New Build

[quaxo]

I've built enough computers for other people and watched mine get way out of date, so I decided to finally dig deep in my pockets and build a new system. This is the first non-Intel processor computer I've ever built for myself.

Case: Raidmax Ninja (reused old case because I like it so much)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 650w
Motherboard: Gigabyte 880GA-UD3H
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4Ghz
Cooler: Stock AMD cooler (noisy, planning on picking up something better)
Video: PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 5770 (two cards, using CrossfireX)
Sound: Creative X-Fi Extreme
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
HDD: 500GB SATA x2 (one new and my older one, total 1TB)
Optical: LiteOn 24x DVD-Writer
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Monitor: 42" Samsung

My old system has been reassembled in a new case for my girlfriend, minus the sound card which I put into this system (she's happy with the on-board sound).

[patio]

Congrats ! !
How's she runnin ? ?

[quaxo]

So far so good. Basically being two builds that I did last night (the new build and transferring the old one to the new case) and everything went perfectly. Not a single issue.

Sadly, my girlfriend's Toshiba Libretto U100, the laptop which brought me to Computer Hope in the first place, has finally given up the ghost. That's the main reason I did this build, so she could have my old one.

Anyway, off to see how some of my favorite games are going to run on this thing.

[BC_Programmer]

Congrats ! !
How's she runnin ? ?

the proper response to that is of course, "She runs pretty fast, but this is about the computer."

[patio]

      

[quaxo]

Well, it's running too warm. I think the second video card and stock CPU cooler are just not allowing it to cool enough. It idles at 45C and hits 60C+ during games, and this is with the air conditioner on and set to 26C If the air conditioner is off, sometimes it overheats and freezes. Not to mention the stock AMD cooler is noisy. Got my eye on a couple of nice CPU coolers and some more powerful case fans. Going to look at them on Friday.


......no Friday jokes.... I'll snap.... I swear....

[patio]

Have you utilised all case fan ports on the Ninja and are they running in the proper direction ? ?
On my Raidmax Smilodon build i was initially dissapointed in my temps...then i reversed the HDD cooling fan at the front of the case and saw immediate good results...

[quaxo]

Have you utilised all case fan ports on the Ninja and are they running in the proper direction ? ?

All fan ports have a fan. The front HDD fan blows over the 2 hard drives, the side fan blows directly onto the CPU fan (how the case was designed), the rear fan blows out, and I believe the PSU fan blows out as well. The stock CPU fan is like most stock fans, it blows straight down onto the heat sink.

[patio]

OK...thats the same as my adjusted setup...how far is the GPU from the CPU and are those temps overly high ? ?
Mine has a crossbar with an adjustable fan to blow off the GPU...helps quite a bit...

[quaxo]

They're only as far as they can be. There's only two PCIx16 slots on this board, and they're both taken (dual Radeon 5770 cards, double width so they take up two of the rear bays each). The right most smaller PCIx slot (see attached picture) is taken by the sound card and all other slots are empty. The "Turbo3D" you see in the picture is actually the top of a heat sink, I assume for the chipset (difficult to see because it's the same color as the board).

The stock CPU is just crap though. It's noisy as heck, especially when it cranks up when I'm playing games, and it just can't do the job unless the air conditioner is on. Even then, it's still not as low as I'd like it. I didn't expect it to be super cool, but it shouldn't be idling at 45-50C (113-122F).

Also, it overheated while I was out of the house again today. Rebooted and when I got back into Windows the CPU was at 57C (134F) and the video cards at 55C (131F) (without the air conditioner on). Weather outside was 34C (93F) today, so no help there. From what I read, AMD says 62C (143F) max on the Phenom II X4.

[recovering disk space - old attachment deleted by admin]

[quaxo]

Ok, so I had a cooler dropped off at the shop today. I got a CoolerMaster V6 GT. It's a bit taller than my old Asus Silent Square Pro that was in this case (165mm vs. 158mm), and the Asus cooler was right up against the case's side 80mm (25mm thick) fan. To buy me a bit of extra space, I'm gonna take one of the slim fans I've got here (15mm thick), which should give me the extra space I need for this cooler.

I'm also going to take two 120mm case fans to replaces the aging ones that are already in there. I figure I might as well replace those too since I have to disassemble the entire thing to put the bracket on for the CPU cooler.

[patio]

I'd say that beast should do it.....

[quaxo]

You'd think so...

The only thing I've seemed to achieve is silence. The noisy AMD stock fan is out and the V6 is in, as well as the new fans. Quiet as a whisper. I actually had to stop and check that all the fans were spinning.

Few problems though. The V6 is in fact larger than what they claim on the box by a tad over 1cm. This means the 1cm I gained by buying a slimmer fan was lost and then some. Basically, I can't put the side fan on, but I can get the cover on without a fan.

SpeedFan is putting the temp at 32-37C (air conditioner on). Going to put some stress on it for a bit and see what happens.

-=EDIT=-
20 minutes of gaming and it seems to be peaking at 48-52C, so should be alright now.

[quaxo]

Can't edit my last post to add this, and I can't believe I didn't think of this before...

I managed to get the side fan on. I screwed it to the outside instead of the inside. There was a little fan guard that was on the outside of the case, which I've now screwed to the outside of the fan on the outside of the case. I know it's not going to make a huge difference, but just a tiny bit of extra flow.

[patio]

You know the line....Pics...or it didn't happen...