Wiring, version 5.0 or so...

I went in to tidy up the case before the arrival of my watercooling system from Asetek. It actually arrived today, but I was at work and missed the package. Stupid FedEx.

Anyway, I made a few changes which you may or may not be able to gather from the pictures. For one, I have more cabling now with the Zalman vf900 and the SLI setup (currently in RMA). Although the card is being replaced, I kept the power cord to the motherboard connected to plan for better management. What I really have tried to do it get everything back into the case, not hanging out in the open. This is what I did today:

- Replaced both ribbon cables (DVD drive and Floppy drive) with black UV floppy cables and routed them behind the drive cages.

- Used an adjustable cable clamp to pin the power cable toward the back of the case. It helped bigtime with all the other wires.

- Bundled and tied all unused wires and stuffed them out of the way. You can't see this in the picture, but it makes finding the wires I need much easier.

- Re-routed the power cable to the DVD and Floppy drives to get it out of the way.

- Found a nice, out of the way path for my Zalman vf900 fan cable. You probably can't even find where it's connected in the picture. I'll have two of them in my case, so I want to make sure they're routed as well as possible.

I tied a lot of stuff off with twisty, zip, or velcro ties to keep wires from slipping out of place. Even though the pic may not seem that different, a ton has changed. Here's a pic. Click for full sized:



Next up, I'll actually be sleeving all the fan wires and IDE power cables. This is more of a cosmetic thing, but I think it will be worth it. I probably will not need to drill a hole in the chassis for wiring as originally planned. I may still do it if I can find someone to loan me the tools (seems like a big investment for such a small project), but since I'm going liquid anyway, the airflow over the processor won't be quite as important.

Right now I'm just looking forward to installing the new cooling. Hopefully I won't miss the drop off tomorrow. I know for sure that, after it's all working, I certainly won't miss the noise of the Zalman CPU cooler running at full blast all the time.

Speaking of Zalman, I love the new vf900 I installed on my Signature Series card. It's virtually silent and has cooled the card nicely.

Today was neato

Yesterday was such a miserable, frustrating exercise in futility that I really needed a good day to turn things around. And today was that day. I fixed a huge problem I'd been having with my PC. More on that in a second...

After I cooled down, I decided I would go ahead and keep the Zalman fans. I headed over to CompUSA and grabbed a couple of 3-pin to 4-pin-molex connectors and reinstalled the fan on my Signature Series card. The fan works great and is virtually silent. I also got an email from a very helpful rep at eVGA, who is offering to replace both of my current cards with the 7900GT 512mb cards. Not sure I want to do that though. They're clocked at 560/750, which is good, but I don't know that I want to give up my Signature Series card, which performs amazingly. And in fact, despite its other problems, this new KO actually clocked higher! So I might just try for a third KO before I replace both cards.

Anyway, on to the awesome news. I'd been having trouble because my motherboard mounts slightly away from the tray--about 1/4 of an inch. This made installing PCI cards a real hassle, because pressure on the board would push it back. I usually had to pull the tray out to make sure everything was secure, which meant disconnecting and reconnecting everything. Today, when pulling out the tray to secure my card after installing the Zalman fan, I decided I'd had enough. I started thinking about solutions.

Long story short, I realized I had all these screws with roughly 1/4" heads, which also happened to have screw holes in the heads. I realized that they were probably designed for the very purpose I was seeking. Now before you say, "Duh Mike, everyone knows to install those little screws before you put the motherboard in," I'll have you know that there were *no* instructions of any kind like that in either my case or my motherboard manuals.

So I installed the screws, placed the motherboard on top of them, then used the remaining screws (they were equal in number) to secure the motherboard in place. Now everything is rock solid, just like it should be. I can't tell you how elated I am just to be able to do a simple task like swapping out PCI cards with no hassle. Ya learn somethin' new every day.

I'm also going to be cutting a small hole in the center of my PC to clean up the wiring. Yup. Hopefully I can get that done before my water cooling system arrives in the mail later this week.

Worst day ever

I was really excited today. I got my Zalman coolers, my replacement eVGA KO card, and a Scythe fan to replace my stock 120mm exhaust on the side of my case. I was hoping to reduce noise.

Here's the sum of this disaster:

- Zalman vf900 looks cool, but I had two coolers and one 3-prong fan connector on my motherboard, which didn't work to power the fan for some reason. The only way I can figure for it to work is to get a 3-pin to 4-pin-molex dongle and connect it. That, plus it becomes a dual-slot cooling solution. So, I have to have a case full of messy cables in order for them to work. I can't believe they didn't include a connector with the fan. I am probably just going to send them back.

- The Scythe fan not only didn't move shit for air compared to my stock fan, it made a noticeable and very annoying hum. I'm sending it back.

- The replacement 7900 GT KO has the exact same problem as the one it was supposed to replace.

In summation: YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Just kidding

I found a nice, case-accomodating cooling solution from Asetek. It's quiet, very high performance, has an 80mm exhaust fan, fits nicely inside the case, and is quite a bit less expensive than the Freezone.

So, no move to a new case is needed. At this point I'm stoked about the upgrade and looking forward to further tweaking and much reduced noise. With new fans and a new cooling system in the mail I'll be holding on to my baby for now.

I'll have more on the new cooling system when it arrives. In the meantime, I WILL be selling my Zalman CNPS-9500, since I won't be using it anymore.

I might make a minor case mod, though, to further improve wiring. More on that as I figure out how I'm gonna pull it off.

For sale

Well, I've been putting little ad posts up on various internet forums as well as MySpace to see if anyone wants to buy my rig. I'm asking $1500 for it sans video or sound cards (I want to keep them for my next rig), which I think is a hell of a deal considering how much work I've put into this thing. Try building a similar PC at any boutique vendor and watch yourself pay hundreds, likely thousands more.

I really do want to build a new system, not just because I have a vision, not just because it'd be fun, not just because I can afford to if I sell this PC, but because I really don't want to resort to cutting holes in my PC to accomodate a new cooling system. A 120mm fan won't fit, but a 90mm will, which is all that's required for the Freezone. But for that cooling, I'd rather just move forward with my whole vision of a new computer.

So if you or anyone you know is interested in a steal on a great gaming PC, let me know. Comment here, message me on any of the forums I've advertised on, or email me at mike_doolittle@hotmail.com.

Quick update: Modding, new purchases

Given that at this point I have all the gas under the hood that I want with my rig (in case you haven't noticed, it's a beast!) I think the time now is to focus more on noise reduction.

The first thing I'm doing is getting a pair of Zalman vf900 VGA cooling fans for my super-overclocked 7900GTs. The cooler supplied by eVGA is very good, but it's the same size as the stock 7900GT cooler--it's just all copper. Get two of those suckers in your case and run the cards at 7900GTX speeds, and it gets a little noisy. The Zalmans are bigger and quieter. The nicest perk is that eVGA is the only company for whom swapping out a cooler doesn't void your warranty.

I'm also thinking about making a major case mod. I really want to replace the rear 80mm fan with a 120mm fan. The only way I can figure to do that is to cut an appropriately sized blowhole using a dremel or holesaw. The metal is really thick though, so I'm not sure what the best way to do it is. This case of mine is supposed to be pretty quiet, but it just ain't that quiet.

Ideally I'd make the same replacement at the front of the case, but I don't think that's gonna happen. I'd really like the option though of replacing my current Zalman CNPS9500 CPU cooler with the CoolIT Freezone liquid cooling. While the Zalman is certainly much quieter than most stock fans, again, it's audible, and I would really prefer a quieter PC.

I may also replace the side 120mm fan with a 3rd party fan that's a little quieter.

Urg... to build... rising...

I hate to admit it but I had so much freakin fun building and tweaking my PC that I'm getting a rather hefty urge to do it all over again. I've been scouting some of the available parts and thinking about what I would use based on what I don't like about my current setup. Which btw I totally love, but despite its general awesomeness I have to admit that I don't like absolutely everything about it. There's been some great new technology released in the last few months, and I've learned a lot about how to build a better PC. So a few things have crossed my mind.

1. Dual-Core Processor: I stand by all my old statements about dual-cores being totally unnecessary for gaming for now, but there's no denying that those new Intel Core Duos are seriously excellent chips. And considering that a mid-range Core Duo will easily topple a high-end AMD chip, if I were building a computer today that is exactly what I'd put in there--an Intel Core Duo.

2. Liquid Cooling: There is a phenomenal new liquid cooler expensive though it is, that is totally self-contained and uses a peltier system. It's quite pricey, but hey, we're talking hypothetical here. It's the CoolIT Freezone liquid cooler. But the main reason I'd go with such a great cooler, aside from great overclocking, is noise. Get my computer under full load, and all those fans are definitely noticeable. It's not a huge deal since my speakers are right there, but if I were building a new system... liquid cooling all the way for less noise and more speed.

3.New Case or Modded Case: In addition to being a little bit better designed for cooling than ATX, the Cooler Master Stacker 830 has the cool ability to be either an ATX or BTX case, and I've always dug the simple, elegant SilverStone chassis that Falcon Northwest uses, which has a nice 120mm intake fan rather than the dual 80mm fans on the front of my current case. I really like the way my current case is built, with one exception: the rear exhaust fan is 80mm, rather than 120mm. This is because it was actually designed as an intake fan, but I reversed it during installation of my Zalman cooler which shuttles air toward the rear of the case. I've actually been trying to figure out if there's an inexpensive way to mod the back of the case for a 120mm fan. More air, cooler temperatures, and less noise.

3. Single GPU: I think if I were building now, I'd nab the 7950GX2 or the equivalent DirectX 10 card when they come out in the next few months. They're powerful, they conserve space, and they're quieter than a dual-card setup like I have now. Granted, my current setup is faster than a 7950GX2, which is why I would probably wait for the next generation of cards.

4. Widescree display:: It's possible to use anti-aliasing to cure the jaggies problem at lower resolutions; it's also possible to just bump up to a higher resolution to eliminate jaggies. You generally get less of a performance hit with more resolution and less anti-aliasing. I do like my monitor a lot, and frankly widescreens are still a little too expensive for my tastes. But by next year or so, they should be down in price.

5. 10K RPM Hard Drive: They are expensive, yes. But personally, I have more use for speed than I do space. Aside from games I don't really download large files. Right now I'm using less than 20% of my hard drive. Something like a 150GB Raptor would be just the ticket.
So that's that. I doubt I'll actually build a new PC; however I do hope to do some power-upgrading over the next year not just to make it faster, but to make it quieter. There is, however, a slim chance that I could just build a whole new beast. That is, of course, if someone gives me a good offer on my current rig. I've spent about $2700 on it including monitor and speakers, and I'd expect at least $2500 for it given the laber and care I've put into it.

Oblivion... completed! Well... mostly...

Well I've been playing Oblivion since May... I just completed the last of the Daedric Shrine quests last night. So I've completed the Daedric quests, the Fighters Guild, the Mages Guild, the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, the Main Quest, and a littany of random side quests. I've been going from town to town asking about rumors but I haven't found much in the way of new quests. I still have a number of incomplete smaller quests, but nothing big.

The interesting thing to me about this is that I really feel like there's tons of the game I haven't touched. I still find a new cave, mine or ruin nearly every time I play, and there are huge areas, particularly the far Eastern part of the world, that I haven't explored much at all. So it's hard for me to believe that I've really seen and done everything. Right now I'm exploring the various Inns and seeing what quests are available there. After that I don't know that there's much else to do but go around plundering forts, caves and ruins.

I went ahead and started a new character, this time kind of a battlemage-type guy instead of my previous ninja-warrior kind of dude. I've already found a cave I didn't explore with my other character. Crazy.

The scale of this game is insane, but you, it's definitely scaled back compared to Morrowind where there were all the different Houses and such. I'm level 33 right now with the major parts of the game finished. In Morrowind I got close to level 50 on a couple of occassions and still felt like I hadn't touched most of the game... and that was before the Game Of The Year edition came out. So it's a little disappointing there aren't more huge quests to do in Oblivion, but I'm going to keep exploring and seeing what's out there until I've sapped it dry.

Re-re-wiring

Just when I think I'm totally satisfied with everything, I take a look at it and say, "What if I were to route that cable that-a-way, and put that over there, and tighten that there..." and so on.

I again rewired things, and got yet again a nice temperature drop. Right now the processor idles around 36-38 degrees, compared to the low to mid 40s previously. Not bad, eh?

Here are some comparison pics below. I'm still waiting on my replacement card from eVGA so I'm not rigged for SLI at the moment. Obviously that will add some clutter to the case (it requires two power cables-one to the second video card, and an extra power supply cable to the motherboard). But this is a good comparison based on the progress I made.

Click on the pics for the full-size picture. Here's how it looked back in May:


Here's how it looked after the previous re-wiring. This is a good wiring job, but something you may not be able to gather from the picture is that there was this big bundle of wires that partially obstruced airflow into the Zalman CPU cooler. I wanted to get wires out of the way and free up as much air as possible. The power cord is the toughest to route because it's really thick and unweildy:


And here it is now. Basically, I stuck the DVD drive in the bottom slot, so all the extra wires could be stuffed above it. The low position of the drive enabled me to route the cable that powers it behind the drive cages and into the "primary" IDE plug. Apparently all this time I was using the "secondary" IDE plug. The primary is angled to the right, so the superdrive cable is essentially totally out of the way. Notably, I switched from a round cable to a ribbon cable. I really think I prefer the ribbon cables because you can fold them any way you want so they're virtually invisible. I also go rid of a lot of slack with the floppy cables, and made the ribbon cable for it more or less disappear:



In case you think it's all just being anal... well, it kind of is, but there's a definite functional value to all this work. As I said, my temperatures have dropped significantly from my original wiring job. It also makes the case much easier to work with when I'm installing new hardware.

Looking at it now, the only thing I'll probably change is to figure out how the USB port cable at the very bottom (the beige, tied one) can be tucked away out of sight.

A little rant on Conroe

All the rage right now is about Intel's big strike back against AMD with the Core 2 Duo chips, a.k.a. Conroe. They are build with a 65nm fabrication process, overclock well, and easily outclass AMD's top performers. If you are willing to shell out $1,000 for a processor AND overclock it, the Core 2 Duo Extreme at 2.9ghz has been said to be overclockable on air up to 3.6ghz. Considering that a 2.5ghz Core 2 Duo will outperform AMD's flagship FX-62 at 2.8ghz, you'd be set for a long time with a processor like that.

Alright, so let me interject a little insight: Who cares? Chips like the Core 2 Duo Extreme are targeted at the enthusiast market. But it is graphics cards, not processors, that are the bottlenecks in today's games. The extra CPU power will not help real-world gaming performance even if you have an SLI setup. For proof, let's look at a couple of articles.

Let's take a look at one article posted by the venerable boys over at [H]ardOCP. A quote:

"It is very interesting that in all of our testing, both “what is playable” testing and “apples-to-apples” testing, the Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 and Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 are very close in performance. In fact, in some games they are dead even. The price difference between the two is very extreme with the Core 2 Extreme X6800 costing $999 and the Core 2 Duo E6700 at $530. Does it look like the price is justified between the two for gaming? We can safely say “no” as far as gaming goes with this gameplay testing we have performed.

As for the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62, all of our testing shows that it does trail the two new Intel CPUs in gameplay performance. So, if you wanted to point one out as being a “winner” then for sure it is the new Intel Core 2 X6800 and E6700. But, if you look at the amount of difference between the AMD and Intel CPUs, you will see that it isn’t enough to amount to anything. The only game that we saw any real-world difference in was Oblivion, and even that was tiny. A little overclocking would clear that difference up. Overall, the performance difference isn’t enough to amount to any gameplay experience differences in these games."


A common response to this article is that it didn't test SLI. Some have argued that if you use SLI, you'll need to get the most out of your cards. Let's see how true that is with this often quoted articel from Anandtech.

Looking at the becnhmarks, it seems clear that C2D offers a big benefit. But look again. You're already getting over 60 frames per second with the AMD chip. A jump from 60 frames to 70 is barely perceptible. A jump from 70 to 200 is completely imperceptible. In fact, the talks about frames over 100 per second are just ridiculous--the monitor will not even display frames past its maximum refresh rate, which for most people is set anywhere from 60hz to 85hz. Whether the human eye can perceive a difference between 60 and 85 frames is debatable at best.

So in other words, if you're like most people and don't have a high-end SLI setup, you won't see any difference. And guess what? Even if you do, you still won't see a difference. When a game is running at 20 or 30 frames per second, it is GPU-bound. Adding a second card can nearly double the frame rates. It's not until you're up around 60 or 70 frames that things get CPU-bound, and by then the improvement is barely perceptible to our eyes, if not impossible to display by our monitors.

So I think the hype around the C2D is just that. This isn't to say it's a bad chip... hell, I'd probably get one were I buying a system now. But there's no reason, at least from a gaming perspective, to have the highest-end chip. And there's definitely no reason to upgrade yet. I'm sure down the road, graphics cards will need more CPU freedom, but right now the key to a great gaming system remains primarily the graphics cards. Hyerfast CPUs are just easy ways to lighten your wallet.

Well ain't that interestin'!

Just for the hell of it I booted up CPU-Z today. I was a little surprised to see it showing my processor at 2.4 ghz. Say what? I looked on AI Booster and it was 2.9ghz. I looked in the system info and it was 2.9ghz. I restarted and checked the BIOS. All's well. So I re-saved the BIOS and booted up. CPU-Z showed 2.9ghz.

I put the PC on standby and did some other, less geek-oriented stuff for a while. When I came back, I was curious about my temps, so I booted AI Booster again. At first it showed 2.9ghz, then after a minute it dropped to 2.4ghz. What the hey? I checked CPU-Z, and it too showed 2.4ghz. I restarted and again everything was groovy at 2.9ghz, 242 memory/fsb.

Then, it dawned on me. I've been putting the system on standby instead of powering down. When it boots up from standby, the default BIOS settings are used instead of the tweaked ones I spent weeks optimizing. I don't know if there's a way to change this, but I do know I haven't been getting the most out of my PC, especially now that I've taken the plunge to SLI and I need that extra power to keep the processor from being a bottleneck. Looks like until I find a fix I'll need to restart before playing any games if I've had it on standby.

eVGA does it again

Once again, eVGA has proven they're above the fray when it comes to graphics card companies. I wrote to them detailing my frustration with my recently purchased card, and they promptly offered me a very complete and satisfactory resolution.

While this is my second card to have to RMA, I'm aware that shit happens, especially with the problematic 7900 series. The key isn't necessarily whether stuff goes wrong, but how a company responds when it does.

So, allow me to toot eVGA's horn: They're the only graphics card company who will give you a lifetime warranty that covers overclocking and heatsink replacement. They know that enthusiasts often do both--especially overclock--and cover their cards as such. Not even BFG or XFX offer that. Additionally, their RMA process is smooth, and their customer service is responsive. Add that on to the already great value of their hyperclocked cards, and really it's a no-brainer that this company outclasses the competition. I'm quite happy to be a repeat customer.

Could I be more pissed? No.

I got my shiny new 7900GT card in the mail yesterday. I had paid the extra money for rush shipping because I was so stoked about having an SLI system. This is my second card purchased from EVGA, and it was part of a new batch of cards with new part numbers that have supposedly corrected the issues that have plagued the 7900 cards.

I slapped it in the system, installed the drivers and played with overclocking. To my surprise it actually surpassed the core clock of my old card, easily hitting 700 core. Memory only got to about 800, but I've found that to have a pretty negligable affect on frame rates anyway. In SLI I could run the two cards at a remarkable 675/800. Remember, that beats two stock speed GTX cards in SLI! These cards are an amazing value.

Then the problems started. I inserted Oblivion, and the little pre-game window popped up. I noticed a strange sound when I navigated the menu... like running your finger over a comb.

I closed the window and booted the game through DXTweaker as I always do. As the game loaded, I heard the sound again. I had enabled FRAPs to check the frame rate. When I got to the title screen, FRAPS showed 999 frames and the noise was quite loud. I thought this was very odd, because I had enabled V-Sync in the game. It shouldn't be more than 75 frames per second at any time.

I then went through a littany of tests. I checked that all the cards (including the sound card) were properly inserted. I tried different drivers to see if that was the problem. I switched the cards' position so my old card was the card directly connected to the monitor in the top PCI-E slot. I tried all these positions and configurations with and without SLI.

After a few hours of this, I had to swallow the depressing truth that I had paid rush shipping to get a faulty card that I was now going to have to send back to EVGA. But what REALLY pissed me off is that EVGA wants me to pay for the shipping BOTH WAYS on this bad card. Ex-cuse me? I paid the extra money to have it rush shipped. I paid $300 for the card, and it doesn't work properly. It's also my second card purchased from EVGA, and the second one I've had to RMA. I had cross shipping on the previous card (a Signature Series) so the swap was not a big deal, and their customer service was very good.

However, this isn't acceptable. I don't think it's fair for me to have to pay for the shipping both ways when I already paid extra for it, and when these cards were supposed to be a new batch of better working cards, and when EVGA is two for two with me on bad cards.

I think EVGA is a great company, and the value their cards offer is second to none. I should mention that I was running two GTs in SLI at 675/800 and that I was getting close to 60 frames per second in outdoor areas in Oblivion with all settings at maximum. That's an incredible performance value considering that each card is faster than a stock 7900GTX. But still, the bottom line is that the new card is busted, and it's not fair to expect me to eat even more shipping fees to get one that works.

It's official... I've gone SLI

Well, I just placed an order for my second 7900GT. This time, I skipped the Signature Series card and nabbed EVGA's KO Superclocked, which is only 20mhz slower and $70 cheaper. A little tweaking should make it similarly absurdly powerful.

I've been back and forth about SLI for a while. I have an SLI system and the bling for a new card, and I've been thinking about upgrading and making use of that SLI motherboard. It's just that since I can afford it and I have the hardware, it makes sense to go ahead and take advantage of it.

I had considered waiting for the 8 Series. These cards will be DirectX 10 compatible and have the following specs: 32 pixel shaders (79s have 24), 12 vertex shaders (79s have 8) and 12 new shaders called Geometry shaders that work with DirectX10; rumored clocks are around 600-700mhz core.

I deferred though, because for one, that's fewer pixel and vertex shaders (and less overall speed) than I'll have with an SLI system. Also, the 8 series is reported to be so power hungry that an extra power supply (seated in the drive bay) will be necessary.

But the main reason is that at this point there's no reason to have a DX10 card. In my opinion the release is totally premature. When DX10 and Windows Vista (a requirement to use DX10) are more standardized and utilized, the upgrade will make more sense. Maybe once these companies move to a 60nm fabrication process and their power consumption isn't so absurd it'll make more sense. Right now, I just want more juice under the hood and this seems like the way to go. The price of these cards has gone down, to where a super-overclocked version like what I'm getting is less than the cost of a stock speed card when they were released earlier this year.

Man, I can't help but think how I've eaten my own words. I was adamant that SLI was excessive, and a few months ago it was. But with games like Call of Juarez, Oblivion and Crysis, it's clear that a single card will not bring the best out of these games. When a game is averaging 70+ frames per second, adding a second video card will only cause you to hit a CPU bottleneck and thus see limited performance improvement. But when these games are really kicking the shit out of the cards, you can see a huge increase in performance over a single card.

Color me excited!

Some new software

I found a great little software program which I used in the pictures below to turn my screenshots into JPEGs, a program from a company called ReaSoft called ReaJPEG. See, I use the free version of FRAPS to track my frame rates. I've been interested in posting more of my in-game snapshots on my blog--to show what level of detail one can realistically expect with certain specs (as opposed to the fabricated images used in promos that are usually super-high quality and high res, then shrunk down).

Problem is that FRAPS saves files uncompressed unless you buy the $40 full version. It's got a couple of other features, but nothing I was really interested in. So I found ReaJPEG, which was about half the price and allows me to convert bitmaps (or anything else) to JPEGs.