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Build log: (\/)0n0L17(-) II & HAL 1.0
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L31mr0d wrote:another angle showing the clearance between the 8800 GTX and fans
does it matter that in this pic the graphics card is touching that small heatsink?0 -
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awhir wrote:he means the door of the case or what ever you call it for htcps.
thats what I thought, but there won't be any problem with closing up the case. I'm routing the cables atm, and its proving to be a bitch to have them not obstruct the fans. Thank god there is space beneath the mobo tray
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Ok so the HTPC is pretty much finished now. Cabling was a bitch and a half. even on my parents HTPC which was in the smaller NSK1300 cabling was easier. But then I wasn't trying to fit in 2x12cm fans and an 8800GTX :rolleyes:
I wasn't going to lap the CNPS8000 as it was already pretty flat (see pics on page 1), but when I said this to the wife whos going to be using the HTPC she was like "oh I see, you'll spend the time getting everything perfect for your machine, but for mine 'good enough' is acceptable"... lol, plus she wanted to see how the heatsink was lapped also. The whole process took no longer than 15 minutes as the heatsink as already pretty flat, and for some reason I think the copper used in this heatsink is softer than the copper in the IHS. It sanded down a lot more easily.
Here is picture of the dust I needed to remove
With it cleaned as much as possible. Harvey Normans don't seem to be selling cans of compressed air anymore so I couldn't clean right in between the fins.
Lapped to 400grit
finished article
flatness test
The board after the wife installed the CPU and RAM
Picture for PeakOutput showing the SB heatsink does not touch the graphics card, like everything in this case the clearance is tight, but there is clearance
Picture of mobo tray with everything installed. Included the iMon DT, personally my favourite thing about this rig
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Side shot showing the wiring up of the iMon and mobo headers. The excess wiring is hidden under the mobo tray
Just a simple photo showing why I went for a modular PSU over a standard one. The pile of wires on the left are what I need for this machine, the pile on the right are what I don't. So glad I didn't have to find a space in the case to store all those unused PSU cables.
A good hour later, the PSU installed and hooked up, it took some time trying to think up the best way to route those power cables.
Rear shot of case, I pull tied an 80mm Papst fan over the slot that allows for the HDDs to be put into the case to give extra cooling
side shot showing all the cables tidied as good as possible
here ya go conzy, with all the "lids" on? Beside the case is the iMon remote.
LEDs on the front bezel
The PC booted up for the first time, everything seems fine. The CPU is idling in the BIOS at 28'c which is pretty good imo. I've yet to put in the fan controller so I had all the fans on high, and even at that the machine was still pretty quiet imo. Quieter than my friends Xbox 360 at least
The single handed greatest feature about this machine that i love is the iMon remote. It allows me to power on/off the PC from anywhere in the room, and as its RF it doesn't need any kind of line of sight. After years of having to always reach down or get up and go over to the PC to turn it on, its refreshing to just be able to sit down pick up a remote and start your PC and then browse through your photos and videos without having to use a keyboard or mouse. Of course i'll be using a keyboard and mouse with this PC, but its nice knowing I don't have to.
More to come later as I finish the setup of my main rig and install the fan controller and gigabit network0 -
L31mr0d wrote:
With it cleaned as much as possible. Harvey Normans don't seem to be selling cans of compressed air anymore so I couldn't clean right in between the fins.
i used 404a its was perfect for the job
looken very nice but i dont like the look of the case
rather the silverstones . 0 -
awhir wrote:looken very nice but i dont like the luck of the case rather the silverstones .
well i'm getting a leprechaun over on the weekend to use his charms to help me out with that 0 -
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Damn well looks like Vista doesn't like my main quad core rig. Vista wouldn't install on it so I assumed it must of been a problem with the disk. But I just installed Vista on my HTPC last night and it was grand.
Going to have to troubleshoot now what could possibly be causing Vista to not like my 680i setup yet install fine on my 965 setup... damn I knew I should of avoided the NV chipset 0 -
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Ok well I tried installing again last night it went fine. The last time I had tried installing Vista I was using a 512MB stick of DD2 PC4200 from work. This time I had 1x2GB stick in the machine and I got no BSOD at all.
Problem is now, because i'm dualbooting XP and Vista, XP is holding onto the C: drive and Vista is on the E: drive (the DVD drive has taken the
drive) Which is going to make using Vista a headache should I ever want to get rid of XP, as Vista has installed a load of files onto the C: drive.
Anyone know if theres a way to have XP show up as being on the C: drive in XP but also show Vista as installed on the C: in Vista?0 -
Ok well I just got the HTPC set up, all the network, audio and power block cables hidden under the carpet. I'm going to format the HTPC and install Vista 32bit as the main OS (I want to try out Lost Planet:Extreme Condition at DX10) I'll have XP also on their to save any headaches should Vista crap out on me on movie night or something.
Here are some pics of the setup, notice the great german layout keyboard, I managed to switch the letters around so they match the IE layout, but all the numbers and symbols are messed up. So if you know of any Germans looking for a good wireless keyboard and mouse set give me a shout :rolleyes:
This is the set up. The resolution is set at 1080p, the text and icons are 2 small at this res for browsing and typing, so I usually have it at 720p for normal use. But when i'm watching movies or playing games I set it to 1080p. The remote has a handy button that allows you to automatically switch between your prefered resolutions. The more I use this iMon remote the more I love it. All the buttons are configurable and the Media Center program is leagues ahead of the one bundled with Vista and MCE.
This is the logitech keyboard, mouse and imon remote. The keyboard is super thin and the buttons are silent.
Close up of the TV and HT setup. Presently watching the Matrix again at 720p using MPC as the player (best media player ever, end of story)
This is my main rig setup. Will hopefully be adding a 1TB NAS and 24" screen to it in the next few months.
Also, for my wallpapers, I get them from http://interfacelift.com/. Great resource for HD and normal wallpapers.0 -
L31mr0d wrote::mad: "Its Clobberin time"
If one more person feels the need to pointlessly remind me of the "dangers" of RAID 0 I won't be held accountable for what i'll do.
Ooh, SOMEONE'S never had a disk fail.
As long as you have backups, though, yep, it's not all that risky, assuming you can tolerate reinstalling everything if necessary.0 -
rsynnott wrote:Ooh, SOMEONE'S never had a disk fail.
As long as you have backups, though, yep, it's not all that risky, assuming you can tolerate reinstalling everything if necessary.
lol, more than you know. You are far more likely to have an OS mess up because of user error (i.e. virii, malware, ID10t issues) than hardware failure.
If you have a good system, MFT, pagefile and registry defrag routine in place you can use an OS for years on a HDD and hardly see any slowdown. But i'm a compulsive upgrader and formatter, so I rarely have an OS for more than a year anyway so RAID 0 works perfect for me.
EDIT: I've also found the replacement for my P180b, the CM Cosmos 1000 *drool* Its like a PC builders dream come true. Has everything i've been looking for in a case for years- Large enough to house modern coolers and graphics cards and still have room to move
- Bottom mounted PSU: I especially like that the fan sucks in air externally.
- Top mounted extraction fans
- The top mounted power button and usb ports: I usually have my computer on the floor beside me so having the buttons on top is a bonus
- Sound dampening construction
- Screwless design
- Good cooling design
- Those included handles are excellent, a feature I miss when trying to man handle my steel P180b around
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No no, the HTPC is fantastic looking, but the cosmos is ugly as sin
Id actually be ashamed to let someone in my house to look at it It looks like its made by jeantech or some other ****ty make. If only they could have made it look more like a stacker then it would fly off the shelfs. 0 -
L31mr0d wrote:Anyone know if theres a way to have XP show up as being on the C: drive in XP but also show Vista as installed on the C: in Vista?
Can't be done. It's to do with the MBR or something like that.
What I normally do when reinstalling is unplug all other hard drives bar the one I'll be using. Partition C for Vista since this is my main one and then D for XP. Reason for this is if I decide to get rid of XP I can reformat the partition and have Vista merge it into the C partition. I also rename both partitions to their respective OS's so I don't make a stupid mistake
Once finished I plug the rest of the drives in and rename then as need so all the hard drive letters are in sequence and same for optical and removable.
By default installing any programs into either OS will automatically install it to the OS partition bar for drivers such as Dell/Nvida/ATI but these are not biggies.
Hope this helps.0 -
bah I think i'm just going to not bother with dual booting and just go vista. I've been using it for a few weeks on my HTPC playing games, movies and using various other peripherals without incident. I think a lot of the fear mongering out there about vista is to do with n00bs not installing something correctly or having odd peripherals that vista drivers haven't been released for yet. I'm going to leave a 20GB partition in place anyway, should something go wrong and i'll need to install XP.
Finally got confirmation off the guy in the states that he will be sending out the accessories for my 680i, i've been putting off overclocking until I got them as I want to get the NB fan installed to lower temps.
I'm also going to reseat the Tuniq so that the fan is blowing towards the top exhaust instead of the rear, as currently the idle temps are in the high 40's with all my fans on high.
I've also sent my HTPC mobo off to HWV after a failed BIOS flash. It will probably be 2 weeks now until I see a replacement 0 -
Agree with what you said..I'm running Vista Ultimate 64bit and it's running flawlessly. Haven't even used the XP part since I reinstalled. There's still the problem with 5.1 surround with Creative's X-Fi but it's no biggie.
XP was the very same when it came out..loads of ppl bitching about drivers for scanners, printers etc but now thanks to cheap pc's there's a whole load of noobs out there who haven't a fvckin clue what they're doing half the time.
The amount of calls I'm getting daily is beyond a joke and this isn't even my real job :mad:
Should never have told people what I do for a living and just made out I cleaned the toilets or something 0 -
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heres a nice bump showing the pleasure pain balance has been restored once again
So, my HTPC in the Lian li case has been a nice ornament/doorstop/dust collector for the last few weeks due to a failed BIOS flash. I've since sent off the mobo back to HWV and have yet to recieve any confirmation whether they have received it or anything. But i'll give it another week before I get worried about it. In the meantime I have my main sig rig back hooked up to my plasma.
On friday last the cables for my mobo FINALLY arrived. There was a screw up with the guy I bought the mobo from in the states. He sent me a sealed RMA board he had received but didn't want to use. Turns out evga don't include any accessories with RMA's just the bare board. EVGA then took over a month to send him out the accessories, then when the cables finally arrived at his house he was away with the navy for a month then when he got back he confirmed they had forgotten the IO shield :mad: so after another 2 weeks or so with evga not returning his emails I told him to just send on the rest of the stuff.
Luckily, Inquitus here has a 680i and was able to get a spare IO shield sent out from OCuk.
So I took this opportunity to swap out my spare cables for the evga ones and also lap the QX6700 to hopefully reduce my temps
The box of cables and accessories... at last!!!
The NB fan finally installed
The lapped Tuniq and QX6700. They don't look shiny from this angle but they are and they are flat.
cleaned afterwards with Articlean 2 step
I repositioned the Tuniq to see if this angle would provide better cooling. I had a tough time with the mounting bracket though. Turns out the mounting holes for LGA775 aren't completely square so I had to screw some of the screws in at a slight angle.
The extra clearance between the NB and CPU HSF now, and the routing of the 8pin mobo power connector
Main section shot
Full PC shot.
... now that was the pleasure... heres the pain. The lapping made no difference in temps, even though I checked the IHS's surface and it wasn't flat, it was concave in the middle. Rotating the HSF by 90' actually casued the temps to INCREASE. I was getting around 50'c idle and near 70'c load. In fact it would shut down after about 5 minutes. Clearly the wonky mounting bracket was causing the HSF not to make full contact. Also on top of this, the NB fan is LOUD, a lot louder than I ever imagined. It is louder than every other fan in my PC combined.
So, slightly depressed by this, I but the Tuniq back to blowing heat out the rear and removed the middle fan I had pull tied and put the NB fan on the fan controller.
My idle temps are now 41'c to 45'c, and the load at 61'c to 65'c... very depressing as this is at stock volts and clocks.
Should I just throw in the towel and get a good dualcore or G0 Q6600?0 -
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