# Green Machine Upgrade for my Son: i7



## CyberDruid (Feb 15, 2009)

Well my Son's PC is experiencing the old BSOD.

Now I probably could just replace the PSU and be done with it but this was a great excuse to buy some PC gear

I've been curious about the i7 stuff but the prices seemed too high. 

But then I looked a bit harder at the upgrade I had planned and thought ya know I could put a fair amount of money into an X48 DFI Lan Party but 5 years from now it'll be ancient history. Just like his AA8XE and 520 are now.

1366 has just started and likely will be still running strong for a good while (and I want to check it out )

So I sprung for an X58.I had to have the UV green to match his Metallic green Antec 900..had to. There was no other real option he's quite partial to Green So the DIF was the obvious choice. Seems like I bought the last ATX sized Lanparty X58 at the Egg too... I always enjoy that.

The only CPU that I wanted to afford was the 920. I have a feeling I may be able to get my hands on an *E*xtra *S*pecial 1366 Xeon in the near future at a fraction of what it would cost me retail. It'll be a good experiment to see what the 920 can do on the Lan Party.

To complimnet that I sprung for the G SKill Black Pi 1600. I have a great fondness for G skill and have been using their RAM for ages. THe Black PI is dead sexy too.

For a Cooler I decided to try out the Mugen2 and a 1900RPM S-Flex. It's probably not as sexy as the Black TRUE but I think it will have to do. I'm interested to see how it performs.

My only regret (sort of) is an impulsive purchase of an Xclio PSU. THe 750 Modular was the right price and right look. BUt I still wish Ihad gotten a black PC Power 750 instead. Especially if I could find a Pre-OCZ one. But I think the modular will make a big difference in ease of cabling. The 900 is not exactly a great case for hiding stuff...

I will post up some shots of the rebuild when the gear comes in. I'll be spending a bit more time on it this go around and will be getting my son involved more this time...he's getting older and is starting to notice little details like cable managment 

Pics to follow


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## CyberDruid (Feb 15, 2009)

pics spot


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## LittleLizard (Feb 16, 2009)

which lanparty did you buy, ut, dk or jr


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## AddSub (Feb 16, 2009)

Sounds like a great build. I just finished my i7 build a week ago. The LGA1366 will be around for a long time especially since the global economy has slowed down. I can see LGA1366 as the high-end platform for Intel well into 2011. Anyways, good luck and keep us updated.


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## Thrackan (Feb 17, 2009)

Nice upgrade, I recently acquired my own spot on the i7 list and I can say nothing else than that it is sweet stuff.
Of course I upgraded from a C2Duo, not a Quad, so I might be a little biased there.

Gotta say that most 920's can handle a clock of 3,33Ghz without complaints, mine likes it as well. Even a better simple overclock than my E6750 before (2,66 to 3,2)


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## AddSub (Feb 17, 2009)

> Nice upgrade, I recently acquired my own spot on the i7 list and I can say nothing else than that it is sweet stuff.
> Of course I upgraded from a C2Duo, not a Quad, so I might be a little biased there.
> 
> Gotta say that most 920's can handle a clock of 3,33Ghz without complaints, mine likes it as well. Even a better simple overclock than my E6750 before (2,66 to 3,2)



Yeah, i7 is a beast. The i7 920 is one of the best OC CPU's I have tinkered with. I can do an amazing 3.6GHz with stock Vcore (along with a slight boost on the VTT). It comes out to around 3.8GHz if you count in turbo, all on stock Vcore. The X58 platform is pretty amazing too. X58 chipset is 45nm based as well. It runs cool and is pretty bug free.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 18, 2009)

STUFF! Got some stuff...oh yeah. Not enough to fire up the rig...but enough to feel the glow 










Dammit I hate geting $300 mobo with a dmaged package. It's a frigging insult.





920






\
Xclio PSU










Why the solid aluminum? It just makes it heavier. Does look Badass though 
















Waiting on RAM and Heatsink now.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 18, 2009)

LittleLizard said:


> which lanparty did you buy, ut, dk or jr



Sorry man I forgot to sub my own thread 

It's UT


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## sneekypeet (Feb 18, 2009)

That DFI should look damn sexy in that case too. I feel so jealous of your son....lol


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## CyberDruid (Feb 18, 2009)

I know...he's getting the royal treatment for sure.


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## MilkyWay (Feb 18, 2009)

your sons so jammy i wish i had a father like you, who would build me a rig like that

a i7 what is hardcore into pc like you are CD

when i saw green machine i thought hmmn a green build as in power saving, then i thought how can you make a green i7 rig? lol it was the mobo and case which is nice

my case is just plain nzxt tempest £60 inc shipping gonna just add some foam to keep dust out and dampen noise


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## Thrackan (Feb 18, 2009)

What's with the heatsink in the DFI package?


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## CyberDruid (Feb 18, 2009)

They had a similar one in the P35 UT TR2. It takes heat out of all the damn heatpipes that snake all over the board by tying into a baseplate at the backplane by the CPU socket. There is also a thin copper plate that you put between the CPU and the HSF that transfers heat from the CPU to the external Heatpipe thinger you are asking about.

That Heatpipe goes external of the case and supposedly catches the air from the rear fan or w/e.

This one is not as adjustable as the one with the P35 UT TR2 but it is a helluva lot sturdier.

It'll be clear once I have it installed.


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## ChiSox (Feb 18, 2009)

That board has IT!! I really like the heatsinks and the sata connectors....Great color scheme...Cant wait to see it built....CONGRATS!!!


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## Thrackan (Feb 18, 2009)

CyberDruid said:


> They had a similar one in the P35 UT TR2. It takes heat out of all the damn heatpipes that snake all over the board by tying into a baseplate at the backplane by the CPU socket. There is also a thin copper plate that you put between the CPU and the HSF that transfers heat from the CPU to the external Heatpipe thinger you are asking about.
> 
> That Heatpipe goes external of the case and supposedly catches the air from the rear fan or w/e.
> 
> ...



Gonna wait for your install pics then  This confuses me even more than the pic did...


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## CyberDruid (Feb 18, 2009)

It's optional. But it does make the chipset run cooler by shifting the heat out of the case in a novel manner. And it looks Badass


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 18, 2009)

sweet setup. i love the dfi x58!


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## sneekypeet (Feb 18, 2009)

Thrackan said:


> Gonna wait for your install pics then  This confuses me even more than the pic did...



http://img.lanparty.tw/Upload/CatalogElement/UTX58T3eH8L.jpg


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## CyberDruid (Feb 18, 2009)

Ahh I made a wrong assumption. I see no copper plate on that set up so maybe that was specific to the P35


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## sneekypeet (Feb 18, 2009)

Im not positive if that was a feature of the "trans-piper" only, as this time around they have a different name for the cooler. Doesnt look like it though as the P35 heatsink it mounted to was grooved all the way from left to right. Seems with the new heatsink design it wont allow the copper plate to lay in there!


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 18, 2009)

ya i can say something about you 1st post CD, someone i game with on TS in Project Torque, he upgraded his graphics to a 9800GT and has a 550watt XClio in it, well i warned him about it, sure enough the PSU crapped out.


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## crtecha (Feb 18, 2009)

Wow awesome build.  I would be busting ass on some house choirs if I had that coming my way.


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## Castiel (Feb 18, 2009)

Are you going to be making some videos on this?


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## CyberDruid (Feb 18, 2009)

sneekypeet said:


> Im not positive if that was a feature of the "trans-piper" only, as this time around they have a different name for the cooler. Doesnt look like it though as the P35 heatsink it mounted to was grooved all the way from left to right. Seems with the new heatsink design it wont allow the copper plate to lay in there!



Yeah I don't see anything in the kit yet...buit I have not totally tyorn open all the accessories yet. Waiting till tomorrow when the RAM arrives.



eidairaman1 said:


> ya i can say something about you 1st post CD, someone i game with on TS in Project Torque, he upgraded his graphics to a 9800GT and has a 550watt XClio in it, well i warned him about it, sure enough the PSU crapped out.



Yeah I have been told by a number of people that the 550 has blown up. I hope this 750 will handle the load. I was leaning toward the PC Power750 but that thing has a mile of cabling hanging off it. I like the Silverstone 750: I've used one before.



crtecha said:


> Wow awesome build.  I would be busting ass on some house choirs if I had that coming my way.



I will deffo figure out some way to get him to help out around the house. But then again he's only 5 so...



Castiel said:


> Are you going to be making some videos on this?



Sure I can do that.


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## Thrackan (Feb 19, 2009)

5 years old and running i7... Dang! I was still pounding a Commodore 64 at that age!


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## crtecha (Feb 19, 2009)

Haha I didn't know he was only 5.  Are you going to show him how to Assemble it?  When you make the video you should see if your son can do a video review.  I think that would be awesome to see.


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## crazy pyro (Feb 19, 2009)

I was lucky to get a PII system at that age and it still performed like crap.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 19, 2009)

He started with a 100mhz  Pentium (coppermine) that we OCed to 133. Talk about hot. Average idle was 100C. We modded his first case together when he was 2. 

He's been running an ES 520 on an Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE that OCs to 4.2 ghz for about 2 years now. 

Since he's not a gamer per se he's been making do with a ATI 13XX something I found laying around...but recently that strted corrupting the video signal so I popped in a ZoTac 8800GT and that worked okay.

The last rig he put in the motherboard, RAM, CPU and HDD. I had to do the HSF since it was a bit difficult.


He is fairly excited about the upgrade...but not as excited as we are  I guess he's got a lot of other interests besides PCs.


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## crazy pyro (Feb 19, 2009)

Can you please adopt me CD, my dad won't even let me build a rig, had to get the local PC shop to put it together.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 19, 2009)

Man I could have my very own sweatshop of adopted children. This could work....


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## crazy pyro (Feb 19, 2009)

Thanked for comedy value!


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## crtecha (Feb 19, 2009)

hahahh im all for it.  Is payment for said work sick PC gear?


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## CyberDruid (Feb 19, 2009)

I'll have to think about this for a bit ....


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## Thrackan (Feb 19, 2009)

Sign me up for that!

...wait, can you adopt a 25yo?


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## CyberDruid (Feb 20, 2009)

*Done*

Everything I needed arrived today and we got the rig together and I gotta say the Mugen is doing a great job. 30C idle.

The Xclio has short cables...especially the 8 pin so I had to get inventive with routing that...otherwise I managed to get most ofthe cabling the way I'd like it.






I  made three of these when the A900 first came out. I sold the Blue one and gave the Red one to my Brother in Law.





And my Son wanted the Green one 





The Xclio 750





Installing the PSU. THere is a hole in the bottom ofthe case and tall feet so the PSU canbe flipped and the cables routed up the blindside panel.





The Brain





The Cooler





The Base of the Mugen is flawless





As big as it is it's not as heavy as it looks.





There is room for an additional fan up top on the Mugen but the RAM is too tall for a fan on the front.





PSU Vent










I made three of these too


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## DR.Death (Feb 20, 2009)

nice man


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## CyberDruid (Feb 20, 2009)

Just finished installing XP pro SP2 on a 500GB partition and now I am installing Vista 64 Ultimate on the other half of the Samsung F1.

So far so good.


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## EnergyFX (Feb 20, 2009)

heh heh... cool dad!  You get a bucket of cool points in my book CD.


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## steelkane (Feb 20, 2009)

Awesome setup dad,, I built each of my daughters a pc, I know how good it feels to see them enjoy a good Rig. Really nice project,, thanks for shearing CD.


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## Thrackan (Feb 20, 2009)

I have to say including your kiddo made this the coolest build log I've seen to date


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## exodusprime1337 (Feb 20, 2009)

WOW that is effin awsome. i wish i had the skills to do something like that to my 1200.  very nice kudos to you man.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 20, 2009)

Thanks guys


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## lemonadesoda (Feb 20, 2009)

CyberDruid 

I've got a much better idea for you. Give him your OLD, OUTDATED, SLOW AS A TORTOISE Dual Xeon 5470 snailtrail, and get yourself a pimpout super-whizz-dooper dual Nehalem-EP.

There. Bet you are thinking about it


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## lemonadesoda (Feb 20, 2009)

Holy schamole! That Mugen is huge (never seen one b4)


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## CyberDruid (Feb 20, 2009)

Yes it's a real brick of fins. The packaging is very well thought out and keeps it from getting damaged unlike the ThermalRite coolers which I've always had arrive with damaged fins. It's not as heavy as I thought it would be for as big as it is.

For 1366 the Mugen 2 kit provides a speciual driver to take the socket clamp off the board so you can take off the stock Intel backing plate and replaceit with the Mugen backingplate. THis mates up to the socket clamp perfectly and then you put the mounting clips onto the Mugen with the provided screws and then you attach it using the 4 provided screws from the backside of the mobo...which is different.

ANyone that has one of these should consider cutting a hole in their mobo tray right behind the cooler so you can take it off without having to pull the board.

I found that once the cooler is in place it is almost impossible to access the two screws for the little external heatpipe cooler on the X58 UT.

Also because it issowide I could not fit a fan on the front with the G Skill Balck PI...the coolers on the RAM in the two slots adjacent the CPU would hit the fan.

Lucky for me it's an Antec 900 so I aimed the air to flow upward and out the top 

There is enough room for me to set another fan on top. I have a 1900 RPM S Flex that I may use when I am OCing.

But just like all the other HSF MFRs Mugen neglected to include any extra fan mounting clips.

Again luckily I can just lay a fan on the top

But what the hell is the deal with that? THey are nothing more than some bent wire...would cost pennies to include two extras.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 20, 2009)

*First "issue" arises*

Well the Audio Driver will not install in Vista. Yep. $300 board and no Audio.

There's a hotfix on the DFI site, It won't install either 

Claims there is insufficient storage 

Yeah I guess 3GB of RAM and 1TB of HDD space just isn't enough for the 735KB Hotfix to install.

I hate stuff like this.

I'm downloading the Audio driver directly from DFI in the hopes they fixed it and it will install...but at 39KB/s DL speed it's taking forever...


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 20, 2009)

i always seem to run into some crap like that too. 

on audio drivers i always end up throwing 20 different drivers at it until it works.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 20, 2009)

lol

the cable to the Bernstein audio module was unplugged...

Everything is working fine now.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 21, 2009)

Fitseries3 said:


> i always seem to run into some crap like that too.
> 
> on audio drivers i always end up throwing 20 different drivers at it until it works.



it was 2 years since i updated the driver on my Sound card, the second one works well but it put in its own service which if you try to disable Windows Audio Service it disables the Creative Audio Service.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 21, 2009)

Oh yeah that's the best the update that totally screws up something.

Well I've putin 24 hours now at 100% load and the temp with all the fans just barely turning over is pretty decent.

The adjacent exhaust on the case, S-Flex FDB and additional  S-Flex FDB I added today are all between 900 and 1000 RPM. The other case fans are even lower. CPU 45C, PVM 52C, Chipset 50C. I can live with that.


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## Thrackan (Feb 21, 2009)

That's pretty awesome for stock and HyperThreading on... I stress at around 60 with HT...


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## CyberDruid (Feb 21, 2009)

At stock speeds? Are you using the stock heatsink?


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## Thrackan (Feb 21, 2009)

Seems kind of crappy when I think of it, but I'm using a Xiggy s1284c Achilles...
Might be a mismount, but HyperThreading off is a lot better, like 10C better.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 21, 2009)

Hmmm I would look at that and try a remount. It is not uncommon to have to mount a heatsink a few times to get optimal contact/ TIM spread.

I might have gotten lucky...but I also use Shin Etsu TIM.


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## Thrackan (Feb 21, 2009)

I used some white Zalman stuff I had left over from my graphics cooler, but I'm ordering some MX-2, so I'll probably remount it anyway.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 21, 2009)

Well that's likely the problem. The grease that ships with most coolers is pretty lame.


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## Thrackan (Feb 21, 2009)

I still have 2 packs that shipped with coolers, but I can hardly imagine them being any better though... Got a pack of grey stuff that shipped with my Scythe Shuriken back in the day and a pack of goop from the Xigmatek as well.
Guess I'll wait until the MX-2 gets here if those are both crap as well.


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## AddSub (Feb 23, 2009)

Pretty solid setup CyberDruid. That digital DFI was third place on my X58 mobo list, right after EVGA X58 and MSI Eclipse since only those two use Renesas R2J20602 MOSFET's. (very high quality MOSFET's). However, that DFI is still pretty good Renesas MOSFET's or not. Also, I like the black-green theme of your setup. Nice stuff.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 23, 2009)

My boy has been having a great time on it. His old PC would BSOD and lock up at regular intervals. This one is like silk. He's liking Vista a lot and has already customized his dektop and Gadgets.

Not sure why but he's got the stock ticker up top , calendar, clock, slideshow of a car show we went to and the CPU/RAM  meters.

He uses "Easy Link" to connect to all of his kid safe sites and has his Homepage set to PBS.org.

It's clearly much more interesting to him now that he's had his hands inside it.


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## SLO247 (Feb 23, 2009)

Just read through this, your son must adore you....Not only does he get that machine, but all the mucking about will do wonders for stimulating him to think about it etc.

Custom case looks great, love the lighting down the front.


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## steelkane (Feb 23, 2009)

That's new's I always like to hear. great job Cyberdruid's


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 23, 2009)

CyberDruid said:


> My boy has been having a great time on it. His old PC would BSOD and lock up at regular intervals. This one is like silk. He's liking Vista a lot and has already customized his dektop and Gadgets.
> 
> Not sure why but he's got the stock ticker up top , calendar, clock, slideshow of a car show we went to and the CPU/RAM  meters.
> 
> ...



still doesn't deter actuall Supervision, be active in what your child goes to, most BSODs occur due to machines not being patched or corruption to critical OS files.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 23, 2009)

CyberDruid said:


> Hmmm I would look at that and try a remount. It is not uncommon to have to mount a heatsink a few times to get optimal contact/ TIM spread.
> 
> I might have gotten lucky...but I also use Shin Etsu TIM.



Ya the SHinetsu is great, I bought 2 packs of them and stacked them to build up for a Dell XPS Gen 1 Laptop for the NB and the Vid card (pretty thick gap between the sink and chip)

Best of all that Vid card i have a 100MHz Core and Ram Overclock.


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## CyberDruid (Feb 23, 2009)

There must be a lot of different Shin Etsu. Packs? The stuff I sell/use comes in .5g syringes. And just for future reference Shin Etsu (X23) does not work well with a thick bondline. It's formulated to be most effective at heat transfer with a thin bondline. You can go to the MicroSi website and look at the graphs to see what I mean. So next time you want to "stack two packs" opf TIM under something use Arctic Silver or Ceramique which works better than Shin Etsu if put on an uneven surface, or used thick.

Another thought on that is to use TIM pads (Which is what most MFRs use under their coolers on GFX cards) because they are designed to take up a lot of gaps, and uneven contact patches and will work better than TIM greases in that application (non conductive).

Anyhoo thanks for the compliments guys.

I'll find out what the BSOD was all about in a bit as I will soon be testing all his old HW before listing it/resusing it.

My guess is that the BSODs are temperature and voltage related. The PSU is pretty light to run an 8800GT and an OC on the 550. That 550 is an ES and will touch 4.2 on air but gets scorching hot. The Heatsink I was using is okay but not super efficient.

I doubt it's a problem with the CPU or Mobo...but the HDD might be on the way out...it's a first generation SATA drive so it's seen plenty of action.

I'll be testing the gear under some water with a PA120.2 and d-tek just to see what it can do.


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## Thrackan (Feb 23, 2009)

CyberDruid said:


> There must be a lot of different Shin Etsu. Packs? The stuff I sell/use comes in .5g syringes. And just for future reference Shin Etsu (X23) does not work well *with a thick bondline.* It's formulated to be most effective at heat transfer with a thin bondline. You can go to the MicroSi website and look at the graphs to see what I mean. So next time you want to "stack two packs" opf TIM under something use Arctic Silver or Ceramique which works better than Shin Etsu if put on an uneven surface, or used thick.
> 
> Another thought on that is to use TIM pads (Which is what most MFRs use under their coolers on GFX cards) because they are designed to take up a lot of gaps, and uneven contact patches and will work better than TIM greases in that application (non conductive).
> 
> ...



I so read "thick blondine"


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## CyberDruid (Feb 23, 2009)

I'm totally off blondes...been there...done that. I want my 12 years back.


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## Thrackan (Feb 23, 2009)

CyberDruid said:


> I'm totally off blondes...been there...done that. I want my 12 years back.



I've always preferred brunettes...


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## h3llb3nd4 (Feb 23, 2009)

Can you be my stepfather?? LOL


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## CyberDruid (Feb 23, 2009)

My Evil Twin wants to be your stepfather...

Well I'm happy the rig is running perfectly at 100% Load since day one. I've been Crunching WCG non stop and I saw a dramatic increase in PPD. I went from around 4000 to over 8000. Now some of that is a QX9650 I just fired up on the grid. But I'd guess that about 3000 of those are the i7.

Hoping for another 8K day before the Wife shuts down the QX rig...she gets tired of hearing it running 24/7.

I can see it would be a good platform for GPU folding if the Xclio is up to the load. I've got three slots there and am debating about putting in some more Nvidia fire power.


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