It involves some fairly major disassembly. Worth noting a few things before we get started here:

1. The Q460 is one of the harder notebooks to disassemble. There are many plastic clips and you’re going to have to do a lot of careful prying.
2. Even if you’re careful, you may end up with some cosmetic damage around the case seam, particularly if you use a sharp object to do the prying. Oh, and you’re probably going to have to use a sharp object to do the prying.
3. I didn’t see gains by replacing the paste (details at the end). YMMV of course.
4. This will probably void your warranty. You’re doing this at your own risk. If you’ll be extremely sad/mad if you break the system, and/or you’re not comfortable doing this, you probably shouldn’t attempt it.

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So, let’s get started!

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STEP 1 – the easy stuff (you probably haven’t voided your warranty just yet….)

Click on the image below for a larger version.

You’ll see I’ve already removed the access panel. It’s removed by taking out the screw in the orange location, and carefully prying it out from the clips.

Purple – The battery. You should probably remove this before doing anything unless you’re hoping for a spark show when you slip with the screwdriver (2 spring clips, covered in the manual).

Orange – This is where the access panel screw was. In my previous post, I mentioned they overtightened mine at the factory and I had to use a dremel to cut a new slot. Hopefully you have better luck.

Blue – The “blank” in the memory card slot. Slides right out.

Green – Remove the remaining 2 screws that secure the hard drive, pull the drive out slightly, and slide off the SATA connector/cable.

Pinkish/red – 1 screw (a little smaller than the others) holds in the DVD drive. Once you remove it, slide the DVD drive out.

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STEP 2 – A mess of screws (don’t lose them!)

Click on the image below for a larger version.

You’re essentially removing every screw you see.

Green – Most of these screws are the same size, though you should try to keep them separate so you’re able to put each back in it’s original place anyway. None were very tough to get out with a standard philips screwdriver. While I think I labelled them all, it’s possible I’ve missed a couple in the above picture, so if you see one that isn’t shown, you may need to remove it – fortunately, they’re all pretty obvious.

Orange – These 2 tiny screws are located where the DVD drive was before. They’re tiny, so don’t lose them. They can also be a pain to get out – mine were overtightened at the factory. I had to attach a vicegrip to a tiny screwdriver to get the torque I needed to crack them loose. One hand turned the vicegrip while the other pushed down the screwdriver to keep the screw from stripping. If you manage to strip the screw, you’re probably going to have to use a dremel to cut a new slot or drill the head off the screw and try to remove the shaft later.

Pink – this is the hard drive SATA connector from step #1. You don’t have to do much else, but remember it. It gets in the way later when you try removing the bottom of the case, and will get in the way when you try reassembling it.

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Step 3 – Removing the bottom panel (unclipping the clips). AKA “the worst part”

This part sucks.

Click on the image below for a larger version.

I found it easiest to start at the front. Open the screen/display a bit.

The way I went about this was using a thin, sharp knife. I stuck it between the silver/black at an angle, and pryed the black “away” from the clips, working my way around slowly. As you get some of the clips disconnected, you’ll probably have to use 1 hand to keep them from popping back in.

Next, I worked my way around the sides, going from the front of the machine towards the back, working both sides at a time. The side you see above was the “easier” side. That said, prying the clips near the DVD drive location was a little tough – the plastic is really thin and I worried it would crack before the clips came.

The side above was a pain (again, click on the image for a larger picture). The problem is that not only do you have to pry the black plastic away from the clips, but it catches the microphone, headphone, VGA, and power connectors. You have to pry the black plastic away from them too. I put orange arrows at the trouble-spots.

The power connector in particular is a huge pain – you have to pry an awful lot to get the black plastic over it.

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Once I got the the front/sides unclipped, I simply pulled the black case bottom up, it pivoted, and the rear clips came un-done on their own.

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STEP 4 – The guts of the machine (getting easier again!)

Click on the image below for a larger version.

With the panel off, all we’ve left to do is remove the CPU cooler and heatsinks. It’s all 1 piece (I’d incorrectly guessed the CPU and GPU had separate heatsinks in my previous write-up)

Purple – Remove the screws for the heatsinks. Generally, you want to unscrew all of these a little bit at a time so that you maintain even pressure on the chips. Give 1 screw a turn, give the next screw a turn, etc. Go back to the 1st and repeat.

Orange – This connector is for the fan. It should pull out easily, but it doesn’t. I had to use a small screwdriver to gently pry it out of it’s fitting a bit at a time.

Once everything’s removed, it should lift right out.

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STEP 5 – the heatsink paste

Click the image below for a larger version.

Here you can see the existing thermal paste. If you’re replacing the paste and haven’t done it before, you may want to read the many guides on the web elsewhere before continuing.

Orange – The CPU and GPU locations. Surprisingly, the factory stuff was already fairly thin. Some excess had squeezed out the sides, but for a factory-job, it was pretty decent. I cleaned it off with rubbing alcohol and used Artic Silver Ceramique as the replacement.

Purple – The thermal pad on the chipset. I would not suggest replacing this with paste, as it won’t be as thick as the pad and probably won’t make good contact (if any). Leave it alone unless you’ve got a mod in mind.

Maybe I just got lucky, but the clearances machined into the heatsink for the GPU and CPU were nearly perfect. I applied a small amount of paste to each chip, temporarily reattached the heatsink, and both transferred perfectly. +1 to Samsung for this. That said, make sure you temporarily attach the heatsink and check for paste transfer in case you weren’t as lucky as I was.

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STEP 6 – Reassembly

Unsurprisingly, it’s the opposite of removal. A few things to note though:

• The hard drive SATA connector I mentioned earlier…. if you’re reassembling now and the case just won’t go back together, it’s probably in the way.
• Remember to pry the plastic back over the power/sound/mic/VGA connectors.
• Assuming both the above aren’t causing you problems, it snaps back together quite easily. Once I got it started, I was able to pretty much put the thing on the floor, push down, and everything snapped back into place.

When the machine is back on, you might want to run a couple temperature-monitoring programs just to make sure everything looks good. RealTemp is good for testing the CPU, and the monitoring section of GPU-Z is good for testing the GPU.

You may also want to run some stress testing programs while monitoring the temperatures carefully. If you messed up and things are overheating, it’s better to find out right away (while you’re monitoring the temps) than it is to have something burn itself out a week later.

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RESULTS

To put it simply… there weren’t gains, at least under load. Here are the numbers:

GPU
Before:  79 degress (load)
After: 78 degrees (load)

CPU
Before: 81 degrees (load)
After: 83 degrees (load)

Basically, the GPU was 1 degree cooler, and the CPU was 2 degrees warmer. Both pretty much within the margin for error. No real change to speak of.

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A few possible reasons for this:

1. The Arctic Silver Ceramique I used – the tube’s well over 5 years old (it’s all I had available where I am at the moment). It’s known to result in temps a couple degrees higher than other more-recent thermal pastes. It’s thicker, and I certainly didn’t manage to spread it as thin as I can with other pastes. It may also need time to cure (temps could very well go down in a few days).
2. Application – while it looked pretty good, I may have used more/less than necessary.
3. The original paste Samsung used might have been just as good as anything else.

In any case, time will tell. I may disassemble the machine again later and try some other paste.

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CONCLUSION

For being quite the pain to disassemble, it’s a little disappointing that there weren’t temperature gains to be had this time around. It’s possible that a few mods to the bottom panel might help airflow, but it’s something I’ll look at another time.

In any case, if you need to disassemble your system, hopefully the guide has helped you. If you’ve attempted this and have any tips of your own (or replaced the paste and saw better results than I did), feel free to leave a comment below!

I picked up the NP-Q460 from Best Buy Canada ( both BB and FS list it as a Q460-JS01CA ), as I needed a relatively cheap laptop to replace my previous MacBook Pro, which got owned by a glass of milk. Unfortunately, reviews on this model were slim. As far as the price and specs went, it looked like a pretty solid deal though at $699 CDN so I decided to give it a go.

I’ll assume if you’re reading this you’ve already checked out the specs, but just in case… the short version is that it’s got an Intel i5 2430m, 6GB RAM, nVidia Optimus GeForce GT540m with 1GB mem, and a slow (5400RPM) 640GB hard drive. All the other typical stuff you’d find in every recent laptop is there, though it’s worth noting that it’s got a standard DVD burner (no Blue-Ray).

First some boring unboxing pics, and then some commentary:

Click on any of the thumbnails above to see the large version in a pop-up window.

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I’ll sum up a few pros and cons I observed rather quickly for those who just want the ‘gist’ of it:

Despite the cons list being longer than the pros list, I’m really quite happy with the system.

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Now for a few random details:

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THE 1 SCREW

The 1 screw you remove to get at the HD/RAM… It’s a small philips screw, and on my notebook it was insanely tight. I tried a dozen small screwdrivers that were all the right size, and it just wouldn’t come.

As it turned out, I had to use a dremel to cut a slot into the screw so that I could use a larger flat screwdriver, get a good grip, and use a pile of force. It was tough, but it eventually came.

I don’t get why:

a) The screw was put in so tight. This is *supposed* to be a user-servicable panel.
b) They used a smaller screw than they did for the rest of the bottom panel. A larger screw would have fit and would be less prone to stripping.

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THE FIRST START

The first startup takes quite some time. At first you’re presented with a very well-polished partition manager of sorts that allows you to size (or completely remove) a backup partition of sorts. Takes a few seconds, and is explained well enough that Grandma would probably understand. After that, you wait a good long while as it prepares Windows – I’m assuming that it’s either restoring the Windows image, or installing the whack of trial-ware you’ll spend even more time removing. Waiting for it to finish is like watching paint dry, so go get some coffee. You might even have time to drive to Starbucks. Maybe even the one in the next town.

Once you’re finally at the desktop, you’ll find an Intel utility running in the upper right, letting you know when the CPU turbo’s up. It seems a little out of place (it’s an odd thing to have greeting you), but it can be closed easily enough. Be sure to change the settings before closing it if you don’t want it to auto-run every time the laptop starts.

Despite Norton bugging you pretty quickly, and despite the large number of items in your taskbar, it actually feels like a pretty clean installation (though I’m used to 5-6 programs bugging me on most notebooks during the first boot).

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THE SAMSUNG PROGRAMS/UTILITES

For the purists out there who have another copy of Windows and like to format/reinstall without the bloatware, be sure to grab the drivers from Samsung’s site first (the Samsung tools/utilties are also available there).

For the other minimalists who simply tend to uninstall the trialware they don’t want/need, don’t go uninstalling all the Samsung-related stuff. Some of it’s useful (check the installed manual to see what each does). You don’t need all of it, but a few things (like the software that enables keyboard features) you’ll probably want. That said, if you find you’ve removed something you want back, you can grab it again on Samsung’s site.

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TEMPERATURES

Using OCCT and FurMark, I tried to get a rough idea as to what temps I’d be looking at.

Both the CPU and GPU could be nudged to the 80-85 degree C region (GPU goes a little hotter than the CPU). I’m guessing they have independant heatsinks, though I’ll confirm this when I disassemble the thing. The fan doesn’t start really kicking up until the 80 degree mark, though at that point, it’s still much quieter than my previous MacBook Pro.

The temps are a bit worrysome – intense games are probably going to get the thing hot, and based on previous experiences, after dust has had a couple months to accumulate I wouldn’t be surprised if either the CPU or GPU started to hit over 90 degrees.

Since I don’t want to be the victim of throttling or system shutdowns, when I disassemble the notebook, I’ll probably take a look at the airflow design, heatsinks & heatsink paste and see if something can be done.

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GAMING

The only game I’ve tried so far has been BioWare’s MMO, SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic). Played around for a couple minutes at the fleet station. TOR is known for being fairly demanding – if you browse the forums you’ll find many complaints pertaining to low fps, particularly by laptop users. It’s also notorious for pushing the CPU/GPU when it comes to heat output. Again, you’ll find many complaints about users who have systems shutting down, crashing, throttling, and restarting due to heat while playing this game.

I was interested to see how the notebook fared in terms of both fps and heat when playing at the native resolution.

At high settings, the game tends to sit a little above the 10fps mark. Technically playable, but not really practical.

At low settings (though with shadows off completely as well), the framerate becomes respectable, hitting 60fps at times, and generally bottoming out at just above 30fps. Movement is fluid, and I’d expect combat should remain fluid as well.

I didn’t try out medium settings, as most people will probably benefit from tweaking the individual settings and finding which give the most benefit when it comes to the quality/fps tradeoff.

After about 10 minutes on the fleet station, I took a look at the temperatures. The nVidia 540m had topped out at 71 degrees C. The CPU had capped at about 84 degrees C. When I disassemble the laptop I’ll see if new heatsink paste results in a reduction.

For being a low-medium card, the GeForce 540m looks to be more-than-adequate for casual gaming, and as a whole the Samsung Q460 notebook should be just fine for those who may use it for periodic gaming.

I wouldn’t call the Samsung Q460 a gaming laptop by any means, but if you’re content to get good framerates under low quality settings, I doubt it will disappoint.

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TO SUM IT UP

It’s a good laptop, and a purchase I’m quite happy with. At around $700, The Samsung NP-Q460 is a fantastic compromise between the $300-500 budget-laptops that can barely game, and the $1000-1500 laptops that game well but at a high cost.

I may pop in an SSD one of these days, and will definitely be replacing the RAM with 2x4GB sticks that I have kicking around.

At the time of this writing, the only laptop that would give the same specs for less money would be an Acer for around $50 less, but I’ve never been pleased with the build quality of Acer’s stuff.

Anyway, that concludes the review. If you bought a Samsung Q460-JS01CA and have thoughts to share, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

I was looking for a case to replace my current Antec Sonata III. The Sonata’s not bad, except that it’s incredibly heavy (I dread moving the thing, especially since I somehow lost the rubber feet and the bottom now wants to scratch everything), and when I decided to run an Intel i7 and Radeon 6950… well… the PSU’s top-placement meant that it was getting kinda hot. And loud.

A huge plus to the Sonata was the plastic, removable air-filter. I’d gone from pulling out handfuls of dust, to opening up the case after 2 years and finding all the components still looked brand-new. A filter on the new system was a must. In any case, these were the requirements for a new case, in order of priority:

• Easy to move/transport. This meant a handle of sorts.
• Bottom-mounted PSU. Cooler air = quieter PSU.
• Intake air filters. I hate lugging the thing to the garage so that I can use the compressor to get all the crud out. I’d rather just keep the crud out from the start.
• Large fans. 80mm fans are just too small/noisy, and they don’t push as much air anyway.
• Reasonably priced. Around $100 is fine. Beyond that, I’ve built a custom 100% silent, perfectly cool case in the past out of MDF and spare case parts for around $50. The most expensive part was the furnace-filter it used. Of course, it weighed about 60 lbs and was pretty huge (so not portable) but it worked better than any case money can buy. So $200+ is out of the question. I’d build my own case at that point.

Anyway, Cooler Master had a decent looking case that seemed to meet the requirements (the Storm Scout), so I picked it up. This is the one I’m referring to:

So I opened it up, and had a look. Before going any further, it’s important to note that despite what you might infer from my furnace-filter case-building endeavors mentioned above, I don’t expect a HEPA-quality filter or anything on these things. The old Antec’s plastic filter worked well when it came to dust, and really, anything that’ll catch the majority of the dust is fine by me.

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First, the filter for the bottom-mounted PSU (click for a larger image):

It’s attached to the bottom intake from the inside. I have no doubt it’ll perform well enough. It would have been nice if they made easy to remove/maintain (as it is, you’ll have to yank the power supply out to clean it), but they put some thought in, it’ll keep dust out, and that’s what counts. It didn’t require any modification.

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Next, the front panel. It comes off easily with a hard yank (a + to CoolerMaster there). Again, click for a large image.

As you see, they have a foam filter over the fan grill, and filters over each of the drive bays, held in by metal tabs. They definitely didn’t take short-cuts here, and I have to say, I was pretty impressed.

This really was well-thought-out. Air can come in anywhere from the front (a lot of surface area), and it all gets filtered. If you need to clean it, just yank the front panel off – quick and easy.

It’s not perfect though – if you look in the right side of the image, you’ll see that where the handle is, you’ve got a big space. Here’s a look from the bottom with it installed:

While air from the front is filtered, air sucked in through this space at the bottom isn’t filtered. Since there’s very little resistance to airflow here, and since the fan is located very close to this space, I expect a lot of dust to make it’s way in here over time. Remember, the filters are on the right side of this space – the intake fan’s on the left.

Time for the first mod!

This one’s pretty easy. Get some screen and either tape or glue it over the hole. Here are a few pics (clicky clicky for large versions):

A few flaws with my mod that I’ll point out for you:

• As you could probably tell, I didn’t cut it perfectly straight. It’s not perfectly flush.
• Since the screen is flexible, it’s possible that it’ll be sucked up a bit and create a larger gap.
• It’s more of a pain to pull the panel off without pushing the screen through – you can only grip the ridge of the plastic.

Alternate ideas if you’re looking to mod this area:

• If you don’t have access to screen, you can simply use black electrical tape to cover the area and block airflow from the bottom altogether. That way all the air will be pulled from the (filtered) front. If you don’t have electrical tape, duct tape would probably work fine too – it’s at the bottom, so nobody’s going to see it anyway.
• Rigid perforated plastic would be more durable, and wouldn’t flex with the airflow (instead of using screen).

Ideally, Cooler Master would have done one of 2 things:

1. used rigid perforated plastic here, mounted at an angle so that it doesn’t interfere when you’re reaching your hand in, or
2. had this section sealed off, with a handle moulded in.

Really though, I was so pleased that they filtered the entire front (individually on each drive bay!) that I can’t fault them too much for this oversight. Just block off or filter the bottom yourself and you should be set here.

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Next, the side-panel, where you’d generally put 2 intake fans (the only fans that are not included by the way):

It’s worth quickly noting that CM put protective plastic on both sides of the panel. Just another indication that they put some care into the case. Also, if you’re not planning to mount fans here, you can simply leave the plastic on and it’ll keep dusty air from sneaking in here. Oh, and check the height of your CPU cooler – if it’s tall, you’ll probably only be able to install a bottom fan.

Anyway, if you’re putting fans here, you can see the flaw. Once you remove the plastic, this area’s completely unfiltered. Time for another quick mod!

Above (again, you can click for larger images), you can see that I’ve again cut some screen.  I used the existing push-rivets to hold it in place, and then some electrical tape on the sides to make sure it’s held flush (and to hide the screen edge). Installed the fans, and voila!

Again, alternate ways to do this:

• perforated plastic (or solid metal screen) – you could cut it to size, drill 4 holes for the fan mount, and rather than having to use tape, the fan would hold it on. It’d probably look even better too.
• if you go with the screen/tape method as I have, some colored tape might look a little more appealing depending on the color of the LED lights you’re using.

Before anyone asks why I used ugly brown/beige Noctua fans, they’re fairly quiet and I happen to like them :p . Obviously if you want to use some fancy LED fans, it’ll look a little prettier.

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I’ll fault CM for the side panel – they really had nothing here, which is a shame seeings how they took care of the PSU intake and front. If you’ve installed both fans here, around half the air that goes into the case will be from the side-panel. It won’t be dust-free.

At the very least they could have included a couple metal screens (similar in size to the ones used at the PSU intake) with 4 holes drilled for the fan screws/mounts. Anyone who bought the case for filtration-reasons would probably use them (and anyone who doesn’t want filtration is probably ripping out the PSU/front filters so it doesn’t impede their airflow anyway).

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Minimizing dust:

That’s it for the mods (only 2 were needed!), so on to other things.

Aside from making sure your air intakes are filtered well, aim for positive (but close to neutral) case pressure. Don’t know what that is? It’s the opposite of negative pressure of course! In basic terms, you want more intake air than exhaust air. Why? If your exhaust is “stronger”, it’ll suck air into the case from every crack and crevice it can, which means you’ll find dust in all the cracks and crevices – most noticably around CD/DVD drives, case seams, etc.

On the other hand, with positive case pressure, (more air being “pushed” in than being “sucked” out) air will be pushed *out* those cracks/crevices/etc. Because the air in your case has been filtered, this air being pushed out wont leave dust in all those crevices.

You could of course aim for “neutral” case pressure (intake air = exhaust air), but it’s a little harder to attain, and as your filters plug up it’ll start to become negative pressure.

Now, before somebody goes and turns all their fans into intake fans (“Hey Matt, I read your article and now I have 7 fans all blowing in so I have lots of positive case pressure!”)… that’s a bad idea. You also want air-flow too which means a mix of intake and exhaust fans. Just make sure more slightly more air is being pushed in than is being sucked out, and you’ll get the best-of-both-worlds; good, efficient air flow, and you’ll minimize dust.

To accomplish this, you’d generally match the # of intake/exhaust fans, and have one of the exhaust fans set slightly lower in speed. In the case of the CM Storm Scout:

• the front intake and top exhaust are the same size (should equal out)
• because the PSU gets it’s “own” intake and exhaust, it’s intake should roughly equal it’s exhaust
• 1 intake side fan should offset the rear exhaust fan
• 1 (the other) intake side fan should hopefully not only offset the video card’s exhaust, but add some additional air to create positive pressure.

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Conclusion & other stuff….

All in all, it’s a pretty good case – not perfect when it comes to filtration, but as you see above, it’s close enough that it’s pretty easy to mod the rest of the way.

I was surprised at how quiet the case actually is compared to the Antec Sonata III – don’t get me wrong, the Sonata III is quieter (very quiet) when you’re dealing with low temps and low fan speeds, but as soon as you add heat to the equation and need the fans turned up, you really start to hear it.

That said, comparing it to the Sonata III isn’t quite fair. A better comparison would probably be the Antec 900 which is priced similarly and aimed at a similar audience. While I don’t own a 900 (though buying one for a CM Storm Scout vs Antec 900 comparison sounds enticing), looking through the details the CM Storm Scout seems like a better buy. I say that, being quite the Antec fan by the way.

The Cooler Master Storm Scout looks to beat out the Antec 900 in…:

• front filtration
• 4 front/top USB ports (vs only 2 on the Antec 900)
• carry handle
• CPU cutout on the motherboard tray
• separate air intake for PSU
• tool-less design
• better cable management – space to hide wiring behind motherboard tray (though not perfect, it’ll hide away a few wires at least)

The Antec 900 does have adjustable fan speed switches (which the CM unfortunately lacks), and a monster 200mm top fan (CM’s is only 140mm and I’d venture to guess it’s louder). Aside from those, the Storm Scout blows it away feature-wise. You’d have to step up to the more expensive Antec 902 to get the front filters and cable management, though even that model’s still behind in the other areas.

Regardless, I’m quite pleased. If your priorities are similar to the ones I mentioned at the beginning, the Storm Scout won’t disappoint. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly on it’s way there. And hey… maybe we’ll get a Storm Scout 2.0 one day :p

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Prep

To jailbreak the Apple TV (2nd generation), you’ll need the AppleTV, the cord to plug it into some electricity, and a cable that converts regular USB to MicroUSB-B (not the “A” version of MicroUSB, and NOT the more common MiniUSB).

Yes, you’ll have to buy the cable separately. Yes, they’re a BEAR to find – I have a zillion cables that do MiniUSB, but couldn’t find any around here that were MicroUSB. For a low-cost online option, you might want to check out MonoPrice.com – you shouldn’t have problems finding them at most online retailers, but MonoPrice is usually pretty cheap (they ship to Canada too btw). I ended up looking around locally and 1 local computer place happened to have them (ComputerAvenue on St. Mary’s if you live near Winnipeg).

You’ll also need a computer with a USB port.

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The Jailbreak

NOTE THAT JAILBREAKING MAY VOID YOUR WARRANTY. IT MAY SCREW WITH FUTURE APPLETV UPDATES. IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG, YOUR APPLETV MAY NOT BOOT. DON’T DO THIS UNLESS YOU’RE SURE.

I didn’t have much luck with GreenPois0n. After about 100  attempts (and while it walks you through it, the timing is brutal to get right, though it “claimed” to be successful many times when it wasn’t), and a few firmware flashes, and a couple different versions of GreenPois0n, I decided to keep looking for an alternate untethered jailbreak.

Turns out that Seas0nPass was the way to go. Currently it can be found at http://support.firecore.com/entries/387605 but in the event you’re reading this months later, try Seas0nPass.com and see if you can find it there (note that it’s a leet-speak-style zero in Seas0n, not the letter “o” if you type it in manually). Both Windows and Mac OS X versions are available (I happened to use the Mac version)

There’s a guide as well at the above link(s). Follow it, but note that you need to do very little. It does most of the work, and it’s pretty freaking easy.

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Once you’re jailbroken… disable updates

Now that you’re jailbroken, you don’t want an Apple TV update to catch you and throw you back in jail (overwrite your jailbreak).

NOTE THAT YOUR APPLE TV WILL NO LONGER UPDATE. THAT’S GOOD FOR YOUR JAILBREAK, BUT BAD IF APPLE PUTS OUT AN UPDATE YOU WANT (you would have to undo the following changes).

First, you’ll have to SSH into the AppleTV. Connect the AppleTV to your network if it isn’t yet.

If you’re on a Mac, and if this is the only AppleTV on your LAN, it’s as easy as opening Terminal and typing:

ssh root@apple-tv.local

OR

ssh root@whatever-ip-address-your-atv-is-on
(Example: ssh root@192.168.0.100)
(you can find the IP address in the Settings section on your AppleTV)

It’ll give you a warning (which you’ll say yes to), and then ask for a password. The default password is “alpine” (no quotes). If you’re using Windows, you’ll probably have to install a program like Putty to SSH in (in other words, time to do some Googling).

Now that you’re logged in through SSH, you’ll need to edit a file to disable updates. First, you’ll need to install an editor though! I decided to use “nano”, so to install it I typed the following:

apt-get update
apt-get install nano

The 1st one updates the list of things that can be installed (takes a while, make sure your network is connected to the internet). The 2nd installs nano.

Assuming that went well, you’ve got to edit the /etc/hosts file on the AppleTV. Since you’re still SSH’ed in as root, it’s a matter of typing:

nano /etc/hosts

You should be in a clunky-looking file editor now. It probably looks like this inside:

You’re going to add 3 lines to the bottom so it looks like this:

Then it’s CONTROL-O on your keyboard to save it, and CONTROL-X to exit.

Note that this change will not take effect until you restart the AppleTV. You can restart it now if you want (just type “restart” and hit enter), but remember to SSH back in before continuing if so. If this has all been pretty complicated for you so far, don’t restart yet – you can do it at the end (by unplugging it and plugging it back in if nothing else).

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Installing the Plex client (finally)

I’m assuming you’re SSH’ed into the ATV (whether you restarted and SSH’ed back in, or have just finished the previous step but haven’t restarted).

The next instructions can be found in the Plex forums:
http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/26064-08-beta-releases/

Note that it’s for the BETA release. It’s probably changed by the time you read this, so I suggest going to the Plex forums and reading up on the current procedure.

Anyway, to install the BETA version that I did (which may not be a great idea when you read this since a newer version may be out which you’ll probably want to use), I went about it like this:

echo “deb http://www.ambertation.de ./downloads/PLEX/” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/plex.list
(the above is all 1 line, in the event it gets split up into 2 lines by the blog)

apt-get update

apt-get install com.plex.client-plugin=0.0.8.0.4

3 lines total. There were a couple confirmations messages.

AGAIN, I recommend reading the plex forums for this last phase/step. Once it’s done, you may have to reboot the AppleTV (either type “restart”, or simply yank the power cord and plug it back in)

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Thoughts on Plex via the AppleTV

Plex for the AppleTV is fairly streamlined (compared to the full version on the computer). It looks great though – maintains the easy navigation, and you still have all the scraped TV/Movie information available. Some bits can be customized (turning on/off theme music when browsing TV series, a couple layout options, and a fair bit more).

I actually couldn’t quite figure out whether the AppleTV’s version of Plex is more “Plex Light”, or more “Plex designed to seamlessly integrate with the AppleTV”. It feels like a bit of both.

Note that the big downside is that there’s NO PLEX SERVER for the APPLE TV. Just the client. I’m assuming the AppleTV’s hardware just can’t handle it. You need a computer running the Plex Media Server, and it’ll stream to the Plex CLIENT on the AppleTV. Plex will happily watch whatever folders you want it to (including on machines/storage across your network), but the server itself has still got to be running on at least 1 machine, somewhere.

1 stick was good, 1 stick was faulty. RMA service to Canada is kinda awful.

2 sentences. If that’s all you needed to know, you can go on to the next review now. You’re welcome.

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Now for the details.

I ordered the RAM through NewEgg (about $80) for my Macbook Pro. It came with a $10 mail in rebate, so after a couple days of everything working, I cut out the UPC code and mailed it in.

Unfortunately, when I booted into Windows for a game some time later (League of Legends if you’re wondering), I found that the game kept crashing. I didn’t immediately suspect the RAM, but eventually broke down and started running some tests to narrow down the culprit. Turned out it was the RAM.

I tested each stick individually with a couple memory testing programs and found the bad stick. Tried it in other machines, and it failed there too. Great.

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The RMA Process

Now normally, I’d send the thing back to NewEgg. I was still barely within the 30 days for exchange. Unfortunately, I’d already cut out the UPC code for the mail in rebate which according to NewEgg’s terms makes me ineligible (fair enough). I had to deal directly with Mushkin.

Now for a Mushkin RMA, you have to create an account on their website, and submit a ticket. Creating the account’s a bit of a hassle, but submitting the ticket’s alright. Here’s the note I added within the ticket:

1 stick is faulty (other one is fine). System instability, and fails both the Apple Hardware Test, and Memtest86+ 4.20. Tested in multiple machines (together, and then 1 at a time to narrow down the bad stick). ***Replacement stick must be sent via USPS if being shipped from the USA (via Canada Post if shipped from Canada), as this is a rural address.*** CANADIAN ADDRESS: Matt Gadient <address removed> Please provide the RMA address and any additional information required for return of the defective stick. Thanks.

You’ll notice that I placed pretty heavy emphasis on the USPS/CanadaPost part.

They sent a reply, asking for proof of purchase. A bit odd for an item with a lifetime warranty, but I sent them a PDF of the NewEgg invoice. In a few hours they replied that the RMA was approved.

I packaged up the bad stick, and mailed it in the “rigid box” they required. About $8 to ship it back to them.

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The hiccup

A few weeks later, I got an email stating that they’d have to charge me an extra fee to ship the replacement back through USPS as I’d requested. I responded that I was very disappointed to hear that, as I’d been quite clear in the initial request that USPS would be required, and expected that this issue would have been mentioned *prior* to me returning the RAM.

I went on to say that if it was under $20, I’d be paying by Mastercard, and otherwise just to throw the thing out. Turns out the fee is $31.95.

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The math

Now let’s do a little math. The set was about $80. That works out to $40 per stick. I paid $8 to ship the dead one back to them, and they wanted to charge me $32 to mail me back the replacement. $8 + $32 = $40.

Had they told me this up-front, I wouldn’t have sent the stick back. It’s smarter just to buy a new one.

Granted, I was already out the $8, but at that point I preferred eating the $8 loss as opposed to paying for more potential surprises.

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Conclusion

This certainly doesn’t look good on the company.

I didn’t spring a “surprise, I need USPS” on them. I was very clear and upfront from the start. They sprung the “surprise, that’ll be $32” on me.

They could have said upfront that “your RMA request has been approved, but note that there may be an additional fee for shipping your replacement via USPS“. They didn’t.

To ship via a USPS-branded box would have cost $11.95 (I looked it up just now). For their own box would have been $5.58. Both are a far cry from the $32 they were looking to gouge me with.

To be fair, they wouldn’t have charged me to ship via FedEx, but I wasn’t about to cave in and spend half a day taking a $20 drive to the FedEx depot at the airport in the next city to pick it up (and probably pay customs-clearing-fees on top of it).

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Mushkin sold me a defective product, made a mistake in not informing me about the cost to ship via USPS. Rather than rectifying that (and waiving the $5.58), they decided to try and profit further from me by charging a whopping $32.

Needless to say, I won’t be spending money on a Mushkin product again. It’s clear they don’t mind selling defective products and aren’t willing to own up to their mistakes. That’s fine. I don’t mind calling them out on it.

I’ll take my $32 and put it towards a stick from a better manufacturer.

I’ve used Logitech mice almost exclusively over the years, but they haven’t been without their issues. Poor Mac software, inaccurate scroll wheels, and (more importantly) feet that either wear off or aren’t held on well by the glue.

Razor’s built a pretty good name for themselves, so I decided to give a Razor mouse a try this time around. I got the DeathAdder – fairly basic mouse with 2 thumb-buttons and a clickable scroll-wheel.

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I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary, but was so impressed within the first few minutes of use that I thought the experience was worth sharing.

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The Good

Like virtually all USB mice, it was functional the moment it was plugged into the Mac, and worked perfectly well in the Mac OS.

The DeathAdder is extremely accurate. I’m using it on a table-cloth (technically a bed sheet, but it’s a long story…), full of wrinkles and creases. Not an ideal surface, yet I quickly realized I was getting more accurate tracking than my Logitech which has the benefit of a real mouse pad. A little PhotoShop work confirmed this. I really don’t think I could go back.

The wheel’s precisely calibrated. It’s tight (unlike the logitechs which have always had some play in movement), and there aren’t any anomolies. No dead spots in the wheel, and you always get exactly 1 movement per click. Trying to nudge the wheel forward or backward (without actually clicking it) didn’t cause scrolling. It’s very precise.

I installed the Mac software (downloaded from the site). Here’s what it looks like:

RazerDeathAdder software on Mac OS X (installed in /Applications). Click on the image above to see the larger version.

Unfortunately, the software required a restart after installation (one of the few things that actually needs the Mac to restart). However, it installed seemlessly, and even added an easy-to-find-uninstaller in Applications/Utilities.

I opened up all the options for the screenshot. It has a bit of a cluttered feel to it, but all the options are there. Changing the Polling Rate caused the mouse to freeze for a few seconds while it applied the settings, but beyond that there weren’t any surprises.

A small nicety is that the lights can be turned off from within the software. If you need complete darkness for whatever reason, both the scroll-wheel light and the logo light can be switched on/off independently. I suppose switching off the lights might save a microscopic amount of power as well, which might be marginally helpful if you’ve got flakey USB ports or are running on a laptop’s battery.

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The Bad

I’ve only had a few days of use, so keep in mind that if long-term issues exist, I haven’t had enough time to run into them…

There’s no install disc in the box (PC or Mac). You have to download the software from their site if you want to install it. You may not need it, but if you want it, you’ve gotta find it. That in itself isn’t all that bad – usually CD’s have outdated versions of software anyway, so you’re generally better off throwing those discs away and downloading the latest version online. That said, there’s a pile of other junk in the box already, so since “cost” or “environmental reasons” don’t seem to be the rationale behind it, they may as well have thrown a disc in there anyway (perhaps having the installer check for an updated online version first before installing).

Reversed up/down at the Mac’s boot-option screen. If you hold “Alt/Option” down at startup to choose a drive to boot to, up/down are reversed. Really a minor detail, but still strange.

Soft feet. The mouse feet glide smoothly, but the material’s very soft. Even the tablecloth I’m using has scuffed them a bit. That means a coarse surface might wear these feet off over time. It’s clearly a design-choice – the material is soft, but glides smoothly. I’d be careful about choosing a mousepad to go along with it though to be on the safe side.

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The Ugly

22MB installer, and 40-50MB installation. Wowzorz. I know disk space is abundant these days, but that seems a bit large for a driver and mouse software.

Scroll wheel acceleration conflict between MacOS mouse settings and Razor software mouse settings. After you install the software, the scrolling acceleration is insanely fast. Normal speed for the first few lines, and then WHAM it zips down the page, easily to the end of most documents. The FIX is to change the “Scroll Speed” in the Mac’s SystemPreferences/Mouse section. Turn the “scrolling speed” there down to the bottom, and the mouse behaves the way you’d expect it should – a moderate amount of acceleration. I list this as “ugly” because it requires you to adjust the Mac OS X default mouse behavior, rather than simply being adjustable from within the Razer utility (where you’d expect it to be). It actually took some trial/error to figure out this fix.

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Conclusion

It’s only been a few days, but this is quite possibly the best mouse I’ve ever owned. We have a number of machines here, all using different mice. I’m generally not very picky – I can make just about anything work.

The fact that the DeathAdder actually caught my attention enough to make me really appreciate it is… well… both unexpected and unprecedented. Coming with software for Mac OS X is an added bonus (I could have really done without it to be honest).

I think there's about half a tube of thermal paste on the MacBook Pro's processor/GPU by default (okay, not half a tube, but way too much). I replaced it with some Noctua stuff in a write-up linked to below.

I recently grabbed a 15″ MacBook Pro (the 2011 flavor with the 6750m). I’d read about the temps being quite high, although I was quite surprised to find out just how high they could get…. 100 degrees C when running OCCT. That’s incidentally Intel’s thermal limit for that chip. The chip throttles down, the fans eventually kick up in speed, and the temperatures drop to the low 90′s.

In any case, I pulled the thing apart and replaced the thermal goop. You wouldn’t believe how thick that stuff is spread on at the factory. I documented the process at a new site devoted to this little thing (I’m typing on it now), simply titled My 2011 MacBook Pro.

If you’re interested in reading about the process (complete with oodles of pics), you can find it here:

Replacing CPU and GPU (6750m) thermal paste to lower temperatures on the 2011 MacBook Pro

In short though, the process was fairly long with cable removal being the biggest issue. Seriously, I think they used every different cable connection type they could… it’s not a process for the feint of heart. The goop was on really thick. After cleaning it up and applying my own thermal paste, temperatures dropped a fair bit although they still managed to hit 100 degrees under OCCT.

There’s a bit of a twist, having to do with the GPU temps, but rather than copy the write-up again, you can find the results page on the site above if you’re interested.

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The site’s pretty sparse so far, although much more is coming in the days ahead. I’ve been up for the last 24 hours though testing and writing (and the last 24 hours were “day 2″), so for the moment, I need some sleep.

Edit: a little more’s been added to the site – a MacBook Pro heatsink mod, and a 5400 vs 7200 RPM hard drive comparison.

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If you’re planning to overclock, it’s a bit of a pain, but here are the quick steps:

1. Grab the latest MOBILITY catalyst drivers from AMD’s website (www.amd.com), and install them.
2. Grab GPU-Z. You’ll be using this to monitor your temps. Can currently be found here: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
3. Grab MSI Afterburner. AMD/ATI’s “overdrive” is disabled on mobility chips, so you’ll be using Afterburner for the overclocking. Currently, it can be found here: http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Once you’ve installed MSI Afterburner, you’ll have to modify the configuration file before it’ll allow you to overclock. WARNING: there’s a reason they make it a pain – you can damage/destroy your GPU very easily with the utility. Overclocking can be quite dangerous. With a mobility GPU it’s particularly risky because if you damage it, you’ll have to spend an insane amount of money to replace the part. It’s often cheaper just to throw the entire machine away. Keep that in mind.

The configuration file is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\MSIAfterBurner.cfg . The easiest way to edit it is to run Notepad as administrator (right-click, run as admin, then open the file). You’ll be looking for the section called [ATIADLHAL] and changing it to the following (I apologize for the TAB-less spacing – if it doesn’t work, you can figure out the appropriate TAB’s based on the rest of the file):

[ATIADLHAL]
EnableUnofficialOverclocking = 1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 1
AccessibilityCheckingPeriod = 0

Again, you’re in risky territory now. Ask yourself what you’ll do if your machine’s dead within the next few minutes. If you don’t have a good answer, stop now. Otherwise, you can fire up the Afterburner utility and start overclocking. Watch your temps carefully, and increment slowly. Run some GPU-intensive programs after each change (games, 3DMark, and maybe some stress testing programs like FurMark and OCCT). If your video driver crashes/restarts, or you see any artifacts or any other irregularities, immediately back off your overclock. Note that sometimes, by the time you see an issue it’s too late (the damage is done – I’ve seen this happen to GPU memory many times).

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With that over with, here were my results:

Stock GPU Core: 650Mhz  —>  overclocked to 845Mhz (30% increase)
Stock GPU Memory: 795Mhz —> no change

3DMark 11 Score: P1190 —> P1394 (17% increase)

Highest Temp during 3DMark benchmark: 73.0C —> 74.5C

Dragon Age 2 Demo (DX9): 51.5 FPS —> 60 FPS (17% increase)
Dragon Age 2 Demo (DX11): 32 FPS —> 35.5 FPS (11% increase)

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You’ll notice the core overclock was pretty hefty – a whopping 30% increase. It survived the DA2 demo, a FurMark benchmark,  and 3DMark. None of these ran for extraordinary lengths of time however, so it’s possible instability might show up after some time. I also tried a core speed of 875Mhz, but it didn’t make it through 3DMark. Things seemed to work well at 845Mhz, so I kept it there.

I’d tried bumping up the memory speed a bit, but it didn’t have a positive effect in 3DMark (going from 795Mhz to 820Mhz anyway). Since GPU memory’s often particularly easy to kill, I didn’t try going any further. Technically, I’d seen a minor decrease with the memory overclock (from a P1394 rating down to P1388), so I didn’t see much point in risking higher clocks if I wasn’t seeing any gains.

The frame rates in Dragon Age 2 were taken with the demo paused right as the first combat begins. The FPS fluctuates wildly, so hitting pause 1 second in was the closest I came to getting some consistency for the DX9 run (it crashed if I alt-tabbed and changed the video card’s overclock on the fly).

The DX11 run for DA2 was a little more forgiving in terms of consistency. I could pause it, alt-tab, bump up the clock rate, and alt-tab back into the game and see the frame rate result immediately. It’s worth noting that I also tried bumping up the memory a bit at a time through this process (since results were quick), eventually getting from the base of 795Mhz up to 870Mhz before chickening out about going further. I tried this at a few points – in the best case I got from 36.5fps to 39.5fps, and in a more typical case, from 25fps to 25fps (no change). Really, there’s very little to be had by overclocking the memory from what I can tell. It’s possible that a massive overclock would be more worthwhile, but I wasn’t willing to risk it.

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Conclusion:

There are certainly gains to be had, but whether it’s worth the risk is debatable. A 30% overclock looks great on the surface, but it only translated to an 11-17% increase in fps/ratings. The biggest problem with this (and with overclocking in general) is that it helps the most when your frame rate is already high. If you’re dancing around low FPS numbers it doesn’t amount to much. A game that pulls 100FPS won’t look much better at 111FPS (even though it’s an 11FPS increase), and a game running at a painful 20 FPS isn’t going to seem magically better at 22 FPS (even though it’s an 11% increase).

On top of that, it’s very high risk. If you kill a $100 video card in a regular machine, you can just buy a new video card – maybe even a faster one. If you kill the mobile GPU in your laptop (or iMac), it’s going to cost you a fortune to get it replaced, and you usually don’t have the option of a faster one.

That said, those were my results. If you’ve got the 5730m and are considering overclocking it, hopefully the results above help you. Note however that if you’re using a laptop, you might have much higher temps than I did (and hit an overclocking ceiling or a “disaster zone” much earlier), since laptops generally have poor cooling capabilities, whereas the iMac I was using is essentially one massive aluminum heatsink. Depending on the manufacturer, your chip might be clocked differently, or at a different voltage. Definitely test at your own rate – don’t simply plug in my final numbers and cross your fingers – slow incremental changes are best.

Rather than going for a maximum overclock, you might want to simply stop once you’ve gone far enough that you’re content with your gains.

After all, while you’ll often see temporary indications that you’ve overclocked too far, there are other times that you quickly find out your GPU just lost a permanent game of russian roulette.

When we bought it, it cost well over $100, so the thinking was “you get what you pay for, so it’ll probably be good”.

Well…. it’s not.

It took less than a year, and the thing started having issues during the summer. More specifically, if it had been running and it lost power (you unplugged it for instance), it wouldn’t start up when you plugged it back in. The “D-Link” light would come on, and nothing else. It was getting power, but refused to start.

Leaving it unplugged for a lengthy time (30 minutes or so) allowed it to cool down enough that it would start up again.

It’s largely been sitting since (been replaced with an Apple Time Capsule for a while), but today I decided to open it up and have a look. I really expected (and hoped for) a bulging capacitor or something that could be easily fixed with a bit of soldering and a donor cap, but no such luck.

Here’s what it looks like disassembled:

The DIR 825 opened up (click image to view a larger picture). Note the discoloration on the upper areas of the white plastic casing.

You’ll notice the discoloration on the inner plastic. It’s not dust. Plastic turns yellow as it starts to melt. The yellowing is located near the position of the 2 heatsinked chips. If this wasn’t a sign of overheating, I don’t know what is.

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For a closer look at the “heatsinks”, look here:

The oddest "heatsink material" I've ever seen in my life. Click the image for a slightly larger version.

The material feels like some sort of fine granite.

I plugged the circuit board into power, and waited. It didn’t take long for the “heatsinks” to start heating up.

With the abundance of aluminum, copper, and many other cheap metals, it’s appalling that this was used as a heatsink. Then again, if they used material that would actually transfer heat away from the chips quickly I supposed it would have started melting the entire casing.

In any case, it’s no wonder this thing died an early death.

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So what should you take from this…? Well, the thing isn’t exactly built to rugged standards. If you’ve got this router I suggest locating it right beside an air conditioning duct.

Really, D-Link should have designed the enclosure differently (to reduce the chance of the thing starting to melt and to promote airflow), used a lower power chip, and used a “real” heatsink. Alternately, they could have simply added a small fan to force some airflow.

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Short version: Don’t buy. This thing belongs in the same price bracket as the budget-routers out there. If you want a budget router to last you a year and can find the DIR-825 for under $30, go for it. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

I grabbed a Gigabyte board this time around – the G41MT-ES2L. In many ways, it’s similar to the Asus in that it’s got onboard video, a few weak overclocking options, and is about the same size. The largest difference really (aside from using a different Intel chipset) is that it uses DDR3.

The Gigabyte went a fair chunk higher – 343Mhz on the FSB. There seems to be a solid wall at this frequency.

UPDATE: I managed to squeeze out another 5Mhz (348Mhz) after doing a little research although it’s important to note it was NOT STABLE (failed Linpack) – based on posts and reviews I’ve come across it seems the G41 chipset is known for a wall between 340-350. In some cases, by playing with the PCI-E frequency setting you can get a few more Mhz out of the chip. 103-105Mhz PCIe worked for me and allowed me to get those extra 5Mhz. Anything above that gave a blank screen. Note that you can really mess up the system (possibly toast something) by running the PCIe bus out of spec, so I suggest being careful if you go this route – remember, you probably won’t get above 350Mhz FSB, so whether spending the time tweaking is worth it for the 7Mhz or less extra you might get is debatable. Try to keep the PCIe around the default of 100Mhz if you can (110+ is risking it), and save this step for the end when you’re sure you’ve hit the wall.

A few details as to how I got there:

• With the E2140 plugged in, simply bumping up the voltage slightly, 300Mhz was easily attainable.
• Moving up to 333Mhz technically *worked*, but the onboard video freaked out as soon as Windows started – the video kept resetting along with messages about the video recovering from an error.
• Using the BSEL mod, onboard video was stable at the Windows desktop. However, at 343Mhz, I hit a wall. No amount of voltage or tweaking got past it – it simply works perfectly fine at 343Mhz (with only the CPU voltage bumped up slightly), and refuses to boot after that.

A few notes about the BSEL itself:

• You’ll commonly hear that Gigabyte boards don’t work with the BSEL. However, with this motherboard that’s only half true. If you boot with Auto BIOS settings, the board will indeed boot at your selected BSEL – both CPU-Z and the BIOS boot screen will reflect this. However, when you hit DEL to get into the BIOS settings, the settings pages will show/reflect a 200Mhz bootstrap. Multipliers (for RAM, etc) and everything else will look the same in the BIOS settings, but you will in fact be running multipliers for your selected BSEL/bootstrap. As an example, you’ll have to check CPU-Z to see what your memory is *actually* running at, because the BIOS settings will show wrong frequencies and multiplier.
• Using the 200 -> 266 BSEL (800 -> 1066), the board boots. Any time I messed something up with the overclocking settings to where it wouldn’t boot, it would recover with “default” settings (using 266 as the FSB).
• Using the 200 -> 333 BSEL (800 -> 1333), the board boots if voltages are set up in the BIOS beforehand. Any time I messed something up with the overclocking settings to where the board wouldn’t boot, it would *try* to recover, but would just beep really fast over and over. (I had to swap in my other un-modded E2140 or scrape off the conductive material used for the BSEL to get it to boot again). Presumably, the default chip voltage isn’t enough to allow it to boot with the 333 BSEL. Doing the volt mod along with the BSEL mod might help overcome this.
• Using the 200 -> 400 BSEL (800 -> 1600), the board didn’t boot at all, even with a voltmod to 1.45V. Again, it wouldn’t recover at all, and I needed to either swap in my other chip or scrape off the BSEL mod so that it would boot at default values.

In any case, the BSEL does work to change the bootstrap. Proof is in the way that the onboard video wouldn’t die at an FSB of 333Mhz if there was a BSEL mod (whether 266 or 333), but would constantly reset at the default 200.

However, the BSEL won’t unlock any memory multipliers in the BIOS (although it will *change* the actual memory multiplier used which you can see in CPU-Z).

So is it worth using the BSEL?

I’d suggest sticking with an un-modded chip to start. If you’re using onboard video and it starts acting up, use the BSEL mod (or just plug in a real video card). If your RAM starts limiting you, use the BSEL to get a different multiplier.

However, keep in mind that you may very well hit an FSB wall. It’s very obvious when you do – things work perfectly fine (OCCT/Prime95 stable) and 1Mhz later the board won’t even boot. No amount of BSEL modding is likely to help you when you hit that point.

The best suggestion if overclocking with this board is probably to find a chip with a low FSB and a high multiplier so that you’re more likely to hit the overclocking limit of the chip well before you hit a wall (for reference, the E2140 has a small 8.0  multiplier and a base of 200Mhz). This goes double if you’re planning on using the onboard video. Choose the right chip, and you won’t have to play with any BSEL modding.

If you’ve already got a chip that isn’t optimal, BSEL modding can certainly help, although memory and onboard video are the only things it’s likely to help you with – if your problem lies elsewhere, your mileage with BSEL may vary.