Well let me start by saying I have assembled a few computers in the past, but I'm not a pro so please excuse me if any of my questions are a tad basic.

I bought a rather nice, atleast I think it to be, case.. The MGE XG Quantum - which was actually reviewd on this site.

My question though comes to setting up the thermal probes... I've never done it before. I have a probe for CPU, HDD, and System I think? So I know what they are meant to measure but where do I actually put these little flat probes? and do I remove the plastic tubbing which, I assume, is for shipping protection.

Finally my CPU is a AMD Athlon 64 4000+. With the number of fans in the case will the stock cooling/heatsink be enough to keep this thing cool? I don't plan on overclocking it, but I did buy a Thermaltake Big Typhoon. The only thing is after looking at the side fans in the case and the size of this thing I don't think they are going to fit.

Thanks for reading my novel and hopefully someone can lend a hand. I want to put this bad boy togehter tonight.

For the thermal probes, applying them depends on the location. For harddrives, usually one is taped on a surface of the drive (use included tape if any). For a cpu, place the probe between the heatsink and the heat spreader as long as the probe is a flat one; the same can be done for the gpu if you have enough probes. Placement of the system sensor is debated, but I would tape it somewhere on the inside of the case (not on components). Yes, the plastic tubes are just protection.

Are you saying the Big Typhoon doesn't fit in your case? You haven't made it exactly clear what the issue is with your cooling, but if you aren't overclocking you can usually just hook everything up, check the temps out, and go from there.

Quote: Originally Posted by YuGiOh For a cpu, place the probe between the heatsink and the heat spreader as long as the probe is a flat one; the same can be done for the gpu if you have enough probes.

I wouldn't agree with that, any temperature probe ive ever seen for PC use has been far too thick to be placed between the CPU and heatsink, and could inhibit thermal transfer.

Fair enough, stick one to the top of your harddrive, but they really arn't intended to give super accurate readings on your hardware, just a general idea.

If you're really serious about monitoring temperatures, use software that reads the actual on-die temperature probe built into the CPU, or use the BIOS.

Have to agree with Dex on this. If you want accuracy in temp readings inside the box I would use software. There are many free apps that will do the job well.

It might help if you told us what processor you have, I've only tried using those probes on Athlon 64 CPUs so my instructions only cover those and with a stretch 478 Pentium 4s.

-Remove the protective plastic cover so that the flat, usually amber, plastic part is exposed.

-Place your probe on the beige bar (the motherboard CPU socket) beside the CPU, then slide it towards the grey heatspreader at a 90 degree angle until the small bulb inside the flat plastic presses firmly against the side.

-Use 1 small piece of scotch tape to secure the probe, then use a piece as long as the biege bar and use it to secure the first piece of tape and the probe. The probe tip, being the metal bulb in the plastic, should still be pressed against the heatspreader and the probe shouldn't be able to slide out or shift.

-Finish up by attaching your heatsink and putting the rest of your computer together.

-If you haven't already, join Team 596 in http://team.pcapex.com/!

CPU = on side of heatspreader
Case = ideally above CPU heastink or wherever you want to know the temp.
HDD = who cares?

Probes were easies to attach to cpu's in the last generation of cpu's. Now it is a bit harder because of the heat spreader. Even fi you get the probe next to the spreader, you are still a little ways away from the core. So on newer cpus, the onboard thermistor is more accurate, so just use software

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex If you're really serious about monitoring temperatures, use software that reads the actual on-die temperature probe built into the CPU, or use the BIOS.

Unless something changed that I missed his new cpu doesn't have a temp probe built into the cpu.

Quote: Originally Posted by z0mbi3 Unless something changed that I missed his new cpu doesn't have a temp probe built into the cpu.

I read through his post again and didn't see anything like that stated. I was under the impression that all A64s have on-die thermal probes, which can be read by the BIOS and Windows software...

Well I'll let someone jump in if I'm wrong but as far as I know all A64's temperature monitoring (except for the heat shutoff) is done from the mobo.