HP Slimline s3700f, GeForce 430, heat and PSU

[JonBoy2001]

So after raiding with that HP Slimline s3700f I got from work that I made a thread about a few days ago, I was able to run WoW at 1920*1080 with all low graphics in a 25man Fireland on H:Ryoleth attempts. FPS was a constant 10, before the pull and during the pull. I'm satisfied. The old clunker in my sig would be at 20 or less fps before the pull with fair-good settings and sputter out at maybe 3, without recount running during the pull. (I had that running along with some more addons on the Slimline) Amazing what a dual core will do eh? Screw you P4 w/HT.

So, with all this in mind, obviously upgrading from the onboard 6150SE was a no brainer. With there being a 160w PSU in there, I was skiddish about trying any kind of extra video card, but then I saw my local Micro Center had an EVGA GeForce 430, low profile ready, open box for $55 and with a $25 mail in rebate. Doing one of those PSU calculators, the minimum PSU required for the Slimline with the 430 is stated to be 162w. I figured, why the hell not? I could always buy a new PSU from this Slimline site I found for ~$70 if it didn't power on or give me problems. Who could argue with a total investment of $100 to play WoW much better than the clunker I'm currently on?

So, I get the 430 in there, and turn it on. BAM! The SOB boots up! To be honest, I was surprised as hell. I thought about it and figured surely it'll crap out when I play WoW for a while. After fiddling with the graphics, I reached a good median with Good to High settings. I played all evening (5 hours) from Firelands dailies, to five mans, but didn't get a chance to raid. Overall it was pretty good. Much better than the rose colored glasses I had to put on to bear the P4, lol.

My main concern was/is over heating. I did some research, and the max recomended temp I could find for the CPU was 65c and GPU at 90c. I had speedfan on all night, and set up warnings at 60 for the CPU and 80 for the GPU. Neither one went off all night, which again, surprised me. My question is, should I try to get them cooler? I don't have many options, and a few of them require some case modification. An easy one is a 5.25 bay fan, but that takes out the nifty DVD Burner with Lightscribe, but I could always USB enclose it. I'm down for recomendations and ideas on the heat but I'm on the fence with the PSU. Surely it would have powered off, or BSoD'd or something if the PSU couldn't handle everything? There's no extra power hookup on the card, so maybe I'm ok?

[Nellah]

Those temperatures, while high, are about what I'd expect for a Slimline case, and nothing to worry about as far as the GPU or CPU life goes. You might get better temperatures by replacing the CPU cooler, as I'm sure whatever is cooling it amounts to about a quarter inch of poorly-extruded aluminum, but again it's hard to find something that'll work in the Slimline case.

What were you using to max the CPU/GPU during thermal tests?

[JonBoy2001]

Good idea on the the CPU cooler, didn't think about that. It looks good with heat pipes with that radiator-ish fin design, but it's probably aluminum. New thermal paste would probably help a little too.

As for thermal tests, just WoW on fair-good graphics settings. No special driver based settings. I've always turned all that off in the nVidia control panel. Well, set it for high performance anyway.

[trickster0306]

i was looking into getting the same gpu, with a computer very similar to your, i was just wonder what fps do you play at now with the new gpu?

[JonBoy2001]

With Fair to Good settings, I was getting ~20-30fps in the Firelands daily area with everyone and their brother there. (the best place to go to compare to a 25man raid imo. During prime time though...)

"Everywhere else" had an average of 50-60. I'm impressed with the little thing so far.

(VSync Enabled)

[trickster0306]

With Fair to Good settings, I was getting ~20-30fps in the Firelands daily area with everyone and their brother there. (the best place to go to compare to a 25man raid imo. During prime time though...)

"Everywhere else" had an average of 50-60. I'm impressed with the little thing so far.

(VSync Enabled)

ok, thanks for the info, sounds great, i cant wait to get it