I’ve been running in the Jukebox for a few months now and from a usability stand point it is still running a treat.  From a mechanical point of view however all is not well as it runs a little hot.  In a normal case this may be fine however in a case such as mine made out of thermally absorbent wood it gets a little toasty.

Using CPUID Hardware Monitor (free to download, Bing it) I discovered that the CPU and GPU both run at around 70~75 degrees C at idle or while watching TV and movies.  The fact that there is little difference between idle and loaded temperatures is a testament to good design of the board however I digress.  I added a spare 80mm Papst fan to blow some air into the case as a quick and dirty test and the temperatures dropped to 30~35 degrees C, an impressive drop from a simple change.  It also shows I can slow the fan to make it quieter and still have a big impact.

Considering the maximum thermal spec of the board is 85 degrees C I think I need to work fast.  Current ideas are to use a Nidec Gamma at low speeds which would still move a lot of air though I’m also going to test having a bigger hole for heat to exhaust more efficiently.  It seems the few little holes I put in before are woefully inadequate.

Keegan