News: RAM prices take a dramatic plunge

DDR2 memory has long been expensive, despite being standard on all new AMD and Intel motherboards. Well, I don't know what happened, but prices have just absolutely plunged. Memory that used to be $230 is now $150 or less. Memory that used to be $370 is a little over $200. There are tons of sales and rebate offers going on. You can score 2GB of PNY PC2-8500 (DDR2 1066) with combed heat spreaders and EPP for $174 after rebates. PC2-6400 is far cheaper, as low as $130 for 2GB of G.Skill DDR2 (cas 5). These are some great deals and if you were on the fence about upgrading, the plunge in memory costs makes it a great time to upgrade, especially with all the rebates and sales on top of the price drops.

For my part, I picked up 2GB of OCZ Platinum PC2-8500. There were other modules that were a little cheaper after rebates, like the PNY, but this runs at a lower voltage and features EPP. And it's OCZ, of whom I am a big fan. Plus, rebates tend to take a while. Normally I would stay away from high-speed RAM since the performance gain it offers is in itself very small, but the overclocking headroom that 1066mhz memory offers is hard to beat. I've had trouble overclocking my current RAM (and I HATE overclocking RAM! – such a pain in the ass!), so this is a great opportunity to get some great RAM for cheap and hopefully improve the overclocking performance on my system.

But if you're building a system, or you've been on the fence about building one... do it now! Intel processors have dropped in price, and now DDR2 memory has plunged. Now's a great time to build a new rig!

Geez!

Alright... my makeshift mounting system for the Arctic fans didn't quite work. It was a good idea, but it wasn't secure enough. So I went back to my old Scythe fans and ordered the regular (with backing) Arctic Cooling fans, the 12025s, from FrozenCPU.com. I received the fans today, but I didn't get the 12025s that I ordered. Instead I got the 12025Ls, which are the lower-RPM version. Sheesh!

Okay, so.... I have been faced with a difficult choice here. I can request an RMA, pay for shipping out of my pocket, and wait for the right fans to arrive. Or I can stick with these.

Honestly I'm thinking I'll just stick with these. I'm getting higher temps than I want, but I'm so sick of going through fan after fan that at this point I really am getting sick of it. We'll see. Either way I do plan to write FrozenCPU and let them know of the discrepancy though.

RAM: still not a big deal

Currently, one of my RAM sticks is in the RMA process after I was able to pinpoint it as a culprit in various boot/stability issues. So I've been gaming with just 1GB of RAM. Now, everyone says that you just gotta have 2GB of RAM. And I agree; it's a wise investment. But I've been pretty surprised to find that my performance in games right now is pretty much the same as it was before. I do notice a little more stuttering from time to time, but it's pretty minor.

Now, that's not to say you shouldn't get 2GB of RAM. If you want the best possible performance, you gotta have it. And it's smart future-proofing to boot. But with more and more people opting for 4GB of RAM, at some point we have to step back and ask hey, what am I really getting for my hard-earned cash.

Assuming, of course, that one's cash is hard-earned.

More new stuff!

Okay, I think I'm finally finished... for sure this time!

It hit me that since I have UV ClearFlex around my wires and UV dye in my cooling system, I should show off all my hard work and make it look sweet. So, I ordered a windowed side panel and a white cathode tube to trick out the PC. Finally, I was unhappy with the Scythe Minbea fans. They moved a lot more air than the Noctuas, but were just too whiney and loud, and I'm really adamant about having a quiet PC. I replaced them with some Arctic Cooling fans, which are perfect – quiet, no motor whine, and they move air very well. Mounting them, however, took some ingenuity – they're only meant to be used as exhaust fans, so I couldn't screw them into the radiator. So I just used some strong adhesive Velcro strips to secure them, and it worked great.

Anyway here are some pics of the final rig. I think that's enough time and money spent for now. My next upgrade will probably be this summer; I'll probably grab one of the low-end Intel quad cores, like a q6400. Enjoy the pics – as always just click to see the full-size.

Version 2.1

Man, what a day! Talk about Murphy's Law – everything that can go wrong, will go wrong... and at the worst possible time!

I tried using a fillport in lieu of a reservoir, but found filling it to be a pain in the ass. Reservoirs are much easier to work with. Between a bizarre fan problem, spilling a mess of coolant because of the awkward fillport, a stick of RAM going dead and causing my system not to get into the BIOS... it's been rough! But everything is looking good. Still can't figure out the fan issue though. My old Scythe will not run along with the new ones. Two of the three will work at any time, but not all three. Weird, huh? It makes no difference where the fans are connected. Believe me, I tried everything. And I'll be needing a new stick of RAM. But anyway, on to the good parts...

I love the new MCP655 pump – it has manual speed adjustment to help you find that nice balance between noise and performance. I've got it on medium speed and it's fine. The Primoflex tubing was actually better than the Tygon I'd previously had – much easier to bend, though not crystal clear like the Tygon. The new system has netted a huge temperature drop, around 12°-15°. Hooray for a better pump, a better radiator, faster fans and fatter tubing. The result of all this hard work:

Update: overhaul

Sigh...

Alright. Well, I'm selling some stuff. A number of fans, etc. I was not happy with the performance of my Danger Den radiator, and apparently many others aren't as well. I decided to replace it with a Swiftech radiator, who next to the uber-expensive Thermochill is widely considered to make the best radiators. I have a Swiftech system anyway, so it made sense.

Anyway, I got the radiator and guess what? It's got 1/2 ID barbs that are sealed on there. My system uses 3/8 ID tubing. Gah! And this is just after I bought five feet of expensive 3/8 ID Tygon tubing. So the first thought I had was to get some 1/2 ID tubing for that one part of the loop. But that just didn't make sense to me – why have all that restriction elsewhere in the loop? So, I've sold my radiator and pump, and I'm getting an MCP655 pump for 1/2 ID tubing. My system's getting a total overhaul. In retrospect, I really wish I'd simply purchased the Swiftech H220 Ultra kit instead of mixing and matching components. Would have saved me a lot of hassle.

I've also got my processor up for sale. My FSB seems to be capping around 450mhz. It's possible it will go higher, but it's gonna take some serious tweaking. My chip, though, can definitely go much higher. I think it will make more sense to get an E6400 instead. At 450 FSB, it would be running at 3.6ghz, and I'd be able to make better use of this water cooling system aside from its uber-quietness (I actually think the hard drive sounds loud because the rest of the system is so quiet).

I was not happy with the Panaflo fans, which were unacceptably loud. Fortunately though, I've scored some really, really great fans: Scythe Minbea IC medium speed fans. They crank out roughly 20 CFM more than my Noctuas, and make only a negligible amount of additional noise. I'm quite impressed. These will be the fans powering my forthcoming system.

All in all, I've learned some lessons. I rushed into my purchase a little, and I think I should have taken more time to research and plan. Or maybe this was just a little inevitable trial by fire. Either way, I'm looking forward to making some significant changes to my system, such that it'll be a system I can enjoy for many years to come. I want this to be my last major system design for a good while. I may upgrade graphics cards, memory, HDDs, processors, etc., but the case, cooling and base platform should remain intact for a few years. 'Course, these are famous last words, and maybe by this time next year I'll be getting the itch again.