heheh I had an Akasa Silver Mountain with an Akasa fan adaptor and then stuck an 80mm fan on top....you can imagine how far that thing stuck out. Even my dad was impressed, reminded him of an engine. The leverage that thing must have exerted...it doesn't even bear thinking about, but I'm glad I'd put a shim on in the first place The trouble is, is that all in all, that must have been 600g hanging off of one CPU lug on either side, and I know the Globalwin FOP is about as heavy as the Akasa Silver Mountain. You get a fair few reports at the homebuilt pc newgroups of horror stories concerning torn CPU lugs and the ensuing carnage that's left in the wake of a big block of copper falling on top of your various cards. You can easily sell your FOP for a tenner. I managed to sell my Akasa for close to £20, which is only £5 less than I paid. Buy an Alpha or a Swiftech (only £10 more) and you'll be well and truly sorted. Just make sure you have mounting holes on your motherboard and that you follow instructions for putting it together (damaged my motherboard with a nylon washer shearing off a component the first time). One cpu lug to hold a half kg weight? Is it worth risking? btw. amdmb.com have a roundup of the main coolers (as does Anandtech) and both come to the conclusion that the Alpha PAL beats any Zalman as a quiet HSF.
i just got a reply from the baybus bloke: "I shall have to sort that out. I can supply them same price as normal baybuses or a fair bit cheaper if no LEDs needed ??" www.baybus.co.uk
I've owned the Globalwin FOP.... And I can assure you that the weight is not even close to the Silver mountain. In fact, it is less than half the weight of the silver mountain, since the silver mountain is silver-plated copper, and the FOP is Aluminium, and Aluminium is very much less dense than copper or silver. The FOP comes in around 200g, and even with an 80mm fan (I strapped an 80mm to my old FOP, which is now in my brother's machine) it is reasonably safe. The silver mountain is too heavy, and you will see that it takes its place in my dangerous heatsink list. I too have a baybus behind the door of my Dragon, and it does look very cool.
Thanks for the re-assurance that the FOP is ok with an 80mm fan saved me some money as I'm going to leave it on for a bit longer. Thanks for emailing him for me lazydemon hopefully I will be able to get one from them soon. Also thanks for your last reply iaassacc it saved me a lot of typing as I was going to make the same arguement. I do actually still have an akasa Silver mountain I used it once and it destoyed a Athlon XP 1600+ CPU (guessing it crushed the core). It's my cupboard gathering dust as we speak and I'll never use it again!. Still need more thoughts on the Zalman coolers to me they look pretty good and quiet and I'm too bothered if they don't meet PAL perfection.
you would probably get high temps with the zalman cooler but it would be quiet. Isaac have you found that the front plastic bezel on the chieftec case scraches really easily. I have put three scratches in it and i have only had it three weeks.
i have the silver one so they show up really badly but heres how i did them: 1) after 4 days of having the case i come home to find a scratch on the door. I have some suspects but nobody has owned up. 2) after two weeks I put my neon string behind the front air grill and accidently got some superglue on the side of the case. It went white and i tried to scratch it off but the paint decided to come with it. 3) last night I had the computer on its side on the floor and just taken the side panel off when i realised i hadn't unplugged the blowhole fan. I tried the balance the it in one hand while i unplugged the fan but it didn't work and thats the story of scratch 3. when i finish my exams i will spray the front to hide the scratchs and try and get some kind of spray that will protect the paint.
The Dragons vary a great deal. The blue one I have scratches very easily, and the blue plastic is VERY soft (and hard to work with). By contrast, the black ones I've worked with have MUCH harder paint and much stronger plastic. I don't know how the other colours fare, but there is a lot of variation due to it. Oddly though, the best door is my blue one. My dad's blue one and my brother's black one both do not shut as cleanly or smoothly as mine.
i don't have a problem with the door but the plastic is really really soft. But then again the black ones don't have a blowhole.
Yeh I miss the blow hole I want to make one but I don't want to shell out for a dremel or an arbor and tank cutter I really wanted a metalli yellow one like the alienware ones but I couldn't find one for sale as a seperate item
i think that an arbor and a 80mm holesaw work out at about £22. I would do it with a holesaw and not a dremel if you ever do it.
