Yet Another Cleaning..

It has been 4 months since I last cleaned my PC and my siblings never bother to do it for me. My casing and monitor are covered with dust and I dare not imagine the interior yet. Been away to NS for about 2 months time and it's about time for me to clean the mess. The post should be written on 9th September on that day itself but there are many things hogging up my free time and hence the delayed post.

Well, nothing particularly interesting about PC cleaning and some might have saw it in my previous post. The thing I to post is just to show the capability of nifty-fifty a.k.a. EF 50mm F1.8 II that was bought recently (on that time period).


The filters are the first line of dust defense and you will know the what the condition will be inside. After four months of defending and the results are as below.

Here, you can notice the narrow DOF @ F1.8
left side is clean version, right side is the dirty version, look at all the dust

Narrow DOF @ F1.8

Wider DOF @ F4.0

The next to dis-amble will be the fans, which is the second most dusty unit in the casing. Three different Xigmatek XLF fans used in my PC.

Removing the fan from the heat sink shows that the amount of dust accumulated is still acceptable, thanks to the front panel filters.

Took it out for a clean water run and dried naturally after rinsing off the water from the fins.



The thermal paste is visible here. I always wanna try lapping my HSF but somehow I've stop overclocking my processor for quite some time, so I will just leave it as it is for the mean time.

The socket 775 of my E7400, with the processor attached to it of course. Next will be the cleaning for my graphic card and it is done after having my dinner, which is quite late already.

Here comes my 4850 TurboX, and stripped down to pieces within minutes with my screwdriver.



The main PCB, GPU, heat sink, the fan and the UV reactive cover. Everything is cleaned and assembled back into their respective places. The fans are screwed on and the front panel is cover. A picture of my Blue Scorpion (was Red Scorpion but I changed the fan already) was taken and peace out!

Well, all the pictures were taken with my nifty-fifty and mostly at F1.8 because I wanna test out the sharpness and DOF as well as the performance of it. The DOF is too narrow to display my subject unless I'm just trying to show a very narrow/small subject.

Project: Reinforcement

Continuation from last week's work, I decided to further improve the performance of the cooler and the air flow inside my casing. I've arranged another COD with the forumer I last bought my Xigmatek Red Scorpion to get another fan and the tuniq tx-2.

At first, I wanna get another orange blade Xigmatek 120mm LED fan as it suits the colour of the Red Scorpion fan. However, due to short in stock, I decided to opt for another fan, which is the Cooler Master 90cfm 9 blades Blue LED fan. Compare to Xiggy 120mm fan, this CM fan should perform better than the Xigmatek fan. But the reason I wanna used Xigmatek fan before this is due to the build quality. I'd read comments on how fast the LED of the CM fans spoil after just days of used. Even thou the cfm rating is a lot higher than the Xigmatek fans, some claimed it is just a market gimmick to attract more customers.



CM 120mm Blue LED fan = 90cfm
Xigmatek 120mm XLF LED fan = 61cfm

(cfm = cubic feet per minute, higher the better)

Anyway, I do like the Blue colour LED, and the higher cfm it gave. The only reason holding me back is the LED quality. I hope mine will last long and never fail on me. Otherwise, this CM fan will be a fantastic fan to add on into my casing. Pictures will be added at the end of this post.

From my last post, I suggested a few ways to improve the temperature readings and upgrades that I might do. Click the spoiler below for more information.

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Last week's proposal

Improvements planned for future upgrade:

1. get another 120mm fan and Tuniq TX-2
2. mod the casing to accommodate the additional fan (current casing only allow 2 max)
3. improve casing air flow
4. further modding if got time and cash

The words highlighted in green is what I've done for this time.

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I start my PC operation after my dinner. As usual, I opened up a table as my operation table and prepare the tools and hardware that I will use in this operation. My brother decides to join in as well as he is eyeing on my new thermal paste. Anyway, it is time to clean the HSF of the old PC and reapply the thermal paste.

My brother will conduct his "operation" for the old PC under my guidance, while I will perform my own "operation" for my PC. We prepared the platform and simple tools needed.

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TOOLS

• brush
• screwdrivers
• tissue paper
• cotton bud
• some sponge/foam
• scissors
  
• torchlight
• dry cloth
• receipt stand
• cable tie
• bamboo stick a.k.a satay stick
  

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First of all, I removed the orange fan from my RS. It's kinda hard to remove the fan from the cooler itself because it was attached using the anti-vibrational rubber screw. I used a long and small metal to push out the rubber screw embedded inside the cooler's metal fins. After one side is remove, the other side will be easier to remove. The rubber screws were slightly twisted due to the slight force I used when removing the fan. But it wont do any harm as it is expected because it's rubber.


As you can see from the picture, there's thin layer of dust even after just a week of use. Looks like the filters in the front panel is not enough to filter off all the dust. Such amount of dust is acceptable due to the dusty environment my PC is placed now. And the filters did a good job of blocking most of the dust entering. After half a year of operating and the hardware is still as clean as new (except for the graphic card which is harder to clean, but still consider clean).

After that, I remove the CM stock fan at the rear of the casing because it's blocking my way to dismantle the push pins. The pushpins are easy to detach, a screwdriver will do the job. Pull up the cooler with a little force and as I suspected earlier, I applied too much thermal paste last time when I install the RS. This can be determined by observing the excess thermal paste around the processor esp on the cooler's copper base.


Carefully I used the cotton bud to wipe off the excess thermal paste at the side of the processor and cleaned the remaining with tissue paper. I'm not too particular to clean it with thermal paste remover because I do not have any of it. So I will just let it be and read up and see if there's any side effects of not using it.

Using tissue paper and cotton buds itself is not enough to remove the thermal paste completely, so I took out the processor to clean it thoroughly. This is the first time I remove my E7400 from its socket.

On the other hand, my bro also finish dismantle the Intel HSF from the old E6420, and the scene is horrible.. eww.. details will be added later as a filler. =P

After cleaning the processor, I placed it back to the socket and secure it before proceeding to other task. The next thing to do is remove the front casing fan to reallocate the location for each fan. This time my planning is to used the CM 90cfm fan as the main intake at the bottom, the xigmatek black fan as the rear exhaust. While the CM stock fan will be used as an additional intake fan at the top part. To do this, I will have to do some minor modifications to make space for the fan. Before this, the stock fan was used as exhaust and the xigmatek fan was used as the main intake. The diagram below will explain everything.

My planning is to open up the metal plates of the ROM bays to allow air flow and attach the fan there. What I had in mind is to cut a curved opening at the first and last plate and remove the plate in the middle. But unfortunately, I do not have the proper tools to do so, so I just remove the middle plate temporarily and see how it goes before doing further modding.

So after removing the middle plate, I attach the CM stock 120mm fan into it. Using a piece of soft thick foam, I cover the sides of the fan that has contact with the casing to eliminate any vibrations. Besides that, I also cut some of the thick foam into coin shape, for me to use it when screwing the other fans to the casing.

First I attach the CM stock 120mm fan to the metal plates. Then using a bamboo stick, I secure the fan to the casing. This is what I came up with at the moment, if this setup doesn't work or fit, I will come up with other solution. I slot in the bamboo stick at the both side of the casing holes and push it towards the fan, then I use cable ties to tie both ends of the bamboo stick and secure them with tape. Everything looks nice and the last thing to do is to connect the 3-pin to molex. Will give a test later to see if the cfm and noise level is acceptable.



Using a pair of scissors, I asked my sis to help me cut 8 pieces of coin shaped foam. 4 pieces for each fan, I have 2 fans that need to be screw. Using a receipt stand to make holes in the middle of the foam, I then screw the fan together with the foam onto the casing. From the picture below you can see that the foam is placed at the screw holes and act as a vibration-insulator between the casing and the fan itself.

After screwing the CM 90cfm fan properly, I double check the fan and connect the power source for it. Referring to the picture below you will see how the foam fits in between the casing and the fan.

After installing the CM 90cfm blue LED fan, I proceed to the next task, which is installing the RS with Tuniq TX-2 applied on my processor. Having experience for last time, I carefully squeeze an adequate amount of thermal paste and mount my cooler base on it carefully. Before this, I do clean the base of the cooler as there is residue of the white thermal paste. According to some article on the internet, the white thermal paste provided by xigmatek might corrode the copper base of the cooler. I'm not sure how reliable is this information but I'm going to use TX-2 on my processor anyway. TX-2 has got many good reviews about it and is one of the best thermal paste on the market with affordable price.

Specification of TX-2 please click on the spoiler below and also refer to the official website.

Tuniq TX-2 specification

Official website: here

Specifications:

Appearance	Grey
Viscosity	285000 cP
Thermal conductivity	4.5W/mK
Operating temperature	-45°C ~ 200°C
Specific Gravity	3.96 @ 25°C
Volume	1ml (3.5g)

Looking the base of the cooler, it is not actually smooth in my opinion. I'm so tempted to lap it but just don't have the proper knowledge and sand paper now. I will do so if I think I wanna squeeze more performance out of this RS.

After mounting the cooler, securing the push pins and attach the fan back to its position. I'm almost done with it. The last thing to do is to install the Xigmatek Black 120mm LED fan at the rear of the casing as exhaust. Doing the same to the Xiggy fan, I used 4 pieces of foam as an vibration insulator and screw them to the rear of the casing. Connect the 3-pin power to the motherboard and I'm done!!

The last thing to do now is to install my graphic card back to its position and I can start my PC. But wait a minute, since I have extra TX-2, y not I just use some of it on my graphic card chipset? I decided to give it try and grab some screwdrivers and start my minor side operation on my graphic card.

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Applying Tuniq TX-2 on my HIS IceQ4 4850 TurboX

My graphic card itself has a decent cooler installed, which is the IceQ4 version of graphic cooler. My model: HIS ATI IceQ 4 4850 TurboX, is one of the fastest 4850 at its time. With the newer graphic cards now replacing this, the price has gone down pretty much compare to last time. First, I unscrew 3 big screws at the back of the PCB. Then switching to a smaller screwdriver, I unscrew the remaining 4 screws which are on the back plate of the chip set. Carefully not to bend the back plate and lost the small screws with springs, I placed the back plate aside and continue dismantling the cooler.

Exposing the copper heatsink inside, we can see the ram chips and the chipset are cooled separately. The thermal paste applied on the chipset has the same texture and colour as the TX-2. Carefully cleaning the paste, revealing the 4850 chipset, showing its made in taiwan. I squeeze a small drop of TX-2 on it and spread it evenly across the chip before covering the heatsink back to its position. Securing the back plate and screw all the screws back into their position, I'm done with the graphic card and almost done with the reinforcement process.

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Connect and double check all the power cables. I'm ready to give it a test run. Before that, let me summarize on what I've done today for the reinforcement project.

1. Applied Tuniq TX-2 on E7400
2. Applied Tuniq TX-2 on HIS 4850
3. Add another casing fan i.e. CM 120mm 90cfm Blue LED fan
4. Relocate the fan location to allow maximum air flow
5. Simple modding at the 5" bay to accommodate a 120mm CM stock fan

With a total of 5 fans in the casing (including the PSU fan), I should have a good air flow to maintain good temperatures within the casing. A diagram is attached to show how the air flow in the casing in this new setup.
Obviously I have a stronger air flow now compare to last time, but this also means more dust. I must clean my filter once every month at least to keep the internal dust free. Cleaning the filter is much easier and safer than cleaning the hardware.

Giving a test run after everything shows that my rig is no longer as silent as before due to the 90cfm fan as the main intake. The anti-vibration foams are working great, no vibration sound were detected. However, the noise came from the friction of air with the holes. The fan itself is silent, but when the air passes through the casing holes, friction between the air and the metal creates noise, similar to vacuum cleaner, but not as loud. This is the sacrifice I had to bare in order to have good air flow. Basically the sound is only noticable during late quiet nights.



The blue LED really makes my rig look cool and nice. I shall use a better camera to take the effects in dark, as my phone camera's quality has drop over time.



OK, as for the results.

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Summary of temperatures: (E7400 @ 3.2Ghz stock Vcore)
Latest
Idle: 30-31°C
Load: 55-58°C (Using LinX stress test)

Before
Idle: 33-35°C
Load: 58-60°C

Before installing RS
Idle: 39-40°C
Load: 68-70°C

Other temperatures such as GC, HDD and motherboard has some changes too

Graphic Card
Idle: 49°C (Cold weather) 55°C (Hot weather)
Load: 68°C (Crysis @ 99% GPU load)

Hard disk
Idle: 34°C (Cold weather) 40°C (Hot weather)

Motherboard
Idle: 27°C (Cold weather) 42°C (Hot weather)

Summary of temperatures: (E7400 @ 3.6Ghz Vcore 1.23~1.25V)
Latest
Idle: 30-32°C (Cold weather)
Load: 60-62°C (Using LinX stress test)

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FILLER

So what happen to my old rig which has a E6420 on it? Well, Basically we did not clean the HSF for more than 2 years. We decided to give it a clean since we are going to change the thermal paste of it as well. After taking the dusty Intel stock HSF out of the E6420, to our surprise, it's a copper based HSF.

Removing the fan, we can see that the copper base is actually in a cup-shaped copper with aluminium fins around in. Inside the "cup", we found a lot of dust sticking on it. After some simple cleaning, the heat sink looks like this.

After finish cleaning and brushing away the dust, my brother cleaned the thermal paste on the base and the surface of the processor. To our disgust, the surface of the processor which is not covered by thermal paste was oxidised, in other words, rusted. It's such a waste to have a rusty processor surface, because it affects the beauty and the heat transfer of the processor too.

As you can see from the picture above, the thermal paste applied area is normal while the area which are not covered with thermal paste is rusted. Same goes to the push pin bracket of the heat sink. After cleaning the mother board are around the socket, it is time to apply the thermal paste and mount the HSF back to its position.

After a test run, the temperature of this hot E6420 drop tremendously to an idle of onli 32-33°C in cold weather!! But the temperature soon rose after the processor is stressed and the stock HSF cannot sustain the heat produced by the processor. On idle, the stock cooler is almost on par with the aftermarket coolers, the only thing limiting will be the surrounding temperature or the ambient temperature. If the ambient temperature can go lower, an aftermarket cooler will definitely leave the stock cooler behind. On load, the aftermarket cooler will pawn stock cooler with no sweat.

Red Scorpion activated!!

After a month of purchasing this awesome CPU cooler from a fellow forumer, finally I have my time to install it into my PC and give it a run. I ordered this Xigmatek Red Scorpion together with a 120mm fan. However, he seems to forget about my 120mm fan and end up have to install my RS 1st while waiting for the fan.



I've been busy for the whole month working and have to let this scorpion stayed in its box. Last tuesday evening, I decided to clean my casing and install it. After weeks of sleeping, finally the scorpion has awaken. Before this I thought of waiting for my fan and install them together, however I can wait no longer and tempted to install it right away!

Here goes the procedure. As usual, I will clean the dust in my casing and the filter mesh in the front panel before proceeding to install the cooler. The first step is to remove the front panel. Instructions on how to remove the front panel and metal plates can refer my previous post here.


A few tools that i prepared this time including cloth, old tooth brush, brush, screwdrivers and a pair of pliers.

Using pliers will cause scratch on the metal surface. After experiencing a rust due to the clean up last time, I used a piece of folded paper to protect the metal surface from scratches.

The front metal bay covers are removed and placed aside, waiting to be clean and washed.

Then, using a screwdriver, I slowly open up the metal pins to take out the main filter inside.

After removing the plastic over, walah.. revealing the dirty front panel filter. Without it, all these dust will accumulate inside my casing.

All the filters are collected, washed and left aside to dry while I continue with my other work. The next thing to do is to swap the location of my casing fans. What I planned to do is to use 2 fans as intake and 1 fan as exhaust. But because I have only 2 fans now and waiting for the other one to arrive, I have no choice but to continue my existing layout which is 1 intake 1 exhaust. The problem now is, which fan I should put at the rear and which at the front?



Before this, my stock CM 120mm casing fan is located as the intake and the Xiggy LED fan as the exhaust. I wanna try swapping both fans to see any effect to the case air flow so I decided to use the lower CFM CM fan as the exhaust. This setup will be temporary until I get my new fan. Then I will mod my casing's front bay to accommodate this extra fan. Worklog will update soon after I mod it.

After removing the rear fan, it is time to change my CPU cooler. 1st of all, I have to wake up the sleeping Red Scorpion in the box. It has been sleeping for a month and it is time to wake up!! The package includes an orange 120mm fan, the cooler, push pins, thermal paste, 5 anti-vibration rubber screw (got 1 extra =P), AM2 clip.

Click below for specification

Xigmatek Red Scorpion Simplified Specification

Xigmatek Red Scorpion Features

• H.D.T. (Heat-pipe direct touch) technology
• Anti-vibration rubber design
• Transparent fan with colorful LED lights
• Particular spoiler design
• 3pcs Φ8mm high performance U type heat-pipes
• Light weight
• High performance & easy installation
• 120mm highly efficient PWM fan
• 3 in 1 application: LGA775 push-pin/K8 & AM2 tool-less clip.

CAC-SXHH3-U03 Specifications

• Product Name: Red Scorpion S1283
• Product Number: CAC-SXHH3-U03
• Outside Dimension (W) x (H) x (D) mm 120 x 50 x 159
• Heat Sink Material: Aluminum Alloy
• Fan Dimension (W) x (H) x (D) mm 120 x 120 x 25
• Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Fan
  • Voltage Rating (V) 12V
  • Speed (R.P.M.) 1000~2200 R.P.M.
  • Bearing Type Rifle Bearing
  • Air Flow (CFM) 72.1~99.6 CFM
  • Air Pressure (mm H2O) 2.6~4.8 mm H2O
  • Life Expectancy (hrs) 50,000 hrs
  • Noise Level (dB) 20~32 dBA
  • Connector 4 Pin with PWM
  • Weight (g) 600g (w/fan)

First of all, remove the stock Intel HSF by turning the push pin using a screwdriver as shown in picture. Remove all the 4 push pins and slowly pull it out with force.


After removing the stock HSF, I can see the thermal paste applied on it. Carefully clean off the thermal paste before applying the new one. I dont have any paste remover or nail polisher so I just clean it with tissue paper. Wanna try and see the effect without using TP remover.


After cleaning the TP, I took the chance to have a shot of my processor, which is a Intel C2D E7400 E0 stepping. Currently OC-ed to 3.2Ghz and will pump it higher after I get everything stabilize..

After cleaning the TP, I have to assemble my cooler into shape by screwing the push pin plates into the main cooler. Then I have to remove the protection sticker at the base of the cooler. The base is not perfectly flat and there's sticky residues from the protection sticker, which disturbs me alot. Tried to clean off the residue but scared to scratch the base. Further lapping is needed to flatten surface to a mirror finish but I dare not do so without further learning. So for the mean time I will just use it temporarily and see how it goes with the temperature.


I applied the TIM provided on the processor because I don't have other thermal paste to use. I realise that this TIM provided by Xigmatek will corrode the copper base slowly, hence I will just use it temporarily until I get myself a Tuniq TX-2. I think I applied too much paste on my proc surface, my bad my bad. After mounting the cooler by pushing all 4 pins, I attached the 120mm orange fan to the cooler with the anti-vibration screws provided.

The HSF fits nicely on my motherboard because my northbridge cooler height is not too tall. Some motherboard are not able to fit such big cooler. Another one I'm worried of is my casing. My casing has about 16cm of extra height to accommodate this cooler. Xigmatek RS itself is almost 159mm high and I'm afraid I'm unable to close my side acrylic panel later on. However, everything's fine after i try to close my casing. The cooler fit just nice in a CM Elite 333 casing.



After finish mounting the mighty scorpion, the next thing to do will be arranging all the messy worms, i.e. the cables, time for cable management. My casing is not meant for doing cable management, but I will try to keep the cables together and allow maximum air flow.

After doing some simple cable management, everything is good to go for a test run later.

After closing the side panel and connecting all the cables. My PC is good to go for the first test run. Results later.

The Red Scorpy looks great in my casing and looks best in dark. Have a look!!

Unfortunately, after having a test run, I found out that one of my core temperature sensor is stuck at 40°C and never go below that. While the other core temperature seems normal to me idling at 33°C. I still wonder y this happen, is it due to the thermal place I applied too much affected the sensor? Anyway, it wont do any harm because I'm still able to read temperatures above 40°C

The temperature at load doesn't seem attractive even thou it has dropped 10°C compared to the stock cooler. I expect something more like maybe below 55°C? I suspect the thermal paste thickness is affecting the efficiency of heat transfer. Besides, using push pins has lower pressure on the processor hence less contact. I think things might improved IF I:-

• lap the copper base
• change the thermal paste to Tuniq TX-2 and apply it evenly and nicely
• use a back mount bracket
• increase the CFM of the fan
• increase the air flow especially the exhaust

I will try to improve the overall performance of this cooler before I continue pumping the speed to 3.6Ghz.

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Summary of temperatures:
Latest
Idle: 33-35°C
Load: 58-60°C

Before
Idle: 39-40°C
Load: 68-70°C

Improvements planned for future upgrade:

1. get another 120mm fan and Tuniq TX-2
2. mod the casing to accommodate the additional fan (current casing only allow 2 max)
3. improve casing air flow
4. further modding if got time and cash