madness777
New member
Introduction
Cooling our sweet computer components has always been challenging. Keeping things cool and quiet has become a big task with so many high performance components filling our computers. I mean, who wouldn't want a huge CPU overclock with barely any noise humming out of the case while maintaining reasonable core temperatures. Water cooling has made this possible.
Since 2003, EKWB have been making high performance water cooling components for CPUs, GPUs and motherboards. Today, we'll be looking at their latest entry level Supreme LTX Acetal + Nickel CSQ CPU waterblock.
Technical Specification
*For the LGA-115x, EK recommends buying their EK-LGA115x TRUE Backplate. The bundled mechanism only partially supports this socket!
Packaging and Contents
The box itself is very stylish and very well put together. Lots of information is provided all around it.
When we open the box, we will find the mounting mechanism for the water block. The water block itself is right underneath the cover.
The block is sat on soft foam so there is no chance of it getting damaged while it's being delivered to its happy owner.
And here we have all the contents we get with the package. You will receive a user manual as well.
In The Flesh
The water block is made of high quality machined acetal and nickel plated copper. The build quality is really shining off of it.
The base has a mirror finish to it. This means it will make the best contact possible with the CPU.
As we disassemble the block, we can get a glimpse of the inside and its water channel. The micro channels make sure the heat transfer is as efficient as possible.
The orings are made of high quality rubber, ensuring there will be no leakage.
All in all, the block is well rounded, well put together and of high quality. The looks may not be appealing to everyone tohugh.
Fitting and Assembly
The mounting mechanism bundled isn't the best in the world for the LGA115x socket. It's very flimsy and nothing stands in place like it should've. Furthermore, the supplied backplate doesn't have holes for the LGA115x socket, so you will have to run it without the backplate if you don't buy the EK-LGA115x TRUE Backplate. The TRUE Backplate will make your day easier, to the point where you will be happy spending another 5€ for it.
To mount this waterblock, you will have to find a flat surface to lay your motherboard on to. That will help you hold the screws in the mounting holes.
Next, you will need to screw on the nuts with the washes underneath them.
We can now put the desired thermal paste to the CPU and mount the waterblock, following with the springs and metal washers.
We can now finally screw it down. Be very careful not to screw it too tight or you might damage your block to the point of no repair. Make sure you orient your block the right way, or you might lose style points.
Testing and Performance
To test this waterblock, I used:
Intel i7 2600k
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
G.Skill RipJaws 2x2GB 1600MHz
Intel Integrated HD3000 graphics
Seasonic Platinum-660
Samsung 840EVO 120GB
OS: Windows 10 Technical Preview
Thermal paste: GELID Solutions GC-Extreme
Watercooling:
EK-Supreme LTX
EK-Multioption X2 Reservoir Advanced
EK-DCP series water pump (12V)
EK-CoolStream RAD XT (240) radiator
2x SilverStone SST-AP121 fans (running on 12V, 1450RPM)
Destilied water mixed with Ethanol (10/1 mix)
Software used:
AIDA64
Prime95
I was testing this waterblock with different clock speeds and voltages, which put the block under some serious stress. The heat created by the 2600k is immense! It's the hottest CPU for the LGA1155 platform and we'll be putting a lot of volts through it! This is all running on an open test bench, so results will vary when you have this setup in your case.
The test was split into 2 stages. First, the system was idling for roughly 5 minutes, so we get the idle temperatures out and cool down the water as well. After that, we fire up Prime95 in Blend(automatic) and leave it running for an hour, so everything heats up nicely. The room temperature was consistent through out all testing and it measured 19°C, which was needed to get out our delta temperature results. Let's get to the graph.
As you can see from the graph, I was testing it with 3 configurations.
First one is completely stock, with the XMP Profile setup and all EIST, as well as C1E fuictions enabled. We can see, we get very low idle temperatures and quite lovely load temperatures. The maximum recorded voltage going through the CPU was 1.18v at 3.5GHz.
For my second test, I ramped up the voltages and clocks a bit, to 4.5GHz and 1.3v, disabling all intel functions, so we get a constant clock speed. The temperatures on this stage jump up by a fair bit over the stock ones.
The last test was a quite extreme clock of 5GHz at 1.45v. I expected the temperatures to skyrocket, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The maximum temperatures didn't go over 80°C which is short of amazing for a waterblock of this caliber. The delta temperature is not much higher than the second test either.
After that result, I thought I might achieve even higher clocks. So I did.
Conclusion
With all kinds of new waterblocks being released, the competition is quite strong. And EK is up there with the best of them. They bring quality and performance to the market, as well as their new unique design.
But the whole package doesn't tick all boxes. Even though it's a stunning product, it has its weaknesses. Looking at the mounting mechanism, EK should've supplied the LGA115x mount with the block and unless you buy the backplate separately, you will have a day of trouble getting the block fixed to the motherborad. You will also risk damaging your motherboard without the backplate. Furthermore, the TRUE Backplate isn't perfect itself with this mounting mechanism, while it does protect the motherboard, the mounting screws are still very flimsy and you might have trouble mounting it in your case. But with the nuts and washers on, the mechanism works fine.
The mounting screws don't show you when to stop screwing down the CPU block, which might cause some users to damage their product if they're doing this for the first time or have no experience. There is a lot of stuff that could be improved with the mounting mechanism.
The package is very nice. You get a lovely box, with everything safely inside. It also provides a lot of information on the sides, so you won't have trouble getting their address or number.
The looks might not be preferred by all people, especially when EK released their CSQ design. The circles get in some peoples heads and can't stand them, while other don't mind or actually love them. So it's up to you to decide which style fits you best.
Performance wise, this waterblock is no joke. It has some potential under the hood. It was quite an experience and all that without a steep price. This waterblock comes in at 40.61€ without the LGA115x TRUE Backplate, add another 5€ and you have a complete set for your LGA115x processor.
Pros
-Quality
-Price
-Performance
Cons
-Mounting mechanism
-Lack of 115x backplate
-Not the best user guide
Bottom line
If you're looking to get a cheap, but very good waterblock, this one just might be for you. Weather you're an overclocker, or just want a silent system, this will satisfy your needs.
Introduction about myself
1st EDIT:
I'm Sebastjan Pustovrh, I live in Nova Gorica, Slovenia and I'm 20 years old. Ever since I started high school I've been interested in PCs. I was attending class to become an auto mechanic but it didn't turn out well. I slowly found out that wasn't the right choice for me. There is nothing wrong with the work or anything, I love working on cars and/or making it work, it's actually very satisfying, but I just wasn't capable of being 100% sure I did the right job, even if I did everything right. Nothing would be worse than finishing your job, let's say, replacing the tires, and then finding out two days later that, that exact car crashed. I would be devastated if that person got injured or worse. So I slowly pole vaulted to doing PC work and stop going to school. That resulted in me not finishing school while getting a lot of experience in PC related stuff. I also voluntarily worked in a small PC shop and service for half a year before they closed their doors. Even though they had boys from school on practice, they preferred me for doing the job. They also asked if I could help and teach those boys, what they had to learn to pass class, but they didn't seem to care or didn't know what the bloody hell they were doing, literally. After some time they managed to pass the basics and after that they just sat there on the computer watching youtube stuff for the rest of their stay. Meanwhile the man in charge was happy I kept coming, keeping him company and seeing that there are still people around who appreciate a good computer build, not mattering which year it's from. This was the first time I got the chance to use all my knowledge from home and put it into real work.
For my specialties, I'm sort of a self critic so I can't just bust out a specialty because I don't feel I'm worthy of doing so. I always feel there is a lot more to be learned and that you can't master anything. So I let my work do the talking, I'm just a chap who made it.
I really look forward to getting a fun job, much like that half year I worked in that PC shop, that was just beyond perfect.
Thank you!
2nd EDIT:
You might be thinking: this guy is totally daft making all these changes to his post. But the more I thought of it, the more stuff I was coming up with to add to my introduction and today I cracked and decided I have to add all this! Even if it doesn't make any change to the outcome, I will consider this as training. It it my first CV of some sort.
My computer days started around 2004 when I got my first PC with a CRT monitor. I think it was a MX440, intel celeron something computer, not much even for that time.
I remember I had no speakers and played Thames Racer each day right after school. After that we bought a family computer with an intel E4500, ASUS P5K, Geil 2x1GB 800MHz DDR2 and a 8800GT. This computer was the starting point for me.
I was so fascinated by all the things that were inside of it and the most interesting thing was, how hot everything was getting, like the GPU, motherboard mossfets... I kept opening it until the side panel broke and from then on forth it was just an open system.
At that time we didn't really care how loud it was, it's amazing how we can't stand noise nowadays. I slowly began upgrading it with new coolers, new ram and CPU. I really had no idea what I was doing, but it seemed to work.
Since I had it open all the time, the noise slowly got to me and I began tinkering with the fans, voltage reducers and BIOS fan profiles, and with that, my noise reduction and fan profile optimization skills started rising.
I think that was the first thing I kind of got good at. All the while I was reinstalling my OS over and over because I was trying to figure out how to make the HDD faster. Nothing worked.
When I found out I could change settings in the BIOS a whole new world opened up in front of me. The E4500, when I think of it, it got tortured to be completely frank, but when I upgraded to a Q8400, that was a big checkpoint for me. Not only did it love overclocking, it was also very hot, and with the Thermaltake Typhoon, keeping it cool and quiet was a task.
Combined with Patriot 2x2GB DDR2 1066MHz memory it was a little crazy, even for me.
The 8800GT also went through a rough time, overclocking was a #1 priority for me at that time, just seeing how a score can change with just a slight pull to the right with the mouse was just awesome! I upgraded that GPU with a GTX470 which was a completely other beast.
Mainly because it was so loud at stock, you can't imagine how loud it is when overclocked. That meant I needed a better GPU cooler and the Zalman VF3000F was the answer. With that cooler I got a good feel for GPU cooling and overclocking. Shortly after that I upgraded almost the whole system to an i7 870, an ASUS P7P55-V PRO and G.Skill 2x2GB DDR3 1600MHz memory (still working sticks), all inside my NZXT Tempest EVO (still my case).
With my need for speed I killed most of my hardware in a few months and needless to say, I wanted even more.
I got the chance to upgrade my i7 870 to an i7 875k, I fried my ASUS board and bought a P7P55 Deluxe, which helped me get 4.4GHz on the CPU, memory went to 2000MHz. I bought 2 PSUs at that time, a HX750 and an AX850, AX850 was used for overclocking.
After I fried my GTX470 I bought a MSI GTX570TFIIIPE and that was the start of my volt modding days.
Jumping back to the CPUs, the i7 was an oven and I went through 2 CPU coolers before jumping to watercooling. The noctuas just weren't enough, so I went ahead and bought a whole watercooling kit for my CPU. That built up my watercooling skills a bit. It went through a lot of configurations with different rad positions as well as loop order and coolants. Finally I got the best configuration I could've with the case I had.
When I noticed I couldn't get over 950MHz on the GPU core, I thought I could watercool the GPU as well. Bought a universal GPU block and put the GPU under water. I still couldn't get to 1GHz and I got so annoyed I went through the internet in search of the extreme.
I found out you could hardmod the thing. Guess where this went. I started studying the power input for the GPU because there were no answers to what I have to do to mod this card, it's a non-reference model. I got all the information I needed to mod the card to the limit, and with that I got my knowledge in soldering and volt modding. Shortly after that, I found out the top on the chip of the GTX570 was just a piece of copper, covering the chip itself, the IHS.
So I delidded it and put the waterblock on with direct contact to the core, which resulted in a huge temperature drop, it was about 10°C lower on load with 1.45v. I finally cracked the 1GHz mark and went to a whole 1050MHz on the core, passing 3DMark11. It didn't stop there. I still wanted more and with the winter right around the corner, I decided to put my watercooling outside. Yep, the res, pupms and rads went outside in the freezing cold just so I could enjoy killing my hardware even more.
The GPU had so many mods done to it, the weight of it actually doubled. With the water going under 0°C, I had to mix in Ethanol so it didn't freeze. Also, condensation began to appear on the fittings inside of my case.
So this lead me to overclock my GPU to a whopping 1150MHz with the memory at 2600MHz (2000MHz stock) and achieve the 5th highest score in 3DMark11 with a GTX570 on HWBot. The score was P8646.
After that achievement, my overclocking days slowly faded away and I settled down a bit. I was still modding some 8800GTs and some other models, but no to an extreme level, it was just for fun. Best clock I got with a 8800GT was 860MHz (stable, non-stable was 900MHz) on the core, which is not that much in all honesty. I expected a bit more. The last mod I did was yesterday and it's a GTX8800. Just for show. I've also done a lot of hardware repairs through time. I fixed a lot of GPUs and PSUs. I'm also familiar with HDD repair and system restore.
Everything went back into my system. The GTX570 of course got fried, and with no warranty, I had to do something about it. I did a lot of measurements on the mossfets and found out 1 mossfet (the 12v one) got fried. I had to replace it with a heatgun, the replacement mossfet was from my old 8800GT.
When I setteld down, I became more organized and began looking into esthetics. From then on it was a long journey, getting a feel for the right composition of hardware and color, meanwhile I got very picky about stuff.
I build myself a workplace in my room so I left my main system as it was, not touching it, because I got sick of opening it up and changing all the hardware every day, messing everything up each time.
So I needed a good upgrade to keep my system running for some time. The hardware consisted of an i7 3770k (delidded and overclocked to 4.5GHz @ 1.28v), ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe, G.Skill. 2x4GB DDR3 2133MHz, GTX295 watercooled (I have to do something about it though), 2x Samsung 840Basic 120GB, WD Green 3TB, Corsair HX750 custom sleeved, EK watercooling, NZXT Tempest EVO, all noctua fans. Everything is so optimized, you can't do anything to make it better to be honest. The way it stands right now is the best it will ever be without spending any money. Of course, there is room for upgrade, but I honestly don't feel the need.
This was the last checkpoint for me. I want to become a computer service man or something along those lines, while having a hobby of building custom computers. I love working on computers, even overtime in many cases, I just can't stop. I see so many things in computers that can be done better and most of the time I do them, even if it's not requested. Like replacing the thermal paste, cleaning out all the dust from the fans and case, reorganizing the cables so the inside looks better, reducing the noise and so on.
In some cases I notice there are some parts missing or just not done properly, like different screws holding the motherboard, missing screws on the motherboard or any other part of the computer. That's mostly when I receive home built computers from inexperienced people. I always fix that stuff, so I know I gave the man a product that is closest of being 100%. And no matter how bad it's setup or how messy it is, there's always a way to fix it or clean it. I love doing it!
I've been very interested in ''old'' and very rare hardware for some time now, more and more each day. I have a whole list of hardware that I want to see someday. I'm also trying to build a legacy computer for my parents, just for the sake of it. It would be a beautiful little thing, I have it all setup in my head, but I can't get a hold of the right hardware. I imagined it to be an ASUS Maximus Extreme X38 with some sort of intel QX series CPU and 2x XFX5870 Watercooled (already have them), everything sleeved. It would be so amazing, I'm keeping track of Ebay everyday to try and get that board, 1 already slipped through my fingers for 100€ and it was literally unused, brand new and with all accessories. A little part of me died that night.
I would also love to see and use some of the early overclocking boards from DFI and ASUS like the Rampage II Formula, Rampage Extreme, Striker II Extreme... All this old stuff interests me hugely, when man was seeking performance in unusual ways. The cooling designs or XFX releasing their matt black PCB GPUs, first dual GPU models being released, nvidia releasing their 790i, so on and so forth. GPUs also play a huge role here, like the first ASUS ARES/MARS, MARS even got a Bitspower limited waterblock WHAT!? MSI releasing their GTX465 GE, EVGA GTX460/GTX560 2Win, all these amazing things! I can't count in all of them because I'll bore you to death. Besides, there is so much to talk about of each product and there are tons of them!
And I'm happy to say I own a 3dfx Voodoo 5500. That was the starting point for all this ''collectors'' hardware I'm into.
Moving along. I found out I can't work in a messy environment. Everything has to be organized, otherwise I can't function properly. So I keep my workplace clean and open just so I can breathe. I also can't stand body odor, so I won't be coming to work all nasty and reaking of dead body parts.
I love good food and cooking, I really enjoy making delicious meals that making you all wet in your mouth. Thinking of UK, I love the weather an people there. I've been in Edinburgh and I really liked the weather and landscape there. Also the people there were very nice. I'd have to get used to your food, but I think that might be interesting! Oh lord, I've said so much, at this poin my brain feels fried, so I'll leave this here, I think that covers my main checkpoints through time. There's still a lot to be said though.
Cooling our sweet computer components has always been challenging. Keeping things cool and quiet has become a big task with so many high performance components filling our computers. I mean, who wouldn't want a huge CPU overclock with barely any noise humming out of the case while maintaining reasonable core temperatures. Water cooling has made this possible.
Since 2003, EKWB have been making high performance water cooling components for CPUs, GPUs and motherboards. Today, we'll be looking at their latest entry level Supreme LTX Acetal + Nickel CSQ CPU waterblock.
Technical Specification
*For the LGA-115x, EK recommends buying their EK-LGA115x TRUE Backplate. The bundled mechanism only partially supports this socket!
Packaging and Contents
The box itself is very stylish and very well put together. Lots of information is provided all around it.
When we open the box, we will find the mounting mechanism for the water block. The water block itself is right underneath the cover.
The block is sat on soft foam so there is no chance of it getting damaged while it's being delivered to its happy owner.
And here we have all the contents we get with the package. You will receive a user manual as well.
In The Flesh
The water block is made of high quality machined acetal and nickel plated copper. The build quality is really shining off of it.
The base has a mirror finish to it. This means it will make the best contact possible with the CPU.
As we disassemble the block, we can get a glimpse of the inside and its water channel. The micro channels make sure the heat transfer is as efficient as possible.
The orings are made of high quality rubber, ensuring there will be no leakage.
All in all, the block is well rounded, well put together and of high quality. The looks may not be appealing to everyone tohugh.
Fitting and Assembly
The mounting mechanism bundled isn't the best in the world for the LGA115x socket. It's very flimsy and nothing stands in place like it should've. Furthermore, the supplied backplate doesn't have holes for the LGA115x socket, so you will have to run it without the backplate if you don't buy the EK-LGA115x TRUE Backplate. The TRUE Backplate will make your day easier, to the point where you will be happy spending another 5€ for it.
To mount this waterblock, you will have to find a flat surface to lay your motherboard on to. That will help you hold the screws in the mounting holes.
Next, you will need to screw on the nuts with the washes underneath them.
We can now put the desired thermal paste to the CPU and mount the waterblock, following with the springs and metal washers.
We can now finally screw it down. Be very careful not to screw it too tight or you might damage your block to the point of no repair. Make sure you orient your block the right way, or you might lose style points.
Testing and Performance
To test this waterblock, I used:
Intel i7 2600k
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
G.Skill RipJaws 2x2GB 1600MHz
Intel Integrated HD3000 graphics
Seasonic Platinum-660
Samsung 840EVO 120GB
OS: Windows 10 Technical Preview
Thermal paste: GELID Solutions GC-Extreme
Watercooling:
EK-Supreme LTX
EK-Multioption X2 Reservoir Advanced
EK-DCP series water pump (12V)
EK-CoolStream RAD XT (240) radiator
2x SilverStone SST-AP121 fans (running on 12V, 1450RPM)
Destilied water mixed with Ethanol (10/1 mix)
Software used:
AIDA64
Prime95
I was testing this waterblock with different clock speeds and voltages, which put the block under some serious stress. The heat created by the 2600k is immense! It's the hottest CPU for the LGA1155 platform and we'll be putting a lot of volts through it! This is all running on an open test bench, so results will vary when you have this setup in your case.
The test was split into 2 stages. First, the system was idling for roughly 5 minutes, so we get the idle temperatures out and cool down the water as well. After that, we fire up Prime95 in Blend(automatic) and leave it running for an hour, so everything heats up nicely. The room temperature was consistent through out all testing and it measured 19°C, which was needed to get out our delta temperature results. Let's get to the graph.
As you can see from the graph, I was testing it with 3 configurations.
First one is completely stock, with the XMP Profile setup and all EIST, as well as C1E fuictions enabled. We can see, we get very low idle temperatures and quite lovely load temperatures. The maximum recorded voltage going through the CPU was 1.18v at 3.5GHz.
For my second test, I ramped up the voltages and clocks a bit, to 4.5GHz and 1.3v, disabling all intel functions, so we get a constant clock speed. The temperatures on this stage jump up by a fair bit over the stock ones.
The last test was a quite extreme clock of 5GHz at 1.45v. I expected the temperatures to skyrocket, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results. The maximum temperatures didn't go over 80°C which is short of amazing for a waterblock of this caliber. The delta temperature is not much higher than the second test either.
After that result, I thought I might achieve even higher clocks. So I did.
Conclusion
With all kinds of new waterblocks being released, the competition is quite strong. And EK is up there with the best of them. They bring quality and performance to the market, as well as their new unique design.
But the whole package doesn't tick all boxes. Even though it's a stunning product, it has its weaknesses. Looking at the mounting mechanism, EK should've supplied the LGA115x mount with the block and unless you buy the backplate separately, you will have a day of trouble getting the block fixed to the motherborad. You will also risk damaging your motherboard without the backplate. Furthermore, the TRUE Backplate isn't perfect itself with this mounting mechanism, while it does protect the motherboard, the mounting screws are still very flimsy and you might have trouble mounting it in your case. But with the nuts and washers on, the mechanism works fine.
The mounting screws don't show you when to stop screwing down the CPU block, which might cause some users to damage their product if they're doing this for the first time or have no experience. There is a lot of stuff that could be improved with the mounting mechanism.
The package is very nice. You get a lovely box, with everything safely inside. It also provides a lot of information on the sides, so you won't have trouble getting their address or number.
The looks might not be preferred by all people, especially when EK released their CSQ design. The circles get in some peoples heads and can't stand them, while other don't mind or actually love them. So it's up to you to decide which style fits you best.
Performance wise, this waterblock is no joke. It has some potential under the hood. It was quite an experience and all that without a steep price. This waterblock comes in at 40.61€ without the LGA115x TRUE Backplate, add another 5€ and you have a complete set for your LGA115x processor.
Pros
-Quality
-Price
-Performance
Cons
-Mounting mechanism
-Lack of 115x backplate
-Not the best user guide
Bottom line
If you're looking to get a cheap, but very good waterblock, this one just might be for you. Weather you're an overclocker, or just want a silent system, this will satisfy your needs.
Introduction about myself
1st EDIT:
I'm Sebastjan Pustovrh, I live in Nova Gorica, Slovenia and I'm 20 years old. Ever since I started high school I've been interested in PCs. I was attending class to become an auto mechanic but it didn't turn out well. I slowly found out that wasn't the right choice for me. There is nothing wrong with the work or anything, I love working on cars and/or making it work, it's actually very satisfying, but I just wasn't capable of being 100% sure I did the right job, even if I did everything right. Nothing would be worse than finishing your job, let's say, replacing the tires, and then finding out two days later that, that exact car crashed. I would be devastated if that person got injured or worse. So I slowly pole vaulted to doing PC work and stop going to school. That resulted in me not finishing school while getting a lot of experience in PC related stuff. I also voluntarily worked in a small PC shop and service for half a year before they closed their doors. Even though they had boys from school on practice, they preferred me for doing the job. They also asked if I could help and teach those boys, what they had to learn to pass class, but they didn't seem to care or didn't know what the bloody hell they were doing, literally. After some time they managed to pass the basics and after that they just sat there on the computer watching youtube stuff for the rest of their stay. Meanwhile the man in charge was happy I kept coming, keeping him company and seeing that there are still people around who appreciate a good computer build, not mattering which year it's from. This was the first time I got the chance to use all my knowledge from home and put it into real work.
For my specialties, I'm sort of a self critic so I can't just bust out a specialty because I don't feel I'm worthy of doing so. I always feel there is a lot more to be learned and that you can't master anything. So I let my work do the talking, I'm just a chap who made it.
I really look forward to getting a fun job, much like that half year I worked in that PC shop, that was just beyond perfect.
Thank you!
2nd EDIT:
You might be thinking: this guy is totally daft making all these changes to his post. But the more I thought of it, the more stuff I was coming up with to add to my introduction and today I cracked and decided I have to add all this! Even if it doesn't make any change to the outcome, I will consider this as training. It it my first CV of some sort.
My computer days started around 2004 when I got my first PC with a CRT monitor. I think it was a MX440, intel celeron something computer, not much even for that time.
I remember I had no speakers and played Thames Racer each day right after school. After that we bought a family computer with an intel E4500, ASUS P5K, Geil 2x1GB 800MHz DDR2 and a 8800GT. This computer was the starting point for me.
I was so fascinated by all the things that were inside of it and the most interesting thing was, how hot everything was getting, like the GPU, motherboard mossfets... I kept opening it until the side panel broke and from then on forth it was just an open system.
At that time we didn't really care how loud it was, it's amazing how we can't stand noise nowadays. I slowly began upgrading it with new coolers, new ram and CPU. I really had no idea what I was doing, but it seemed to work.
Since I had it open all the time, the noise slowly got to me and I began tinkering with the fans, voltage reducers and BIOS fan profiles, and with that, my noise reduction and fan profile optimization skills started rising.
I think that was the first thing I kind of got good at. All the while I was reinstalling my OS over and over because I was trying to figure out how to make the HDD faster. Nothing worked.
When I found out I could change settings in the BIOS a whole new world opened up in front of me. The E4500, when I think of it, it got tortured to be completely frank, but when I upgraded to a Q8400, that was a big checkpoint for me. Not only did it love overclocking, it was also very hot, and with the Thermaltake Typhoon, keeping it cool and quiet was a task.
Combined with Patriot 2x2GB DDR2 1066MHz memory it was a little crazy, even for me.
The 8800GT also went through a rough time, overclocking was a #1 priority for me at that time, just seeing how a score can change with just a slight pull to the right with the mouse was just awesome! I upgraded that GPU with a GTX470 which was a completely other beast.
Mainly because it was so loud at stock, you can't imagine how loud it is when overclocked. That meant I needed a better GPU cooler and the Zalman VF3000F was the answer. With that cooler I got a good feel for GPU cooling and overclocking. Shortly after that I upgraded almost the whole system to an i7 870, an ASUS P7P55-V PRO and G.Skill 2x2GB DDR3 1600MHz memory (still working sticks), all inside my NZXT Tempest EVO (still my case).
With my need for speed I killed most of my hardware in a few months and needless to say, I wanted even more.
I got the chance to upgrade my i7 870 to an i7 875k, I fried my ASUS board and bought a P7P55 Deluxe, which helped me get 4.4GHz on the CPU, memory went to 2000MHz. I bought 2 PSUs at that time, a HX750 and an AX850, AX850 was used for overclocking.
After I fried my GTX470 I bought a MSI GTX570TFIIIPE and that was the start of my volt modding days.
Jumping back to the CPUs, the i7 was an oven and I went through 2 CPU coolers before jumping to watercooling. The noctuas just weren't enough, so I went ahead and bought a whole watercooling kit for my CPU. That built up my watercooling skills a bit. It went through a lot of configurations with different rad positions as well as loop order and coolants. Finally I got the best configuration I could've with the case I had.
When I noticed I couldn't get over 950MHz on the GPU core, I thought I could watercool the GPU as well. Bought a universal GPU block and put the GPU under water. I still couldn't get to 1GHz and I got so annoyed I went through the internet in search of the extreme.
I found out you could hardmod the thing. Guess where this went. I started studying the power input for the GPU because there were no answers to what I have to do to mod this card, it's a non-reference model. I got all the information I needed to mod the card to the limit, and with that I got my knowledge in soldering and volt modding. Shortly after that, I found out the top on the chip of the GTX570 was just a piece of copper, covering the chip itself, the IHS.
So I delidded it and put the waterblock on with direct contact to the core, which resulted in a huge temperature drop, it was about 10°C lower on load with 1.45v. I finally cracked the 1GHz mark and went to a whole 1050MHz on the core, passing 3DMark11. It didn't stop there. I still wanted more and with the winter right around the corner, I decided to put my watercooling outside. Yep, the res, pupms and rads went outside in the freezing cold just so I could enjoy killing my hardware even more.
The GPU had so many mods done to it, the weight of it actually doubled. With the water going under 0°C, I had to mix in Ethanol so it didn't freeze. Also, condensation began to appear on the fittings inside of my case.
So this lead me to overclock my GPU to a whopping 1150MHz with the memory at 2600MHz (2000MHz stock) and achieve the 5th highest score in 3DMark11 with a GTX570 on HWBot. The score was P8646.
After that achievement, my overclocking days slowly faded away and I settled down a bit. I was still modding some 8800GTs and some other models, but no to an extreme level, it was just for fun. Best clock I got with a 8800GT was 860MHz (stable, non-stable was 900MHz) on the core, which is not that much in all honesty. I expected a bit more. The last mod I did was yesterday and it's a GTX8800. Just for show. I've also done a lot of hardware repairs through time. I fixed a lot of GPUs and PSUs. I'm also familiar with HDD repair and system restore.
Everything went back into my system. The GTX570 of course got fried, and with no warranty, I had to do something about it. I did a lot of measurements on the mossfets and found out 1 mossfet (the 12v one) got fried. I had to replace it with a heatgun, the replacement mossfet was from my old 8800GT.
When I setteld down, I became more organized and began looking into esthetics. From then on it was a long journey, getting a feel for the right composition of hardware and color, meanwhile I got very picky about stuff.
I build myself a workplace in my room so I left my main system as it was, not touching it, because I got sick of opening it up and changing all the hardware every day, messing everything up each time.
So I needed a good upgrade to keep my system running for some time. The hardware consisted of an i7 3770k (delidded and overclocked to 4.5GHz @ 1.28v), ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe, G.Skill. 2x4GB DDR3 2133MHz, GTX295 watercooled (I have to do something about it though), 2x Samsung 840Basic 120GB, WD Green 3TB, Corsair HX750 custom sleeved, EK watercooling, NZXT Tempest EVO, all noctua fans. Everything is so optimized, you can't do anything to make it better to be honest. The way it stands right now is the best it will ever be without spending any money. Of course, there is room for upgrade, but I honestly don't feel the need.
This was the last checkpoint for me. I want to become a computer service man or something along those lines, while having a hobby of building custom computers. I love working on computers, even overtime in many cases, I just can't stop. I see so many things in computers that can be done better and most of the time I do them, even if it's not requested. Like replacing the thermal paste, cleaning out all the dust from the fans and case, reorganizing the cables so the inside looks better, reducing the noise and so on.
In some cases I notice there are some parts missing or just not done properly, like different screws holding the motherboard, missing screws on the motherboard or any other part of the computer. That's mostly when I receive home built computers from inexperienced people. I always fix that stuff, so I know I gave the man a product that is closest of being 100%. And no matter how bad it's setup or how messy it is, there's always a way to fix it or clean it. I love doing it!
I've been very interested in ''old'' and very rare hardware for some time now, more and more each day. I have a whole list of hardware that I want to see someday. I'm also trying to build a legacy computer for my parents, just for the sake of it. It would be a beautiful little thing, I have it all setup in my head, but I can't get a hold of the right hardware. I imagined it to be an ASUS Maximus Extreme X38 with some sort of intel QX series CPU and 2x XFX5870 Watercooled (already have them), everything sleeved. It would be so amazing, I'm keeping track of Ebay everyday to try and get that board, 1 already slipped through my fingers for 100€ and it was literally unused, brand new and with all accessories. A little part of me died that night.
I would also love to see and use some of the early overclocking boards from DFI and ASUS like the Rampage II Formula, Rampage Extreme, Striker II Extreme... All this old stuff interests me hugely, when man was seeking performance in unusual ways. The cooling designs or XFX releasing their matt black PCB GPUs, first dual GPU models being released, nvidia releasing their 790i, so on and so forth. GPUs also play a huge role here, like the first ASUS ARES/MARS, MARS even got a Bitspower limited waterblock WHAT!? MSI releasing their GTX465 GE, EVGA GTX460/GTX560 2Win, all these amazing things! I can't count in all of them because I'll bore you to death. Besides, there is so much to talk about of each product and there are tons of them!
And I'm happy to say I own a 3dfx Voodoo 5500. That was the starting point for all this ''collectors'' hardware I'm into.
Moving along. I found out I can't work in a messy environment. Everything has to be organized, otherwise I can't function properly. So I keep my workplace clean and open just so I can breathe. I also can't stand body odor, so I won't be coming to work all nasty and reaking of dead body parts.
I love good food and cooking, I really enjoy making delicious meals that making you all wet in your mouth. Thinking of UK, I love the weather an people there. I've been in Edinburgh and I really liked the weather and landscape there. Also the people there were very nice. I'd have to get used to your food, but I think that might be interesting! Oh lord, I've said so much, at this poin my brain feels fried, so I'll leave this here, I think that covers my main checkpoints through time. There's still a lot to be said though.
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