Have any suggestions, advice, constructive criticisms, etc. on my new build?

[Wonderwrench]

I did feel every component of the build and the only parts that were HOT was the Corsair Pump and the two water cooling hoses that come out of the pump that are metal.  Each of these two items were so hot that they could easily burn my fingers.  The radiator was cool as a cucumber and so was everything else such as the GPU, HD's, PSU, RAM, TV Tuner Card, etc.

From your description, Soar, it sounds like the pump isn't actually pumping and the generated heat from the CPU is staying locallised to the pump header unit. I don't know why the TV card would have any bearing on it but that would be my first point of action.

Yes you would think if the pump was working one hose would be warm/hot and the other cool. I have the same card in my HTPC, Athlon II 240, **** M4A875M, 2x2 gig Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800, AX5670 1GBD5-NS3H, WD Blue 320 gig, Samsung HD321KA 320 gig, ASUS DRW-24B1ST, Corsair CMPSU-400CX* Win 7 pro 64 bit. The only thing I do not like about my TV-HVR-2250 is it slows the down boot and shutdown times big time. Never had any excessive CPU usage problems with it. There were lots of bugs in the software but the later versions seem fine as far as I can tell.

Bill

[soarwitheagles]

Tiredness can cause us to make some mistakes and as you have said, maybe the cabling for the H70 went a little awry when you added the TV Card. I would be surprised if the TV Card was actually causing the problem, although it can't be discounted.

Hopefully, after a little rest and looking at things with fresh eyes you will spot the problem. But, one good thing, at least you know the PC will shutdown if there's an overheating problem!

Yes, and I was surprised it did shut down on its own accord.  The shutdown was disabled in BIOS so I am not sure how it did it by itself.

[soarwitheagles]

I did feel every component of the build and the only parts that were HOT was the Corsair Pump and the two water cooling hoses that come out of the pump that are metal.  Each of these two items were so hot that they could easily burn my fingers.  The radiator was cool as a cucumber and so was everything else such as the GPU, HD's, PSU, RAM, TV Tuner Card, etc.

From your description, Soar, it sounds like the pump isn't actually pumping and the generated heat from the CPU is staying locallised to the pump header unit. I don't know why the TV card would have any bearing on it but that would be my first point of action.

Thanks DM.  I sure hope it is simply a matter of wrong wiring.  Normally it would have been easy to trace the wire back to the source and find out exactly what was occuring...but I was exhausted.  Poor choice on my part and I will chalk it up to a lesson well learned.

[soarwitheagles]

I did feel every component of the build and the only parts that were HOT was the Corsair Pump and the two water cooling hoses that come out of the pump that are metal.  Each of these two items were so hot that they could easily burn my fingers.  The radiator was cool as a cucumber and so was everything else such as the GPU, HD's, PSU, RAM, TV Tuner Card, etc.

From your description, Soar, it sounds like the pump isn't actually pumping and the generated heat from the CPU is staying locallised to the pump header unit. I don't know why the TV card would have any bearing on it but that would be my first point of action.

Yes you would think if the pump was working one hose would be warm/hot and the other cool. I have the same card in my HTPC, Athlon II 240, **** M4A875M, 2x2 gig Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800, AX5670 1GBD5-NS3H, WD Blue 320 gig, Samsung HD321KA 320 gig, ASUS DRW-24B1ST, Corsair CMPSU-400CX* Win 7 pro 64 bit. The only thing I do not like about my TV-HVR-2250 is it slows the down boot and shutdown times big time. Never had any excessive CPU usage problems with it. There were lots of bugs in the software but the later versions seem fine as far as I can tell.

Bill

Bill, that sure makes sense about the pump being the suspect because both hoses were hot.  Regarding the Hauppauge card, that is interesting about the slow down in boot and shut down times.  Are you using Hauppauge's software [WinTV v7] or solely Microsoft's Media Center?

I've been using Hauppauge's 1600 PCI card on my old Q9950 build for years and it operated perfect when I used MMC.  I had heard bad reports about WinTV v6 but now I am really interested in trying the WinTV v7.  Most folk say the 2250 is much better than the 1600 for a number of reasons:

1. It uses two hardware MPEG-2 encoders so it does all the hard work, removing all the work from the processor.
2. It can record two programs at one time and permit you to watch TV too [I am kinda happy about that]!
3. It can live stream any program you want [so my wife's relatives can watch TV with us while we are in the US and they are in the Philippines]
4. It can record video from an external device such as cam recorder, cable TV, or satellite set top box.

The only thing it cannot do is bake  bread and make cookies.

I can't wait to try it.

Did you install it in the PCI-X1 or X16, and will it work in my 890xa-ud3 PCI ex-8?

Soar

[Wonderwrench]

I did feel every component of the build and the only parts that were HOT was the Corsair Pump and the two water cooling hoses that come out of the pump that are metal.  Each of these two items were so hot that they could easily burn my fingers.  The radiator was cool as a cucumber and so was everything else such as the GPU, HD's, PSU, RAM, TV Tuner Card, etc.

From your description, Soar, it sounds like the pump isn't actually pumping and the generated heat from the CPU is staying locallised to the pump header unit. I don't know why the TV card would have any bearing on it but that would be my first point of action.

Yes you would think if the pump was working one hose would be warm/hot and the other cool. I have the same card in my HTPC, Athlon II 240, **** M4A875M, 2x2 gig Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800, AX5670 1GBD5-NS3H, WD Blue 320 gig, Samsung HD321KA 320 gig, ASUS DRW-24B1ST, Corsair CMPSU-400CX* Win 7 pro 64 bit. The only thing I do not like about my TV-HVR-2250 is it slows the down boot and shutdown times big time. Never had any excessive CPU usage problems with it. There were lots of bugs in the software but the later versions seem fine as far as I can tell.

Bill

Bill, that sure makes sense about the pump being the suspect because both hoses were hot.  Regarding the Hauppauge card, that is interesting about the slow down in boot and shut down times.  Are you using Hauppauge's software [WinTV v7] or solely Microsoft's Media Center?

I've been using Hauppauge's 1600 PCI card on my old Q9950 build for years and it operated perfect when I used MMC.  I had heard bad reports about WinTV v6 but now I am really interested in trying the WinTV v7.  Most folk say the 2250 is much better than the 1600 for a number of reasons:

1. It uses two hardware MPEG-2 encoders so it does all the hard work, removing all the work from the processor.
2. It can record two programs at one time and permit you to watch TV too [I am kinda happy about that]!
3. It can live stream any program you want [so my wife's relatives can watch TV with us while we are in the US and they are in the Philippines]
4. It can record video from an external device such as cam recorder, cable TV, or satellite set top box.

The only thing it cannot do is bake  bread and make cookies.

I can't wait to try it.

Did you install it in the PCI-X1 or X16, and will it work in my 890xa-ud3 PCI ex-8?

Soar

I'm using WinTV7 version 2.2d. The slow down in booting and shut down happens with only the driver installed which eliminates WinTV as the cause.
I would guess having the card installed adds 30 seconds to boot and shut down times. The problem may be related to my specific hardware config? Be sure and let me know if you notice the same on your new rig. If your going to install WinTV 7 download the latest version, do not install from the supplied software disk. Unless of course its the latest version. Place the original software disk an optical drive. If it auto runs cancel the installer and then run the installer you downloaded. Don't worry if you not exactly sure how you want the to configure the software during the install aka channel scans, save locations etc. as it can all be easily changed after the install. Just be sure to install the driver and WinTV 7. If you have the version with a remote it should work in both WinTV and MMC by default. I did have a problem getting my remote to work do to a poor connection where the remote sensor plugs into the card. Removing and reinserting the plug fixed it after a reboot. This looks to be a common problem with these cards.

My card in in a 1x slot BTW.

Bill

[soarwitheagles]

Bill,

Thanks for your reply.  Ok, I after making sure the overheating problem is solved [I must have hooked up a wrong wire to the water pump, my big mistake], I reinstalled the Hauppauge 2250, installed the newest Windows driver, ran set up, and it is absolutely amazing so far.

My wife and I both noticed a much greater clarity on our display [not sure if it is the Hauppauge 2250 or the new GPU].  Everything works fine.  I have not noticed a slow down on boot times or shut down times...but I have not yet installed the WinTV v.7.

I am presently facing two larger challenges:

1. I cannot find my Western Digital Black Edition hard drive.  Not sure what happened.  It shows up in Windows 7 Disk Manager, but not when I click my computer....weird.  I need that disk because I have chosen this WD for most of my program files.  All other HD's are showing up and working just fine.

2. The Corsair H70 radiator is so big, it will not permit me to close my computer case!  Ouch!  I now must decide how to alleviate this challenge.  My options are as follows:

a. Remove the 240mm side fan [I do not want to do that]
b. Remount the fan further toward the front [takes lots of work and may cause cosmetic flaws]
c. Rotate the radiator so the hoses face a different direction [requires I take the entire system apart and start all over again]

Now I wish I had looked at this more carefully before I began the start.

The best part of all is that this system is like lightening.  Extremely fast and totally stable.

I hope I did not damage anything from the overheating issue.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thanks,

Soar

PS Are you in Europe too?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Soar

With the H70 one option might be to mount it on the outside of the case rather than the inside. That would give you more room inside the case.

Regarding the hard drive have you initialised and formatted it for use? You can do that in Disk Management.

[soarwitheagles]

Hi Soar

With the H70 one option might be to mount it on the outside of the case rather than the inside. That would give you more room inside the case.

Regarding the hard drive have you initialised and formatted it for use? You can do that in Disk Management.

Hi DM!  I do not have enough room in the computer space to locate the the H70 externally.  Thanks for the suggestion though.  I am kind of disappointed in that I did not see the problem as I put the system together.  You know, the Storm Sniper is a very large case [many people say it is a full tower size even though it is listed as a mid tower].

Not to worry...I know there is a way to make it work.  I just need some time to think about the best way for my present needs.

I tried Disk Management and it kept saying not enough room.  Not sure why.  After trying numerous times I used Gparted and found that the disk was formated in some strange format, not NTFS [I probably formated it wrong earlier].  

Windows immediately picked it up about 10 minutes ago and I am now loading MS Office 2010 Pro.  Space is quickly being used up on the SSD [I am presently at 34 gigs left out of 55].

Not sure about the optional Windows updates...have you any suggestions on those [I already installed all the important updates]?

Also, I noticed Office automatically installed on the SSD [it did not give me an option], but I suppose that is good because I use it so often.

Anyway, how are you and how is life there?

Soar

UPDATE: I just discovered that the Corsair H70 mounting bracket on the backside of the MB is different than the H50.  So now I should be able to simply loosed the bracket, turn the radiator 90 degrees, then spin the water pump to adjust for the 90 degrees and all should work just fine.  It appears to be a much simpler solution than all the others I have considered so that makes me happy!

[Dark Mantis]

Another possibility is to locate the radiator at the top of the case as opposed to the rear.

Regarding the optional updates for Windows they are exactly that...optional. Unless they are giving you some added value then just don't bother with them. You know what Micro$oft is like very free with anything that is worth nothing!

By the way Bill is in the US, one of your compatriots.

[soarwitheagles]

Another possibility is to locate the radiator at the top of the case as opposed to the rear.

Regarding the optional updates for Windows they are exactly that...optional. Unless they are giving you some added value then just don't bother with them. You know what Micro$oft is like very free with anything that is worth nothing!

By the way Bill is in the US, one of your comapatriots.

DM, thanks again for the good advice on the optional updates...I suppose I won't touch them.

It is amazing how much better our minds work after a good night's rest.  As I took my time and I looked at the case, the power cables, the H70, and all the different options, the solution became so utterly clear.

First, I considered the top mount you graciously suggested.  It would work, but then I'd need to eliminate the 200mm fan on top of the case and I did not want to sacrifice it.

Here is what I did:  I simply rotated the Corsair H70 radiator 90 degrees.  Nothing else was needed.  At first, it looked as if it would not work.  I took the necessary measurements then tried it.  There is now a 1-2 mm gap between the Coolmaster 200mm side fan and the fan on the H70!  So it just barely made the fit.  The radiator hoses are now located at the top of the case, barely clearing the top 200mm fan.

I found that I had routed the wrong power cable to the water pump.  My bad.  I had also left off all the case cooling fans for an entire day [the case temps were 29.1].

At this very moment, the CPU temp is 27.0 and the case temp is 27.3.  Needless to say, I am deeply impressed with Corsair's H70.  The only drawback I see on it is the dBA's of the fans.  I can hear both fans above and beyond the dBA's of the system fans and for me, that is not acceptable.  I will look into quieter fans in the near future or a fan controller where I might alter the speeds of both fans.

For now, I am very happy with my new dream machine.  So far, it is exceeding my expectations in wonderful ways.

Have a wonderful day there DM!

Up, up, and away!

Soar

[Dark Mantis]

Glad you've got sorted Soar and it sounds like a nice setup now (just don't tell absic I said that )
Try a Scythe Gentle Typhoon for the radiator, quiet but powerful and fairly slow spinning.

Have a good one
DM

[absic]

I already know what a lovely build it is I have been watching. See Soar, I told you it would be a dream after all the problems you encountered on the Dark Side! 

As far as cooling fans go I personally think that you cant beat the Noctua fans.
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=12&lng=en this one for your Corsair cooler would be an excellent choice.

[soarwitheagles]

Glad you've got sorted Soar and it sounds like a nice setup now (just don't tell absic I said that )
Try a Scythe Gentle Typhoon for the radiator, quiet but powerful and fairly slow spinning.

Have a good one
DM

DM,

Thanks again and I'm checking out those Scythe Gentle Typhoon's right now!

[soarwitheagles]

I already know what a lovely build it is I have been watching. See Soar, I told you it would be a dream after all the problems you encountered on the Dark Side! 

As far as cooling fans go I personally think that you cant beat the Noctua fans.
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=12&lng=en this one for your Corsair cooler would be an excellent choice.

Absic, yes, it is a dream machine for me.  Thanks again for helping me make this happen.  I'm looking at the Noctua website now.  I've great reports on their cooling fans.

Have a lovely day!

Soar

[scjet]

 just make sure the Ram is 1333 Mhz, (if it's AM3 Phenom II, aka, 890FX-UD5/UD7 MB's, otherwise you will be asking for ENDLESS trouble.
 (at the least possible instability issues)
....and then send AMD a nasty email, saying you're not happy with thier memory-controllers'


but, GL

Rick.