Effect of ambient temperature on CPU temperature

[mack]

During the winter I disconnected my PC case fan, leaving only the CPU fan wired up. I did this to reduce noise, and when monitoring cpu temp it worked perfectly fine and the smart fans where very rarely at much more than a crawl.

Now with an increase in temp I have had to reconnect the case fan to keep the cpu fan noise down. If only there was a happy medium.

Mack.

[Frank_Rizzo]

Here are a few you can try:

Make sure bios settings are optimised for cool and quiet / smart fan.

Underclock the CPU. If possible in the bios you can also low CPU core voltage and thus reduce temps considerably. If modern AMD X4 consider temporarily turning off a couple of cores.

De-dust all fans. Remove fan from CPU and de-dust the heat sink. If the CPU is a few years old change the thermal compound.

Change the fans to better performing ones with low dB / high CFM.

[tangor]

If noise is a real problem, look to fluid coolers for cpu as well. Just don't directly apply ice cubes! :)

[lammert]

Have replaced case fans with low dB versions in the past in an office environment with great success.

[J_RaD]

you can get a larger CPU heat sink that will disapate more heat.

[Maurice]

you could also replace the cpu heat sink/fan with a more efficient one or if there are newer cpu's that fit the socket they may have a lower TDP and require less cooling

[J_RaD]

I know this topic is a little old but its still summer :-P

[tigerdirect.com...]

A fan controller could be the happy medium you seek! Tune the fans to where they are moving air but not audiable, and turn them to high when the temp gets up.