Samsung 245B is bad...

I went to the shop where I usually buy my PC stuff yesterday, to get some cables I needed.

The manager greeted me, we started talking and walked around, and I saw it. The new and very cheap Samsung 245B, first 24 inch monitor with a TN panel. The viewing angles were horrible in store, but I was willing to give it a try in my controlled home environment. After all, all I needed was more pixels, and I would always face it straight on in my home office. And I got a good discount! Right? Wrong!

After a tuning session, I got to my preferred brightness level, which is LOW, good colors and correct gray scale. Then I started browsing, checking photos, and the usual stuff I do on my PCs.

When you watch from 50-60cm away, the image is darker and warmer at the top, brighter and cooler at the bottom. You HAVE to adjust the monitor angle to be exactly perpendicular to your eyes, or this effect gets you dizzy. You can't move up or down, left or right, or the color temperature shifts. TN panels really suck at larger monitors. And, as I checked when viewing a black screen, the bottom bleeds light, making the image even brighter there. The saddest thing is that the image quality is excellent when viewing a part of the monitor.

To conclude, in monitors, as in many other things, you get what you pay for...
My old Eizo monitors haven't found their big brother yet, but then, each 19 inch cost more than the Samsung.

Northbridge cooler

I had a Zalman ZM-NBF47, that I got last year along with other stuff, and put it on the northbridge.













The cooler needed some modification, these pads were put there to stabilize it a bit, because the original cooler has four hinges and this has only two. It still moves a bit, but I'll be careful, if of course I remember it next time I change something ;).





























The southbridge gets hotter in my case and I have another Zalman chipset cooler, but changing it meant motherboard removal, and I was NOT in the mood!

7950GT

I got a used XFX7950GT from eBay last week, for about half the retail price. The guy probably had the card in a badly ventilated case and was getting artifacts. I removed the heatsink and applied some AS5, just in case. It idles at 50c, loads at 75c. Since I don't game, it's perfect. Double Dual Link DVI, HDCP (maybe ;)), everything I need for present and future.






Updated Specs:
Case: Antec P180
CPU: Intel C2D E6400 @ 2,6GHZ
M/B: Asus P5B-E
RAM: 2x1GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC2-6400
GPU: XFX nVidia 7950GT
HDD: WD250JS, WD250JD, WD300JD, WD400KS, WD500AAKS,
2 external Maxtor 250
DVD-R: NEC 4550, DVD-ROM: NEC DV-5800E
PSU: Antec NeoHE 430W

New memory

I bought 2GB of new OCZ Platinum memory from eBay for the HTPC. They are Revision 1 and I had read lots of horror stories about them and Asus boards, so I updated to the newest BIOS first and raised the memory voltage slightly. It didn't POST with tight timings but I had my old memory handy, switched, loosened them and everything is perfect. CPU is currently set at 325MHZ FSB, multiplier at 8, for a 2,6GHZ frequency. Memory is set at 812MHZ with 4-4-4-12 timings, CPU undervolted at 1,2V, memory voltage at 2,0V. It's higher than an E6600 and totally stable, cool at 37c idle and 55c load in TAT because of the low CPU voltage. I'm very happy with it and I'm tempted to also upgrade the Zalman...

I also got a new WD 500GB drive and a DVD-ROM, as the external LaCie ripped DVDs in 25 minutes, and the new one rips in less than 10.

Home Theater pics

Bad pictures of HTPC and projector.

HTPC upgrade

Not much visual and no noise change, but I switched to a Core2Duo E6400 and an Asus P5B-E for my HTPC. Not needed for DVDs and light browsing, but the Asus P4GPL-X board I had and loved, died on me the day before Christmas. I quickly picked up a DFI Expert 939 board, a 3800+ AMD CPU, and started installing Windows, only to find out that the DFI hates my Kingston RAM... on Christmas day! After a lot of frustration, it finally worked with VERY loose memory timings for 3 months, randomly stuttering during playback, not being able to resume from sleep or allowing me to stop the HDDs, and then died, on a Saturday of course... After lots of swaps and tests I took it back to the shop I got it from, where they confirmed it was dead. They asked what I wanted to do, replace it or switch. I asked if they could take back the processor as well, and they did!


Now the dual core goodness is in my HTPC. Everything worked quickly without problems, I even used the old 533 DDR2 from the TNN case (where I have 2GB now), and I slightly overclocked to 2,4GHZ.

Windows Vista

I had a PC made from spares, a Northwood 3,0Ghz, Albatron 865Pro M/B, 1GB of cheap RAM, an nVidia FX5600XT 256MB, my Nexus modded Fortron PSU, a used P180, WD250 HDD. I decided to install Vista in it. I downloaded RC1, installed it, and it was the fastest and easiest installation ever. All the drivers were there, Aero is working perfectly. AVG needs permission every time I boot, but it's not digitally signed yet. I'm currently using it as my main browsing machine, and it's fast and perfectly stable. Eye candy is high, and I'm VERY impressed by the network speed. In XP, opening Network Places takes a lot of time, finding new machines takes forever and (possibly) a restart. In Vista it's FAST and reliable.

Core2Duo in Antec P180

I just finished my first Core2Duo build for a friend. Everything was straightforward, after upgrading to the newest Asus BIOS of course. I have some slight hangs when inserting anything in the DVD drive, but that could be due to the strange brand. The machine feels snappy, but not much better than even my old Northwoods. With multitasking of course, it's waaaay faster than my machines. But I have four... ;)













I was impressed with the stock Intel HSF's fan quality. It only became audible after 20 minutes of TAT, a neat program I found in SPCR. Intel, at last, are using just three small strips of TIM, instead of the tons used in older HSFs. I used a Zalman ZM460B-APS PSU, which was very nice, though not as quiet as my Antec NeoHE. Overall the PC turned out very quiet out of the box, using the stock case fans. I think it's the quietest one I've built, prior to tinkering. I also used one of Western Digital's new silver top WD320KS drives, and I couldn't hear any seeks from a meter away! A fanless 7300GT graphics card completed the build. I put the top fan in the middle, as shown, to cool the GPU and the hot Southbridge.

Specs:
Case: Antec P180
CPU: Intel C2D E6400
M/B: Asus P5B
RAM: 1GB
GPU: nVidia 7300GT
HDD: WD320KS
DVD-R: ?
PSU: Zalman ZM460B-APS

SonyEricsson K800i

Just got me one, its camera is really good. Blog photos will improve!

DAX!

This blog is put on hold for a while, as my new project DAX restoration is under way...

Screen!

The screen arrived yesterday and I'm seriously impressed by its quality, considering the below €400 price.


Good, sturdy frame, nice tension system.
First projections with total darkness were jaw dropping.

Noisewise, the projector is by no means quiet, it's on the table in front of me after all. When installed in its permanent position (when I decide where that will be :) ), things will get better. I always use it in the low brightness-low fan speed mode, fan noise character is not bad, but it's too loud for me.

I'm watching about 10 DVD-Laserdiscs per day, not paying much attention to the movie, but black-white levels and color temperature and gain!

New projector

I got a new Epson EMP-TW600 1280x720 LCD projector last week. The Screenline 183x103cm 82inch screen will arrive on Friday. I'm temporarily using a canvas with a sheet!!! to project on, hanging in front of my old RPTV.

Initial impressions are very positive with video, the warm colored walls being the main problem. The projector needs cooler than 6500K (8000K) settings to compensate. My Laserdisc collection's newer (after '95) additions are a pleasant surprise, definitely watchable. Older ones are so and so. DVDs are, as expected, wonderful! SDTV through satellite is also watchable, even pleasant.

PC sync is bad, fonts are a real problem with the old 5700 graphics card, much better but not good with the 6600. Tweaking doesn't improve things much, but we'll see when the screen arrives...

SI-120 for Server

I got a used Thermalright SI-120 for the P180, and was very impressed with the reduced load temps. 10 degrees lower running 2xCPUBurn, maximum load temp 51c at 12 volts with the fan pulling air up.

















I then reversed the airflow and load temp dropped even lower, at 49c. With the fan running at 7 volts load temp was 55c. An accident happened while cutting the fan corners in order to fit the standard retention wires of the HSF, and the frame broke! I had to improvise, I used double sided tape for the hub and tied the fan brackets with some wire.













Nice!

Peri's P180

My friend Pericles wanted to change his Thermaltake Shark case to something quieter. The Shark was very noisy, even after my earlier attempts to quiet it down. Quiet fans and covering of the side grill proved to be insufficient. And he has 5 HDDs with 1,5TB of storage! He also needed some headroom for another 1-2 hard disks.

I think that the Antec P180 has the best balance between quietness and storage available today, that's why I got it for my server needs. So I ordered one from Pixmania in France. It arrived in 2 days, but Labour Day delayed delivery for another 2.

Installing 5 disks meant that one had to be on the upper chamber, and a PCI SATA controller was needed.
Out goes the WiFi card, the Gigabyte board only has 2 PCI ports and the other is the satellite TV tuner.

Hiding cables.
















Lower chamber with 4 hard disks. The original 35mm Tricool was thrown away, and I used a 25mm from the upper chamber.


The back.















Inside.













It turned out surprisingly quiet, just the muffled hhhhhh from all the hard disks working together. It will be positioned under his desk, with some carpeting to absorb more noise, in a semi quiet room, so it'll be OK. The rear and lower chamber Antec fans are heavily undervolted and inaudible from 50cm away, but the Zalman HS fan will soon need replacing, it chirps slightly even at 5V. The Chieftec PSU fan is a bit noisy, and will be needing some "modding" soon. :)

Specs:
Case: Antec P180
CPU: Intel P4 640
M/B: Gigabyte GA-81915P-D Duo Pro
RAM: 2x512Mb Kingston
GPU: nVidia 6200
HDD: 2xWD3200JD, WD250JD, Seagate7200.7 200GB, Seagate7200.9 400GB
DVD-R: Pioneer 110D
DVD-ROM: Teac 516
PSU: Chieftec CFT500W

mmstac's quieting projects

mmstac has very interesting projects with mini fanless power supplies in his blog. The small one is a also a PSU!

Nexus fans!

I got a new delivery of Nexus fans, and a screwdriver set. Very cheap from Silent PC in Holland.

The Asus N6600

The Asus N6600 on the new board. I thought about trying a Zalman NB32 northbridge cooler, since the 6600 power consumption is only 27-28? watts at load. In the case HS temp is 50c idle and 60c load, using the airflow from an open slot. The downside is the extra dust... I have to filter it somehow.

New graphics card for TNN500AF - Albatron 7600GT

I went shopping yesterday, to get a new server for Peri, I'm his assembler! As we were picking parts, I saw it... Perfect for HTPC duties, with Dual Link DVI, Purevideo, 2 DVI. Now this I needed, and it was cheap(ish)! I installed it in the TNN case at 5 in the morning after I finished the server (he needs it by Monday). Initial impressions:
1. The DVI connection really makes a difference! I used VGA on the 6600 card, because my Eizos looked different when one was on DVI and the other on VGA. Image quality went from 7,5/10 to 8,5/10.
2. The card idles at 43 degrees Celsius, loads at 53 degrees with rthdribl for 30 minutes. The TNN can handle it perfectly.

3,0 Ghz Northwood from eBay!

Damn, I can't control myself! Got it at a good price though...

New Motherboard from eBay

I found a new 478 motherboard selling on eBay, got excited and bought it! It's an Asus P4GPL-X, socket 478 with PCI-E and Intel 915 Northbridge. It will be either installed in the server, or in a new HTPC. All I need now is a processor...