Hi Guys,
First post here, but I've been lurking for the last couple of days - found the forums while looking for a new case and heatsink, and it was much help indeed!
Anyway, I assembled the parts for my current computer in November 2009, and built them into a cheap case (I mean really cheap, like £12). To cut a long story short, this machine was not stable (BSODs, CTDs, Random Restarts etc). I downloaded Speedfan and was getting these results:
Cold Boot:
Excuse the processor loads - it was still loading up my startup programs.
After 10 minutes:
It would continue rising and reach upwards of 65 degrees when just browsing the internet etc. God knows what it was like under stress, probably aroun 75. Everything was stock at this point - (cooling and speeds).
Obviously this was not ideal, so I began the hunt for my solution. With some help from PCFormat, as well as finding this very forum, I settled on what I needed and bought myself a Coolermaster CM690II Advanced, and an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. You'll have to forgive my rather sparse, random photos here.
Case with sides off:
A good looking case, unlike anything I've ever used before. VERY spacious compared to the cheap ones, and not a single cut on my hands either! The HSF was being delivered seperately, so I built the machine up with the stocl cooling. My CPU power cable couldn't reach if I routed it behind teh MoBo tray, so I had to trace it along the surface:
I have added the GFX card etc, but I didn't get a photo of it all ready to go. I reattatched the sides of the case, and booted up the machine.
Cold Boot:
Again, still loading my startup programs.
And after 10 minutes:
Umm. Wow. I've been running it like up until this evening, and haven't had any instability at all. Nice.
Today, I took delivery of the HSF, and Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, again, no pics of it before installation. but here is a shot of it insie the computer, working its magic:
With the new HSF installed, temperatures dropped again, not as significantly though. Cold boot was 27 degrees, idle at 29 and prime95 made it hit the dizzying heights of 35 degrees after 30 minutes.
Lets try some OC'ing, I thought, perhaps stupidly as I had never attempted it before and can't afford a new processor/motherboard at the moment. I managed to get the machine to load windows right up until hitting 3.9 GHz, when it would get to the log on screen, glitch and then BSOD. At 3.75+, I was able to load my user account and browse the web, but prime95 created a BSOD every time. Idle temperatures did not exceed 35 degrees though, so this may be down to vcore (total n00b
)?
I'm running stably now, with coretemp showing these results
Idle:
30 minutes of prime95:
Gratuitous night time wide shot of my set up:
So, there you have it. From an incredibly hot and unstable computer at stock speeds, to a pretty cool and very stable computer with a 700MHz overclock. All down to airflow, heatpipes, fans and (sic) cable management.
I'll be buying another 4GB RAM (unfortunately not sold at OCUK, as far as I can tell) and a modular PSU next month (recommendations ~£80?), when I'll rewire the machine and make it look as clean as some of the ones on here.
Cheers for taking the time to read this, I know you all already know all of this, but it was certainly an eye opener for me, and I'm sure it'll help someone in the same position I was, in the future.
Joe
First post here, but I've been lurking for the last couple of days - found the forums while looking for a new case and heatsink, and it was much help indeed!
Anyway, I assembled the parts for my current computer in November 2009, and built them into a cheap case (I mean really cheap, like £12). To cut a long story short, this machine was not stable (BSODs, CTDs, Random Restarts etc). I downloaded Speedfan and was getting these results:
Cold Boot:
Excuse the processor loads - it was still loading up my startup programs.
After 10 minutes:
It would continue rising and reach upwards of 65 degrees when just browsing the internet etc. God knows what it was like under stress, probably aroun 75. Everything was stock at this point - (cooling and speeds).
Obviously this was not ideal, so I began the hunt for my solution. With some help from PCFormat, as well as finding this very forum, I settled on what I needed and bought myself a Coolermaster CM690II Advanced, and an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. You'll have to forgive my rather sparse, random photos here.
Case with sides off:
A good looking case, unlike anything I've ever used before. VERY spacious compared to the cheap ones, and not a single cut on my hands either! The HSF was being delivered seperately, so I built the machine up with the stocl cooling. My CPU power cable couldn't reach if I routed it behind teh MoBo tray, so I had to trace it along the surface:
I have added the GFX card etc, but I didn't get a photo of it all ready to go. I reattatched the sides of the case, and booted up the machine.
Cold Boot:
Again, still loading my startup programs.
And after 10 minutes:
Umm. Wow. I've been running it like up until this evening, and haven't had any instability at all. Nice.
Today, I took delivery of the HSF, and Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, again, no pics of it before installation. but here is a shot of it insie the computer, working its magic:
With the new HSF installed, temperatures dropped again, not as significantly though. Cold boot was 27 degrees, idle at 29 and prime95 made it hit the dizzying heights of 35 degrees after 30 minutes.
Lets try some OC'ing, I thought, perhaps stupidly as I had never attempted it before and can't afford a new processor/motherboard at the moment. I managed to get the machine to load windows right up until hitting 3.9 GHz, when it would get to the log on screen, glitch and then BSOD. At 3.75+, I was able to load my user account and browse the web, but prime95 created a BSOD every time. Idle temperatures did not exceed 35 degrees though, so this may be down to vcore (total n00b
)?I'm running stably now, with coretemp showing these results
Idle:
30 minutes of prime95:
Gratuitous night time wide shot of my set up:
So, there you have it. From an incredibly hot and unstable computer at stock speeds, to a pretty cool and very stable computer with a 700MHz overclock. All down to airflow, heatpipes, fans and (sic) cable management.
I'll be buying another 4GB RAM (unfortunately not sold at OCUK, as far as I can tell) and a modular PSU next month (recommendations ~£80?), when I'll rewire the machine and make it look as clean as some of the ones on here.
Cheers for taking the time to read this, I know you all already know all of this, but it was certainly an eye opener for me, and I'm sure it'll help someone in the same position I was, in the future.
Joe
Last edited:
