Piccolo trumpet video.... (clip)

I ordered a JP piccolo after reading Gordon Hudson's reviews of the Jinbao piccolo - he surmised that the John Packer was the same instrument and that it would be worth a try given the very attractive price.

I believe that this is the Jinbao piccolo, and it seems to be a very good performer so far. In this clip I had not properly tuned the piccolo (crucial) and you will hear a couple of intonation issues. This is user error :) (especially that low D - E trill... the 3rd valve slide was not set). It also sounds a little flat to concert pitch as I was practising with my young brother who plays on a rather flat Eb Tuba.

The clip is a mash up of the Te Deum by Charpentier - nothing like the original :) I played this on the Bb side in Concert Bb major. I used the tight mouthpipe with my standard Curry 3M. trumpet mouthpiece.




Apologies for the poor sound and video quality. You would have seen me correct that low D and play on, but the video got terribly out of sync - it wasn't worth posting. The good news is that I will have a Zi8 to record with soon! Sadly it will take a while longer before my playing is better ;)

A very good resource on Piccolo Trumpets is found here. There is great detail on choosing one, tuning etc... The only thing I would say is to try one of these Jinbao piccolos. While the market is swamped with terrible instruments from the Chinese manufacturers, this instrument is different. It plays well and is apparently well made. I can vouch for the John Packer Trombones and Cornets as I have played (not owned) them. I can also vouch for the Thomann FH600S Flugel Horn, as I have owned one for five years now and while it cannot touch my Kanstul 1525, it is a very worthy instrument that I don't want to call "budget" because of the negative connotations therein.


These horns in the UK are called "John Packer" they are made by Jinbao (to the best of my knowledge) and go under the name of "International Sound" as well as "Jinbao". Dillons in the USA also sell cheap piccolos which seem to get decent reviews - with a decent returns policy (as John Packer has) you can hardly stand to lose. My bank just loves how I buy stuff but hardly ever feed it monies :)

If you are interested in this piccolo, John Packer are very good to deal with, very friendly and accommodating. They can be found here:
http://www.johnpacker.co.uk/default.aspx

Computer Build #4

This is an update concerning the cooling solution on my computer. By messing with the order of fans and the case layout a little I have managed to drop the overall temps by 6-10*C. The main reason for this is airflow, or the lack thereof. The intake vent on the front panel of the case is abominable! It was providing no throughput, so I decided to take out the 5.25" bay windows, cut the spacers away and install a fan there.

Now I did every iteration of fan layout possible, measured my temp tests under all the circumstances and what I now have is probably the best I will get short of replacing all the 120mm fans with that Akasa Apache which kicks out 60CFM. Also, the next logical step is water cooling, but I will only venture there if the summer's heat drives me to (haha, NI heat) or if I want to bump up to 4.4GHz.

Onwards. I am currently running the PC in a room which is getting warm (thanks fire) and I will be able to stress test as-if the summer was here, and actually warm. More on that later (at a cursory glance the temps have gone up a few degrees, but not much.

What I did:

CPU cooler back to normal (ie 92mm fan).

5.25" drive bays opened, Akasa Apache 120mm fan installed sucking in.

Rear 120mm fan extracting.
120mm fan (perpendicular to the rear case fan, sucking air through the CPU cooler and out the PSU fan).

So in that burn test I have it from a peak of 82*C down to a peak of 74*C... much happier now!

In any case there is excellent air throughput now! Some temps for you (Idle):

Before (at new 4.1GHz clock):

Case: 21
CPU: 26
C0: 36
C1: 32
C2: 33
C3: 29
GPU: 35

After (also at 4.1GHz clock):

Case: 19
CPU: 20
C0: 30
C1: 26
C2: 27
C3: 21
GPU: 30

In the following test the 5 temperatures are the temperatures of the CPU die for each iteration of the test of which 5 were run.

Before (Improved Vcore, sub-optimal fan setup!)

Burn test (CPU temp):
53, 63, 66, 67, 67 with a core peak of 78

After (Improved Vcore and fan setup)

Burn test (CPU temp):
59, 62, 63, 63, 64 with a core peak of 74

Now some nerdy things. (turn away if numbers give you dizzyness!) Bear in mind that measured voltages don't often 100% match set BIOS voltages, so U try to give an account of both where applicable.

Vcore: 1.31v measured by CPUID (BIOS set @ 1.318750 I think)
Vin1: 1.62 - measured by CPUID (BIOS was set to 1.64)

Bclock: 216MHz
Multiplier: 19x
DRAM multiplier: 6x
Core Speed: 4104MHz
DRAM Speed: 1296MHz
DRAM Timings: 9, 9, 9, 24

All extraneous power BIOS power functions, power save, turbos etc etc... turned off.

My previous settings were something like (for the 4.1GHz clock):

Vcore: 1.36v measured by CPUID (BIOS set @ 1.3618 I think)
Vin1: 1.62 - measured by CPUID (BIOS was set to 1.62)

So initially I got the Vcore as low as possible by lowering by a step, testing, repeat. When it failed to boot and was unstable I bumped it up a setting or 2 and stress tested. Thermal implication is that lower voltage is obviously going to heat the chip less, and even though we are changing millivolts here, it really matters! I got ~2*C off the chip temp by getting the Vcore slimmed down! What I did find was that with the Vcore at its most efficient setting, I had to bump the Vin1 for the RAM from 1.62 to 1.64V. Note that the ram will work fine at 1.65V. (my Gigabyte m/board adds in .02 at a time, so 1.64/1.66/1.68 etc... but 1.64 is working well.

To break this down into manageable data:

CPU speed is a by product of the FSB x Bclock multiplier. Vcore supplies the voltage/power for the chip. This is nominally AUTO, but when clocking you want control of it.

On the i5 1.35-1.4v is about a high as they recommend pushing it.

RAM speed is a by product of FSB x DRAM multiplier. Vin1 supplies the voltage/power for the RAM chips. Again, this is AUTO, but in clocking you need the control to give the RAM more power when needs be.

You change the FSB to accommodate a higher clocking and since the CPU and DRAM are affected by this you may have to settle for a lower RAM speed.

It is recommended that the Vcore and Vin1 are kept within 0.5v of each other.

At 4.1GHz my CPU benchmark was 7115.5 which I am dead pleased about! I ran a bunch of stress tests. OCCT for 4 hours, Prime95 - 2 hours on large FFTs, 10 mins on small FFTs (I read that 10 mins should show whether the system would cope or not), hours on blend. Intel Burn Test - I ran the default 5 cycles, and it pushed the chip hard, but it was fine. I also ran SuperPi and LinX.

I am monitoring heat with:

SpeedFan
Core Temp
CPUID

Real Temp

Stress testing with:

OCCT

Intel Burn Test

Prime95

LinX

SuperPi

Benchmarking with Performance Test 7 on evaluation.

The settings which REALLY push the processor are the small-FFTs. I assume that stands for Fast Fourier Transform, and there endeth my knowledge on that matter! Also LinX gets her warm!

Now in the future I can see me running a water-cooled unit to get that 4.4GHz, but until then I may as well do some work on this instead of endlessly testing it. Currently a faster computer has led to less work done than ever (except computer faffing and searching for bandsaws...).

Finally, I have the black plastic 5.25" drive bay overs to cut up and make the front fans look much neater - everything is a bit "temporary" right now, and it will eventually look neat! That black tape on the side fan will be cut into a circle soon.

That ought to do it for now, I must process some photos and try to find a 14" bandsaw somewhere. I forget that we are in 2010... and I was born *after* imperial was the norm, so I should really be talking MMs more! 350mm would do :) I blame dad for my use of both systems (not totally illogical - lots of the guitar gear is american, and sometimes inches just work neater!).

God bless all,

Mike

Computer Build #3

It is nice to be posting this from the new machine - it is really a lovely computer! And that was a spoiler. This may become 2 parts - I am getting tired. Lets get the good news out of the way first.

1) It works.

2) It works much better than expected.

3) It achieved a CPU Benchmark of 7257 @ 4.2GHz and it seems stable (more testing).

4) There is more scope for speed, whether it is necessary or not.... ok, it is totally un-necessary, but the potential is there. I think 4.4GHz stable is possible.

5) Temperatures are all within reasonable limits, Idling quite cool.

6) Vcore settings not too high.

7) Not too loud.

So I will get on with the talking. I got my parts this morning - having had a good 3 hours sleep I decided it wise to start building with angle grinders and what not.

I started by cutting out the vent holes with an angle grinder - less impedance = more cooling. Bit rough, but good enough.

Smoothed off with a Minicraft drill + grinding tool.

I then set about mounting the 2x 120mm fans with blue foam to stop them transferring too much vibration.

You can see how I used triangles to space the fan from the frame.

I then replaced the 92mm noisy CPU cooler fan with a quiet (18dB(A)) fan with a large 60CFM air flow (compared to 40).

It ended up looking quite neat!

Now, cutting out the 18CM fan slot in the side of the case. Dangerous cutting and photographing at the same time... what's the worst that could happen (I just shuddered).

Quite circular for an angle grinder! (and for my primitive metal work skills)

Sealed with tape, mounted with zip ties and spaced with the same blue foam. the tape is part aesthetic - the silvery edges from the cut looked a bit naff.

Now to cannibalise a DVD drive (external). IDE, but it will do until I buy (and can afford) an SATA drive.

There is the soft underbelly of the DVD drive!

Looking good!

Big fan!

The black tape above the fan is actually holding on a piece of plastic which blocks an un-necessary vent. I blocked all vents off that did not have a fan in them - I want to control the air as much as possible!

Is this pretty... it seems it... in the same way a big V-twin Harley is...

Loading... it worked!

Testing with Half Life 2 - I am not a gamer, but I do own this game, so I may as well test it. 40FPs on the heavy stuff, 200-300FPS on the light stuff. Again, old game, not like Crysis! Also, this is my brother's monitor - just doing the build/test initially up home where the tools are! I have the benefit of a 22" monitor in my room, so that is nice for photos etc etc...

Checking out some over-clock temperatures.

Running OCCT stress testing the system. (I am using Prime95, Intel Burn Test, OCCT and SuperPi).

4.2GHz, 30*C nominal @ Idle:

60-70*C @ 100% Prime95 (expect higher, around 80 in Intel Burn Test).

CPU Benchmark: 7257 (currently)

Geek specs:

Vcore1: 1.3v

Vcore2: 1.65v

FSB: 210MHz

CPU Multiplier: 20x

DRAM Multiplier: 6x

You can see the Vcore1 is quite low, yet stable. I want to see if I can juggle the FSB and the multipliers to give me a slightly faster RAM clock speed (currently 1260MHz). Interestingly I dropped the Vcore1 from 1.3850v to 1.3v to try and lower the temperature, and I took 1-2*C off the chip! This seems inconsequential, but it really isn't! Hence how I want to either bring the multiplier up, boost the Vcore1 voltage and test the temperatures, or really just get this puppy lean... Anyway, I think an 8 hour Prime95 test should be called upon before I do much more! I will post the results soon, so....

... tonight I will leave a stress test on, and maybe consider some sleep! Hot water bottle (I am such a nanny), some form of sitcom and hopefully a lie in (you can count on it!)

God bless!

Mike