Finally built a system for me! Been 4+ Years! [Done Finally]

[clonazepam]

Xigmatek Elysium Black

CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200

Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z

Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge

Noctua NH-D14

EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3072MB x2 in SLI

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866

OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB

[strike]SAMSUNG T27A750 Black 27" 5ms 3D LED BackLight LCD Monitor w/DTV Tuner[/strike] - Returned, loud buzzing and other problems.

Logitech G19 Black 104 Normal Keys USB Wired Standard Gaming Keyboard

Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse

Western Digital 1TB My Book Live Home Network Drive

So here we go, some pictures of the progress as it happened. Some photos are blurry but I'm a builder not a god-darned photographer so they stay in hah!



Sizing up enemy cables, in need of sleeving / heatshrinking

Now we begin to see some goodies!!

a Noctua in the face!

The GTX 570 says "Hello, Wintel."

Jus dwarfed an e-atx board!!

 

[clonazepam]

Feel the power!

 

[clonazepam]

Standby, in the coming week or so, this will all be converted to a water cooling setup for the cpu, and the 2 gpus. It will include 120x3 rad in the roof, and a 120x2 rad in the 5.25" bay compartment. There will be 2 pumps running in serial with a nice mid-size reservoir tube along the back wall. Expect some suttle lighting, dark barbs, and maybe blood red coolant!

 

[doskoipanda]

That's a very nice computer you're building. how much did it cost altogether?

 

[jsc]

Sleeving will be a little better than heatshrink because it should be a little more flexible.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

That case is MASSIVE! You DID dwarf that board!

 

[clonazepam]

Sleeving will be a little better than heatshrink because it should be a little more flexible.

Unfortunately, this project was also my test bed for learning how to sleeve. There is definite inconsistency in the quality but the sleeving is all black and I can hide it with my weak camera skills.

 

[cburke82]

That is a crazy nice rig. damn 2 570's you can run whatever you want thats for sure. Mind if I ask why you chose a e-atx and not a full size counter part?

 

[clonazepam]

That's a very nice computer you're building. how much did it cost altogether?

I'm trying really hard to forget about that aspect. Going water cooling will cost quite a lot as well. Basically, I had a once in a lifetime chance to build a really outstanding rig so I took it. This rig will need to last some years, like my $300 Q6600 lasted 4 years I believe. I'll always have the opportunity to pick up new parts here and there, but that's normal. The fun of having numerous boxes arrive for a singular project is incredibly fun, like Christmas

 

[clonazepam]

That is a crazy nice rig. damn 2 570's you can run whatever you want thats for sure. Mind if I ask why you chose a e-atx and not a full size counter part?

The case is designed to accommodate dual processor boards. There's 2 separate cutouts for their respective back plates. I preferred this case above all others b/c it'll hold all the hardware / cooling / water cooling I can throw at it. It's design is also much more humble than say a Haf X which I've never liked.

I really like this motherboard and all of its features. It'll keep me busy learning about them and tweaking.

The 570 in the shot is before I went to Fry's Electronics over by LAX and picked up 2 EVGA 580s priced below newegg. I think I saved almost $50 and any shipping costs from newegg.

The board has all the same mount points as a standard ATX board. It's about 1 inch wider, probably to allow for the pcie switches, power on and reset buttons, the LED debugger thingamajig, and the voltage reader whachamacallits you can tap into with a multimeter.

The power and reset buttons are awesomely handy when its on a test bench.

 

[cburke82]

The case is designed to accommodate dual processor boards. There's 2 separate cutouts for their respective back plates. I really like this motherboard and all of its features. It'll keep me busy learning about them and tweaking.

The 570 in the shot is before I went to Fry's Electronics over by LAX and picked up 2 EVGA 580s priced below newegg. I think I saved almost $50 and any shipping costs from newegg.

The board has all the same mount points as a standard ATX board. It's about 1 inch wider, probably to allow for the pcie switches, power on and reset buttons, the LED debugger thingamajig, and the voltage reader whachamacallits you can tap into with a multimeter.

The power and reset buttons are awesomely handy when its on a test bench.

To early here lol. I saw all that space and thought that was a micro atx LMAO I need to wake up. I now realize that's a massive mobo in an even more massive case lol.

 

[clonazepam]

i7-2600k @ 4.6ghz and 1.35v set in bios
RAM at 1866 with 9-10-9-28-2T settings
GTX 580s at reference clocks 772mhz core / 2004mhz memory

Adding some benchie screenshots...

3dMark Vantage - High setting - 1680x1050

3dMark 11 - Performance setting - 1280x720

PCMark 7 - PCMark Suite

Super-PI - all scores represent best of 3 runs

wPrime - 4 threads - 2 runs per

wPrime - 8 threads - 2 runs per

 

[cburke82]

I would have to have 3 of my rigs set up in crossfire to get to those bench scores lol

 

[clonazepam]

Someone asked how much it cost, the links to their newegg pages are in the OP. The cost was extremely high as it was only possible due to me being permanently disabled and a decent settlement. The rig constitutes less than 5% of the total settlement. I won't be any more specific than that so as not to give away too much personal information in the interwebz.

 

[crisbx99]

why buy samsung 27inc it has no dvi connection

 

[secolliyn]

.....Um question if you where planning on Water cooling it already why build it all in the case with Air cooling why not wait a week or two and put it all together when the Water cooling system is ready?

 

[clonazepam]

why buy samsung 27inc it has no dvi connection

You're right. I wish it did. It does have 2 hdmi, 1 component connection, and 1 for the cable box. There are hdmi -> dvi adapters. This "television" is going to go into the bedroom eventually. It's a beautiful setup but not ideal for gaming. I can't return it, basically. I'm hoping soon we will have true 120hz 27" monitors. Right now I'm looking at maybe the asus 120hz 23" model but used it a bit at Fry's and was put off.

 

[clonazepam]

.....Um question if you where planning on Water cooling it already why build it all in the case with Air cooling why not wait a week or two and put it all together when the Water cooling system is ready?

Everything except the motherboard arrived at once and I waited another 3.5 days for the motherboard. I have a couple forum posts here and elsewhere with a parts listing I was looking at. I've gotten a lot of good feedback that has either reinforced my choices or led me toward other products. There's currently no order yet for any wc parts. I didn't want to wait 1-3 weeks to use the system since I was coming up from a Core 2 Quad 6600... My choices for wc parts still isn't nailed down yet. It's a very simple tear-down when it happens.

 

[MrRaniels]

we share the same taste in gpu's and benzo's.... boSS

 

[cburke82]

.....Um question if you where planning on Water cooling it already why build it all in the case with Air cooling why not wait a week or two and put it all together when the Water cooling system is ready?

I wouldent want to wait 2-3 weeks to play with all this awesome stuff lol.

 

[clonazepam]

I almost forgot the absolute most important part of my gaming rig. I've had it for a couple years now, and it's crucial for long gaming sessions.

Spoiler

Yep, a pair of old socks. Without them, I'd have a painful, giant red knot on my wrist. I've yet to discover a product that performs better.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

LOL on the socks, but I totally agree with you. You should try one of these mousepads with inbuilt wrist cushion; I have one and it's really comfortable.

 

[clonazepam]

why buy samsung 27inc it has no dvi connection

Despite it not having the option to return it, just got off the phone with newegg and they agreed to allow me to return it... guess I'm going to get the asus 23" 120hz monitor + 3dvision kit after all...

The problem with it is many games got kicked to 1920x1080x24p, so they didn't look too good. Crysis crashed to the desktop every time it finished loading a level. Also, in many games if vertical sync was enabled, the game would run at 24 fps lol... if disabled v-sync, it'd run games in 3d at higher resolutions but of course tons of tearing. Some games worked flawlessly though. It was wierd. Some games would run at the 24p in full screen, but windowed at 1920x1080 it would run fine at 60hz... go figure. It was an impulse buy b/c it looked great, but is definitely more a television than a monitor. I'll make due with the asus 23" and patiently wait for its 27" upgrade, i guess...

 

[clonazepam]

Update:

Phase 2 of build coming next week - no, not watercooling yet, extensive re-cabling / multi-color sleeving, and chopping holes in case, + lighting.

I returned that Samsung monitor. I'm currently looking at the Acer 27" 3D 120hz monitor. Also, Asus is supposedly releasing a 27" 3D monster as well... so I think I'll hold off on purchasing a new monitor(s) till end of September.

Water-cooling will happen in September for sure. Some other things came up like fixing the car, and well for the price of water cooling, I could replace the engine lol... the repairs are not nearly that drastic but an interesting point nonetheless.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

Looking forward to sleeving and lighting! Maybe I'll learn something.