Small, but rather large upgrade.

[tennyson]

I haven't been getting the best from my FSX/FTX in the past few days, so I was tossing up what to do.

I've been reluctant to OC my CPU, but I've come to the conclusion that it is probably there that my biggest bottle neck is.

I'd also recently ravaged my FSX computer of 6Gb of Ram to put in my new productivity machine, so I decided to put the 6Gb back to bring it back up to 12Gb, as well with my little upgrade.

I bought a new i7-930 cpu for my productivity machine and needed a cpu fan to go on that, so I opted to buy a new fan unit for my FSX machine and do the hand me down thing for my prod machine.

Emmsie showed us a new fan unit that was recently bought out by coolermaster (the V10), so I checked the specs and bought one of those babies as well.

Ripped down to the distributors this morning and bought the goodies home and straight into it.

Here's the box that the cooler master came in..

It honestly looks like something that should be hanging out of the bonnet of my car.

How is that gonna fit in the box?

[img width=1050 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280455750.jpg

Here's a pic of the case with the old fan attached.

Should be a breeze, just unhook the old one and........not so fast!

[img width=466 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280403152.jpg

Up close and personal with the themaltake cooler and the V10!

[img width=1050 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280383961.jpg

As you can see from the size of it, it doesn't just cool the CPU, but it also cools your RAM!

[img width=466 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280389427.jpg

The instructions are brief but adequate. Hmm, looks like the backing plate needs to be attached to the mobo before it goes in the box.

Ok, this might take just a bit more time.

[img width=466 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280420681.jpg

The Xaser has a nice, removeable backing board to access your mobo, but unfortunately that isn't going to help. I need to remove the mobo from the backing board.

[img width=1050 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280433082.jpg

Here's the mobo with the V10 attached

[img width=1050 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280447598.jpg

[img width=1050 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280442363.jpg

Ok, that didn't take that long, now let's see if it will fit back in the case?

[img width=1050 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280472051.jpg

Yep, just need to re-route a little cabling....

[img width=1050 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280449180.jpg

And there you have it. Pretty as a picture!

[img width=466 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280441771.jpg

[img width=466 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280405274.jpg

[img width=466 height=700]http://www.fsfiles.org/imagehost/uploads/1280471932.jpg

Pluggged it all back in and started first go. You just can't beat good quality gear!

It is a little louder than the thermaltake, but I can live with that.

Now to go and bone up on OC'ing that CPU!

Frank

[ricky76]

Boy, that that coolers a tank eh? Congrats on the upgrade! 

[Sniper31]

Nice report Frank.

[Gurdy]

holy crapola! .. thats a beast of a cooler!

[tennyson]

Yeah, but the upshot of the whole thing is:

I did some screenies of my system at idle and under certain loads (using RealTemp) and when I'd done the upgrade I checked again.

Unfortunately, the CoolerMaster results had made very little difference over the thermalaykeunit with the noctua fan.

On the brighter side, the extra 6Gb of Ram has been most beneficial. I dabble a lot in graphics and Photoshop just loves all the Ram it can get.

It seems to me that FSX is a lot more stable, as well.

Frank

[Iain Emms]

Nice report there Frank, Sure does look a big bugger when installed hope things work out for you with the overclock take it easy at first.

cheers

Iain