The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Exactly what I thought, I'm not going to leave it running withouit me being awake or in the house, but so far so good after 6 hours or so. The smell was of burning solder, nott actual components, so I'm thinking the components got very hot briefly, but since I turned the system off as soon as I noticed, it perhaps didn't have time to damage the electronics permanently. We will see. I find it surprising that a CPU actually caused such an event, usually I would be pointing fingers at the board or Power Supply if someone else had that - learn something new every day!

 

Sam,
What CPU cooler was Shaff using? I was looking at the board and don't see anything in the way of a hazard for shorting out anything with the cooler. You could catch a Capacitor, but that wouldn't make a smell unless it was AS5 getting real hot or some metallic thermal compound like that! Get my drift? The reason I ask is that solder doesn't burn, it melts. The paste or rosin that they use for soldering will burn, but then you would have some smoke or some sign that something was wrong.

Russ

 

Just had my first Russ moment in a while... hehehe. I cleaned my rigs up and the AMD rig (939) wouldn't fire back up. Something about NTDLR or whatever. lol. Well I cracked the case back open and checked all the connections and low and behold one of the HDD SATA connectors was a bit loose. Slapped the cover back on and it fired right up. Just remember people sometimes the easiest solution is the solution. lol.

.....gm

 

That may well be, but at least I don't have to look in your mirror! Especially while half asleep! ROFLMSOAO!!!

Russ

 

It was when he attached the Waterblock for his CPU that the problem first occurred, but although the PC didn't boot there was no smell. It was only after a short while when he tested it in my board using the stock cooler that this problem occurred (he tested it in his board with the stock cooler too, to no avail). My belief is that for whatever reason, something happened inside the CPU causing it short out. The Maximus II was relatively unaffected as with its vast Vreg heatsinks (so heavy the board bows an alarming amount) and the short time the system was powered, they wouldn't have got hot enough. With my EP31-DS3L the system was left for longer as the diagnostic LEDs on the board remain lit until the system has left POST completely, around 20s for most boards. That combined with the fact that the EP31-DS3L has no heatsinks on any of the regulation components meant they got hot.

You corrected me on solder melting not burning, but when it does, it gives off the exact smell that occurred from my board. The thermal compound was the stock paste for the cooler.

 

memory multipliers sure glad I don't have to mess with em (asus). same applies with the fsb straps and memory speed. just highlight the different straps and select the real memory speed value at or just under my memorys rated speed. too easy.

aren't ya'all glad I stopped by to stir things up couldn't help myself. carry on. I'll go back in my hole now.

 

More likely just the motherboard lacquer coating giving the smell. When you say bad processor under water block in on sentence one has to think! Hmm!

 

Are they not still fixed multipliers though, even if you do get more of them? I seem to remember allowing any numerical value of memory speed to be a big cause of blackholes.

Soph: Possibly that, I'm not sure I'd recognise that smell. Either way, this is not an event that should occur, and to get sufficiently hot to cause any of these problems in less than half a minute, the mind boggles at how much power must have been flowing through those regulators.

 

Ok... tell me what I'm forgetting because I'll be here for hours trying to remember. To many things going thru my head everyday and I obviously forgot to write down... Send Russ _______. lol.

PM if necessary buddy.

...gm

 

I look at it this way! Both systems work. mrk44 used the settings I recommended and he has his 3.40GHz OC and his memory is running at 1065MHz. I'm not going to split hairs over 1MHz! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Did you guys inspect the bottom of the processor? It sounds like there could be short on the processor. It's doubtful that actual damage to the core itself could have caused the event and the bottom also has a kind of coating that changes color a bit when heat is applied unevenly across the processor.

 

Neither am I. lol
I'm pretty sure I can go up to 3.55 stable if I wanted to.
and I posted those sandra benches if you didn't see on the previous page, so you can compare.

 

My bad! I forgot to mention the benches. They look great! better than I expected. The memory bandwidth is outstanding! What version of Sandra is that BTW? I've never seen that one before. PITA to read. I like the little graphs better! LOL!!

For 3.55 set the fsb to 444 and the memory multiplier to 2.40 and the memory will be spot on at 1066! The CPU will be at 3.552GHz

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I think it's the latest version of sandra: 2009.SP1b
it's the LITE version by the way. Is there a difference in the benchmark tests? Maybe that's why it was better than you expected?

 

No, it was just I hadn't thought about the difference between the Q9450 and the Q6600 with it having been popular for a while, that's all. It's all a never ending cycle anyway, like a tennis game between processor speed and graphics and the speed of everything else. I expected your's to be a little less than twice the performance of my E6750, and that's about right! At some point we will reach a saturation point where sheer speed won't matter that much and all the other technologies like HDDs, ODDs and Video will have to step it up a notch to keep pace. I don't expect much from ODDs because of the way they work, but graphics and HDDs will improve even more. Memory will be a big thing too! Cas 9 DDR3, while relatively cheap just isn't going to cut it in the long run!

Nice job BTW!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Yes we did, and we found nothing, so it baffles me... Either way, the CPU is going back.

 

Question would you guys think this would be a good board to have?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136053

 

bigwill68..What other items are U going to be installing with this board(CPU, Memory, PSU, etc). What are you building it for Gaming, Video, or a just in General Computer