Build to tide me over, and perhaps build apon... - Page 6

I'm hangin...

Just wanted to post my comments as people were giving Steve a hard time for buying from Alienware. All my computers since 1999 were bought from Alienware, and I didn't have a lot of these kinds of issues. The issues I did have were resolved with a single phone call, and overnight or second day shipping.

You do pay more from an integrator like Alienware, but after all the time and effort putting this thing together, and now dealing with the problems, I'd have to say it's worth it if you don't want to deal with the hassles.

My last build, I had no issues. This time, I do, but they're minor and so far have been easy to identify and fix. Unfortunately the main ones are not the kind of thing I can fix...

At least I'll find out how good these companies are with RMA's and support.

Newegg seems great. All automated.

So far eVGA has been good. Most of their interface with customers is automated and on the web updated in real time. Only problem with this is they do everything possible to get you taken care of online, so getting through to a real person can be an effort. I finally did get someone that could answer my concerns about the RMA process, and it left me with a very positive attitude towards eVGA.

Hopefully Doublesight will come through. If not, I have to ship the monitor back to Buy.com tomorrow for exchange due to their fourteen day limit on returns, and they're out of stock so it would be a while to get a replacement.

Arranged an RMA today with Doublesight, but they won't cross ship no matter how much I begged... They will cross ship with their dual monitor setups, but not with this model...

So new 8800gtx is on the way from eVGA, and I'll get the monitor to FedEx tomorrow, so it looks like I'll still be out of commission for a couple weeks.

Just learned that the Jehovah's witnesses have applied for a conditional use permit to build a kingdom hall on the property next to me... Did a gypsy put a curse on me?

Not as much as I do Buck47...

I'm sure it'll all work out...

Shipped off my monitor for RMA today, the fan controller arrived at Newegg today, and my new eVGA 8800gtx arrived today.

Tomorrow I'm sending off all my mail in rebates, and shipping the 8800gtx return back to eVGA.

This game isn't as fun as TF2...

meh...

The Zalman I ordered is really nice, but the one I got is faulty. It has a nice black anodized aluminum faceplate, and nice dials with diodes that indicate fan speeds. When you have the fans in medium speed range, the diode shines blue. When you turn it up to full speed, the diode turns red.

The first channel had the red diode, but the blue didn't work. That's the channel I had hooked up to the Zalman cpu cooler, so I know it's not the fan causing the issue. The second channel dial didn't affect fan speeds so the resistor is bad. The other channels worked fine.

Buck47...

Have you considered aftermarket cooling for your vid cards? After my first eVGA 8800gtx failed, I looked on the net and found some pretty awful pics of the stock cooling and thermal grease applications.

I'm thinking of going with a thermalright cooler for the 8800gtx to protect the new card.

Here's the one I'm looking to buy.

http://www.xoxide.com/thermalright-hr03-plus.html

I became concerned when I saw a post on eVGA's forums. Guy had heat issues, and took the stock heatsink off to find this...







As you can see, there is almost no thermal compound on the gpu itself, and the memory paste is showing scorching. I have little faith in the stock thermal compound at this point.

I would take the stock setup apart and apply AS5, but the memory uses thick thermal pads, and I don't want to have to deal with damaged pads as I don't have any replacements.

I've had heat issues with my first 8800gtx. While the lifetime warranty is great, exchanges take a while and it's a pain in the butt.

The aftermarket cooling doesn't void the warranty either, so I think I'm going to do this. From the comments I read, this cooler drops the temps 10 deg C across the board.

I was concerned about there being no exhaust out of the case as with the stock cooler, but I've ordered a Scythe 120mm high volume (63.7 cfm)/low noise (28 db max) fan for the exhaust that I'll put on the fan controller. The standard fan I'm using now isn't rated as high, and seems plenty capable of keeping up with the five intake 80mm fans I'm using. I'm thinking about adding an additional 80mm exhaust under the vid card. I also am not impressed with the stock cooler's exhaust volume. That might be the problem with the first card, it doesn't seem to move much air out the back at all though it's spinning...