Tuesday, April 29, 2014

A little of this, a little of that...

I just finished removing, cleaning and resetting the CPU cooler for my Kaveri system.  It had been running hot, upper 40's, near 50 degrees and I had already removed, cleaned and reapplied paste but... to no avail.  I was frustrated so I tried again and carefully (not that I hadn't before) applied a thin, even coat to the CPU and the cooler block, reattached to the CPU and rebooted...  average temps have dropped at least 12 degrees!  So right now, running, overclocked to 4.3, my CPU temp is 37, while watching a youtube video.  At complete idle I am seeing 32, 33 degrees.  OH!  I also used a different paste... I had been using Antec 5, I used Antec 7 this time, different base materials.

I am content with those numbers.  It will be interesting to see how gaming is affected since I have had some crashes here and there due to what I believe is overheating.  My particular motherboard (I think I mentioned this before) has an issue with overheating VRM as well but...  well we shall see.  I am hoping for a little more stability.  Some instabilities are caused by running in Crossfire mode but I will just have to live with that.

What else is going on...  starting to warm up here in Phoenix... it has been, what seems to me, a cooler than usual Spring.  But I am certain that any day now it will jump into the high 90's and won't go lower until next Fall.

What other news...  we are about to turn our leased vehicle in.  This time we will (unless the dealership offers us some kind of crazy deal) be strong and not purchase another vehicle.   We plan on saving our money and buying a used car next year.  Trying to be fiscally responsible, especially now that the kids are reaching Junior High School age.

Not much else to report spontaneously... I'll post again soon.