Customized computer?

[Buffalobiian]

I'm using CoreTemp 0.99.4. I'll probably give Intel's RealTemp a go too, since that's supposed to be pretty good/accurate.

[poopdeville]

Yeah, nothing is oozing out of the sides. I remember BoC saying that with the latest Intel chips that come with a heatspreader, you can even get away with NO thermal paste. At ~22C, it idled at 34C, and peaked at 54C with a 7v fan. According to the review sites I've looked at, it should peak at something like 38C at those temperatures.

To apply thermal paste, put an amount about the size of a small grain of rice on the die. Use a credit card (or even a razor blade) to squish it onto the die, in every direction from the small blob. Basically, you're trying to level the die's surface, while using as little paste as possible. Most of the paste should end up on your scraper. It's hard to explain what it should look like, so I'll post links to a macroscopic analog.

http://individualfurniture.com/maker/2Flatten1.jpg

That's a blue dye meant for finding spots that aren't flat. Hand planes need to be that flat if you want to do this:

http://individualfurniture.com/maker/c5.jpg

[Buffalobiian]

I just used the blob n squish method. (rice grain).

I also tried the spreading method and finger-rubbing method. They're all about the same.

[Konohamaru!]

don't use your fingers... finger oils don't react well with metal, heat, and electricity...

[Buffalobiian]

don't use your fingers... finger oils don't react well with metal, heat, and electricity...

I mean fingers-in-plastic-bag-spreading.

[Board of Command]

I live by the blob and squish. After mounting hundreds of heatsinks in the past few years on all sorts of CPUs and GPUs, that is my tried and true method for applying thermal paste; not because it's the best way, but because it's the easiest way without any noticeable performance drop off.

As far as temperature monitoring goes, it could be that your CPU's sensor is wrong. Touch the heatsink after loading it to 100%. If it's too hot to keep your fingers on for over 5 seconds, then it really is too hot. If it's 70 degrees, then you won't be able to keep your finger on there for more than 2 seconds. 54 degrees is already quite hot to the touch.

[Buffalobiian]

As far as temperature monitoring goes, it could be that your CPU's sensor is wrong. Touch the heatsink after loading it to 100%. If it's too hot to keep your fingers on for over 5 seconds, then it really is too hot. If it's 70 degrees, then you won't be able to keep your finger on there for more than 2 seconds. 54 degrees is already quite hot to the touch.

I'll give that a go actually. Will post later when I get around to it.

[Buffalobiian]

Leaving that issue aside for the meanwhile, so I've got another question.

I'm trying to underclock my 9800GTX+ so it runs cooler (and requiring lower fan speeds) during idle, and bumping it back up to stock automatically using RivaTune.

Underclocking's not as well documented (or at least, popular) as overclocking, so I couldn't find any real "limits" to it, though I do think there are. Any experiences you guys?

------------------------------
Clocks (core,shader,memory) are all running at 50% and stable. Temperature-wise, the impact wasn't all that great. Perhaps 2-3C lower? I'll see where it maxes out at noon since ambient at night dropped too much to see the impact accurately. Powersaving would probably be more significant though, so I'm happy to leave it downclocked despite the little thermal difference.

[Board of Command]

You're not going to see much benefits to GPU underclocking because I don't think you can adjust idle voltage. Voltage is the killer, not clocks.

[Buffalobiian]

As far as temperature monitoring goes, it could be that your CPU's sensor is wrong. Touch the heatsink after loading it to 100%. If it's too hot to keep your fingers on for over 5 seconds, then it really is too hot. If it's 70 degrees, then you won't be able to keep your finger on there for more than 2 seconds. 54 degrees is already quite hot to the touch

Well, according to CoreTemp, I've burned the cores to 70/69C right now, and the MB sensor is reading the CPU at 68C (Gigabyte P965-S3).

Putting my hand over the "back" of the heatsink (I've placed a skewer through the fan on the front), I can feel that it's very warm/hot. My fingertips that are touching the bottom fins feel a fierce and sharp heat, though I can still leave my fingers on there. It's not unbearable.

The same can be said about the tips of the heatpipes on top, though it takes a little longer for my fingers to feel the "sharpness".

Unfortunately, I can't access the very contact base of the HS to see how hot it REALLY is.



My northbridge, however, is a different story. It's painful to touch after ~2 seconds.

The only thing I can find "wrong" with anything I did when mounthing it is that the default Intel paste was pretty hard to clean off. I can't really tell if it's all off the CPU, since it seems to give a brushed, slightly grey aluminium finish anyway.

The Stock Intel HS still doesn't look completely clean though. I can still make out smudges, and I've rubbed it like crazy. I can probably say the same for the CPU (rubbed it like crazy part, though not as hard I guess).

[Board of Command]

Don't worry about the paste or whatnot. If the heatsink is that hot, then you're getting proper heat transfer.

Try lowering the CPU voltage. I think 1.25 is doable for a stock E6600. Regardless, if it gets that hot, then maybe you shouldn't run it passive.

[Buffalobiian]

Don't worry about the paste or whatnot. If the heatsink is that hot, then you're getting proper heat transfer.

Try lowering the CPU voltage. I think 1.25 is doable for a stock E6600. Regardless, if it gets that hot, then maybe you shouldn't run it passive.

Yeah, I've got it running with a fan now. System's fairly warm right now, but well within safe specs.

Ambient: 23C (Autumn/fall - 12:36PM)
CPU: Idle E6600 (1.6GHz, 1.125v with C1E, EIST etc) - 40C (with 7v fan)
GPU: Idle ASUS 9800GTX+ (50% downclocked, 35% fan) - 70C
HDD: 41C @ idle.

The CPU actually cools down to 30C, and the GPU to 50C when I take off the side panel with the above configuration. Guess the P182 suffers from low airflow.

At least when there's only a single 7v exhaust fan and nothing else.

Adding another undervolted intake fan probably decreases temps by ~2-3 degrees. The acoustic noise will probably go unnoticed during the day, but it'll be audible at night, even if it's just audible.

[itadakimasu]

zalman has thermal paste that comes in a little glass container w\ a brush for easy application.

not custom... but i just bought a dell studio 540 because it was around $350 w\ a q8200, 6gb dd4-6400, 750gb, hd 3450 (weak video card) and it's dual booting vista x64 and xp x64... it's my new work computer.

[Animeniax]

I've been out of the PC building thing for a while. I need to get a new motherboard, main requirement is that it support the Q6600 I already own, and a future Core 2 Quad CPU that I will upgrade to in the future.

I'm looking at the Asus P5Q Pro, but I also see the P5Q Pro Turbo. The difference seems to be that the Turbo supports ATI Crossfire and more memory speeds and costs $15 more, while the Pro only supports DDR2 1200 and no Crossfire.

Is it worth it to get the Turbo if I never plan to use Crossfire, just for the increased memory support? Or are there any other suggestions for a middle-of-the-road motherboard?

[Board of Command]

Regular P5Q Pro supports Crossfire. It's built into the P45 northbridge, and as long as the board has two physical 16x PCIe slots, it works with Crossfire.

Plus, I've had the benefit of working with P5Q Pro boards, so I definitely know that it supports Crossfire.

[Animeniax]

Crossfire is the least of my worries. Are there even any games out that you'd need dual videocards for these days?

I ordered the P5Q Pro Turbo from Newegg since it's only $15 more but there's a $15 rebate. That way I can still use my DDR2 800 RAM and not have to buy new stuff. Maybe once I switch to Vista 64 I'll get the higher capacity and higher speed RAM.

[Animeniax]

As posted in the bitching thread, when I removed my Tuniq Tower from my old motherboard, I forgot to get the metal X backing plate that the HSF screws down into. Now I have a $60 HSF that I can't mount on my new motherboard, and I also don't have the stock cooler for my Q6600 CPU.

Any ideas on how to get a replacement bracket? The Tuniq/Sunbeam website is useless.

[mage]

best way to get a replacement bracket would be to contact the manufacturer's customer assistance line. i've never been able to find only brackets for sale unless its a bracket for a previous socket generation.

[Buffalobiian]

I'll second that. I couldn't see any spare mounting brackets up for grabs at any of the places I frequent. Nothing on ebay neither, which means chances of finding it elsewhere is virtually nill.

[darkshadow]

BOC when is the 5 series radeon coming out? I've been wanting to upgrade my 4870 but it doesn't seem worth it to go to a 4870x2.