Chaintech 24, a Place to Hang Your Chips

[UncleBob]

Well, the invitation always stands, as well as you Fluffster!!

[Fluff n Stuff]

I'd love to take you up on it man... but I need a ninth day in the week for the next three before I can catch up as it is! The only time of the day I have to pick up my truck is before 9:00am tomorrow... so I have to drive to a Park and Ride near Sea-Tac, ride a bus in, catch a Shuttle Express (employee discount, dontchaknow) to Randy's Ring & Pinion and get there by 8:00am so I can be back in Seattle by nine...

Some day off 'nStuff... I'll be getting up at 04:00 again!

[Fluff n Stuff]

Oh dang... I just realized that I'll still have a car at the Park n Ride after all that! ARRRRRRGH!!! Well, at least it will be close to home, I can probably get my brother to drop me off around 10pm... *sigh*

[UncleBob]

Yeah, my wife has to take me and my truck to get a brake job. It's the first time I've ever paid someone to do a brake job! Crap, I just got too much other stuff to do! We'll tyvek the shed and install the ramp and edge boards tomorrow.

[Dok]

Pollock Pines is on Hwy 50 about 45min from Lake Tahoe. About 4000' elevation, in the forest. Lake Jenkinson is a mile from my house and is stocked with trout, but stream fishing is more fun and there are plenty of places to go. Now if I could only find more free time!
Brad

Yes, I do see something fishy here! Where in CA is that you live??

[undersea]

UB,

Are you out there? Forum seems a little dead of late. When do you expect some new products?

I'm almost wishing for a problem.

I have to paint a room tomorrow so I've decided to stay up as late as possible so tomorrow passes like a dream!

Anyone see the Yankee spanking? 17 - 1! Who's your daddy??

[UncleBob]

Pollock Pines is on Hwy 50 about 45min from Lake Tahoe. About 4000' elevation, in the forest. Lake Jenkinson is a mile from my house and is stocked with trout, but stream fishing is more fun and there are plenty of places to go. Now if I could only find more free time!
Brad

Nice area. I lived a Summer in South Tahoe. I've spent lots of time on the Eastern Sierras (Bishop, Lee Vining, Bridgeport, Mammoth Lakes, etc.) My father's ashes are distributed in the High Sierras near Rock Creek Lake (off HWY 395 at Tom's Place). Man, we first went there in 1956!

[UncleBob]

UB,

Are you out there? Forum seems a little dead of late. When do you expect some new products?

I'm almost wishing for a problem.

I have to paint a room tomorrow so I've decided to stay up as late as possible so tomorrow passes like a dream!

Anyone see the Yankee spanking? 17 - 1! Who's your daddy??

Watch out what you wish for...problems will find you!

There are several mobo's coming real soon. By the end of the month as I last heard!

[UncleBob]

See the 939 pin board: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.p...46#post3547046

The new Intel board: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=393518

[undersea]

See the 939 pin board: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread....046#post3547046

I've seen you write about those boards but they really don't excite me. I've played so much bf2 that I'm even borded of it!

I guess the next cool things in my opinion is a sli from chaintech or the new crossfire solutions!

Not many people seemed to jump on the dual cores. I'll be getting one early next year unless the old dell dies in which case you'll see my post in the next hour!

Oh I caught a 35 pound striped bass last week. No pictures because it was like 5'+ seas. No way I was loosing my camera to the sea!

[Lenny]

Sorry to interrupt the discussion but I wanted to give some closure on my PSU replacement which you guys helped me with. I ended up buying the HEC 585w from Directron. It was $40 shipped which I know seems insanely cheap for a 585w dual rail (19A + 20A) PSU. It's an OEM version so the only thing I got was the PSU in bubble wrap. I read that the HEC brand is more well known overseas but not much in the US. They seem to be an OEM supplier which is why I think you can't find any retail PSUs for sale from them. I have even heard that they make PSUs for Antec but I'm not sure if that's fact. So I decided to give it a try based on all my research.

This was replacing a poor quality 350w PSU. A power hungry 6600GT was recently installed in the Athlon 1800+ PC and the power demands became too much for the junk 350w. I say 'junk' because I think a quality 350w PSU may have been able to handle the load. The 350w was dipping to 4.70v on the 5v rail at times according to MBM5. Unfortunately I never tested with a voltage tester. The PC was overall just performing very strangely. Sometimes it would reboot suddenly. The DVD-ROM drive was having problems reading discs. And other strange behaviors.

I received the HEC 585w PSU. My first impression was that it was moderately heavy, I think similar to my Fortron Blue storm. It was a relief that it didn't feel like I was holding an empty soda can like the junk 350w PSU. It has an unusual fan design. There is the usual fan on the back side but instead of the second fan being located on the bottom above the CPU it is located on the 'front' of the PSU facing the front of the case. I don't know if that's good or bad. I suppose there could be some stagnent hot air that accumulates in the very top area of the case that this fan design would relief. The fans are quiet, unable to be heard over the CPU fan.

I installed it in the PC and as if by some miracle all the problems went away, even the DVD-ROM disc reading issues. I never would have thought that was a PSU issue. MBM reports the 5v rail as 4.81v under CPU load & 4.87v idle which initially was of concern to me even though the system seemed otherwise very stable. However, when tested with a volt meter at a molex connector it reads 5.00-5.02. I was relieved to see those numbers.

So far so good with this new PSU. Seems to be working well. I have no complaints and can't think of a reason not to buy another if needed. Since I haven't found a review of this specific model some factors such as efficiency are unknown. I'm not sure how many people care about high efficiency but it was one of the reasons for choosing the Fortron Blue storm for my main rig. Overall, it seems like a solid PSU at a great price.

[UncleBob]

Thanks for the update, Lenny.

[TheGlasMan]

UB, Is some one else working on your brakes safe?

Lenny, that fan setup is very effective and (can be) very quiet. I'm glad it is working well for you. Maybe you should start a new thread with your experience. (Copy and Paste) From some of the troubles people are having, thinking about better power might be a good thing for them.

[Lenny]

Oh I forgot to ask - when I tested the voltage at the molex the PC rebooted once. I connected to the black wire first and then the red wire. I should say that I put the tester probe leads into the corresponding molex plug. Is it normal for that to happen sometimes? I don't remember it happening when I tested previously on other boards and other PSUs. I'm wondering if it's something I should be concerned about.

[undersea]

Lenny,

Seems like a nice supply. Not sure about testing but Directon always has such good prices!

http://www.directron.com/index.html