The Mother Board

I got my current computer two years ago for my birthday. I got it from my family (it was made by Compaq. I knew nothing about computers at the time). Ever since then I have had a ton of troubles with it, most of which relate to cooling. I had a freind over to my house about a year ago to try to help end the blue screens that I was getting. He found out that in the BIOS I idle at 60C. Under a full load my comp was at running at 84C. My friend had some of the arctic heat transfer stuff and we put it on but it only dropped my temps by 2C. I was going to try to order a new heatsink but never go around to it. Now that it is summer again I have started to get overheating messages again. My processor for some reason has also begun to slow down (It has only dropped 10MHz thus far). Now my computer is nearing the end of its lifetime in my use so I was not going anything about it but my summer job ended up not working so right now I am jobless and I need this computer to last me a while longer. Now my cpu is not the only thing in my comp that is haveing cooling issues so I was wondering what cooling componets I should buy for this. My system specs are: AMD atholon xp 2400+ processor, 1024MB or ram (It is only reading what is in slot one though so I have 512), 80GB hard disk, Nvida GeForce 5500, Audigity zs2 platnium gamer series, Windows xp home. I also use a 350 watt psu.

What motherboard is this? Do you have a budget for this?

Well it is a ASUS A7V8X-LA ( http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/gene ... =c00063254 ). I have a very small budget for this.

Not to familiar with that case, but if you can remove the side panel use a regular house fan and blow air into the case from the side against the processor. This should drop your temps a bit and is the cheapest solution if you got a fan you can use until you can afford a new computer.

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Dell xps 410, Vista, 4 gig mem,8800gtx, e6600
68 year old gamer enjoying life

Never have children, only grandchildren. ~Gore Vidal

I took the side panel off and it ran a degree warmer. All of my house fans are huge and impracticle for use due to the location of the computer. Otherwise I would give this a try.

Not to mention the amount of electricity that would be needed for the fan to be on all day or as long as you leave the computer on.

Removing the side panel only defeats the purpose of your current fans probably. Somerthing like this http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=4756123
is all you need and if it don't work take it back for a refund so save the receipt. Shouldn't use much electricity as only needed when you using the computer.

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Dell xps 410, Vista, 4 gig mem,8800gtx, e6600
68 year old gamer enjoying life

Never have children, only grandchildren. ~Gore Vidal

At that cost would it be better to pick a new heatsink off of here? http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... &maxPrice=
I don't know if my processor is the culprit but a full load at 84C I think could be causing part of the problem....

Woa, 84 c? I don't think its that hot more like your temp is off. What are using to find the temp(prog or bios)?

I idle at 60C in the bios. In windows I use Speed fan which registers 58C idle and 84C. When I crank the fans up to 100% it drops to 80C but it sounds like a vaccume so I usually leave them at regular speeds. Also since I don't have any money to buy a new computer I was looking at overclocking this one. I know that I would need a new heatsink for this. What should I get? I was looking at newegg and there wasn't much of a selection.