My “New” Desktop
I went to cPx today to have my computer’s abnormal CPU temperature checked. As I mentioned earlier, my Athlon64 3200+ (socket 939) was simmering at 58 degC idle and boils at 67 full load - without any overclocking. I’ve been using it with an MSI RS480M2-IL motherboard. From what I’ve read in the internet, thirty-two hundreds like mine should run somewhere from 40 to 50 degC normally.
Technician: “What seems to be the problem?”
Me: “My computer[Trailblazer] overheats. CPU temperature reaches 67 degrees at full load. Either when I’m playing CPU-intensive games or have all my work applications running”
Technician: “Please play for a while and try to replicate the situation”
Me: Sure.
…
Trailblazer: 53 degrees C at Idle
Me: “Must be the aircon” <plays Heroes 5 at maximum settings and draws attention of bystanders in the shop>
Trailblazer: 57 degrees C…
Me: “Hmm…” <opens up photoshop, dreamweaver, explorer, firefox, azureus while playing Heroes 5>
Trailblazer: 59 degrees C…
Me: “Hmm…still won’t hang…”
Trailblazer: 58 degrees C…
Me: “Oh Mr. Technician, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it hang. Would it be possible to swap my components with your stock components? I just want to know which component is not working properly.”
Technician: “I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t open stock components for such purposes. If you want to, we can send it to the supplier to have it checked.”
Me: <thinks to myself>”That’s a three week wait…”</thinks to myself> Hmm… un momento por favor…
Don’t Wait for Opportunities, Create One
Since I promised my cousins after my graduation that I’d get them a computer, I took this unplanned opportunity to get them one… No, really, I didn’t plan for this. I didn’t see the above-mentioned technical support story coming. Read ahead and see.
Since the PC was going to be used mainly for educational purposes - research, documentation (fancy word for encoding / typing documents) - and a bit of multimedia (listening to sounds, watching videos), picking components was easy.
Cool Dude: How may I help you, sir?
Me: I need a PC, do you have a Celeron Blah?
Cool Dude at the Counter: … Yes, we have stock.
Me: How about XYZ Motherboard?
Cool Dude Using Computer to Verify for Stock: I’m sorry we’re out of stock.
Me: Recommend anything?
Cool Dude Using His Knowledge to Help Me: Sure, let me recommend Motherboard ABC.
Me: Ahhhh… ok. I’ll take that.
Cool Dude at the Counter whose existence has been re-affirmed by my acquiescence to his suggestion: How about a Hard drive?
Me: Sure. What do you have at 80 gigs? … Do you have Kingston?… Etc? …
…
Me: Ahh, I guess that’s it. Where do I pay?
Cool Dude who’s very pleased with his participation at making the sale happen: Over there, sir!
Me: By the way, would you happen to know the normal operating temperature ranges of an Athlon64 3200? I bought a desktop here two months ago and I’m having temperature problems with it. Would it be possible to take out some of your stock components and swap them with mine? I just want to see which component is the culprit.
Cool Dude Who Feels Empowered to The Bones and Who Can’t Say ‘No’ To A Customer Who Just Bought A Desktop: Sure!
ScoutMaster
Ladies and Gentlemen, say hello to ScoutMaster. Lithe and swift, this baby can easily scout through basic multimedia and educational computing territory. While not as buffed as Trailblazer or as fast as Zoom, ScoutMaster can bring you to your destination nice and easy.
- Intel Celeron 3.06D Prescott (346) - I was feeling a bit Intel today after using AMD for the past couple of years.
- Elite P4M800-M7 - It was cheap, compatible and had integrated peripherals - Audio, Video, Lan
- Kingston 512MB 400Mhz - a few hundred more than the generic, why not?
- Lite-On Combo Drive - since they weren’t going to be doing any heavy duty downloading or work, I skipped the DVD-burner
- Western Digital 80GB SATA - offered the best ratio of Pesos to Gigabytes and Gigabytes to Needs
- X-Blade Casing (black) - looks cool. Hey, indulge me.
- Modem - Man does not live on DSL alone.
- 3 Auxiliary Fans - I love auxiliary fans. Two at the front, one at the side and another at the back. I’d place more if I could. But don’t get me one for my birthday. You won’t get invited again.
While ScoutMaster was being assembled, a series of component swaps determined Trailblazer’s heating problems. It turns out that my processor wasn’t really overheating. It was just a fscked up case of a malfunctioning motherboard temperature probe. Another motherboard read my thirtytwo hundred at 31degC. Wow! That’s so Cool!
With such a problem, I had no choice but to send the mobo to the supplier for fixing and miss the services of Trailblazer for a good three weeks. At this point, I am very thankful for having spare machines at my disposal because my work and projects won’t get disrupted. I can always plug Trailblazer’s hard drive into Grunt or ScoutMaster - or have Zoom (or even Swoosh!) retrieve my files from my external hard drive to resume work. Doesn’t it feel good to have redundancy at work?
So, join me in the next few days, as I explore the capabilities of my “New” desktop. Well, it is mine, until I hand it over to my cousins in about two weeks time. You have to “break-in” and do a bit of stress-testing on these things, you know.