The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

As for the PSU connector I found my ZM850-HP's 8-pin will fit if it's in the case, but it's not long enough if I run the cable around the back of the motherboard and in through the top, which is sort of mandatory due to the amount of graphics card in the way

 

Here's a good shot of it. You can't see all the slack either. I could easily slip a baseball between the case and the cable!
LOL! yes, I saw the dust on the HDD's...Its very dusty here

 

A corsair 550W wouldn't require a 13amp electric cord would it? I just found it while cleaning up after the building mess. I rarely use some of the brand new parts, because I have used laying around LOL! The requirements on the box say it only requires 120V @ 8Amp. The 13amp is a fat electric cord. I guess I'm curious where the heck it came from. Cause surely the corsair doesn't need that...

 

Well think about it. 120Vx8=960W. Do you need more than that?

 

I'm fairly certain, that the 13amp cord came with it. Pretty strange eh?
Now I LOVE corsair

 

Hehe Corsair seem to do that. They sent me a second PCI-e lead free of charge + $5 shipping. Always done right by me

 

Yeah well they include high current plugs just as a safeguard, and also as they're generic. A 1KW PSU would need more than an 8A fused cable, so they just provide the highest regardless.

 

So what do you think sam. Think my second Velociraptor will last more than a year LOL! I bought it on 03/26/09. It just barely didn't make one year. Should I blame myself? I never let my HDD's idle. At least up until recently The failed Velociraptor made me question that policy LOL! I now let all of my HDD's idle. Sure is a shame I can't manually tell them to idle. It's somewhat irritating when a windows process needs to query the drive, in which it takes 3-5 seconds to spin up.
I'm actually questioning my need for the SSD now. Newegg ok'd the refund, and the drive is on its way back to them. I'm now thinking I'll use the replacement Velociraptor, and wait to see how this Sata 6Gb/s Crucial SSD fairs. Cause if they can cause prices to be driven down, I'm all for that LOL! I remember reading that Crucial was able to produce them cheaper than the intel drives. If intel wants to stay afloat, then they're gonna need to do some competitive pricing

Here's what my sensors are looking like. I thought it was kind of strange that the CPU sensor was hotter than the cores. Usually the cores are hotter. But for the most part, during idle the temperatures of the cores and cpu are usually the same. The Motherboard sensor sure did like it when I put the cover back on LOL! I remember the GPU running cooler when I first got it. But I think I also allowed for more Rpms.
Any ideas what the Aux temp is? Is it another temperature on the GPU? Perhaps ambient?

 

Oman7,
Here's my Everest. Two of the temperatures are switched as is one of the voltages. I marked them as they really are.


Just a wild guess, but are you running your memory at 1.60v? I ask because 1.60v shows in the +2.5 space, and on mine, that's the memory voltage. I have already confirmed that by changing the memory voltage and checking to see the change shows in the +2.5v space. I can't download your motherboard manual, so I'm going to ask you to look in the PC Health Status, and check the CPU Smart Fan Control and be sure it's Enabled. Then go to the CPU Smart Fan Mode and be sure PWM is selected! Also, for testing purposes, Disable the System Smart fan control. Then go to the advanced BIOS Features and be sure that AMD K8 Cool&Quiet Control is Disabled. Your CPU Fan is running way too slow for those kind of temps! Mine did the same thing, and I found the problem was caused by the System Smart fan Control being enabled and the CPU Smart Fan control being Disabled.

Please note that my CPU temp is two degrees higher than the Cores, same as yours! If you think about it a bit you will see why. First, there are 5 different sensors involved. One for each core, and a separate one for the CPU. The CPU sensor is furthest from the cores, and closer to the heat shield on the CPU. If their positions were reversed, you would know that the cooler wasn't doing it's job. If all else fails, use a 3 prong adapter and run the Cooler fan off of a Molex, and see if the Cores and CPU temps go down. It should be running at about 1600 to 1700 rpm and those temps! If the temps go down then, shut down and put the Cooler fan back on the 4 prong CPU cooler plug, and reboot! Install easyTune from the MB CD, and open the Smart section and go down to the fan controls. Try my settings first as a start point. Set the CPU temp (Blue) to 55. It may read 55/131 or somewhere around there, Then adjust the Fan Speed to 33. Click set. If it raises the fan speed, and lowers the temps, then it's good to go. You'll have to play around with it a bit to see what works best for your rig, but it does work very well. The EasyTune program should start when you boot the computer, and maintain your settings. OH! Be sure you close the EasyTune window with the -, not the X. otherwise it turns off the program!

Good Luck,
Russ

 

I would think so, I don't know of anyone else who's had problems with Velociraptors. As it happens, forcing drives to spin down often will shorten their lifetime more than if they remain spinning whenever your PC is on (assuming they are not left on for weeks on end).
As for competitive pricing, Intel currently make the cheapest SSDs, and also the best. It's going to take the other drives to become very cheap before I change my mind on which I'll be buying.
Aux temp could well be the Southbridge, which a lot of boards measure.
As for the 2.5V, that's not a mistake in Everest - that is the memory voltage for everyone I believe. Mine certainly is.
For the record, you can't run a 4-pin PWM fan into an adapter for a molex as such adapters are only designed for 3-pin voltage controlled fans. You need to get an open-end connector without the latch on it to do this.
I don't use EasyTune, as you have to click for every % you want the fan speed raised, you can't scroll or hold the button down, it's a very poorly designed program.

My everest:


GPU temperatures are high as the side fans are at off (upper pair) and around 4V (lower pair) for low noise. If both pairs are switched off, the graphics fans speed up a little to compensate, so the noise level rises. As you can see, one of the cards has already increased slightly.

 

My memory runs at 1.6V, so yes.
My room temperature is warmer than average I believe. 75-77°F. Russ has some really nice temps. I think a lot of my cpu temp has to do with too much thermal compound. Its far from paper thin. Probably about 250% what you see a heatsink and fan come with.
Wonderful, hotmail is down...

Hmmm, even at 77°F, I should see 30-32...

 

quotes:

I would think so, I don't know of anyone else who's had problems with Velociraptors. As it happens, forcing drives to spin down often will shorten their lifetime more than if they remain spinning whenever your PC is on (assuming they are not left on for weeks on end).

Also Omeg mentioned about the idling, now here are somethings I am totally lost on, I've never heard this before, can you guys explain this to me please.

 

You can set the duration of a period of inactivity after which a hard disk will spin down the rotating platters and park the drive heads, causing no movement within the drive until it is next required to be used, saving energy. This will reduce wear on the spindle of the drive, but is also rather like turning a light bulb on and off whenever you leave the room. If you set the duration such that after even the slightest pause in activity, the drive is constantly spinning up and powering down, which causes more wear over time than normal.

 

I'm not sure about XP(i've learned more about windows 7) but windows 7 allows for default idling after install. I think it was either 15 or 20minutes. Since i've found that windows 7 is extremely similar to xp, just reorganized, it would not surprise me if the default power options are exactly the same(saves time during the programming process). Plus why ruin a good thing.
The idea of a HDD running at 10,000 rpms 24/7 seems like torture. But Western digital is the shiznit! LOL! Perhaps I simply did get a drive that had a slight factory defect, which down the road caused what happened to it. Which is why I want the option for MANUALLY telling individual drives to idle. The OS drive for instance, should never idle when I'm using the computer. My storage drives should idle, until I request spinup. But if you think its healthier to just allow them to spin all the time, rather than start, stop, start, stop...then maybe I should just let them. I just hate the idea that my terabyte drives could die...

 

The idling hard disk, amazingly enough, has been there since at least Windows 98, where the default was an hour.
The fact that a lot of Raptors came with longer warranties than 7200rpm drives, and 15k drives sometimes longer still, suggests that high spindle speed really isn't that disastrous...

 

Well now. thanks for boosting my confidence in the raptor

 

I haven't even really given oc'ing much effort, and am already seeing dvd rebuilder speeds in excess of 8-12% quicker than deneb 940. Very impressed. I plan on Oc'ing the Shat out of it too

 

Sam,
It's not near as bad as all that. The older ones were, but you don't have to click anything aside from grabbing the slider to adjust it. I would have preferred the arrow keys for fine adjustment, but it's still pretty easy to use, and much better than earlier versions.



It's 23C in here right now, which is 79-80F, and the CPU is currently going back and forth between 27-28C. The motherboard runs cooler running at only 1100 to 1200 rpms on the CPU fan. The video card runs fine in the second slot, and runs cooler as well, so there's more breathing room for the Northbridge to get air. EasyTune6 does a right fine job controlling the CPU fan. much better than letting the motherboard do it with just PWM smart fan control. Here's the temps.



Even the Northbridge has settled down a bit, to 35-36C. It's even gotten cooler in the last half hour or so, just sitting here idling.



I don't think you could ask for better temps at these room temps, and as hot as it is outside.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Welcome back KOTTER

 

Interesting, I don't remember seeing that slider in EasyTune before, I could have a look at it, but to be honest the automatic control does a good enough job for me at the moment, and EasyTune only ever used to work for the CPU fan anyway. At idle I get 1050rpm and load around 1400, the full 1600 if heavy load. That's fine as 1050rpm is pretty much inaudible behind idling X2s on an SFF21F, and 1400 isn't enough to make much noise when under reasonable load. 1600 is noticeable, but it only occurs when the graphics fans drown everything else out. Under 25% CPU load (game lobby) CPU temp stabilises at about 43ºC with that core at 40ºC and the others at 30. At 35%, in said game, it's 45-46ºC with that core at 43ºC or so. Idle is currently 31ºC with the cores all at 27. Not bad for a 54% overclock I don't think