March 2000
I have been running all the heatsinks I have around
on my heatsink testing rig so I can produce some comparison charts for
ya all. Now I know that is nothing new with plenty of comparison
charts available elsewhere but it makes me feel better to do the
testing myself plus it makes it easier for me to review new heatsinks
as they become available. I'll probably go into more detail on
my particular testing rig setup which I put a fair amount of thought
into, it is a little different than most yielding what I think are the
most accurate results possible.
I have one of the Thermaltake Aircooler "Golden
Orb" heatsinks courtesy of NATA
Computers that I've been playing around with. It is a nice
setup with a very secure clip mechanism and does not block any DIMM
slots on my SOYO 6BA+IV mobo. Preliminary testing has
shown it's cooling performance is a little disappointing to me and I
really want to like this thing cause it looks so good but unless you
just need an inexpensive heatsink I would consider other alternatives.
Don't get caught up in the "Golden Orb's" fancy appearance
if cooling performance is the utmost importance. Don't get
me wrong cause I think it is a good cooler performing on par with the GlobalWIN
FEP-32 and an excellent alternative for the ABIT BP6 mobo (a
slight modification is necessary) but as far as all out
performance it seems right now that there are better alternatives.
Keep your eyes out for the full article next week.
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| Thermaltake
Aircooler "Golden Orb" cooler |
I have been getting some interesting email after
putting up the UH
X2 construction article from folks showing examples of their
interesting cooling creations. One that really caught my eye was
the home-built GeForce DDR cooler that my man Brad setup.
I tried one of these things out a few weeks ago and
found it a little too large and awkward for me but check out what 3D
Spotlight has to say about
the Razor BoomSlang 2000 mouse.
Well it seems like deals on processors are popping up
all over the place given the price cuts the manufacturers have made
recently. Just so happens Proton
Computers is offering PIII 550E SECC2 processors tested at 825MHz!
They also have a good deal going on PIII 500E, ALPHA P3125 and SOYO
6VBA 133 bundles along with dual Celeron 550 setups and even deals on
Athlon so pay em a visit and tell the nice folks there said
"howdy".
I made a little modification to my UH X2
cooler. Actually I just removed a slight bit of material
(3/8" x 2" strip) from the shroud to help increase airflow
through one of the blowers. Though the performance difference
was slight I figure every little bit helps.
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| I
cut a small slot from the UH X2's shroud to slightly improve
performance. |
Oh ya, did I mention the new UH X3 project...
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| The
UH X3 project? Just kidding. |
For you gamers out there Tech
WATCH did a little write-up
about Everglide's Giganta mouse pad. I've been using the
smaller Everglide Attack pad now for a few months (courtesy of 2CoolTek)
and I must say that they definitely do improve mouse accuracy.
HardOCP
spit out a review
about the GlobalWIN VOS32 cooler that fits ATHLONs, PIIs and
PIIIs. Seems GlobalWIN is trying to give ALPHA a run for their
(I guess OUR) money with heatsinks that really do a
proper job unlike the anemic few we had only a short year ago or so.
Seems like CNEWZ.com
got the drop on Maxtor's new DiamondMax 30GB and 60GB (60GB, good
God) hard drives.
As I have been trying to stumble my way through Linux
lately I found the Corel
Linux review over at CPUReview
interesting. For those of you with a CD burner and cable
modem or similar fast connection you can download Corel Linux here.
I just heard from Humphrey over at PCNut
and he said he's got a brand-new batch of retail
P3-550E SECC2 processors. Judging from all the reports of
successful P3-550E overclocking I've been getting lately I'd say you
definitely need to give Humphrey a call and put you an order in.
Oh ya, did I also mention he's got plenty of ASUS P3V4X motherboards
and the new Alpha PEP66 heatsink in stock. Last but not least
Iwill's new VD133-GOLD motherboard will be coming in this Thursday.
The UH
X2 construction article is finally finished (again). I
included lots of detailed photos so following along if you decide to
construct your own UH X2 should be an easy process. Keep in mind
that the original goal of the UH X2 was to provide adequate processor
cooling while making available all a motherboard's DIMM slots. I
found that my prototype UH X2 cooled better than expected (even edging
out my 3DfxCool
BigMoFo-REX) by a degree or two but of course mileage will
vary depending on case ventilation.
The
Tech Zone put up info
regarding another water cooled system. I found the article
interesting but the system was a little too "clunky" for my
tastes and the "radiator" in my opinion is too small for the
job.
If you are into high quality sound for your system
then I suggest checking out the latest article by 3DHardware
about the
Gallant
Computer OdysseySound4 Four Point Surround speaker combo.
Just wanted to add a
quick note here today. For those of you using H.
Oda's Athlon L2 program WCPUA2 you have probably realized by now
that it will not work anymore if you have your system's date set
correctly. The reason is because it has the 02/29 bug but there
is a relatively easy fix.
1336: 75->90
1337: 09->90
133F: 74->eb
For those of you who don't know how to use a hex
editor or don't care to go through the trouble you can download and
replace your existing file (wcpua2.exe) with this one
that I have already changed myself. Keep in mind you must
install the complete WCPUA2 program first or else the edited file is
not gonna do you any good.
Download the edited wcpua2.exe file:
wcpua2.zip
(14kb).
Here are all the program files including the edited wcpua2.exe
file: wag2100.zip
(29kb)
I had a little free time today so I started to put
together a heatsink testing rig such as Ian over at 2CoolTek
uses. I have not decided on a 40 watt TEC or a 72 watt TEC
to provide the thermal load. I know that the 40 watt TEC would
most closely simulate the thermal load that a typical processor would
present but I want to try the 72 watt TEC on the theory that it would
provide greater differences in the capabilities of the individual
heatsinks.
For those of you who have been hiding under a rock
the last few days AMD has officially beaten Intel to the 1GHz market
by releasing their Athlon 900MHz, 950MHz and 1GHz processors.
3D
Spotlight sent word about their new Tweaking
the Window's Registry article. I even learned a few new
things so I would definitely consider it required reading. Also
while you are there check out their ThermalTake
Golden Orb heatsink review. I just got one of these
interesting babies myself and hopefully as soon as I get my heatsink
testing rig up and running I'll give you my opinion about them.
For those of you interested in jumping into Windows
2000 Professional CPUReview
posted some
information outlining installation experiences.
I kinda missed out on letting you all know about this
in time for the first shipment but PLYCON
Computers will soon (03/14) have another shipment of copper
processor core spacers in stock. These copper spacers can
be used on Intel flip-chip and AMD Athlon processors to help increase
the heatsink contact area with the processor itself resulting in
better cooling performance.
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| PLYCON's
copper processor core spacer. |
Me being more of the tinkering type rather than a
"techie" I really dig the excellent work and information
that Jim over at Benchtest.com
provides. Jim recently put up information
about his new liquid cooled Linux server including some excellent
photos. Now liquid cooling itself really isn't a novelty anymore
but Jim's setup remarkably closely mirrors the setup I'm using for my
clear case liquid cooled setup. I respect Jim's work a whole lot
and now I know I'm definitely on the right track with my setup so go
check out Jim's work.
Well what do you know but I'm not dead yet. Ya
I know the rumors have been flying since my last update almost 4 weeks
ago but trust me I can explain. First off I decided the
wife and I needed a little break so we headed off to Lake Tahoe for a
little skiing (snowboarding) and gambling. We had a glorious
time (never been there before) with good weather and great company.
I have now learned to snowboard but I think I will stay away from the
casinos from now on. When we got back home I found myself getting
wrapped up in helping a few of my friends out with various problems
and ended up even doing some network configuration for a small company
on the side. Needless to say I've been busy as hell and
unfortunately the site has suffered so I am apologizing now for that
now. I've got several new products waiting for my attention
including a few new Athlon OC cards which I will get into more of in a
second. I did put up my UH
X2 "Slotket" Cooler construction article before I left
for vacation but apparently the web server took a dump and the backup
did not include the recent update. I do have a few
pictures for the article I have to recreate and put the rough draft
back into final form (I did not have a backup of the finished article)
but hopefully that project will be finally done (almost two months
late). I also spent a day last week screwing with Linux again
after my frustrating attempts back in December. Well after just
a few hours I managed to get a Linux server going with all my
computers happily connecting to the Internet on the same cable modem
without all the hassles of my Windows proxy software. I guess I
really have to learn how to use Linux now since I am definitely
becoming a big fan but man do I have a lot to learn.
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I
learned quickly but the first day was rough on me.
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When I got back home from vacation I had several new
products waiting for my attention but one I think deserves mention now
is the Northwind
Computers rev 2.0 Athlon GoldFinger OC card. This card does
the usual advertised Athlon OC magic but it does not require a power
connector and I think that puts this OC device ahead of many
others. Not only that but a L2 cache adjustment option
(do-it-yourself kit) that does not require soldering is also available
though I have no experience with that mod yet.
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Northwind
Computers rev 2.0 GFD
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rev
2.0 with solderless cache adjustment kit
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One last Athlon OC card that I would like to mention
tonight that I have had the pleasure of trying out is the Ninja
Micros FreeSpeed Pro. This Athlon OC GFD is professionally
assembled and includes a power indicating LED. As simple as the
LED may be I think it is a clever addition to the card and lends
itself to the absolute masterful design and construction of the
device.
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| Ninja
Micros FreeSpeed pro Athlon OC GFD |
One last quick blurb tonight before I hit the sac.
For those of you that didn't know Humphrey "Da Headnut" over
at PCNut had to
temporarily close shop last week due to unexpected events (unrelated
to computers). Well fortunately for all of us Humphrey is the
kind of great guy he is and now that PCNut
is again accepting orders he has some amazing specials going to make
it up to us. Everything from individual cards and
peripherals to barebones and even fully configured high performance
systems. You definitely gotta head
on over there and check out the deals.
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respective owners. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2000 by John Bogush
