Time to upgrade your Chess Computer ... for $500

[mongrel]

WOW! Great service! This forum is vigorous and fascinating.

The last computer I built was a PII-400 (if memory serves).

I asked you for those forum links so I could study this without bothering this forum *too* much. But this subject is very appropriate here, I think.

[Nid Hogge]

If you live in S. Korea and you want a good Vapochill type system ... check out Coolerexpress ... they have nice Vapo units for less than $500 ... I didn't order mine from there because the shipping cost was 100% of the cost of the unit ... but for you it might be much cheaper since they are in Taiwan.

http://www.coolerexpress.org/en-index.htm

Thanks! I'll defiantly take a deeper look into it. Although Vapo's may prove alittle bit too extreme for me! But a great tool nonetheless.

Nice comprehensive list of different HSF's. Personally I think ANY watercooling setup will outperform any of the mentioned HSF's in temperature drops and in sound levels. In Kuwait I also have a problem finding decent water-cooling kits. I did manage to find one Gigabyte kit that was around $120 and I stuck it on my QX6700. I must say it works quite well and is very simple to install.

Yes I tend to agree. Only exception are the kits that have single 120mm rad and perform worse than high end air. I looked at the aquagate and the bigwater system myself but everywhere I went people told me that they worth nothing.. they cool worse than say, the Ultra 120 Ex, and they may break out very fast and lead to really nasty problems. So honestly I should go custom with some Thermochill PA120.3 or Swifty Mcr320 and a a D-Tek Fuzion and a nice D5 pump.. I'm just alitte unsure about the whole assembly stuff so I guess I better start with a good kit like the Swiftech's and then go on and try custum for better results.

the pump is designed for an aquarium ... and probably go bust after some time ... which is why I have ordered a couple of spare Swiftech pumps

lol.. yes exactly.

By the way if you want to try something interesting ... check this unit out ... it uses a combination of Peltier and Water Cooling ... all in a closed loop. Sounds very interesting ... though expensive.

http://www.xoxide.com/coolit-systems-te ... oling.html

Yes I've seen this unit a few times!
I must say that the reviews wer'e 50%-50% but overall they all agreed that it's overpriced and can't cope well with a quad.. here's a recent review from Xbitlabs :

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/di ... ezone.html

It has very nice idle temps but when you load it, it gets pretty hot .. Worse than the Enzo(Air). I remember reading it had some design issues - Not enough time for the water to cool down etc.. But it has a potential.
I also heard they are developing an elite version that should disspate 250 Watts.(the current is rated at 175W).

[Nid Hogge]

I asked you for those forum links so I could study this without bothering this forum *too* much. But this subject is very appropriate here, I think.

I believe so too. I mean it's Computer chess after all, right? I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be in here..(But I do understand that this forum is somehwhat 'conserative' in nature..)

[M ANSARI]

The holes in the motherboard on the Gigabyte are there originally. They are useful for some water cooling setups or some other large HSF's. The DQ6 is more of an overclockers motherboard than the D3 ... which is the one I plan to use when I heavily overclock my next build. For Chess you really need as fast a computer as possible. For example if you are checking a certain loss that you think was due to poor opening play ... a fast computer will look much quicker into a position after you try a few moves. It is especially useful in tactical positions. I think anyone who is serious about opening book preparation will find a super fast computer extremely useful and very productive.

[wbseries]

2. For the thermal paste I'd go with the MX-2 or the MX-1.
MX-2 is already better AS5 and is dirt cheap and burns faster.
It's usually 2-3 C degrees lower than AS5. It's also non conductive so no worries if it gets to a place it shouldn't

Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound
http://www.petrastechshop.com/arcomxthco.html
$5.99

I Spread it with a those transparent plastic bags and using my finger. as thin as possible always.

Can you go wrong by just following Artic Coolings installation instructions for MX-2?

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/downloads ... retail.pdf

I ordered a tube of it yesterday, over my consideration of Artic Silver 5, and if using the pdfs application recommendations is there any guideline for how much to apply, or is it guess work?

The computer I use isn't state of the art by today's standards but it is the only one I have and use for chess programs, so I'd like to keep it alive as long as possible. I was looking up replacement heatsink/fan information before this thread started and will be using this one (have already ordered it too). It's the only one I saw that seemed decent and was stated to work on a (FC-PGA) PentiumIII:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835110012

This will be the first heatsink I have replaced so I don't want to goof on the application of the thermal compound.

I also ordered the Artic Silver thermal compound remover for cleaning the cpu.

[Nid Hogge]

Can you go wrong by just following Artic Coolings installation instructions for MX-2?

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/downloads ... retail.pdf

I ordered a tube of it yesterday, over my consideration of Artic Silver 5, and if using the pdfs application recommendations is there any guideline for how much to apply, or is it guess work?

Well to be honest.. There are gazillions of ways to do it.
The above method is just fine. It relies on the assumption that the heatsink will spread it to the rest of the CPU die.

The key with any method is to really put a tiny amount and to make sure it spreads out evenly through the whole cpu surface area.. so there won't be naked parts that will not conduct the heat.

it's really hard to go wrong with it .. you'll see for yourself.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835110012

This will be the first heatsink I have replaced so I don't want to goof on the application of the thermal compound.

Hmmmm never heard about that one.. Very small fan. but I guess it should be enough for stock P3(I guess they don't disspate as much heat as todays cpu's).

Good luck,

[wbseries]

Can you go wrong by just following Artic Coolings installation instructions for MX-2?

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/downloads ... retail.pdf

I ordered a tube of it yesterday, over my consideration of Artic Silver 5, and if using the pdfs application recommendations is there any guideline for how much to apply, or is it guess work?

Well to be honest.. There are gazillions of ways to do it.
The above method is just fine. It relies on the assumption that the heatsink will spread it to the rest of the CPU die.

The key with any method is to really put a tiny amount and to make sure it spreads out evenly through the whole cpu surface area.. so there won't be naked parts that will not conduct the heat.

it's really hard to go wrong with it .. you'll see for yourself.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835110012

This will be the first heatsink I have replaced so I don't want to goof on the application of the thermal compound.

Hmmmm never heard about that one.. Very small fan. but I guess it should be enough for stock P3(I guess they don't disspate as much heat as todays cpu's).

Good luck,

Thank you very much for the information. I know I could have probably just went with the thermal compound that is included with the heatsink I ordered but I wanted something of known good quality.

This old computer doesn't have any way to tell the cpu's temperature so if things get heated I'll find out the hard way.

[Nid Hogge]

Thank you very much for the information. I know I could have probably just went with the thermal compound that is included with the heatsink I ordered but I wanted something of known good quality.

This old computer doesn't have any way to tell the cpu's temperature so if things get heated I'll find out the hard way.

No Prob.
I really think it's worth it. Very cheap, and can easily stay in there for few good years until you decide to upgrade.

For the temp's monitoring you can google SpeedFan, Everest, PCWizard etc.. theyre free and should work globally I think.

[Spock]

Yes I use MX-1 in preference to Arctic Silver 5. Depending on who you believe, it does a better job than Arctic Silver 5 and it's non-conductive. I didn't realise MX-2 was out. The dab in the middle of the heatsink approach - yes that's fine.

[ed]

Intel Q6600 Quad Core (G0 stepping) - $280

I have it since a couple of weeks and it is a fantastic PC, faster than AMD and the 4 cores remain wonderful cool, a splendid job by Intel. After 10 years of AMD I am back at Intel.

Ed