IT8212 and CPU temp

OK - having finally got my temps to a level I'm happy with, and a
beefier PSU as well, I decided to plug my IT8212 RAID card (Flashed
with the ATAPI BIOS) back in. CPU temp shot up from 37C to 55C.

Removed the IT8212 and the temp is stable at 37C again. Why should an
IDE card cause such a huge temp increase. I can understand a slight
increase owing to the additional IDE cabling (I gave each of my two
HDs, CDRW and DVD-RW their own IDE channel) - but not 17C.

Any ideas?

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 02:25:28 -0500,
lid
(D-Dan) wrote:

OK - having finally got my temps to a level I'm happy with, and a
beefier PSU as well, I decided to plug my IT8212 RAID card (Flashed
with the ATAPI BIOS) back in. CPU temp shot up from 37C to 55C.

Removed the IT8212 and the temp is stable at 37C again. Why should an
IDE card cause such a huge temp increase. I can understand a slight
increase owing to the additional IDE cabling (I gave each of my two
HDs, CDRW and DVD-RW their own IDE channel) - but not 17C.

Any ideas?

Check CPU utilization...software raid uses CPU cycles... try
a newer driver too as it shouldn't be that high when no
drive is being accessed.

You're right that cables do not generally cause anywhere
near this temp increase, unless they were placed immediately
blocking a fan or most vent holes themselves. The whole
idea of a cable blocking airflow simply isn't appilcable to
any great extent if the air is still getting into, and out
of, the case. While there's some conceivable way cables
could be routed to channel most of the airflow away from the
CPU, it'd have to be a deliberate act, not just putting some
cables on drives as normally used.

This assumes you have the AMD/Intel recommended
configuration with PSU bottom air intake and rear case wall
exahust fan below the PSU.

I can see how software RAID would use cycles, but that shouldn't be
the issue here. The card is supposed to be H/W RAID, and it's
configured for standard IDE/ATAPI (not RAID) anyway. It should behave
just like any IDE Bus.

The configuration of fans is stock (CPU fan, exhaust Rear below CPU
level and PSU fan).

Even so - the rise in temp (and rate of rise) was alarming. I powered
down at 55C - I guess it could have kept on going.

Anyhow, no real big deal ATM (simply removed the card and went back to
two master/slave configurations) - but it's damned annoying that this
is what I can expect if I need another IDE plugging in.