Calling all computer gurus... need advice

[DeanMoriarty]

It's amazing the stuff people throw out. My buddy grabbed me up a few hundred dollars worth of brand new networking components the hotel he worked at was going to throw out. Still in the plastic. They'd upgraded their network last year and the stuff was just left over. It's still sitting in my closet, lol.

Odd that the Mobo would be set higher than the CPU. You're Mobo should run about 10 degrees or so cooler then the CPU.

When I added extra fans to mine, I found that sealing up all of the holes around the fan and around the case itself improved my temps by about 5 degrees.

The SATA adapter should be pretty cheap and easy to find... but I'm not about to talk you out of replacing that PSU.
Could be that I know where to find a copy of MS Office...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yea, I haven't found really any computer gear that people have thrown out, but I have found other things that were worth picking up.

My Mobo has been running hotter than the CPU. Right now at pretty much idle (and being up for 26 hours so far) my CPU is at 31-32*, my Mobo temps are 37* and 34*, my ICH is 56*, and my MCH is 48*

I'll play around with things some if I add another fan to see if I can get the temps down some more. I'm also open to suggestions short of watercooling to get the temps down more.

The SATA adapter has been impossible to find... I've been to Staples and Best Try, both said no. Staples told me they don't carry any cables for computer internals and Best Try said to go online somewhere an buy one cuz they sell every other cable imaginable but that one. :wtf:

I wouldn't mind being enlightened on where to find a copy of Office... So far I haven't found a better price than Newegg for it, my college has a store where you can get supposedly discounted software... but it's been consistently more expensive than Newegg... by $20-$50...

 

[DeanMoriarty]

Wow... Smart of Best (Try, lol) to drive business away like that. I generally stay away from that place anyway. Do you have Comp USA there? They went under around here, not sure if the whole company did. They would have one.

I really wouldn't worry... those are great temps. So much so, that I wonder if your CPU is getting a proper read. What does it read at full load? My Mobo runs at about the same temp as yours, my CPU runs hotter. I've OC'd the hell out of mine though, so that's to be expected. If your stable, and the temps seem consistent with the load you're running on it I'd keep it just like it is. If anything, just put an exhaust fan on the back.
One thing you could do for the motherboard, what I did, is pick up a little chipset cooling kit on Newegg. You can touch the chips with your fingertip when the PC's warmed up, if it's too hot to hold it there long, it wouldn't hurt to spend a few bucks on one. Might make your motherboard last a little longer too.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Wow... Smart of Best (Try, lol) to drive business away like that. I generally stay away from that place anyway. Do you have Comp USA there? They went under around here, not sure if the whole company did. They would have one.

I really wouldn't worry... those are great temps. So much so, that I wonder if your CPU is getting a proper read. What does it read at full load? My Mobo runs at about the same temp as yours, my CPU runs hotter. I've OC'd the hell out of mine though, so that's to be expected. If your stable, and the temps seem consistent with the load you're running on it I'd keep it just like it is. If anything, just put an exhaust fan on the back.
One thing you could do for the motherboard, what I did, is pick up a little chipset cooling kit on Newegg. You can touch the chips with your fingertip when the PC's warmed up, if it's too hot to hold it there long, it wouldn't hurt to spend a few bucks on one. Might make your motherboard last a little longer too.

I went to Best Try as a last resort... I've had them refuse to honor two warranties so far, so I refuse to go back and buy anything if it can possibly be avoided. No CompUSA here either that I'm aware of, there used to be one but I'm 98% sure it's no more. There's a Circuit City around, but not really close to where I'm at. I'll just get a new power supply and put an end to the whole problem.

I'm not sure what I could do to get a full load read... I ran both AVG progs I have last night with Spybot at the same time... it happily chomped on all three progs, buzzing right along. I was watching the temps, it was wavering on 45-46*, every time it stayed at 46 for more than a couple seconds the fan speed went up a couple rpm.

When I was done with that, I ran the 2 min stress test that Intel supplied with the utility program... that was a popcorn fart compared to running the antivirus/spyware progs... it never topped 37* on the processor. I'll have to try running Prime 95....

I'm sorta interested in looking into OC'ing it a bit... but I'm a bit concerned about trying that cuz I don't really know what I'm doing with it.

I'm really thinking about getting a fan for the back of the case... just not sure if I should go 80mm or 120mm. I wouldn't be opposed to getting the chipset cooling kit either... any suggestions on that stuff?

I'm hoping to get a final list together and be ordering the rest of the stuff I could use for my comp between friday and monday... might as well get a jump on it now....

 

[DeanMoriarty]

I greatly doubt if you could overclock with an Intel board, though I couldn't say for absolute certain. Your motherboard would have to support manually setting CPU and RAM values, voltages, etc... If it's a possiblity, OC'ing can produce great results... But... it can also be completely disastrous and void your warranty. I'd think your shiny new system is fast enough already though... right? Lol... always a little more power...

If a 120mm will fit, I would definitely go with that. It'll move more air, more quietly. You can get one with a temp controller you control manually, or wired to speed up only when the temp rises (like your CPU fan.)
I have a Vantec chipset cooler, it's worked wonderfully for me.

Hmmm... I dunno what else you could possibly need besides the PSU. Sounds like you're pretty set man.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I greatly doubt if you could overclock with an Intel board, though I couldn't say for absolute certain. Your motherboard would have to support manually setting CPU and RAM values, voltages, etc... If it's a possiblity, OC'ing can produce great results... But... it can also be completely disastrous and void your warranty. I'd think your shiny new system is fast enough already though... right? Lol... always a little more power...

If a 120mm will fit, I would definitely go with that. It'll move more air, more quietly. You can get one with a temp controller you control manually, or wired to speed up only when the temp rises (like your CPU fan.)
I have a Vantec chipset cooler, it's worked wonderfully for me.

Hmmm... I dunno what else you could possibly need besides the PSU. Sounds like you're pretty set man.

Yea, there's always that lil bit about wanting more power.... but it's ok, I can live with what I got till I can afford a faster processor...

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Ok... so where is a chipset cooler supposed to go an how is it supposed to work... I tried searching on Newegg and it sounded like the chipsets are supposed to be used for vid cards mainly... my vid card has a heat sink and fan on it....

Searching for Vantec, it came up as something for on the RAM, but I thought my Corsair RAM was supposed to have a cooling shroud thing on it already...

 

[DeanMoriarty]

Well... TRS for some reason won't let me go back and look at the page with the Mobo you purchased. Lol, figures. Look on the board itself, it may already have a cooler or 'sink on it. Look towards the middle right of the board for a large chip, probably an inch square, like I said, it may already have a cooler on it. Then, a few inches below that, there should be a bit smaller one, this one most likely won't have a cooler. These are the North and South chips. If the North already has a cooler, I wouldn't worry about it.
It looks like they don't sell the Vantec one anymore, but there are a few others. If the north has no cooler or heatsink, check to see if it has mounting holes situated around it. If not, you can't mount a fan, but you could put a small heatsink on it. Here's what I came up with.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010110572+1374126194&name=South+and+North+Bridge+chips

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813121035

That's the Mobo I got... I only see one chip that's probably about 3/4" square up in the far right hand corner that doesn't have a heatsink already on it.

I placed an order last night for some more goodies... didn't order Office... guess I should drop you a line?

Anyways, here's the latest selection of new goodies...

1 APEVIA CF12SL-UBL 120mm Blue LED Case Fan - Retail
Item #: N82E16811998121
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $6.99

1 Patriot Xporter XT 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) Model PEF4GUSB - Retail
Item #: N82E16820220251
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $29.99 (rebate of $15)

1 SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N - OEM
Item #: N82E16827151154
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $29.99

1 SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
Item #: N82E16821103116
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $7.99

1 PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817703005
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $119.99

1 OKGEAR 6" molex 4pin male to two 15pin SATA Power Cable Model GC6ATAM2 - Retail
Item #: N82E16812123119
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $2.99
(Figured since it's an inexpensive connector, should I need to use this cheap PSU for backup duty, I can still use all my drives)

8 GENERIC 18" 2-Head Red SATA (SERIAL ATA 150) Cable Model SERIAL ATA 18 - OEM
Item #: N82E16812104150
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy $14.32
(It was actually somewhat cheaper to buy 8 instead of the 2 that I really needed...)

1 CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145034
Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy

 

[DeanMoriarty]

4GB of memory now huh? Nice. That's a hell of a deal on that PSU, wise choice!
I'd like to get one of those little flash drives. They're handy.
The large silver heatsink on the Mobo is mounted to your north chip. I believe the south chip is the small one below it, or to the left in the picture. I wouldn't worry about cooling it unless you're having problems (such as crackling sounds coming through speakers). You have to post some pics of your machine when you get it all together.
Send me a message if you're interested in Office.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

4GB of memory now huh? Nice. That's a hell of a deal on that PSU, wise choice!
I'd like to get one of those little flash drives. They're handy.
The large silver heatsink on the Mobo is mounted to your north chip. I believe the south chip is the small one below it, or to the left in the picture. I wouldn't worry about cooling it unless you're having problems (such as crackling sounds coming through speakers). You have to post some pics of your machine when you get it all together.
Send me a message if you're interested in Office.

IMHO, those Patriot flash drives are well worth it. I have a 1 gig already... for the hell of it after I got it I put some stuff on it, stuck the cap back on, and whipped it across the room. Can't even tell. Thick rubber case, water resistant, dust resistant, I love it. But I found the 1 gig just isn't quite big enough sometimes, so since I saw a sale on the 4 gig model...

You'll have a message in a couple...

 

[DeanMoriarty]

LOL
Well... Gotta check it out right?
I'll def. have to get myself one of those soon, along with some more memory for my camera, and I've been really wanting to build myself a new PC sometime soon...
It's a good thing Newegg declined to give me a credit card... that f****r would be maxed.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

LOL
Well... Gotta check it out right?
I'll def. have to get myself one of those soon, along with some more memory for my camera, and I've been really wanting to build myself a new PC sometime soon...
It's a good thing Newegg declined to give me a credit card... that f****r would be maxed.

No more plastic for me though. That's a lesson I already learned.\

I thought about ordering another memory stick for my camera while I was at it, Newegg has a nice deal on a 1gig SD card (or at least they did when I last ordered camera mem), but I wasn't sure if I should bother... I have 2 gigs and haven't managed to fill one yet...

 

[DeanMoriarty]

2 GB is what I have too. Pictures don't make much of a dent, but High-Res video fills it up pretty quick. I'd like to have a spare anyway for trips, vacations, so I could shoot some video, take some pics, and not worry about running out of space.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

2 GB is what I have too. Pictures don't make much of a dent, but High-Res video fills it up pretty quick. I'd like to have a spare anyway for trips, vacations, so I could shoot some video, take some pics, and not worry about running out of space.

That's why I had intentions of taking a laptop with me so if I filled both cards, I just plug in to my laptop, dump the images, and be ready to go again.