The 6GC Nerds Thread, For anyone that considers themselves a 'nerd' Options

[rentaspace]

Soooo, I am not sure if we have one here or not, I did a search and nothing came up, so I decided to make this thread....
Not sure how well it will go, but I thought maybe we can get everyone that considers themselves a 'nerd' to post why they believe that? Maybe some How-to's and such
There should be no bias here, you may post anything from you love playing Saxophone, Love technology to model building.
I will start, basically I am a Tech-Nerd, I love technology... I work in an Online PC store, I build and test computers whenever I can... I also love Aviation and aircraft, I have a model plane collection of around 120+ models, I also have model cars and yeah

So here we go, the first How-To video, How to install an SSD into a PS3:
Anyway, lately I have been
My PS3 Story:
Well, over the past three days my PS3 has been unusable.
I will begin my story, with the sudden and dramatic speed decrease in my Playstaion. Basically, to load the console, took ten minutes for the XMB to show on screen, and then it would take a minute or more for EVERY movement.
Then, GTAV wouldn't load, took ten minutes to get the starting siren sequence, and rockstar logo and then it went into an infinite 'Loading Story Mode'. All the while the HDD LED was 100% on.
And finally, the PSN would no longer connect, it connected to Internet fine but PSN failed. I jumped onto PlayStation Aus and sure enough a new update was available which fixed "stability issues" so downloaded that instantly....
My troubles really began now, the download got to 99% then took 40minutes to complete the last 1%. Then installation got to 99% before the console crashed and shut off... Upon restarting, the infinite 99% brick started.... (You CANNOT access the safe mode)
Fixed the issue with a workaround of installing my GFs spare laptop HDD and then swapping it out for the original HDD...
To my surprise, the PS3 was still as slow as ever and GTAV still didn't load.... So, I booted into safe mode and did all the non-destructive restores I could... All to no avail.
I decided to backup my and my GFs saves onto a spare External HDD I had. After waiting 5 hours for it to copy 6 measly GB, I formatted the HDD and started again.... Tried to load the backup and it took 40minutes per 1%.... I was sick of its s**t and pulled the plug.
Then it hit me, I had a spare 120GB SSD laying around upstairs so here is a quick guide to installing and configuring an SSD in your PS3:

BEFORE YOU START THIS:
If you have CRITICAL save games, then backup your HDD save files by going to the "Backup Utility" in the XMB menu. You will have to use a PC to format an external/portable HDD with the FAT32 Filesystem, the PS3 ONLY reads the FAT32 system. NOT NTFS.

First Off, What will you will need?:
- Your PS3 Console, mine is a 320GB 'Slim'


- A USB stick configured with the latest PS3 firmware.
If you do not know how to do this, it is very simple, on windows, go to the Australian PS website, and download the latest firmware to the desktop.
Plug in your USB, and make a new folder called "PS3" then create a folder called "UPDATE"
These folders MUST be in upper case.
Then copy the downloaded .pup into the UPDATE folder.
Your USB is now ready.


- The Solid State Drive (Mine is a 120GB Samsung 840)
You do NOT need a state-of-the-art SSD, the PS3 doesn't have Sata3 speeds and also has no TRIM function, so even a 2 year old SSD would be fine


- You will also need a small screwdriver set, I used a Clock/Jewelers Set. You literally only need 1 screwdriver...

Now we get to business.
Step 1: Flip the PS3 console over and remove the plastic covering the first screw:


Slide the Plastic front panel down the PS3 to reveal the HDD cage:


Now, remove the HDD cage by unscrewing the four screws and then install it on the SSD in the correct way:

Step 1 complete....



Step 2: Configuring the new SSD:
Plug your pre-configured USB stick into the PS3 and make sure your controller is connected via a cable.


Turn the PS3 on, and be greeted by this ominous message:

Press the start and select button simultaneously.

The USB will be checked and you will be greeted with another ominous message;

Press and Hold the START and SELECT button for at least 5 seconds.


The SSD will be formatted, a hell of a lot quicker than the old HDD:



Then after the console restarts, the new Firmware will be installed, This took me ages as my USB is USB1.0 standard []


Your PS3 is now SSD powered

If you are like me and like the best and fastest in everything, then this is a great update...
My PS3 is now going great, the console loads to the XMB menu in 5 seconds, The XMB menu loads everything instantly, moves with 0 lag, Loads GTAV from disk insert to playing in 2 minutes and now no longer has to buffer and render the games while you are driving/flying around the city fast.


So, there is the first "nerd" how-to What have you guys got to share and broaden everyone knowledge

[rentaspace]

Waiting for more fittings:

[Bitter]

Nice.

[rentaspace]

Fittings arrived and now leak testing/cleaning the loop:

[Box]

Cool!

[Bitter]

Makes me want to get my Koolance case up and going again...but I lack anything worthy of such cooling.

[rentaspace]

Makes me want to get my Koolance case up and going again...but I lack anything worthy of such cooling.

Do it
Mines only a second generation i7 2600k, nothing too fancy

[Bitter]

My main PC is an E8400, my spare is an i3. I lack anything that needs water cooling or would benefit from it. Both those run so cool on air that I can kill the heatsink fan on their tower coolers and they run fine. The i3 can run full load on it's tower cooler with just the case fans moving air.

[PegGTS]

I need to upgrade my PC. I built it quite a while ago.

Gigabyte P55A-UD3 motherboard
i5 750
4 GB of G.SKILL Ripjaw ram
Used to have a Radeon HD 5850 but my brother just gave me his old GTX 570
Antec 900 case

[cardshark525]

I love liquid cooling. I'm sitting here at 26c on my CPU and 22c on my motherboard right now. Basically idling besides the site being up and typing right now.

i7 hex core running very chilly.


What did the whole loop run you? I was thinking about making a custom loop but I couldn't pass up a Corsair H100i (240mm closed loop) for $89 after all rebates when I purchased my build.


The GPU gets up to 70c+ when gaming I'd like to chill that puppy out a bit.

[rentaspace]

Well, I had a H100i but the LEDs died and Corsair Link never worked... So I took it back to work for a refund. Getting a 2TB HDD and a Corsair RM650.


The main components in the loop cost $640 including almost $50 in shipping. I then had to buy a pump top and two more fittings which cost a further $60. And I will have to also get a 180mm Phobya Fan and I was considering a proper fan controller as well...
So, my build isn't finished yet haha >.<




And, I am not sure if it is because the thermal compound needs to settle (The manufacturer says 200 hours), but my idle temps are:
34-5C on the CPU
38-39C on the GPU

Given, I am running a Radeon R9 290x GPU, which on the air cooler ran IDLE at 70-80C... (Peaked at 99-101C when gamine >.< )

This post has been edited by rentaspace: Apr 3, 2014 - 5:40 PM

[PegGTS]

Anybody play Titanfall on PC?

[RoadRage]

No, Xbone

[PegGTS]

No, Xbone

Damn you and your fancy new technology

[rentaspace]

Got this today:

[Bitter]

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-p...spx?pid=4164#ov $37.35 shipped
Case with 120W PSU, slim DVD, power cable, and 2 SATA cable for $44 shipped
4GB DDR3 for $36 shipped new from Newegg
Just need a hard drive for it and it'll be ready to setup dual boot or just Xubuntu for web use and sell to someone, I have a customer in mind already that I'd sell to at parts cost.
Not bad for about $120 to my door.

[rentaspace]

Sounds pretty good,
One of my mates recently upgraded to 4th gen CPU/Mobo. He offered me his old board and CPU for $75.
The board is an Intel Board, and unfortunately he bent 3 pins removing the CPU. I'm not risking the CPU in it so I purchased a basic Gigabyte board second hand for $50.
The CPU on the other hand, is a PERFECT condition I7 3770. So it alone is worth more than $75AU.
I already had a spare 1TB HDD laying around when I updated to 2TB along with my old Widetech 750watt PSU and a Radeon HD5670.
I threw all these into my old NZXT Lexa S Mid tower, and bam an operational PC.

I've lent it to my GF atm since she plays sims3 a lot and it maxes that. Not sure if I am gonna sell it sometime or not.

[Special_Edy]

Anyone ever considered dunking the entire system into a fish tank full of mineral oil or vegetable oil? Ive seen some videos of people doing this, since both are nonconductive they wont short out the electronics and it will have 1000-2000 times the thermal capacity of air. You could use normal heat sinks with fans, the fans would aid in circulation but the only issue I can see is whether or not there is enough heat to warm the entire tank of oil. Then you would have to figure out a way to cool the oil in the tank, but it would probably be easy to build some sort of radiator system for the oil in the tank. Heck, you could even use a coolant system to cool the oil below room temperature, so long as the oil doesnt solidify.
Next time I upgrade my system, Im going to test this on my old computer. I want to see if the parts actually last long term immersed in oil or if it may break down some of the petroleum based products in the electronics.

Oh and 28 amps is only ~340watts at 12volts, or 140watts at 5volts which half of the computer operates at. That old computer probably only had like two or three hundred watts of juice total.

This post has been edited by Special_Edy: May 31, 2014 - 9:59 PM

[Bitter]

The mini itx is up and running just fine, the 60mm case fan and 40mm cpu fan are a little noisy so I ordered a quieter cpu heatsink and fan to see if I can fit them, if not then I'll just fit the fan. I'm going to work on the case fan to make something quieter, I may hack up an old C2D heatsink fan (cut the legs off) and glue it to the case to suck air in to aid in cooling across the board and the HDD at the other end. I'm using an OLDE OLDE slow SATA drive that's got Xubuntu 14.04 and 12.04 on it that I use to test all my systems. Memtest86+ for 48 hours and then a solid 24 hours of mprime at full load, if nothing catches fire then it's good to go!

The 120W PSU may be a little small, it's spitting out some heat running full load, I can get a 160W unit but screw it. I'd rather get a better case,board, etc. and do a little i3 setup or something. I've got a snipe on an old Dell board with a i3 and some ram, it should go cheap cheap. I'll throw it in my old mATX dell case and make a little htpc or guest computer or something. Nothing like a Dimension 2400 case with a 3.2Ghz i3 inside!

[rentaspace]

Anyone ever considered dunking the entire system into a fish tank full of mineral oil or vegetable oil? Ive seen some videos of people doing this, since both are nonconductive they wont short out the electronics and it will have 1000-2000 times the thermal capacity of air. You could use normal heat sinks with fans, the fans would aid in circulation but the only issue I can see is whether or not there is enough heat to warm the entire tank of oil. Then you would have to figure out a way to cool the oil in the tank, but it would probably be easy to build some sort of radiator system for the oil in the tank. Heck, you could even use a coolant system to cool the oil below room temperature, so long as the oil doesnt solidify.
Next time I upgrade my system, Im going to test this on my old computer. I want to see if the parts actually last long term immersed in oil or if it may break down some of the petroleum based products in the electronics.

I have seen quite a few, only very few that actually are using modern parts though. Mostly old P4s.
Hard Drives cannot be submersed because of extra resistance and also fans will burn out quicker due to the extra push the motor has to provide, you also have to have movement of the oil through the tank.
Some people have gone over the top and added a pump flowing through external radiators, but personally this is over the top since they may as well just made an Open loop liquid cooler...

I've always wanted to do it, but much effort for not much gain...
Without that heat dissipating out of the oil, it will just heat up the whole tank and eventually turn off... Also, the oil picks up minute particles off anything metal (circuit boards, radiators etc...) and this slowly makes the oil able to short out. It needs to be replaced every 6-12months.

Personally, they are really cool but pretty impractical haha, but hey, I'd do it if I had the space and time just because

[Bitter]

I'd rather do a water loop with a massive passive radiator, that's much cooler.

If you add some ethylene glycol antifreeze to the cooling water it becomes more efficient by a noticable amount. I noted a 5-8c drop in all temps with the addition of a slight amount, about 4:1 water:eg. It was about 8 months after I installed the water block with arctic silver under it so it wasn't coincidental temp drop from the AS setting up or anything, cpu temp and coolant temp's both dropped, the eg added a little viscosity and made the water a little 'stickier' so it dropped heat better in the radiator I think. I used plain green, but you toyota freaks may want to use Toyota Red.