the <[Mr]> clan

Failure of my Apogee GTX and Primochill Ice coolant

2008-09-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

I've been using an a Swiftech Apogee GTX for about 9 months now as well as Primochill Ice for coolant.

In the last couple of days I have noticed my cpu overheating, when I tested the overclocks I wasn't breaking 55c and suddenly I am getting forced cpu shutdowns due to temps!

I checked and sure enough I have no coolant flow...*sigh* many people told me I was crazy for running so much from a single pump and maybe they were right.

So I removed the pump after pinching off it's connecting hoses and set it up next to my kitchen sink with a jumped PSU and a 2 gallon bucket full of water. Once primed the pump would move 2 gallons of water in about 25-30 seconds, that sounds about right according to specs for an MCP655-B pump so I put it back in the case and made sure there was no air left in the system . No flow...

Now I'm getting serious here, I ordered another pump as well as full cover gpu blocks for my 4870X2's and more MX-2 ( I will review the gpu blocks later) .

Now I dissasembled the entire system and drained everything and started cleaning and inspecting all my parts. Everything seemed fine until I got to my Swiftech Apogee GTX block, I had been blowing through all blocks to ensure proper flow and when I tried to blow through my cpu block I almost popped an eyeball out due to unexpected resistance...Great I found the problem I thought and set about looking down the barbs with a flashlight and saw it was packed full of blue stuff. Amazing concidence here the blue stuff matches the color of my coolant perfectly! I tried letting straight hot water run through the block and worked my way up to 100psi compressed air to no discernible effect. So I disassembled the block to see if it was even salvageable and it in fact is NOT salvageable. The gunk I could clean out relatively easily now but the corrosion was terrible having eaten a hole almost all the way through the top shell of the block as the plating was disintegrating.

Here are some pics :

First the top after being cleaned of blue gunk. Look at the lower right and you will see the hole and nearer the center you can see where the plating is flaking off.

Now the bottom or cpu contact side.

In conclusion I'll never be using the Primochill Ice coolant again, as this coolant was changed only 4 months ago I'm thinking the recommended 6 month change interval is a joke. The Apogee GTX I'll be attempting to rma shortly.

Maybe I should start selling Engine Ice in 2oz bottles and call it something spiffy like...Swiftech does with hdrx aka antifreeze lmao, I spoke to Gabe on the phone today while getting the rma setup for my Apogee GTX and he let slip that it's valvoline racing coolant "officialy endorsed by NASCAR". I laughed myself half to death over that one!

I already knew it was just antifreeze in a 2oz bottle ( what a money maker ) but he started telling me how much better it was than any other coolant additive. Gabe in fact stated that it was made in the millions of gallons and was in use for many different cooling applications including race cars....

Well I immediately called BS on that one as I grew up building/working on race cars as a member of a pit crew and for over 20 years now that I can attest to the only additive you are allowed to run in NASCAR is in fact water wetter! Yep you guessed it! The same exact stuff people use in their pc's coolant! I have personally seen this stuff work to fantastic effect in a race car with a 30 degree drop in temps within 5 minutes of pouring it in.

Gabe says BS on that one of course but I nailed him on the Hydrx = antifreeze question and for those of you who have been duped into buying antifreeze in tiny bottles...LOL hit me up I will so send you some antifreeze in a little bottle for HALF the price of Hydrx! I will offer a special DEAL if purchased by the gallon even lmao!! I will even paste a label on it that says "better than snake oil" or "not antifreeze" ROFLMFAO!!!!!

On a serious note I spoke to both Gabe and Michelle at Swiftech today and you definitely want to speak only with Michelle as Gabe will bend your ear with his facts and figures and "we are engineers" crap talk forever it seemed like. Gabe also insisted that I had been doing something wrong with my Apogee GTX since lapping it dropped my temps....Interesting point there as lapping it dropped my cpu temps at load by 15c! The "bowing" concept he is working with would be great if you didn't bow the hell out of your board by the time you got the block tight enough to achieve proper contact.

A positive to this is that Michelle said she would ship a new top for my Apogee GTX today. The downside is that they want me to ship my old top to them. WTF for ? I could send them a pic that would be quite obvious but Gabe apparently wouldn't believe it and insisted that I should go look at what "real systems" are like over at XS....Which is where I would supposedly find that my case is incredible isolated. I just Google'd Apogee GTX corrosion instead and immediately came up with a ton of threads on XS where people had the exact same problem I did!

I will reassemble my Apogee GTX block but will never use it in my main benching rig after a narrow avoidance of disaster, I'll throw it on my Abit IP35 Pro and see if I can run some 5ghz benches with an e8600. I'll also be tearing the block down each and every time I change the coolant.

As a disclaimer I have conducted no scientific test on Switech's Hydrx and I'm sure they probably put a few drops of special sauce in each little bottle so they can claim it as their own.

By Hellcamino

A Little Group I Started

2008-08-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan the Q servers, if you agree with me join my steam group http://steamcommunity.com/groups/boycottq

Pass it along to your friends

Donation!

2008-08-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Aztec donated $84!

Donation!

2008-07-21T15:47:00.000-07:00

Thank-you Unstable for donating $100

Google lively

2008-07-09T09:15:00.001-07:00

hit us up

SteelSeries and Fnatic Announce Relationship in the Development of Professional Gaming Peripherals

2008-07-04T08:08:00.001-07:00

CHICAGO, July 4, 2008 - The leading manufacturer of innovative professional gaming gear, SteelSeries, today announced its new relationship with leading eSports organization, the Fnatic Team. As part of this new agreement, the two companies will develop, produce and market new PC gaming peripherals created by and for competitive gamers - all under the SteelSeries brand.

SteelSeries brings its market knowledge and design expertise to the table with Fnatic's stable of championship gamers. Through a combination of technology know-how and enthusiasm for the industry, SteelSeries and Fnatic will work to develop and improve a number of gaming peripherals to further reduce reaction times and help gamers bring their performance to the next level.

The Fnatic Team has been highly successful in nurturing and creating talent in professional gaming, including Dutch megastar Sander “Vo0" Kaasjagerwho won 5 stops during the CPL World Tour in 2005. Kaasjager grossed more than $250.000 USD during a 12 month period. In addition, Fnatic's Swedish Counter-Strike team has been regarded as one of the best teams in the world, having been ranked as the world's number 1 consistently for the past 18 month, and placing top3 at more than 10 major Grand Slam Tournaments in 2007/2008. The Counter-Strike squad has won more than $300,000 USD since its inception. Fnatic also supports players in “World of Warcraft", “Call of Duty 4", “Warcraft 3" and “Quake."

“Only by working with the best gamers can we hope to create products that actually help decrease reaction time - which is the only thing that matters to a professional gamer," said Kim Rom, global vice president of marketing for SteelSeries. “When Fnatic approached SteelSeries about working together, it brought our collective brainpower to a whole new level. We also work with SK Gaming, Meet Your Makers, mousesports, Made in Brazil and wNv Gaming - with the Fnatic team, arguably the best collection of pro gaming organizations in the world."

“SteelSeries designs and creates professional gear for gamers who want to achieve the highest ranking and best results, said Fnatic's owner, Sam Mathews. “Our squads strive for and achieve those same goals; they are professionals in the world wide phenomenon of electronic sports. Our expertise, coupled with SteelSeries professional gear for gamers, will help make our players even more of a force to be reckoned with. We are looking forward to the successes we know this relationship will bring!"

Under the new agreement, the SteelSeries portfolio of professional gaming mice, headsets, keyboards and surfaces will become the official gaming gear of the Fnatic's 27 professional gamers.

About SteelSeries

SteelSeries is a leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessories, including headsets, keyboards, mice, software and gaming surfaces, available in more than 75 countries. SteelSeries, whose motto is “winning is everything," has been on the forefront of professional gaming gear since its inception in 2001. The company has set a new benchmark for gaming accessories around the world thanks to continued innovation and product development in cooperation with leading professional gamers, the world's most demanding IT consumers, who actually make a living based on the quality of SteelSeries products. SteelSeries' development strategy is simple: Only products that take performance to the next level will be introduced. This ensures optimum performance and durability across a variety of gaming and other demanding applications. For more information, please visit www.SteelSeries.com.

About Fnatic

The Fnatic Team is a professional, ambitious and highly successful video gaming team, consisting of players from across the globe who all make a living through competing in video game tournaments. It has a global reach and has registered offices in Australia and the UK. The Fnatic Team won the ‘ESPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD 2006'. The Fnatic team is currently supporting five highly successful squads. Fnatic is the current world number one Counterstrike 1.6, European number one Call of Duty 4 and Pro Evolution Soccer European champions. We also support highly successful teams in Quake and World of Warcraft. Fnatic has established itself as a vibrant, well-coordinated outfit with a clear vision for the future of competitive gaming. Please visit www.fnatic.com for further information.

Team We Got Hijacked by KBS clips of the week

2008-06-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

Week 3

week3.wmv

Week 4

week4.wmv

Terribad Shrubs Clip of the Week

2008-06-06T06:40:00.001-07:00

Week 3

match3cotw_0001.wmv

Pulp Fortress 2

2008-06-04T17:55:00.001-07:00

Pulp Fiction done Team Fortress 2 style

Steam client update released

2008-06-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

Steam Client

Fixed case where Steam could use 100% of a CPU if your Friend was playing a game your client did not know about
Fixed rare case where the client could not establish a connection
Fixed Javascript URLs from being stored in the browser's History
Fixed Friends crash
Fixed Friends notifications of "you are blocking" and "you have been blocked by" being reversed

Team We Got Hijacked by KBS clips of the week

2008-05-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

<[Mr]> members Last call 4 alcohol and Vash play for team We Got Hijacked by KBS. They are creating some entertaining clips of the week from their CAL matches. To catch everyone up here are the first 3 COTW.

Preseason

preseasoncotw.wmv

Week 1

week1.wmv

Week 2

week2.wmv

You can check them out here
http://caleague.com/?page=teams&teamid=179128

Update

2008-05-20T10:47:00.001-07:00

Well it’s almost officially summer and that means it’s time to get ready for the annual <[Mr]> LAN. We have some clan member traveling distances to make the LAN including Suge and Vash coming down from Alaska as well as the terrabad scrub himself Nunya, who is using his economic stimulus check to fly up from California. It should be a great time no matter what. I’m encouraging everyone to please prepay for the LAN.

Also, the CAL team name may be shitty, but our team isn’t; we are starting out the season with a forfeit win. You can follow us at http://caleague.com/?page=teams&teamid=180808 or at #keepitreal on irc.gamesurge.net.

KIR

<[Mr[> Annual LAN 2008

2008-04-17T14:55:00.001-07:00

LAN INFO

<[Mr]> is holding the 2008 Annual 24hour LAN this AUGUST 9th/10th

This LAN is OPEN to anyone who wants to come out and GAME. We ask that you register in advance for the LAN. Please send any registration requests to Joseph_Schlegel@hotmail.com

LAN NAME: <[Mr]> LAN PARTY 2008

EVENT DATE: August 9/10th.

ENTRY FEE: $35 flat rate to enter.

START TIME: August 9th 10:00 AM.

END TIME: August 10th 10: AM.

LOCATION: American Legion 19213 Bothell Way NE Bothell, WA 98011

ATTENDANCE: PC Gaming limited to the first 65 people pay.
Console gaming is unlimited

HOTEL INFO: Extended Stay America INN
923 228th Street S.E.
Bothell, WA 98021
Group Reservation Name: MRLAN
Point of contact: Samir Aneja
Telephone to make reservations 425-402-4252 or 1-800-ext.stay

LAN RULES: LAN WAIVER MUST BE SIGNED AT LAN TO ATTEND (will be signed at door)

PC GAMES: Counter-Strike Source (MAIN) All others will be tentative as the date approaches.

CONSOLE GAMES: Crackdown, Gears Of War, Madden 07, Guitar Hero, Nintendo Wii Play & Sports (Tentative)

TOURNAMENTS: 5v5, 1v1 for source. And more will be added as the date approaches.

PRIZES: Each sponsor is donating different items!! 50/50 RAFFLE for COLD HARD CASH and Pentium Core 2 Duo's to win.

RAFFLES: We will be giving tickets when you register. If your number is called you win! *must be present to win*

SPONSORS: Wired Energy Drink // FSP // The Slanket // Shattered Web // Computer Stop // eDimensional // The AntCommandos // IDEAZON // Antec // Steel Series // Velocity Micro // Gamer Graffix // Snowboard Connection // Vroom Foods // Sea Sonic // CPU Computer Power User

FOOD: Lets decided what we want to EAT!! I am thinking three provided meals, make comments on what you want.

LAN REGISTRATION INFO:

Step 1. Register on http://themrclan.net

Step 2. Pre-Pay for event via PayPal to MRCLANLAN@GMAIL.COM **Once we have 65, it's gone!**
COST: $35 via PayPAL

Step 3. This is a PRE-PAY EVENT, lots of costs are incurred and we need the cash to setup the LAN.

PLEASE NOTE: It is only $15 for Console gaming at the door.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

A very special thanks to all the sponsors donating prizes to our event. Without them we would not have this great of a LAN. Please be sure to check each one out.

Please if you have any questions PM me or send any emails to Joseph_Schlegel@hotmail.com

<[Mr]> CLAN

Pubbing it up!

2008-04-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

Whats Cracken?
Just finished up pubbing it up with the crew. Heres a screen shot from militia.

keep it real homies

Leet World Episode 1

2008-03-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

STEELSERIES FOUNDER LAUNCHES NEW INITIATIVE

2008-03-04T17:02:00.001-08:00

Copenhagen, Denmark – March 4th 2008

Jacob Wolff Petersen – the Founder of SteelSeries, a leading manufacturer of innovative professional gaming gear, has engaged in a new and challenging initiative towards the gaming community. Today he announces the founding of a new company which will focus on another side of professional gaming: Fucapo - The functional candy portfolio. Fucapo will focus its activities on the development of a new innovative product line of functional candy aimed at the gaming community.

“Taking the nature and development challenges of functional candy into consideration, it makes more sense to establish an independent company that is able to focus entirely on the special requirements of this new market.” said Jacob Wolff Petersen, co-founder of Fucapo and Founder of SteelSeries. “We are still going to benefit vastly from the experience gathered through my time with SteelSeries in terms of marketing and adaptation to the gaming world.”

Though the company has no legal ties to SteelSeries, the links between SteelSeries and Fucapo will still be tight, with SteelSeries founder Jacob Wolff Petersen on the board securing close contact to the gaming community.

“We have a very well described set of core values for the new company” said Maar Klinge, co-founder and CEO of Fucapo. “We are focused on our customers needs and believe that interactive communication can contribute to the development of exceptional and highly innovative products to support our customers in many aspects of modern life, as well as to the gaming community through the input provided by Jacob Wolff Petersen from SteelSeries. Communication and collective development with our customers and partners is paramount in our effort to develop products that provide extra value to people and communities around the world”

Fucapo is on-track to launch its first line of products later this year.

About Fucapo:
Fucapo is committed to the development of functional products combining good taste, low calories and additional desired capacities based on natural active ingredients. We are focused on our costumers needs and believe that interactive communication can contribute to the development of good and innovative products designed to support our customers in many aspects of modern life. For additional information, visit http://www.fucapo.com.

How To Behave On An Internet Forum

2008-02-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

How To Behave On An Internet Forum

Zero Punctuation: Call of Duty 4

2008-02-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

sums it up

2008-02-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

"Can't sleep, clown will eat me"

-Scott

2008-01-21T21:16:00.000-08:00

Zero Punctuation Review of Crysis

SteelSeries presents results of recently held Iron.Lady female tournament

2008-01-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

Shanghai, China - January 9th, 2008 - SteelSeries, a leading manufacturer of innovative professional gaming gear presents the final standings of the world's most successful female gaming event Iron.Lady 2, an invitational Warcraft 3 tournament, held the between the 4th and 6th of January.

Iron.Lady 2 took place inside the NeoTV studios, where the event was televised off- as well as online. During the 3 days Iron.Lady 2 was held, over 90 million people were exposed to the event on over 200 Chinese websites, and was the most viewed program on Web TV throughout China.

With gaming systems provided by DELL and professional gaming gear from SteelSeries, eight professional and upcoming female gamers battled it out for the winning title. Last year's winner Zhang "Cang" Xiangling was set to defend her title as she faced Xu "Sara" Yinghua in the finals. After an exciting match, Cang was able to snatch the first prize that included a DELL XPS M1530 gaming laptop and a 12 month sponsorship from SteelSeries involving 3000 RMB per month.

The final Iron.Lady 2 standings were:

1. Zhang "Cang" Xiangling (SteelSeries sponsorship and DELL XPS M1530)

2. Xu "Sara" Yinghua (5000 RMB and DELL XPS M1330)

3. You "MoonFish" Jianying (3000 RMB)

4. Iin "sweetdream" Jia

5. Zhao "KilLah" Ming

6. Wu "Dido" Jingjing

7. An "Angel" Jia

8. Mimi "MiMi"

Besides the main tournament a vote took place among all spectators for the most popular SteelSeries Iron Lady. The winner received a DELL XPS M1530 gaming laptop and once again Cang ran with the prize as she turned out to be the crowd's darling.

For more information about the event including information about the contestants, replays from the tournament, pictures from the venue and spectator statistics please visit www.steelseries.com/ironlady.

About SteelSeries

SteelSeries is a leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessories, including headsets, keyboards, mice, software and gaming surfaces. SteelSeries has been on the forefront of professional gaming gear since its inception in 2001, thanks to continued innovation and product development in cooperation with leading professional gamers. All SteelSeries products are developed in co-operation with professional gamers to ensure optimum performance and durability. SteelSeries supports the growth of competitive gaming and electronic sports through aggressive sponsoring of teams and support of communities, tournaments and LAN-events all over the world. For additional information, visit http://www.steelseries.com.

About Iron.Lady

Iron.Lady is a unique yet successfully popular gaming event held in China. Iron.Lady gathers the top female professional Warcraft 3 delegates from around Asia, in order to battle against each other for cool prizes and of course the ultimate title of "Super Iron Lady". Iron.Lady was founded in 2007 and reaches a viewer base of approximately 90 million people with 200+ websites in China alone. Iron.Lady represents and signifies the strength within these females' personalities, but also their determination and ability to compete on a professional level. The Iron.Lady tournaments are a cornerstone of competitive female electronic sports. For additional information, visit http://www.steelseries.com/ironlady

Banana Phone

2008-01-05T06:32:00.001-08:00

Zero Punctuation: The Orange Box

2008-01-03T06:49:00.001-08:00

Zombie Panic!

2007-12-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

Zombie Panic! Half-Life 2 modification was released on December 28, 2007.
http://www.zombiepanic.org

Get it now!

CapLan-bc

2007-12-26T16:02:00.000-08:00

CapLan 12 (Cap College, 70 people)
Jan 19th - 20th
www.CapLan-bc.com
- Admission will be $20 witch includes 2 bawls.
- our usual casual hang out

LowerMainLan 1 (Park Gate Community Center, 150-200 People)
March 22nd - 23rd
www.lowermainlan.com
- Admission will be $30 witch includes 2 bawls.
- 70mbps internet connection.
- fiber optic backbone and professional grade cisco catalyst equipment to speed up your file transfers and reduce lag.
- Tournaments and prizes will be announced on the web site with in a month.
- Prizes are being hooked up by sponsors

For the big lan we will have sponsorship from pc gamer mag for advertisement, WCG tournaments and Shaw cable is hooking us up with 7 internet connections! 70 down and 7 up, 77mbps for your downloading pleasure. We are working with them to see if we can get some free internet packages going for prizes. other sponsors will be coming in the next three months and the related prizes.

Admission has not been finalized but it is around $30 including 2 Bawls. The more that we know that will be coming the cheaper we can make the price so lets get this going and tell your friends. As stated earlier we will be doing our best by advertising in pc gamer and around local forums. If you find an opportunity to help out by all means take it cause it will help to drop the ticket price.

we are also planning two more Lans this coming summer. They will be around May 10th - 11th and July 5th - 6th. we have them currently scheduled with Cap College as CapLans but if there are enough people interested we can move it to a larger venue and have a 150+ person lan. Unofficially we would like to have two more CapLans, one on Sept 27th - 28st and one on Nov 15th - 16th.

so our plans for Laning in 2008 are:

Jan 26th - 27th CapLan
March 22nd - 23rd LowerMainLan
May 10th - 11th CapLan OR LowerMainLan
July 5th - 6th CapLan OR LowerMainLan
Sept 27th - 28st CapLan
Nov 15th - 16th CapLan

We have just up graded out network infrastructure and we can currently host lans for 300 people and a maximum of 1400 poeple! We just need to find the gamers and a small nuclear power plant willing to participate.

JOIN THE FORUMS and take a look at the web sites for more info.

www.CapLan-bc.com
www.lowermainlan.com

fratch