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custom-built/hotrod computers

#41
how does the peltier work, just slip it under the water block? i was supprised at how cheap they were, but then you need a dedicated psu for it. if it turns out temps are whats holding me back i may just do it. with the new AMD chips with the little built in thermal thing, i forget *** they call it, on top... do you have to remove it to install the water block?

why not phase change or LN2? :D
 
#42
rykn0w298 said:
how does the peltier work, just slip it under the water block? i was supprised at how cheap they were, but then you need a dedicated psu for it. if it turns out temps are whats holding me back i may just do it. with the new AMD chips with the little built in thermal thing, i forget *** they call it, on top... do you have to remove it to install the water block?

why not phase change or LN2? :D
Click to expand...

well, i didn't get phase change because it wouldn't fit well with the case i have (the ones that i've found like asetek and prometia are built around lian-li style cases, and mine is definitely not one of those)

the ln2 is only good for drag-racing, so to speak. this computer is my main computer now - i'm using it all the time. if i had gone the liN2 route, it'd be like driving a dragster funny car to the market. heh.

what is a peltier? well, it's a ceramic wafer about and inch and a half on a side, square, and about 1/8" thick or so. it operates using the peltier effect. this is when you apply a voltage across two different kinds of conductive material, and and then on either side of the junction, there will be a temperature gradient. in other words - put two different conductive materials together, put a voltage across them, and on one side they will get hotter, on the other they will get colder. the peltiers themselves look like checkerboards of 2 different materials, with the ceramic wafers on either side for thermal conductivity. so think checkerboard-ceramic sandwich, with a wire coming in on one corner of the checkerboard and another going out on another.

if you want a peltier, your best bet is to get the integrated swiftech pelt block. it's a great block and the pelt is integrated. otherwise you have to get the gasketing and all that crap to make sure that you insulate the pelt properly.

see, what happens is that the pelt cools below ambient temperature - normal watercooling cannot do this, since you are using fan-driven air to cool the water in the radiators. because of this, condensation will form around the cpu or anything else that gets cold - and a lot of condesation would form around my cpu, at the moment it is 33 degrees farenheit, just above freezing. :D this condensation would fry everything around it unless it was taken care of, so you have to a) treat the board and socket with waterproofing material (easy/trivial to do on your own) and b) make sure the peltier-equipped block is completely isolated from the surrounding environment. this is best accomplished by buying a pre-fabbed block/pelt combo.

to waterproof the board, you have to get dielectric grease and silicone sealant spray. you mask off all the sockets and slots with painter's tape, spray the area on the board around the socket with the silicone sealant (front of the board and back) and then you get the dialectric grease and rub it into the cpu socket, making sure that you get the goop into every hole (it's about the consistency of gel toothpaste). then you pop in the cpu, attach the socket-gasket that will come with your block (self-adhesive gasket that fits around the socket and attaches to the mobo) and screw down the block, and voila. cold. damn cold. :D
 
#43
jive1 said:
What I'd love to get instead of a fancy video card or processor is a faster hard-drive (Currently using SATA150) or a viable RAMdrive application. It would make audio editing and photoshop so much faster.
Click to expand...

2x raptor 150gig 10k rpm 16mb cache in raid 0 = zoom! :hyper: :hyper: :hyper:

my 2 raptors are the 74 gig 8 mb cache ones, but they still fly in raid 0.
 
#45
Toasted said:
Yup. I do, but I'm getting itchy feet to get out my screw drivers and tidy everything up. Infact, this thread has inspired me to do just that.

I'm going to move to an AMD64 system in September. I'm not too good on making the insides work properly, so not feeling upto watercooling. I move my PC around alot too, between University and Home, so I'm not sure if having a PC full of liquid is necessarily the best idea... :)
Click to expand...

yeah, watercooled pcs don't move too well heh.

if you are going to do a build soon, check this out...
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this is one screaming machine, and it's super super cheap - and upgradeable to the new kickbutt conroe cpus as well. something you might want to consider. :)
 
#47
NJL said:
OK, John, that'll be enough from you. We are all geeks here, but you are like the Super Geek none of us really would ever want to even admit of being.
:D:D:D:p:hiding:
Click to expand...

oh yeah, i forgot...
 

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#48
AAHHHHH!!!!!

Im sorry, I know I didnt need to do that, but AAAGGGHHH! NOTHING EVER GOES RIGHT!!!

So Ive been having pc troubles. Ive been building this system, and it hasnt been working. No POST at all, just one long and one short beep and the fans almost kind of boot or something. So I started going barebones... taking out HDDs and whatnot. I go ahead and take the video card out and try and boot. For the first .5 seconds im incredibly happy. Its booting!! Things are happening! But no, not in my world. At about .6 seconds, the psu blows up. It just sparks allll over the place and I fear it fried my whole pc. Im just so sick of this! I JUST replaced the motheboard because I though THAT was the problem. I dont think it actually is anymore.... though Im almost sure every component in my pc needs replacing. The whole reason I build this computer was because it would be a cheap option for college. I spent about 1k on this... plus the new mobo.. and now what?? GRR!! Im sorry, I just needed to vent something serious in this thread.
 
#51
psu's are awesome when they blow up. the caps are so big that it sounds like a gunshot and it spits flames out the back. very cool for the first few seconds before you realize what just happened. hopefully everything's ok, if there aren't burn marks and melted pcb you may be ok. what psu did you have?

they have 150gb raptors now? awesome, those things fly

thinking about those peltiers though...
 
#54
hmm. i can think of a few reasons -

1. poorly regulated supply (wall) voltage/outlet fried.
2. crappy psu.
3. having a short across one of the voltage rails might cause it to cook.
4. having too much of a load on the 12 volt rails without loading the 5 or 3 volts might give it a hernia. that is usually only a problem when using multiple psu's, with a second only running certain components. if you have a computer psu hooked up just to 12 volt things like fans and lights, and no load at all on the 5 volt rails, you could run into some psu problems down the road. they sell low current/low wattage load resistors to plug into psus in that case, to put a small load on the 5 volt supply so that it doesn't burn out.

my bet is it was a crappy psu. there's a guy named jake who does psu reviews, you ought to check out his page - he's got some good ones there.

or even better yet, listen to your uncle jt and get an ultra x2 psu :) - i have 2 and i couldn't be more pleased with em. the ultras rock, very stable, solid voltage supplies, and they look cool too (chrome). www.ultraproducts.com


when i find the link to that guy's psu review site i'll post it.
 
#55
damn you, man. that's too good to pass up.

anyways the Ultra psu looks nice too, go here, right now they have a special on it- $40 mail in rebate, comes out to $19. i'm about to order one at that price :D. and if it turns out you need some memory, give me a PM :D

yea i just ordered one of the Ultra x-connects. $19 for a psu of that quality is insane
 
#56
#57
Alright guys, time to nerd up, Conroe comes out tommorrow!

That being said, AM2 processors are price cut, a 4200+ will only cost around $200 and the 5000+ is around $300.

Up against the wall, the Conroe e6600 is around $300 but slits AMDs 5000+ throat in most benchmarks. But AMD has hypertransport, Intel has Sli, AMD has crossfire...

Now is upgrade time, in about 2 weeks it'll be official. I'm pretty much thinking a conroe system, but am still open. I'm also thinking watercooled, I'd want it quite. Using it for gaming, graphics, coding, and 3D.


P.S. 2 monitors can pretty much double efficiency; ESPECIALLY in college. (Homework screen 1; Test screen 2) (chat windows, music screen 1; porn screen 2) (Tutorials screen 1; programs screen 2) (tools screen 1; full page layout screen 2) (timelines screen 1; editing screen on screen 2) For anything productive its really the greatest thing ever.
 

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