Project Maple Leaf - Canadian Themed Design Core 1000 - Now With Custom Block/Pump/Res Combo Piece - Page 20

I guess you could look at it the other way too. The Maple Leaf (it's a proper noun to it gets capitalized ;p) is plastered everywhere because it is recognized globally as the Canadian Emblem. If I travel to Europe or Asia with a Canadian Maple Leaf on a small pin on my collar versus the crest, I can be pretty sure maybe 0.01% of people that see me will recognize the crest. I'm pretty sure almost everyone would recognize The Maple Leaf though.

I do agree that The Royal Canadian Regiment crest does not get enough attention and I know many Canadians who don't even recognize it. Although what's even worst is that some Canadians don't even know that it's a caribou on the quarter, not a moose


And thanks for the compliment

Thanks

And it's already on your list

For sure man, and thanks for setting up a list like that. It's looking great so far. If only there was a way to have an image as a hover over the link to the project. Or a little thumbnail like 50x50 px.



Also Update time



April 20th update

- FedEx is on route to my house as I type this to deliver the free set of HDD grommets, new set of feet, and a new HDD LED
- My powder coater got his white gloss in late last night
- Motherboard RMA approved, see the story below
- More RAM came in, see pictures below
- Received some heat sinks for the VRM's on the AMD 6870 from BWG, thanks again man



Motherboard

So anyone who followed this rig from the start will remember the battery issue I was having. For anyone who doesn't know, I purchased the motherboard refurbished from Newegg. When I received it, the CMOS battery holder seemed loose to me.

I decided not to RMA the board, even though everyone told m I should of, and went on to live with it. The only real problem it posed was that when ever I unplug the rig, I lose my settings.

Luckily EVGA stores the OC profiles on some non-volatile flash memory so they can be easily restored so I only really have to worry about chaning the boot device and the time every time I unplug the machine.

Well about 2 weeks ago now I guess, I was in the middle of playing Minecraft on the OCN Survival Server and my rig just locked up, screen froze, sound started ticking, and all my fans turned off completely. Of course the first thing I do is hold the power button to shut off the rig.

Left it for 15 seconds and tried turning it on, this is when my rig surprises me, it knows how to sing: lonmg beep x2, short beep x2, long beep x1. Just a a black screen with no input though, and even my keyboard and mouse won't light up. So off to the internet I go to research the beep code.

GPU memory error. So I think to myself, well a year and a half at 1 GHz with no VRM cooling, my 6870 did my well, and it's still under warranty. So I pull it out and try powering on the rig again, still the same beep code... So I shut down my Bulldozer Rig, take out the 9800 GTX+ and try that card on this EVGA board. Still the same beep code. Well at least I know it's the motherboard, CPU,or RAM.

Tested with a older DDR3 stick that is known to work, no dice. So at this point it's CPU or Motherboard, well I think that it's quite easy to rule out the CPU since I never brought it over 3.6 GHz at 1.27 V. So off to EVGA RMA on a Saturday.

The guy I talked to ran me through the common troubleshooting steps, triued both GPU's in both PCIe x16 slots, tried other RAM, asked me if I had another CPU. Made sure the PSU was working, luckily I have a PSU tester, my multi-meter. Nothing, so he put in the ticket and told me to submit an RMA online.

By Monday night my RMA was approved and I shipped out my motherboard in the original box. It arrived last Friday at about 9 PM or so. By Tuesday this week I get an email from Paul that had me scared.

E-Mail thread (Click to show)
So I remained professional about it. I told him that I had mentioned to the original guy I talked to on the phone about the loose CMOS battery even though he didn't put it in the initial report. I made sure to mention that I purchased it refurbished from Newegg and when I originally received it, the CMOS battery holder was loose but I neglected to RMA it over that because it didn't justify the $25 shipping expense.

I received an email late last night from him saying that he will gladly waive the repair fee for me and offered his assistance on any other problems I had. So Fractal Design, Corsair, and EVGA have made themselves a customer for life because of the amazing Customer Service I've received from them.

I'll update again when the board get's shipped out, but I'm thinking that by next Friday I should have everything in my hands to put the rig back together



More RAM

So I figured I'm not going for a beast overclock on this thing since I'm using it as a work station so stability is a little more of a requirement. I figure that because of this, I should be able to use all 4 RAM slots.

I already had 8 GB of Corsair Vengeance White LP RAM (1600 MHz 9-9-9-24 @ 1.35 V) so I figured another kit wouldn't hurt. The only place I could find it was on MemoryExpress so I went ahead and ordered some, well here it is:





New GPU heatsinks

I still need to cut these to size because of AMD's design on the VRM's prevents me from just putting the heat sinks straight across them all. But I also took this time to strip the card completely apart and give it a good cleaning. This means also taking off the RAM heat sinks since they weren't exactly straight so now I'm debating using some thermal glue, or ordering some more thermal pads from DazMode.

Here's a quick picture of the finish on the VF3000A cooler I have for this baby:





Conclusion

Well I guess that's about it for this major update. I figured it was about time for a nice juicy update, maybe get some more followers now

You have the 8 GB (2x 4 GB) White LP models? I got the first set from a member on OCN and ordered the other set brand new. I would have been quite disappointed if I had mis-matched PCB colors.

What's the exact model number of yours? I can check mine tonight.



Thanks

And I guess it would vary from CS rep to CS rep and I might have got lucky. But at least I now have a CS rep and a Technical Rep with each of these companies that I know I can trust to help me get things sorted out.