[Boldeagle]

Well this was my first ever build and it began in August 2006. Since then I have upgraded CPU from 805D (sick OC beast) to Q6600, Vid Card from x1900xtx to 4850 and added 2x1Gb of Crucial to give a total of 4x1Gb of Crucial. All is listed in my sig. Current settings have my CPU at 3.01GHz (9x334MHz), RAM at (334MHz@4-4-4-12, underclocked from 400MHz), Vid Card at stock. I’m an Aussie so all measurements will be in “metric” (the logical choice!).

After acquiring a 4850, I became one of the many that suffered in game instability and the only way I could resolve it was to back of my OC from Q6600@3.15GHz to 3.01GHz and then I could finally play Crysis for hour upon hour (yes I had the Fan Profile mod and had tried 8.6, 8.6Hotfix, 8.7Beta to 8.7 and tried many variants on voltage). Frankly this frustrated me to lower OC but I had previously been hitting the wall at 3.15GHz anyway. So with this in mind and the warranty expired on my MOBO it was time to go a modding. The objective being to improve CPU, NB, RAM and overall system cooling, to increase the inflow while maintaining or lowering noise.

The project entailed 4 components;

1. Modding the P5WDH by removing the "impairing" cosmetic NB and SB covers and refreshing with a quality TIM (Artic SIlver 5);
2. Lapping the CPU, HS and SB HS;
3. Making a Memory Cooler; and
4. Adding an extra 120mm inflow Fan

Pre-modding CPU was hitting 66C on OCCT for 1 Hour, after-modding has my CPU at 56C after 12mins. Although the 2nd run is shorter the CPU was fully loaded and previous run show’s an oscillating temp range with peaks of 66C@10mins. So with the TIM still bedding in I feel it is reasonable to see at least a 10C improvement, results below. Further testing will occur over the next few days and then onto the OC run.