another cooling question..

i have an athlon 1800+ xp (soyo board) and i typically have a lot of heat problems and crashing due to excessive amounts of heat. should i go with stronger fans and possible a harddrive cooler to cut down on some heat there, or would it be more cost effective to do a water setup?

note: i used to take a house fan, remove the front and side plates on the comp and blow directly into with high until i got enough space to move it into a cooler room with better ventilation. i still have problems occassionally though.

If you are overheating with only an 1800 you need to get a heatsink/fan on the cpu that doesnt suck.

Stock cooling on that should never be bad enough to kill it.

well, poor ventilation had a lot to do with it before, but yeah, it's just generic stuff i bought for cheap a long time ago with a barebones deal.

Water cooling and cost effective are polar opposites. Get a better HSF, and get a better case.

is it incredibly hard to swap the fan out of a psu, is there anything specific i should look for in a psu fan? (ie do i need a soldering iron and is there any difference between the fan in the psu as opposed to a case fan?)

Buy. A. New. Case.

Seriously, why go through all these headaches? It's probably a POS PSU in a POS case. If you do decide to replace the PSU fan, make sure you let it sit out unplugged for several hours (might need to be more like 24, I don't know) because capacitors retain charges and will shock you if you touch them. I think the fan is screwed in to the back of the PSU, but I don't know for sure.

why not just replace the PSU completely, they arent much and using a good one will help keep the rest of your system alive. Usually the internal fan is soldered down and you cant take it off anyway.
I was referring to a new HS/F combo, not the PSU fan.

thanks cm.

ordered: ahanix atx silent 400w psu.

and for the record, i like my lian li pc-60 case |:

Umm, I think you still need a new HSF...

As far as the case goes, you might wanna figure out how it's cooled before you recommend buying a new one.