Boston Last Night

[Bill Bridges]

My Son assembled his for about 1/2 of retail from what we can tell. Well, maybe 60%.

I have assembled several machines over the years. The reason I buy my FS machines from these folks is this machine is overclocked to 4.8 and has several other modifications that are specific to FS. When the video card, memory and CPU are running near max for an extended period of time, it takes more talent than I have to get the machine where it will not grenade. There is a reason it has an 850 watt PSU.

[Dave Siciliano]

My Son over clocked his CPU, but I don't know how difficult that was. He is an EE, so, may seem easier to him than mere mortals like me.

[Terry Carraway]

Overclocking is easy. Change some BIOS settings. Overclocking with stability and not frying things can be more difficult.

A lot depends on the specific CPU. Some overclock easily, and some are more tricky. And it not just the model of the processor, but also the "stepping" of it. When I built my last computer (a while ago), for the processor, I searched for a D0 stepping, as they overclocked better.

And it also depends on how much you want to overclock. A little is normally no big deal, but if you want to push the envelope, it can get tricky.

I am interested that Bill's box seems to be air cooled. I switched to water cooling. Actually the eventual cooling is still to air, but outside the box, so no huge heat sink inside, and the CPU waste heat is not added to the internal environment. They have some nice plug and play water cooling setups.

[Ralph Jones]

I'm holding off on new builds for a while. I do a fair amount of RC model simming, and it cries out for VR. The first VR-capable program is out, but I'm not satisfied with the current generation of goggles: they depend on outboard position sensors, and since RC flying involves viewing the whole overhead hemisphere, I doubt I could set up a workable array in my family room. I'm hoping for internal sensing next time around.

[Bill Bridges]

I am interested that Bill's box seems to be air cooled. I switched to water cooling. Actually the eventual cooling is still to air, but outside the box, so no huge heat sink inside, and the CPU waste heat is not added to the internal environment. They have some nice plug and play water cooling setups.

I'm a big fan of Noctua air coolers. What I have is a large case with three large fans in front to bring air in, two large fans on top of the case and two large fans at the rear of the case for exhaust. Needless to say there is a lot of air moving through the case. With the temp in my computer room at 75, and running a stress test which gets the overclock to 4.8 the CPU temp gets up to the low 70Cs, which is never close to the max. of 100C. I thought about water cooling, but as long as the Noctua keeps it below 80C I'm going to stay with air. The machine is very quite because I spent a little extra on the fans.

[Ralph Jones]

running a stress test which gets the overclock to 4.8 the CPU temp gets up to the low 70Cs, which is never close to the max. of 100C.

Woulda been nice to have in the early days of bitcoin...;-)

[Bill Bridges]

Woulda been nice to have in the early days of bitcoin...;-)

The interesting thing about bitcoin is it is GPU dependent as opposed to CPU dependent. This is why the price of high-end video cards are astronomical.

[Terry Carraway]

I'm a big fan of Noctua air coolers. What I have is a large case with three large fans in front to bring air in, two large fans on top of the case and two large fans at the rear of the case for exhaust. Needless to say there is a lot of air moving through the case. With the temp in my computer room at 75, and running a stress test which gets the overclock to 4.8 the CPU temp gets up to the low 70Cs, which is never close to the max. of 100C. I thought about water cooling, but as long as the Noctua keeps it below 80C I'm going to stay with air. The machine is very quite because I spent a little extra on the fans.

I just see no reason to dump that heat into the case, when I can dump it outside the case.

And my current machine has two intake fans, and 2 output fans also. But I went to water cooler to keep the CPU heat out of the case. I have a Corsair water cooler. Which is a sealed, complete system. VERY easy to install.

And no huge heatsink to get in the way inside the case.