Really nice looking 4870 CF aftermarket cooler setup in an Antec 1200

[ovaltineplease]

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/4652/newtoystq3.jpg

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5678/stockcoolingnv8.jpg

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/484/alldonerm1.jpg

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/2158/sideonhd8.jpg

Source: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1328622

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/632/dscn01231600x1200my8.jpg - fan config


I wouldn't call this perfect wire routing for a case that size, but its still pretty tidy and shows off those aftermarket coolers nicely. I do find the fan configurations interesting, but he claims the temps are very good.

Note the Creative X-FI under the Crossfire bridges :O

 

[cjl]

Now that's what I call a clean setup.

 

[spathotan]

Too bad he wasted all his money on those $20 fans, $80 VGA cooling, and a $200 case. He could have gotten a true 16x/16x board instead of a damn P45 board at 8x/8x. Very nice system, but overall a waste. If youre gonna go all out with flash and excessive cooling, why gimp your system with the crossfire.

 

[ovaltineplease]

No idea, just my guess that the Maximus II Formula is a DDR2 board - so i'd imagine that if he was hard set on Asus he is likely saving a good deal of money on DDR3 /x48

I'd have to double check that to be sure though. Maybe he really just doesn't know the difference

But yea, I agree cjl it looks great and has nice contrasts.

spathotan: looks like rampage formula x48 supports DDR2 as well, so I guess thats out.

Ah well, at least the maximus formula has a pretty nice cooling solution for chipsets compared to the rampage formula

 

[spathotan]

Best part is he paid $270 for that

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131319

There are 9 different X38/X48 boards with DDR2 support he could have gotten for cheaper or the same price on newegg. Damn, he must have REALLY wanted that P45.

Dont want to take away anything from the system though, it is very nice looking.

 

[spathotan]

If I had a camera with a decent resolution id take some pics of mine. Im loving this NZXT Tempest case. Extended-ATX compatable, and about 13 inches of clean open, unblocked space between my video card and the front case fans.

 

[ovaltineplease]

heh, I use an antec 900 - i'll post some pics sometime of my build, I did some pretty good wiring on it for a case that most people describe as "cramped" ^^

 

[Phrexianghoul]

Aren't those coolers the Thermalright HR-03's? I was wondering how much they dropped the temps on those cards, because I'm considering a similar setup.

 

[dtq]

My builds always look like birds nests. Despite the fact that I have an endless supply of free zipties... Just as well I have windowless cases

Im not sure if my p180 cases have the holes to run the cables behind the mb like that... Will have to take a look next time Ive got them open.

I do like that cooling setup as well...

 

[bohman]

Too bad he wasted all his money on those $20 fans, $80 VGA cooling, and a $200 case. He could have gotten a true 16x/16x board instead of a damn P45 board at 8x/8x. Very nice system, but overall a waste. If youre gonna go all out with flash and excessive cooling, why gimp your system with the crossfire.

the x8/x8 cf setup on a p45 doesnt gimp it that much. there was a benchmark test done that seemed to give about 10-15% boost to the x48 cf, and only on some games which scaled well.

and the p45 offers double the ram. although, i certainly wouldn't pay 260 for a p45.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

That looks great, though it is NEVER ok to blow hot air into a PSU... Also why do PSU companies put writing on PSUs, it is VERY common now that the PSUs are flipped so that they intake air from under the case...

 

[ovaltineplease]

i'd assume because proportionally in older system builds there are more top built PSU mounts than bottom built. I think bottom built psu mounts only started to come into mainstream cases in the last couple years.

 

[ovaltineplease]

http://www.evga.com/community/ModsRigs/comment.asp?sysid=10241

I managed to borrow a digital camera to finish my mods rig on evga.com

The antec 900 is hard as hell to wire in because of its size - but I managed to optimize my airflow really well with the space this case gives me, the wiring could be a little better - but nothing is obstructed. I might do some dremmelling on the backplate and re-wire it down the road, but this is her for now.

 

[spathotan]

That damn 4pin floppy cable, I always have the hardest time putting that thing away. Very nice system though. Sorry about the GTX 260's

 

[ovaltineplease]

nothing to be sorry about i'm totally happy with them :O - great upgrade from 8800 GT SLI

 

[jcorqian]

btw, ovaltine, what PSU are you using for those SLI 260's? I will (upon step-up complettion) have the same setup, and I'm wondering if my Zalman 750 is cutting it a little close. It handled SLI 9800 GTX's very heavily OC'd fine, but just wondering your opinion. I have 2 HDDs, 1 disc drive, and the standard 900 fans (plus sidefan, excluding fan on rear of HDD cage for a total of 5).

 

[ovaltineplease]

thermaltake 650w CM which is 52 amps
GXT 400w psu module which is 38 amps

90 amps is likely total overkill, but at least I get rock solid OCs, I hate throwing away perfectly good hardware and I had the GXT addon left over from another build =)

each card requires 2 6pin pci-e connectors

But seriously, 65-70amps should be more than enough for SLI gtx260, even if they are overclocked - as far as wattage draw goes, they only draw 160ish watts each under max load, so I don't think you're in outrageous territory as far as wattage goes - the Zalman 750 seems to be a very good quality unit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817379006 is the link I have for the zalman 750 - it SEEMS to only have 2 pci-e 6 pin connectors, but i'm assuming it has 4 if you were running SLI 9800 GTX before?? Regardless, it certainly seems to have more than enough amperage between its 4 rails.

 

[jcorqian]

That is indeed my PSU, and unfortunately it does only have 2 pci-e 6 pins. I am using molex to 6 pin converters, which kinda sucks, but I am pretty happy with my PSU in general. Thanks for the response, I thought it'd be fine, but I figured you'd be a little bit more knowledgeable than me on this.

 

[jonmb78]

the x8/x8 cf setup on a p45 doesnt gimp it that much. there was a benchmark test done that seemed to give about 10-15% boost to the x48 cf, and only on some games which scaled well.

and the p45 offers double the ram. although, i certainly wouldn't pay 260 for a p45.

But it does bottleneck it. When you're buying a brand new system, especially when you're going all out with CF, it's a good thing to do some research on these things. The majority of x48 boards out there are cheaper than the p45 he is using.

 

[samuraiblade]

dont bother with that cooler for the 4870 , wait for the new http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/vga/t-rad2/product_vga_cooler_trad2.html
its setup for crossfire and sli

also isnt that fan above his psu wasted , i would of left it passive and let the psu fan do the work tbh

 

[Kaldor]

dont bother with that cooler for the 4870 , wait for the new http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/vga/t-rad2/product_vga_cooler_trad2.html
its setup for crossfire and sli

also isnt that fan above his psu wasted , i would of left it passive and let the psu fan do the work tbh

Um how about not.

The PWM chips on the ATI boards run super hot. If they dont have a good cooling solution, they will burn up. And a little stick on heatsink isnt a good cooling solution regardless of air flow. This cooler only cools the GPU. The memory can be cooled by decent stick on heatsinks, but the PWM is another story.

Needs a full cover solution like this one for a 8800 GTX - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118038

 

[ovaltineplease]

also isnt that fan above his psu wasted , i would of left it passive and let the psu fan do the work tbh

Personally, I would think it would be better to keep the fan, moving air to assist the PSU fan to force it out - I get a feeling that without the fan you could have an issue with a heat pocket forming somewhere. Hard to say, but regardless anything that keeps air moving without creating turbulence can't be bad.