Topic: Upgrading a Medion 8383XL.

[mistybear]

Sorry you wasted so much time Sandra. I know what you mean by the MSI site, I spent hours one night looking for it as well.

[mistybear]

Michael has connected all four fans, looks pretty impressive.

I do have one main concern, dust. All the ventilation is great, but it also allows lots of dust and cat fur in. Does anyone know if you can get filters for this case or whether it's possible to make them and if so, how.

[Sandra]

I was looking for some thin paper type filter paper like they use in cooker hood extractors and ended up in a £1 store, last time I was in Oz you had similar stores called $2 ones.
I bought a pack of 15 dusters that were really thin and quite fine weaved that I have cut up and superglued to the inside of my case over all the fan intakes.
They look a little like the really fine fibreglass sheets that you get in some DIY car body repair kits.
This seems to have worked quite well, trapping the dust but not restricting the airflow.

[mistybear]

Great idea Sandra, thanks.
 
If I remember correctly, you suggested this to me once before, see I was paying attention, it's just that I forgot.

If you use super glue to fix them in place, then how do you remove them, for replacement?

[Sandra]

It doesnt seem to stick that hard, in fact I struggled to get some pieces to stick.
You only need a small line of glue around the edge of the filter material and then its held in place when you fasten the fan over it.
If, when I come to need to change the filters, they are stuck hard it will only be to the case and not across the intake area so I cant see it being a problem even if some of the original is stuck to the case as I will simply re glue the new piece a little nearer or farther away than the orignal line I used.

[mistybear]

You haven't had the need to change them yet, even with all that dog hair   

I suppose you could just vacuum the outside of the ventilation holes and that would suck any dust and cat hair caught by the filter. 

[Sandra]

Its not been used as often as I was hoping it to be at the moment.
Need to have the time and inclination to set it back up as a server then it will be on 24/7.
I did have it on for 4 days continously a couple of weeks back as I was downloading season 3 of LOST.
As I have 5 case fans, 5 x 92mm and one by 120mm I have them all set on low speed so they dont seem to be getting clogged up yet and the inside of my case looks dust free 

[mistybear]

Thought I should just keep adding to this thread as it's all about Michael's computer.

He is still having over heating problems. The new case has been great for everything else, but the cpu.
He removed the fan and heat sink, cleaned and reapplied thermal paste.

I did some reading on the other forum about 8383's, it seems that it isn't that unusual that they shut down when they over heat.
So with that in mind and the fact that a few people have told Michael that these cpu's are susceptible to over heating. What else can we do to keep the damn thing cooler or would it be best to get another cpu, and if so what would be best.
Also would a new mobo be a good idea as well?

[Sandra]

The best bang for buck CPU for an Intel socket 775 mobo is the D945 3.4ghz dual core CPU.
Not sure if it runs any cooler than the current one though.
I had a quick chat with Michael on messenger last night and if its not actually shutting down then I wouldnt worry too much about the temperature reading, I am never sure just how accurate these are as its not got an actual temperature probe on the CPU but takes its readings from the bios information.

[mistybear]

Oh, okay he didn't say anything to me.

He was over at a friends whose house is a lot warmer than ours, he phoned me and I was in the middle of a good old fashion session of balling my eyes out.
Not a lot I could do about it, he was about 40k's away and I needed to get to the tissue box.

And as you say if it's not actually shutting down.................

I know I read some where about fans that continue to run for about 5 mins after you shut the pc off, do you know anything about them?

[Sandra]

Thats usually the PSU fan on the higher spec'd units that do that.
Not sure if the one you have does it or not.

[mistybear]

Is this HDD any good, as the price is quite good and Michael needs another one?

LINK

[Sandra]

Theye ok MB.
Yours and Michaels PC will only run at Sata 1 speed but that will run ok in your pcs.
Doesnt look particularly cheap though compared to UK prices, more like an average price maybe even a little higher as I recently bought a 500 gig Sata 11 drive for just under £70 including delivery.

[mistybear]

For future upgrades would a Sata 11 be better as I didn't realise the price difference. Future upgrades means that Michael wants to get a new MB and CPU, which I'm sure he will buy himself.

[Sandra]

If you think you can use a SATA 2 at a later date then if theres little or no difference in the price then you may as well go for one.
Theres no disadvantage in running a SATA 2 in a SATA 1 pc.