xenkw0n

I need updates on this mod!

I just want to say that your 212 Evo should be able to cool better than that. I'm kind of leaning towards bad airflow or needing to re-apply thermal paste being your biggest issue. 90c after only -7- minutes on Prime95 means you were going to get even hotter than that. 80c while gaming is extremely high for a normal 4.4-4.5ghz overclock on a 2500k. If I remember correctly these chips still had soldered heatspreaders so they should run even cooler than an IvyBridge. How much vcore actually gets applied while you're monitoring in Windows with your current offsets? Something is off, or your ambient is like 35c.

Why on earth would you be turning off your monitor or changing any video inputs that are plugged into your GPU if it is doing a stress test or even playing a game? You really need to stop using computers or just buy a MAC if you're going to intentionally look for problems instead of just using it like a normal person.

My NH-U14S keeps my 6800k OC'd to 4.1ghz 1.25v with 3000mhz memory and 3.4ghz cache under 70c during stress testing. Although I think these chips are soldered and the 8700k is not... Still, the X99's have a higher TDP at stock so my overclock should still give you some confidence in that air cooler - Especially at $15! What a steal.

I have 3 of these monitors. All I did was set the brightness on the monitor around 35-40%, Contrast at 75%, Make sure deep sleep mode is disabled, that might be what you were experiencing before, Normal Mode (3ms) vs. Fast Mode (1ms) is that you will get ghosting (that white trail you mentioned) unless you're using Normal mode. It's a trade-off for the price of the monitor imo. If you have an Nvidia graphics card make sure GSync is enabled, If your game falls between ~30fps and 144fps then GSync will be in effect, it does what VSync was meant to do without adding any additional input lag (changes monitor refresh rate to stay in sync with FPS so you don't see any screen tearing). I set a max fps in games that support commands like that (142fps is what I use to make sure it never gets to 144fps, at that point vsync can get enabled if you don't have it explicitly disabled) to make sure GSync is always enabled. Also in Nvidia color options; Gamma: ~.65 Digital Vibrance: ~70% With these settings the washed out effect is basically gone and any 'banding' issues will be minimized (usually effected most by higher brightness settings).

Bose are overpriced for the quality. Those Logitechs should fit a nice niche for you, decently priced and make average noise.

Ah ok, yes - The grill took some TLC. I used the dremel to cut out the bars but because it's plastic it started to melt as I was using it from all the friction/heat. Did it well enough to cut the bars off without digging too much into the sides then hand-sanded the little stubs I left behind until it was flush with the inside wall where the bars used to connect. Once I primered and painted it looked like it was meant to be that way with the 240mm grill I used against the metal part of the front case. I luckily still have all of my 3 1/2 bays (so that makes 5 in total that I didn't take the dremel to). I even somehow managed to keep the keys that came with the case 18 and 16 yrs ago since I have 2 originals. I use the silver case for my mothers PC, it was the case to a computer she originally bought back in the early 2000's so when I rebuilt a PC for her recently I repurposed it for her. She actually likes the silver of the case and that it still looks very clean with the door attached (I hate the doors). The one I modded here is my media server and my main PC is in a Phanteks Enthoo Pro. I'm glad I have this one set up as my media server since it was used as my main rig for the past 3 weeks as my X99 build had it's 2nd processor die in the past 15 months. 3rd time's the charm, huh!? I got ASUS to send me a new board too since I'm inclined to believe the processors aren't all defective and the motherboard was probably killing them.

Some of your are referencing 1366 which is X58 and OP is talking about 1156. X58 systems are still viable because of the 6 core Xeon's that overclock really well and support for 48GB of RAM. 1156 is kind of a dead-end anymore and has underwhelming performance. It's the reason I asked "Why?" - For 100$ you could get a used X58 board and then grab a X5650 for $20 and instantly have a much faster computer than any 1156. If it's for enthusiast/personal appeal, I get it.

You're gonna need a big heatsink to catch the wind.

Why?

Nice! Yea, this case originally came from an old Alienware system with a P4 and GeForce 3 Ti 500. I'm also saving up for a house so that's more of a reason to just call it a day with the computer. Most of the money really came from the hard drives and they'll work in any system so whenever I do decide to upgrade again (years++) they can still be used. @Boinker - What do you mean by leaving the louvers in place? You mean the front grill with the bars? I wanted to open it up and expose the fans more. I was able to keep 2 of the 3 3.5" bays available while still fitting in the 2 120mm fans which is a win. I could put another 3.5" device or extra hard drive if I needed to. The case itself is just a classic. The biggest problem with it compared to today's cases is the lack of any real way to do decent cable management and the fact it comes with 5 x 80mm fan spots. Upgrading them to 2 x 120mm in front and 2 x 92mm in back really helps airflow and being able to use bigger, quieter fans (which reminds me I will be replacing the fan in the hot swap bay since it's the loudest thing in the case.

Make sure you overclock it if you get one. Even a 212 Evo would keep that CPU cool at 4.0ghz.

So I'm pretty much officially done. The computer is up and operational operating as a full time media server, part time gaming machine. Put in a Samsung 950 Pro 512GB NVMe SSD with a PCIe adapter and a 3x5.25 to 4x3.5 hard drive hot-swap bay. I will see about fabricating something for the top section to cover the cables later down the line. A little over a year after I started; The end! Wish I had a better camera for dark situations without flash. Always gets blurry because of the lights.

Because it's still viable, and any card you get for this one could easily just be moved into a new system if he plans on upgrading again. I was just giving cheap options he can do to speed up his current system. X58 still has better IPC than the AMD FX processors and overclocks better, so it's definitely still viable, regardless of it's age. I bought myself a GTX 970 from a GTX 285 specifically for use within an X58 system and when I upgraded to X99 I just brought the GTX 970 with me and currently use that. Waiting for next gen graphics cards since the 970 is just fine for my needs. Either way, GPU's are the one thing that can always be moved over from an old to a new system, so why not get something nice and prolong the life out of X58 until the dust settles between this war with Intel and AMD which is when everyone will benefit!

They haven't produced any 1366 socket CPU's since 2012. What I'm referencing is buying a used Xeon off of Ebay. The X5650 is the cheapest of the X56xx series of Xeon CPU's that you can get for your system. They overclock extremely well and run a lot cooler than the 45nm CPU's (i7 920, 930, 940, 950 960). For 20$ you get a CPU with 2 more cores, 4 more threads, more cache, higher stock QPI frequency, better temps, better IPC, and higher OC potential. USB 3.0 is whatever, you could just as easily get a PCIe card for USB 3.0 ports. Those memory sticks are probably dual rank when taking their age into consideration but so are pretty much any 3x2GB kits you would find on ebay and yes, they'll all work together. The ones you have though have extremely tight timings so if you plan on using XMP and don't have sticks that can match those timings at 1600mhz then you'll have to manually adjust the timings to something the slowest memory in your system can run at. It might just be easier to pick up 3x4gb sticks like the ones I linked to and sell yours. Will put less strain on the IMC using 3 sticks instead of 6, both ways get you to 12GB. Aside from that... You'll still want a better graphics card than a 285 to use for today. I have one in storage at this point, can't really think of a use for it but I put a massive aftermarket cooler on it so I'm keeping it around.