Overclocking Guide

[xXxexpertxXx]

Thought this would be helpful!

Maybe Sticky??


Once upon a time, overclocking was considered a risky and dangerous thing to do. Only the edgiest computer outlaw would even consider such practice. It was believed that you could easily damage your PC's components completely. It was frowned upon by parts manufacturers. It was, in a word, crazy.

Overclocking gradually came into the mainstream throughout the late 1990's. We know, because we were covering it back then (albeit in different publications). One of the first overclocking articles, circa 1997, was a simple editorial saying how dangerous it could be, but that you might gain some performance. Some time later we wrote a feature with details on how to overclock a CPU, but it is laden with warnings (you could blow a chip! You'll void your warranties!)

How far we've come.

Today, overclocking is so commonplace that equipment vendors expect you to do it. Look, for instance, at AMD and Intel: Their enthusiast-class parts are completely unlocked and primed for a clock jump. Look at some memory vendors: OCZ, for one, allows a 5% overclock on some of its memory without voiding the warranty. Look at Nvidia and AMD's ATI: Overclocking controls are downloadable from their sites, or built right into their driver interfaces.

Way back when, it was insane to overclock your computer. Now, it's almost insane not to

Why Overclock? Performance Comparisons

The urge for most of us to overclock our PC's equipment is simple: There's no good reason not to. Most gear will overclock, at least slightly, without any special cooling, so overclocking is free except for the time spent doing it. Factor in the performance gain, and overclocking becomes a free upgrade to a superior product. What's not to love?

Normally, we run our performance charts late in our features. For this one, we're tossing them at you early. Here is why we overclock.

These perf charts show several things. There's the PC running at spec. There's the PC with one item overclocked, three times: the CPU, the memory, and the graphics card. Then there's the PC with the net result of overclocking all of those components at once. Read these charts knowing that the overclocks they show are modest ones, and they're up just for the sake of argument:

Why overclock? Because if this is a minimal performance gain, imagine what you could do if you really pushed your stuff!



ExtremeTech Overclocking Guide
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Why Overclock? Performance Comparisons

The urge for most of us to overclock our PC's equipment is simple: There's no good reason not to. Most gear will overclock, at least slightly, without any special cooling, so overclocking is free except for the time spent doing it. Factor in the performance gain, and overclocking becomes a free upgrade to a superior product. What's not to love?

Normally, we run our performance charts late in our features. For this one, we're tossing them at you early. Here is why we overclock.

These perf charts show several things. There's the PC running at spec. There's the PC with one item overclocked, three times: the CPU, the memory, and the graphics card. Then there's the PC with the net result of overclocking all of those components at once. Read these charts knowing that the overclocks they show are modest ones, and they're up just for the sake of argument:

Why overclock? Because if this is a minimal performance gain, imagine what you could do if you really pushed your stuff!

Our overclocking PC's pertinent specs are:

CPU Intel Core 2 E6750
Memory 2GB Corsair CM2X1024-10000C5D
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Audio SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Gamer
Hard drive Seagate ST3320620AS (320GB 7200.10)
Optical drive Sony DVD+/-RW

First, look at the synthetic charts

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=189527,00.gif

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=189530,00.gif

When you focus on an individual component overclocked, the gain isn't spectacular, but it's definitely noticeable. Note that overclocking the CPU affects PCMark05 more than it does 3DMark06, and overclocking the graphics card has the opposite effect.

Gaming benefits depend on whether the game performance is bound by the processor or graphics card. We present two game benchmarks: Supreme Commander, which is a very CPU-bound game full of physics and velocity/vector computations (unlike most real-time strategy games, all the bullets shot in SupCom are physically modeled, and only hit their targets if a collision is detected).

Then there's Company of Heroes, which is largely 3D bound. The benchmark doesn't do much in the way of AI or physics computations, as it doesn't actually show gameplay; it's just a pre-scripted scene. We've presented a pair of charts for COH for both DX9 and DX10.

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=189531,00.gif

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=189532,00.gif

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=189533,00.gif

Each game shows gains. Thus, you can see that overclocking your computer's components shows real, tangible benefits.

Finally, the warnings. Let's turn the question around: why not overclock?

There are a few reasons. First, in some cases, a component might not be inherently overclockable. It depends not only on the part, but on the stepping. Some CPUs might show terrific gains, but others might put up a fight for a measly five percent overclock.

Second, in many cases, you still do void the warranties when you overclock a part. It depends on the manufacturer's policy on the subject.

Third, if you get into tweaking not only clock frequencies, but also voltages, you can permanently damage a part, or even an entire motherboard.

Forth, and finally, overclocking is time consuming. You need an entire afternoon—or even an entire weekend—to do it properly. If you spend a few minutes tweaking settings, you might get a small gain, but to push your gear to the limits, you need time to tweak, time to burn in, time to reset the CMOS and start over, and time to do it all over again. And again.

Now let's take a look at knowing what's overclockable.

Knowing What's Overclockable

Before you tear into your parts, you should spend some Web time doing research to see just how overclockable your components are. Doing so could save you a lot of time and energy.

Basically, you can overclock three major components of your PC: the CPU, the memory, and the graphics card. Some people also tweak the clock frequencies of their motherboard's various buses and links, should the motherboard's BIOS setup program offer the option.

The CPU's overclockability depends on its model and its stepping. Most enthusiast-level chips from Intel and AMD (the "extreme" series from Intel, and the FX series from AMD) are pretty easy to overclock. Other chips may or may not be.

The stepping really does matter, too. One batch of a particular Core 2 Duo chip might have an incredible amount of headroom, but the next batch might be pretty tight.

In terms of memory, the overclocking capacity depends on its native frequency, the manufacturer, and the quality. If you're running DDR2-1066 memory in a motherboard that only supports DDR2-800 memory, overclocking won't be a problem because the memory has built-in headroom. If, however, you plan to run memory at a higher frequency than its native, you'll need high quality RAM from a trusted manufacturer like Corsair, Mushkin, OCZ, or Crucial. Stay away from generic memory.

A graphics card is almost always overclockable to some extent, but one with a big, juicy, aftermarket cooler is probably more overclockable than one with the reference cooler. That brings us to our next subject: heating and cooling.

The biggest enemy of an overclocker, besides maybe an uncooperative stepping, is heat. Heat causes chips to fail. Failing chips cause spontaneous hangs, reboots, graphical anomalies, and, in some cases, data corruption.

When you overclock a processor, it gets even hotter than it normally runs—and most CPUs and GPUs run very hot to begin with. Turning up the frequency makes the transistors work faster, and thus they generate more heat.

It's unlikely that simply overclocking a chip will destroy it. Most CPUs, or at least their motherboards, have failsafes built in to shut down the system when they get too hot. GPUs might simply stop responding. What might happen, however, is the shortening of the overall life of the chip through the gradual breakdown of the elements that make up the transistors. However, it's far more likely that the chip will become obsolete long, long before it dies.

You can, and should keep the affected parts cool when you overclock. Sometimes, the bare minimum, stock cooler (usually a heat sink and fan) are sufficient. This is especially evident with recent GPUs, whose coolers cause the cards to be double-wide; the cooling is so efficient that they've stalled the cottage industry of aftermarket GPU coolers for self-installation. CPU cooling is a different matter, though. The stock coolers that come with Intel and AMD chips are made for spec frequencies, so you'll need a much better cooler to expect any gains from overclocking before the system locks up.

Air, liquid, and thermo-electric cooling are all options. All three have gotten easier to install and cheaper to buy over the years. Keep an eye on reviews—on this site and others—to help you pick the best cooler.

Note that some hardcore overclockers even go the way of refrigeration, but that gets overwhelmingly expensive and complicated.

Just for fun: here's a breakdown of the heat generated by the system we modestly overclocked:

The Overall Overclocking Technique

Before disclosing the basic overclocking technique that works for everything, there's one word we really want you to become familiar with: stability.

The key to a successful overclock is being able to use the computer when you're done. That means, you can play games, crunch numbers, transcode video, sync your iPod, or whatever, without the PC locking up, crashing, or suddenly rebooting. If the PC isn't stable, your overclock is a failure.

Anyone can say they got their 2.66GHz CPU up to 4.09GHz with the stock cooler if all it did was POST before it crashed, or even if all it did was run Windows but crashed when you moved the mouse. We're going to talk about stability testing, which is one of the necessary steps of overclocking. Passing a stability test is mandatory before you can say you've overclocked anything.

Our technique for overclocking any part (we'll get into specifics later) is simple:

1. Tweak
2. Boot
3. Test
4. Repeat

That's it. Easy, right? Let's give a little more detail:

1. Tweak. Raise the clock frequency just a small amount. Overclocking requires baby steps. If you're overclocking a multiplier-unlocked CPU, raise it one number at a time. Raise the FSB maybe five to ten megahertz at a time. Same with the graphics core and/or memory. And also, don't change two settings at once.
2. Boot the system. Watch as it boots. Does it POST? Is the RAM count correct? Does the boot take longer than it usually does? Watch for any signs that your computer isn't acting normally; they could be signs of instability.
3. Test. Run a stability test. We usually test CPUs and memory with Prime95 (running one instance per core) for 30 minutes. We test GPUs by playing a nice, long session of a very recent, graphically intense game.
4. Repeat. In other words, return to step 1. If the overclock passes your stability test, raise the frequency or multiplier another notch.

If Step 3 fails, drop back a notch and run the stability test again. Once you've found the absolute fastest frequencies your computer's components can run, you've completed your overclocking experiment.

Here are a few things to be aware of:

* When you overclock a PC, it's never truly stable. The PC was not designed to run with different things at different clock rates that aren't necessarily compatible with each other. What you gain in performance you lose in piece of mind: This thing could crash at any moment.
* Never overclock a PC with important data on it. Overclocking affects the memory and the CPU, and those in turn affect data written on the hard drive. Overclocking can end with corrupted data. You could lose stuff. Keep your overclocking relegated to gaming machines, graphics workstations—anything except a PC with mission-critical or personally-valuable data on it.
* To get Prime95 to run on multiple cores, you must first tweak the desktop shortcut and then tweak the running program. First, open the desktop shortcut properties sheet and the command line switch Ax to the end of the Target box, where x = the number of instances you need to run (2 for a dual-core, 4 for a quad-core, etc.) Then, launch the program as many times as you need. Finally, in each instance of the program, click Advanced, go to Affinity, and the Specific CPU to run on box, enter 0 for the first core in the first instance and click OK; 1 for the second core in the second instance; and so on. Then you can start your CPU torture tests.

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# When torture-testing the CPU, monitor the temperature with whatever monitoring tool came with your motherboard (e.g. ASUS offers PC Probe II with current boards). If you don't have a monitoring tool, go to the motherboard's manufacturing page, find the downloads for your specific motherboard, and download the utility.
# If you overclock too high and the PC won't POST, you have to reset the CMOS. There's usually a switch or a jumper on the motherboard specifically for this purpose. If, for some reason, the switch or jumper doesn't work, or there isn't one at all, power down the PC, unplug it, open the case, and pop out the small, round, disc-shaped battery for about ten minutes. Then, replace it and power back up. The BIOS setup program will be at pure defaults.
# Although we purchased a power meter and tested, overclocking doesn't raise the amount of voltage a power supply draws from the wall. The machine with the specs listed above, at idle, drew 119W before overclocking, and drew 120W while overclocked at 10% over spec.

Overclocking a CPU

First off, let's get this out of the way: There are utilities that allow you to overclock a CPU through a Windows desktop.

Ignore them.

Many times we have used such a utility, rebooted, and encountered a machine unable to POST. Do your overclocking through the BIOS setup utility. Trust us.

There are two ways to overclock some CPUs, but others only offer one way. Extreme-edition Intel Core-2 and Pentium CPUs, and AMD FX CPUs, allow you to tweak the multiplier. All other CPUs require you to tweak the FSB. FSB stands for front-side bus. AMD doesn't have an FSB. We're using FSB as an umbrella term for ease of writing this article.

A CPU's frequency is the core frequency of the FSB (before it's multiplied by four, because FSB's are "quad-pumped"), times the CPU multiplier. Thus, a CPU with a multiplier of 8, on a 1333MHz FSB would be a 2.66GHz CPU (1333 / 4 = 333.25 x 8 = 2666, or around 2.66) Note that lots of stuff gets rounded when determining these numbers.

If we then raise the multiplier to 10, the CPU's frequency is now 3.33GHz. (333MHz x 10 = 3330MHz or 3.33GUz). That, if stable, is a fairly decent overclock.

For the overclock benchmarked earlier, we raised the FSB. Or, if we raise the core FSB frequency from 333MHz to 366MHz (thus raising the quad-pumped core to an effective 1464MHz, and the CPU frequency to 2.96GHz.

To sum up, raising either the FSB or the CPU multiplier overclocks the CPU.

Most BIOS setup programs allow you to do either. Look for an overclocking interface in the setup program. It should be there somewhere; sometimes it's under Advanced, but often it gets its own heading or page. We can't tell you where it is on your motherboard because there are no standards whatsoever on how a BIOS setup program may be designed.

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Raising CPU and Memory Voltage and Overclocking Memory

Sometimes, you actually have to increase the voltage, going to a part in order to successfully overclock it. If you've pushed a component too fast and the PC won't POST, before moving it a step back, raise its voltage ever so slightly.

This requires a bit of research, as different CPUs and memory modules have different voltages.

Raise voltage sparingly, and only one selection at a time. Too much voltage is one of the rare things that actually can kill a component dead. We make it a rule of thumb never to raise voltage more than 15%; if a component needs more than that for a successful overclock, we're not interested.

Overclocking Memory
You might inadvertently overclock the memory on a PC just by overclocking the CPU. The memory is usually tied right into the FSB, but some CPUs separate it. This is often referred to "linked" or "unlinked;" If the RAM is tied to the FSB in your motherboard, it's linked; if you can separate them and overclock them separately, you can unlink the RAM.

If the RAM will unlink, you should definitely overclock it separately. That way, the memory overclocking won't interfere with the CPU overclocking.

If you must overclock the memory via the FSB, you need to balance what the memory and the CPU are capable of together. This doesn't necessarily change anything; just follow the procedure carefully.

Overclocking a Graphics Card

Overclocking a graphics card is usually a simple matter of wielding two software-based sliders. Unlike memory and CPU overclocking, you can and should overclock graphics cards in Windows (or whatever OS you're running).

ATI's graphics card drive interface has ATI Overdrive, the overclocking page, built right in. For Nvidia, you have to download Ntune to grab its overclocking sliders. Since the interfaces are very similar, we're not going to show both. Shown, therefore, is ATI's interface.

To overclock the graphics card, simply slide the slider to the right.

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=189537,00.jpg

Use the technique described above; except you don't have to reboot. Slide a notch over a little, test, and repeat. That's all there is to it. First tackle the core frequency, find its max, and then find the max you can overclock the memory frequency.

Conclusion: Upgrade Your PC for Free

Now you know the basic steps to overclocking your CPU, memory, and graphics card. Depending on the motherboard, there might be a lot more about your own computer's BIOS setup program to learn. Some allow you to adjust the very core of the FSB frequency, for example; which throws one more control into the CPU/memory overclocking mess. Others let you delve into the timings of the memory's latencies, but that, technically, isn't overclocking (there's no clock frequency involved, but instead there are wait states to play with).

ExtremeTech - Deep technology for enthusiasts and professionals

[carnageX]

Usually good to post the source that you got it from...rather than just blatantly plagiarizing somebody's work =\.

[xXxexpertxXx]

Keeping Your Computer's Case Cool

One of my systems has a water block on both the CPU and a heavy duty sandwich-style air cooler on the graphics card. I never worry about those parts overheating. I've got about a 7% overclock on the processor and the poor graphics card is working harder than a mule tugging a barge on the Erie Canal. I don't even monitor the temperature in that computer's case or its components. Part of the reason I feel comfortable not knowing the Celsius status of the box is that I've outfitted it with terrific air cooling. I can practically chill a beer in that case. The only way I could get it cooler would be to buy an air conditioner compressor.

Cooling is a hot topic, even for form-factor designers. Intel's BTX form factor is based on efficient cooling of its increasingly toasty processors. Someday, DIYers may start to actually care about BTX, but for now I'll concentrate on airing out the most popular types of cases: ATX towers. The philosophy of a good air flow design, which I'll show you, can be applied to other types of cases, as well.

Better cases come with pre-installed fans and lots of fan mounts, but many don't include such hardware-friendly features. That's not going to stop us. We're going to delve full tilt into cooling the case, from choosing the right fans for the job to figuring out where exactly to mount fans.

* Tips and Tricks for Quiet Computing

Can't find enough fan mounts? I'll show you how to make them. Grab your tool kit: You'll need the following:

* a screwdriver,
* a pencil,
* a compass,
* a drill with a 3/16-inch drill bit,
* a rotary tool with a cutoff blade (or a hole saw),
* a square,
* a metal punch,
* a hammer,
* a fan grill
* and, of course, a fan.

You should also use safety glasses and gloves when you're cutting metal. Fan filtration is optional; dust may get in your system anyway, so instead of that, I vacuum out my system a couple times a year.

Prepare yourself: It's time to build a tornado inside your PC.

The CPU and Beyond

CPU cooling is a cottage industry. Too many companies to mention make water, air, and electronic coolers. Case cooling, however, is just as important. Air coolers for CPUs and GPUs need cool air to blow into their heat sinks. As they do their job, the hot air from the heat sink gets dissipated right into the confines of the case. Without an air cooling system that both draws cool air from the outside in and exhausts warm air out, your computer's air-cooled chips, and those without cooling, aren't being cooled as efficiently as possible.

Cooling isn't limited to the CPU, GPU, and southbridge. Other components that don't necessarily require their own dedicated cooling hardware can benefit from fresh air billowing through the case. Hard drives tend to run hot enough that you can actually buy specialized air coolers for them. Various chips, like those of the northbridge, the sound card, the network device, and so on, generate heat—not enough to fry themselves, but heat nevertheless—and should be subject to a bit of a cool breeze.

You can't rely on the fans in the power supply. The ATX standard and its derivatives are ambiguous as to how power supply fans may be used. Some PSU's have two, some have one; they might draw air inward and vent their warm air right toward the CPU, or they might vent outward. PSU fans conform only to the whims of the engineers who design the devices, and their goal is to cool their own components, not the whole PC


An Internal Airflow Strategy

I've met novices at LAN parties who simply install fans blowing inward in every fan mount, and that might work to some extent. One person I know online claims to have 8 fans in his system. "How many are exhaust fans?" I asked him. "Blowing out? He answered. "I think the power supply fan blows outward."

In fact, it's just as important to vent heated air out of the case as it is to draw cool air in. Blowing air directly onto every component keeps the warmed air confined in the case, aside from what can escape through ambient holes. Instead, you should try to create a cross-breeze running through the case—just as you try to create in your house on a warm summer day by opening both the front and back windows.

Most fan mounts are on the front and the rear of the case chassis. Since the computer case, whether it's on the floor or on your desk, faces you, you probably don't want the warmed air venting through the front right toward you. Instead, envision a breeze blowing in through the front panel, sweeping through the computer, and escaping through the rear of the box—or you could just look at the diagram.

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=109174,00.jpg

With the power supply being a rogue, it's hard to create a perfect balance of air coming in and air venting out. Thus, you'll end up with either a vacuum created in the case (if more air is leaving than coming in) or a buildup of air pressure (if more is coming in than going out). As long as intake and exhaust are both accounted for, don't worry too much about it. The advantage of creating a vacuum is that more cool air will be drawn in through ambient holes and gaps, and it might cool the air temperature a bit, but dust will also get sucked in.

Buying and Mounting Fans

Before you add a fan, you have to buy one. Before you buy, you need to know what to get. You'll have to inspect your case for fan mounts and determine the fan sizes you need, and then settle on the specs of the fan itself.

Fans come in sizes measured in millimeters. The measurement indicates the length and width of the fan (nearly all case fans are square)--not the diagonal measurement like that of a monitor's viewable area. Commonly used fans are 80mm, 90mm, and 120mm, although they come in many more sizes. This photograph shows a 120mm fan mount in the front of a case.

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You can spot a fan mount in your PC's chassis by the presence of a grill (or many holes next to each other) surrounded by four symmetrical screw holes, one in each corner. To determine the size of the fan you need, measure from one screw hole to an adjacent one (again, not the diagonal one) with a metric ruler. Round it up to the nearest 10 millimeters. For example, if you find the holes are 115mm apart, you need a 120mm fan. Fans come in various depths, too, usually around 25mm. Some fans include LED lighting.

Fan specifications include, among other things, three values: The RPM (rotations per minute) frequency, the acoustic noise level in dB (decibels), and, most importantly, the air volume they push in CFM (cubic feet per minute). In general, fans that push more air will have higher RPM frequencies and run louder. You also need to pay attention to how the fan is powered: Most come with 4-pin Molex pass-through connectors, while others have three-pin connectors for motherboard fan headers and can be monitored if the board supports it; some have both.

Consider the total CFM of airflow going into the case and the total being exhausted. Try to make the two figures close, but don't worry about being exact.

You can get PC fans at any computer store, or for a wider selection, check out online stores that cater to overclockers, such as FrozenCPU.com. Look for fans that move as much air as possible with acceptable loudness. To give you an idea of decibel levels, your own normal breathing is about 10db, a whisper is about 20db, and normal conversation in a quiet room is about 50db. I don't mind fan noise, so my cutoff when I shop for a fan is about 40dbA; if you want a truly quiet computer, go for fans quieter than 25dbA.

Actually adding a fan takes a matter of minutes. Most fans will come with four screws, and somewhere on the side of the fan you'll find arrows marking the blades' turn direction and airflow direction. You simply orient the fan, inside the chassis so that the holes line up with the holes in the fan mounting area, and screw it in. The screws should go through the case and into the fan, not through the fan and into the case.

Sometimes, you'll encounter a fan mount that you can't reach from inside the chassis. The fan for that mount will actually go outside the chassis; if it's in the front and if the fan isn't too deep, it will fit between the chassis and the front cover. Cases that have such mounts usually include long screws with their hardware bundle. If you were wondering what you'd ever do with those, this is it. The screw holes in the mount correspond to the threads of those screws. You simply thread them right through the fans' holes, into the mount holes, and tighten them up—see the photograph. Don't over-tighten, as you will bend the corners of the plastic fan and may even snap them off.

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Occasionally, you'll encounter a case with plastic fan holders already installed in mounting areas. That's a bonus: All you have to do is snap the fan into place and power it. Before you buy a fan, consult the case documentation or measure the plastic fan holster to see what measurements the fan should have, in length/width and depth.

Always fire up the PC with the case open after you install a fan, to ensure that the fan works and that the air is blowing in the direction you intended.

Make Your Own Fan Mounts

Older cases may not have a sufficient number of fan mounts. Even if you have a modern case, it may lack a fan mount on the side panel near where the expansion cards—especially the graphics card—are seated. If you can't get your PC's case cool enough with its included mounts or if you need extra cooling for an overclocked graphics card, you can cut your own fan holes into the case.

Make sure there's room for a fan inside the case where you want to place it. When I was a newbie modder, I happily cut a fan hole into the top of an ancient beige case. I mounted the fan, only to discover that the power supply overlapped the area where the fan would have been. Use a ruler and measure the area you wish to fill with a fan to ensure you won't have a similar experience. Don't forget to measure for depth, as well as length and width.

When you've scouted an acceptable location, it's time to cut the hole and mount the fan. Just follow these steps.

1. Decide on the location of your new fan mount. You can either eyeball it or, if you're trying to cool something specific like a graphics card, measure from the rear of the case to where you believe the center of the fan should be, and then measure from the bottom of the case.
2. Remove the panel to which you plan to add a fan mount from the case and do your work far away from your computer. Metal shavings and circuit boards do not go well together.
3. On the inside of the panel, transfer your measurements and mark the location where the fan should be centered with a pencil. Then hit the center point with a metal punch. You only need a tiny divot; don't dent the panel.
4. Place the sharp end of a compass on the center of the actual fan, and move the pencil to the outside of the fan blade opening. That will be the radius of the hole.

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=109184,00.jpg

5. Use the compass to draw a circle around the divot you just made on the panel. The circle defines the area of the panel that you'll cut out.
6. Using a rotary tool (and, of course, eye protection and gloves), very carefully cut the hole out of the panel. Sand or file the edges to remove any burrs and sharp areas. (You can also use a hole saw for the cut; use the closest one you can find to the diameter of your circle.)

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=109185,00.jpg

7. With the panel on a flat surface, place the fan over the hole. Use the square to make sure it's parallel with the sides of the panel (unless you want it in a diagonal or other orientation). With your pencil, mark where each mounting hole location.

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=109186,00.jpg

8. Use the metal punch to make a small divot at each pencil mark for your drill bit. Without an indentation at which to start drilling, the drill bit would slide around all over the panel.
9. Chuck a 3/16" drill bit into your drill and drill the four mounting holes.
10. With a damp cloth, wipe the panel inside and out to remove any metal dust and shavings.
11. With the fan on the inside, oriented to blow in the direction you desire and a fan grill on the outside of the case panel, mount the fan with four fan screws (included with any self-respecting fan).

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...=109187,00.jpg

12. Move the panel back to the computer chassis. Connect the power and turn on the PC to be sure the fan powers up. If it does, power down the PC and secure the panel in place. Your project is complete!

Final Thoughts: Monitoring Internal Air Temperature

Many motherboards feature temperature sensors to measure the CPU's heat and the temperature inside the case, and some that do include a Windows utility that reports their findings on a regular basis. If you suspect that motherboard has sensors but it didn't come with such a utility, you can try Motherboard Monitor , but note that the applet hasn't been updated in over a year.

You can also purchase and install add-in hardware that comes with temperature probes and an LED or LCD readout on a console mounted in a 5 1/4-inch drive bay. Some even offer knobs to give you control over various fans' RPM rates.

Opinions vary on just how warm is too warm for a case's ambient temperature. I try to keep mine below 50 degrees Celsius. Most of my computers run between 40 and 45 degrees. I don't like it when it gets up to 60 degrees, and 70 degrees is simply too hot.

With an efficient cooling strategy, there's no reason a case should ever grow so warm. Good airflow is critical to keeping your PC operating and extending the life of the components. Keep the air flowing!

ExtremeTech - Deep technology for enthusiasts and professionals

[xXxexpertxXx]

Originally Posted by carnageX

Usually good to post the source that you got it from...rather than just blatantly plagiarizing somebody's work =\.

Ya, i didn't forget that!

Its Added





PS: Firefox still continues to freaken freeze everything i type!! Getting annoying and i even got the FireFox Optimizer

[carnageX]

Originally Posted by xXxexpertxXx

Ya, i didn't forget that!

Its Added

Ok.. just making sure

PS: Firefox still continues to freaken freeze everything i type!! Getting annoying and i even got the FireFox Optimizer

Freezes on me when I load images in a separate window a lot. Hence why IE is my primary browser =P.