Brandon’s Gaming Computer
So I’ve been building computers again lately. What else is new? Here’s the specs of the most recent system that left my house.
Brandon’s Quad Core Gaming Computer
- RAIDMAX SIRIUS ATX Mid Tower Case
- ASUS Striker II Formula Socket 775 Nvidia nForce 780i SLI Motherboard
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz Processor
- mushkin 2GB DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Memory
- EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI-E 2.0 x16 Video Card
- WD Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM SATA 1.5 Gb/s Hard Drive
- LITE-ON 20X DVD+-R Burner SATA
- OCZ GameXStream 700W ATX12V Power Supply
This was a tricky build for one main reason: I ignored the rule of thumb of any build. Put everything together out of the box as-is and test before doing anything else. I made that mistake and it took three weeks to figure out what went wrong.
First off, what you don’t see there are 2 of these Thermaltake Heatsinks:
These things are awesome. Great idea for optional cooling of the Northbridge or Southbridge chipsets. However, on this motherboard, there is also another chip that gets hot. It’s called the NVidia NF 200 and lies between the Northbridge and Southbridge. This little chip got so hot that it kept freezing my computer (ironic, I know).
After getting all of the components swapped out to eliminate the problem it came down to the motherboard. Without checking the motherboard’s ability in its own heatsink, I sent it back to Newegg sight unseen. I got the new one and the same thing happened. I thought that there could be an incompatibility of some kind or memory issue even though the memory worked in another box. So, as dumb luck would have it, I aimed a box fan on the build and found that it stayed stable and lasted a lot longer. Natural reaction: there’s a heat issue somewhere. First thought was the video card. But, that had worked just days before without overheating in nearly the same environment. I decided to check the motherboard for heat just to make sure. And, that’s when I found it. The main problem. That wonderful little NF 200 chip that couldn’t be heatsinked because of its proximity to the video card. So, I threw the original heatsink back on and fired her up, and it worked right off the bat.
It taught me a lesson, though. Always try the defaults of a build before modding or improving the design with fans, heatsinks, or other crap. Next post will hopefully be on the next build, which is for Adcock’s. Kinda strange, I know, but tune in next time to find out how I stumbled upon that job.
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