Gallery Finally done, trying to take decent photos...

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Album on Picasa Web Albums

Hey folks, nothing much to see here but if you've got any feedback on the photo's I'd really like to hear them :) There are a few duplicates, some are focused on different stuff and some are just plain duplicates that I didn't know which to keep so I kept them all. I'm working on this Bokeh thing that looks really cool, though my camera only goes down to 2.8 so I dunno if I can get it any better.

For the actual build, if you keep reading through the thread you'll be able to tell that it's been through a lot of stages and transitions... here's the full list of changes from the top of my head:

1. q6600, 780i, bfg gtx260, 2x1gb reapers, wd black 1tb, hyper 212+, cx400
2. phenom720 3.6ghz, m4a785td-v evo, 4x1gb corsair 1333mhz, tx750
3. phenom550 (x4) 3.6ghz, m4a79t deluxe, sapphire 4870/hr-03, haf922
4. i7 920 4ghz, ex58 extreme, 3x2gb patriot viper 1600mhz hd5870, wd black 640gb X2, nh-d14 and later true 120
5. i5 750 4ghz, p7p55d deluxe, 2x2 g.skill 1600mhz, gtx260 65nm 216sp, megahalems

It's been a looooong journey... and it's finally over (hopefully). I haven't done any mods to my haf922 yet because I haven't seen the need for any, and I'm still too poor for watercooling, but hope you enjoy it anyways though :)

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Hey guyzz, guess what the sleeving I bought on fleabay sucks, but it'll have to do it's kinda gray-ish, they call it 'chrome' lol. I think I shoulda picked up some white too for accent... not sure how that would look though.

Picked up 3 strips of thermal tape from Biff 2 days ago (thanks again man). I'm gonna be using this on the 4870. The stock fan is incredibly loud and I'm very cheap, so I'm gonna try and create a ghetto cooler by attaching a high static pressure stock hyper 212+ fan to a funnel to the air inlet of the 4870 stock cooler (fan removed ofc), and hopefully it will be significantly quieter while providing good cooling. I've got a feeling it's gonna turn out horribly though, which is why I have a plan to buy a Thermalright HR-03 GT for 25 bucks, which seems like a alright deal if I'm not mistaken...

Thermalright HR-03 GT GPU Cooler Review

I've got everything installed and it's working great, the 550 unlocks as expected, clocks to 3.6 as expected (it feels as if amd built a wall at 3.6 or something, neither this or my 720 will budge a tiny bit over 3.6 with any kind of voltage). Results in next post after I finish this stress test...

[mattlef]

depending on the weave, this sleeving might actually look really good man.... I cant tell how tight it is, but the color doesnt look that bad.... need natural light to be sure though.

nice build so far ;)

[Cowboy]

Hey, where can you get hr-03 gt's for $25? I'd like to get in on that :)

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Originally Posted by Cowboy

Hey, where can you get hr-03 gt's for $25? I'd like to get in on that :)

ahh, second hand stuff here on our very own forums, sorry m8 i bought it already

hey matt, what were the stable settings for 3.6? I screwed up the bios settings already right now I've got 1.425vcore, 1.2nb and 1.35nb/sb everything else I've keyed in the default voltages, anything else to change?
edit: the sleeving is a kind of titanium-ish gray... closest thing would be the graphite in a regular hb pencil. I guess it could work in low light, but it's wayy lighter than the stuff that comes on the tx750. still waiting on my cheap-o heat-shrink

[Mattu]

Originally Posted by mattlef

depending on the weave, this sleeving might actually look really good man.... I cant tell how tight it is, but the color doesnt look that bad.... need natural light to be sure though.

nice build so far ;)

Poor man's mod: buy an extension to murdermod or sleeve the psu?

here's an old pic of my computer - the weave is pretty lose, its half clear and half black.

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yeaa the axe square kinda sucked... not as much as some reviews described it as, but sucked like a stock cooler. put a finger on a heatpipe and it feels like ambient temperature, it's as if it's just a aluminum rod holding the fins together or something. The fan spins moving more air above it than below it, could barely feel any air coming through at all, barely any static pressure. I've got a feeling half the heat from the 550 was being dissipated thanks to asus's stack cool mobo I think I'll use it to make my parents' PC look prettier. I've got an idea why the axe square sucks so much though, it looks like the base is wayy too thick.

First screenie is with axe square, second is with hyper 212+ lapped 800grit. The stock fan was throttled back to 40% to match the stock axe square fan. Oh, did I mention the axe square is a pain in the to remove? I was in a situation where I had to remove the mobo to remove the heatsink, but I had to remove the heatsink to remove the 8pin and screws under the heatsink. Ended up removing the screws with a bit of a drill between a tweezer, squeezing it for the life of me to get the screws loose. I think I know why people prefer tower coolers now

Temperature is about the same under load, but the fan speed can be changed from 40% to 80% or something to increase efficiency. Yes it is a very low frequency, I seem to be unable to get a 3.6 with the axe square without going past 50*C

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I was bored, decided to change the thermal goop on the m4a79t deluxe while I still had the mobo out of the tray changing the cooler. Darn it arctic cooling! I started to squeeze on the syringe of the new tube and it felt as if there was lots of resistance, so I put a bit more force, and BAM a whole blob comes pouring out and I had to wipe it all off I was using 800 grit sandpaper left over from lapping and a knife to shave down that thermal squishy stuff that goes on the mosfets, turned out alright I guess

And the stock stuff on the m4a79t isn't thermal goop or even a thermal pad, it's more like dried up custard, so yes any m4a79t owners should change it right now before changing, the HS was slightly warm to the touch at 1.16volts, now with mx-2 it burns my hand at stock. The 'custard' is very strong, I had to use a tooth pick to get it off, amazingly the surface of the HS was not scratched

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One night I was feeling kinda weird, so I decided to ditch the idea of modding a 120mm fan onto a funnel connected to the inlet of the stock cooler, and bought a hr-03 I was debating between 2 configurations for the little aluminum fin thingy's, I ended up doing the later because ati's stock cooler had no heat sinks on the taller gray things at all. Yea it was a crazy tight fit getting my fingers under there, I ended up using a index finger to twist it. I lifted the base up about 875 times in the process so I'm gonna have to reseat it some day...

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Finally, the extra heatshrink I ordered has arrived... huge change of plans folks, sold my amd set and 4870, got some new toys... yesterday heatshrink arrived. 5 days ago, bought a i7 c0, patriot viper 3x2gb c8's, and ex58-ud5. Today, just picked up a 5870. all I had to do for it was agree to wash the dishes every night until I can pay back my parents.

Apparently, the 2.5mm shrink doesn't fit on the 2-wired pins of my tx750. I didn't have the proper size of heatshrink beforehand, so I had to do with ties and electric tape, will be shrinking them tonight. I'm having quite a hard time getting the 24 pin to shrink properly, the heatshrink from dealextreme really sucks and has a very low shrink ratio.