Fresh new heat pipes!

Note to system builders: The thermaltake frio CPU cooler is a hellish monstrosity, but it does its job amazingly well. So much better than the stock cooler my CPU came with that it's almost as if I wasn't using anything before by comparison.

I've gone from 30 degrees C idling to anywhere from 50-60 at full load to 24 idling and 35 full load. Literally the best I could get was 24 in a room with windows open to the winter air, now it hovers at that while I type this in a pleasantly heated room.

I think I may have applied the thermal grease improperly however, as it was literally cemented to the CPU when I disassembled my system, scared the shit out of me when I pulled the heat sink up and the CPU came with it. I'm assuming my Arctic silver went bad, because a little google searching suggests that they have a shelf life of 18 months before it begins to settle, and mine was...shit...five or more years old? The thermaltake grease will do fine for now, not really concerned about that, just glad my new girl is up and running much cooler now.

That and the stock cooler was just...god awful. But they always are, they're meant to do just enough to get by under the best of conditions.

Oh, also, on full load it runs quieter than my case fans, which isn't saying much because those things are hellish monstrosities as well.

Seriously, measure your case before you buy this thing, it's literally the size of a chihuahua.

Hal

Windows performance index?

See, this is why WPI is kind of silly. If my computer could score a 5.5 out of 7.9 with two gigs of first generation DDR, something must be seriously wrong with the grading scale. I mean honestly, what could be worse that could actually run windows 7?

I'm a little surprised that my processor scored the worst honestly. I expected my ancient tiny hard drives would be the deal breaker.

Windows 7 is both awesome and bittersweet, it's beautiful and all but it marks the retirement of good old AzureShadow. I'll post the new one when I get it put together, and y'know, think of a name for it. hahaha.

Edit: Not bad