Comments on: My First PC Building Experience (Part 3)

By: sidran32

sidran32 — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:09:03 +0000

Thanks! Though make sure you try and do a better job with cable management! :)

By: Garfiun

Garfiun — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 12:43:28 +0000

I have just read through the three parts and found it an interesting read. Also I love the look of the build and hope mine comes out similar to yours.

By: sidran32

sidran32 — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:16:57 +0000

@Arnold That's pretty cool! Though I probably won't do that. What I'll probably do eventually is to take the thing apart and rebuild it, making sure to route the cables using the resources the case gives me for cable management. Regardless, the reason it's in a mess right now is just the result of adding things to it after the fact. Especially the USB expansion card and the fan controller/temperature readout/card reader. There are a lot of cables going to and from those devices and they're right next to the optical drives, which is why it's somewhat of a nest right there.

By: Arnold

Arnold — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:53:56 +0000

Have you considered cable braiding to tidy those loose cables?

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18280993

By: sidran32

sidran32 — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:02:03 +0000

A thermal pad is different. It was thermal paste. Came in a tube and everything. :)

A thermal pad is different... it's a pad.

Also, dried up thermal paste doesn't always come off easily. Looking around online, I saw many references to the OEM stuff tending to be really hard. Someone even said they used a knife to scrape it off, but I wouldn't go that far myself. o.o

By: journeymangeek

journeymangeek — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:35:51 +0000

The ‘stock’ paste isn’t – its a thermal pad if they haven’t changed what they use with systems. Even dried up thermal paste tends to come off pretty easily – i used a medical swab when i was cleaning up a video card that used the proper stuff which had dried out (granted, for curiosity, since it died) and it came clean out. Thermal pads are another story

By: sidran32

sidran32 — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:33:19 +0000

@Shinrai Actually, the thermal paste was the kind included in the CPU/heatsink/fan package. It worked, but the stuff was very, very stiff. I didn't purchase any thermal paste extra because I knew it came with it. It had enough for a couple uses, so I used the rest with the new heatsink.

By: Shinrai

Shinrai — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:03:22 +0000

What thermal paste were you using that set so firmly in such a short amount of time? o.O That's REALLY strange, generally what you see these days is much less stiff. (I use Arctic Silver 5 and that stuff never sticks, but it is a bit more expensive than some that you'll find.)