Yeah, I remember how I was freaked the f out the first time I built a gaming rig, with a $1000 one-day-old AMD FX-51 chip in my hand and putting thermal paste on my $500 Socket940 Asus Motherboard (not to mention the $290 worth of Corsair XMS ECC DRAM-1066, which was two 512MB sticks! and the $525 ATI X800XT-PE I managed to get two weeks before launch)... Honestly, I have hands like a surgeon, but every other part of my body was shaking when I pressed that lever down and then installed the MASSIVE 6-Heatpipe 2-Fan (2x 93mm fans, push/pull) CPU heatsink that weighed a good 1.5-1.75lbs!!!
Yet, that computer booted up like a champ, no issue, and I even held the record for highest 3dMark03 score, beating the previous guy and his
[email protected] by 18% with just 2.86ghz (from 2.2ghz) on AIR and the X800 boosted 21%clock/30%shader/36%memory ON AIR, (AnandTech and a couple other sites) for a good two months before someone came along with a water cooled FX-53 and water-cooled X800XTPE....
Just for the record, though, that PC was kept only mildly OC'd after that, with the CPU at 2.4ghz stock voltage and the GPU OC'd (%) 8clock/12shader/16mem, and the RAM knocked down to 2-3-2 timing (remember, ECC RAM) and just a bump in voltage had it running at a 1:1 with the HT-Link... Played every game available for 2 years following at those specs, 1680x900 with highest settings and 8x AA plus 8-16x ASF, when available, at a minimum of 50fps (HL2 was 75fps at 1080p and 95fps+ at 900p, Doom3/FEAR both over 60fps on Ultra, etc)... Not bad at all considering it's age.
Unfortunately, even with a full-tower Thermaltake case and 3x120mm intake, 2x140mm top exhaust, 2x80mm side intake (blowing onto GPU), 2x180 rear exhaust, plus the 2x93mm push/pull CPU fans and two expansion-port 98mm "slot fans" with one blowing air onto the back of the X800 while the other provided direct exhaust for the on-card fan (my buddy and I designed a custom "vent", insulated, that pulled air from an otherwise blocked front intake fan, connected to the CPU fan, and then another 6" of the same vent connected to the "pull" CPU fan to exhaust it out a spare rear exhaust fan... dropped CPU temps 13-15*C load and GPU temps by up to 20*C load).... it died. Still not sure why, but have been slowly gathering up parts to experiment.
/endtangent
POINT BEING: the first step is what scares me!