C90 Modders Club!

Overclocking is not adjustable manually... i dont believe so its not like its gonna allow you more headroom just by cooling it better... I am disapointed in asus for not allowing me to O/C to 3.5ghz like my e6600 wants to... also they need to get me a new bios so i can get a q6600 in it more power hehehehe

 

well, I know that CPU overclocking isn't adjustable, I was more hinting on the GPU overclocking since the Optical RAM air idea would cool the GPU directly more than the CPU which is at the far side from the optical drive chamber...

 

ahh i see, well not to be another downer on a great idea... but to my experience O/C desktop graphics... they arent effected on heat as much as they are on particular drivers. But shoot if you can pull this off i will do it haha

and the DDR2 version of the 8600gt blows at O/C but i think i am using the wrong driver or something

 

I was able to get up to 545 / 505 with no mods. Your right about the GPU memory though, sucks at overclocking, I can't cool them properly and it's a stupid heatsink design since the bottom memory modules aren't being actively cooled at all there is no point to even cool the top side ones(if you know what I mean). I basically modified the heatsink to only cool the core at the moment until I solve this issue...\

btw, I was able to hit a score of 4186 on 3Dmark06

 

thats pretty dang good, once the c90 gets a better graphics card it will destroy the new laptops for at least another 6 months or so... hopefully penryn isn't as strong as i think it is haha well for the sake of us having these badass desktop cpu's

ya what driver are you on?

 

169.04

Took a while to figure it out, and tried using RivaTuner but I still have no idea how to enable overclocking there as it would be nice to create profiles and running them by a keystroke unlike NTune.

NTune works though, so I can't complain..

4186 isn't as good as I want it to be. Need the memory at least 50mhz higher and core a tad higher closer to 600 range that way it can go to approximately OC'd DDR3 speeds

 

well a o/c gddr3 card will kill it anyway as it is still faster even if the clock speed is the same, and even though the GDDR2 has more onboard ram

which my card will actually take about 725mb of ram from my system ram to use on itself... which i thought was rude

 

Well the highest 8600m GT DDR3 overclock that I've seen scored around 5300 in 3Dmark06. It's not impossible for a DDR2 to get close to 5000s or at least high 4000s which I'm aiming for. It's amazing but if I were to go stock, my score drops by 1000, so it's not that crazy of a number to try and gain about 500-600 more... I'm actually thinking of bending my own aluminum sheet metal and wrapping around the memory modules from below the card around to the top, then using thermal compound around it, sort of like a heatsink spreader on desktop ram... The spreader then is connected/sandwiched with the stock cooler plate..

Reason why this is better is that all ram is cooled evenly, the design before failed simply because the ram can only OC to the slowest/hottest memory module..

 

ok. I've found myself some 80x80x10mm fans, I pulled them from an old Vantec laptop cooler that wasn't in use anymore. They are 12v fans which would match those 40x40x20 fans at the back of the TurboEngine.

I need to start building the case to fit in the bay. I'll start posting some pictures soon with all the parts and ideas + diagrams if anyone would be interested...

 

Not impossible for 4000 with a ddr2 a with driver level overclock. I've gotten 39xx (forgot) before. Right now my stable overclock is 560/490.

 

I had like 4300 with the DDR2 card if I remember correctly, I was shooting for 5000.

 

We're watching....keep it up

 

still working on it. Ran into an issue with the Video card, it's not working properly and I need to RMA the unit.

so for the time being, the project is delayed until the card comes in. I'm also considering upgrading to DDR3..

 

Vicious, I wonder if you got a reduction in CPU temperature by making those holes in the bottom of the base? Or just with the GPU? I'm thinking of doing the same thing if it reduces CPU temperatures as my C90s is crashing during encoding of video files (I'm not a gamer). Or maybe replace the fans with fans, the speed of which can be manually controlled, which would involve a separate power supply for the fans, externally.

 

It will drop cpu temps alot aswell, the gpu will dump less heat into the system and as a result other components will be cooler, I think my cpu temps went down by more than the gpu from this mod actully (this has something to do with the fact that the cpu has 3x more heat speader area probably) Dont forget a cooling pad is a good idea.

 

I think Asus is selling the Back Panel now as "Bottom Case Assy". Even if there is no picture and my English is weak, this should be the right spare part:

http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=4080 or search for: C90S

...allthough I do not know what the "CPU Door Assy" could be?:
http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=4094

So it should be easier to drill holes into this part of the casing. The price ($ 20,-) seems rather low, unfortunately it is only shipped to US and Canada, so I will have to wait until it is available here in Europe before I will start drilling....


gschnu

 

great find gschnu! i just ordered the cpu door assy part. im pretty sure this part is the ACE door and the other one is just the entire bottom panel...maybe including the ace door itself. well see...

 

To the poster up that'a'way...the fans are actually 40x40x15*, not 20.

 

Question about a thermal paste for my GPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020 this product says it will not conduct electricity and is therefore safer to use. I know it might not transfer heat as well as say AS5 but could it be used on a GPU? I am extremely hesitant to use thermal compound on a gpu (I have some spare kying around my house and it's relatively easy to get from stores) but if this can't conduct electricity I might look into it.

 

I think most people here have been using AS5

 

Well I'm not the most...precise with hand tools and small equipment like those compound tubes. Plus I'm really paranoid about frying my card and since I might be making a few purchases on newegg soon anyways I was wondering if this stuff was any good.

Meh, I know a few people who are far better at computer assembly than I am, I can always just ask them to do it for me.

 

AS5 will be absolutely fine on that core. Infact I recommend it. If you are cooling the memory in an alternative way, or for future reference, use double sided thermal tape and/or AS3 w/ a dot of super glue in the corner of a chip.

 

Hello swoley2k, maybe you can give me a messge when the ordered item has arrived? I would be interested which one is the right part, because I have a friend of mine in the States who will send it to me.

gschnu

 

I will post when I get the part....even if it is the entire bottom part without the ACE door, I can still drill holes in certain parts. One of which would be where the hard drive is.

 

Im using Cool Laboratory paste but it has to be real careful to apply this paste on the cpu. The bad thing is that I can not use it on the gpu because of the aluminum plate ...Anyway, my Cool Laboratory worked better that the Artic Silver 5 on the cpu on my c90s eventhough is not safe at all because of its electric conductivity...

btw, I redesigning the alluminun plate on the gpu putting in the center a mini copper plate so I could try another paste for gpu cooling to see if I can improve cooling...We are working on the fans too (following Ziggos inspiration) to make it changeable speed via software by an small electronic bypass...we also working on new fan, redesigning the case to get some more powerful and silent fans or the c90s...Anyway, lets see if my friends from the electroninc department & myself come with something good so I will post the info here

 

Anyone Try getting copper sheats and then soddering them onto the asus c90 gpu and cpu to give more area to transfer heat... I think i might try it!

 

I considered putting a copper sheet on top of the gpu across the copper "bar" of the gpu....BUT i changed my mind because i couldnt figure a way to get my soldering iron and solder between the bar and the copper sheet. I could do it but there would have been no way for me to tell if the solder was making solid contact and wasnt hollow so to speak. Im still looking into it everytime I go to lowes/home depot. Ive been to lowes and home depot 5 times in the last 10 days walking around brainstorming and looking at all kinds of objects and materials to mod the c90s...but havent come up with much. I wish there was a way to mold some copper in the exact shape of the gpu plates....like a copper forge....the best I could come up with was exactly what you said...the copper sheets soldered. perhaps even heating the copper already on there to a point where it is workable and then mold it on the the new copper sheet. I believe the melting point of copper is too high for any soldering gun though. Please correct me if im wrong. 900F+

 

I was thinking about soldering using regular solder wire so you gule the sheet onto the heatsink and between have thermal paste so it transfers the heat.

 

Solder what are you nuts!! Just Kidding but really if you want to adhere a heatsink just make sure you have excellent contact between surfaces w/ TIM and use a little dab of superglue (CA) on the corners, and Best of all if you want to remove it you can use a bit of CA de-bonder.

 

would making a custom stand for the C90 count as a mod? If so then be prepared for a special stand I've been working on for the c90. It elevates and angles the C90 for better airflow. It also has a decent case fan underneath that blows directly into the gpu area (where the vicious mod is) and has user-controllable speed via a speed dial that will be mounted within the stand. I am also planning on building in additional usb slots as well as possibly some leds to make it look cool and then whatever else I can fins. So far the main engineering problems have been properly supporting the C90 frame without blocking too much ventilation. Anyone have any suggestions for it while it's still in the drawing stages?

 

anyone know of the thinnest fan avaliable i mean as thin as possible

 

themanwithsauce: - my c90s stand with 2x 120mm fans

My Vicious Mod:

 

I dont know what I like more, the stand or the c90 vent....

 

They both work extremely sexy like :]

 

I decided to test overclocking and temps with the ace door off and a notebook cooler and found out that my idle temp has gone down from 72C to 51C and 97C to 76C on 3dmark06. This is with 550/1200/780 on my ddr3. It seems that the driver crashes if it stays in 97C too long so im guessing i can push the GPU even higher when i have the ACE door of. I was using 167.58 and got a score of 4975 Of course i can make this score even higher with more OCing and and better drivers but i feel lazy so ill do it later. I was doing this test to see how much vicious mod would help all i can say now is im definitely getting one.

 

The entire bottom of the C90 should be a grate (like a stereo amp), they just don't do it for aesthetic/practical reasons.

 

@zigg0 - awesome. But I was planning something a little more artistic. I have been trying to make a stand to match my C90 instead of just be a fan holder. So far I have some basic measurements and a rough frame going but I'm running into time issues. I go to college for 3 months then I go on "work term" for 3 months and this goes on for 4 and a half years. I'm on a work term right now but I don't have near the free time I thought I would have (see my activity on this board for proof :/ ). That and I'm trying to ride the fine line between realistic and awesome.

My original concepts and drawings had a fairly aggressive angle for the notebook as well as some decent elevation to it. I think the measurements put the C90 at about a 12 degree angle while providing almost an inch of useable space at it's thinnest and an inch and a half or so at the thickest all underneath the notebook. I have some older but good sounding speakers I was going to sand and paint a glossy black to match my C90 and mount at the corners of my stand (obviously I plan on this stand staying relatively stationary) and plugging into my external sound card. This is where reality starts to kick me in the butt. My sound card was originally supposed to be mounted underneath the stand itself in that gap I created. There are headphone and microphone ports out front and the speakers could plug into the back. Problem is the card has some funky dials for controling sound and microphone volume on top. This resulted in me flipping it upside down and adding extra space (originally the gap was supposed to be as thin as my sound card, about half an inch..5/8 was I think the actual measurement).

Also, I planned on using this fan - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103033

The dial control was to be mounted underneath as well next to the sound card. The fan has a blue led light and I thought it would be kinda cool to add a light or two to the stand as well. I sketched out a basic design for an "LED Box" as I called it for the sides.at the bottom corners of the sides of the stand would be my led areas that would have "C90" light up in blue. Think of the XPS letters and how they look but make them in blue and slightly thinner and that's what I was aiming for. I also thought a mini asus logo for the back, beneath the turbo engine, would look sharp but that was a bit more work than I had in mind for right now. Well the people who originally said they'd give me a hand cutting and wiring these boxes all suddenly backed out before I even got to the measurements phase...

So here I sit with some crumpled up drawings and a wooden frame that I still don't know if I'll even use. I might see when I get back to college what materials I can aquire up there since I had tried to avoid using excessive metal or other things like plexiglass but up at my college I might be able to get my hands on some scrap from our engineering and fabrication classes. The stand idea might yet live.

 

Awesome "Vicious" mod ZiggoO (are you proud Vicious? ) I reformatted mine recently and haven't put a temp monitor on yet. I had a GPU near-meltdown though about a month ago. I was playing GRAW2 for about 2.5 hours and colors started going weird, artifacts and glitching all over the place. I quickly shut it down and opened it for the first time (didnt before because it worked then).

Anyway I am going to do this also, if nothing else to increase the life of the notebook. Nothing will kill it quicker than >100 temps. I will prob do a ZiggoO mod on it and cut away all the plastic around the GPU.

Looking forward to the optical drive cooler also themanwithsauce.

 

Any news on whether that door assy part is the removable part? I'd feel more comfortable knowing I can buy a replacement.

-Toweols

 

Estore is now selling C90S ACE Door! It's only $10!

http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=4094

 

Out of Stock

 

yeah its a nice mod, larger intake area than mine for sure. I avoided that route because my concern was structural integrity but now that spare doors are openly available and cheap to buy I suppose thats not as big of a concern.

 

Well I know others have posted their results. But I just wanted to add- I just took my "door assy" off as a precursor test to the vicious mod.

On IDLE temps dropped on my GPU by 3 C and 5-6 C on my CPU. This is with no cooler station. With such results, I'm thinking a vent by the CPU would be a good additional also.

Door off:
71 GPU 44 CPU

Door on:
73 GPU 52 CPU

-Towels

 

Vicious Mod + notebook cooler = -10 deg more for GPU. expect the GPU to range 55-60 C idle.

 

Thanks...

I read the thread too.

-Towels

 

Just letting everyone know I e-mailed Asus and i was told a new shipment of ACE doors will be coming in in 2-3 weeks.

I for one am deff getting one! MOD MOD MOD

 

Finally got my mod done during spring break. Didn't have problems with heat but wanted to start overclocking and wanted to remove any hindrances that might prevent me from a high number. I haven't put screening on it yet.


Also please check out whats going on with my video card. I haven't had any luck so far. Here is the original post.

 

Neat little slots Silent, what did you use a router?

I envy you guys with the cool tools, I have always had to do my stuff the hard way, like my old PC mod "the punisher" hand carved with a cutting wheel from a dremel in a steel case.

Let me see if I can find a picture of that mod, it was my first one ever.

Edit: here we go, not the best picture of it, but you get the idea.

 

Im very impressed that you thought that was router work! My off brand dremel was what I was going to use, but it's freaking useless it's so cheap, so what you see was done by drilling the ends and melting the case with a soldering gun. I trimmed it up with a small utility knife.

I would kill for a small shop that was outfitted with tools. I love building and modifying but it's impossible to without the proper tools.

 

I used a dremel and cut out the whole rectangle. Then i put some garden type screen on it. At first I had large holes but it wasnt doin jack!