A Few Hardware Bits

Zygo writes "Most people seemed to like the hardware bites so here's another edition: A small HD @ GideonTech, the VapoChill PE @ [H]ard|OCP, a big GPU cooler @ OCAddiction, PSU Relay Timer guide @ Virtual-Hideout, a water cooling kit on OverClocker Café, Heat spreaders on OCIA , and to end a PSU at Exteme Overclocking"

What's really cool about the VapoChill..

[TeknoHog]

Heat transfer is proportional to temperature difference. If our processors were running at 500 degrees, the heat (assuming equal power) would be dissipated much better. Unfortunately the chips don't like high temperatures.

I dunno about the details of VapoChill, but in principle a refrigerator could have its 'hot end' glowing red, thereby increasing heat transfer rate. Remember that the refrigerator only moves the heat around, it doesn't eliminate it. The hot end must be cooled somehow. But unlike the processor, its temperature is not limited by the silicon.

Re:Ram coolers?

[stratjakt]

Heat spreaders do absolutely nothing but look good inside a windowed case. They run no cooler or hotter, and noone has gotten ram to perform any better with or without them.

Your DIMMs will actually run better with a little bit of a breeze moving stale air off of the chips than it would with a piece of aluminum stuck on with a length of sticky 'thermal' tape.

It's just something to sell to the 'eXTreMe l337 p00ter h4xorz!'

Re:Curious (I'm not a hardware guy)

[Toraz Chryx]

Windows 2000 picks up one CPU with HT as two _real_ cpu's, XP/Pro detect it as a CPU with HT.

As such, Win2k needs double the number of cpu licenses (so for a dual processor HT Xeon box, you need the next version of Win2k up, with 4 processor support.)

Warning on mini hard drive encasements

[mcgroarty]

There are quite a few of these mini hard drive cases available. Be careful if you're buying a USB2.0 one, however.

There are a few cheaper models which don't come with a power adapter, expecting to be powered off the USB bus. The thing is, they report their peak load demand to the system's USB power manager, which is the hard drive spinup wattage. This is higher than most USB power busses can deliver, and the result is a current over limit warning and the inability to use the drive.

The fun comes in, because several of these use nonstandard power jacks (and in at least one case, the model hasn't an external power jack at all). You'll be left modifying the case yourself, trying to find the nonstandard power adapter, or trying to find one of the cheaper USB 2.0 cards without limit protection.

Re:Ram coolers?

[ackthpt]

WTF? That thing only reduced the tempreture by half a centigrade!

My GEIL DDR 256MB came with a spreader, it's kinda odd, as I don't think it's going to do much of a job as a heatsink, but it does afford a bit more surface area and that ram does get warm. And overclocking memory, from what I've heard, does make it run hotter, just like when you OC a CPU. Sockets being as close together as they are, I don't think there's much else that can safely be done to heatsink your memory. Many something vertical with a few blunt spines which won't cut into cables.

Water Cooled Systems.

[trentfoley]

I am in the process of getting satisfaction from a vendor concerning a failed water cooler system. If you don't want to hear a rant, stop reading now.

I put an Iceberg I [ahanix.com] in my kids' Athlon XP 1900+ in the first part of September. It worked great for almost three months and then the heat exchanger (radiator) sprung a leak and fried my GeForce3 video card. I wrote that off since I was planning on upgrading it soon anyway. I also considered myself to be extremely lucky to have only lost something so easily replaced.

However, what burns me is the response I have received (or, lack thereof) from exoticpc.com [exoticpc.com] (where I bought the fscking thing). BTW, their website is not working for me in Mozilla right now, but Konqeror seems to work.

I originally emailed them telling them about the radiator leak and asked for a refund. They did reply the next day saying that they would not return my money. But, I was told that they would give me a new reservoir since I had apparently screwed mine in too tightly and ruined it -- which is not the case, the reservoir is not leaking.

They apparently didn't bother to even read my complaint. I made it clear that the problem was with the radiator, not the reservoir. Here is my original message:

I purchased this item on 09/03/2002 and installed it
as soon as I got it. It has been running great until now. The radiator
unit sprung a leak. Fortunately, all I lost was a video card which was due
for upgrade anyway. I would like to return the entire product for a refund
since I will not be using it again. I do not trust a replacement to be any
better. It was cool while it lasted :)

and, their reply:

Hi Trent,
Sorry to hear what happened to you. This is actually a rare occurence. This
problem only seems to occur when someone screws in the screws too tight and
the cracks form over time. Also, try to make sure the lid is screwed in
evenly so the top is level and not at an odd angle. This may also cause
cracks to form. Another precaution would be to use a regular screwdriver
instead of a power drill. We could send out a new reservoir to you, but
after 30 days there's no refund. Just let me know and I'll send a
replacement reservoir out to you, Trent.

At any rate, I then replied to their mail asking for a replacement heat exchanger or radiator or whatever you call it. It has been ten days since I replied to their mail and I have not received any response. I just sent off another email to exoticpc.com hoping that it will elicit a response. (in case this post doesn't ;) )

Thanks for reading. I feel a little better now.