Topic: Upgrading a Medion 8383XL.

[sam]

But there is still an overheating problem, someone suggested a Thermaltake slot fan, which looks good for taking out the hot air, but what can I use for getting air into the case.

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Cooler/TMG/A2414/A2414.asp#feature

I have something similar, not the expense make though, but it works well and keeps my room heated, I fitted mine almost ontop of my graphics card,and now my machine is soo cold - but my room is warm! :-)

I expect that a bigger case will help with the airflow, but just moving the cables around and tidy might do the trick anyway

[mistybear]

Yeah, I'd rather put it on top of the card put there isn't enough room, so it will have to go underneath it.
There isn't much room and it's difficult to find room to keep the cables out of the way.

[Sandra]

How do you fit a case fan to the side panel of the case? And how do you access the front bays, the 8383XL has a slide down section and behind that is the card readers and imputs and below that is a solid plastic bay. Do I have to remove that whole plastic section from the inside the case?

If there isnt a place for a fan on the side panel then you would have to at least drill some holes or better still cut a section out, just smaller than the size of the fan you intend to fit.
A large fan running slowly is quieter than a small fan running fast when moving the same volume of air.

The plastic cover usually just clips out and often theres a metal piece behind it that you have to twist to break the small bits that attach it to the case.
Thats best done from inside the case.
Sometimes they come out quite easily but some need a lot of twisting and bending, be careful that you dont cut yourself as the metal often has sharp edges.

[mistybear]

Thanks Sandra, there is a round section of holes on the side, about 10cms across. And a long line of holes about an inch or so from the bottom of the side case, about an inch wide and about 10 inches long.

[Simon]

But there is still an overheating problem, someone suggested a Thermaltake slot fan, which looks good for taking out the hot air, but what can I use for getting air into the case.

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Cooler/TMG/A2414/A2414.asp#feature

Michael would like a bigger case, (I would like a bigger house)
There is one free slot below the GFX-Card, then there is the TV-Card which I will remove. (never gets used)
The old graphics card had an out put to a small board attached to the back of the case which has a scart, composite and S-Video outputs to it. Can I remove that? as the holes it will leave will be useful for ventilation.

I think if you put a fan round the 'other way', it will suck air in, creating a flow through, so you would need one either end of the case, one sucking and one blowing.   

[mistybear]

  Michael and I have numerous discussions about sucking and blowing, I was talking about fans, not sure about Michael though.

I'm not sure how to open up the spare drive bay at the front, the 8383XL has a panel that slides down to show the card readers and imputs and below that is the spare bay which is covered with a hard plastic panel.

[Sandra]

I'm not sure how to open up the spare drive bay at the front, the 8383XL has a panel that slides down to show the card readers and imputs and below that is the spare bay which is covered with a hard plastic panel.

Did you not read what I wrote earlier MB ?

The plastic cover usually just clips out and often theres a metal piece behind it that you have to twist to break the small bits that attach it to the case.
Thats best done from inside the case.
Sometimes they come out quite easily but some need a lot of twisting and bending, be careful that you dont cut yourself as the metal often has sharp edges.

[mistybear]

Sorry was a little tired last night I didn't understand what you meant, ok it makes sense.
So if I do that I was thinking a fan in there to draw air in and a slot fan at the back to suck it out.

[Sandra]

To be honest I am not sure how much difference fans blowing one way or other make.

If a PC case was airtight then there would be a good reason for having fans blowing filtered air in and more fans sucking it out and keeping the flow rate the same for in and out.

In a non airtight case then if all the fans sucked in then the air pressure would blow out though wherever it could.
Conversely if all the fans blew out then air would find its way in to try to equalise the air pressure.

The main thing is that as long as air is moving in and out of the case then things will run cooler than with no air movement.

[mistybear]

Last night Michaels GPU was 69c, so while he was in the shower I opened the drive bays and put the small desk fan close to the side vent holes and the temp dropped down to 54c in around 10 mins. So it definately needs a good fan or two.

[mistybear]

Solved the ventilation problem.

[Clive]

Just shows what a determined woman can achieve.  Congratulations for thinking out of the box MB. 

[mistybear]

We are going away for a week so I had to put it all back, bit of a tight fit.

[Clive]

As long as it still works MB.  It still has plenty of extra ventilation too!   

[sam]

lol