- Oct 13, 1999
- 22,377
- 7
- 81
System 1 is my main rig. Here's a picture from before the upgrade. System is an E6750 on IP35-E mobo, MSI 8800GT, Antec EarthWatts 500W. My purpose in the upgrade is just because. No wait, to free up the EarthWatts for another project, to install a passive video card, an excuse to clean out the system and of course so that I can have a high quality and too-much-capacity PSU. This way I won't get laughed at by all the cool kids around here.
This picture shows the progression of PSUs that this system has had since last Fall. I started with a Silverstone Zeus ST75F but determined it was too noisy on the same day I put it together. I then installed an Antec TruePower Quattro 850W PSU, which was nice and quiet... until the system was under load and warmed up. Then, the EarthWatts 500W, which was in use through today. It served me well, and was pretty darn quiet. So, I had a choice of Corsair PSUs (thank you Hot Deals forum). I went with the 650W.
This picture shows the birth of my 650W PSU. Notice the placental shrinkwrap it is emerging from? There were some bonuses in the box, such as this pre-nibbled case badge. WTF? Guess the ones with rebate got "seconds" for case badges.
The front filter of my Antec Solo case was encrusted, with the dust almost peeling off. Good thing they're easy to clean. I have two drives hiding behind the filter/fans. Of course for quietness I'm using the suspension and not grommets. This causes the drives to sag in the rear, so my pictures may show loose SATA cables because I don't want the cables to pull on the drives.
I had to remove the motherboard from the case to get at the PSU. I'm using a Scythe Ninja with a Thermalright bolt-through kit, plus a Thermalright chipset heatsink (HR-05?).
Here it is, all finished. Note that I didn't install the Accelero on the MSI 8800GT, but instead had purchased an ECS 8800GT which came with one pre-installed. Anyone notice that the Scythe Ninja heatsink seems to be rotated a bit? It's installed on straight, but the heatsink has a twist to it.
The second system is my wife's system. Only one pic, of the birth of her Corsair 550W PSU sitting on top of the shrinkwrap placenta. Next to it is the Seasonic S12 380W that was in it. Now, there's an interesting story behind this...
Her system consisted of an E6420 on a Gigabyte P965 board with the Seasonic S12-380, a Raptor X drive and an MSI Radeon x1950 Pro 512MB. I had tested out her parts using another power supply and it was good to go, but after installing in her system with her PSU and three case fans, not only did I have to run the CPU at stock speeds, but the system would make a high pitched noise whenever it was powered on. The noise would taper off after a couple seconds. Turns out it was the video card complaining about not getting power from the PCI-E 6 pin plug (which was an adaptor plugged into a molex). So, basically I was running that poor 380W PSU at its limit for the past six months. The whole time it has been completely stable. Wow. Another oddity was that the PSU label said it was a Seasonic SS-380, while the box said it was an S12-380 and of course it has a 120mm fan instead of an 80mm fan.
Her system now has the Corsair 550W and the MSI 8800GT from my main rig.
Incidentally I still have both Nvidia and ATI GPU PCI-E cards, from the following brands:
(currently in use inside systems)
MSI, BFG, ECS, Gigabyte, EVGA
(not in use)
MSI, ATI, EVGA, 3DFuzion, BFG, Sapphire
Guess I'm not good at playing favorites.
This picture shows the progression of PSUs that this system has had since last Fall. I started with a Silverstone Zeus ST75F but determined it was too noisy on the same day I put it together. I then installed an Antec TruePower Quattro 850W PSU, which was nice and quiet... until the system was under load and warmed up. Then, the EarthWatts 500W, which was in use through today. It served me well, and was pretty darn quiet. So, I had a choice of Corsair PSUs (thank you Hot Deals forum). I went with the 650W.
This picture shows the birth of my 650W PSU. Notice the placental shrinkwrap it is emerging from? There were some bonuses in the box, such as this pre-nibbled case badge. WTF? Guess the ones with rebate got "seconds" for case badges.
The front filter of my Antec Solo case was encrusted, with the dust almost peeling off. Good thing they're easy to clean. I have two drives hiding behind the filter/fans. Of course for quietness I'm using the suspension and not grommets. This causes the drives to sag in the rear, so my pictures may show loose SATA cables because I don't want the cables to pull on the drives.
I had to remove the motherboard from the case to get at the PSU. I'm using a Scythe Ninja with a Thermalright bolt-through kit, plus a Thermalright chipset heatsink (HR-05?).
Here it is, all finished. Note that I didn't install the Accelero on the MSI 8800GT, but instead had purchased an ECS 8800GT which came with one pre-installed. Anyone notice that the Scythe Ninja heatsink seems to be rotated a bit? It's installed on straight, but the heatsink has a twist to it.
The second system is my wife's system. Only one pic, of the birth of her Corsair 550W PSU sitting on top of the shrinkwrap placenta. Next to it is the Seasonic S12 380W that was in it. Now, there's an interesting story behind this...
Her system consisted of an E6420 on a Gigabyte P965 board with the Seasonic S12-380, a Raptor X drive and an MSI Radeon x1950 Pro 512MB. I had tested out her parts using another power supply and it was good to go, but after installing in her system with her PSU and three case fans, not only did I have to run the CPU at stock speeds, but the system would make a high pitched noise whenever it was powered on. The noise would taper off after a couple seconds. Turns out it was the video card complaining about not getting power from the PCI-E 6 pin plug (which was an adaptor plugged into a molex). So, basically I was running that poor 380W PSU at its limit for the past six months. The whole time it has been completely stable. Wow. Another oddity was that the PSU label said it was a Seasonic SS-380, while the box said it was an S12-380 and of course it has a 120mm fan instead of an 80mm fan.
Her system now has the Corsair 550W and the MSI 8800GT from my main rig.
Incidentally I still have both Nvidia and ATI GPU PCI-E cards, from the following brands:
(currently in use inside systems)
MSI, BFG, ECS, Gigabyte, EVGA
(not in use)
MSI, ATI, EVGA, 3DFuzion, BFG, Sapphire
Guess I'm not good at playing favorites.
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