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#1471
Gratz Zalith, looks awesome
Lady Fitzgerald,
How's the raid card driver issue going. I'm wondering are you using this for the additional sata ports like I do or are you setting up a raid array?
It makes sense that the driver needs to be installed first to set the raid before the OS install but if you're just using it for the ports maybe you can load it after and be fine?
Thanks you guys, it's running beautifully at the moment hey.. Been testing out a few of my favourite games this evening and they're pretty much all running that little bit smoother now.![]()
Well I've got that ugly 120mm CPU fan swapped out with this 140mm fan:
This is how it looks installed (btw, if you look closely, you can see the fans are actually running):
That is one heck of an aesthetic improvement over what was in there:
The old fan's frame and impeller were made with cheap looking plastic and the impeller color didn't match my case fans (there I go being anal again). That nickel plated steel surrounding the fan just flat looked tacky and out of place (the fifties called and wanted their chrome back?).
Except for the CPU fan itself, cable management wasn't an issue. The only other cable involved was the PCIe cable going to the GPU card. I've had that card in and out of the case so many times, I can almost snap my fingers and it will jump in and out by itself.
The fan cable was a bit of a pain, though. It was insanely long (16"-18" or so; I didn't bother to measure it since I was too busy being mad at it). I had to fold it back on itself a couple of times, check to see how it fit in the case, then try again several times until I finally got it right, then use twist ties to secure it in the folded shape. Cutting the cable and crimping on new pins (I think I still have some knocking about) would have been easier but the fan has a five year warranty and, being the cheap, old bi...broad I am, I didn't want to blow it. The bundle hides under the CPU cooler and above the GPU card and can't be seen.
I did this swap purely for asethetic purposes but it turns out the new fan is no louder than the old one even though it running around 20-25 rpm faster (the old fan liked to hover at 666 rpm; mayhap that was the cause of some of my problems?). It also is cooling the CPU better by about 2-4°C. With an ambient of 27°C, it's been idling at 35-37°C for the past two hours. Keep in mind I'm still running the rig without the case sides installed since I don't have the fan power hub buttoned down because I still need to install the LSI card. I would have been happy for the same amount of cooling and would have accepted a bit more fan noise so I'm ecstatic! Doing happy dance.![]()
Last edited by Lady Fitzgerald; 16 Mar 2013 at 20:22. Reason: Old Timer's Disease
I still haven't heard back from LSI yet and probably won't for a day or two. I'm debating on whether to start moving (and reorganizing) data to the data drives or not since if I have to do an OS reinstall, I might not be able to relink the document folders on the DATA DISK 1 drive (my name for it) to the user folder on the boot drive and would have to move the data again (although it would be simpler and faster since since it would already be reorganized, consolidated, etc.; I could just set it to copy from folder to folder, then walk away from it for a while). I'm definitely holding off on installing and configuring any more programs (I've got a bunch of them) until the LSI issue is resolved. In the meantime, hurry up and wait?
I'm just going to to use it (I hope) for additional SATA ports and no RAID on the card itself. Besides needing five ports for HDDS, I need a couple for e-SATA ports and two more for the two hotswap bays. I'm praying the card is hot swappable; otherwise, I'll be making some changes in layout (and eliminate one e-SATA port and, possibly, two USB ports). If I ever run anything in RAID, it would two SSDs in RAID 0 off the Intel ports on the MOBO; the existing SSD would then be used to cache DATA DISK 1, using the two Marvell ports on the MOBO.
Thanks, Guy!
Looking good. I like the looks of Zalman coolers but I couldn't find one that would work with my CPU and fit in my case. Sigh! At least the cooler I did get sends some air into the semi-dead zone of the 5.25" bays.
Good move benching it. It's so much simpler for first testing it. Beats working in the case, especially if the parts have to be pulled out because something didn't work.