin layer is all you need.
           What CPU are you using BTW, and does it already use paste
           or some kind of heat-transfer pad?
        \_ I run an open case.  The heat sensors say my cpu is ~105F and the
           case is barely above room temp.  When I ran it closed I was at
           ~130F cpu and about ~108F on the mb and didn't get any errors.  I
           have it open for easy access because I change hardware a lot, not
           because I was worried about heat.
        \_ 100 is probably a good upper bound.  If you can track your CPU temp
           125 is a good upper bound, and 140=fried.
           If it's really hot, I'll take the side of my case off.