Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: KeithMyers on March 21, 2011, 07:54:15 pm
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I am trying understand the behavior of my computer cooling system. I have the GA-870a-UD3 motherboard with a AMD Phenom II 965BE quad core CPU on stock voltages and frequencies. This computer was built for distributed computing so it runs flat out at 100% 24/7. I just recently upgraded the CPU cooler to a Coolermaster Hyper212+. The case is the Coolermaster HAF922 with 2 200mm fans and one 120mm fan. The CPU cooler sits right underneath the top 200mm fan so I oriented the new cooler to blow upward toward the top fan. I also have 2 GTX460 GPU's in the computer.
Now on to the behavior I am trying to understand. I have used OpenHardware Monitor, CoreTemp and CPUID HWMonitor to monitor the temperature readouts from the motherboard CPU Temp sensor and also the DTS Core sensor on the CPU. Generally the DTS CPU sensor is running in the 42 - 45 degree range at full load all the time. The thing I am trying to understand is the readout from the motherboard CPU sensor. Depending on the mix of distributed work currently running on the CPU and GPU's, the CPU temp sensor can either be tracking the DTS sensor very closely within 1-2 degrees or vary as much as 20-25 degrees. I just recently watched it hit 71 degrees for a bit while the CPU was working on MilkyWay@ Home tasks. Meanwhile the DTS sensor is still running only about 45 degrees. I have the BIOS temp warning set at 70 degrees and of course it went off while the CPU temp was working at the 70 degree level. The question I have is just which temperature readout controls the CPU Fan header. Based on observing the CPU cooler fan racing up to its max speed, I have to assume the CPU Fan header is controlled by the motherboard CPU Temp sensor and not the CPU DTS sensor. I would have thought with the supposed accuracy of the DTS sensor tracking just how much headroom is left in the total power output dissipation of the chip, the CPU fan control would track the DTS sensor. This appears to not be the case. Can I really believe the readings from the DTS sensor? The CPU is supposed to be kept under 62 degrees from what I read in the specs. I am worried that the CPU really is hitting 70 degrees when it gets occupied by a very compute intensive workload. So which sensor do I believe? The motherboard CPU temp sensor or the DTS sensor? It's not that one or the other sensor is always wildly off from the other and make it easy to discount one reading or the other. Right now as I type, both sensors are within a half degree of each other at 43.5 degrees. Anyone else seen this type of behavior on their distributed computing platforms? Is it normal and of no consequence? How do you have the Fan control and warnings set in the BIOS for this motherboard? What you recommend?
Cheers, and thanks for taking the time to read this and reply.
Keith :-\
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A followup question to my own post. Which sensor controls the automatic CPU throttling in the BIOS when the CPU gets into power dissipation troubles? Motherboard or DTS sensor?
Keith
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Hi there,
There does seem to be some issues with different software and the way that they report the CPU temps. Officially Gigabyte say to use EasyTune6 for monitoring temps whilst AMD say to use AMD Overdrive so no conflicts there! :P
Normally the most accurate temps being reported are through BIOS but even this can be less than perfect, which leaves the problem what to do and what to trust. Although I don't have your CPU/Mobo combination I have compared many different options both hardware and software for monitoring CPU temps I have not actually found anything that I trust totally. For the most part I use Core Temp as this seems to be the best of the bunch but even this can be glitchy.
The running temp, under load, that your software seem to be reporting are actually the optimum for the Phenom ii CPU's but if you really are peaking at over 71C then you could have issues. If you are running your CPU at stock settings you can try and drop the voltage a little as that would help lower temps but it might introduce instability if you pull it back too far.
With regard to your second question you might do better actually asking GGTS here: http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/technical-support.aspx just choose motherboard and your Country of residence from the drop down list. It could take them 7 - 10 days to answer your question so don't be surprised if you don't hear anything immediately.
In the meantime I will do some more digging and see if I can come up with a definitive answer for you but hopefully someone else might know and reply!
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Thanks for the reply absic. I tried to use the EasyTune6 software but it just messed all the fans and temps up with incorrect control. As I am not trying to overclock or tune up the computer, stock is fine for stability, I just use OpenHardware mostly because it has a nice gadget that allows me to see all the pertinent temps, fan speeds and CPU/GPU utilization at a glance. Not sure I made myself clear when I said I hit 71 degrees on the motherboard sensor. I have never seen DTS temps higher than 45 degrees even when the motherboard sensor was hitting 70 degrees and the CPU cooler fan maxes out at 2000 rpm. At least with this new cooler I am not bothered by the racing noise like the stock cooler when the CPU's get cranked by MW work. The temps on both sensors track usually unless I get a specific mix of work, mostly the MilkyWay@Home 0.50 separation tasks. They for some reason really work the CPU cores very heavily compared to other projects work. I also have never seen any higher temps on the CPU cooler base than about 45 degrees when I take a reading with my IR temp gun. This reading is when the motherboard CPU temp sensor is reporting 70 degrees but the DTS sensor is reporting 45 degrees. As an aside, I have seen very good accuracy and repeatability of readings with the IR gun against the sensor readings, except for the Northbridge sensor of course which inaccurately reports a constant 81 degrees. I believe this is a well known symptom of this motherboard and since I don't measure more than about 55 degrees on the Northbridge heat sink, I don't worry about it. I'll go and post the question about which sensor controls the throttling on the Tech Support page as you suggest. I have only once seen a throttling event and I couldn't pin it on any abnormal temp. I think the system got confused for a while as I simply rebooted and continued on with the same workload and the CPU speed stayed at maximum frequency as normal. Thanks again for the reply.
Keith
;D
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Your situation is pretty strange. If you can live without the CPU for a while it'd probably be replaced through RMA. Otherwise, if you don't mind that your temp sensors are most likely faulty then it's fine. With that case and cooler you won't exceed recommended temps running stock settings ( as long as your ambient stays within reason ).
Normally, your CPU temp should be lower than your Core temps by up to about 10 degrees under load ( the difference can be even bigger sometimes ). Now, the 62 degrees limit is just a precaution on AMD's part. Most importantly, temp sensors can be terribly inaccurate and secondly, some people will push their chips way beyond limits so it's best to set them conservatively. The truth is, there should be no damage to the chip below about 90 degrees and it'll most likely shut down by itself before reaching that temperature. Even if the 71C reported were real, taking inaccuracy into account, it should still be below 90 degrees.
I say faulty sensor, though. I'm not about to believe that CPU temp could be over 20 degrees more than cores.
As for fan speed and probably all CPU related behaviour, it's controlled by CPU temp.
Lastly, I'm rather certain that the CPU sensor is located on the CPU itself and not the motherboard ( word is, it's just below the heatsink contact area ).
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Hi bytheway_r. I'm confused by your commentary. You mostly say that you think the motherboard sensor is faulty, yet recommend that the CPU chip be RMA'd. My logic says that the motherboard should be RMA'd. Also, from what I have read from many sources in my attempt to try and understand what is going on with my computer, the CPU Temp sensor reported in the BIOS and exposed through the I/O monitoring chip is reading a thermal sensor usually embedded directly under the CPU socket. When I installed the backplate for the new CPU cooler, I had a good look at this area since the backplate window had to be centered around the various surface mount chips. I am pretty familiar with chip technology as far as componentry as I have worked with the hardware for 30 odd years or so. I thought I identified the likely SMD thermistor under the socket area. Maybe not. I understand that the Core DTS (Digital Thermal Sensors) temp sensors are actually on the chip die and have their own register. Its between these two disparate sensors I am trying to grasp their behavior. From what I have read, for the AMD Phenom II chips, there is only one DTS sensor on die even though monitoring programs will list Core temps for all cores, they will all read the same. I would most suspect the inaccuracy in the temp readings to be from the motherboard thermistor under the socket. Since it is an analog device, it is easily damaged and its thermal co-efficient can change over time or through extreme temperature events. Unless you have an ability to calibrate the temp readout through use of an offset, all one can hope for is that the original chip calibration mostly stays the same as at assembly time.
I would agree with your assessment that my system is pretty strange. Thus the question to the experts. For 75% of the time, the two different CPU temp sensors exposed by monitoring software agree within a degree of each other. I wonder if your commentary about the CPU temp being normally lower than core temps is based on the typical user where the only time their CPU's are at 100% usage is when they are playing games. And that is just for small periods of time. My temps are very stable as from the first instant the computer is turned on, it goes immediately to 100% utilization and just stays there. Within about 2 minutes or so, the temps are stabilized, I believe the system has reached thermal equilibrium. It's just when I hit this particular workload from the MilkyWay project that I get the divergent temps. Thanks for the confirmation of my deduction that fan speed is controlled by the motherboard CPU temp sensor. That certainly is what I observe when the motherboard CPU temp sensor takes off northward of 45 degrees and the CPU fans speed scales accordingly.
Cheers, Keith
:D
P.S. My idle temps are only about a degree or so above ambient room temps, usually around 20-22 degrees. The new CPU cooler lowered my full load temps about 6 degrees from my previous cooler.
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I'm confused myself. I'm trying to find something even remotely definitive regarding sensors on Phenom II's and how they work. No such luck. There are as many ideas out there as you can think of. The only piece of info I've found so far is this:
1) The previous eratta for Phenom IIs reported that several of their AM3 chips (including the X6) had faulty temperature sensors. The latest errata "corrected" that and now states that only AM2 chips have faulty temp sensors. Huh.
2) There's no way to get core temps on AMD chips. The temperature reported by coretemp is what AMD calls "tctl". Here's what AMD says about tctl:
http://support.amd.com/us/Processor_TechDocs/41256.pdf
Quote:
Tctl is a non-physical temperature on an arbitrary scale measured in degrees. It does not represent an actual physical temperature like die or case temperature.
For Tctl = 0 to Tctl_max - 0.125: the temperature of the part is [Tctl_max - Tctl] degrees under the temperature for which maximum cooling is required.
For Tctl = Tctl_max to 255.875: the temperature of the part is [Tctl - Tctl_max] degrees over the worst-case expected temperature under normal conditions.
The default value of the HTC temperature threshold (Tctl_max) is specified in the Power and Thermal Datasheet.
Now, in the Power and Thermal Datasheet, Tctl Max is the same as Tcase Max for most processors. However, it can vary by up to +/-15C for some processor models.
http://support.amd.com/us/Processor_TechDocs/43375.pdf
So, we know that Tcase Max is the maximum operating temperature for an AMD CPU, as measured on the CPU casing (aka integrated heat spreader). We know that tctl is a totally arbitrary, non-physical value for the current CPU temperature. And we know that Tctl Max is typically equal to Tcase Max, the totally real, physical max temp of the CPU.
It's clear as mud to me.
From a quick look at these documents ( especially the first one ) I still have no idea whether the sensor is somewhere in the CPU itself or in the motherboard. The core temp issue is somewhat sketchy, too.
Frankly, it's almost impossible to figure this kind of info out. Unless you have extensive knowledge about electronics used in CPUs and know quite a bit about how CPUs work ( in terms of hardware operation ) and are willing to take one of these apart to take a look inside, then we're not very likely to get a proper answer.
What's killing me is that asking AMD or Gigabyte won't help. Ask 2 different people and you'll get 2 different answers. Both could be incorrect, too. You'd have to get your hands on one of the engineers that worked on Phenom II sensors to be sure.
Bottom line, as I've stated previously, with that case and that cooler at stock settings nothing will be overheating. If anything, you could try reseating the heatsink to be sure it's mounted properly. I doubt it's that but it's the easiest thing to check.
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Yes, color me confused also. Those links are some of the same docs I have been reading. The core temps for the AMD Phenom II processors revision RB-C3 (aka 125W TDP) seem to be based on a formula described as VALUE/8. What value might be is only known by AMD apparently. As you said, with my case air flow directionality and the high air flow and cooler real estate, I am really not too worried about overheating the CPU. The IR temp gun is my sanity check also. My finger tells me mostly what I need to know. As I said, I've been working on electronics for over 30 years ..... if you can keep your hand or finger or upper lip on a electronic device indefinitely, it is running well within thermal limits and should live forever if it gets past the usual 30 day infant mortality syndrome and doesn't suffer any unusual temp or voltage events. I was just real curious as to my observed behavior with my distributed computer workload. I think I will next post this same question on the forums for the distributed computing projects I belong too, particularly MilkyWay@Home since it is that work that shows the temp discrepancy the most. Thanks for your help.
Cheers, Keith 8)
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We have the same approach, then ;D. Kind of why I'm starting to wonder about heatpipe connected motherboard heatsinks. From what my fingers are telling me, my NB temp went down compared to budget boards but the heatsink covering my mosfets is quite warm. Honestly, I think that heat from the NB is being transferred to mosfet heatsink causing them to run hotter than ones without a heatsink at all. Which would make my day what with people telling you on overclocking forums that you'll blow your mosfets if you don't have a heatsink on them.
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Interesting observation on your part. My motherboard doesn't have any kind of heat sinks on the mosfets. There is a poorly shaped heat sink on the northbridge with a gaudy Gigabyte badge on the top of the fins that certainly obstructs air flow through the heat sink. I can easily put my fingers on the mosfets and hold it without discomfort of any kind. The hottest thing on the motherboard is the northbridge heat sink base that is in contact with the chip. Definitely hotter than anything else and I can still hold my finger on the heat sink as long as necessary. 55 degrees C or about 130 degrees F. With my case and fans I easily flow enough air around the surface of the motherboard near the mosfet area. Also the northbridge heat sink is directly in front of the CPU cooler fan air intake and benefits from the air flow through the area. After first seeing the high northbridge temp readout, I second guessed myself thinking I might have made a better choice in motherboards and should have chosen one with heatpipe coolers. I've looked around and now think I made a pretty good decision based on the feature set that my board offers. Lots of fan headers that made it easy to hook up all my case fans and CPU fans without adapters. I could have gone with a 890FX chipset in order to get two PCIe 2.0 X 16 channels, something desirable for SLI or Crossfire fans but I don't really suffer much lesser thruput running my older GPU in a X4 channel. I don't see much difference in processing times for my distributed computing tasks. ;D
Keith
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Yes I quite agree. Often when replacing the stock cooler with an aftermarket version the CPU get a nice drop in temperature but the surrounding chipsets actually get hotter. I am watercooling my northbridge along with the rest of the board and GPU but it has the same effect on the mosfets and they were getting quite hot. I made and installed a dedicated fan just to cool them. You can see in my photos here:
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,2373.0.html
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Dark Mantis, that's a nice looking rig!. I don't think I've stumbled upon that specific water-cooling product before and will have to look it up. Thanks for the link. ;D
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Thanks Keith, I'm glad you like it but it is in a constant state of flux and is always changing. I have a couple, more bits that I am reviewing at the moment and then going to be fitting into the loop. 8)
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Just a quick observation. Since I never really got any kind of definitive answer as to why I observe what I observe with my system, I also posted basically the same observation and question over in the MilkyWay@Home forums. Mainly what do others observe when processing the kind of work that makes my system freak out. Sadly, no responses of any kind so far. I don't know whether that means no one else observes my questionable behavior or whether the question itself is so far off the usual thread content that no one has found it interesting. It might just turn out to be one of those mysteries of the universe that will never get answered to anyone's satisfaction.
Cheers, Keith
???
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Hi again Keith,
Trying to get to the bottom of these kind of issues can be really difficult and quite often people just give up on them.
I understand that you have raised a query with GGTS and hopefully they will give you an insight and point you in the right direction. So far, my own digging in to this issue hasn't thrown up any practical answers but I will keep looking.
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Hi Keith,
I too use this board and have commented on the board temps in various posts.. I also have commented on the North Bridge temperatures and have also directly asked Gigabyte what is the maximum temperature for the chip..They ignored my question..I hope you have better luck..
When I first discovered this condition I wrote this post..
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php
Since then I fashioned a dedicated fan to direct airflow on the heat sink..That lowered the heatsink temperatures to something manageable..
Good luck to your investigation,
jolphil :)
Edit: I also don't have much faith in software temperature sensors readouts when they use SMD thermistors as the sensor..
I much prefer the good ole heat sink temperature as an indication...
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Yes I would agree with jolphil regarding the dedicated fan as the best option. Some things are just best sorted out after manufacture by us users. Bit of customisation.
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Well GGTS only answered my question about which temp variable controls the CPU fan speed. They offered no other information. I've read everything I could find on the Northbridge temp problem and I never could decide whether it was real or not. I took a dedicated fan and blew it directly on the heat sink and achieved exactly 1/2 degree change in the reported 82 degrees Centigrade reading reported. The display would toggle between 81 and 82 degrees. Meanwhile, I measured the actual die and heat sink temp with the temperature gun and came up with 55 degrees Centigrade. Thus, I concluded that since I couldn't effect any real change in the reported temp and the measured temp was 55 degrees, the motherboard Northbridge temp readout was bogus. The only thing left to do would be to experiment by removing the heat sink and replacing the TIM with AS5 and fashioning a proper method of clamping the heat sink down to the chip so it would have proper force and couldn't move around or get knocked off.
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Well GGTS only answered my question about which temp variable controls the CPU fan speed.
What was their reply to this question?
There have been several instances of strange NB temps being reported and this is down to faulty sensors. Re seating the cooler with new Thermal Grease can help although I have never had to do so, on any of the Gigabyte boards I have used.
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The only thing left to do would be to experiment by removing the heat sink and replacing the TIM with AS5 and fashioning a proper method of clamping the heat sink down to the chip so it would have proper force and couldn't move around or get knocked off.
My reported NB temp in both Linux (lmsensors) and Windows software was 79C..I removed the Heat sink and TIM and replaced it with
a Enzotech CNB-S1R solid copper heatsink with fins..My Reported temperature only went down to 78C..Not really worth the effort..
In addition the push pins would not fit the board holes and I had to use 632 nylon bolts and nuts to secure it flat to the chip..
One benefit of the the heatsink bolted, it does not rock back and forth any more..
I did not have the nerve to measure the chip temperature without a heat sink attached for fear of damaging the chip..
Goodluck,
jolphil
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jolphil - 79 must be b...s..., some fake reading
KeithMyers - push ggts to give answers for all your questions
and if your cpu's "idle temps are only about a degree or so above ambient room temps" then it must be sth wrong with the software you use for reading. as i don't believe that cpu which consumes at least a few 10s of watts raises it's temp only by 1 degree higher than air in your room
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No Beekeeper I am sure that you are right there, some of these figures that are reported are just not feasible. Either sticking sensors or bad software.
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Regarding the high NB temps I can only say that I replaced the heatsink on a 770T-UD3P with a Thermalright HR-05 ( Arctic Silver 5 ) and my temps reading went down from 80-82 to 78-79C. I can't say it ran cool on stock heatsink, though. It was bordering on too hot to the touch.
and if your cpu's "idle temps are only about a degree or so above ambient room temps" then it must be sth wrong with the software you use for reading. as i don't believe that cpu which consumes at least a few 10s of watts raises it's temp only by 1 degree higher than air in your room
I beg to differ. I'm pretty sure he has Cool'n'Quiet enabled which would downclock and undervolt the CPU when in idle. Now, whether the sensor is giving correct temperature is another thing but running within few degrees of ambient isn't all that hard.
Myself I have a bigger cooler and customized Cool'n'Quiet ( undervolted more ) and I'm running at 22C ( once again, this is just a sensor reading ) which can't be much higher than ambient. That's with CPU fan on auto running at 800 RPM ( max 1850 RPM ).
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I beg to differ. I'm pretty sure he has Cool'n'Quiet enabled which would downclock and undervolt the CPU when in idle. Now, whether the sensor is giving correct temperature is another thing but running within few degrees of ambient isn't all that hard.
I have to agree here..I forget what software I used but the power at down clock at idle verses full power full clock FWIW stated
idle 12watts/22C to 120Watt/38C under full power.. Now these were software readings and with a Scythe Mugen 2 (an enormous heat sink)
This was several months ago(winter) when it was around 20-21C ambient..At idle the CPU fan barely runs at all and did spin up
with either prime 95 or Intel burn test..I forget which was used..
jolphil
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Fair enough if that is what you get, who am I to argue. I am more used to the Intel platform and they tend to run somewhat hotter. Even with my water cooling unless I use below ambient means my temps are higher than what you are getting.
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Ah, yeah, forgot for a moment there that Intel runs hotter. Or rather ran with previous gen. i7. Sandy Bridge is much like current Phenoms in terms of idle temps.
Don't get too cocky, though, DM. There's still the issue of sub zero temperatures and Intel CPUs ;).
Man, I really liked that saying about Intel+Nvidia being great space heaters, too :P.
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There is alot of truth in that to be honest especially the GPUs. Nice on a cold winters day to sit around it and warm your hands ;D It's more the noise I couldn't stand!
The below zero cooling is only an issue until you get to a decent overclock. ;)
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What was their reply to this question?
Question:
"Which CPU sensor controls the CPU Fan speed? Which CPU sensor controls the automatic CPU throttling? Motherboard CPU temp sensor or CPU DTS sensor?"
Answer:
"ITE IT8720 chip controls all sensor on the motherboard"
All the monitoring programs I have used are reading the same temps as each other. OpenHardware Monitor, CPUID HWMonitor and CoreTemp all agree when run simultaneously. The reported temps are pretty darn close to what I measure with the IR temp gun too.
Correct, I have both C1E and C'NQ enabled so when I dump BOINC work from the system and the CPU's and GPU's go Idle, they are just a degree or so above ambient for the room. The house thermostat is set for 68 degree F. and the computer sits on the desk right next to an cracked open outside window and it has been rainy and cold here forever it seems. So the computer right now is getting very cool. Going to be a different situation come summer.
I just replaced the stock cooler on the Phenom II X4 965BE with a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ and when I turned it on for the first time with the side cover off to make sure the fan spun up, I was diving for the power switch because the fan did not in fact spin up. I was checking out the fan and and the motherboard for an hour trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Spent some time researching the problem on the web and came to discover that the CPU cooler is such a good heat sink that the fan won't spin up under motherboard PWM control until the system sees that CPU temp start to rise. With the knowledge, I then turned on the system and watched the computer go through POST, through my Boot Manager and finally load Windows7 and start up BOINC and then the fan finally kicked on once the CPU finally got occupied with all 4 cores crunching. Proved to me that the new CPU cooler does a damn fine job even without a fan blowing through it. Probably also helps that the top fan in the case draws a lot of air on its own through the CPU cooler even without the CPU fan being on. One of the reasons I chose to orient the cooler North-South was to take advantage of the natural air flow through the case.
Depending on the mix of work going through the system at any time, I have seen the motherboard temp sensor match the core DTS sensor equally or within a degree or so, plus or minus. The core is reporting about 1 1/2 degree above the motherboard sensor for example right now. From what I have read, a lot more people see greater differences between the two sensors. I don't know whether I have a good motherboard or whether my temps just are a reflection of the type of work the computer does being atypical to most users.
I am pretty damn happy with this system all said. If I could just get some direct comments about the unusual behavior with a certain type of MW work, I would be ecstatic and would just shut up. I haven't had any of the really hard MW work now for almost a week, maybe it was just a specific set of data that really made the system grunt. Who knows. It is all academic anyway as I verified I wasn't getting into thermal trouble with a IR temp gun verification.
Keith
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Probably also helps that the top fan in the case draws a lot of air on its own through the CPU cooler even without the CPU fan being on. One of the reasons I chose to orient the cooler North-South was to take advantage of the natural air flow through the case.
Unofrtunately, these 200mm fans aren't all that capable of moving air through heatsinks. I'd say it's more due to physics of warm air going up. My graphic card's 80mm fans are blowing air with so much force under load that it exits through the side 200mm fan ;D.
If I could just get some direct comments about the unusual behavior with a certain type of MW work, I would be ecstatic and would just shut up.
Computers, huh? For some reason I'm experiencing odd behaviour when reducing noise in photos with my CPU locked to overclocked values. Have yet to check if it's only in Canon's software or all programs. Not to mention that my keyboard seems to have stopped working again during boot :P.
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Probably also helps that the top fan in the case draws a lot of air on its own through the CPU cooler even without the CPU fan being on. One of the reasons I chose to orient the cooler North-South was to take advantage of the natural air flow through the case.
Unofrtunately, these 200mm fans aren't all that capable of moving air through heatsinks. I'd say it's more due to physics of warm air going up. My graphic card's 80mm fans are blowing air with so much force under load that it exits through the side 200mm fan ;D.
If I could just get some direct comments about the unusual behavior with a certain type of MW work, I would be ecstatic and would just shut up.
Computers, huh? For some reason I'm experiencing odd behaviour when reducing noise in photos with my CPU locked to overclocked values. Have yet to check if it's only in Canon's software or all programs. Not to mention that my keyboard seems to have stopped working again during boot :P.
Well, the convection of naturally rising hot air certainly plays a major role also. Assisting the natural heat flow out the top with fans directing it that way couldn't hurt. ;D
My two GPU's ostensibly have exit paths out the rear of the card at the back plane, but mostly all the hot air coming off their heat sinks dumps back into the case. The rear case fan nearest the cards seems to do the bulk of the work removing that heat load from the case. It seems to intercept it before it impinges on the CPU fan.
I process my astro photos on my field laptop. Core 2 Duo at 1.6Ghz. When I run a Photoshop CS filter or Action on one of my images, I just walk away for about 15 minutes because for all intents, the computer is frozen. No need for overclocking to freeze that computer up. :P
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Just a reflection on your laptop you mentioned , have you got it filled with RAM? That can make a big difference to the Photoshop etc processing.
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Yes, I have it filled with 4GB of RAM of which the computer can only use 3GB since it runs Windows XP 32bit still for maximum compatibility with all the legacy astronomy control software and drivers for the mount and cameras. Just no easy way getting around the OS limitations until I decide to upgrade the laptop with Win7 64bit. The software and drivers are almost to the point that I could make the jump and not have too many issues. I'm just going to wait a bit more for things to settle down firmly. I would also have to make a big investment in a new version of PS as my version is no longer supported or upgradeable. $600 is a lot of money for PS for a feature set of which I use mainly only about 15% of the tools or features in it. Most of my time is spent in MaxImDL for camera control and initial processing. I just use PS for final polishing and formatting operations.
Cheers, Keith