The latest addition to the ManGeek’s computing power is a new PC. The old laptop, while quite capable, was just not satisfactory for geekdom. Anyone who’s seen a ham radio operator today knows what happens when geeks get out of touch with the times. Thus I decided to push the limits on a reasonable budget and build a liquid cooled system.
Picture a radiator on your car and you have the same concept for a PC. The radiator mounts on the back and pumps coolant through tubes that are hooked up to critical components. (Processor, video card, north/south bridge…) It requires a bit of savvy and time. I needed a couple hours to do all the metal work and you have to think carefully about where each component will be installed and where plumbing will run. (Remember that the side cover has a lip on the back for the screws? Yeah. I had to get creative since I didn’t.) Still after all is said and done, the system is quite quiet and the CPU runs at about 62 degrees fahrenheit.
The final specs? Intel q6600, nvidia 8800GTS 640MB, 4GB of RAM and everything on SATA. Nearly everything in Vista scores a 5.9 on the satisfaction index and it’s peppy as can be. I’m running Vista 64bit as well which has actually been reasonably easy to work with. (Though I have a Logitech G15 keyboard hooked up to it and had to update the driver which was causing a blue screen.) Total cost including two 22″ 2ms LCD screens? About $1750. Similarly built through an OEM? About $5k. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself.
