Slashdot Mirror
A Few Hardware Bits
Zygo writes "Most people seemed to like the hardware bites so here's another edition:
A small HD @ GideonTech, the VapoChill PE @ [H]ard|OCP, a big GPU cooler @ OCAddiction, PSU Relay Timer guide @ Virtual-Hideout, a water cooling kit on OverClocker Café, Heat spreaders on OCIA , and to end a PSU at Exteme Overclocking"
Looks like a bunch of articles from the most well-known hardware sites. They wouldn't be too hard to find, and IMHO they're not very newsworthy.
NEXT: Dell sells computers.
For +5 Moderation, insert text of article here
I dunno about the details of VapoChill, but in principle a refrigerator could have its 'hot end' glowing red, thereby increasing heat transfer rate. Remember that the refrigerator only moves the heat around, it doesn't eliminate it. The hot end must be cooled somehow. But unlike the processor, its temperature is not limited by the silicon.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Perhaps they should have named the story: A Few Hardware Sites in the Arena, from the slashdot-effect-as-a-benchmark dept.
And after only 10 posts the Overclocker Cafe was already kicked out of the ring! Whos next? Stay tuned!
keep it simple.
WTF? That thing only reduced the tempreture by half a centigrade!
I was watching TechTV the other night and they mentioned that only XP and XP Pro will support HyperThreading. True? Seems W2K would work too.
There are a few cheaper models which don't come with a power adapter, expecting to be powered off the USB bus. The thing is, they report their peak load demand to the system's USB power manager, which is the hard drive spinup wattage. This is higher than most USB power busses can deliver, and the result is a current over limit warning and the inability to use the drive.
The fun comes in, because several of these use nonstandard power jacks (and in at least one case, the model hasn't an external power jack at all). You'll be left modifying the case yourself, trying to find the nonstandard power adapter, or trying to find one of the cheaper USB 2.0 cards without limit protection.
IMHO, this is not a story that I want to see on Slashdot. There are already 343,225,988,332,112 hardware sites (most seemingly run by 13-year-old computer prodigies that have a rough time spelling), ALL of which carry the same collection of heat sink and other "enthusiast" hardware reviews. Use of Slashdot's bandwith for such redundancy is unnecessary, unless it's all part of an evil scheme to take out all 343,225,988,332,112 sites by slashdotting...leaving Slashdot to take over... If this is the case however, I'd like to note that I'd rather read about ESR (!!!) than the latest in static-lump-of-copper-with-a-noisy-ass-fan-on-top technology.
-JT
You are not the only one who doesn't like the Over-Clocking stuff, but I was quite interested in the Water Cooling kit.
I have a dual-Athlon MP system which has 4 fans in it:
1 fan to inject air into the chassis (front)
1 fan to eject air from the chassis (back)
and 1 fan for each CPU.
The system makes a lot of noise, and if you were to look at the Thermaltake kit you'll find that it is not designed to be an overclocking kit at all, in fact it's benchmarks did not beat fan comparisons at all.
Unfortunately I'm still waiting for a 2 Cpu kit, so that I don't have to mess about finding a 2nd Waterblock and extra tubing for my CPUs and then worrying about whether the water pump / radiator is inadequate for cooling two CPUs...
Even more unfortunate is that none of the Kit Manufacturers I have seen so far cater for dual CPU systems, which to me seems to be a niche in the market where Water Cooling would provide a great advantage in reducing noise levels and/or for the overclocking enthusiast.
What puzzles me is the way these sites all seem to be 'Extreme Overclocking' or 'Overclocking to the Max'. Where are the sites promising Moderate Overclocking or Careful Now Overclocking or Just A Little Overclocking? This area isn't provided for by current sites. I expect there is a whole mod community competing to get the smallest possible overclock.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
I expect there is a whole mod community competing to get the smallest possible overclock.
Um... I wouldn't count on it. A lot of these guys seem to be engineering types. You know, "see how far it can be pushed before it breaks" kind of people. Doing "just a little" goes completely against the game plan. And is of no value whatsoever. It's like changing to high-performance spark plug wires on your Honda. Bragging rights of a sort, I guess, but doesn't really do anything useful on its own, and tends to be more hassle than it's worth.
I don't care much for overclocking and the associated case modding, but it's great to see that there are people out there who love this kind of stuff. I'm more than happy just to marvel at the occasional inventivness and artistry.
In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
--VonNeumann
I put an Iceberg I in my kids' Athlon XP 1900+ in the first part of September. It worked great for almost three months and then the heat exchanger (radiator) sprung a leak and fried my GeForce3 video card. I wrote that off since I was planning on upgrading it soon anyway. I also considered myself to be extremely lucky to have only lost something so easily replaced.
However, what burns me is the response I have received (or, lack thereof) from exoticpc.com (where I bought the fscking thing). BTW, their website is not working for me in Mozilla right now, but Konqeror seems to work.
I originally emailed them telling them about the radiator leak and asked for a refund. They did reply the next day saying that they would not return my money. But, I was told that they would give me a new reservoir since I had apparently screwed mine in too tightly and ruined it -- which is not the case, the reservoir is not leaking.
They apparently didn't bother to even read my complaint. I made it clear that the problem was with the radiator, not the reservoir. Here is my original message:
and, their reply:At any rate, I then replied to their mail asking for a replacement heat exchanger or radiator or whatever you call it. It has been ten days since I replied to their mail and I have not received any response. I just sent off another email to exoticpc.com hoping that it will elicit a response. (in case this post doesn'tThanks for reading. I feel a little better now.
This is probably one of the more practical uses of liquid cooling - the small-box desktop computer.
I use this box to run QNX, and use the stock motherboard VESA graphics. Putting in a heat-generating high end graphics board might create problems.
I've used the Ahanix Iceberg I water cooler system. The submersible pump is indeed almost silent. However, the fans that blow air through the radiator are not silent. The noise level was the same with my big heatsink/fan as with the reservoir/pump/heatsink/radiator/fan. That is... until the radiator sprung a leak (see my other post)
I'd call it moderate overclocking when people make sure the system is stable, even if they do overclock. This happens quite often, but of course it doesn't half the hype.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
My simple way of dealing with case cooling is:
Vantec stealth 80x25 fans. They are cheap as sin,
and really quiet. Also, I don't pull air out of the
case at all, other than what the powersupply fans
do. I push air into the case, and mount filters in
front of all my fans. You can usually fit two fans
in the front of the case pulling air in, and wedge
a 1 dollar air conditioning filter in between the
front fascade and the front of the case. If I need
more cooling, I'll do a side or top fan with an
aluminum mesh screen and trimmed air conditioner
filter over the mesh blowing in as well. If all
the air is blowing into the case, and it's all
filtered, you have a lot less dust. You can get
60mm to 80mm fan adapter kits for your processors
and use the same vantec stealth fans to keep them
cool. Piggy back all this with a thermaltake
silent 360w, remove your rear fan that pulls air
out of the case, and you have very quiet system
that blows air out the back like a hair dryer.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
arch ? What would be a great article, is a little background and some information on it and the changes that will be coming, if such info can be had without an NDA violation...
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Did anyone else read that as 'A Few Hardware Blts'? Maybe I've been coding too long...
--Dan
Obsolete, maybe, but if he can still use it to play GTA3 in 10 years rather than having a melted wad of silicon on an equally melted motherboard, it's better.
Y2K Compliant since the late 1890s