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My New Build - Have Questions!

G

GimpyFuzznut

Senior member
After my ASUS socket 478 mobo crapped out and decided to flush a new HD and video card down the toilet with it, I decide it was time to upgrade. I visited the local PC shop to pickup the parts listed below. I decide to pickup the main components at the shop in order to get their warranty and not have to deal with RMA and headaches of shipping.

Gigabyte DS3 revision 3.3
E4300 + Ninja
OCZ DDR2 800 2 gig kit - Platinum Revision 2
Asus 1950 Pro - I originally got the Saphire but the cooler was just too damn noisy on idle.
P180B
Corsair HX620

In the end the most expensive components were the case + PSU but I felt it would be a good investment for upcoming builds in the long run.

Now, I have a couple of questions I was hoping fellow Ananders could help me with...

1) I decided to order some better performance RAM that I found for a really good price.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?...00ELK&manufacture=Patriot&promoid=1020
This RAM is specd at DDR1066 and cost about 250 after rebate. That was more or less what I paid for the OCZ at the shop which I will return. Has anyone had any experience with this RAM and the DS3? I'm pretty sure these chips are Micron D9s and I remember someone mentioning problems between the D9s and the DS3 on older BIOS versions. I have the latest BIOS - will this memory cause a problem?

2)So far I've overclocked to 300 FSB with the OCZ memory at 1:1. Just trying to get a feel for temperatures. My biggest problem is getting accurate temperature readings. The only sensor I have plugged into the board is the CPU cooler. I still have the stock cooler on which I'm going to push to the max before I install the Ninja. Now, what software should I be using?

TAT shows temperatures to be really high - 60-70C on load which is retarded because I know the CPU is not that hot - the heatsink is not even hot to the touch.
Core Temp more or less shows the same.
Everest doesn't show anything.
Spedfan shows load temperature to be 45-50C. I'm guessing this is accurate?

3) Cooling - I reversed the top fan on the P180B to be an intake. Is the a good idea or should I leave it as an exhaust once I install the Ninja - which will have its own fan mounted on the front? I picked up an extra quiet fan to mount in the middle of the P180 to push air over the VGA. Will a 5th P180 fan mounted on the lower cage be needed or is it just excessive?

4) Northbridge cooling - obviously this thing gets damn hot. The DS3 seems to come with a decent heatsink mounted already but would I benefit from maybe adding Arctic Silver? Can someone maybe recommend an active Northbridge cooler that will fit with the Ninja mounted up on the CPU? The local shop didn't have any actives and I didn't see much on NCIX. Can someone help me find one (at a Canadian retailer or somewhere that ships to Can).

6)Can someone recommend a fan controller for the P180 fans - they have their own switches obviously but once I have everything setup - I would have to open the case just to adjust the fans. Do most people just leave them on LOW? Possibly I could extend the white controller wires to the outside or something... anyone done anything like this?

Anyone else have any suggestions? So far I'm very impressed with Core 2 - I haven't experienced a damn slow down yet and that was at 1.8GHz. I'll be putting up pictures of my setup soon! Thanks for the help!
 
I've got the DS3 and a e6400.

1) I have that same OCZ ram, I've taken it up to ~440 or so, just keep it. If you keep second guessing yourself you'll never stop. If you really want it, I thought the later revisions of the board and bios fixed the d9 issues, not sure though.

2) TAT is probably correct. If your heatsink is cool it's probably because it's not mounted correctly and isn't shedding all the heat it should. EDIT: if you're using stock cooling, pretty sure TAT is correct. Those things mount really poorly.

3) Leave the top 200mm and back 120mm as exhaust, and the two front 120mm as intake.

4) I switched out the stock NB heatsink with the Zalman NBF47 and got much better results. Whether that's just because the original was mounted poorly or the Zalman is just a better heatsink I don't know, but I'm sticking with it.

5) Learn to count. 😉

6) Sunbeam Rheobus. Comes in Black too but out of stock at ncix. If you want to keep the stock fans, set them to high speed before plugging them into a controller.

-z
 
Originally posted by: zagood
5) Learn to count. 😉
Click to expand...

LOL! Whoops!
Thanks for the info though. Maybe TAT is correct - the stock fan didn't really seem to mount too well as you say. I also didn't put any thermal paste on it yet. However - 70C does seem really high. I remember reading that TAT has problems with the 4300 reading - not sure.

I'll check out the Zalman heatsink - I think they had it at the store so I'll pick it up.
BTW you think that Zalaman will fit with a Ninja?

And as for the memory - if its the same price, I figure why not go for the 1066...
 
[I also didn't put any thermal paste on it yet.
[/quote]Yikes!
Never mount any kind of heat sink without thermal compound or you'll get to ask my favorite computer question. "Are flames supposed to shoot out of it like that?"

 
Originally posted by: GimpyFuzznut
TAT shows temperatures to be really high - 60-70C on load which is retarded because I know the CPU is not that hot - the heatsink is not even hot to the touch.
Core Temp more or less shows the same.
Everest doesn't show anything.
Spedfan shows load temperature to be 45-50C. I'm guessing this is accurate?
Click to expand...

The Intel TAT is much more accurate than speedfail, I mean, speedfan as it records the temperature from the sensor inside the die of the chip and not the socket in the motherboard. Also speedfan is a POS and I wouldn't reinstall it if you paid me. You therefore need to think of why your temperatures are so high. Think about undervolting or reapplying the AS5 and reseating the HSF.
 
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Originally posted by: GimpyFuzznut
TAT shows temperatures to be really high - 60-70C on load which is retarded because I know the CPU is not that hot - the heatsink is not even hot to the touch.
Core Temp more or less shows the same.
Everest doesn't show anything.
Spedfan shows load temperature to be 45-50C. I'm guessing this is accurate?
Click to expand...

The Intel TAT is much more accurate than speedfail, I mean, speedfan as it records the temperature from the sensor inside the die of the chip and not the socket in the motherboard. Also speedfan is a POS and I wouldn't reinstall it if you paid me. You therefore need to think of why your temperatures are so high. Think about undervolting or reapplying the AS5 and reseating the HSF.
Click to expand...

Or applying it once would work fine I would assume 😉

Think about it, do you really need 1066 memory? That would get you up to 4.8gHz running the mem at stock speed. Theres no way that e4300 or your ds3 could get a 533 FSB anyway, so it's just overkill. I'd just buy a good set of 800 or 667
 
Well it sounds silly but the stock fan/chip didn't come with any paste and I was waiting for it to arrive. I haven't put the Ninja or paste on it yet... I have been able to get it running at 50-65C at 2.7 GHz with this same stock cooling setup. I ran Orthos for 10 hours over night and it was stable.

Today, I'll paste it up and pop on the new heatsink and see what happens. Is it really bad to have that stock cooler on there without paste? I mean - that's the way it normally ships?

As for the memory - won't I benefit from this high speed memory by running it 2x the FSB as a opposed to 1x? Or that won't make much of a difference? I guess I could save a few bucks and try to sell this 1066 set - I mean... I did get it for $200 off! 😛
 
Eh, if you've already got it, may as well keep it, test it out, and confirm that the new revision DS3 works with D9. Who knows, maybe you'll get some phase-change cooling and need the extra oomf. No reason to pay for shipping/restock on it when you can just return the OCZ to the store.

The NB heatsink should fit with the ninja. The way it's designed, the fins are lower on the sides allowing for some overlap.

Stock cooler didn't come with wierd gray stuff on the bottom? Yikes. Paste that sucker up.

Have fun man. Post pics, benchmarks, etc. and keep us up to date.

-z
 
LOL! Sounds silly now but I was wrong about the paste - there was paste pre-applied to the bottom of the stock HSF. I just didn't notice it I guess. Either way, I popped off the stock and installed the Scythe Infinity + 120mm fan + another 120mm fan in the middle front of the case. I picked up one of those Noctua fans and I'm actually pretty impressed by how quiet it is.

My temperatures did drop a bit but not as much as I expected. Right now, running at 315x9 = ~2.83 my load temperature is 60-65C depending on how I set the Antec fans. It idles at high ~47-50C. I was hoping the temperatures would drop a bit more. Unfortunately I don't think the Infinity mounted too great either - it doesn't seem as snug as it should be. Going to leave the system as is and try to remount the Infinity when I get a NB cooler. Going to try that Zalman one out.

I installed the memory and so far its running great. So I can confirm D9 works fine with the DS3. Going to try to increase the multiplier once I max out the CPU. I'll try to put up the pix 2morrow!



http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=117054
I see here that the Infinity can be better mounted. The one thing I'm scared about is sanding the top of the CPU. Is this really a safe thing to do?
 
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