Project: The System

[Tavarin]

Thanks, I'll try that out tonight.

[Acey]

Damn thats one good lookin card especially with that "Radeon" text on the side. Meh, can't even afford HD 2900 XT right now. Was thinking of getting Sapphire's HD2600XT since I don't game much nowadays but the airflow path (intake position at the back instead of front) is kinda inside out so didn't.

[Tavarin]

Well I haven't done this in a while, but I assure you I am alive. I'm currently at the University of Toronto studying Chemistry, so as you may be able to understand, I've been a bit pre-occupied to work on my computer.

Anyway, I haven't an update on my case progress, I still need to order some plexiglass before I can go about finishing that, but I do have an update as to my system configuration.

I present to you, a piece of great excess, my new processor:

An AMD Phenom II X4 940. Clocked a 3.0 GHz quad core, with an 8mb cache. Not just excess, but power.

And, of course, my computer on it's side and wide open:

I am well aware that I need to implement better cable management, but since this case is somewhat temporary I don't feel like clipping cables just yet, since the positions of my hardware will change.

As with most builds there is a cat attempting to play with this new hardware:

that's my kitty Emma.

Cleaned off the cpu cooler:

Clean enough

installed the new processor:

And put the cooler on with a thin layer of thermal compound:

And that`s the end of my pictures, but not of my story.

My computer refused to boot. Of course this caused me great panic. I reinstalled my old processor and the computer booted as per normal. After a bit of digging around I realized that my mobo`s BIOS was outdated. So after some research online I figured out how to update my BIOS since the update utility refused to install on a 64bit system.

I then reinstalled the new processor, after all this annoying ordeal, and then heard the greatest beep of my life. The computer booted.

My 3dMark Vantage score pretty much doubled it`s previous score, although it was still lower than I expected. So I ran my own benchmark, namely Crysis. I was able to increase all the settings from high to very high, and increase the anti-aliasing to 8 times, while still achieving playable frame rates. Oh it is most glorious.

Anyway, I will be ordering the plexiglass and other supplies I need to finish this case very soon, and will proceed with that once my university workload dies down a bit. I'm in the middle of midterms.

Cheers

[The boy 4rm oz]

Nice new CPU and a nice performance gain.

[blueonblack]

Welcome back!!

Is there a drool emoticon somewhere? I've been having to keep my MasterCard in my wallet to not buy that processor. Let me know how it does in other applications.


Edit: I found one!

[DonT-FeaR]

you have a lepord cat!!! thats frigan awesome

[Tavarin]

I've been having to keep my MasterCard in my wallet to not buy that processor. Let me know how it does in other applications.

I did not have your strength for resistance, I just had to get this processor. And so far there has been a noticeable increase in load and process time with most of my day to day application use. Even Windows loads faster now.

you have a lepord cat!!! thats frigan awesome

She is a pretty awesome cat. Bengal is the breed in case you wanted to know.

And now I present to you, Tavarin's guide for cheap CPU cooling.

Seeing as how a water block for a 4870 X2 is over $150 American, and also considering the rest of the loop is about $200, I'm not willing to spend that much on my systems cooling just yet.

However my lovely video card seems to enjoy being hot enough to fry an egg, with temperatures reaching as high as 90 deg Celsius, or 180 deg Fahrenheit. So what do I do to keep this monster cool? Cheap ass air cooling.

The first step was to glue to 92mm fans together:

Easy, and cheap

The next was to put a little riser on the bottom of the fans, since fans sitting flat on a surface don't do much:

Also easy. Even cheaper than step 1

And finally, place the fans on top of my video card:

TaDa

So after 5 minutes and 3 cheap and easy steps, I have a cheap ass cooling system.
After putting making this thing, my video card's average temperature dropped by about 10 deg Celsius. Not bad for a few old fans, and no effort. Of course this is temporary, but it should do the trick for the next little while.

Also, I wished to give you an idea as to my plans for the case, which I will go about completing when school stops stealing my life.

Here is the stripped down case, and more than I actually want to keep of it:

So sad and lonely in the corner.

I really hated how the old panels on the top and front of the case turned out so I removed them. My plan is to use 3mm dark gray plex, like my side panel is made of, and to craft new panels out of that for the top and front. The side aluminum panel will however live in this build.

I then plan to center the power supply mounts at the back of the case, to make this build symmetrical, and to add a support beneath the PSU for stability. Now that I have a modular PSU, I plan to give each cable it's own hole in the top panel to be routed through, hopefully giving it a nice clean look.

Aftyer that I plan to remake the inner drive bays entirely out of opaque black plexi, and to properly center the bays in the case. Anyone who looked closely at the old metal bays would have noticed that they are on an angle.

And of course I will be purchasing bulgin switches for the power and reset switches, since the ones there are so very ugly.

But right now I have a short vacation to Argentina, and as soon as I get back I have to write 4 university midterms. So I won't be working on this computer at all.

*On one final note, I am now in the business of making professional websites. If anyone is interested, or knows of someone who is, in having a website made for them at a low price, PM me.

Cheers

Tavarin

[The boy 4rm oz]

Nice gheto cooling my friend. I did the same for my NB lol.