Ordered A New Computer...

[Tony]

That is the chance we take when OC'ing a CPU. I have been doing it for years and have never had one fry on me. The i7 can hit 4.5GHz with only 1.4 volts under water. 1.4 will get the chip to about 65ºc under full load on Prime95, and it might shorten it's life to about 6 years if you keep that clock on there. Thanks for your concern though . But I got this. Loving this new computer.

 

[Tony]

Thought I would bring this thread back from the dead. Yeah, I know, it's almost 1.5 years old, I don't care lmao.

I have been using this computer almost daily, and 90% of all videos are rendered on it. This thing is still awesome and does anything that I need it to do. I still have the 3x4GB sticks of ram in it, but I'm thinking about ordering 6x4GB just because. It will be a while though. Teh case is pretty good, and I have not seen many issues. As stated earlier in the thread, the doors on the front of the optical bays are a little annoying, but I have learned to live with them. The top fan on the front has quit unfortunately. I just need to take it apart and see what is wrong. Worst case, call up Antec and order a new fan.

Heat in this computer is NOT an issue. If I know I'm going to be doing something that is heavy on the processing and memory usage, I will just crank the fans up, turning this thing into something that sounds like a 747 taking off, and my temps stay very cool.

The SSD, although quite fast, is not as fast as I would like. For one, the MOBO that I'm running only has one 6gbps slot, and it's being taken up by my video card, so the SSD is only running at 3gbps. But, this is still plenty fast enough. Much faster than a standard HDD.

If I replace another HDD (I have lost 3 so far), I will put in a hybrid. If you don't know what that is, it has the loading speed of an SSD with the storage capacity of a standard HDD. You can put your OS on the SSD portion, and the large files on the HDD. Fast loading with great storage. Best of both worlds.

I do need to add HDD's though. I have about 4TB worth of storage, and it's almost full. Time to bump this up to about 12TB with 4 3TB drives.

In the post on the second page, I was talking about a server. Well, with the internet I have now, I can run my own server. I have the speed, and I can get the static IP that is required. I may just test this out. Over time, the server will pay for it's self with me not having to pay an arm and a leg for a dedicated server hosted by someone else. And, I can control just how much memory, cpu and bandwidth I want to use. Needless to say, I will have a LOT more than a website could ever use. Yup, I'm thinking about hosting this forum myself. Just need to do some testing first.

Man, I missed messing with this computer. If you watched the video "My New Office", you saw this computer running on an old desk that I had out in the shed. And it's not even flinching at the 85º+ temps out there. All in all, I'm very happy with this computer. The downsides are all small, and are mostly with the single 6gbps rail, the doors on the case and little stuff like that. Not a big deal at all.

Just thought I would post an update on this computer. Not sure that anyone really cares, I'm just really bored here at work and got to searching the forum hehe. There may just be some HUGE changes coming in the near future!!!

 

[Stambo]

Just read this from start to finish, sounds like you have a bit of a beast there Tony.
I am more than a little jealous.
My machine is I7 2600 quadcore, 8Gb (2X4), 1Gb Nvidia, 1Tb Hdd.
It goes ok but for video work I will probably soon upgrade to 16Gb.
When I first built it I had all sorts of heat issues but as soon as I transferred everything to a new, better designed case the issues disappeared.
I'd love an SSD, I'm told boot time can be just a few seconds.
This thing eats most games I throw at it but I can see myself having to do a new build some time next year.
It's almost 2 years old now and technology never stops improving.

 

[Tony]

On the x58 mobo's, they are triple channel, hence why I'm running 3 sticks. As stated, I thought about adding another 3 sticks and bumping it up to 24GB of memory, but not sure if I will or not. I'm never going over 50% now on memory, and I rarely ever reach 80% on the cpu. It's a bad add computer and I love it. More than I need, and I'm thinking about adding more. I just purchased an Asus wireless AC (it's a band like b,g,n) router, and that thing is kick ass. Now, I'm thinking about putting the Asus AC wireless card in my computer since I"m having to do everything over wireless. Do I need it? No, wireless g does just fine. But, if I put in a server with some bitchin HDD's, I may just have to test it out hehe. The speeds you can reach on wireless AC are faster than ethernet from what I have been reading. Need to do more though.

Wow, that is a wall of text up there lmao. Ah well, love my computer.

 

[Stambo]

I here ya there, I spend waaay too much time on mine. I use my 42" plasma as a monitor and sit back on my lazyboy recliner.
I have a board across the arms that fits mouse and keyboard and a few other things very nicely.
Although I have found new enjoyment in night flying my quad (and getting eaten by mosquito's).

 

[Tony]

Here is a quick video showing the inside of the computer and some other things on it. Yes, it's VERY dirty, it's been a while since I cleaned it. Need to do it here soon.

 

[Tony]

Just found out that W8 has put the desktop back in the options, and there is a rumor that there is an update coming that will put the start menu back on the computer. If this happens, I may be putting W8 on my desk top (this computer) as well as back on my i7 lappy.

 

[Tony]

Well, it has been about 4.5 years since I posted in this thread. I'm sure there is another thread on this computer, but I can't find it lol. If you know where one is, post a link to it and I will move this info to the new thread.

So an update on this poor computer. I am still running almost everything that is posted in the first post of this thread. I have replaced the 120GB SSD with a Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD that was donated to the forum just for this computer. Not sure if the member wants to be mentioned, but if he does, he can post in here. The 120GB SSD went into my grandmothers computer that had a very slow HDD in it.

I have also had to replace the GPU in this thing. The 560Ti started giving me issues and then just completely died. I'm sure you all remember me posting that I was testing this card and had my finger get into the blades of the fan running full blast which sprayed blood everywhere. It is without a doubt my worst injury from a computer lmao. I didn't think I was ever going to get the bleeding to stop. If you don't know what the blades on this GPU look like, click on the link in the first post and go check it out. They are pointed and it was running at full speed which is friggin fast. My finger stopped the fan and broke the blade off that went into and through my finger.

I still have not fixed that front top fan that was not working in the video above lol. But I'm about to have to do some work on this computer and when I do that, I will take that fan out and try to fix it. It has multiple wires on it and it takes some work to get them out hence why I have not pulled it out yet. I am thinking about getting a smaller case since I no longer have any HDD's in this computer. I am instead using a NAS (Network Attached Storage) for all of my storage, but with this 1TB SSD I get speed and capacity. So with that said, I just need a case that will house the ATX motherboard, my new GPU (forgot to mention that above, I will talk about that here in a second), a 280 Rad (the reason I'm making this post actually lol) and my SSD. That is all the space I need.

So about the GPU. When my GTX 560 Ti died, I ordered an MSI GTX 1050 ti. I really wanted to get at least a 1060 but I just flat didn't have the money at the time to do that. So I had to settle for the 1050 Ti which is still twice as good as what I had before. This GPU has proven to do just about everything I want it to do without breaking a sweat, except for playing iRacing on triple screens. It is just a little stressed when I do that, but I can do it. So I'm liking this GPU but I"m still actively looking for a 1070 or 1080 to replace it so that I will quit stressing it in triple screens running high frame rate games.

So onto the reason I'm making this post in this thread. For some reason, I decided to check on my CPU temps. I had not done this for a very long time because I'm not running an overclock on this i7 960 which is a very old CPU now. And with the introduction of Spectre and Meltdown, and the only fix is to close the cache on the CPU which slows this chip way down, I need to overclock it. I'm pretty sure this is the reason I checked on my core temps because I needed to know what the temp was (same cooler as in the video BTW) so that I would know what kind of temps I would be looking at after giving it a good OC. Well, my computer, at IDLE! Is running 60ºC!!! Holy hell!!!

I was not expecting to see temps like that. 50ºC, okay maybe, it is on air with a horrible fan, but over 60 is not acceptable. how that was a peak temp, and it usually stays around 55, but still, that is way too hot if I want to overclock this thing.

I own a 360 Radiator, I own a res for the water level and I even recently received a copper water block that I ordered after a couple months of waiting. All I need is tubing and a pump, and to make the 360mm Radiator fit in this case that was not designed for it. I have 3 fans on the front of the case, but they are case flow fans and not static pressure fans that you need on a Rad. And the pumps out there that are half worth a crap are about $100!!!

So I started looking at some AIO's (All In One's) that have the rad, tubing, pump and block all in one. Most of these are about $150 but Newegg had a sale going on for the Corsair H110i Extreme which is a 280mm Rad (dual 140mm fans instead of the 120mm) which gives me about 30% more surface area compared to the same thickness 240mm Rad. And, I have dual 140mm fans on top of my case where I am pretty sure I can fit this Rad, but I can NOT fit a 240mm where the back two fans are because of the tanks on each end of the rad.

I'm hoping to get my idle temps down into the 30's with the AIO and man is this going to free up a LOT of space inside this case. This thing is going to look empty! No HDD's, no massive air cooler, so I no longer have the need for a case of this size anymore.

If any of you have run this rad before, let me know what you think. The AIO is a maintenance free water cooling solution that never requires filling and it comes with a 5 year warranty on both parts and labor! I figure that is well worth the $95 I paid for this thing. I have even seen videos where they state "unless you are using a Ryzen 1700X or above or something like a 7700K, chips that produce a LOT of heat, then don't waste your money. This jackwaggon was basically saying to go with a cooling solution that would just barely work on your system saying that all people really need is a 120mm radiator and they would be fine. Um NO! I'm going to go overkill so that I have more head room and I keep it cooler, thank you very much! lmao.

And just an FYI, this i7 960 is factory clocked at 3.2GHz and I plan on putting a 1GHz overclock on it to try and overcome those two issues and how slow they have made this computer. Hell, I could put a 4.5GHz clock on this thing with 1.4 volts, but that would be pushing it just a little farther than I would like. I would really like to just build a new computer, but at this time, I just can't afford it.

But if anyone knows of a good case that will fig a 280mm Rad and an ATX motherboard, let me know. You can't buy the 1366 motherboards anymore otherwise I would just look for a new board in the micro ATX form or even a mini ITX for an even smaller case. So definitely let me know if you know of anything. And also let me know if you would like to see the install of this radiator!

Oh and one last thing. I put this air cooler on here back in 2012 when I built this computer and it has never been removed. So it is quite likely the thermal compound that is on it is completely rock hard and that could be the reason for the high core temps. I guess we will find out next week when I receive my new radiator

 

[Tony]

I received the water cooler today and holy cow what a difference. No more fan whine from the CPU Air Cooler! My computer is all but silent now! And that is with no side panel on it!

Below are some quick temps from Core Temp showing my temps. I forgot to get one on the load, but the total temp on 100% load with my video editing software was only 55ºC! Compared to what you see below on air, that is amazing for a silent computer IMO. I just finished running Cinebench and the core was around 60C, unfortunately I never did this test on air, but I would bet the cores would be somewhere around 80C on the same test.

The install was a little more troublesome than I thought it would be. I had to remove both of my rear fans, one of which will not be going back in because there is no room for it. The DVD drive had to be removed because of the water lines, but who really runs those things anymore? lmao. I hardly touch mine unless I"m having to install some old programs like Phoenix or Realflight lmao.

There is still some work to be done on the system such as overclocking this CPU to the moon and fixing some air flow issues in the case. I really need to just get a new case that supports all of this stuff that I need, and nothing that I don't. Hell, I don't even have any HDD's in this system, only the 1TB SSD.

Here are the temps for the various tests.

Stock Settings Air Idle


Stock Settings Air Under Load


Stock Settings Water Idle


Stock Settings Water Under Load