The Makiav3llian Enchantment…

I took a bite at a bullet this week and many of my peers either considered me having balls the size of grapefruits or having balls for brains. I actually am still in shock for what I did with my Conroe (processor). Anyways, I just dropped by my local hardware store to get some sand paper. Grit ratings from 320, 400, 600 and 1500. Unfortunately, Dubai doesn’t carry all of them and I have to settle with what have. So my newly acquired Gigabyte 3D Rocket II Cooler was going under the knife called Lapping. Lapping is a process where you use really fine waterproof sandpaper and smoothen up the finish of a metal. You see, your heatsinks are factory lapped and isn’t really polished off, under a microscope, the edges are still rough, a metal which actually has been lapped the best shines and is like a mirror giving off a reflection. Of course we don’t lap because we want to see that shine but because this whole process improves conductivity. So this whole process was to bring down my temperature generating from my processor.
Lapping doesn’t require any skills at all, just a lot of patience.

What you need:
Water
Waterproof Sandpaper (Grits 400, 600, 800, 1000 & 1500)
Flat Surface or Glass Pane
Duct Tape
Dishwashing Liquid
Patience (lots of it)

What to do:
1. Divide your whole sandpaper into vertical strips.
2. Using the duct tape, secure your first strip (lowest one) on both ends into the glass. Make sure it is as straight as possible.
3. Get some water and dab the area where sanding will take place. Don’t put too much. You may also dip the whole sand paper into water and then attach to the glass pane.
4. Now put a drop of dishwashing liquid on the HSF base turn it facing the sandpaper and create vertical up and down motion on the sand paper. Do at least 10 repetitions.
5. After 10 repetitions, rotate the base of the HSF at a 90 angle and repeat process 4, reapplying dishwashing liquid and put water on the sandpaper. Keep repeating until you’ve done a complete 360 rotation.
6. Once completed, move to the next grit level and repeat step 2.

You’ll notice that as you climb each grit level, the base of the HSF slowly becomes reflective. At 1500 to 2000 grit, the base is like a mirror. Personally speaking, when working on the lower grit, I use 720 rotations or do two complete rotations and just one complete rotation when you get higher.

So after 2 hours, I added another two hours on it. A total of 5 hours as I completed another lap job. Not just another lap job but something which took a lot of guts to do. Just sit back and admire my effort which went without an ounce of intelligence. Note that if you do this, you void your warranty. Now you know why I had balls for brains.

By the way, the temperature drop was not significant enough.

This is where you will see my wish list for the months to come. Slowly but surely, I will be able to select the items I want to use for my rig and this will be updated regularly.

So the Project stands:
February: Gigabyte 3D Aurora (Casing) - 500Dhs
March: Enermax Liberty 620W (Power Supply) - 690Dhs
April: Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110 (Wireless Keyboard and Mouse) - 175Dhs and Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB  SATAII 16MB Cache (Hard Drive) - 390Dhs
May: BenQ WD 1640 (DVD Writer) - 170Dhs and Edifier R501 5.1 Speakers (Speaker System) - 350Dhs
June: Iiyama 21" H540S-Wide Screen LCD (Display) - 925Dhs
July: Asus Silent Square (Cooling Solution) - 235Dhs and Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic (Sound Card) - 365Dhs
August: Asus P5B Deluxe Wifi-AP Edition (Motherboard) - 965Dhs
September: OCZ Dual Channel EL Platinum XTC 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800 Mhz Memory (Memory) - 930Dhs
October: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (Processor) - ????Dhs
November: GeForce G8800GTX PCI Express (Video Card)

OK, so the title maybe corny in a lot of ways but with my recent acquisition I feel I have just made a perfect union between my Antec Spot Cool and the Gigabyte 3D Rocket II. It wasn’t that the Asus Silent Square wasn’t efficient, heck it dropped my idle temps to 35C in the middle of the night but I just can’t take it when my temps hit 53C on full (but very seldom) load, particularly in Orthos SP2004. So today I am going to trying a more practical, no nonsense approach with this cooler.
I just bought the Gigabyte 3D Rocket II and the first thing that would astound you is the size. It’s one huge momma at 160mm and at 640g, it can’t be argued that we have a complete heavyweight on my hands. It is definitely taller than my S2 but this is because of the fan exhaust which has a duct, if compared by heatpipe height, the S2 would still be taller. As for the weight, if you remove the fans on both models, the Rocket would weigh less. The Rocket actually has two, yes two fans, that make it heavy, but beauty of it actually lies there because the upper fan takes out air from the ring of fins while the bottom fan sucks in air from the bottom. Now where does the Spot Cool come, well it is just a simple case of blowing air on the right place. I call it Air Circulation and Exit or ACE. It’s simple really and involved three things, the Antec Spot Cool, Gigabyte 3D Rocket and a side panel mesh.  Disposal of hot air has always been an issue, if hot air stays inside, your parts will maintain a high ambient temperature. Now with these three parts, I may have found a way to properly circulate air, unconventionally. The Antec Spot Cool is strategically placed blowing air to three components, the memory modules, motherboard and the base of the HSF. Air hitting the motherboard is cooler and gets warm when hitting the targeted components (it becomes semi-cool) and passes by the HSF base towards the VRM and then exhaust fan. The HSF base will always be hotter than the air that has passed through the memory and motherboard, thus it can absorb the heat emanating from the HSF base and heatpipes too. On the HSF base, the fan at the bottom of the Rocket will suck the air that ricochets of the base, through the fins and eventually sucked out by the 92mm fan on the top. The air is then blown out of my side panel mesh and I get proper removal of hot air.
I think it ingenious but I may not be the first to know about it. Actually it doesn’t require a rocket scientist to join the dots. It just so happened someone showed me this model and because I was not happy that my temps were over 35C at times, I wanted to try a new approach or just be practical…

Cool Marks the Spot

Cooling has always been an issue and I could just never put a fan in the right place. Besides, no one can easily put an 80mm fan or have it hover above your memory modules. Many have tried starting of with the Zalman Fan Bracket series. Believe me, that was a great solution and being able to adjust your fan here and there is a key selling point, unfortunately, you just couldn’t bend it or have it reach in those hard to reach areas. Fortunately for us someone came up with a novel solution to get cooling into those places and more. The company is Antec and today they present Antec Spot Cool. No need for explanations really as the function is self-explanatory; it’s quite easy to imagine what it actually does but what it actually looks like is anybody’s guess.

Packaging:

It weighs around 0.7lbs (310grams) encased in a solid plastic shell. A thin cardboard with the product name and model some sandwiched in between and a small manual. Nothing really fancy but what is inside is what matters most.

The Merchandise:

Well, the best way I can tell you what it looks like is a mechanical lollipop with a fan attached on the end instead of hardened candy, if you guys still don’t get it, think of Sherlock Holmes and his magnifying glasses. The fan at the end can rotate like a gyroscope; on the other end is a strong base where you can attach a screw (included) to your motherboard mount holes or even the PCI slot mount hole. But it doesn’t end there, the beauty of it is in the stick mount, it bends so it can be locked at the base and bent to reach your memory, motherboard and even chipset heat sinks.
The product itself is made of durable plastic, the fan and casing it is in with the stick mount made of some metal alloy that can bend and lock into place. On the fan shell is a switch for 3 settings, Low (1800RPM), Medium (2500RPM) and High (3000RPM). The last thing about this product is the blue LED emanating when powered on. There are a total of four LEDs shining in a cross configuration. 3-Pin power cable is attached to the fan where fan speed can be detected by your motherboard.
There really isn’t much to explain how it is used. Operation is quite simple. Screw it your desired mount, bend the stick mount and point it to those hot spots, or vice versa. (I suggest you do the later to avoid damaging you motherboard as some force is required) Rotate the gyroscopic fan a bit and fine tune your cooling (I call it spotting) and set your desired speed. Power on and enjoy. I had my motherboard heating up to 45C on normal operations; it cooled it down to 36C and decreased my processor temp by 2C. You just need to point it at the right spot, I had mine installed where the fan was cooling my memory modules, motherboard and some part of the base of the heatsink. You can apply this even on your video card and Northbridge / Southbridge heatsinks. Finally someone listened up and designed something a little bit more flexible (pun intended).

Recommendations:

It is really hard to find something faulty about the Spot Cool. It does the job well. Unfortunately, since it is a new product, it does cost a bit. I got mine for 16USD including shipping but now the unit itself costs 11USD to 16USD alone. It definitely will be a popular item for enthusiasts and people looking for great aftermarket cooling solutions. It won’t outperform a NB/SB heatsink with a fan (Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II) but the fact that it can do so much more is something you can consider. The stick mount unfortunately is not as “bendy” as one would expect and sometimes may recoil back to its original posture, so you may need to fix it in place. The fan is also generally quiet, low produces an inaudible hum, but moving it to medium or high produces a humming noise. It isn’t irritating but those who are intolerable of loud fans would notice it at these settings. Another issue is for people with really big aftermarket coolers, it may take a little bit of placing and bending to get things right, I really can’t say it would be a motherboard issue but with so many mounting holes all over, I doubt that your creativity will get the better of you. Finally, “spotting” is important so that it can cool as many PC parts as possible.

Uppers:
* Flexible and bending stick mount
* Can be attached anywhere inside your PC, cool those hard to reach places, can cool your video cards, chipsets, motherboards and memory modules
* Gyroscope-like fan
* Three speed controller
* Circulates air and really does cool them spots

Downers:
* Stick mount is not as flexible as it seems
* Fan power cable can ruin aesthetic design of a very clean case
* Humming noise on medium and high settings
* May cause some problems with big HSF and long video cards

Wishlist:
* Making stick mount more flexible
* Make the fan power cable “invisible”

Alternatives:
* Zalman FB123
* Tweakmonster Dual 80mm Fan Bracket

DTA is a quote made famous by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin towards Mr. McMahon of the WWE. It stands for Don’t Trust Anybody and I guess this is my slogan against software based temperature readings. I’ve tried it all, Speed Fan, Asus Probe II, Everest, TAT and I get different readings from all of them. I frankly don’t know who to trust. I sincerely care about my temperatures and since you know that this is a once in a lifetime project, it pays to make sure that my items live long enough to last 4 or 5 generations, that is in CPU years. Four/Five generations is actually like a year, a year and a half in our industry so it isn’t very long at all. Anyways, I have already called my 2nd line of defense against heat, my Asus Silent Square and Gigabyte 3D Aurora being the first. They will be coming in the next few days, I should have the complete set before November. The Antec Spot Cool and the Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II. The Spot Cooler is actually a device that can be place anywhere in your case, basically it looks like a lamp post you see on the streets except at the end, a movable gyro-like fan is connected. Its perfect for those hard to reach places. The Extreme Spirit II on the other hand is a North and South bridge cooler. An all copper design with 40mm fan attached on a heatpipe system. The amazing thing about it is its ability to fit on all motherboard with its "slip and slide" adapter and rotating base. It also has that bright blue LED for that added bling bling look.
Finally, as I was having a discussion with TPC members about the reliability of temperature readings, DM advised me that one of the greatest investments that he has made was the Cooler Master Aerogate front panels. With a temperature sensor and display with USB to boot, it would be the only thing to end the debate about accurate measurements of heat. of course I had to get one and Waycool’s front panel products were very attractive indeed. At the end I had to make a decision because for one thing USB or the card reader did not appeal to me. I have used up all of my slots and my casing has a front bezel which clearly would never work out. So searching high and low, I decided to get a 3.5" front display and Power Optionz and Lian Li was able to answer my call. So today I got myself  a sexy and sleek looking LCD with thermal sensors. It isn’t the fanciest thing in the planet but definitely gets the job done. So I will be posting the real deal with this add-on and hopefully there is someone I can finally trust.

*Update: I broke all three thermal probes for this Lian Li, so I am stuck again, I’ve sent an order of a new batch of probes… damn…* 

After 10 days, 14 hours, 12 minutes and 34 seconds, my RMA-ed OCZ modules was back to its loving master, me… Working on 512MB of RAM wasn’t that bad and I was actually very surprised how well my experience with Nanya modules worked out. Being able to run at 3Ghz with the memory overclocked to DDR2-667 (from DDR2-533) was fulfilling and I would only wish I could have made a more mature decision in getting memory modules. No, I am not implying that I don’t trust how my modules work but basically, the hassle of testing and OC and the frustration of RMA is an issue.
So after a week and a half of waiting and 12USD for shipping, the modules came back (I was like a kid waiting for Santa) looking at the Fedex website every 2 hours to track my package. Anyways, it arrived yesterday boxed and unopened. I had high expectations hoping that I would get OCZ rev.2 Plats, of course I dreamt they would screw up with the packaging and give me the Alpha Titanium model, but this was wishful thinking. Opening the box and clawing through foam, I was shocked to discover that I received OCZ rev.1 Plats, the very models that gave me headaches and could not run 400FSB was back in my arms. "Oh Noes" I cried. Everything was the same, from the model numbers to the plastic casing, the only striking difference was the cardboard label, it just had a different design. I was lost for words and I just lost my appetite to OC. Anyways, I went right back to the drawing board and went to work on it right away and to my utter surprise, I was able to boot off from 400FSB x 6M. So, they have finally sorted out my out of the box issue and I couldn’t be happier. Of course I OC’d ahead, checked if 400FSB x 6M worked and this was a good start. So, would my dreams to reach 500FSB turn into reality? Well this is a start to a very long trip, I mean competing with Micron D9 (GSkillz HZ) against my Elpedia (OCZ) is an honor in itself, being able to perform up to par would make it worth my while. So far running 3.1Ghz with a 443FSB x 7M is good enough, now its just a matter of making it stable. Once that is done, the next step is to go over 450FSB, but under initial attempts, I believe it can’t be done or am I just not looking at the big picture, I’ve hit more than 400FSB but I still feel incomplete, I just hope the BIOSes get better, I think I’m gonna be sick. "Oh noes, Overclocker’s syndrome is the w1n…"

There are 3 Phelps that I know off in this world. The first would be Mr. (Jim) Phelps of Mission: Impossible, Michael Phelps import of San Miguel Beer (PBA) also the swimming star in the Olympics with a known rivalry with Ian Thorpe and the best of all Phelps I know is Commander Phelps. Commander Phelps is not real but a fictional character that my good friend Benjie laid out to scare me out of my wits for ISP hacking. One of my college tormentors and best friend, he’s done so many good things and bad things too, like criticize my good looks and lambasting my girlfriend who eventually became my wife. Mike and Benjie complement each other so well, I wouldn’t mind if these two get married… yucks… Benjie’s your typical fish out of water since he’s a freaking genius and college is just way for parents to keep their kids occupied, he doesn’t seem to talk much but he’s as fun as hell and what fun did he have at my expense, particularly with Commander/Admiral/Whateva Phelps.
A day before class, Benjie gave me a dial up account for trial, logging into the internet was the latest fad during 1998. So he offered me a "free" account and promised me limitless internet access for 800PhP. I mean BJ was creepy as hell and I didn’t bite into it, but I took the trial account. He gave me a couple more and of course I used them up. A couple of days later and "burned" accounts, I received an email from Commander Phelps. Basically, the email looked authentic (from the US) and stated that I was going to be arrested for using hacked accounts, yes it had my address and all. I was scared as hell and actually told loads of people in class. I even told Benjie and asked for legal advise. Little did I know that this little squirt was laughing his head off. Eventually in the end, after seeing me cry for help loads of time as well as an apologetic response to Commander Phelps, Benjie told me the sordid truth. I vowed never to trust this guy again, but after 8 years and so, with him being in SFO shagging blondes and brunettes and me being in DXB being shagged (lolz), I just can’t help but laugh off Commander Phelps. Did he get promoted, I don’t know but I would like to give thanks to Benjie (a.k.a. Commander Phelps) for sending me the X-Fi Front Jack Harness you see in this post. This harness is a wiring setup so that I can connect my Creative X-Fi to my front speaker panel, apparently, Creative would like to keeps things exclusive but thanks to the guy who discovered this, I can enjoy sounds up front without buying the front panel of Creative. I could actually construct it but unfortunately, the parts are not available here. A trip to Raon or Deeco in the Philippines would be a good thing but having to spend 30USD for me is just a blessing. Thanks to Commander Phelps (BJ) for your kind gesture of giving me this freebie.