HomeBoy's Computer Rig

I built this computer in April 2007.   I moved it into a new case in March 2008.  Though not the absolute fastest computer you can buy, it is no slouch.  Total cost was around $1700.

 

 

 

 

Specs

Most parts were purchased from Newegg.com.   Photos are from their site.

• ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus LGA 775 (nForce 650i SLI chipset) ATX Intel Motherboard --  Supports SLI and the Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad Core CPU

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor  --  A mid-range Conroe processor but very capable and easy to overclock
  
  

• Corsair XMS2 (4 - 1GB sticks) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Memory (total 4GB) -- Good reliable memory and a good match for the mother board
  
  
• Silverstone ST75F ATX 750W Power Supply  -- More than enough power and really nice modular cable design (you only connect the ones you need)
  

• EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card -- Though not as fast as a GTX, this is an overclocked GTS with extra memory.  I decided against going SLI so there is just one of these onboard

• Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Sound Card  -- An older sound card but known to be stable and reliable

• Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM SATA Hard Drive  --  One of the fastest hard drives on the market.  This is my system drive (drive C:)
  
  
• Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive  --  Cheap and lots of storage capability.  I use this for general data storage (drive D:)
  
  
• Zalman CNPS9700 LED Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler -- Perfect CPU cooler for overclocking

• Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II CL-C0034 Chipset Cooler  -- Two of these.  One each for the North Bridge (nForce 650i SLI) and South Bridge (nForce 570 SLI) chips on the mother board to replace the passive heat pipes on the P5N32-E

• Antec 900 Mid Tower ATX Computer Case  -- Built for gaming and loaded with fans for cooling

• Windows XP Professional operating system
  
  

Active Cooling Mod

I have used the Zalman 9700 cooler instead of the stock cooler that came with the cpu.  I have also replaced the passive heat pipes on the P5N32-EP with the Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II CL-C0034 Chipset Cooler, one for each of the bridge chips.  The removal of the heat pipes exposes 16 voltage regulator modules (VRMs).  To remedy this, I chose the Swiftech MC21 heatsink (two packages of four) which work perfectly.  Each heatsink will cover two VRMs so I needed a total of eight heatsinks.

 

Here is what the bridge chips look like after removing the heat pipes: 

 

North Bridge chip:

 

South Bridge chip:

 

North Bridge chip with the Extreme Spirit II in place:

 

South Bridge chip with the Extreme Spirit II in place:

 

Here are the eight voltage regulators to the right of the CPU that require heatsinks:

 

Here are the eight voltage regulators to the rear of the CPU that require heatsinks:

 

Installing the Swiftech heatsinks:

 

Modification complete:

 

The active coolers in action:

 

Overclocking

I was not interesting in any extreme overclocking of this system.  My two goals were to achive the equivalent of the highest end Conroe chip (E6850) which runs at 3.0 GHz as well as not generating too much heat or over-voltage.   I hit my "sweet spot" at 3.125GHz and am very pleased which is a 30% increase over the stock E6600 chip at 2.4 GHz.

Here are my overclocking settings:

• Processor speed: 3.123 GHz
• Bus Speed: 347 MHz
• CPU multiplier: X9
• CPU:DRM divider: 1:1
• FSB: 1388 Mhz
• Memory speed: 694 MHz
• Memory timing:  5-5-5-12 2T
  
  

Voltages:

• Vcore: 1.4v
• +3.3: 3.3v
• +5: 5.0v
• +12: 12.0v
• DIM: 2.0v  (stock is 1.9v)   I decided since I have four sticks of memory, 2.0v would be better.  Maybe I should go to 2.2v as they are running really cool.
• North Bridge: 1.4v
• South Bridge: 1.5v
• HyperTransport (HT): 1.3v
• CPU VTT: 1.55v 

 

Testing

I baked the system for three hours using the Orthos stress program.  I tested the memory for an hour using Memtest86.  Here is a screenshot showing the results of the test.  Notice that the temperatures are very much in the normal range.  This system is barely breaking a sweat at 3.1 GHz!

 

Other Components 

In addition to the above mentioned components, I also have a floppy drive, a DVD reader and an DVD writer installed.