Technoblog.com - Taking Life one CPU cycle at a time!

Friday, February 28, 2003

More on the Volcano 7 I did some testing of my different CPU coolers. I compared the Thermal Take Volcano 7 against the stock AMD fan that comes with the 2100+. Now if you look at the Volcano, it's huge! It is 80x80x25 mm! It bottom has a copper insert so that the part that touches the CPU is copper. As you may or may not know, different metal coduct heat better then others, # Aluminum, this gets the job done, but is slow at releasing the heat one collected. # Copper, this get the heat off the CPU quick, pretty good releasing it # Silver, this blows the other 2 away, it conducts heat incredibly well, so if any company wants to send me a silver CPU cooler, I would LOVE to review it for you, I'm not even going to guess at a price. Also, the Volcano 7 has a thermal sencor on it that take the current ambient case temp, and then adjust the fan speed to cool the processor better. Sounds like a good idea? Well it isn't. I'm a PC Mod junkie and with 13 other fans in the case, the sencor thought it was doing a good job even though my poor CPU was dying. I'm not exactly sure why TermalTake went with the design they did. Why not put the sencor on the CPU? Doesn't make sence. Anyway, I thought I would look for a way to get the fan to max out at 5000RPM at all times. I took the fan off and there was the promised land. I took the thermal sencor and put it in the heat sink of the unit. The temp there was much higher and should force the fan to run at high RPM's at all times. The mod did work, but I still was seeing very high temps on the CPU. So I ran some more tests, I changed my setup for each test. I ran each chop through each of the following * No thermal grease, no shim * No thermal grease, copper shim insert * Thermal grease, no shim * Thermal grease, plus copper shim

It was amazing, no matter the configuration, I kept getting the exact same temps. The stock beat out everytime, almost by 10 degrees C. I find this amazing, due to the fact that the Volcano is just soo much bigger and has the copper on the bottom to move the heat off quicker.

As you can see, the stock AMD blew away the "over clockers" cooler. I'm going to try and sell mine on Ebay. But after reading this review, who would buy it? Note: Idle = Idleing in Windows XP Pro Full Load = Encoding a DVD into MPEG, CPU usage 100% at all times Posted by chris at 11:04 PM PC Cooling • (0) Trackbacks

O.C. Supertones? I might be able to go see the O.C. Supertones on Tuesday, we'll see. It will be another rockin show! They have to be my favorite band. Yes, Drew, they beat out Disturbed!

Posted by chris at 01:27 AM Concerts • (9) Trackbacks

JOC Live I went and saw JARS OF CLAY and CAEDMON'S CALL tonight in Mishawaka, it was a heck of a show, everything accustic! I was up in the front, I would have pics if my camera wasn't broken. My pastor is related to the band's bass player in JOC so needless to say I got to go meet the band, I had them sign a T-Shirt and my Meet and Greet pass. It was awesome. If they are in your area, GO SEE THEM. Good christian music!

Posted by chris at 01:19 AM (0) Trackbacks

Thursday, February 27, 2003

Horrible Cooler DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT buy a Thermal Take Volcano 7! It is a hunk of junk! I got one thinking that a big heat sink with a copper shim and a good amount of thermal compound would really lower my CPU temp. NOPE, it ran 10 * C hotter with this sucker then with the original stock AMD fan! I was surprised! I gave it a fair chance, I used it for 2 weeks and messed around with it. Still sucked.

It has an ambient case temp. sencor on it, how dumb is that? It adjusts the fan speed depending on the ambient case temp! I have a billion (13) fans in my machine so the case temp is rather low. So that gave me no help. So I took it apart and rerouted the sencor so that it was thouching the heat sink, that maxed out the fan speed, but it didn't touch the temp of the CPU at all. So if you want a good fan go get ya one of these. I want one, just havn't ordered it yet. Posted by chris at 05:02 PM PC Mods • (0) Trackbacks

God bless Ebay I don't use Ebay a ton, I prefer retail. It just seems that Ebay isn't very cheap at times. This time they came through! I wanted to get a big 10/100 switch to add my 4 port router, needless to say, I found it!

That is the D-Link DSH-32. A 32 port 10/100 switch. Has an intake fan on the left side and to exhausts on the right side. 2 upload ports for load balancing of the traffic for ports 1-16 and 17-32. This sucker rules. When I asked Scott what he thought I paid he said "$120, I don't know". Sorry man, not even close. Grabbed it for $30+$10 shipping. I found it online for $800 (Can. $). I think I got a deal, it's about as loud as my dang PC though. Posted by chris at 04:19 PM Networking • (0) Trackbacks

Monday, February 24, 2003

Firmware rulez! If you are a D-Link 614+ user and you have the 650 card for your notebook, GO GET THE BETA FIRMWARE! Hooooly cow dude! I thought I would have pass my "leash" with my notebook, I always loose the signal in a certian place in my yard. But after I installed the 2.16 BETA drivers on my router I walked 30 feet past that point and still kept streaming Radiostorm.com at 128k/s. I was amazed to say the least! This is even with the signal going through at least 3 wall to reach where I was. When the snow melts I'm going to set the router outside in the open and see what kinda of range I get out to it. OH get the firmware here Posted by chris at 12:27 AM (0) Trackbacks

Saturday, February 22, 2003

Can you say screwed Hmm, from this I can see that MS is telling it's SQL customsers to bend over cause they are gonna get screwed. Posted by chris at 01:19 AM Software • (0) Trackbacks

Hell ya Preach it brother! Posted by chris at 12:29 AM Funny Stuff • (0) Trackbacks

Friday, February 21, 2003

Plugin Test Don't mind me, just testing a text formating style. Check the permalink for the results. Posted by chris at 10:38 PM This Blog • (0) Trackbacks

Thursday, February 20, 2003

Warm, yet cold I went for my first ride of the riding season today. Note to self, don't go on a ride without checking the tire pressure! Wow, I bet I was riding on 30 PSI when my road tires will take up to 80, it was slow riding, why I didn't turn back? I have no clue. I was happy to be back out on my bike, it keeps me calm, if I ever get my Nomad Zen that will be a life saver! Cranking up the tunes on a bike! Also, it was warmer here in Indiana, but still chillly for my riding gear, I wore it anyway, I'm a dumbass ;-b. Anyway I ended up with a short 8 mile ride, but I'm glad I went short, I was sore from being out of shape. I would love to post pics. But my camera is dead at the moment. Posted by chris at 11:50 PM Biking • (7) Trackbacks