atomic_fungus (atomic_fungus) wrote,
atomic_fungus
atomic_fungus

#3171: Well, that was a bust.

After saying I wasn't going to go anywhere, I went to CompUSA to pick up this heat sink and fan combo for Cephiro.

See: Cephiro is a Gateway DX420B desktop and has an Intel DP965LVG2 motherboard in it. It's a Socket 775 motherboard; it's got a Pentium D CPU which is Socket 775, so it should be a no-brainer: I just need a heat sink that'll fit a Socket 775 motherboard!

Emphasis on "should".

The problem is, this motherboard is not a standard DP965 motherboard. The mounting holes for the heat sink are about 1/4" too close together to accommodate a standard heat sink.

*sigh*

...so now I think I'm going to go find a potentiometer in my electronics box downstairs and see if I can bodge together some kind of speed control for the f-ing thing. I'm tired of listening to this damn machine roaring away whenever I'm doing anything.

The design of the front panel doesn't help. The front fan is a 5" fan, but only about 1/3 of the actual area is open to ambient. The rest is closed off because of how the front panel is designed. And of course I can't modify the front panel without making my computer look like total ass. *sigh*

I also bought a $10 fan that sticks in an empty expansion slot and plugs into the power supply. That'll help keep the internal temperatures down but that's not really the big concern; the machine ran just fine with the intake fan not running.

But since it's the main fan for cooling the processor, I can't just unplug it.

Man, what a pain.

* * *

I saw, while I was there, a nice Gateway with an i5 processor. $550 for a Core i5 processor, 6 GB of RAM, a 1.5 TB hard drive--that thing will scream like a banshee.

It'd still need a video card upgrade if you wanted to play WoW, but still--it'd be a heck of a machine.

*sigh*
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