Installing CPU COOLER?
- Thread starter boleyd
- Start date
Well, I may not need a new cooler. I have become tired of N3V advancing new graphics tools for which I have no interest. So, to avoid being caught in one of their upgrades on Trains 2022 I have moved to Trains 2019. I loaded a copy of the same route i was using on 2022 and-- the CPU usage was much worse with heating from trivial tasks. How, could that be. Well, the last time I used it I had all options max'd and no temp monitor. The worst one was running at 60 FPS (frames per second). Resetting all to more rational settings and the heating disappeared even with rapid texture and elevation changes over large areas. Temps stayed in the high 80'sC.
I have no hope of ever using the advanced graphics. Thus 2022 is set aside and I saved several hundred $ for an eventual CPU. Visually I see no difference 2019 to 2022. Now if I could get rid of this bland, spread of forum things would be back to comfortable. But I will not have to wade through the 2 and 3 letter acronyms in vogue by knowledgeable people.
Since TLR needs the newest 2022 upgrade and 2019 can't use it. Must learn how to make, and apply, a railroad schedule. TLR is also gone for me.
I have no hope of ever using the advanced graphics. Thus 2022 is set aside and I saved several hundred $ for an eventual CPU. Visually I see no difference 2019 to 2022. Now if I could get rid of this bland, spread of forum things would be back to comfortable. But I will not have to wade through the 2 and 3 letter acronyms in vogue by knowledgeable people.
Since TLR needs the newest 2022 upgrade and 2019 can't use it. Must learn how to make, and apply, a railroad schedule. TLR is also gone for me.
This is an issue I brought up since TANE and I was told expect it, because the video card is being used for more and more tasks. The problem, though this is the only program that does this, which to me means there's something wrong with their code that's causing this. In the end, I've been running my computer with the side off with a window fan blowing into the case to keep the components cool. It doesn't help that Dell did such a piss-poor design on this case.
Yup. My old Corsair case weighs about 60 lbs. if not a bit more. It's all sheet metal and has space for 8 external fans plus some additional internal ones for the hard drives. I also paid a lot for the case 16 years ago. While it's no longer being used for my current PC, I'm not getting rid of it either even though it's getting a bit worn. Replacing the fans and the drive door latch is not difficult and it'll still be carried forward for another machine someday if I can ever afford to build machines on my own.
But with that said, there's no excuse for what Dell did when they designed their case. The i9 CPU, while water cooled, has the radiator fan facing inward so that the heat is exhausted inside the case instead of out, and there's nothing more than a thin, maybe 2-inch slot vent where the very hot RTX 3080 is located and the 3080 is the hottest component in the case. When Dell asked for feedback on the system, this is one of the things I brought up. My solution is, as I mentioned, to run the system with the case wide open and a window fan blowing at the components. This does lower the temperatures substantially but wouldn't be necessary if the engineers worked on a proper cooling solution.
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I've discovered Dell does not sell computers that can be upgraded. They want you to buy a whole new computer when the one you have wears out. Both my daughters had Dell computers. (Alienware) One had a power supply fail. I took a spare I had to fix it and found it wouldn't fit the case. Even the connectors wouldn't match up so I couldn't even just set it outside the case to get her computer back up and running. It was a standard size power supply and it wouldn't fit. Dell is notorious for their proprietary hardware. This is fine for office computers that are bought in bulk and replaced as a complete unit as needed but is not consumer friendly.
Jack
Jack
They never used to be this way. I went with Dell because my motherboard died when the parts prices were at their highest and they had what I thought at the time a decent system on sale. It helped that I had an account with them and a decent credit limit to afford a nice system. As always, I have the best of luck when it comes to stuff like this and my system had to die when the prices were at their peak, otherwise I would've built one myself.
Anyway, in the olden days, any component could be replaced easily and cases could be reused for standard motherboards. The new systems, such as the XPS 8950 I have, have a motherboard that's designed to fit into the case so that the front panel buttons are on the motherboard and not on the case connected by wires. This means that should the system die I'll have to buy a new system from scratch and throw away a perfectly good case. This is not only annoying and expensive, but it also adds to the e-waste in landfills.
I agree, this is great for office systems. I used to support 100s of Dell OptiPlex desktops and they were always reliable with easily serviced components. Having units that can be bulk-ordered and all have the same footprint makes setting up offices easy. Sadly, they did the same with consumer products with less than stellar results. All and all, now that I have the system settled in and working, after I deleted or disabled half the stuff that came preinstalled, quite well. The bad part is, it's running Windows 11 and I'm not super enthused about that. The OS is so heavy and intrusive through constant background processes checking network connections that it can impact the performance even on a fast system. I found this out the hard way with some music software I use to control my digital piano. The background processes kept interrupting the software causing stutters and outright glitches, I couldn't record anything until I went through great lengths to find what was glitching the audio interface.
Large external fan on top of the perforated case.
TRS2022, with full graphics options, hits the CPU with 100C and it gets hot. TRS2019 temperatures stay in mid 80'sC with full graphics options. Room temperature 77F. People who do not monitor are possibly reducing the life of their CPU unknowingly. A free APP such as Core Temp can save them grief and hundreds of dollars.
TRS2022, with full graphics options, hits the CPU with 100C and it gets hot. TRS2019 temperatures stay in mid 80'sC with full graphics options. Room temperature 77F. People who do not monitor are possibly reducing the life of their CPU unknowingly. A free APP such as Core Temp can save them grief and hundreds of dollars.
That's exactly why I did what I did to lower my temps. Given the cost of components these days, I didn't want to purchase another CPU or video card. The i9-12900K and newer run at about 100C max. Imagine pushing the CPU to its maximum temperature threshold. This is the same with the new NVidia video cards with their 83C limit. My RTX3080 was pushed close to the limit with the case side on which caused the thermal protection to kick in. This caused stuttering as the GPU would cool off just enough to drop below its maximum operating safe temperature and then go back up to 83C again a second or two later repeatedly.
For monitoring software, I used CPUID HW Monitor Pro. I purchased a license because I wanted to save the results to files and plot the curves. This isn't something you run all the time because like most monitoring software, it can impact the performance as it monitors the system. The same thing can occur when running Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe). You run this only when needed.
Once I saw the issues, I set about resolving the heat by trying another internal fan mounted inside the case across the snot-sized slit. That helped but not enough to cool the GPU and CPU even though the CPU is water cooled, the heat has nowhere to go because the radiator fan is mounted facing inside instead of outside and can't be changed!
Instead of relying on the hardware cooling curves for the GPU, I installed MSI's Afterburner. This works with all NVidia GPUs regardless of the brand. I then tweaked the fan speed curves up a bit and a bit more aggressively to keep the GPU cooler and sooner. So far, this has helped a lot to keep my system cool. Combined with the small air conditioner in my room because temps this week have been in the upper 80s to mid 90s with 90% humidity, my system and I run pretty well without getting too overheated.
All this just for a game, 
I remember in the early days whenever the issue of hardware was raised, the advice was to always get the best GPU you could afford because Trainz was so graphic intense. Considering the state of game development these days, any company that doesn't push the limits risks being left behind in the gamesphere which must be balanced with the risk of leaving behind more and more users who can't or wont keep up. Quite the dilemma.
I remember in the early days whenever the issue of hardware was raised, the advice was to always get the best GPU you could afford because Trainz was so graphic intense. Considering the state of game development these days, any company that doesn't push the limits risks being left behind in the gamesphere which must be balanced with the risk of leaving behind more and more users who can't or wont keep up. Quite the dilemma.
Well not just this game! I found overall that my Dell was running way too warm for anything that required extra CPU and GPU. Modartt's Pianoteq, a program that utilizes mathematically modeled pianos and interfaces to digital pianos through the MIDI interface, would crank my CPU when I used it while the GPU idled at 70C.
The GPU idling at 70C gave the video card no wiggle room for anything. Working with Pinnacle on a video and the GPU throttled back when the processing. The lack of airflow in the case prompted me to take some action because I didn't want to lose my very expensive computer due to poor thermal conditions.
The GPU idling at 70C gave the video card no wiggle room for anything. Working with Pinnacle on a video and the GPU throttled back when the processing. The lack of airflow in the case prompted me to take some action because I didn't want to lose my very expensive computer due to poor thermal conditions.
Sad but seems like an example where expensive doesn't automatically equal better. Also sad that a user has to resort to aiming a house fan into the case in order to keep it cool.