To sound card, or not to sound card?

I've had a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Music sound card (whew!) for the last fourteen months or so. And I'm at a point where I'm considering getting rid of it, but I'm kind of torn.

The problem is, the card cannot connect to the front panel audio. There are times when I am running a dishwasher load or washing some clothes late at night when I'd like to be able to slap on some headphones so I don't blow the ears off of everyone else in my apartment complex. But Creative wants you to buy the more expensive Platinum X-Fi card, which is the same card but includes their own proprietary front panel port that fits into a 3.5" drive bay (mine is occupied by my FDD, so I'd have to purchase a 5.25"-3.5" converter bay for my case as well). There is also a way to create an adapter that will allow you to connect the ports (Velocity Micro has their own adapter for Creative cards that allows them to connect to the front panel), but it would be a major pain in the ass to make.

The other thing is that when it comes to sound quality, I honest to goodness just cannot tell a difference. I was playing the demo for Clive Barker's Jericho tonight (which btw is fucking awesome), and I thought the sound was incredible just with the onboard HD audio. The Creative cards support EAX, which is a kind of positional sound processing that's supposed to make distant sounds sound more realistic. But I actually thought they sounded less realistic; for example, in F.E.A.R., if you walk around a corner and a grenade goes off, you hear a muffled "ffmmmm" instead of a loud "bang!". Even though the grenade is right there, the game is treating it like you're in another room. Kinda lame. There are also some EQ features with the Creative card that supposedly optimize the sound for gaming, audio creation and music, but honestly switching between the various modes is more hassle than it's worth.

So I'm a little torn. It's not a bad card, and it's kinda cool to have especially since it was a gift, but I don't want to go through the trouble of making my own front panel plug/wire for the card especially since I could permanently damage the front panel audio wire. Frankly the card's features and software package are not a big deal. Creative installs a bunch of resource-hungry services that I'm not a fan of, although if I owned a Creative MP3 player I would be into it (I own an iPod).

Oh, and what set this all off is that currently, my motherboard will not boot when the sound card is installed. Weird eh? Just another hassle that makes me wonder if I really want the card.

Quick downclock

It can be really hard to dial back an overclock, but I got a couple of videocard-related crashes today. I suspected that it was due to aggressive memory overclocking, so I dialed the memory back to 1000mhz from 1080. Worked like a charm, played for hours no problems. I tried the Jericho demo tonight – this game's gonna be awesome!

Preliminary overclocking

Counter to my assumption, capping the shader on the 8800GTX did not allow me to crank the core to the next higher setting. However, I was able to crank the shader up to an impressive 1600mhz. That's nearly 300mhz over stock, so I'm pretty happy. I may push it more later, but it looks good for now.

Overclocking the Q6600 with the QuadGT really confirmed that there is simply an issue with FSB and quad-cores. I was indeed able to get the chip higher and more stable – so far I'm at 3.15ghz. But that's only a 350mhz FSB. What's weird is that I've seen this board at least boot into Windows at 460mhz FSB with the E6300. Ready for the crazy part though? That puts the E6300 at 3.22ghz. I usually ran it at 450mhz FSB because that was more stable. The resulting frequency was – you guessed it – 3.15ghz. So it seems to me that what I'm looking at here is some kind of deeper hardware limitation with the board. I'd love to get 400fsb with the Q6600, and maybe that will happen, but that doesn't seem likely. Keep in mind that whenever I test the FSB, I downclock the CPU. So even the Q6600 was underclocked, the system still crashed at 400mhz FSB. Weird.

On the plus side though, I have a Q6600 running at 3.15ghz and an 8800GTX running at 648/1600/2160. :D


Oh, and this cooling system is fantastic. As easy to set up as an air cooler, and incredibly effective.

Aaaaaaaaand we're back

Back to the QuadGT. Armed with Rivatuner 2.05, which is the first program to allow driver-level clocking of the shaders on nVidia 8800 cards. I have some serious overclocking to do. Updates soon.

Overclocking... the good the bad, and the ugly

I've started doing some overclocking now. As I write this I'm testing my Q6600 at just a shade past 3.0ghz using Prime95. I've also done some driver-level overclocking with the 8800GTX.

The Good: A big upside here is that the cooling system is working remarkably well. I'm beyond impressed that a compact system has actually outperformed my bulkier system. The 8800GTX hit 648/1512/2160 no problem, and never got past 54° under load. The quad-core, currently under full load in Prime at 3.0ghz, is around 56-57° for each core, which is actually really good for a quad.

The Bad: I ended up disabling UAC. It was blocking Rivatuner's overclocks and D3D Overrider from running at startup. There were some extremely complex workarounds posted on the net; I tried one, and it didn't work. I started working on another, ran into some problems, and just threw my hands in the air with frustration and disabled UAC. There was even supposed to be some way to edit security options of UAC without simply turning it on or off, but I couldn't find any of the paths that were supposed to lead me to it. Frustrating in a big way, but not a big deal I suppose.

The Ugly: Overclocking the Abit IN9 32X-Max... how can I describe it? "Massively disappointing" comes to mind. Any 680i board should be able to hit around 400mhz FSB with no issues. I spent literally hours trying to get it to run at 400mhz with no luck. I set the memory to very high timings and the default voltage, as well as turned the multiplier down to 6x to ensure the CPU wasn't the issue. I tried innumerable variations in voltage, and could not get the thing to run at 400mhz. I started downclocking, and I'm currently at 337mhz, which is the first setting I've used that actually booted into Windows. I went back and upped the processor to 9x, putting it at a shade above 3ghz. I'm certainly going to keep working with the board, but I've got to say that if I can't even get a stable 350-400mhz, I will really feel robbed. The QuadGT hit 460 with minimal tweaking, so 337mhz is just a slap in the face. No 680i board should struggle that much.

I'm going to keep hacking away at it and see what happens. Voltage increases have not seemed to affect stability in any positive way, but I'll keep messing around with it to find that sweet spot. Not that a 3ghz quad-core sucks or anything, but it's not what I'm hoping for.

Abit IN9 Max, Vista, Quad-core, Swiftech Compact!

I've got everything installed and it's all working great. I'm currently re-installing all my programs (pain in the ass!) with my new Vista upgrade. I was pretty disappointed to find that even though FiringSquad had a great article recently showing that game performance is finally the same in both Vista and XP, nVidia still hasn't incorporated the Display Optimization Wizard or the auto send to the system tray (I created a desktop shortcut to the control panel).

The cooling system has really surprised me. I used Core Temp to check the processor, and all four cores were in the upper 30s at idle. I thought that seemed high, but then again this is a quad-core and they are known to run hot. But what really shocked me is that my graphics card was idling at a measly 48° (for the brief period I ran stock cooling, it idled at over 70°!). That's actually lower than it was with my big bulky system with the dual radiator and 1/2" ID tubing. Very impressive! It's a great cooling system. If I have one complaint, it's that the pump is a little louder than the MCP655. But it's still pretty quiet and definitely not a big deal.

I still have some minor tweaks to make, like getting my cold cathode tube properly connected (it's not working) and getting all my necessary programs and drivers in place and, of course, re-installing all my games. Oy! So much to do. Oh well. I'll enjoy it. It's been worth the trouble so far.

Quick update and sneak peak

The Abit IN-9 motherboard arrived today. I'm looking forward to installing it but since I'm currently waiting on the RMA for the Swiftech Compact pump/block unit, I decided to just go to an air-cooled setup for the time being. I'm using the stock coolers for both my graphics card and processor. I scaled back the overclocking on both components, and everything is running well.

Before I discovered the leak (which is because of a large crack in the unit that I hadn't noticed), I did get the system up and running very briefly, just long enough to snap a couple of photos. So here's what the Swiftech Compact looks like in my rig. If you remember the old setup, you can see that there's just way less tubing and stuff in the way. It's more like my very first water cooling setup. This will make working in the case far, far easier.

Power off...


Power on!

If it's not one thing, it's another

I got my motherboard fixed. It was just a misplaced fan connection. However, the new cooling system has a terminal leak. It's not in a place that can be fixed by me -- the pump/block unit has a leak where the two parts connect.

ASS!!!!

So, my computer will still be down until whenever the crap I can get a replacement unit. I did fire the unit up briefly though and I think it's going to be awesome. I took some pics but unfortunately I don't have my camera with me here on my Dad's computer at my parents' house. Lame.

I sure love being a DIY buider, but man it can be a royal pain in the ass when things don't work.

Shit!

Somewhere between the time when I removed my motherboard to install the new cooler and when I put it back in, it appears to have kicked the bucket. Died. Gone. Kaput. The board lights up when I flip the button on the PSU, but it will not power on. Even the diagnostic start-up button on the board does nothing. Ziltch. Nadda.

So, it looks like I'll be RMAing this board. Which is actually fine by me. I have had some quibbles with this chipset. Now however, I managed to score an Abit IN9 680i motherboard for a whopping $120 off on NewEgg. I wasn't going to buy a whole new board, but I couldn't pass up a deal like that. In the meantime, I'll RMA my current board and sell off the replacement when it arrives. Crazy.

The Swiftech Compact looks beyond neat. It's amazing how easy it is to set up. I just wished my fuckin' motherboard worked!

Upgrade, part I: new cooling

Alright, so it's official: I'm completely redoing the cooling system. Wait no... I'm not just redoing it, I'm getting an entirely new cooling system. I'm getting the Swiftech H20-120 Compact. Now, why on earth would I trade in a high-powered pump, a dual 120mm radiator, and 1/2" ID tubing for a system with 3/8" ID tubing, a built-in pump and a single 120mm radiator? After all, it's likely that my system temps will be a bit higher after I switch.

It's a convenience thing. First of all, having fewer parts makes the whole thing far less obtrusive. Right now, working in my case around all those tubes is a real hassle. Swapping out motherboards is a monstrous pain in the ass, and don't even get me started on working in PCI slots, since the reservoir blocks my access.

This new system will use far less tubing, have only two parts, and it will be completely out of the way of my PCI slots. It uses black neoprene tubing that can last for five years without a refill. Yeah, temperatures may rise a tad. But you know what? It really doesn't make any difference. My overclocking is limited by my motherboard, not my processor. My goal here is high performance, low noise, and an immaculate interior.

I plan to simply sell my current Swiftech System, which will actually cover most of the cost of buying the new system. Anyway here's a peek at the system itself:

New stuff coming soon!

Man, I haven't updated on here in quite a while. Well, a few changes are forthcoming.

One, I'm going to be redoing my cooling loop. I was never 100% happy with it, and I have some ideas for how I want to do it. I also want to change out the fluid, which is old and looking kind of dull – that UV dye doesn't keep its luster for too long and now it's kind of a dull sewer green instead of the nice glowing neon green it used to be. Next time around I may go with clear fluid instead, so I don't have to flush out the fluid just to replace the dye.

Actually, on that topic, I was browsing for coolant and happened upon Swiftech's new H20-120 Compact. It's a 120mm radiator/reservoir and an Apogee GTX with the pump built right into the water block – so there are only two components to install. It looks freakin' sweet. I'm considering it as an option. It probably wouldn't cool as well as my current setup, but it would drastically reduce clutter in my case. Right now working with any PCI cards is a nightmare because of where the reservoir sits. It would also make upgrading a lot easier – much less to disassemble and/or get out of the way.

I'm also considering changing cases. Yup. I am quite enamored with the Cooler Master Cosmos. I really like its HDD trays and the slots for wiring. An extra bonus though is that it's raised off the ground to provide better airflow to the PSU on the bottom. That may not seem like a huge deal, but when I do any extended gaming, my PSU fan gets noticeably loud because it doesn't have much breathing room. I can actually get it to run slower (and quieter) by just tilting the case so some air can get in there to cool it off. Also, the Cosmos has some pre-installed sound damping foam, which is a big plus because I'm all about having the most quiet PC possible.

So a couple of upgrades are coming down the pipe. Hardware wise, I'm pretty happy. I never figured out why my floppy drive stopped working or why the Abit Quad GT won't let me read files from a bootable CD (tech support told me that the drivers weren't being recognized in DOS, but couldn't offer a fix), so I've been unable to tweak out the 8800GTX. To that end I have considered a new motherboard, but we'll see. It's not a big deal right now. Only certain change atm is the cooling loop. Be nice to have it in a nice new case though....