Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

(almost) Unlimited $ build

Last response: in Systems
Share

Approximate Purchase Date : This month if I like the setup
Budget Range : unlimited (sponsored)
System Usage : Benchmarking, Gaming, Overclocking
Parts Not Required : Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, Monitors
Preferred Website : Newegg
Overclocking : Yes, extreme overclocking
Crossfire : yes, quadfire
Monitor Resolution : eyefinity triple screen


CPU: Intel Core i7 975
Motherboard: ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer
RAM: Corsair Dominator-GT 2000mhz 6gb
GPU: 4x ASUS HD5870
Case: Lian-Li PC-P80
Storage 4x Intel X-25M 80gb (on a LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-4i )
PSU SilverStone Strider 1500W
Drives LG BH08LS

Cooling:
Sea Line SL-500A 1/2HP waterchiller for the CPU
ERM 3K4U5 watercooling for the 4x HD5870 (server watercooling for up to 20 cpus)


Additional Additional Comments: I'm going to build the most ultimate PC available (with customer components) for overclocking (without LN2, I want the fastest 24*7 PC). I want to do some benchmarking and Eyefinity benchmarks (when I have the components, the new ATI drivers with good eyefinity CrossfireX support will be out).
Is this setup good enough, or can I get it better? Are the Xeon Nehalems better overclockers?

Charlie51

More about : unlimited build

Register or log in to remove

I don't know much about ultra-high-end rigs so sorry if I say anything stupid. First, does ATI 4xCF really support 4 discrete cards or only double-dual-GPU cards? If it is the case, then 2x4970 would be the way to go.

For the SSD drives, do you know if your RAID controller supports the TRIM function? If not you might have to "reset" them once in a while to keep performance up. Alternatively, you might want to consider the X25-E instead, I don't know if performance degrades as much as on the X25-M.

For the PSU, will you have access to a really good electricity circuit? By my calculation, a 120V 15A home circuit is limited to 1800W, but many electrician (which I'm not) will recommend you never exceed 80% load which would be ~1440W or risk overheating the wires and/or fire. That said, also keep in mind that if loaded, the 1500W PSU will draw ~1765W from the wall which is 98% of the full theoretical load. Just something you might want to consider :p .

I'm on 240v, and there is here a good electric installation. But thanks for the help!

CrossfireX can do 4 graphical chips (so 4 hd5870 or 2 hd5970), but I will go for 4 hd5870 because they OC better.

I don't know the raid controller has TRIM, but it's a high end controller, so I assume they will do a firmware upgrade or something else.

Maybe I won't use the chiller, they have to cool down half an hour, someone has a chiller at home?
Related ressources
Ask the community

Hi, another update:
The raid controller doesn't fit when 4 HD5870 cards are used (they are dual slot, so they block the other 3 PCI-express slots). But, I'll use a flexible PCi-express extender. This is the plan:

The blue is the flexible cable that will go around a HD5870 (shouldn't be a problem with the waterblocks). The PC-P80 has 10 extension slots, so there are 2 over. I'll put the Raid controller in one free slot (without the stability of the motherboard) and the flexible PCI-express cable will be to the raid controller.

A stacker doesn't have 10 expansion slots :( 
24 ssds are a bit too expensive :) 

BTW, someone knows that 2 hd5970 are better then 4 hd5870? Less overclocking (heat), but maybe better scaling. If I take the 2 hd5970, i could add a nvidia physx card and the raid controller could be build in properly.
Someone knows the performance difference of 4x5870 vs 2x5970? Maybe some benchmarks (and in eyefinity?)

The 5970 is designed to be overclocked with a 400w capable vapour chamber, however the current spec won't allow them to sell a single card over 300w. I'd probably go for two of them!

Also at this time no RAID controllers can support TRIM at this time sadly, so you'll be looking at large performance decline! Personally I'd go with the largest SSD supporting trim for a boot disk, and a big fast HDD array, either with 15K cheetahs, 10K raptors or ordinary TB drives for storage and space.

Charlie51 said:
You can plan a daily/weekly cleanup for your ssd (not automated trim). This should be good and there will be almost no speed difference. Someone else a opinion about the hd5970s?


The HD 5970 is basically two HD 5870s stuck together, but underclocked to get the power down to a reasonable level. With water-cooling, you should be able to overclock this puppy to match two HD 5870s in Xfire.

From this article(http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5970,2474-7.html), both cards at stock speeds:



I would go for one HD 5970, and here's why: no one would crossfire two HD5870s when they could just buy one HD 5970 for less money. The HD 5970 uses one less PCI slot, would run cooler, costs about $100 less, and can still be overclocked to meet the 4870 Xfire setup, without cluttering up your case.

If you're dropping this much money into a rig for benchmarking purposes, I would also look at nVidia very closely for your "alternate" GPU. CUDA and PhysX are two technologies which ATI just does not have an answer to; furthermore, while few games actually use this technology, there's nothing that says that games in the future won't take advantage of these extra capabilities. The GTX 300 Series is scheduled for Q1 2010, and will directly compete with the HD 5000 series. If this were up to me, I would get the ATI setup now, and wait for the GTX 300 cards. Thus, you can compare the two head-to-head :-D

dude u have unlimited fundings go for i7 975 extreme
gigabyte ex58 ud7
2x ati hd 5970 crossfire........(it will be a monster from hell)
cooler master cosmos...or antec 1200
liquid cooling
1.5 tb hdd
and 128gb sdd x2
1500 watts psu from crosair,antec etc.....
get a heck with any number of lcds the best u can get....spend .............
5.1 speakers.........

@darksuppreme: when hydra comes out I'll maybe try a hd5970 with a gtx395 (when tha gtx300s come out), that would be cool!
@tunnelrat: I want the asus p6t7ws , it's a lot better for really high end. And I'm also 100% sure about the pc-p80

what gpu should I take for physx (with a patch to enable physx next to a ati card): a gt240 or maybe a gt250? (next to the dual hd5970 setup)

@ tunnelrat...Corsair or Antec don't even make 1500w PSUs....



The 240 would be better choice than a 250 since its 40 nm, LOTS of heat in that case. But would a higher card give better quality?
Have you looked at the EVGA Classified? Its the highest board you can buy, weather it OCs better than the Asus is a good question, I'm sure theres benches and I would have to say it would.

not sure if the hydra will be able to do that huge of a combo
( 5970 + gtx 300 card ) and ive been hearing things that ATI is already coocking something up to counter with physX
and do yourself a favor a DO NOT get a 1200 or anything like that , yes there all the raf the HAF , 1200 , cosmos , but there honestly only the mid end series . just make sure u go with either LIAN-LI or SILVERSTONE for a case

sonic-boom said:
@ tunnelrat...Corsair or Antec don't even make 1500w PSUs....



The 240 would be better choice than a 250 since its 40 nm, LOTS of heat in that case. But would a higher card give better quality?
Have you looked at the EVGA Classified? Its the highest board you can buy, weather it OCs better than the Asus is a good question, I'm sure theres benches and I would have to say it would.


the asus p6t7 scales better with multiple gpus, and is almost as good in OCing as the EVGA. Ok, a gt240 would be enough for physx.

If ati makes some physx, no games will use this (except if it works also with nvidia cards). And that will take a long time :p 

A small update:
I'm thinking of the use of a peltier cpu cooler. Does it exist already for 1366? Or should I use the swiftech peltier for 755 (extra holes drilled in).

And what screens should I buy? I want 3x24" or 30" with the smallest border/bezel possible.
Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Systems categories
!