I don’t really want to talk much these days as they are filled with excitement, disappointment, regret and pride. I finally got my E6600 Core 2 Duo, ahead of most of my peers. I won’t discuss the cost I had to pay to get it but as a general idea, it cost me an arm and a leg. Anyways, I am sending my thanks out to Mustafa of Al Ershad Computers for giving me the discounts I need, I almost sold myself for this. Of course most of the thanks also go to my wife for her undying support. Anyways, this will be my lifetime fulfillment for now.
I also managed to squeeze in the motherboard, I am unsure if it will stay with me since the Asus P5W DH Deluxe is my main mobo, unfortunately, zero availability here; I settled for the enticing Gigabyte DQ6 which was built as an engineering marvel. Words cannot express the feeling just in its presence, if it were jewelry, this be the gold encrusted with diamonds.
Purchasing this thing was actually a risk since I did not know if I was going to stick to this board or not. I was planning to use it on a temporary basis, overclock and bench it and at the end sell it for 2000PhP less than the current price in the Philippines. I don’t think that is bad at all considering that it will be used for 1 month only. So to the board that gives better performance, I will take it and the other one sell it.
To start things off, it was going to be a very risky situation since this was my first time assembling an Intel brand, what was worse was that I was working on the Conroe (which isn’t cheap). Another thing is that I was buying this motherboard knowing that I would be encountering problems because of its infamous back plate, the Crazy Cool. Talking with the distro, I was informed that removing the back plate could void my warranty. Gigabyte’s counter to Stack ‘n Cool 2, Crazy Cool is a copper aluminum heatsink at the backside of the motherboard. How honorable the idea would be, the whole thing caused problem mounting huge heatsinks with back plates. The only thing to do was to remove it by unscrewing the locks on the top and gently rocking the plate to remove the thermal adhesive tape, remember to use a flat screwdriver coated with electric tape on the tip to prevent minor yet lethal scratches. So the Tuniq Tower 120, the Big Typhoon, the Asus Silent Square and back plate based HSF can be installed on the GA-965 DQ6. Another thing that you need to know is that the Quad Cooling can be removed by the same procedure but this time you need to unlock the prongs on each chipset heatpipe. The 965 chipset and the ICH8R is actually using a semi adhesive thermal paste which can be wedged out using strategical force. You need to target the corners as they are the easiest to displace. The mosfet heatpipes are easy to remove. I suggest you clean it and apply a gob of AS Ceramique to increase thermal conductivity. I absolutely hate the thermal paste they put there to begin with, it was sub-standard in quality.
Anyways, to begin with, things didn’t start off so well. I didn’t actually have booting problems, it was about stability. Any attempt to install Windows ended in failure as it was hanging in different portions of installation. I was facing my worse fears, a faulty motherboard. The chipset cooler was hot, hotter than I expected, hotter than the ones I felt during the old Athlon days. Did I get a dud board, was I going to join the other batch of DQ6 user returning this board (I was told by the distro that they have had many RMAs)? Even before dreaming of reaching 400Mhz, I was stuck.
During the trouble shooting phase, I had a nasty feeling my el cheapo X300SE video card could be the root my problems. With a passive heatsink, it wouldn’t stand a chance. Well, removing everything and putting them together, using different mem slots did not produce anything good. I just called it a night and cried myself to sleep (I was going to RMA).
Getting only 3 hours of sleep as what gamers and enthusiasts do, I was determined to try one more time. There was one thing lingering at the back of my head… a faulty BIOS. To cut the long story short, after the F3 BIOS update, things finally started to have direction, installing Windows XP in 25 minutes and SP2 in 5, my worries were over and it would be time to get to the more serious bench marking and bragging rights.
My adventure is just beginning, its a bunch of firsts and don’t you just hate it when you have to lead the way for others, learn the ropes the hard way and bring it out to the world, regardless, I accept this challenge, I will make this work despite the odds. Now let me use this HDD NCQ and hear my X-Fi roar.
The Philippine consulate has shifted to a new location and I ought to let everyone know. I would also like to tell everyone what a pain in the @$$ it has been trying to find the old consulate and fortunately for us, the new location is ALSO a pain in the @$$. To the consulate people, you are the only ones who know where the location is. I personally have gone to Ghusais and it is such a shame that you will be getting this location. So much for the tax money being paid to the government, they can’t even pay for our consulate office to get a more decent place. Why can’t you guys get a place in Karama like the Lebanese Embassy & South African Embassy. Are you guys saving on budget so much that you are to be found in the most remotest of location? The old embassy location was like a run down villa, no wonder you are getting power problems. Here is the article below:
I am sorry to say that the area where the embassy is near a residential area and labor camp. Although there are 5 buses going there, it would be the worst ride you’d go to. Buses 13 are the worst buses around poor air conditioning and always full of laborers. Taxi rides will cost you more than 20Dhs from Deira alone. I’m sorry to say but they assessed wrongly again about this area. I wish to help, but I just can’t help but criticize as well.
