Thermal Take

Hey all, just wana get everyones opinion on thermaltake products?
I just baught my new system which i'm proud of in some senses but not so proud in others.
For starters i baught the thermaltake xaser III series case which you need a crain to lift nearly. Put the side window mod in with just simple case lights (2 blue fan lights). But as i feel and can see that is not even enough to light up the huge xaser III, so today i just ordered a UV cathode and blue EL string lights to do a bit more illumination. THe system current specs are:

Intel P4 3.06ghz
8 INXP gigabyte motherboard
80gb 7200rpm seagate HDD
1gb ddr kingston ram
gforce fx5800
standard dvd and 52x burner
tv card
Audigy2 Platinum EX sound card
Logitech Z-680 surround sound system
and all the other shit that can go inside a pc

At moment im having a bit of a problem with teh stupid gforce card overheating, well i believe it is that, my cpu runs at 54 degrees celcius when im running most games at peak level. I really should have gone for a radeon but i was rushing for a card. THe gforce is bloody huge, takes up 2 of my pci slots as you all know and sounds like a helicopter taking off, i've managed to dull noise a little but still revs at it. I have aproximately 10 case fans which is a major overkill i know but the thermaltake case comes standard with about 7 i think. I dont have picture of it right now since i am at work and bored out of my brain; ill get a pic up here when i put in new cathode lights which arive next week. Its a pretty sweet setup, nice 19" flat crt monitor. Been looking at a lot of mods on this forum and some of them are looking very sweet, i got one problem with my case tho, i want the LED lights up the front of my computer to light up but as u all know motherboards now days allow you to only hook up one set of lights for the HDD light and system light. SO i have a side fan that uses same connectors which i cant plug into anything, what kinda kit do i need to allow this??? Is there one? there has to be, if not ill have to invent it! Well better get back to doing nothing at work.

You are aware that the 5800 was deemed a failed product aren't you? Nvidia rushed the 5900 out onto the market to try to get their reputation back. The overheating is from the core speeds on the card being too high for the card's fan to handle no matter how big, loud, and fast it is. Take it out and put it on Ebay. Take the $$ you get and invest in an ATI 9800 Pro. You'll be able to take out the case fans and your cpu temp will drop a good 10C.

Also, look into some liquid cooling, a P4 at those temps is WAY too high. It should be running next to cold. My AMD system on full load only runs at 50C, and is 44-45C idle. You're going to have to kill this heat if you want to survive.

I have 1 side fan blowing in, 1 hdd fan blowing in, and 1 grill fan blowing inward. I have 2 exhaust fans in the back (PSU fan makes 3) pulling the heated air out. When I close my case, I see a 10C drop. Maybe you need to strageticly place some of your fans to vent the air out, so they aren't all blowing inward as that will kill airflow because none of the hot air is flowing out. My personal design/placement is rather quiet. My exhaust fans are controlled by my PSU/Motherboard, so they stay nearly quite. My Hdd fan is controled my my Vantec fan speed controller, so if it gets too loud, I can just drop the noise level down w/o sacrificing airflow. Only my radiator, video card, pump, and grill fan run at full speed, so I only have about 40-45dba of noise, and I can control how loud I want that.

yeah i was thinking about selling it in another month or 2 time when the new radeon 9900 comes out (think thats the card). And water cooling im a bit sceptical about. I never done it before so bit afraid of leaking it all over my system. My cpu idles at 34-40c and only maxes at 54c; so water cooling u recommend? Would i need the whole water cooling system or should i just try the cpu water cooling? As for fans i have 4 intake fans, two at front and two on side window right over pc. I have 3 outtake fans, one on top of case and two at teh back, so there is nice airflow through system; i just think it is the stupid nvidia peace of shit sitting below cpu that raises the temperature dramatically; nearly burn my hand on it if i touch it. Maybe i could hook it up to a broom and use it as a leaf blower outside. What brand of watercooling is the best? Is it easy to install?

I use the Thermal Take liquid system, but it only pumps about 28 gallons per hour which isn't much. I've seen some pumps that'll push over 333 gallons per hour, but it's really up to you. With a 34-40C idle temp, I wouldn't worry about it unless you plan on overclocking. I use stock cooling on my video card, but they do make gpu cooling chips. One thing you could do is get the TT system that I have and buy a GPU waterblock. Just install the whole system except only put it on your video card.

I was very skeptical about liquid cooling myself, you know, scared that it'd leak, but so far I've only had positive effects. You're supposed to run it for 24hours outside of the case before you install it to watch for leaks. I didn't, but I haven't experienced any leaks yet.

I have a friend that put a client's computer in the back of his truck and forgot about it and a storm came along and drenced the computer. He just stuck in front of a heater for a couple of days and it worked fine, but if you have a leak while running the computer, then the water will cause a connection between wires it's not supposed to and causes the system to short out.

I wouldn't worry about it as long as you get a good system. www.xoide.com stocks water cooling sytems. I recommend putting windshield washer fluid in there and use the cooler fluid that comes with it. Another good way is to put just antifreeze (diluted) in there. With those ways, you can be assured that you have maximum cooling.

Here are some pix of my computer and my setup, i have in it:
1x 12" UV cold cathode
2x UV lazer lead 3 stpread
1x UV led reactive fan
5x ultra quiet thermaltake fans

I have UV reactive mesh covers on the way to clean up wires, and i have blue EL cable on way.
my digi camera doesnt seem to want to show UV lights to well so it shows them as blue

pictures continued

last picture of my sweet setup

oops uploaded wrong picture here is correction from last post

Not too bad, I have an awsome fully customised setup that I'll post as soon as I find someone on campus with a digital camera...I'm actually doing a full setting around the computer as well, such as room blacklights and such. It looks so sweet. My roomate was just commenting on it.

[bradsta]

how do i view the pics of his computer??