Legit Reviews

I've recently aquired a P4 550 (trading away some review memory), and was very happy to finally be "running with the big boys" at 4.0GHz. The chip would easily post into 4.0GHz, however; Windows wasn't stable. Unfortunately I had to increase the Vcore to 1.536V, which isn't so bad when your running a 130-nm Nothwood, however; on a 1.38Vcore P4 550 it's up there (in my opinion). The Northwood's raised the Vcore from 1.525V to 1.550V at 3.0Ghz, on the Prescott S-775 the Vcore raises from 1.33V to 1.38V at 3.4GHz.

This is interesting because it begs the question; "Does Intel bin by voltage or simply by need?" Do they test every chip to the extent it will either begin life as a 550, or 520 (for example)? In other words is every core off the line capable of 570 speeds, or not? Are they seperated simply by divider? I guess that might depend on yeild. Anyway life at 4GHz finally. Stable as the day is long.

See the benchmark results at my site (please) http://www.ksbrainstorms.com/

Nice OC.......... Even if I don't know anything about Intel............... Really like you water cooling stuff, I'm starting to get a pretty collection myself.I've got 4 systems on hand right now, with a Danger Den system in the mail (A64, another contest win). I think I really need to start getting rid of some of the extra stuff.................

as a poor college student whos car just got wrecked i am always willing to trade/buy/accept hardware donations and deals.

And yes intel does speed bin. I dont know for sure that they do volt binning but its my understanding that they list a range of voltages for the prescott and that the default voltage is set at the factory when they test.

one more edit, nice automatic

I have some watercooling hardware I can donate to you. Why don't you either give me a call, or acutally tell me what kind of system your running right now, and I'll figure this out.

EDIT: DOH your sig tells me. Let me see hmmm.

Here's the issue. I have a pump, it's the Hydor L-45, but it's so dam powerful, it made my last system leak. I have a great block, a Cool-Cases CF1 Rev.2 HERE is the first review I did on the block, then they sent me their new Lucite impingment section which improved flow, and cooling. It then becomes the CF-1 Rev.2 (I have all the parts so you can try both) and I compared to the Danger Den TDX in THIS review. Here's Cool Cases site. The CF1 held first place at Watercoolplanet (waterblock charts out 50 blocks) and held 1st place at CaseUmau (out of 20 watetrbocks tested) for months. Now it holds thrid and second places at those sites, respectively.

SO I can send you the block, I have to find you a pump, which won't take too long. I also have a brand new Swiftech MCW50 GPU waterblock you mat have (never used). But instead of the Hydor L-45 which has 3/4" inlet/outlets (it was designed for ponds not watercooling) we'll find you a pump with 1/4" ID tubing to keep everything synchronous. Your welcome to the Hydor L-45 but you'll have to take 1/2" tubing and really stretch it over the inlet/outl;et (it can be done I'm doing it with their L-40) and then you'll need adapters from 1/2" t 1/4" tubing (which I do have you'll see in my reviews). And I just have to find you a radiator and resvervoir. I can get you into watercooling by next month, and it won't cost you a penny. Call it Karma.

If you want this, and are definately going to use it I'll send it. All I ask is that your sure you want it. I don't mind donating, but I'm living on SSDI so when I do donate things I just want to be sure the person will be using it.

If anyone know how to switch the voltage over on a Hydor L20 pump from 220 to 110 I have brand new one you can have. I may have some extra stuff after I figure out what I'm going to run on my A64 system. Most of what I have are kits that most big time reviewers didn't have time for, so I got them to review. One of the systems is for my son as a Christmas present, but other than that I think we can put together something.

I'll contact Hydor Italy and find out. That would be an ideal pump for this waterblock, perfect pressure, and I have the adapters altready mounted on the block from 1/4" to 1/2". I also have all the mounting brackets he needs for Socket-A, S-478, and A64. So I/we need to find him a Radiator, fan and I have some tubing, although it's used 1/2" but it's high quality rubber. Thanks for helping out. When he get's back he'll be psyched to hear what's been put together for him.

Does the NF7 have through-mount holes?

Yes the NF7 has the mount holes. I'm trying to dig up a radiator also, I guess it needs to be 1/2 inch??

nf7 does have mounting holes, and as for a rad i can pick one up from a parts store down here. I think bio got the one i was planning on useing as it fits two 120mm fans. I think its the heater core from a 77 buick or something. i can always look it up.

The Hydor L-20 has native 1/2"ID inlet/outlets and I have 1/4" to 1/2" adapters on the Block, so I thought it be fine. But the Swiftech MCW50 is also 1/4" so now I'm thinking it might be better to use the adapters from/to the pump and try to make everything else 1/4', reason being 1/2" tubing is rather obtrusive in the case. I can also get 1/4" items easier I think. Only problem would then be the radiator, as heater cores are usually 1/2" aren't they? I mean people seem to place 1/2" inlet/outlets on them?

We'll work it out, but the block's I have are really great performers so I'd like to try and match their native 1/4" ID. If we must remain 1/2" I'll give up one of my Danger Den's I have an RBX and TDX, only thing is then the Swiftech MCW50 goes to waste, and you wouldn't get a GPU cooler? (OMG this is getting complicated hehe) I'll check into this I may be able to get you a new radiator with 1/4" ID's.

By the way did you check out the Cool Cases CF1 at the Caseumbau and Watercolplanet charts? Is it a block you will like? With the Rev.2 part in it you can insert blue LED's and the thing looks pretty cool. I never used that option, but it's there. I think there's a photo of it lit up in my review, and at cool-cases website (linked above). I'll leave it up tp you if you want to go with the CF1 Rev.2 and MCW50 option, or a Danger Den TDX or RBX option. The latter is native 1/2" the former 1/4"

PS I also have a Antec 480W True Blue PSU used just once. It's been sitting in it's box unused for almost a year, if you want a more powerful PSU it may help your overclocks. I also have a PCPower&Cooling 400W Silencer, your choice. By the way this is all donations I totally understand what it's like to have a passion for something, but not always the funds.

If he mods the heater core the way I did, he can put any size barbs on it. Just needs to but the size he wants...............

This is the like to my little custom built system.

http://www.systemcooling.com/waterbox-01.html

Nice project, top notch review!

Thanks.............. I really enjoy building things, for me it's relaxing and gets rid of all that nasty stress from the real world.................... Me and stress really don't get along well, I guess that's why I pretty much do my own thing. Shortly before I retired from the Army, they told me I had the Gulf War illness and PTSD to go along with it............So now I just do carpentry for extra cash and play with my computer stuff and enjoy life as much as I can while I still can.

See im with you there bio, as soon as im done with school i want to find a nice relaxing place to work on stuff. I just like building things. Thats the hardest part of living in an apt is not having the space or a good spot to work on things.

as for a water block anything would be better and quieter than my SLK 800 with a TTSF cranking at 3600rpm.

infinitevalence wrote: as for a water block anything would be better and quieter than my SLK 800 with a TTSF cranking at 3600rpm.

That's the same setup I had before I went to water cooling....... I still have it somewhere down in the basement.............

Bio-Hazard wrote:Thanks.............. I really enjoy building things, for me it's relaxing and gets rid of all that nasty stress from the real world.................... Me and stress really don't get along well, I guess that's why I pretty much do my own thing. Shortly before I retired from the Army, they told me I had the Gulf War illness and PTSD to go along with it............So now I just do carpentry for extra cash and play with my computer stuff and enjoy life as much as I can while I still can.

What I went through the first 24-years of my life was severely traumatic. Now I'm not the type who plays the "blame" game, where I place all the reasons for my years of addicion and insanity on the fact "mommy didn't breast feed me" etc., BUT I never began to heal, until I realized I needed to face that initial tramua in a theraputic environment. What I've learned is that we are like Tabula Rasa, and all pre-verbal experiences inscribe very deeply onto our memory. But at pre-verbal stages thse manifets as personality. Either were fear based, or secire. That can be effected y how we felt at a very early age. So that's the key, those primal events.

I relapsed after spending 19-months in what was one of the most radical programs of it's time, because I wouldn't "get angry at my father" in a group (he wasn't there of course). But I always felt guilty about what I put my family through, so I just couldn't get angry a them even in an artificial envronment. Later I realized my biological father taking off didn't help, and as children we internalize EVERYTHING because a child believes they ARE the center of the universe. So when my adopted father payed attention to my sister, but always seemed to dislike me (worse he faked being nice to me for my mother) I internalized all that. They never told me the truth until my adopted father brought into a ar at 16 when I'd been cuaght smoking pot. He sat me down and told me I wasn;t his kid. I remember my addiction only worsened after that, and I dropped out of school. I beleived I was somehow defective, evil, the reason my family was carzy. Then being told that I began to rebel, and became angry. Hence the insanity began. I couldn't focus in school etc, and that led to hanging with other "defects" or destructive kids.

I never had to call my family on the phone and say "I hate yopu, you were bad parents" in order to heal, but eventually I had to do that work within and with myself to heal. Now I have a healthy relationship with my family.

Post Tramuatic Stress Disorder takes many forms. I used to minimize others pain thinking they didn't go through so much, I mean I saw things most people only see in movies. But I learned pain is relative. You can't really compare pain, the end result is we each have our own. PTSD of course first and foremost it's a ilness derving from combat. It's also commonly found in those with abusive (mentally, physically, sexually) childhoods and among addicts. Therapists began to see similarities in addicts, and those mentioned above both showing PTSD symptoms.

Perosnally I can't imagine anything more traumatic then combat, but the point is, no matter the trauma, there's a formula to heal (well many roads) to heal. Point is, I totally empathize with the "Process." What it takes to find peace, to exorcise demons, and then many of us want to isolate. That's not a bad sign, it's ironically opposite. It means we've done the work, and have an awareness 90% of society may never know. So we tend not to want to expose ourselves to the petty, and completely unaware public, whom don't take into consideration how their actions effect the world around them. Kindness is seen as weakness, when the opposite is true in our cases. I think when your content within yourself, you want to be by yourself. I moved to the tip of Cape Cod for that reason. I probabkly would have stayed, if there were more resources.

Anyway I find peace working on PCs, and writing, and I think our being above average intelligence, find the technical element of PC's a challenging hobby. By the way, have you ever read the book "Making Sense of Suffering, The Healing Confrontation With Your Own Past" by J Konrad Stettbacher. It vastly improved the quality of my life.

Seems like you've gotten youself back together now though........ Iknow that life can be pretty hard at times. Been there, done that as the saying goes. I had written about a 2 page post on my life, but decided not to post it, it's history anyway. Just writting about it helps bring it all back into perspective anyway......

Now back to the water cooling system.............

Well I like to be wide open about yself, that way I know who my friends are, and those whom try to throw your past in your face, you've already beat them to it, hehe.

Danger Den is sending me a 12V pump for review soon. It's their new models, and somewhat smaller then the D4. Imediately after I test it that might ake a good pump. Well here's the scenario, I have two great WB's which both have the 1/4" connectors. Then we have a Hydor L-20, but we have to converts it's power, and it's 1/2"connector. So what wuld be the easiest, and best option?

You're getting one of the new DDC pumps, you lucky guy! that's the same pump that they built for the Mac G5. The Engineer at Delphi that helped design it is a friend of mine. I'm not sure on changing the fittings.http://www.lainginc.com/DDC_Series.htm