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Originally Posted by trit187
hmmm... don't think you're going to break on this one, but how about droping some hints about that p2, i don't think it has been mentioned on this forum yet.
with the delrin is the xs looking like a viable option? or are you going to scrap it and focus on the p2?
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Oops. Got distracted by watching "Scary Movie 2" before completing the second post.
With the Delrin, the XS is a viably machinable option. Actually I can't get over how clean it looks in comparison to the polycarb. Where the polycarb was visibly "stressed" from the machining process, with more than a few split tubes (not that the incorrect cutter depth helped much there), the Delrin looks near perfect. Some slight "fluffiness" at the edges of the tubes which can be expected on something this fine, but 90% of the tubes look perfect, with only 10% or so with fluff that needed to be cleaned away, and once done, also look perfect. Truly the piece is somewhat like looking at some sort of optical illusion, with the detail so small as to trick the human eye without some magnification assistance.
However, having said all that, it looks like I'll be scrapping the XS, in favor of the dark horse.
A while back at OCAU I hinted on a cheap to make design that would match a White Water, but would be far cheaper to make. The design started out life originally as one of my previously unshown GPU block prototypes. I scrapped further work on it due to limitations that I'm hesistant to explain here, as even saying that much may be giving too much away. Well I decided to re-prototype it, with a few added tricks and tweaks, but basically focused around a budget-block frame of mind. In simulations the figures hinted at something very good and I took the design a little further (I can't resist), not really trusting the figures so much in terms of absolute performance, but at least as a way of improving performance without really adding much cost.
Anyway, that block is what I've referred to as the Prototype #2, or P2 for short. The figures hinted at substantially better than Cascade performance
within certain constraints, but overall I was basically expecting more like White Water performance.
I got the P2 and stuck it on, and on the first mount I was seeing (on the same test-bed as above) 1C lower CPU temperatures than with the Cascade SS, and ~5MHz shy of the Cascade SS's overclocking performance. I pulled the block off and noticed an uneven thermal paste imprint, which meant that there's basically more to offer. I remounted a couple more times and on the third try, the temperatures remained the same (1C better than the Cascade SS), but was now seeing 10-15MHz higher overclocks.
So basically the copper-based P2 is significantly out-cooling the Cascade SS, and allowing for stronger overclocks, however small the gains may be, it's still forwards progress.
Given the choice between the near-equalling performance but very expensive to make XS which is at the absolute end of the road for further improvements with it, and comparing that to the ever-so-slightly better P2 which is very cheap to make and has a lot of room for improvement (at a dollar cost), then basically
this makes the XS a redundant block.