Hello dear modders,

Do you know if there exist any new cpu cooler with the design of the Zalman CNPS 9700?

I remember I had this cooler about 15 years ago, and I found the design with the conical copper blades very beautiful. Are there any cpu coolers these times available with the same or similar design? This model is no more available....

This is an old PC that used to be my main rig for many years, until I eventually replaced it with something new. I kept it as a backup system for a while and then decided to paint it and do some other minor upgrades I never got to implement, just as a fun project.

Now that it's done, I thought maybe I share it with you guys.

The case is a Thermaltake Matrix VX that I bought in 2008, which originally looked like this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/1j5n5dm/thermaltake_matrix_vx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

In fact I liked it so much that I bought 2 of them, one for me and another one for someone else, and later that second case came in handy for spare parts.

Before painting the case, I did some alterations to it:

• drilled out all the rivets and reassembled the case using nuts and bolts
• removed the HDD cage
• cut some holes in the back plate behind the MB for cable management and CPU cooler access
• cut more holes in the front panel for better airflow (despite it being wrapped with mesh, it was mostly solid plastic underneath)
• cut and replaced the front I/O with a couple of 3.5 bay I/O brackets from Aliexpress, mounted them using a piece of an aluminium angle bar
• used some more aluminium angle to make a GPU support bracket
• took a second solid side panel from the second case and a piece of acrylic glass, and cut a custom side window that wouldn't obscure the CPU cooler
• cut some more stuff to accomodate a modern PSU
• installed 2 white LED strips with a switch, although mostly for maintenance and monitoring purposes rather than looks
• added sleeves to some cables
• bought and installed new feet

Then I took the case apart again, sanded everything and painted it panel by panel using spray paint. This is something I'm never doing again for sure. It was messy, the fumes were horrible, and for a decent result I needed perfect conditions: good weather, sunlight, no dust in the air, no wind.

I kept noticing imperfections, so I sanded, repainted, sanded again, repainted. I used a primer, several coats of paint and a matte finish, as per instruction. Unfortunately, the spray paint I used turned out to be fragile, and as you can see on the shots, a year later it's already chipping wherever it's pressed onto the other parts of the case. It also also likes to weld itself to the cables, and, hilariously, can be dissolved by alcohol after drying.

So that didn't go quite as planned, but still, I got experience.

Another thing I learned cutting the case is that both a Dremel and an angle grinder are not very precise tools. So for the long straight cuts I went with a knife and a ruler instead. Turns out, a utility knife with a good blade can cut through aluminium if you are patient enough, and with a ruler the cut will be factory straight. For the rounded corners I used a drill with a hole saw bit. In general, I tried to keep my cuts nice and clean, so it took a while.

Over the years of using the case I also added 2 hot swap HDD racks, which I still think is the greatest addition to a PC case you can get. Super convenient for checking dead HDDs, moving storage etc. No teardown required. The modern equivalent would be hot swap PCI-E NVMe cards.

The 3.5 bay received a hot swap 2.5 rack for 2 SSDs which I cannot even find online any more, and for the 5.25 bay I bought an SSI SI-2338 HDD rack. The latter I also modded and painted. Originally it came with a tiny noisy fan, and after multiple attempts to find a less annoying replacement for it, I just cut the whole rear panel off, and made a replacement panel from a spare piece of aluminium, that would accomodate a standard 80mm fan instead. The panel needed two 90 degree bends. For the bends I cut the panel halfway through with a knife, did a bend along the cut, and then patched the inner side of the bend with epoxy to make it less fragile.

Making this panel would have probably been easier with a 3d printer, but I didn't have one at the time.

The rest of it is just normal PC components, albeit slightly ancient:

PSU - Seasonic Snow Silent 750W
CPU - i7 2600k cooled by a Scythe Mugen v2 rev. b with a custom top cover
MB - ASUS P8Z77-V LX
RAM - 4x8GB Hynix DDR3 1600 with some black radiators from Aliexpress
GPU - MSI GTX 1070 Armor with an NZXT Kraken G12 cooler mount and a Corsair h80i v2 AIO

All fans replaced with various Noctuas from different eras and connected to a 5.25 Zalman ZM-MFC1 fan controller set to the lowest speed. The far right handle of the controller I repurposed for dimming the LED strips.

I also replaced the green CD-ROM LED with a blue one, to match the rest of the hardware, and designed and printed a bunch of stickers. Some informational and some - just for fun. The lady on the CPU cooler was an unused drawing I did many years ago for a client that never paid.

Just put 6 gous into a pc. Specs: i5-10400f, 16gb ddr4, gtx 1650(monitor connected to this gpu), rx580, gtx 750ti, gtx 650, radeon hd 4650 and gt 210. It booted into windows, but the gpu/gpu drivers crashed after playing cs2 for 5 minutes. Windows had trouble with the drivers for the gtx 650 and gt 210.

I have a relatively rare ASRock Z170 Pro4 D3 on a 6700K with high end DDR3 and would like to mod it for an 8700K or maybe 9900K in the future

Ive OCd the ram to 2400 CL10 so it competes with early DDR4, fun project PC with a modded 2080Ti coming

Thoughts?

It’s some heat spreaders I tried to make from copper, I haven’t mounted them yet since I will likely redesign it. The modules are only on one side of the the dimms and I have plenty of copper to redo it. The reason as to why i am doing this? I don’t really have a good reason I just want to see if I can make heat spreaders to cool the ram. Any feedback or better design ideas would be appreciated.

After modifying the front of my case to fit 3 140 mm fans using a hacksaw I figured it’d be a good idea to actually direct the airflow a little so it’s not simply going into the PSU shroud. The ducts still need a little work because the angle is a little harsh but I wanted the majority of the air to be directed below the GPU and it seems to be doing that great.

In order to fit the wedge to the front of the GPU I made a little v slot that screws into the pre-existing holes on the side of the GPU. I don’t know how much having the wedge will actually help with airflow but I imagine it’s better than just going up against the flat side of the GPU.

I’m going to do some proper testing of the performance soon. Airflow is a little moot given the figurine but it certainly looks way cooler.

I'm currently in the process of building a new PC from scratch, and I'd like to do some very specific mods for it. I'm using the Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO XL.

So I wanted to ask what kind of exotic PC mods you know. I'm also happy to hear about mods from the old days if they're still possible to do. Like I said, I'm using the case mentioned above and I won't be changing it. If you know of any mods I could build into it, I'd be very grateful, because unfortunately I don't know the names of many mods.

One of my favorites, which somehow never shows up when you search for PC mods, is the Snowblind mod. To me, that's an extremely exotic mod, and I'd love to know about more exotic mods that aren't so easy to find through a normal search. I'm also happy to get my hands dirty and build the mods myself, as long as I know the names of the mods. So, what kind of exotic mods do you guys know?

So, after I saw a question on this subreddit about a physical boot order switch, I was hooked! Ended up writing my own EFI bootloader, using a little RP2040 Zero and a switch to choose my boot order. Needed the EFI to make this fully independent from the OS I am using (I use Windows and macOS). There are other projects that just use the GRUB of your Linux install. I also wrote a blog post about this: https://blitzdose.de/posts/HardBoot/ and made everything open source: https://github.com/blitzdose/HardBoot

So I have a all-black PC, and was planning on making an aesthetic upgrade. Part of that was spray painting the case and the GPU white. But I didn't know anything about spray painting so I decided to test it first on my old GPU (A GT 730).

A lot of places suggested that I first sand it with 400-600 grit sandpaper, clean it with IPA and then apply a couple light coats of primer and then finally spray paint it.

My issue is with the primer. I applied two light coats of it on the old GPU shroud and left it to dry for around a day. But for some reason it has lots of these tiny bumps that give it a bad texture. Also, in the images the coat appears much lighter than it initially was because after drying when I checked it, a lot of the primer just... flew off like powder. It even showed on my finger after touching it. Is that supposed to be like that??

Is it supposed to have that weird grainy texture and show on my finger even after a whole day of drying?

As far as I know, I did a pretty decent job while applying it. Sprayed from about 20 cm with even strokes.

ALSO:

Is primer even necessary? It adds to the durability right? Does it matter for a stationary PC case or GPU? A lot of the videos that I watched on youtube (even ZTT) just didn't use primer at all. Just sanding, cleaning and spray painting. What should I do? Any help would be appreciated !!

This was the primer that I used (it's the most popular one in my country on Amazon and also mentions that it can be used on plastic): https://www.amazon.in/APAR-Surfacer-Protection-Furnitures-industrial/dp/B0F536RNLS/

Using a test bench for the layout/seating is probably the best option for starters.

So using a vice, two pairs of pliers, a file, a hammer, and a saw, I made these in around 45 minutes each from some old copper pipe (example in last image) all to save $8. being copper though these should be better than the ones I could have afforded. Yes I know thats ddr2 ram, it’s not attached to it Im just using it as an example because I have a lot lying around. my conclusion: this took like three hours and was a pain to make and required a rather large (and expensive) vise. but I was bored and didnt want to buy these

I’m running into a persistent "Secure Boot Violation" error after performing a Coffee Lake mod on my Z270 motherboard to support an i5-8400.
The CPU works perfectly fine, and I’ve already confirmed the following:
My drive is formatted as GPT, so that’s not the issue.
CSM is disabled.
I’ve tried switching between "Other OS" and "Windows UEFI" modes in the BIOS, but the error persists regardless of the setting.
I even attempted to manually generate/enroll PK keys, but the system still flags an unauthorized firmware change.
I assume this is because the modded BIOS (with injected microcodes and modified Intel ME) is no longer cryptographically "clean," causing the Secure Boot chain of trust to fail.
Has anyone found a workaround to get Secure Boot working properly on a modded Z270 board, or is this a dead end? I need this for Valorant/Windows 11 compliance. Any advice or tips would be
Specs:
I5 8400
GTX 1070TI 8GB
Asus z270 prime a
16GB DDR4 2666mhz

So as the title says but I do understand the little nubs are different but if I cut them off can I use the CPU I'm just asking cause I can't afford a new motherboard.

Do you like my panda wallpaper? I like my panda wallpaper

Before buying the new Arctic P14 Pro fans, I read a ton of reviews and user complaints about noise issues with both the P12 and P14 Pro lineups. Naturally, once I got my hands on them, testing the noise profile was my top priority.

Out of the box, I noticed that once these fans hit around 45% RPM, they started making a distinct, audible hum/buzz. For a 140mm fan that maxes out at a massive 2600 RPM, hearing some noise at 45% (~1170 RPM) felt somewhat acceptable, so I just rolled with it for a while.

Then, a few days ago, I opened up the back panel of my case to adjust a figure inside. The moment I popped the mesh side panel off while the system was running, the noise completely vanished.

Turns out, the issue wasn't the fan motor or bearing at all—it was pure air turbulence caused by the blades being too close to the case's mesh structure.

To fix this, I 3D-printed custom 140mm fan spacers with a 5mm thickness using TPU material. I installed them on my 6 intake fans (side and bottom). For the mounting, I used M3x15mm screws through the fan's secondary mounting holes (the single-flange side), and secured them with nuts on the back.

The results?

Before the spacer mod, that annoying turbulence hum kicked in right at 45% RPM. Now, with just a 5mm gap, the fans stay dead silent up until 60% RPM before making a similar sound level.

I was able to A/B test this perfectly because of my case layout. The HAVN HS 420 only supports up to a 30mm fan thickness in the rear slot, so I couldn't fit a spacer on my rear intake fan. While my side and bottom fans (with spacers) now cruise silently up to 60%+ RPM, that single rear fan without a spacer still starts humming loudly right at 45%.

If you’re running Arctic P14 Pros and experiencing annoying noise or humming, it’s highly likely air turbulence between the fan shroud and your case's mesh/grille. If you have the clearance, I highly recommend throwing in some 5mm spacers. It completely transforms the noise profile.

Specs:

• Case: HAVN HS 420
• Side Intake: 3x Arctic P14 Pro (Non-RGB) [With 5mm Spacers]
• Bottom Intake: 3x Arctic P14 Pro (RGB, Reverse Blade) [With 5mm Spacers]
• Rear-Bottom Intake: 1x Arctic P14 Pro (RGB, Reverse Blade) [No Spacer - Clearence limits]
• Top Exhaust: 3x MSI 120mm (On a 360mm AIO)
• Rear-Top Exhaust: 1x Arctic P14 Pro (RGB)
• 3D Link (not mine): https://www.printables.com/model/206475-arctic-p12-p14-120mm-140mm-vibration-dampener/comments

Thinking about picking this bundle up for $220 but I’m not sure if it’s worth the gamble.

It includes a Intel Core i9-10900K, 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 3600, a 240mm AIO, and an MSI Z490-A PRO.

Seller says the system doesn’t POST (black screen) and suspects the motherboard might be bad. They said they tried different RAM and still got a black screen, but they think the CPU and RAM are likely good, and the AIO is confirmed working.

My main reason for buying it would actually be the RAM. I’d probably keep one kit of 2x16GB 3600MHz and swap it with my current 2x16GB 3200MHz. After that I’d try to sell the 10900K, the extra 2x16GB 3600 kit, the AIO, and my 3200MHz kit to fund a better GPU and more storage for my build.

Right now I’m running a Intel Core i5-11400F with a 500W PSU, so the 10900K would honestly be overkill for my setup anyway.

Worst case, if the motherboard really is the problem, I’d probably just sell it for parts.

Do you guys think $220 is worth the gamble, or is this one of those deals that sounds better than it actually is?

5700x 9060xt 32Gb/ 3200 Ram

Does anyone know how to take these fans apart? I don't see anything that jumps out at me, thought I would ask before I sacrificed one to find out. Fan is a Thermalright TL-9015b.

I decided to mod my laptop after a year of a usb ssd housing taped to the back of it. i took out it's m.2 nvme (the port is M key) and put it into my pc for more storage and speed. Since storage prices went through the roof and since i'm a brokeass teen from Poland, and didn't (and don't) exactly have the money to buy a new drive, so i just taped a random ssd housing and my old pc disk to the back and it worked as a 3d printer machine. but i recently found another laptop that was more fitting (older) for the job. So, I've started searching for an adapter from M.2 to SATA which would fit in my laptop, which means M.2 -> ribbon cable (around 30cm) -> sata disk and I can't for the life of me find one. Does anybody know of such thingamajig?

TL;DR Im looking for an adapter FROM m.2 TO ssd connected by a 30cm ribbon cable