Sprocket's New Home

**clocker** · 05-03-2004, 04:33 AM

Sorry...couldn't resist.
I've been tinkering with the balance of my fan speeds and I think I finally hit the "sweet spot".

My experience with case airflow has lead me to believe that the interaction of all the fans in a case is a very delicate thing, and even slight variations can make a disproportionate difference.
Now that I can control each of my eight fans individually I've been slowly but surely dialling in the setup.
I think that these figures serve to prove my point.

These figures are with the CPU at idle most of the time, there were brief periods of Folding ( hence the spike up to 38c) for maybe 1/2 hour total.
The case was completely buttoned up, all panels installed.
Room ambient ( as reported by the Aerogate temp sensor) was 23c.

So, what's the point?
Well, my seemingly obsessive pursuit of lower temps was not just an idle hobby.
Sprocket's latest case embodies all the tweaks that previous cases have suffered to provide.
Air cooling can be extremely effective if properly deployed.
Randomly adding/subtracting/upgrading fans will not get you where you want to be.
If you persevere and proceed with deliberation your PC can run just as you hope.

Sorry for being grandiose here.
It's an occupational hazard.

**lynx** · 05-03-2004, 11:56 AM

Clocker, I notice you've got a clock speed of 2303MHz, but which processor is that?

**Virtualbody1234** · 05-03-2004, 12:38 PM

I think he has a 2600+. Could be wrong.

**clocker** · 05-03-2004, 01:01 PM

No, you're correct.

2600+ T-bred.

**clocker** · 05-04-2004, 07:11 AM

Right then.
I finally got around to a project that I've been pondering for a while.
CoolerMaster makes alloy faceplates for optical drives and they look sweet.
I've had a set of the black anodized ones and decided today to mount them and make remote switches to open the drives also.

Of course, this was not as simple as I had hoped.
CoolerMaster claims that the activating button will align with " most" drives, but, of the three drives that I have, the button was wrong for all of them. Close, but no banana.
Since I was going to wire remote switches anyway this wasn't a major deal, just irritating.
I fooled around for a few hours trying to mock up a good way to get the alloy switch plate to activate my stock switches but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the hassle and just glued the cover into the faceplate so I didn't have a hole visible.

CoolerMaster wants you to use doublesided tape to attach the alloy to the plastic bezel of the drive.
This led to the second problem.
Neither of the drives I wanted to use had a nice flat faceplate.
Poop.
I could use multiple layers of tape to build up the various levels to the same height, but this seemed kinda ghetto so I opted to break out the GOOP, remove the stock plastic bezels altogether, and glue the alloy plates to the metal housings of the drives.
This worked out rather well and left the stock parts untouched, so I could revert back in the future ( unlikely).

The camera doesn't do justice to the final result...the alloy bezels look quite good and have added a nice touch of understated elegance to Sprocket's face
The two new activating switches are mounted right at the top of the front casebezel where they are readily accessable when Sprocket is in place at my desk.

Whew...glad that's over.

**tesco** · 05-04-2004, 01:15 PM

Originally posted by clocker@4 May 2004 - 02:19
Right then.
I finally got around to a project that I've been pondering for a while.
CoolerMaster makes alloy faceplates for optical drives and they look sweet.
I've had a set of the black anodized ones and decided today to mount them and make remote switches to open the drives also.

Of course, this was not as simple as I had hoped.
CoolerMaster claims that the activating button will align with " most" drives, but, of the three drives that I have, the button was wrong for all of them. Close, but no banana.
Since I was going to wire remote switches anyway this wasn't a major deal, just irritating.
I fooled around for a few hours trying to mock up a good way to get the alloy switch plate to activate my stock switches but ultimately decided it wasn't worth the hassle and just glued the cover into the faceplate so I didn't have a hole visible.

CoolerMaster wants you to use doublesided tape to attach the alloy to the plastic bezel of the drive.
This led to the second problem.
Neither of the drives I wanted to use had a nice flat faceplate.
Poop.
I could use multiple layers of tape to build up the various levels to the same height, but this seemed kinda ghetto so I opted to break out the GOOP, remove the stock plastic bezels altogether, and glue the alloy plates to the metal housings of the drives.
This worked out rather well and left the stock parts untouched, so I could revert back in the future ( unlikely).

The camera doesn't do justice to the final result...the alloy bezels look quite good and have added a nice touch of understated elegance to Sprocket's face
The two new activating switches are mounted right at the top of the front casebezel where they are readily accessable when Sprocket is in place at my desk.

Whew...glad that's over.

sweet!

and nice touch with the "on" lettering over the on switch, very classy.

**j2k4** · 05-04-2004, 01:25 PM

Tres elegante.

A splendid example of well-executed "one-off-ness"...

Maybe "two-off-ness", or even more.

As a neophyte in H-World, I'm can't be sure.

How's about, A New Paradigm of "Cool"?

Yeah, I like that!

I bet other computors want to have sex with yours.....

**clocker** · 05-04-2004, 01:46 PM

Originally posted by j2k4@4 May 2004 - 07:33

I bet other computors want to have sex with yours.....

Just so.

Sprocket has begging for me to arrange a "play date" with my neighbor's Dell, but I don't trust his intentions.

**j2k4** · 05-04-2004, 02:01 PM

Originally posted by clocker+4 May 2004 - 07:54--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (clocker @ 4 May 2004 - 07:54)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-j2k4@4 May 2004 - 07:33

I bet other computors want to have sex with yours.....

Just so.

Sprocket has begging for me to arrange a "play date" with my neighbor's Dell, but I don't trust his intentions. [/b][/quote]
Oooooooh.

Don't want to do that, uh-uh.