Hmmm... yet again, I have been neglecting my blog, not posting anything.  I can't even really say I've been too busy... I just haven't had a lot to say I guess... and for those of you that know me, yes it is possible that I don't have an opinion on something

I've been reading a really good book lately... the autobiography of a man I really admire... Nelson Mandela and the book is called Long Walk To Freedom.  It is a really interesting insight into who he is, where he came from and the drive he had to make South Africa its own again.  It's a good read even if you are not much of a fan of biographies.

Been keeping busy with nerdy projects at home - a friend gave me a nice Koolance water cooling kit for my computer, and this past weekend I set it all up.  I have been interested in water cooling because my computer tends to run so hot.  I've done a lot with it to try and reduce the noise - the computer sits in my living room, so noise is an issue.  I replaced all the stock fans with low dB fans, and bought an expensive Zalman CPU heat sink.  My video card is a passive cooled nVidia card.. and so on.  The result was that the noise level was dramatically reduced, but at a cost of increased heat build up, especially when I started pushing the CPU and GPU a bit.  Under load, the GPU would heat up to 80C, and the CPU would peak around 60C.  Even the case temp would build up rather quickly... if I stopped the case fans (I have 2) then things would get even hotter.... not so good. 

So.. water cooling is now in place for the GPU and CPU, and there was an immediate difference.  First off, the 3 radiator fans are noisier than my previous heatsink and air cooled setup.  Second... even under load the temps don't move much.  The CPU sits idle at about 25C, and under load gets to 42C.  The GPU is idle at 40C and under load at 44C (the most dramatic difference).

One last think to think about.. the Northbridge heatsink gets hot... really hot... I am thinking maybe I should bring it into the water cooled loop as well...

Oh, and I plan on replacing the 3 radiator fans with some low dB fans to make it all nice and quiet again.

Wow.. I am a boring person aren't I?  Oh well... c'est la vie.