Built a new PC

William0d0 said:
Them Corsair water coolers work pretty good, I have a H70 in mine.
Click to expand...

Its a H100 and its actually not as good as the one I had in my previous rig which was an Antec Kuhler H20 920.

Current Specs are -
HAF-X case
MSI Big Bang Xpower II mobo
Intel i7 3930k CPU
XFX Radeon 7950 GPU
OCZ Revodrive 3 240GB boot drive
OCZ Vertex 3 secondary drive
Hitachi 7200RPM 500GB storage
GSkill Ripjaws X 2133 RAM 32GB (8 x 4)
Creative X-Fi Fatality Champion Pro sound card.
Corsair H100 hydro cooler.

Here's the mobo before installation http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/8211316542/
Its an XL-ATX hence the HAF-X case :confused:
 
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I have a Thermaltake VH8000BWS Armor+ case, lots of drive bays. Plus it has a nice side window to show off my motherboard.:p
 
pcas1986 said:
Post #1 reminded me of a motherboard problem I had a few computers ago. I've built my own for years and the motherboard in question was fairly expensive but it seem to have a random fault that would cause a total and random lockup. After several weeks of persevering with it I finally bought a new board but different model, reused all the other bits and the problem went away. I guess it must have been the classic "dry joint" problem that electronics folk talk about. I think the board is still out in the garage somewhere.

My current computer is now 3 years old so I guess a replacement might be on the cards. Though I'm having problems getting excited about Win 8.
Click to expand...

Paul,

I thought the same thing. Coming from the time when I used to be able to fix stuff like this, made me take a look at the board. For the life of me I couldn't see anything amiss. If there was a dry joint, which are also called cold solder joints, I couldn't see them. There's a possibility there is one, but this could be in the layers of the board because today boards are so thick that it takes a lot more effort to produce clean solder joints. The other issue too is the surface mounting of components. These things are about the size of a protozoa, well not that small, but really, really tiny, making it nearly impossible to find a loose connection anywhere on the board.

John
 
It's tough to choose a case, always a trade off somewhere. I have a friend who is in love with those Thermaltake Level 10 GT UGK Combat Snow Editions, but is waiting for it to come down from $400.00! I don't get it, all brittle plastic with a "handle" that won't support the weight of the PC. I see now they've brought out an Aluminum version at $999.00! I have an old Aluminum Tsunami Dream which I am quite happy with, but will probably go for something full size for my next build.
[h=1][/h]
 
Euphod said:
It's tough to choose a case, always a trade off somewhere. I have a friend who is in love with those Thermaltake Level 10 GT UGK Combat Snow Editions, but is waiting for it to come down from $400.00! I don't get it, all brittle plastic with a "handle" that won't support the weight of the PC. I see now they've brought out an Aluminum version at $999.00! I have an old Aluminum Tsunami Dream which I am quite happy with, but will probably go for something full size for my next build.
Click to expand...

I like the Level 10 GT LCS case. It's got the resevoir and water pump located in 2 of the 5 1/4" drive bays. The window is kinda small, but it's enough to show off the water block on the CPU and the hoses. I don't know if I would like green or blue water in it.
 
BD1 said:
Is a small portable fan that is directed right at the metal CPU heat sink, almost as efficient in cooling as a water cooled unit ?

How expensive are liquid cooled units ? I suppose they are easy to install ?
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Around 100 bucks USD. Easy to install, just make sure you have a place to mount the radiator in your case.
 
Euphod said:
It's tough to choose a case, always a trade off somewhere. I have a friend who is in love with those Thermaltake Level 10 GT UGK Combat Snow Editions, but is waiting for it to come down from $400.00! I don't get it, all brittle plastic with a "handle" that won't support the weight of the PC. I see now they've brought out an Aluminum version at $999.00! I have an old Aluminum Tsunami Dream which I am quite happy with, but will probably go for something full size for my next build.
Click to expand...

Ed,

I reuse cases over and over again until they fall apart or get repurposed. That one though costs is way too much for just the computer case though! :D With other computers, I got well close to 5 years before replacing the case I used previously. In fact I gave it to my dad when I rebuilt my computer. In other situations, I rebuilt other computers in others for other purposes because the cases were no longer nice looking, but were still functional for other more industrial uses. One old computer case, with computer parts, became a RIP and another became a laser-engraver controller. Not bad for recycling the old stuff. So now with this new case which I've had for 2 years now, I'll get at least a few years out of it, maybe longer. The Corsair case I have now works well with this motherboard and components. The new system runs relatively cool with little issues. In fact I checked the temperature of my GTX680 while running Trainz and the GPU went from 37C on idle to all of 48C while running a route at full screen, at the highest resolution my system can take at 1980x1080.

A big difference comes from the power requirements and heat output of the CPU. My previous CPU, a quad-core I7 2.6 always ran hotter on the older Asus board, and the older video cards cooked. The PNY GTX480 was hot enough to fry eggs on, and the ATI6970 was only a bit better. Now the new Intel operates at no more than 53C which is nothing for this CPU. The fan also spins so slowly I was worried there was something wrong with it. From what I read this is the latest in cooling technology with the slower moving fans actually doing a better job than the fast-spinning monsters we used to use. With the CPU running cooler, the rest of the components can work easier as well.

John
 
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William0d0 said:
Once the magic smoke leaks out the CPU stops working.
Click to expand...

I saw this a long time ago. The video was to show how the boards made for that particular AMD CPU didn't have any thermal shutdown capabilities built in and neither did the CPU its self. Intel has always had this along with the specs for the motherboards too for handling this. Notice how the Intel CPU slows down then shuts down causing the system to crash. Today the system would have run a bit longer then it would eventually send a thermal shut down warning to the motherboard. This is a little nicer than just quitting, but in both cases, nothing is damaged unlike the older AMD chip. It took a whole new generation for AMD to catch up to this with Intel.

John
 
i always applied my thermal paste with a credit card i dont use, putting a very thin layer just on my cpu and spreading, been doing it for 15 years that way, never had an issue
 
BD1 said "If a water cooling system or pump shuts down, and then does not cool the CPU, I question which is better, and more failsafe (water cooling vs: original factory parts CPU Heat Sink, with external fans blowing on the radiator fins)."

You set the PC in BIOS to shut down or sound a warning when the CPU temperature goes above a certain value so then it doesn't make any difference whether you have water cooling or fan cooling. There appears to be no history of water cooling units failing or at least it isn't a recognised problem.
 
I used an old business card I had. I don't have any credit cards I don't use. :)

Seriously though I followed these instruction on the Arctic Silver website on how to spread the thermal paste. http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth/int/vl/intel_app_method_vertical_line_v1.1.pdf They say not to use very much, in fact just a tiny pea-sized line in the middle and the heat sink will spread it out thinly.

This technique has worked for years for me, and since there has been so much fluff on the net about spreading thermal goop, I though I'd check the source from a manufacturer.

I am quite leery of using a water-cooled system just for that reason. The fact too that the system has to be flushed periodically too to remove the algae from the tanks makes this more work than it's worth.

John
 
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My Corsair H70 water cooler came with a thin layer of the stuff already spread across the surface of the water block.
 
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