Build log: (\/)0n0L17(-) II & HAL 1.0

ok well I reseated the HTPC's HSF last night. This time around I rubbed small amount of AS5 into the surface of both the HSF and IHS, then wiped off the excess with a lint free cloth (i.e. lens cleaner) the surface basically just looked dulled, but you could still see all of the copper. I've read that this method is good for filling in the tiny scratchs and holes on the surface but still maximises metal to metal contact between the heatsinks. I then applied the smallest line of AS5 in the middle of the IHS.

My idle temps are around 36'c now. Not great, but better than the ~42'c I was getting before. Plus I think the new fan controller i've put in place is also affecting the temps, as before I was able to get around 32'c idle, but that was when all the fans in the case where at full RPM's.

Still i don't know why i'm so worried about the temps. Theres no options in the BIOS to increase the FSB so I guess i'm stuck with 2.4Ghz on this E6600 I'm still looking for a cracked BIOS that allows for the FSB to be increased. If anyone knows where to get one give me a shout.

EDIT: Also I did the half hour OCCT stress test just there. My max temp was 53'c. So that's about a delta of 10'c, i'm pretty happy with that.

Note to self: In future do not perform stress tests over VNC while in work, its scary as hell when the VNC window suddenly freezes.

what? why are we funny?

Its a Gigabyte GA 965QM-DS2... i've done some extensive searching, not even a proper review of this board is out. Its a fairly stable board but i'd still like to at least get my CPU up to 3Ghz, i'd be happy with a load temp of 70'c on this E6600.

Ok small update... also can somebody move this to the logs section?

On an impulse I bought a 8800 GT off Gline. I wanted to free up the 8800 GTX that was in my HTPC so I could put it into my main rig. I usually game at 720p on the HTPC, and the wife tends to play either ROM's or Popcap games on it so it doesn't really need the grunt of the GTX. What appealed to me about Glines 8800 GT was that it already had a HR-03 GT installed. The GTX was noisy and I had to have the 2 intake fans running at a fairly high RPM to keep it even moderately cooled.

So I thought, I could drop the rpms of the intake fans, install the 8800 GT with the passive HR-03 and drastically reduce the noise of my HTPC.

What i'd forgotten is that I hate even opening my HTPC as it is so fiddly to work in and has more wires pull tied to the inside of the case then Anti has blurry photos on his phone.

My first problem... In my haste I hadn't bothered to measure whether or not the HR-03 would even fit properly. It wouldn't

In the below picture you can see i've cut out the bottom tray seperating the HDD rack from the rest of the case, i've also had to cut out a gap at the back to allow the HR-03 pass. I made sure not to remove any of the needed screw holes.



Next I had to remove a notch from one of the unused 5" trays



Heres a picture showing the height problem with the HR-03





The HR 03 installed



Why that notch was needed





Heres the funny part It was only after this that I remembered I had a 1TB Hitachi drive waiting to go into my HTPC, only now, the HDD bay that I wanted to install it into was taken up by the freekin huge HR03 :mad: I also couldn't mount it in the unused 5" bay as the stupid notch that was needed meant I couldn't screw it to the side. So I ended up having to unwire the fan controller, remove it from the case and mount the 1TB drive in the space at the back of that.



Heres a shot with it all cabled up again. Notice how the 8800 GT is no longer passive well I but it together passive and found that 8800 GT was idling at around 70'c. So I had a spare 92mm lying around so I just pull tied it to the HR03 and hooked it up to the mobo. The cool thing about it is that the fan is also made of aluminum so should aid in transfering heat from the HR03, also it only runs at around 600 rpm when the HTPC is idle as I have thermal throttling enabled.

awhir wrote: »

just put the hard drive anywhere it will fit then put some of the hardrive fome it comes with(on the are touching the case) and cable tie it or stick it it or just leave it flat on the ground.

space is not something I have a luxury of in this case. I tried various other locations but none of them worked good. My only other option would be to mount it to one of the side panels but then i'd have horrible scew heads visible on the outside. I'm trying to keep the external appearance as unaltered as possible.

yeah my main PC has been out of action for yonks. Been throwing my spare cash into my home cinema setup. I really need to get back on it though. I've got a TJ07 I got off Anti sitting dorment in the corner.