By Todd Madson, 04Oct02, rev2

Note: the box is now a dual booting system - RedHat Linux on one partition and Win98 the other.

What's next? DDR Ram with active memory cooling, bigger hard drives, more peripherals, faster CPU?

What should be next? at least adding a real AGP video card (my Radeon 8500 is upstairs in this box..) I could add an ATI Rage 128 Pro I have lying around with a real DVI connector but .... I'd have to reinstall Linux to account for an unexpected change in video cards. Sigh.

Note: new update! Paul indicates the Tatung device in the pictures here once had an ionization device for zapping air particles. He had to remove the circuit board and wiring arrangement to make this suitable for computer use. I cannot be held responsible if you use one of these devices as is due to the fact that the ionization of your motherboard will probably cause irreparable damage.

Latest info: I've added a Thermaltake active memory cooler to the machine's innards:

It includes probably the smallest fan I've ever seen, some copper shielding that sheathes the ram memory and keeps it running cool. In the picture it's directly to the right of the big Volcano 7 fan that dwarfs the tiny memory cooler fan.

The memory cooler fan actually runs around 5000+ rpm believe it or not.

Here's the pictures I said I'd include:

Note that the temperature here is on the high side. Since adding the memory cooling it's been around 109 degrees for at least two hours.

This website is put in place as an information page regarding the computer that I put together for a song as an experiment. What you're about to see is definetely not normal since it involves a completely different way of making sure the inside of a computer stays cool.

WARNING!

If you try any of the things in this page I cannot be held responsible for their outcome, any damage or other problems that might befall you if you try this!

Click a picture to get a large sized version and click the resulting large image to go back to this page.

The box you see to the left of the CPU tower case is an Tatung AllerFree Supra intelligent air purifying system that has been modified by Paul Purdes (more on Paul a little later) to run filtered and cool air over a hot K7S5A motherboard. The filter is great since it allows for high air volumes but little dust or debris to get into the computer tower.

lab04.JPG	lab02.jpg	lab06.jpg
lab01.jpg	lab07.jpg	lab03.JPG
lab05.jpg

The picture "Lab6" illustrates the Thermaltake Volcano7 fan and heat sink sitting on top of an AMD Athlon 2100+ processor chip. Arctic Silver thermal compound was used between the processor and the heat sink of the Volcano to better facilitate cooling. The Volcano7 is actually very good at cooling all by itself. With the Tatung it allows my machine to run at higher velocities without stability problems.

Who's idea was this anyway? Paul Purdes is a friend of mine who appears to have the goal to squeeze every last bit of performance out of his computers. Since this early design he has moved on to a liquid cooled machine. More information on that computer at a later date. It's pretty impressive.

Note: pictures of Motherboard Monitor checking the temperature and Seti @ Home checking the speed of this will be forthcoming.

Go back to my website.