[Alien]

Originally Posted by keithwalton

Well thats a standard approach to doing cooling, not sure i would call it ideal though. But its about the best you're going to get with ATX, BTX on the other hand was a much better idea its such a shame that its not really taking off as its much quieter and much more efficent way of doing air cooling.

Considering BTX was created by Intel, & they cancelled further development of BTX retail products last September, & that they along with AMD & other component manufacturers are trying to focus on lower power consumption [& consequently heat output], I wouldn't get your hopes up about a BTX revival.

Originally Posted by keithwalton

Back to the amd chip thing somthing just doesnt smell right. Generally pre-release engineering samples and alike run slightly slower than what the manufacturer then ships as tweaks are made to the design which squeezes abit more performance out of them.
I dont really see the point of what they have done aside from a 'look at us we can make a 3GHz chip too'.

You would have to assume that there is somthing significantly wrong with it else they would be 'leaking' performance figures from the chip at just how much it thrashes an intel chip, or at least some kind of benchmark other than showing its off the scale on windows performance index.

If I had to guess, based on various things I've read, I'd say odds are they're having trouble with yields of cores that can hit 3Ghz. As you say, the 3Ghz may well be a "look we can do it too" act, with the idea being to keep people interested in the AMD brand, or perhaps even to win back some of the interest that Core2 has taken away from them.

Originally Posted by keithwalton

When removing a heatsink its much better to try and slide it off than pull it off. As the thermal goop can as you have shown can stick on pretty well.
When you apply your own thermal grease and then move the heatsink around abit on the chip to squeeze out all the air bubbles you will find then that the sink becomes 'sucked' onto the chip and is difficult to pull off.

I've never had trouble removing a heatsink that I've put on with Arctic Silver.

Originally Posted by keithwalton

Edit - what i meant to say all along.
There has long been a debate over whether you should run your computer with slightly positive (more air in than out) or slightly negative pressure (more out than in)

A downside of negative pressure is that air is pulled in from other sources (poor shutlines on case etc) and you find dust creeps in everywhere. this does not happen if you have slightly positive pressure and as long as your inlet is well filtered you dont get a dust build up inside the case.

My case actually does have a certain amount of negative pressure, which is why I have done my best to seal up any openings that aren't supposed to have air flowing through. It's not a perfect seal or anything, but I reckon it's definately made a difference, as my case doesn't get as dusty as my old 1 did before I sealed up the extra gaps.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

I could light a load of joss sticks and stuff them in front of the case, at least I'd see the smoke being sucked in and exhausted if air flow is correct, and it would smell a lot nicer and probably would not leave any residue

You'd need to light quite a few, as the smoke is quite thin, & disperses easily.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

I also have a mate who used to work in a factory making air and oil filters so I can ask him to get some filter material for me. In fact he went down there the other week to get some filter material for the 25cm fan on the side of his Kandalf case, yes I did say 25cm! It's bloody huge, but it blows into the case and so he's put the filter on the inside to stop the dust getting sucked in!

I must admit I was surprised when I 1st read that, that's the same size as the cone in my sub-woofer!

You can actually buy PC fan filters, which aren't too expensive. I may be recovering the 1 that came with my case soon, as I managed to poke a hole in it the last time I cleaned it. After a quick test with some net curtain I had left over from some bug screens I made to keep bugs out of my shed [stretched over a wooden frame, which was then screwed to the wall around the air vents], I might give that a go. The holes in it are smaller than the plastic mesh stuff on the existing filter, but it still allows air to flow through it ok.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

He's also got an external water cooler he no longer uses, a Thermaltake Aquarius III, but not sure if it will fit an AM2 socket but should I even consider it?

I'm not sure about AM2 compatability. Thermaltake's site [as well as several others] mention "K8", but the problem with that is that K8 includes sockets 754, 939, 940, AM2 [which I believe is physically a 940, but incompatible with s940 Opterons], & 1207 as well. As to whether you should consider it... It's up to you. I haven't read any reviews of it, as external liquid cooling doesn't interest me. It's 1 thing when you've got the whole system inside your case, but when it's external... I can just imagine accidentally knocking it off, & the problems/damage that would ensue. Considering the recent fate of your telephone's base station, you sound like you have the grace/co-ordination of... well... me! In which case an external liquid cooling setup wouldn't be high on my list of recommendations.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

I also forget to mention the duct is no longer being used, thought it better to see if regreasing the CPU and getting better air flow would do more good! I'll see after a few hours of the system being on and a blast (literally) in GTA: San Andreas and some other games!

I'll certainly be interested to hear the results.