Forever learning

[Terry1953]

I just spent most of my night learning to take apart GPU's. As I was throwing a Quad core together I noticed that a MSI 6850 was running even hotter than normal. It was at 80c instead of it's "normal" 72c. So I thought "What would it hurt even if I ended up breaking it." and started taking it apart , turns out a monkey could do it in less time than I could being to careful. Once I got it apart and wiped the crap thermal paste that MSI uses off of it and put on some Artic Silver the darn thing runs along at 97% load and 58c. No matter how long I have worked with computers they still have a way of making me hit myself on the forehead with the heel of my hand and think "dumbass!" So, then I started on the 3 6870's and had a similar result of a 15 degree drop. Now things are better.

[NeoGen]

That is awesome Terry!
I did that too once to my old GeForce 9800 but I only got about 6 or 7 degrees less. What I really wanted was to dust off and clean up its incredibly clogged up fan but I ended up having to take the whole thing apart because there wasn't much of a way to get to it, and also had to re-do the thermal paste.

Have you tried putting your GPUs through Furmark? That will really push them to the limits and show how hot it can get. Not only that but it will show you how much you can overclock it, because if you see the image starting to blink with small artifacts then you have a problem.

[Dirk Broer]

MSI, blew a HD 6670 of 'm a while ago and got offered an ASUS GT 630 in return (it was still under warranty) that is now my main Einstein cruncher.
And it was quite easy to install -crunching wise- under Lubuntu Linux as well. It is now running a nVidia Linux bèta driver and crunches better at Einstein than my old GTX 260 using the latest 320.00 driver.

Talking about hot-running cards: the old 192-core GTX 260 is one hot fellow, it burns more Watts than the rest of my GPUs together it seems.
As soon as I get the money I will exchange it for a GTX 650 or 660 model! More performance for less running costs.

The HD 6670s from MSI stand out by having both a slow core clock and slow memory, as compared to e.g. ASUS.
Mine was also tiny as compared to the ASUS HD 6670s I have running, and had quite disappointing GFlop marks under BOINC. My later acquired Sapphire HD 6670 performs much better than the MSI model.

[Terry1953]

Fun day today. The lumber for my shed came and is in the yard and the parts for my new Intel came sooooooooo guess which one is together. LOL It's not the shed. I tossed in a 6870 for now and it's running 8 Simap wu's and a gpu Moo wu. Dang this thing is fast.

[NeoGen]

It's a matter of priorities... Shed?... or Cruncher? Hmmm....


EDIT: I looked around and found the tube of thermal paste I have been using for the past two years, it's Artic MX-4. Still got about half on it, and I believe I received 2 more tubes of Noctua'a thermal paste with their heatsinks that have not even opened yet.

If anyone needs thermal paste just PM me, I'm willing to give away the Noctua ones. I don't think I will be able to use this much thermal paste in the next 10 years, and I would hate to see it go to waste. (They say the "recommended storage time" is 2 years)

[plonk420]

my 5870 was hitting 90C doing buttcoin mining ... even after cleaning off the default crap and putting on some Ceramique (it started at 80, but eventually got back up to 90C), so i got a Accelero Xtreme PLUS II.

when i first installed it, it insta-rebooted firing up furmark ... so then i tried some super old demoscene demos (like Moppi Productions - xi and fr-025: the popular demo). 80C @ 25% GPU usage. doublechecked the thermal paste. seemed okay. then i played a round of DotA2 windowed, at lowest graphical settings. 90-95C. GPU cooler was cool to the touch. eventually gave up and removed the spacers (tightening ever so gingerly) after some talk with someone else with a different Accelero Extreme and another CPU cooler enthusiast.

now it's a happy 65-70C at load, and the cooler is radiating heat from every angle! (seems to be doing its job now!)


edit: note: my friend with an Accelero IS using spacers, so not sure what's up with my setup/card... but temps are happy now.

[Terry1953]

We finally put the Corsair H80 on the 8350 and it went from running at 74c at full load if 8 Simap units to 38c under full load. Now that's what I call an improvement.

[plonk420]

wow @ improvement

[Dirk Broer]

We finally put the Corsair H80 on the 8350 and it went from running at 74c at full load if 8 Simap units to 38c under full load. Now that's what I call an improvement.

We should keep track of improvements like this! The H80 almost halved the running temperature of your original air cooler (the nuclear one with it's own power plant?)!

[Terry1953]

We should keep track of improvements like this! The H80 almost halved the running temperature of your original air cooler (the nuclear one with it's own power plant?)!

Yup it was the one I was starting to wonder if I was going to start glowing in the dark from just spending time around. I just checked it again this morning and it still hasn't gone over 40c at anytime. I just ordered another H80 for the 8350 I was starting to think I might never build due to the heat. The really nice thing was that the H80 is designed for the AMD socket setup, you don't even have to pull the MoBo to install it. You just pull the heat sink and it goes right on. It is Intel capable but you have to install a bracket by pulling the MoBo. This means I can now OC the 8350 and hurry up the Simap. A few weeks ago I thought I would never have expensive GPU's and now it.s water cooling, my wife is so pleased. Even though I feel like the guy trying to keep all the plates spinning in the sticks running from one fire to the next. Now I have to go look at a car Ryan wants to buy for college 2006 Cobalt but trust me it's not something I'm wanting him to have. http://clarksville.craigslist.org/cto/3789303449.html


PS just ordered one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186067 if it works as well as the one on the 8350 I'll have to get more.