Thursday, April 3, 2008
Some updates on my computer
Today I was back in camp, initially to attend the waste-of-time meeting, but ended up helping a colleague work on his version of my program, to customize the program to his respective needs, it was nice work done and was completed today. So a day ended like that, I headed home, and finally installed my lapped Maze4 GPU waterblock.Actually after installing my watercooling system, I realized that temperatures for my GPU was terrible, hitting 70-degs on idle and crashing in Crysis. It was unstable and I was sick and tired of I, so I got down to solve the problem, bleeding the entire system and dismantling the GPU.
I soaked it in coke for several hours, changing fresh coke once there was no more bubbles (means the acid reacting with the copper has completely reacted and not working anymore). Once done, I begun my lapping process all over again and finally tonight I fixed back my maze4, applying a generous coat of Artic Silver 5, and making sure the contact between the waterblock and GPU die was perfect, and was rewarded with 40-degs on idle @ stock settings for my 8800GT. Whoo hoo!
The lapping and cleaning of the maze4 really does wonders. It's back to 750mhz clock for the gpu core, 1020mhz for the rams and 1800mhz for my shaders, my cpu is running at 3.6ghz for 7x multiplier, 522mhz FSB @ 1.38-1.41 Vcore. 3Dmark06 still tells me it's a 15k++ score. In terms of real-world applications, I can load a hundred 2048x1536 resolution (3 megapixels) photos into Photoshop CS3 in 30 seconds. Currently one of the world's most demanding 3D-graphics first-person shooter is Crysis, and for my rig, Crysis quick-loads in less than a second and initial loading loads in 10 seconds.
All graphic settings on high, Anti-Aliasing 2x. Temperatures exceed my expectations. On stock settings (i.e cpu 2.33Ghz, GPU 600mhz), temps for cpu is at 23degs, gpu 38-40degs. With blue-ice, cpu drops to 15-18 degs, gpu to 35degs.
On my current overclocked settings, cpu @ 3.6ghz runs at 52degs idle, 58 load (without blue-ice), 45degs idle, 52degs load (with blue-ice), gpu core @ 750mhz, rams at 1020mhz, shaders @ 1800mhz running at 48-50degs idle, 58-65degs load (without blue-ice), 45-46 idle, 55degs load (with blue-ice).
The irony of this situation is that now my hard drives are hotter than my graphics card at idle! All of my hard-drives are running between 38-43 degs depending on ambient, but it's always hovering around 40-42degs. =( It's too hot for my comfort but the design of my casing is not ideal for hard drives anyway. Maybe when I have the time I'll change my front intake fan to a delta or a noctua. Hopefully that'll keep temps down to 35degs. 40 is too hot for comfort.
Now my system is extremely stable, with unbeatable 40degs gpu temperatures at idle. Totally awesome!
