HOGHAULER

Over Clocking

HOGHAULER — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:48:00 GMT

OCing these days is relatively easy if you read the motherboard manuels. With the UEFI software that allows you to OC without going into BIOS and does a step by step procedure anyone with a little common sense can do it. Aw but here is the catch if you don't understand the facts about OCing and you don't know the limits for your rig you will endup with freezes, crashes, BSOD or possibly fry some component. You will definitely shorten the life of your CPU, ram and GPU depending on whether you OC 1, 2 or all 3 components.

Lets discuss the limits of your build: the first is the temperature at which the CPU can handle no matter whether it is AMD or Intel when the temprature exceeds the limit you will get either a freeze, a crash or a BSOD this is the system protecting itself. What are the temprature limits for my CPU you ask well here is where you must do some research, you go to the manufacturers web site and find your cpu specs and read that info till you find where they say max temprature that is the point you do not want to go past unless you are willing to pay the price. The next limit is the voltage for the CPU again as before you can find that at the manufacturers web site under the specs for your specific CPU a warning here the higher the voltage the more heat produced.

Let us look at the facts for OCing you will never be able to get below ambient temprature with normal cooling types (air & water), you will never get a stable OC if you don't learn to balance the OC or test it for stability.

Ambient temprature is the temprature around you or your rigg, say you like the cooler temps so you keep the house/apt at 70*F or 19*C your rigg produces heat so inside the case depending on the cases cooling and airflow the ambient temp would be about 80*F or 24*C this would put your CPU at about 100*F or 34*C (this is just an example) which would be at idle and a decent set of temps. Now as you are using your rigg and applying a load to it the temps will rise and your fans will start to raise in rpm to cool things off, this is where a good monitoring program comes in handy allowing you to keep an eye on the temps and possibly the rpms of your fans and the voltage changes.

Here is where we talk about balancing the OC: you want to keep the heat produced to a minimum and the voltage as low as you can while still getting the best OC you can for overall performance. Balancing these 2 major factors to your OC can get aggravating at times since until you test it under load you don't have any idea if its stable or not this is why we always recomend you do it in small steps and test after each OC (use either prim95 or OCCT). Just a reminder here make sure your PSU is strong enough and has enough watts and amps to power your OC as well as the rest of your components ( I have found that going from a 550 to a 610 to a 650 watt PSU has increased my OCing ability).

Time to discuss your case and its ability to cool and maintain a good airflow: You will get a lot of arguments over whether a positive or negative airflow is better in your case so here are the facts negative airflow or more air being exhausted than coming in has 1 major draw back and that is it sucks in dust thru every crack & creavice in your case. This means more time spent tearing your rigg down and cleanning out the dust. Positive airflow or more cool air coming in prevents this by exhausting air thru every crack & creavice in the case but still draws dust in thru the intake fans reducing the frequency of cleanning your rigg out. This is why some people look at cases that come with filters built in or ways to mod the case so they can install their own filters.My rigg sounds like a jet taking off when I'm doing intense work or gaming, how many times have you heard this or said it yourself? Yep that is all those fans running at high rpm trying to cool that poor rigg down and that is the trade off you face when OCing. How can I solve this problem you ask again its a matter of balancing the heat against the noise, you can install bigger fans that run at a lower rpm but produce the same amount of airflow (cfm) or you can buy a fan controllor so you can adjust the fans rpm or get fans that plug into the mobo allowing the BIOS to control the fans rpms.

Lots of info to digest, so I will continue later.

Now the first question that most people ask is what are the best settings for my rigg to get the best OC, well that is a nonanswerable question. Each rigg is different the CPU waffers vary from 1 to another each stick of ram is different and each mobo is different even the PSU can effect the OC. This is again why we stress small steps and stress test after each step. Normal use will not put that much of a load on your rigg so everything may work fine on a daily basis but you start doing heavy gaming or heavy CPU/ram usage programs and boom freeze, BSOD or crash and then you wonder why. The prim95 or OCCT stress test puts the system under a 100% load and gives you reports on how well your system handles the test this allows you to go back and fine tune things such as lowering the OC, raising the voltages, or lowering the fsbs.

Wondering how the PSU can effect an OC, well the higher demand for higher voltages to the mobo, CPU, GPU or ram can put a strain on the PSU depending on the wattage and amps your power supply is rated for. Using myself as an example my last rigg started with a Corsair 550 and I was able to hit 3.84ghz on the Q9550 but when I swapped it for a PCP&C 610 I was able to get to 4.0ghz and later upgraded to a PCP&C 650 hit 4.21ghz and this was from a stock 2.83ghz cpu.

There are those riggs with no UEFI capabilities so you have to go into the BIOS and change settings as well as enabling or disabling certain items in the BIOS. This is where your mobo manuel is very important and a must read before playing with those settings. Each manufacturer of mobos use different BIOS and each of them use different terminology for the functions in BIOS so I won't try to list all the stuff in BIOS since it is in their manuels and posted on their web sites for each mobo.

CPU COOLING

HOGHAULER — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:20:00 GMT

There are basicly 3 ways to cool your CPU, first is just by heatsink alone (not recomended these days), a heatsink with fan (air cooling) or third water cooling.

Now several things to know about cooling the CPU the cooler you keep it the better it runs and the longer its life expectancy. There are several laws of pyhsics you can not break when cooling your CPU whether by air or water and the first is you will never get the temps below your room/ambient temperature and second is that the more area you have to dissapate the heat the faster it will cool the CPU. The last statement will also depend on the fans and the amount of airflow you have in your case but we will discuss this later.

As to which heatsink and fan or W/C will work best again depends on the size of your case and the fan setup in your case. The biggest problem you face is dust and dirt in the air which will be pulled into your computer unless you are in a sealed hypoalagenic type enviroment and that is an expensive setup right there. So what can you do about that regular cleanning of your computers internal parts, use some type of air filters and use a positive airflow ( more cool air being drawn in than exhausted) which prevents dust being drawn in at every crack and crevice of your case or negative airflow (more air being exhausted than drawn in).

Cases will dictate what size heatsink and fan you can use as well as the weight of the heatsink and fan, yes I said weight some heatsinks and fans can weight more than 5lbs and if your motherboard is mounted verticialy this can and will put undue stress on your mobo and could cause damage to it over a period of time. When doing W/C again the case will dictate what type you can use either the sealed units or the W/C Kits where you have to put it together yourself or buy seperate parts and build it yourself. You will need to checkout how they are mounted and where you can mount them in/on your case.

I know about now some of you are screaming about what about those people that use liquid nitrogen to cool their computers and go to all those shows and show how cool they get their computers and those freezer setups to cool their computers, well if you got that kinda money more power to you but us average geeks can't afford that stuff or the licenseing to handle liquid nitrogen not to mention condensation buildup and how to handle that.. Enough said on that.

Most heatsinks and fans need at least 50+cfm to keep the cooling of the CPU down to a minimum since stock heatsinks & fans run about 35 cfm and can not really handle OCing the CPU very well and since they lay down on the mobo they do not direct the airflow towards the top or rear fans on air cooling. This is why a standup HSK&F unit is more advantagous to cooling. Now fan size will make a difference since the larger the fan the more air is moved depending on the rpm of the fan for example an 80mm fan may turn at 3,000 rpms to move 50cfm of air but the noise it makes is loud while a 120mm fan turning at 2,000 rpms will move 50cfm but with less noise produced (these figures are for example they are not exact) is easier on the ears.

Its time to discuss the case and how it can effect your CPU cooling: First off the dimensions of the case, the newer cases are mostly wider than 8" these days due to the height of the heatsink and fan which are running from 5" to 6.5". Those cases with side fans usually 25mm deep or 1" reduce clearance for the higher heatsinks add to this another 1" for the mobo and cpu plus the space beneath this is 2" to add to the height of your hearsink so now you are at 7" to 8.5" clearance room, get the picture. The next thing to consider is the airflow inside the case and the wire management, the less stuff blocking the airflow the better the cooling abilities so good wire management is a must.

Ok lets discuss water cooling for a while, there are 3 types of W/Cing sealed units, kits and DIY. The sealed units work well and will even keep the CPU a few degrees cooler than the air cooling but are limited by the tempratures in the case and the temprature of the room your computer is in. The cost is the next factor to consider is a few degrees worth double to triple the cost between air cooling and W/Cing with a sealed unit?

Kits for W/Cing can range from $150 to $380 or more and again will only make a few degrees difference but here you have to be good with your hands since you assemble it yourself and you don't want any leaks. The other drawback here is the kits are usually only for the CPU. Now the DIY W/Cing here you pickout the individual parts and do all the research to make sure they will fit your parts and your case and where you plan on mounting all the parts. The plus side to this is you decide where the parts go and whether or not you want a large radiator for the outside of the case and how strong a pump to push the coolant thru the system this will give you about 5* to 10*C cooler temps but at a much higher cost factor than a kit or sealed unit.

How to Design a Case

HOGHAULER — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:19:00 GMT

Ever wonder what it takes to design a case, do you really need an engineering degree or a college degree to do something like this? NO it only takes some common sense, a little imagination and a desire to push the limits of your abilities. Most cases on the market today are your basic design that fit to the mobos that are built and to the general purpose such as rack mount, servers, media and home desktops. These are all basiclly rectanguler boxs that are designed to be mass produced in a factory to fit the components that are again mass produced in a rectanguler shape for easy assembly and to keep the cost down. Now first consideration is the foot print or how/where it will stand, sit or be mounted, next is what shape should it be, the more complex the shape the more modding that you will need to do to the components for example your connectors have to have a means of being plugged in, you need access to the ODD, to the card readers, to the power and reset switches, fans need to be mounted and finally access to the interior to mount everything.

Beginning to see the big picture and why only modders play with existing cases when they wish to put their personnel touches to a case.

Its not easy no matter what people say, but it is still possible to design and build your own case it just takes time and patience, I know I did it.

http://s223.photobucket.com/albums/dd82/HOGHAULER/My%20DIY%20Case/

Want to continue, ok shape is the first consideration, do you want a box, a ball or a triangle or maybe even an object sitting around your house or apartment. Yep people have built computers into old microwaves, old TVs and even into their desk or furniture. Now what kind of material do you want to build it from, wood, metal, plastic, glass or a combo of these. Wood is easy to work with and there are many tools you can buy, rent or may even already have, metal not so easy to work with and can use a lot of special tools, plastic not as easy as wood but much easier than metal, Glass can be very difficult to work with and dangerous if you don't know what you are doing plus just 1 mistake and it can break/shatter into pieces.

So you finally came up with the shape and the material you want to build your case from now comes the fun part, putting it on paper or if you are good with drawing software use your computer and a CAD program. Time to draw, well what dimensions does the case need to be? Well another problem to solve not that hard just remember you have to fit all those components in the case it needs plenty of airflow for cooling and you need access to the interior to mount those components.

Round 1 is over I will leave you here to think about all the problems and solutions to your dilemma.

Round 2 OK you got all the basics figured and you have done the drawings, now what? Good question, you need to start figuring out how much you want to spend and a purchase plan and figure out what you will need to buy versus what you can build or scrounge from old cases or old builds. First off you will need a mobo platform and back section to mount your PCI/PCIe cards into and your mobo on to. Here are a few ideas if using wood or plastic since they are non conductive you could make these and just buy a back plate or chop one out of an old case or buy them both. Next you need a 5.25" mount box and a 3.5" mount box again you could remove from an old case or buy them since you would have to find some long bolts if mounting in home made ones although it is possible to do this. Next would be switches and lights for the front panel, any electronics stores even Radio Shack carries these just have to buy or scrounge some wiring with the right connectors for your mobo then solder them together. What about the USB and the audio/mic connectors you ask again remove from old cases or find a recycle computer store/electronics store just make sure the wiring is long enough. Now you need to start thinking about fans and how and where you will mount them, what size do you want , do you want leds on them, what about a filter and/or a faceplate. Again you can make these or you can buy them or even incorparate them into the case.

There are a lot of decisions to make and many things to think of but hopefully this will help you out, any questions or points to be made feel free to comment.

Round 3:

Ok its time to look at the major problems you will face when designning and building your own case. The biggest problem is how to make access holes to hookup your wiring to external devices and your PSU without leaving big open places that don't conform to the shape you decided on. You have several choices here either put the access points in an area that won't be seen or you can make a hidden door that either hinges or slides out of the way or if you are using wood you can cut slots to run the wires in and then inlay strips to cover the wiring.

Now what about the ODDs, the floppy drives or the card readers, again either make hinged, sliding or face plates that will attach or be mounted on front of these components or even make secret panels where the whole assembly pops out at the press of a button or you can just leave the front of the components exposed with ready access to them. All of this will depend on the shape and material you have decided on. Wood can be routed to a thinner thickness and you can always cut pieces to fit where no one can tell where you hid the components at, plastic is harder since it is hard to make bends in it although with a heatgun or a hairdryer it is possible to do. Metal can be very difficult since you would need special tools to shape it and join it together, glass is almost impossible to bend or shape without being very expensive since there are so few glass companies that specialize in this stuff.

Round 4

Ok now its time to decide on what you are going to do about the outside apperance of your home made case, you can paint it, coat it, leave it naturial or even wrap it with vinyl wrap. Depending on what material you decided to build your case from you can pretty much do what you want here, wood can be painted, varnished, shellaced, lamanated or even wrapped. Metal can be painted, coated, lamanated or wrapped and plastic can be painted, lamanated or wrapped or if you are handy with a dremal tool you can scribe pictures, critters or what ever you want into the plastic.

Vinyl wrap is an easier route and less messy than painting or varnishing and can be very forgiving of mistakes since you can apply heat to shrink it or pull on it to streach it and it comes in many colors and sizes.

http://www.tiptopsigns.com/Metallized-Vinyl-p-1-c-79.html

WHEN

HOGHAULER — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 22:29:00 GMT

Yes that's right when are they going to do something like this for desktop systems. They build new hardware for us, new OS's for us, new games for us but when are they going to get us away from MS's screw ups. I'm talking about Vista they rush it out so their finacial figures look good for that quarter not caring how good the product is how many bugs are still not worked out they say oh yea we'll get around too it, now a year later almost and still no real fixs. What are they doing waiting for us to fix it for them. Hey we already have Linux letting anybody & everybody work on their OS but at least they don't charge you for it enough said I'm done with my gripping!

Ok its time for an update here we are coming to the end of 2010 and W7 has been out a little over a year and they are already talking about W8. Will they let us pretest to work out the bugs for them or will they pull another Vista and kill it before it starts, will they trick us again so that we have to have a legal copy of Vista or W7 to upgrade what is on their agenda this time? People are really getting discussted with M$ we found ways around their clean install parameters, we found ways to bypass their activation limits and they found ways to block most of this.

Now what is up, come on M$ get wise and quit looking for ways to screw the general pubic just to line your pockets. When you know that within another 10 to 20 years OSs will be dead and these big bulky computers will go the way of the DODO except for a few diehards that will kling to what they know and trust.

TIRED OF WINDOWS

HOGHAULER — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:13:00 GMT

Just recieved latest from NEW YORK

By PETER SVENSSON-AP Technology Writer

The next generation of laptops may let you jump from one OS to another to play movies, surf the web or read e-mail

Phoenix Technologies Ltd., aleading maker of the software that controls windows computers most basic workings, announced this week that it will offer a feature it calls HyperSpace to laptop manufacturers.

Woody Hobbs, the Milpitas, Calif.-based company's chief executive, said the first application of the technology probably will show up next summer in the shape laptops that can play DVDs outside Windows

User will be able to boot in a few seconds straight into the DVD player skipping the longer Windows startup, or switch to the DVD player from Windows. If Windows is running at the same time, it can be put into sleep mode, prolonging battery life.

Laptops with a media player seperate from Windows already exist, but the players don't run parallel to Windows (you have to boot into the player, then shut it down and boot into Windows to switch tasks).

Laptops with HyperSpace would likely have a seperate button that instantly switches away from Windows.

In a second phase, Hobbs sees things like Web browsers, e-mail programs and Web conferencing software like Skype being built into HyperSpace. Computer management functions like antivirus scanning could also be performed outside Windows, improving security, Hobbs said.

The technology would move PC's closer to being appliances_always on and available_and give computer manufacturers a chance to differentiate themselves in what is in many respects a commodity business, by preloading different applications.

The HyperSpace environment would be based on Linux, giving the freely distributed operating system what could be its biggest break yet in the struggle to gain traction against Windows on PC's. On the Net.

http://www.phoenix.com