Cooling a PowerPC G4 Tower?

S

Sogni

*gone*
It has been determined that my Mac gets a bit too hot in my studio (Southern California / San Fernando Valley), and apperantly some of the RAM I have in there is a bit sencitive to heat so I my system crashes if I don't keep it cool.

I'm trying to keep it cool as much as possible externally - keeping it away from walls, windows and pointing a floor fan at it, but does anyone know what I can do to the tower itself to keep it cool?

The major problems seem to be the Video Card (Nvidia GeForce2 MX) and RAM chips.

Also, is there any way to monitor my CPUs temp? I haven't been able to get ThermoInDock to work with my system - so I'm guessing my particular Motherboard does not have Thermo Sensors?

Thanks for any info...


 
If I'm not mistaken, we've concluded that pointing a fan at it and keeping it cool that way DOES work, right? So it is DEFINITELY overheating?

Have you checked the actual processor/heat sink? Sometimes a heat sink on a processor can become SLIGHTLY dislodged or it may not make good enough contact with the processor to dissipate heat properly... perhaps it's the processor that's overheating -- hence the lockups?

Apple should have provided adequate cooling for their towers -- even the dual-processor ones. I'd check the processor/heat sink combo next and see what that yields.
 
Yes, it's defenetly overheating. And pointing a fan does help - to a point.

I've been doing "the finger test" by resting my finger on areas of the computer (after touching ground of course), and the CPU Heat Sheild actually stays pretty cool.

Then I placed my finger ontop of the RAM and noticed that they get pretty warm - but the biggest (512) is the one that REALLY gets hot, almost as hot as the Video card!

I ran my computer in a "stock" memory configuration (128 + 256) and I it ran non-stop without a single crash (and I was REALLY trying too!). So I thought my 512 or a 256mb RAM chip I had added was bad.

So I put it all back in, got my studio down to 80 degrees with a chain of fans coming from the AC, and again it wouldn't crash. It finally did crash when my studio temp went up - there's just so much I can do to fight the valley's heat.

I thought it was adequate coolng with a large fan venting air straight onto the video card and sorrounding components... Guess they where not really expecting San Fernando Valley Heat! :p

I wouldn't mind upgrading the fan venting the air out of the processors to a stronger/faster one - but with what? It's such a weird size I haven't seen one that size anywhere...


 
Wow... I thought it was hot here in Texas! Hehe... we're having a cold spell here, and there's this really cold, white stuff all over my car in the morning... weird!

Exactly how hot does your studio get in the day? If you had to use fans to get it down to 80 degrees, I'd be more worried about the operator of the computer overheating! ;)

This may call for a little ingenuity if you can't keep your studio at 80 degrees or lower... if you've got some cash to spare, we might be able to make up some sort of "cooling" box to set your G4 in -- maybe fashion one out of an ice chest and eight or more computer fans (four blowing in, four blowing out) of that chest -- the air won't be cold, but at least it'll keep 80-degree air coming into that chest and venting out the really hot air produced by the computer...

Anyone else with ideas?
 
Wow... I thought it was hot here in Texas! Hehe... we're having a cold spell here, and there's this really cold, white stuff all over my car in the morning... weird!
Click to expand...

Cold white stuff? You mean that cold white stuff that forms inside of freezers? Never seen that outside of a freezer! :p

Temps here go from T-Shirt weather to STAY OUT OF THE SUN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! :p

Well, there's a window for a wall - I'd say maybe 8 feet wide by 7 feet tall and metal blinds on it, add sunlight and it heats up pretty good. At times I just have to leave for a few hours as it gets unbearable. But it's not me I'm worried about as much.

I think my friend (boss?) finally cracked and might be looking into a solution... but knowing him - I'm not holding my breath! (he's almost as broke as I am)

I donno about an ice chest... wouldn't that kinda take away from the Mac's looks? lol :D

Someone told me something about an AC kinda fan where it cools down the room by adding water... Never seen one tho. Would that be a good or bad idea (humidity?).

PS. yeah, I've seen snow - up in the mountains, haven't experienced snow in 4 years tho :(


 
Well, down here in Mid-to-Southern-Texas (San Antonio, especially) we have about a 10-year cycle for snow. The last, good snow was 15 inches in 1985. Since then, we've gotten 1/2 cm. two years after that big one, and nothing since then. I moved to Dallas at the end of 2000, and saw some snow and ice then, but nothing to brag about. I've since moved back to San Antonio, as Dallas is the buttcrack of Texas, if you ask me... ;)

Oh, and even though I was born and raised in Texas, under the broiling sun and unbearable summer humidity, I'm an avid snow skiier... hehe... I love getting away to New Mexico (Red River, especially) and hitting the slopes in February... ;) I've been to Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut to ski, too, but last time I was there, it was 17 below with a wind chill putting it into the 30-40 degree below mark. Not fun. Not fun to ski in, either... one bit of exposed skin in that temperature feels like a swarm of bees stinging you in whatever part is exposed... :p

Never heard of one of those AC units... I've got a humidifier that I use when I sleep at night to wet this dry, cold air we're having right now (otherwise you wake with a bloody nose -- not fun!) and, I'd say, it cools the room a degree or two. It won't overhumidify, though -- it's just air, blown through a water-saturated filter by a small fan, basically... it does the job of keeping my sinuses nice and wet like God intended, and perhaps lowers the temp a degree or two... not enough for your computer problem, though...

I'm assuming you've got just the one big window -- no regular windows in which to place a room AC unit, huh?
 
Just in case- are you leaving the case open?

Leaving the case open isn't a good solution- the towers are designed to maintain a constant airflow in a specific pattern to cool the whole system optimally (not that mac's generate a -ton- of heat). So keep the case closed for starters.

Other general cooling tips- do you have a lot of dark colors in the office? Dark colors absorb light and convert it into heat (think- where does the light go if it isn't reflected?) So big, bright-white sheets can go a long way in cooling a room. White drapes might also help reflect more light back out the window rather than metal blinds which probably absorb light and heat the air between the glass and the blinds, which then rises to the ceiling to mingle with the rest of the air.

Speaking of cielings, keep the machine close to the floor, where the air is likely to be a few degrees colder than the upper air temperature (this is less of an issue if you have a lot of air circulation in the room.

At least- this is how I try and manage under rochester's desolate summer.
 
Here I am, sitting at the computer in my sweater, sometimes glancing out the part of the window that's not frosted over...

Maybe you could hack up a heat sink for the ram - a block of aluminum or copper, some thermal paste, and some way to fasten the block to the DIMM. Probably that's just too ugly.

You could also look into a liquid cooling kit, if you don't mind getting really ridiculous.
 
I used to go up to the snow in the mountains in Winter - but never skied, just played like a little kid. Oh and inner-tubes! Those where fun! Even when I went off-course (well, my planned course that is) and hit a snow bank large rock covered in snow?) - it was a nice flight - and it didn't really hurt when I used my face to land! That was fun :D

Yeah that large window is the only window in here (that is, aside from the MS white boxes! lol).

If my friend/boss can come up with the money or means - there is a hollow area between the window and the wall that is the perfect size for a wall-mounted AC. I think it's even boxed in, just need to take away the outside molding and cut a hole in the drywall... But like I said - I aint holding my breath on that one.

scruffy, I was thinking of something like that - but aren't the chips too tight together to do such a thing? I was thinking of putting it ontop - but somehow I dont think that would do much good if it's not in contact with the chips surface.

[.dev.lqd], At first, yeah - but after I figured out what the problem was I closed it back up.

I was thinking of a curtain of some sort - for privacy mostly. The window is tinted/solarised (?) so it acts as a mirror during the day - but at night when I'm still here you can see inside (even through the blinds - they arent any good).
Wasn't thinking of a white curtain tho... might look into that.
 
What I did to keep the temp. down is add more fans inside. I bought a fan from Radio Shack, then I cut the wires connected to the fan inside the computer (the black and red ones twisted together), i then attached the fan to the wires, rolled them all together, and taped it up with electrical tape. Then, me being the lazy man I am, I set on top of the 2nd hard drive to cool my Radeon. I think it supplement's the Radeon's little fan quite nicely.:D Check out pictures at http://homepage.mac.com/scopey Some are out of focus, but as I said before, I am a lazy man.
 
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