PC Tech/Gaming Info Thread

[skylinechild]

HCCA the thermal grease you recommended on amazon is discontinued by the manufacturer it was replaced by Céramique 2

>> http://www.arcticsilver.com/tc.htm

i'd personally recommend the artic silver 5. currently use it on many many builds - no issues
WRT to it being conductive -again- see the manufacturer description.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)

now i dont know how other ppl apply it or where they use it - but if used on the CPU - where theres just a metal cap- cause the cpu is already inserted into the socket - there are no close proximity electrical paths - therefore no danger

remember to read the application instructions very closely - its different for each CPU brand type and model
and before i forget theres also a cleaning solution and a purifying solution you need to use before u apply your new thermal grease

http://www.amazon.com/ArctiClean-60ml-K ... arcticlean

lastly the artic silver 5 is whats used to also fix the Xbox red rings of death issue - over heating.

This is actually what i had last few years and bought saturday again:

http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Ceramique- ... rmal+paste

It just works.

Arctic silver 5 has its merits, but i chose to use the ceramique on laptop cpus which have no heatspreader most of the times. Also some gpu processing units have diodes around them i prefer not to have paste contacting them. Any cpu/board combo or video card i sold i replaced the stock paste with the Ceramique.

Have the cleaning solutions as well but i only use those for video cards/laptop chips, normal methylated spirit works for desktop cpu cleaning.

Other brands that work well are noctua, IC Diamond, coolermaster ice fusion etc. Was just providing a reasonably priced local alternative.

I find it strange though that you can still get discontinued products on amazon.

i use the artic silver 5 cause only i install it i know i wont have to go redo that again - unless i changing CPU or heatsink.

Ive never really used the other brands noctua cooler master etc...artic silver is supposed to be the best - so i went with that and never bothered with other brands

WRT to using it on laptops...also did that on the CPU and GPU - no issues - noticeable improvement

i have about 3 HP DV laptops that i would like to have reballed - replace the old solder with proper solder and if possible install a new GPU on the main board.

know anywhere locally that can do this...reball..NOT reflow

NR8 if u want to swap out your thermal paste for the artic silver 5 let me kno i'll do it for u

[HCCA]

..artic silver is supposed to be the best

Yet it isn't.

For example:

http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=71658

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/ ... -them.html

Gelid GC Extreme beats it in both reviews.

AS5 may have been 'the best' in its time but new TIMs were developed since then and cooling efficiencies of all the heatsinks/fans in the world haven't been taken into account.

Anyhow enough of this debate.

@ NR8: use the Arctic Silver 5 if u plan on keeping your chosen cooler installed for a while. $85 for the small tube (3.5g) and $170 for the large tube (12g) or get a single dose from skylinechild. Doubt you will need anything more than a small since you don't need to use a lot and it should last you around 5-7 builds.

Prices taken from this guy's store who is a powerseller here:

http://www.rhdtech.com/index.cfm?fuseac ... &pageid=70

[kamakazi]

As5 requires burn in time before it is at its optimal. ... the ceramique does not. ..

[jm3]

My new r9 290's finally arrived and I must say they're very nice.

[TheOwnerPO]

GTA reach yet ?

Upgraded my graphics so my pc will be able to play it

[DVSTT]

GTA reach yet ?

Upgraded my graphics so my pc will be able to play it

Gta need 60+ gigs of space. That gonna take some time to download

[M_2NR]

fellas, newegg taking our local Credit Cards again? I got thru one time and never bothered to try again.

[DVSTT]

Need a gaming laptop under 1000usd. What you all recommend? Really would like another rog ideally.

[ismithx]

Check lenovo. They usually have some real nice laptops on special

[SnipeR]

If anyone's interested, I got an i7 920(D0) for sale cheap. With hsf.

[DVSTT]

Check lenovo. They usually have some real nice laptops on special

Liking this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MMMMMX ... SX200_QL40

[HCCA]

Check lenovo. They usually have some real nice laptops on special

Liking this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MMMMMX ... SX200_QL40

Shoulda have at least an SSHD in it.

[DTAC]

GTA reach yet ?

Upgraded my graphics so my pc will be able to play it

A little under 6 weeks to go. Was delayed until end of March.

[DVSTT]

Check lenovo. They usually have some real nice laptops on special

Liking this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MMMMMX ... SX200_QL40

Shoulda have at least an SSHD in it.

Could always remove the Cd drive and install one. Not a fan of Windows 8 though.

[fouljuice]

I know you say you prefer ROG and <$1000 but take a look at this list.
(Prices would vary a bit on different sites)

http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-la ... 1_178.html

[DVSTT]

I know you say you prefer ROG and <$1000 but take a look at this list.
(Prices would vary a bit on different sites)

http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-la ... 1_178.html

The sager is interesting but the rog is getting 5hrs battery life.

[bassotronics]

Check out my thread guys, got some gaming stuff for sale.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=609734

[jm3]

spent some time overclocking tonight and got a pretty nice firestrike extreme score.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5946205

[Mr. Go Slow]

New build no overclock:

[jm3]

New build no overclock:

nice what does it score on extreme?

[NR8]

Guys, what the highest temperature threshold a pc can safely operate at before damage occurs? Especially with these integrated APUs?

[jm3]

depends on what the manufacturer says most of the time it's actually very high unless you are stress testing a heavily over clocked cpu or you have dead fans you probably wont reach max temps where it starts to burn it will normally shutdown way before damage.

[NR8]

So what would be a very high temperature then? Over 80 degrees C? Asking because I really don't know when it comes to this.

[jm3]

from a quick google search amd a8 apu's max temp is 74 degrees.

http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopAPUResult.aspx

as i said before as long as your not overclocking max temps will never be a problem,
in my experience the motherboard fails before the cpu. in the days i had amd procesors i used to burn motherboards my last amd which was am3 on 890fx the socket itself bowed from running 4ghz on a 960t. thats why i switched to intel and asus and honestly have not looked back since,
the cpu was fine though maybe it was the msi board i burned out 5 different msi motherboards before i realised they are balls lol.

[jm3]

New build no overclock:

nice what does it score on extreme?

just for comparison i did a firestrike run my processor is a major bottleneck my graphics score was 25k

[kamakazi]

When you say burned. ... Did it just stop working... or was there a large amount of white smoke and scorch marks involved. I have the worst luck with msi boards and recently I experienced the latter with an older msi k9n board.

The max temps the cpu can handle differs with the cpu family... You have to do some research into that. ....
Newer processors also go through a process referred to as throttling in an effort to minimize damage as it approaches its maximum temp.

Now I must say that some processors are capable of hitting max temps on stock cooling with stock settings. If you use any overclock stability testing tools on any Intel quad core or greater with stock cooling you will be knocking at that max temp threshold soon enough.
Prime, Occt, aida, etc. Remember that these newer chips also have graphics circuitry which can add to the total heat output
Thread carefully:smile:

[stev]

ok guys, how does the following look? do you see any discrepancies or stuff i should avoid?

Intel Core i7-5820K (6core / 12 thread)
Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4
EVGA GTX 970 Superclocked 4GB GDDR5 256bit
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD
EVGA SuperNOVA 650W PS
Fractal Design R4 Case (compatible with Corsair H100i cooler)
Corsair Hydro Series Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H100i
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 2 X 8GB
Lite on iHAS burner (BD Reader)
Extra PCIe 1GB NIC

Total TTD: $9,675

im getting the monitors free: 2 X 22inch AOC LED 1080p monitors

looks alright?

[NR8]

Well I did some more reading up on AMD APUs and it seems 3rd party software have trouble accurately reading their temperature, which would explain why I've been getting abnormal readings.

I stumbled upon this which advised to download AMD Overdrive. After installing and checking it out, the Thermal Margins it displays seems to be more realistic both at idle and under load than the 3rd party software I was using before, albeit still higher than the CPU I previously had. I guess this really is to be expected with integrated graphics.

I'll still order the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 HCCA suggested though to be on the safe side. I'll replace the stock thermal paste as well, just trying to choose between the Arctic Silver 5 and Ceramique. Regular methylated spirit would be safe for removing the old paste from the APU right?

WRT to MSI boards, I had no idea that they were problematic. I always thought MSI was a good brand and the A78M-E35 that I bought had good reviews.

[HCCA]

Well I did some more reading up on AMD APUs and it seems 3rd party software have trouble accurately reading their temperature, which would explain why I've been getting abnormal readings.

I stumbled upon this which advised to download AMD Overdrive. After installing and checking it out, the Thermal Margins it displays seems to be more realistic both at idle and under load than the 3rd party software I was using before, albeit still higher than the CPU I previously had. I guess this really is to be expected with integrated graphics.

I'll still order the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 HCCA suggested though to be on the safe side. I'll replace the stock thermal paste as well, just trying to choose between the Arctic Silver 5 and Ceramique. Regular methylated spirit would be safe for removing the old paste from the APU right?

Yeah methylated spirit can be used to clean off thermal paste from cpus. I used the Arcticlean kit already but only when i had AS5 paste on processors years ago.

[NR8]

Thanks. Was gonna buy the Articlean kit with AS5 but the Ceramique is cheaper so I might just go with that.