Meant to post something last weekend, but didn’t like what I managed to write so it didn’t get posted.
The weekend before last I switched my newer desktop into the case of my older desktop (that case was bigger so it would fit a bigger video card). The next Monday when my new video card (GTX 580) arrived I installed that into my new desktop and continued to ignore the fact that my old desktop was spread out all over my floor and table.
Last weekend I reassembled the old desktop and mostly put away the boxes from cases, motherboards, and stuff that I had out for the documentation on which set of pins went to which plug from the case so little things like the power button would function. Still haven’t actually hooked it up, but I’ll probably do that tonight or tomorrow.
This weekend so far I’ve mostly disassembled the video card that I was replacing (GTX 280):
Most of the purpose of those pictures was to show where the thermal paste goes if I decide to put it back together, but it also shows how massive the GPU chip is (nearly as big as a pentium 1 chip, but the pins on it are much, much smaller and closer together). I also wanted to take the plastic cover off the heat sink, but one of the tiny little screws is completely stuck and working on that more will just further strip the teeth off it or my screwdriver. I’m considering just cutting the plastic to take it off, but if I decide to try to put it back together either I’d have to glue it or let it rattle (it’s not a load bearing screw, just holds the cover on the heat sink).
If I decide not to try to put it back together the heat sink is a large chunk of what looks like aluminum (with copper heat pipes), so perhaps I’ll take that to my dad in case he gets everything to cast something out of aluminum again.