![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
![Zarathustra[H]](https://hardforum.b-cdn.net/data/avatars/m/9/9298.jpg?1562108523){kind=avatar}
Zarathustra[H]
Fully [H]
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2000
- Messages
- 31,700
Hello one and all again!
I posted my dual-CPU rig in here back in november 2013. it's been a year and some months since then, and I've gone ahead and done some minor upgrades to it. Just thought I'd post some pics since, although it's an old sucker and DEFINITELY slower than most peoples' laptops now (as was said before...), it's still quite the workhorse. Getting to a point where it's showing its age (as if it wasn't already!) for some things I'm doing that I wasn't a year ago, such as constant nightly Google+ hangouts, but normally this only uses about 30% of each core or so when there's nothing really happening.
So, onto pics.
Here's where it currently stands... I took this after a cleaning. Having a gas station nearby with a free air tire pump is the best thing ever. don't need to pay for canned air, and I don't need to worry about rust in the line, since the pump gets used daily and is well-maintained.
[url]http://a.pomf.se/ezerpw.jpg[/URL]
the RAID card in the PCI slot with the small heatsink turned out not to work. it'd make the machine lock up on POST after loading the card's option ROM to detect the drives. I believe this to be a bug in the BIOS in relation to the board's nForce CK804 (nForce 430, pretty much) and the nVRAID stuff. There's nothing I can technically do about it since Tyan does not support this board anymore.
and SPEAKING OF THE NFORCE, that thing gets HOT. like SERIOUSLY hot. I'd love to someday be able to take the board out and replace the heatsink on it (which is sort of mangled finwise because of all the fans I've tried to mount on it in the past) so to bring the temps down. if the temps on that are kept low, the system performs better. it especially helps out the nForce Gigabit adapter on-board, which would make the temps rise drastically with extensive use. This isn't such a problem at the moment as I've taken to using a dual-port Intel PRO/1000PT adapter in the X16-sized PCIe x4 slot. the Broadcom Gigabit onboard also doesn't like to play nice sometimes, so using this NIC over the nV and Broadcom onboard have become a necessity. I'll probably sometime soon replace it with a proper PCI single-port NIC as I have no use for the second port in reality. this is just what I had on hand that wasn't a Marvell-based card or a low profile Intel card that would also have sufficed.
The hole placement on the nForce heatsink is sort-of nonstandard in that the heatsink is rectangular instead of square. in this picture, you can see that clearly:
[url]http://a.pomf.se/vakfrj.jpg[/URL]
I also believe the heatsink to be painted and not anodized, which just adds insult to injury.
I've only seen this board in one other "modern" build of this decade, one which was dismantled and replaced with a new AM3 board, recently. boo.
Pic:
[url]http://a.pomf.se/prhfhs.jpg[/URL]
What's even more troubling is that I'm currently seeing what I believe are problem signs in the voltage department. I probably should be placing a multimeter probe on the 5v and 12v rails to determine accuracy, but I'm getting some unsettling readings from the sensors.
http://a.pomf.se/oiewkr.png
Ignore the Winbond sensor for the most part, I think it's reading some of the voltage sensors wrong... at the same time take a close look at it since I believe some of them to be right... sans the fan speed. Either that's because I'm sharing the PWM signal for a few fans, or because it's just that far off.
Anyways, just wanted to post that bit of update... since the last time I did post it, some people thought it looked pretty neat, even though it was old.
and yes, the webcam is still inside... but now it's pointing at something entirely different...!
[url]http://a.pomf.se/ktknes.png[/URL]
because why not. clicking the image above will take you to a Youtube video of the light show the fan puts off. it's off the NB heatsink of an old Intel 875X-based MSI board that was new-in-box and got scrapped.
Can't see any of your pictures
Apparently a.pomf.se is blocked as a "malicious website" by our firewall.
Last edited:
