I just installed a new(to Me at least) Intel X3480 3.06GHz LGA1156 cpu in an EVGA P55 FTW motherboard. The 1st can't come soon enough so that I can replace this bad cracked chair, the welds are torn, I'm ordering a replacement chair on the 1st from Amazon for $42.99 total. Yeah the seat creaks when I sit down or get up.

Right side.

Left side.

Replacement chair, 21" wide, has 5/8" thick plywood under the foam and 3/4" thick legs, I'm a wide guy.


Just installing that was a real effort, since I had to move another PC off of the Cart, then move this PC 20' to the Cart, My back sure didn't like lifting both cases(made of steel), both felt heavy, this one though felt lighter than the other PC, but the other PC has a bigger steel case, I still need to clean the cpu on the other PC(an X79 Classified motherboard, pictured near wood cabinets, this one I had to move, to make room on the cart) and install a new Alphacool 240 cpu cooler on the X79, this X3480 cpu will soon enough get an Alphacool 120, but I have to get 3 Noctua 120mm 3000rpm fans, just so I can take a Coolgate 360mm radiator out of this case and install the radiator and 3 fans into the case that holds the Asus Rampage III Extreme motherboard(PC on carpet w/3 of 4 GTX590 cards installed, but not cleaned yet). The more parts that go in, the more heavier the PCs get, ugh!


This is the Asus X58 Rampage III Extreme w/3 GTX590 cards installed and a 650w Tt psu in the drive bay, the 4th GTX590 card is in need of repairs before being installed. The Coolgate 360mm radiator goes here in the top of the case.

This is the case where the Alphacool 240 cpu cooler goes at.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Ok I got all the front panel cables and the audio(AC97) hooked up, except the USB 3.0 ports, I'll have to look for the USB 2.0 to 3.0 adapter that I bought a while back for this motherboard. Next step here is remove the Coolgate Radiator, then install a cpu cooler(Alphacool 120 or maybe a Corsair H80i GT, either will do), then install a video card, take the battery out to reset the bios(which may not be needed, but it won't hurt any), then transfer My 500GB 2.5" hdd over to this case and then I should be able to get away from the 266.58 whql video driver that I'm forced to use now. After that maybe a video card or two, maybe.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I got a little more work done, this time on an NZXT Kraken X31 equipped EVGA BlackOps GTX580 card(797MHz, same speed as My Zotac GTX580 Infinity card(EVGA Bios)) and a Pulse Modding bracket, plus some Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound, the tubing is 16" long(supposedly), I measured the whole card with the radiator and the total length is about 18.5", oh and this card was not easy to assemble, thankfully I only have to do this once or twice more(I hope bought enough brackets, I have 3 more and that's all, since I think Pulse Modding and maybe Chilled PC are now out of business(site says they are down for a few weeks, no replies to emails), I bought the brackets on 6/20/2014), about the only thing keeping this card from operation is the lack radiator screws, I have emailed NZXT tech support on this and for the direction of the included fan, all of the fans that I've ever used have little arrows telling one what direction the fan spins and an arrow to indicate which way the air flows, this fan? Nothing..

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Zoom, can you turn the fan on? If so, what about a small piece of towel paper or nasal tissue and put it on side of the fan and see which way it moves, either toward it or away.

From a video from NZXT they say label down toward radiator will push air thru the radiator.

Should help with direction of the fair flow.

For the screws for the radiator are you talking about the screw that goes thru the fan to the radiator or the screws that hold the radiator to the case?

If the latter might try case screws. I had to find some screws to mount a corsair radiator and found some case screws at my local computer store. I believe they are 6-32 screws. (not fans screws as those have too thick diameter)


http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/217165/StarTechcom-Replacement-PC-Mounting-Screws-6/?cm_mmc=PLA-_-Google-_-Computer_Tablet_Accessories-_-217165-VQ6-47886868556-VQ16-c-VQ17-pla-VQ18-online-VQ19-217165-VQ20-76860675716-VQ21-&gclid=CjwKEAiAt_K0BRCzjtv92_HGoR0SJAA9QNn_z2qawMEmdNHRhoiMzOueZ3jWAM-Hp1TgR4TbOioapRoCQX7w_wcB

Have you measured the distance from 1 side of the fans to the radiator? Newegg says the fan is 25 mm diameter. Might be able to use an M4 x 0.7 x 30mm Screw with a washer. Just make sure to see what the depth is before you screw it in so it doesn't damage the radiator (good reason to use the washer for a little height)

Let us know how you do.

Zoom, can you turn the fan on? If so, what about a small piece of towel paper or nasal tissue and put it on side of the fan and see which way it moves, either toward it or away.

From a video from NZXT they say label down toward radiator will push air thru the radiator.

Should help with direction of the fair flow.

For the screws for the radiator are you talking about the screw that goes thru the fan to the radiator or the screws that hold the radiator to the case?

If the latter might try case screws. I had to find some screws to mount a corsair radiator and found some case screws at my local computer store. I believe they are 6-32 screws. (not fans screws as those have too thick diameter)


http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/217165/StarTechcom-Replacement-PC-Mounting-Screws-6/?cm_mmc=PLA-_-Google-_-Computer_Tablet_Accessories-_-217165-VQ6-47886868556-VQ16-c-VQ17-pla-VQ18-online-VQ19-217165-VQ20-76860675716-VQ21-&gclid=CjwKEAiAt_K0BRCzjtv92_HGoR0SJAA9QNn_z2qawMEmdNHRhoiMzOueZ3jWAM-Hp1TgR4TbOioapRoCQX7w_wcB

Have you measured the distance from 1 side of the fans to the radiator? Newegg says the fan is 25 mm diameter. Might be able to use an M4 x 0.7 x 30mm Screw with a washer. Just make sure to see what the depth is before you screw it in so it doesn't damage the radiator (good reason to use the washer for a little height)

Let us know how you do.

If I were to hook up a 950w psu, yes.
Ok, noted.
Since I want to put the fan between the case and the radiator(for dusting purposes), I may get 4 Noctua NF-F12 ippc 120x25mm 3000rpm fans in a few months(that's almost $95 total), 1 is for this card and 3 are for a Coolgate 360x120x60mm radiator that goes in a different case, then I could use case screws, the NZXT can use self tapping 6-32 screws, but then you can't attach the radiator, the Noctua's have open corners, NZXT's don't.

Fan size is 25mm thick(roughly 1 inch = 25mm), though I've been known to use 38mm thick fans.

Oh and I have plenty of those screws. I'll have to see if I have 4 machine screws that will fit the radiator threads.

The X31 right now seems to be hard to find, and I'm not sure why either, this one came from Amazon.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

During Tuesdays outage I'm going to have to swap video cards, cause while doing Seti Beta gpu wu's My GTX580 card hit 99C, then shut off, the current one is too dang hard to keep free of dust in its present configuration, so after I change brackets on the EVGA GTX570 card, I'll shut this PC down and do the swap, I still won't be able to use one of the better motherboards yet(as I lack an Alphacool Eisberg 120 water(in March 2016, I hope)) cpu cooler for 1 PC(that should be easier to get online, but I'll see), the 570 card does work, the current NZXT G10 gpu bracket is just a pain in the ass to remove from a PC, since the bracket makes a power cable hard to unplug, plus the bracket is bent, the bent bracket is My fault, I went too far on the screws. The 580's cooling design is very bad(a Zotac GTX580 Infinity), the radiator is too thin and the water pump is mounted up on the radiator, which means cleaning is a pain in the neck...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Ok after a few problems, like Seti Beta wu's running the gpu on the GTX570 to 102C and several attempts to stop that, I may not be making good contact with the gpu, the radiator is an Antec 620, I checked with a bubble level in 2 different directions, it's level and looks flat, maybe it's the Arctic Silver 5?

The 620 has one 150+cfm fan and both the radiator and fan are clean, no dust build up, the fan is hooked up to power directly, idle temp is now at 66C-67C @ 51MHz, yeah it should be 28C pr so lower at idle, nothing is using the gpu outside of windows normal processes, I had to go into Seti Beta and turn off the gpu and then on another reboot(at least 5) I had to abort a cuda32 wu, now the system is at least stable. I may need to add a fan to the gpu and strangely the cpu is running warmer, like 91C, yeah I dusted that, I'm thinking the fans might not be getting power, maybe or something else is at work here hardware wise.

Nope it's not the fans, both are blowing, I do know the GTX 580 I pulled out will get cleaned, just not today, that should fix the problem on the 580.

Gpu temp is down to 64C.

I'll check the power anyway...

And yeah there is no self leveling ability in this.

Oh how I wish the Corsair HG10 gpu adapter series was usable on the GTX 570/580, that seems like a better system, with limits on how far the screws can be tightened.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Ok I added a 2nd fan while the cooler and the GTX570 are running, the temp dropped down to 58C, on Wednesday I'm pulling the PNY GTX580 Hybrid out of the new PC and removing he 570 from this PC, the PNY should work better, I'm also going to measure all 4 corners on the EVGA BlackOps GTX580 and see if I can see any difference in the 4 corners around the gpu, it's that or switch thermal paste, maybe MX-4? Instead of AS5...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Time for a minor update, I think I know what is wrong with My current card, I applied too much AS5 to the IHS, a youtube video said a dab about 1/8 inch in diameter should be plenty. Why not? I was going to shut the PC down again and do a video card swap, now I think I'll just redo the thermal compound and struggle with the pump wanting to turn again, since the brackets I have don't hold on to the pump in the same way as the asetek cpu ring does. There are some brackets that do this, but the seller has a problem, the seller is using two different email addys, one on ebay and one on paypal, they're supposed to be the same in both places, so I can't get the 3 plexiglas brackets(cut w/a laser, the seller says) from Russia, the brackets are covered by ebays full refund policy and the seller showed two actual pics, one is of the brackets, the screws, nuts and fiber washers, the other just shows the brackets.

No fan is included(80mm or 92mm), you supply everything else, like the AIO(All In One) cpu water cooler, thermal compound and most importantly, the video card.

Parts included in the kit.

Diagram of the brackets.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Ok I bit the bullet and bought 3 of the kits in the last post, the seller had 6 kits, I had to go thru ebay.ca to make the payment as ebay.com was not allowing the sale to go to checkout with an error code of 70245, ebay.com is I'm told working on this problem.



The seller lives in Krasnoyarsk Krai, which is part of Siberia in the Russian Federation. He warned Me that it might take a while, I mentioned that I've got a 64GB memory card for My smart phone coming that has been since Jan 2nd sitting in the Yanwen sorting center in China waiting to be delivered, I swear Yanwen is the slowest service that I know of...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I just wanted to say I enjoy reading thru these custom built
PC threads..........a lot of dedication (or perhaps madness)
and tech skill out there..........thanks for the thread(s)
and the pictures.

Me ..........I use stock workstations due to a lack of time
to work on my own stuff....

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The only thing that I want to see is the power bill shock that Vic will get on his face if he ever gets all that outdated power sucking hardware going. ;-)

Cheers.

The only thing that I want to see is the power bill shock that Vic will get on his face if he ever gets all that outdated power sucking hardware going. ;-)

Cheers.

Right now the biggest driver of My electric bill is 2 portable electric heaters, though I'm only using them when I go to bed and since I cleaned My PC, the heat from the cpu keeps those mostly off & the days are warming up too, twice a day I have turned the gas oven on and opened the oven door while I wait for a new gas central heater to be delivered and installed by the CAPSBC. I get 20% off My electric rate via the CARE program, so I end up with an electric rate of just over $0.03 a kwh. SCE and SW Gas both participate in the CARE program.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

He won't get it going Wiggo! Its all second hand stuff from Ebay, and two cards out of the four don't work. He also overtightens screws and uses too much paste. He also doesn't need water cooling, he just fancies it, and that doesn't work either. He enjoys writing more about it all than actually getting it going.

2 portable electric heaters, though I'm only using them when I go to bed and since I cleaned My PC, the heat from the cpu keeps those mostly off & the days are warming up too, twice a day I have turned the gas oven on and opened the oven door

Might be a bit cheaper to put an extra jumper on and be a bit more physically active? I would have thought your recent $175 power bill was a wake up call.

The bill was $187.14, I just cut the electric heater use by 2/3rds over a month ago, after getting that bill, gas is a lot cheaper, the gas is on only for 2 hours a day, can't do that at My size, since I don't have any bigger ones around, I did lose 8lbs, somewhere, but not by doing anything really different, just by cutting back some.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Whhhheeeeewwwww - I'm glad you are in the USA...I thought my energy bill was high just keeping my herd of crunchers fed with kW, but you are using about three times as much energy as I am, and I pay about four times as much per kW.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Whhhheeeeewwwww - I'm glad you are in the USA...I thought my energy bill was high just keeping my herd of crunchers fed with kW, but you are using about three times as much energy as I am, and I pay about four times as much per kW.

If I was using a lot of electricity, the manager here would phone Me, since she or an employee reads the sub-meters to prepare the bill. I'll just be glad to get back to normal power and gas usage levels soon, now where is that new gas heater...

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

I just wanted to say I enjoy reading thru these custom built
PC threads..........a lot of dedication (or perhaps madness)
and tech skill out there..........thanks for the thread(s)
and the pictures.

Me ..........I use stock workstations due to a lack of time
to work on my own stuff....

I have to agree. It's really fascinating to watch the resourcefulness that you put into building these systems from basically gum and shoestring. Makes me feel rather lazy as I just go off buying new stuff.

Keep it up, Zoom, I'm impressed with how much you manage to do with so little!

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Well Oddb, it's more fun than saving for a house, that's for sure!

But seriously Vic I really think you are being irresponsible with your means of heating your place. Gas ovens are meant to cook food in an enclosed space, they are not meant to be used as room heaters. Open gas flame wall fires have a flue above to vent the gases safely out of the area. Gas flames give off Co2 fumes, what are you trying to do asphyxiate yourself and the cat?

Also it is dangerous to fall asleep with electrical blow heaters running, in case of overheating and a fire. You live on your own and I bet you don't have a Co2 detector, let alone a smoke or fire alarm.

It is appreciated that your size means clothing difficulties, but you could wear a dressing gown or use an extra blanket. I know this is the number crunching thread, but nobody wants you to have an accident.

I've been running the gas oven for a month, for about an hour at a time, no problems and not when I'm asleep.

The gas oven/range is vented, always has been...

The electric heaters have adjustable thermostats built in, plus they are UL rated, quite safe. I have the heaters set for 76F, at 75F they turn on and at 78F they turn off, I can tell at a glance the current temp when they are on.

When I sleep in My bedroom, I'm under a thermal blanket and an old quilt that is meant for a twin bed, I can get a charlie horse in either leg, I have two quilts, one I use in the living room for the moment until I get a new throw that I got for XMAS washed on delicate and dried on the gas clothes dryers low temp setting(I got the Throw for Xmas, not the dryer).

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Back to topic, I have some parts being shipped from Siberia to here(It shipped today, maybe they'll get here on Feb 29th), I should be able to fix the two cards I converted to water and use just a dab of AS5 this time on each gpu, in the meantime I need to clean up My Zotac GTX580 Infinity([sarcasm]that will be fun[/sarcasm]), but no conversion to a hybrid cooled card, I have most of the parts, I just feel it's premature to do so right now, just getting the Zotac cleaned up will be good enough for the moment.

Soon I'm going to move a Coolgate 360x120x60mm radiator from one case(a Coolermaster HAF-X), to the PC with the three 590 cards in it(the NZXT Switch 810, asap four 590 cards will be in there, but I'm in no hurry, since this PC needs 2 more radiators, fittings(barbs, etc), black hoses, clamps, pump/reservoir, biocide and distilled water), but with no fittings(or fans yet) since I'm going to eventually install two 90 degree 1/2" fittings that can be used with 1/2" inside diameter-3/4" outside diameter hoses, but that will have to wait as will the 3 fans(7-8 total in the 810, either 120x38mm or 120x25mm(in the top, 120x38mm everywhere else), it depends on if the 38mm thick Delta fans will fit in the top of the NZXT Switch 810 or not, the 810 can hold a 420x140mm radiator in the case above the motherboard).

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

On the topic of electricity rates, South Korea has to be the worst. They operate on a tiered system where you pay more for using more power. I can't read my bill because I don't read Hangul, but for the past few months I've been paying around a million won for power, which can be between $850-950 depending upon the exchange rate! I'll be moving to Maryland in a few months on military orders, so I'm eagerly looking forward to paying significantly less to crunch WUs :-)

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