[dba-Tech] Hardware, Overclocking and Underclocking Machines

Hello All,

just wanted to give you all an update on hardware here.

Since I listened to a podcast a few years ago about building your own PC, I
started doing the same.  The primary reason I decided to build my own was
because the podcast asked "Why".  They gave a whole lot of answers, but the
final one, was "Jedi Warriors build their own light sabres".  That swung it
for me.

I built a great machine, i7, over clocked it, three hard disks, two
graphics cards, three monitors on one machine, and great fans for cooling.

But one problem, it was noisy.

I have since built another machine which I am using now.

i7 IvyBridge Processor, Large CPU heatsink, SSD disk, PSU with no fan.
Overclocked the CPU to 4.7 GHz.  My Windows Experience Index for CPU, RAM
and Disk are 8.3, 8.3, 8.1.  That is fast.

But then I started to notice the noise of the CPU fan, which was almost
silent.  So I changed the clock speed back to stock which is 3.5 GHz and
disconnected the fan on the CPU.  My PC now has zero moving parts.  It
makes the same noise as my cup of tea.

I am sitting on my office with complete silence working on a PC for the
first time in my career.

The i7 IvyBridge processor is still fantasticly fast and as I am typing the
temp is 38 degrees.

Next time you build a machine, consider a silent one.

Finally, and BTW, I love to build machines.

Mark