New Heatsink + Case

[+shift. MVC]

Got an Antec P182 from chconline, and installed my new E7200 and the Noctua NH-U12P that I got a few weeks ago.

Here are the pictures:

Using the Corepad XXL that I also got from chconline.

Interior, this case is A LOT better for cabling, still trying to figure out away to hide the SATA cable and the front panel connectors. Will probably be getting an SATA optical drive too to make those cables look better.

Managed to overclock it to 3.610GHz at 380FSB so it's a decent overclock. Don't really feel like pushing more voltage into the processor yet though.

First impressions of case:

Despite being a used case in what I would say as 9.5/10 condition. It's still pretty nice. Just from lifting it from the post office to my car I could tell it's pretty heavy, and the box was HUGE.

I liked how there were cable ties included as well as a lot of space behind the motherboard tray for me to route my cables.

Having a modular PSU definitely helps in this case.

Fans were quiet at lowest speed setting, and with the case cover on it was almost silent.

First impression of mouse pad:

Nothing really here, it was big and easily covers majority of my desk. Don't really like the bottom right hand corner (how it's rounded) but otherwise it's not bad.

Processor:

Seem to have hit an FSB wall at 380MHz, for various reasons (either my chip hit its limit, me not putting enough voltage, or my motherboard being the barrier). Perfectly happy with 8 hours ORTHOS small FFTs stable at 380FSB though.

Definitely a lot faster than my old Pentium D 805, and runs tons cooler as well; only 51C at load with 3.312v at load with vdroop. On my Pentium D I had to under volt to 1.1v just to get it to run at 40C idle. :p

3DMark2006 Score with Pentium D 805 @ 2.667GHz: ~4k

3DMark2006 Score with E7200 @ Stock: ~10k

Notice how heavily CPU reliant 3DMark06 is? That's another thread though. ;)

FPS difference in Bioshock using the built in benchmark: E7200 was about 20-30% faster. This is using DX9 seeing as how I'm running Windows XP 32bit. Noticed that I could run at higher resolutions without the game studdering at graphically intensive parts. However, my old processor wasn't as much of a bottleneck for my 9600GT as I had previously thought.

And for those of you wondering, I'm running a 9600GT Superclocked Edition (which is again further overclocked to 725/1798/1010)

A Corsair HX520 PSU

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200

and 2GB of OCZ Platinum Rev. 2 running at 1:1 with my CPU.

Edited August 30, 2008 by shift.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Nice, Shift. That looks bigger than the Ripper XXL. might be the angle though..

I had a non-modular psu, and it was hard to get it right.

The fans are quiet, but the Noctuas FTW!

[+Mystic MVC]

My setup is pretty similar and I couldn't agree more about the P182. I love just about everything with the case, other than the weight. :p

[+shift. MVC]

It's the same size as the Ripper, minus the rounded corner at the very bottom.

[toadeater]

Processor:[/i]

Seem to have hit an FSB wall at 380MHz, for various reasons (either my chip hit its limit, me not putting enough voltage, or my motherboard being the barrier). Perfectly happy with 8 hours ORTHOS small FFTs stable at 380FSB though.

It looks like you have a Gigabyte board and an E7200, which is what I have. For 3.8GHz, I use these voltages:

CPU: 1.368v (in Windows it drops to 1.32v idle, 1.3v load, may be different on your board. 1.3v minimum is about what you need for 3.8GHz usually, so you have to check the voltage during load, not just in the BIOS.)

Northbridge +.1v

RAM: whatever your RAM is rated for at 400MHz. 4GB needs more voltage than 2GB, and may need looser timings.

FSB +.1v helps sometimes.

Make sure Performance Enhancement is set to standard.

Also make sure your RAM isn't being overclocked if you are using DDR2 800 RAM. In general, don't use any of the "auto" timings or voltages in the BIOS.

[raider360]

Congrats (Y) I love this case and I have Noctua heatsink as well (U9F).

51C on load? :o Mine is currently 49-52C while idle and when I game it's 73-75C :p (running on [email protected] GHz)

[+shift. MVC]

Will try what toadeater said, but overclocking from 2.53GHz to 3.610GHz only gave me like 1k more points in 3dMark06 (which would probably mean even worse scaling in real gaming performance).

I'm at 1.312v at load, so yeah; I might need more voltage to be stable at 3.8GHz.

@ raider: Yeah I'm at about 37C at idle and 51C load with 1.328v idle, and 1.312 after vdroop at load.

Edited August 31, 2008 by shift.

[chconline Veteran]

Nice stuff :p