New member says hi - with an interesting stability project :)

[Cryptic Fox]

PSU bought!

Well, I've just ordered a new PSU! Next day delivery too

I went for the Antec CP-850.The next project will be a photo shoot called "adapting the existing case" and will result in an enclosure version of Frankenstein's monster. Minus Boris Karloff, of course, you have to pay extra for him. Trepidation? We laugh at danger. Plus you have to pay extra for trepidation too.

So why the Antec, not the Corsair HX850? It wasn't easy. The Corsair's got more in the way of connectibles, less "fixed position" tentacularity (sp?), it's a more standard size, longer warranty, and so on. In the end what did it for me was partly price (the "bite" between £93 + delivery for the CP and £135 + delivery for the HX was just too hard not to notice), the larger PSU size and bigger fan probably (?) means quite a bit less stress on the components and possibly a longer or better lifetime, and also oddly, the front location of the fan. As it happens, I can cool down my front drives with the CP's front fan and some perspex to route the airflow, the CP can therefore replace an internal fan that sits in front of my current PSU behind the extra HD's. Both 850W PSU's are long, and with the bottom fan HX there just wouldn't be enough room for that fan - and those drives run hot.

But most of all two other things - I honestly believe that a larger format PSU should be encouraged for those needing it, and I want to support it. And last you never know... my next case might be CPX sized 'Specially if someone builds "Antec CP compatibles".... and you know, I rather think they might

So with that and the ceramique... tomorrow is "remove all components and get going with fine nosed pliers, a screwdriver or 3, various adhesives, a sheet of perspex to shape airflow, and various power tools" day Let's see if we can fit that quart into a pint pot, shall we?

Did I mention I'm adding a 22cm side fan as well?

Once we have better power, and some more cooling... then I can go see if this build finally achieves stability at stock Assuming that is, that the hardware hasn't been ruined already

 

[Cryptic Fox]

Just an update.....

I spent Friday afternoon and Satirday with the toolkit, case and motherboard, modding my 2003 Antec Sonata to handle Antec's CP-850 form. It looks like a rhino - non-nonsense, no LEDs, and does the job I also put a bunch of perspex/acrylic sheeting in to direct the airflow, a load of fan mods, the IP35 pro bolt mod, and a vent hole under the desk for warm air to escape out of the back. Photos when I next power it down

On the bolt mod, I replaced the plastic push-bolts of the IP35 ProXE with metal bolts + plastic washers. I put a plastic washer on each bolt, then pushed the bolt through from the back of the motherboard with the nut on the top (visible). Three effects - the plastic washer is sufficiently insulating to allow use of standard metal bolts (cheap and readily available), pressure can be set by "feel" rather than whatever the push-stud allows, and the head of the bolt is at no risk of contact with the metal of the case as it's shorter than the motherboard's mounting pegs (unlike the "thread" of the bolt if it were pushed through from the front). I also removed all pads and used Antec Ceramique as the TIM.

It's just now done 22 hours running two instances of Prime95 (a variant of the blend test with larger FFTs permitted up to 32768 and 2 x 1.5 GB allowed to run them in). The results:

• CPU core temps are showing as 55 - 57 on 2 cores, 52-54 on the other 2
• PWR temp is 58 - 59 but peaks around 67 at times

How do those rate for this kind of hardware? Anything else to do before overclocking it? What's a good starting point for oc-ing my setup, and any tips on o/cing this combination of hardware?