And d’you know what? No sparks. No Bangs. No puffs of smoke. It just works cool and fast! However it’s not as quiet as I’d want it. Somethings up with the fan controllers. Still haven’t quite worked out what but I’ll find out soon enough. I’m more interested in getting it up and running…

 [UPDATE] Ah - hooked the molex up wrong for the controller. My bad! Silent now

 I’ve not heard bad things about Asus returns, just that they ocasionally take a bit of time… I’ve done returns through BFG before and that was easy as pie. Emails replied within minutes and a new card sent out within a week. So why would Asus (a company just as big if not bigger) have any issues?

Well I didn’t know how wrong I’d be. It’s been 3 weeks now and I’m still getting no where. I’ve had to ask to speak to someone higher up because the person who I’ve been in contact with is slow and isn’t helping me and sending me incorrect links!

So with someone higher ont he line, I’m a little bit further. The card number finally confirmed but now I’m told they can’t help me because they want it done through a store. I told them they can’t get me a replacement and what not so they humphed and moaned so I humphed and moaned back until they decided “we’ll transfer you to UK support”. WTF!? ARGH!!!! I’m told it can take up another 2 weeks for UK services to get in touch, of which, they’ll want me to pay to send the card away jsut to get it looked at before they’ll consider RMA’ing it!!!

I’m not a happy bunny… no PC.. no replacement card… no internet at home… HMPH! That means alot of internet LAN cafe money has to be spent….

[UPDATE] You can see the on going hell I’m going through on CPC here - http://www.custompc.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=281210

I pushed it again, life. What had it not started for? Got it up and into Windows, ran 3D mark 06 for testing. Then it went al wrong… BANG! My boss and I startled immediately saw there were sparks and smoke coming from my top graphics card. I just yanked the power lead out. Falling to my knees, I checked as best I could to see what was wrong. Nothing… No leaks had sprung. My fiance ran down as soon as he heard what happend to comfort me.

My fiance took the lead and earthed the PC just incase and helped draining and taking it apart. Bit by bit we took the top card apart. Beneath the block we found blackness. The card had blown. Theheatsink blackend. My next concern, “Have I just killed my PC?!”. I couldn’t even bring myself to trying… My fiance had to move my bottom card into the top slot. We used the cables that were attached to the card that had blown incase it was the leads. Cautiously he turned it on. Life… From such tragedy, something had survived… I hadn’th blown it all away… my many months of work…

Sadly I just can’t bring myself to having another go just yet. I’ve already started to try and RMA my card piecing it back together. However I’m guessing it will be difficult as I bought it from my last place of work. But we shall see…

 [UPDATE] No longer trading. Oh great. This is going to be fun. just going to have to be direct with Asus.

So here it is after all the plumping and filling during it’s 1 week leak test…

Nearly there…

Equipment :
 - Swiftech Apogee GT
 - Asus Fusion Block
 - 2x EK 3870X2 Blocks
 - Swiftech Laing 5 Pump
 - 2x Swiftech 240mm Rads
 - Lots of 7/16″ hosing
 - XSPC 5.25″ Reservoir
 - 2x Feser Coolant UV Pink (I wanted red but oh well)

A word of warning - it’s a dirty dirty dirty job and you’re probably going to get cuts n scuffs!!! There’s alot of blood, sweat and tears (quite liturally)

I did have some photos but unfortunately they’re no longer available. Totally gutted at that.  Step by step and everything. Oh poo!

List of bits I’ve now got :
 - 2m Black coils
 - 1m Blowhole trim
 - 2x 3870X2 waterblocks
 - 2x Xilence fan controllers
 - 5x TT Thunderblades Red LED fans (78CFM, 21DB)
 - Hose cutters
 - 1/2″ Barbs
 - 1/2″ Hose clips
(and yes that’s this month’s issue of CPC you spy!)

Huge boxes for huge cards!!!
       

Longer than my mobo!

My case seems…. er… small?

So hey ho - add the crossfire bridge and we’re off! Power up! Very quiet… Can’t hear them over my other fans! Downloaded my drivers (Driver Packaging Version 8.471-080225a1-059752C-ATI ) and gave it a reboot. Time to test….

CSS with everything maxed out at 1920×1200 - ~200FPS (up from previous ~100FPS)
TF2 with everything maxed out at 1920×1200 - ~100FPS (up from previous ~50FPS)
COD4 with everything maxed out at 1920×1200 - well I can’t tell you because the game actually didn’t work with the FPS bar on! Happy as larry with it off though!
DODS with everything maxed out at 1920×1200 - ~100FPS (up from previous ~50FPS)

That’s all I’ve managed to test so far - but just about everything is an average of doubled FPS! (That’s with averages over a few maps taken). I do have more games such as GOW, WIC, BF2, Oblivion, GH3, TDU etc to test on though! Oblivion should be the interesting 1 seeing as how it’s always hated crossfire stuff…. purple lines etc.

The cards run fine off my Enermax 650W PSU, and OC to the max but they do get rather warm in a case with very little airflow. Stuck a spare Thermaltake Thunderblade 120mm fan in front of the 2 cards to keep the cold air flowing over them and seems to have brought temperatures down to a more normal level. No glitches so far, and every game has been extremely stable.

I will be ordering water blocks for the cards in the next few weeks. Thinking I’ll be going with the EK 1s as they’re the best designed in my opinion. By then I should have finished all my case mods too (fingers crossed). So next entry will be a biggy! I will keep this plog updated with more FPS results as will I in the forums.

Forum Topic : http://www.custompc.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=262268

For some wierd reason his PC just will not produce the correct resolution on his HDTV with his card on the HDMI lead! We tried his mum’s PC on the VGA cable and it worked straight away using on board graphics, so why his 7950GTX wouldn’t puzzels me. We tried everything we could think of (Drivers, Nvidia control panel, power strip etc. - tried forcing the res but nothing worked! Had to use reg edit to get his games working at an unatural res and most didn’t like it 1 bit!) and nothing worked.

As soon as we installed the 8800GT though it took to the HDTV res straight away, as did his games and films without any errors or aid of software! Hurray!

Now he play’s every game he has maxxed out!

So many many times I have ordered red cathodes and they’ve arrived pink! I love red, and thsu everything in my PC is red. It all started with my first case that I picked up for £10 around 3 or 4 years ago now, and it came with the reddest cathodes I’ve ever seen! Unfortunately I made the mistake of giving the cathodes away with my PC when I went to “upgrade” and got into my initial PC mess… (Read my first post to understand better). Ever since then I’ve tried to order cathodes the same colour…

I once found a cathode that was identical, but when I went to buy a set I could never find any. They all advertised as red and showed images showing that they were red and always arrived, plugged them in and oh my god not again - they’re feckin pink!!! As a girl you’d think I’d like pink but I f******* hate it!!!

Anyway, I decided enough was enough. No more ordering, wasting money or being disapointed. Time for a mod! The cathodes I have are a year or so old and are a pinkish-white colour. Very crap in my opinion but oh well… A cheap ebay purchase! I’ve been looking into ways of modding them on the cheap. I’ve looked at paint and tinted paper - all of which would work but you can never get them in small quantities or to the sizes you require.

Then, an idea struck. What about my comic marker pens!? Well - only 1 way to find out!

Behold - my 1st test - my 1st cathode coloured in with my marker. This 1 has 2 coats to give it that nice red look. Best way is to work your way up from 1 end to the other giving the cathode a nice even coat. Then, leave the cathode switched on in the case for the day and then return to give it a second coat. If you give it a second coat too soon it goes all sticky and bleh and uneven etc.

(Here you can see the difference between the 1st and 2nd coats)

Work your way up and hey presto! Red cathodes that aren’t pink!!!!

New components from WCUK - Grill and res:
Er… before anyone asks the res isn’t really meant to be like that but the stupid tool free design that isn’t tool free makes it sit uneven in the bays! *sarcastic appluade to TT*

My Eureka in *nearly* all her glory!

Yes that’s the infamous toaster that I use to make toast to munch whilst playing on the server!