When good things go bad...

[Red Dawn]

A few hours ago I sat and tried some different cpu voltage selections to feed my ever-hungry amd.

I normally run my 1.8V t-bird 800 at 1.65 (mbm shows 1.696) after a quick reboot at 1.8 (won't start up normally at 1.65).

This time I tried 1.60V, and to my luck (I thought) it booted, a while back, before I started running at lower voltage than what is recommended, it wouldn't boot at all, no matter what, at anything lower than 1.65.
Now what happened at this voltage is that some strange, extremely high pitched noise ripped through the air... causing my ears to make this loud shriek... which persisted after I hastily shut my computer down.

Filled with terror, I started to "trouble-shoot" after some glasses of water and a quickie out on the balcony.
I thought the noise may have come from the harddrive(s), and since I didn't want to make this pulsating noise in my ears any worse by turning the computer on once more using the same setup, I set out to modify my existing hd setup.

First I removed my two ibm drives, one attached to the heatsink (Coolermaster DCD-4001) and put them on the floor for time being.
Then I tried placing the hd with the aluminium heatsink on it in my existing case, no luck, it was too small at the bottom (slide-out motherboard tray took up all the room).
I then turned to my other two cases lying around in my room, of which only one seemed to fit, there was only one problem, there was not enough room with the motherboard still in it. Motherboard out, expansion cards and cables out of the way, I was all set...

First I put in two layers of foam at the bottom for the hd's to rest on, then I opened a backplate for an expansion slot in my computer and then carefully coaxed both my ridiculously long ide cable and my equally ridiculously long 4-pin "y-cable" with three extra connectors through it and in at the back of the other case, connecting both harddrives.
Two extra foam cushions were added at the top and at the front of the case where a 80 mm. fan usually sits, and three fans to keep the drives relatively cool.

I closed up the case, pushed the power button, and hoped for the best.
At first it didn't want to start... and I soon realized why, I had forgotten to put a power connector to my old trusted voodoo 5 (which requires an extra connector for power). All that side, everything worked, quite well.

And while I have attained a slightly worse case of tinnitus, I have also done something to silence my drives (and the resonance they caused), although, a lot sooner than I thought, and a lot more "ghetto".

I've learned my lesson, I won't wait before it's too late the next time...

[quokked]

A voodoo 5????? is that the one with the dually VSA-100 chips with the little stock heatsink fans? I'm just wondering how much heat that'll be dumping into your case

[ChiefWeasel]

Now what happened at this voltage is that some strange, extremely high pitched noise ripped through the air... causing my ears to make this loud shriek... which persisted after I hastily shut my computer down.

Holy cr@p! So you dont know what caused it? Not sure about the HDs cos they'd still get they're usual 12V and 5V. It wasnt the alarm on the mobo was it? Mine gos off no and then when i turn it on, but I wouldnt say its ear shreadingly loud...

So are you back to 1.8V at the moment?

[Red Dawn]

quokked: Yup, that's the duallie one alright.
I think the heat output is somewhere near ~9 watts per chip, I'm going to replace the heatsinks soon, as the fans are a bit annoying, especially as they get old and "squeeky", I just don't want to thermal epoxy anything on. :/

ChiefWeasel: I have absolutely no idea to be frank with you, I just know it wasn't "pretty", and I don't think it was the motherboard alarm either, since I didn't have the speaker plugged in at the time.

Nah, I'm still at 1.45V, this was written three days ago, much has changed since.
But basically, I'm a bit more worried about noise now than I was before, I'm thinking of buying two ofthese at 15 mm's. They're quite cheap too, only $5.65 a piece. But then again, if I find some strange way of mounting this one at 30 mm's ($7.47), I'd use that one instead.

Oh, maybe I should mention this as well... my v5 features two mounting holes around the GPU, so if anyone has any non-permanent idea of mounting one of those heatsinks (or another one alltogether), please, do tell!

[ChiefWeasel]

A zip tie or two should do it. Just feed the zip tie through 1 hole from the back, across the middle of the sink, through the hole on the other side, and join it together at the back, you might need to use two thou to get the full length. Then you can use the rachet mechanism of the zip tie to pull it really tight.

Thats how i did mine anyway

[Red Dawn]

Alright, but I have this creeping suspicion that there could be a lapse of pressure around the middle, leaving the heatsink hanging in thin air, frying my precious chips... but maybe I'm just overreacting.

Btw, you have two holes around the gpu as well, or do you have four or something (don't know the standard these days)?

[ChiefWeasel]

Not sure how there could be a lapse of pressure? cos your just pulling two solid flat surfaces together, ie if the edges are together so must the middle be...?

Not sure how many holes are on mine, but i definetley only used two holes to attach the golden orb, has been there for 18 months, and moved back and from uni a few times too

Woohoo! happy 100 posts to me, happy 100 posts to me! Silent Advocate! Whats next or is it a surprise??

[Red Dawn]

Congratulations on getting your new title.

Humm, could you explain further just how you did it... did you use two seperate zip-ties or two together in a complete strap, tied at the back?

[ChiefWeasel]

Well mine was a little different to yours because of the fan in the middle of the orb. Just been trying to draw it, but crappy linux graphics prog kept crashing Will draw how i see it when i get home from work.... Easier than trying to explain...

[Red Dawn]

Alrighty, I have a orb lying around as well... a chrome orb I believe, maybe that will do service again, who knows?

But I would prefer new heatsinks alltogether really, I don't trust those orb's, they're too round, it's making me suspicious.

[ChiefWeasel]

Ok, here we go... now dont be scared of my MS paint skills


The big bits on the zip ties are big enough to slot in between the fins so they hold tight, then i pulled them tight with another couple at the back. Yours would probably work better going a full loop round the HS and card. Hope the pic makes sense - its a cut-through side view...

Oh and you might find that the orb is too small because of the roundness of the base, its too small to cover the whole of my chip, but hey, its still working

[Red Dawn]

Many thanks for the 'instruction manual', I'll have to measure things and think about this a bit more tomorrow.
Also the orb would probably fit quite nicely, the VSA-100 chips are quite small, two stock 40 mm. hsf's is on both of them right now, it says "Aavid" on the fans, though the heatsinks themselves are nothing spectacular, standard northbridge issue basically.

It seems like I'm taking one step further towards making my computer more 'user-friendly', in terms of noise anyway. *big smile*

My only fear is the weight issue that may arise, I'm not sure if the right end of the card can take the pressure, since it's a full-length agp card (and is effectively blocking my ata-100 connectors, whenever I want to get something out of there I have to remove the gfx card). I'll look into that tomorrow as well... thanks a lot for your help!

PS. Compared to me, you're a god in Paint. DS.

[Red Dawn]

I just had a look at my orb, and I realized that you were right... the contact surface is circular, leaving out the far edges of a 40 mm heatsink, ah well, not the 'end of the world' stuff, especially since I wasn't planning on using it in the first place. Interesting info none the less!