CPU, Motherboard, And RAM
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
AMD unlocks the multipliers “upward” on its Black Edition processors to ease overclocking, typically charging little for the convenience. On the other hand, its Black Edition label is usually applied to high-end models and there is a small price penalty for better-rated stock speeds.
Read Customer Reviews of AMD's Phenom II X4 955
Available for less than $200 (in spite of its upper-range 3.2 GHz clock speed), the Phenom II X4 955 ties 6MB L3 cache to its 4 x 512KB L2 cache to keep each of its four cores busy whenever it encounters a properly multi-threaded and difficult task. We’re already completely familiar with its overclocking potential and hope to reach even greater speeds with improved cooling.
Motherboard: MSI 790FX-GD70
While motherboard recommendations often reflect brand preference, our greatest concerns were performance, overclocking capability, and support for up to four double-slot graphics cards. Thus, we went straight to our reviews and found that the one model that could meet every requirement is MSI's 790FX-GD70.
Read Customer Reviews of MSI's 790FX-GD70
The 790FX-GD70 finished very close to the top in CPU overclocking and had the highest stable memory speed with four modules installed.
DRAM: Two Crucial CT2KIT25664BA1339 4GB Memory Kits
Memory is another area where we weren’t going to let personal bias stand in the way of picking the best components for the money. Crucial’s CT25664BA1339 modules took the win in our 6GB Triple-Channel Value Competition and are also available in these part number CT2KIT25664BA1339 4GB dual-channel kits.
Read Customer Reviews of Crucial's CT2KIT25664BA1339 4GB Kit
Rated at a mediocre DDR3-1333 CAS 9, we’ve already proven these capable of operating at DDR3-1600 using reduced 8-7-7-18 timings, and extreme overclockers will find data rates exceeding DDR3-1866 within easy reach on some platforms. Two dual-channel kits provide the 8GB total capacity many readers expect in a $2,500 dual-channel machine.
Our previous tests of Crucial's modestly-rated parts revealed two other brands with extremely similar timing capabilities across multiple speeds, which is a fairly positive indicator that the three brands all used the same ICs. Of those, the model with the biggest heat spreaders (applied loosely with double-sided tape) had the highest speed rating but achieved the lowest overclock, while these lower-rated "bare" DIMMS took the lead. Today we hope to prove that memory quality--rather than high voltage and fancy sinks--can be a great path towards ultimate performance.
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Just thinking about winning this system in the giveaway gets me excited.
Me too this is an awesome build.
... do the video compression using ATi Streem...
The Quality of video on ATI streem is shit on sticks and doesn't even support high profile.
The last build was a bit too odd for me but this one seems like a very nice chose of parts and on a larger screen set up makes a lot of sense the loss of i7 for AMD only build was a bit sad but the addition of those great SSD kind of makes up for me along with the nice chose of case and cooling. That case looks like it is very nice to work on.
The Corsair CMPSU-850HX is rated Silver, not Gold. Nice build, good results, great work.
@Dirtman
http://www.80plus.org/manu/psu/psu [...] =25&type=2
Check your sources because you have it wrong
CMPSU-850HX ATX12V 850 90.38% Gold
Please don't call RAID 1 a backup solution.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139011
Newegg says differently. I did check sources.
So does Jonnyguru
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.p [...] 2&reid=153
I guess you just can't believe everything you find on a brands site.
now that is one slick gaming machine! could'nt imagine them frames rates on a big monitor. love the insides water cooling 3 radeon 4890's with room for a 4th. great pictures by the way lots of eye candy. you can tell alot of work went into tis kmonster. great article.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139011Newegg says differently. I did check sources.
You going to believe newegg a site that is known to make mistakes in labeling products over the actual official site of the group that freaking does the testing and certification
http://www.80plus.org/manu/psu/psu [...] =25&type=2
http://www.80plus.org/manu/psu/psu [...] Report.pdf
It's gold...
The overclock was disappointing, but it seems to be one capable system!
Anyone who wins this has an awesome rig on their hands!
I'm sure anyone that wins any of the rigs will be quite happy and hopefully happy enough to post pictures and other things on the forums.
Your PSU calculations do not include transient loads, which happen too quickly to measure on a Kill-a-watt. 1000HX was the better choice.
Either water cool the GPUs or use a case with better air flow. Perhaps 90C is within spec (although I'm not aware of any published official max temps for 4890s)but it doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
What's with the limited choice for a case anyway? You seem to want to experiment? CM Storm Scout has handles, or Lian Li Lancool has great air cooling and radiator hose grommets.
I did like the inclusion of the Swiftech kit.
Corsair says it's Silver
http://www.corsair.com/products/hx850/default.aspx
So...I guess it's really Gold?
(sarcasm)
I only fear what a QuadFire 5870 would bring if a tri 4890s does this much damage. Thanks for doing AMD it may not be the best CPU but its always nice to see a change.
So does Jonnyguruhttp://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.p [...] 2&reid=153I guess you just can't believe everything you find on a brands site.
80 plus is an independant rating site, the 850HX was upgraded to Gold status so unless you're using an old unit you should be fine.
What's with the limited choice for a case anyway? You seem to want to experiment? CM Storm Scout has handles, or Lian Li Lancool has great air cooling and radiator hose grommets.I did like the inclusion of the Swiftech kit.
This editor never uses external radiators because they're too easily damaged, ugly, and make transportation difficult. The only choice not mentioned was the HAF932: There's one in the lab, it's enormous and cheaply built.
Also, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the ventilation of the case used. It's remarkable. It's darned near perfect. The GPU's run hot for two reasons: HD 4890's are horribly inefficient and there's not much space between them.
The other option would have been to face the PSU fan towards the cards so it could draw warm air away from them.
this thing is truely alswome anyway you slice it. eye candy galore, and im sure anyone who won this thing would be more then happy. and what makes this beast realy shine is how much performance it gets not only in gaming but alswome productivity/ap[plication scores as well. all the way around it is alswome. also very interesting to see AMD parts stacking up like this in a high end gaming. very interesting.
"Happy birthday", "Happy Halloween", "Merry Christmas", and "Happy New Year" to the lucky one who would get his hands on this one.