FusionMods

well this took much much longer than I had expected. It started with bad parts arriving, continued through setting up a bachelor party and a wedding, but last night, my computer finally got back up and running, and almost all without hitting any snags.

So I think I’ll start off by just posing all the pics in a gallery

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So this build was because of some failed components, but it also presented an excellent opportunity to upgrade at the same time. A lot of this is in my previous post, but I did opt to go for the quad core CPU, which after just a few hours of use, I’m extremly happy with so far.

Out of the box, the motherboard looks great. The size of the onboard coolers is always a small concern since these keep getting larger and larger, but these ones were an average size, and positioned nicely enough that I didn’t feel all that worried.

The first step is installing the CPU, this should be pretty straight forward. The CPU will have two notches in it, allowing it to rest in the cpu socket in only one position. Once in place, simply lock down the cpu.

Now depending on your CPU cooler, it might be easier to install this before mounting the motherboard. My CPU cooler has a back plate that comes with it, so I have to install it first. Most cpu coolers just have push pins, which depending on the placement of the fan(s), can be easy to install after the motherboard is mounted. Here’s a few shots comparing the CPU cooler I’m using and the stock cooler the CPU came with…. there’s no way you’d ever talk me into running a stock cooler, especially after comparing these pics.

Aside from the size of the stock cooler, I’ve also heard that the amount of thermal paste isn’t always enough either, and not having enough thermal paste is like running your car without enough oil.

So installing the CPU cooler, you first need to apply a coating of thermal compound to the CPU. you just need a thin layer. Luckily I had a tube of Arctic silver 5 laying around still. To spread it, I simply just cut a piece of plastic from the container that came with the CPU. Anything will do really as long as it is flat. I’ve used cardboard in the past, extra thick paper, but plastic is probably the best.

Once this is done, all that is left is to mount your motherboard. This is just typically 6 to 9 screws depending on the size of your board. Make sure to connect the power and all the other cables, as well as the graphics card. (I’m not spending too much time on these details because odds are, to install a new motherboard, you took your old one out). The only thing you’ll want to make a note of is that you have all of the case connectors plugged in properly. There’s nothing like turning on your computer for the first time, to realize it wont… because you forgot to plug in that connector.

Once everything is all plugged in you should have a real mess of cables similiar to this…

hopefully yours will look a little bit cleaner, lol.

Here’s a shot of the computer up and running… It’s a pretty great day foro it so far

And now that I think of it, as soon as I get home today, I’ll publish some shots of my full system, hopefully my office can stay this clean for a while.

In a prelude of a new CPU Cooler Review, I thought I’d just jot down some thoughts on the topic of upgrading coolers.

I’m finishing up a review of the Transformer 6 CPU Cooler, which is one massive CPU cooler. This one has a pretty logical design for being as large as it is, and do far, while I haven’t checked the comparison temps, it looks like it’s running great.

Here’s a few shots

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The only downside I’ve come across is that this cooler is large enough that it requires a back plate. In all honesty I prefer having this kind of structural support, these things can put a fair amount of weight on your motherboard, but it does mean you have to almost disassemble your full computer. With this being the case, I decided it was also time to clean everything too. It doesn’t happen often, but I have had fans actually stop working from getting too gunked up with dust before. Seems like the small HD cooler fans are always the first to go for me.

There was a small concern in the back of my mind that the cooler might run into the case or the graphics card, but everything went together perfectly. It also looks awesome. The fan lights up as well, just adding to the overall effect. Once I publish the product review I’ll give you the pics, but I don’t want to give away too many spoilers.

In the pics, you can also see my previous cooler from Xigmatec. This was also a very large CPU cooler with an upright 120mm fan, but this current cooler has a 120mm fan, as well as 6 heat pipes, and it looks like it’ll get better heat dispersion.

The big difference between the two is the direction of cooling. Coolers that blow to the side are nice since you can almost always find a case that has a fan on the back of it, but not all of them are built to vent air inside from the side panel. Luckily mine has two massive 230mm (I believe thats the correct size) fans built into the side panel. The xClio wind tunnel is a win of a case. Excellent toolless design as well btw

Hope you guys like this short preview. Feel free to shoot my any questions you might have on the topic too. And if you love your PC, please never use that lame stock cooler they send you, lol