Vipernitrox
New Member
I'm going to post a worklog of my latest repair/upgrading work. Since i'm quite impatient and tend to forget to make pictures during the work you'll probably only see before and after but i'll make it worth your while (i really want to get it perfect this time).
Previous Setup:
Note: Keep in mind i want a silent though oc'ed system. So i might overdo it sometimes on heatsinks but i just want the best (on air).
Background Info
Anyways the whole reason for this was my rig needed an upgrade. My processor (E6420 @ 3.4) just didn't do it for me and it was time to upgrade to a Quad. Because my board (Asus P5N-E sli) couldn't handle the newer Quads i finally picked the Q6700. The other component i wanted to upgrade is my video card (Sparkle 8800GT passively cooled). I was thinking about adding a second 8800GT but since the one i had wasn't being manufactured anymore i decided to go with another brand and install the Thermalright HR-03GT on it.
Because my northbridge was getting quite hot after oc'ing everything i wanted to switch my HR-05 from my southbridge to my northbridge (and removing the stock northbridge heatsink) and install another smaller heatsink on the southbridge. That way the second 8800GT would fit to.
Because i wanted to get the best out my cooling setup i was planning on lapping my cpu and the heatsink.
WHY???
Before i ordered my second 8800GT i ordered in the stuff to make my rig ready for the upgrade. I bought some ventilating pci covers, southbridge heatsink, 4th fan (for the lower drive bay) and a cpu lapping set.
After unpacking all of the things and making sure i didn't miss anything i started by removing my pci usb card and the usb pci thing (the one you hookup on your mobo don't know what it's called) i screwed the pci vents in place. After that i cleaned up some cable mess in the bottom drive bay to make space for the new fan and installed that one without problems to. After that i removed my fan controller (fans were operating at 5v stock so it wasn't of much use anyway) and i redid 90% of the wiring including a second video card power cable.
Now for the most frightening part of the whole change, the heatsink switch. The HR-05 came off the southbridge easily. No problem. Also cleaned it up and went onto the northbridge. Googled some stuff about removing it and it shouldn't be much of a big deal. Just remove the black pluggs and pull it out... Well i've got news it didn't really work. Here's what happened:
That were the last couple of minutes my mobo survived. I got a little frustrated broke it in half and threw in the thrashcan.
Upgrading... again
Now for my second shot at upgrading my rig... In the meanwhile i already received my new cpu so i wasn't going to change that again. I still got my options open on the mobo and the graphics card. I always plan for something future proof. And i want to be able to overclock dramatically (cpu mainly). After doing some thinking i though "ah what the hell" i'll spend 300€ tops on the mobo. After doing some research i ordered this one. The newegg customers aren't very positive but after reading some reviews i'm sure it'll work fine for me. I already ordered this one but i'm still waiting for it. These things are quite hard to get here in the Netherlands.
Now for the graphics card. Because it's a X48 board sli won't work and i wanted the option to put 2 cards together in the future. So i need an ati card. Lucky for me the 4850 and 4870 both just came out. After thinking for about 1 second i knew i wanted the faster more expensive one
. Because i'm going to change the cooler on it i really didn't care about the brand so i went with this one. Because it's quite a hot running card i needed the best cooling there is on the market today. What i really wanted was that it is able to run without adding more fans so simply speaking the bigger the better. After doing some research i pretty much found out the Thermalright HR-03GT. Because dissipating the heat might get tricky even for this behemoth i decided to look a little further for more cooling solutions on video cards and found this one. Because it's only a couple of bucks i'll order it together with the other cooler.
The current situation is that i'm still waiting for my mobo to come in. And i'm still waiting for my salary to come in so i can order the graphics card and cooler stuff. When i've got everything or at least the motherboard. I'll start building the thing and i'll post back here with pics. When it's running i'll lap my cpu (already did the heatsink) and see if it gets my any temperature changes. Then i'll start oc'ing to see if this mobo (and cpu) can live op to his name and give me some good results.
Previous Setup:
Note: Keep in mind i want a silent though oc'ed system. So i might overdo it sometimes on heatsinks but i just want the best (on air).
Background Info
Anyways the whole reason for this was my rig needed an upgrade. My processor (E6420 @ 3.4) just didn't do it for me and it was time to upgrade to a Quad. Because my board (Asus P5N-E sli) couldn't handle the newer Quads i finally picked the Q6700. The other component i wanted to upgrade is my video card (Sparkle 8800GT passively cooled). I was thinking about adding a second 8800GT but since the one i had wasn't being manufactured anymore i decided to go with another brand and install the Thermalright HR-03GT on it.
Because my northbridge was getting quite hot after oc'ing everything i wanted to switch my HR-05 from my southbridge to my northbridge (and removing the stock northbridge heatsink) and install another smaller heatsink on the southbridge. That way the second 8800GT would fit to.
Because i wanted to get the best out my cooling setup i was planning on lapping my cpu and the heatsink.
WHY???
Before i ordered my second 8800GT i ordered in the stuff to make my rig ready for the upgrade. I bought some ventilating pci covers, southbridge heatsink, 4th fan (for the lower drive bay) and a cpu lapping set.
After unpacking all of the things and making sure i didn't miss anything i started by removing my pci usb card and the usb pci thing (the one you hookup on your mobo don't know what it's called) i screwed the pci vents in place. After that i cleaned up some cable mess in the bottom drive bay to make space for the new fan and installed that one without problems to. After that i removed my fan controller (fans were operating at 5v stock so it wasn't of much use anyway) and i redid 90% of the wiring including a second video card power cable.
Now for the most frightening part of the whole change, the heatsink switch. The HR-05 came off the southbridge easily. No problem. Also cleaned it up and went onto the northbridge. Googled some stuff about removing it and it shouldn't be much of a big deal. Just remove the black pluggs and pull it out... Well i've got news it didn't really work. Here's what happened:
That were the last couple of minutes my mobo survived. I got a little frustrated broke it in half and threw in the thrashcan.
Upgrading... again
Now for my second shot at upgrading my rig... In the meanwhile i already received my new cpu so i wasn't going to change that again. I still got my options open on the mobo and the graphics card. I always plan for something future proof. And i want to be able to overclock dramatically (cpu mainly). After doing some thinking i though "ah what the hell" i'll spend 300€ tops on the mobo. After doing some research i ordered this one. The newegg customers aren't very positive but after reading some reviews i'm sure it'll work fine for me. I already ordered this one but i'm still waiting for it. These things are quite hard to get here in the Netherlands.
Now for the graphics card. Because it's a X48 board sli won't work and i wanted the option to put 2 cards together in the future. So i need an ati card. Lucky for me the 4850 and 4870 both just came out. After thinking for about 1 second i knew i wanted the faster more expensive one
. Because i'm going to change the cooler on it i really didn't care about the brand so i went with this one. Because it's quite a hot running card i needed the best cooling there is on the market today. What i really wanted was that it is able to run without adding more fans so simply speaking the bigger the better. After doing some research i pretty much found out the Thermalright HR-03GT. Because dissipating the heat might get tricky even for this behemoth i decided to look a little further for more cooling solutions on video cards and found this one. Because it's only a couple of bucks i'll order it together with the other cooler.The current situation is that i'm still waiting for my mobo to come in. And i'm still waiting for my salary to come in so i can order the graphics card and cooler stuff. When i've got everything or at least the motherboard. I'll start building the thing and i'll post back here with pics. When it's running i'll lap my cpu (already did the heatsink) and see if it gets my any temperature changes. Then i'll start oc'ing to see if this mobo (and cpu) can live op to his name and give me some good results.
. Sparkle has a 9600gt out with the same cooler now to. I wanted to change the stock northbridge heatsink with a better one (thermalright HR-05) but i ripped of half of my northbridge chip to.
