Asus M3A AM2+ System "Swamp Thing" (56k Warning)

[jpierce55]

My nb cooler used the hooked screws with nuts. I had to turn one in and one out to get them to line up, largely thanks to the capacitor in the phot you took.

[Methious]

I think they did that on purpose to discourage us from trying to get better performance from a value board. Have any of the Phenom users tried VGA heat sinks (or similar) on the MOSFET's to see if it increases stability over clocking? I know a few people (not on phenom) who swear it increases stability.

Just a small update, I went ahead and ordered a triple 120mm Swiftech radiator and 3 matching Yate-Loon 43cfm fans, so It's going into round 2 water cooling early. Any one have a railroad spike I can drive into my forehead?

[Methious]

Here's a BIOS tip I picked up on another forum. When your in bios hit F4 to unlock secret bios settings. Ganged/Unganged memory, looks like it just keeps getting better!

[crazydiamond]

glad to see its all comin together for ya methious. i ended up sellin that m3a rig i had, and about to dive into another lol.

pretty similar build this time:

case: nzxt alpha
mobo: asus m3a
cpu: x2 5000 black
hs/f: zalman 9500 instead of rosewill rcx-z3
ram: 4x1gb ballistix 667 C3 instead of a-data extreme 800 C4 - and tryin out the ocz memory cooler as well
vid card: evga 8800gt 512mb instead of xfx
hd: 2x320gb seagate 7200.10 16mb cache SATA raid 0 instead of wd 500gb SATA
dvd: typical lite-on dvdrw
psu: xclio greatpower 500w

ill be sure to give some updates, probably wont get the rest of the parts till tomorrow

[jpierce55]

I answered on the other forum. As far as it goes for me my mosfets are luke warm to the touch, not hot enough for sinks.

[Methious]

Probably more applicable at higher FSB speeds than lower. When I lower my multiplier and up FSB to see how far I can go the mosfet's get a little toasty, might be I need more air movement now that I'm on water.

[Resnik]

glad to see its all comin together for ya methious. i ended up sellin that m3a rig i had, and about to dive into another lol.

pretty similar build this time:

case: nzxt alpha
mobo: asus m3a
cpu: x2 5000 black
hs/f: zalman 9500 instead of rosewill rcx-z3
ram: 4x1gb ballistix 667 C3 instead of a-data extreme 800 C4 - and tryin out the ocz memory cooler as well
vid card: evga 8800gt 512mb instead of xfx
hd: 2x320gb seagate 7200.10 16mb cache SATA raid 0 instead of wd 500gb SATA
dvd: typical lite-on dvdrw
psu: xclio greatpower 500w

ill be sure to give some updates, probably wont get the rest of the parts till tomorrow

Im interested to hear how much you like that 9500 over the Rosewill Z3, Crazy..
Im about to be building a system nearly Identical to yours posted above.

Except for I plan on using a Cosair 620HX, in an Antec 900.. With Muskin Ram, and a Ruby edition HD 3850.

I was going to run another fan on the Z3 seeing that i have Z3 heatsink sans fan..
^^
I
<-/<-HS<-

That would be fan layout, since the Antec 900 has some serious Airflow anyway, and im not one thats bothered by case noise..
Seems like my Logitech Z-5300's always drown out fans

But i've also looked at the Zalman 9500 and 9700's as another possible route.


On Another Note..
Post more PICS mang.

[Methious]

Couple of days there'll be more pics, the radiator I have is a good radiator but I'm redoing the water system with a triple 120mm Rad. After that I can get into some serious testing. Tax time is just a busy time for computer repair people. In the last week I managed to squeeze in an hour of gaming, I usually get at least 8 to 10 hours.

[crazydiamond]

ya man, ill let you know about how different the temps are. i was actually pretty impressed with the z3. i think the side intake blowing toward the zalman will help cool it more than it did the z3 since it was enclosed. it keeps the NB pretty cool too. when i have the side of for periods of time the NB heats up a pretty decent amount. i know its temp hasnt been a problem for anyone, but i at least dont worry about it now lol

[Resnik]

Good times Crazy.

Actually, I'll probably take the shroud off the Z3, Personally i think it will hinder the airflow rather than help it with a 2 fan setup on the Z3, in the Antec 900 case..
I understand the purpose on the shroud is to force the air from the fan through/over the fins.. however with the Antec 900, the 200mm Exhaust fan wont be able to properly extract air from the case with a giant plastic shroud a few inches away from it..
That is just a result my brainstorming however.

And in regards to the NB Heatsink, Meth suggested an easy little mod to mount a 40mm Scythe fan onto the HS, if i see a need, i'll probably go that Route.


O and Ouch.. Hate to hear that you've only gotten an Hour worth of gaming in here recently Meth..
Hehe, I've been playing some serious CoD:4 on XBL myself.

[Methious]

Yea I hate it when life interrupts my gaming it's darn annoying. On the NB, I'm not the only one seeing temps on it. On speed fan temp2 is NB temp3 is SB. If you don't have it download it (it's free) and take a look, under medium load were seeing 50c. I don't know what it's designed to take but the 50C is under a water block pushing 90+ gallons an hour with good air flow. I don't think it's specific to this board, I think modern NB chips run hot. Look at the proliferation of cool pipes on motherboards.

A lot of people are cooling the NB and mosfet's especially to achieve stable over clocks at higher fsb speeds, and heavy load. I had an M3A premium board in my hands the other day (build for a neighbor) so I checked NB with the heat pipe on that board, running full out it was at 53c (only ran it full out a couple of minutes neighbor was freaking)

New radiator just came through the door laters.

[Resnik]

HAhah, Damn Meth, your getting new toys for your WC'd machine every other day..
Im envious.

Post pics man.. Damn, you have all the fun building comps, and dont keep us viewers up to date.

[Methious]

I got the triple 120mm Swiftech radiator installed, leak testing now. There'll be some pics later tonight or tomorrow. A lot of this new stuff is from trades, labor for parts and alternative methods, the only thing I've gone out of pocket for recently is the radiator, 3 fans (9 bucks for all 3 ), like 10 hose clips, and 8 bucks worth of hose. Oh and a 9 dollar window kit I already sold.

Taking what I bought, and what I sold of the original cooler, I have about 40-50 cash in the water cooling end. Net value of the water equipment I'm actively using and have squirreled away about 350. After people see it and I do upgrades (tax time I love it) I'll be considerably ahead.

[Methious]

Here are some update pictures on Swamp Thing, I moved to an interior mount for the pump and reservoir, side mounted a new Swiftech MCP320 triple 120mm radiator with 3/8" high flow metal barbs, mounted 3 Yate Loon 43cfm 120mm fans on the radiator, and changed to a single loop to avoid the "Y" connectors and cut down on potential leak points. Got in 5 hours leak testing and will finish and mount the blocks tomorrow and once again deal with the rats nest of wires inevitably created when you start these things.

Left to do, cut and solder the pump wires shorter, solder a lead to run to the radiator fans, run wires, mount blocks, polish off finger prints and get in some testing and gaming time.

Here's the massive radiator (no it's not crooked the camera is)


Water Blocks leak testing again


New Reservoir Mount In Front Of The Pci Slots (Drops out with one screw, pump follows with velcro holding it down)


Notice the bubbles in the top of the Swiftech Micro Res, their easy to remove by using an old ink refill syringe, pull in a little coolant and submerge the barrel of the syringe and squirt them right out of your life. The Micro Res has a plane of plexi right below the bubbles and when the inflow from the NB (the last stop in my loop) comes into the reservoir it hits the plane, bubbles do a half circle and move into the upper chamber away from your out flow. Neat little reservoir if you ask me. Of course I'd like one with about a quart capacity but you gotta have a little restraint on the budget.

[Resnik]

Nice new Sig Meth

[Methious]

You know you have the bug bad when you get up at 5am, turn on your pump for leak testing then throw on a pot of coffee.

Yea the old sig was kind stale and out dated by upgrades. This one should hold pretty good for a while, usually when I get to this point I keep things kind of static until I get the urge for a new mobo/cpu.

[Methious]

I got it all together and back into the case, all I have left is solder a couple of molex leads to the right legnth, polish it up and I'm good to go.

29-30C idle
32C normal load
40-41C full load 2 hours absolutely no upward creep!

[w00fd06]

Nice new Sig Meth

ditto, love the avatar too

[Resnik]

Or, Someone just buys up your goodies, and you have to *sigh*
Build a new computer..
Lucky little..

[Resnik]

So how are you liking the Muskin ram, Meth?
You bought a 2x2gb Kit did you not?