Frank's 2013 upgrade.......

Jorona · Dec 14, 2012

The1stCAV said:
Mue,

The Thermaltake said I should have a 1569W PSU min. This is with overclocking I plan on as well as with the following:
Core i7 3930K
1x DVD/RWCD DVD ROM
1x BR/DVD/CD Burner
6x 120mm led fans
3X 140mm led fans
4x SSD
2x 7200 SATA
2x 1,500 SATA
4x GTX 580/SLI
4x Cold Cathode
5x USB Devices that draw power
8x DDR3 DIMM
2x DD D5 12v Pumps
1x AgeiaPhysX - not that I will be using one, but nothing allowed for a 6-pin power requirement for the Phoebus Sound card, so I chose that.

Realistically the 1600W isn't enough - crazy huh? Glad I have a 30a dedi circuit for Frank - he is going to need it.

Glad you enjoy the pics and the text. I do enjoy taking and cleaning the pictures for posting, so images are certain in my posts - I love photography as another of my hobbies second to PC building/tweaking and FPS gaming. So thanks for the kind words and check back often.

Its entirely enough, At max load you'll be abit lower then what that Tt calc says. Under full load (Folding,Furmark+Prime) You'll be at about 1400-1450w. So you have abit of overhead. That being said, you could make a pretty penny and sell of those 580s, and grab a duo/trio of 680s and have equal performance and a significant reduction in power consuption.

Regardless though, the build looks great. Hope you're havin fun!

Jorona · Dec 14, 2012

zoolzoo said:
Newb with money.

Says the noob with no money.

The1stCAV · Dec 14, 2012

Carisma said:
Loving the upgrade to Frank and been a long time follower.

I have one question...during this upgrade how come you sticking with the 580s instead of moving to the new 6xx series?

With the power of everything in Frank with this upgrade, an additional GTX 580 3G thrown in to make it a 4-WAY SLI, I think Frank will basically be able to hold his own until the 8xx series comes out from Nvidia - then we upgrade GPU's. First I had to upgrade to the newest architecture, and latest CPU/RAM/MB, etc as the X58 platform was aging – lol “aging”. Anyway, so once done with this, I am also looking at dropping another $800-$1,000 towards a new custom case design I am working on. I want to get away from relying on the ERM unit and build a case that incorporates the Watercool MO-RA3 LT Radiator I have as part of the case design. I also want the case to sit on a shelf in the rack, not next to it, so this requires a custom build to handle everything I am looking to do for Frank. I am also looking at picking up two more of the Asus VG278HE 144Hz monitors, so I can do three of them in Nvidia Surround via 3D Vision. The Four GTX 580 3G cards should handle that without issue. Once all those things are done – then I can start looking at upgrading GPU’s. So really it’s all a timing/budget/phased approach to the upgrade.

And .................. here ............................ we ..................................go

All the parts have arrived, wife is gone for the weekend - time to upgrade Frank! Will post when I surface Sunday sometime - lol, have a terrific weekend.

iGamer · Dec 15, 2012

The1stCAV said:
Never judge a book by its cover or based soley on your perception, you are going to be wrong most of the time if you do. You do not know me, you have no idea the sacrafices and trials I have gone through in life to get to a point to be able to do this, so don't rain on my parade because your self esteem needs boosting.

Here are some words of wisdom potentially you should have learned in life: If you have nothing nice to say - stfu.

Have a nice day............

Now back to our regular scheduled programing.........rebuilding Frank

don't you love trolls? His cockiness will get him banned soon anyways (there isn't much tolerance for that thankfully)

anywho looking forward to the new build! I loved the 2011 Build, so I'm sure this will be just as epic!

iBad · Dec 15, 2012

Wow most insane Build ive seen so far... Wish i have the chi ching for this kind off stuff

Jake1003 · Dec 15, 2012

Damn! What do you do for a living?

ND40oz · Dec 15, 2012

Why are you using 4GB sticks and then using 8 of them? Just use a 4x8GB kit.

andrewbub · Dec 15, 2012

ND40oz said:
Why are you using 4GB sticks and then using 8 of them? Just use a 4x8GB kit.

he has 8 ram slots on the mobo, and i'm guessing he wants to fill them all for aesthetic reasons.

Jake1003 · Dec 15, 2012

ND40oz said:
Why are you using 4GB sticks and then using 8 of them? Just use a 4x8GB kit.

IMO it really all depends" Prolly the best timing RAM are only available on those RAM that he got and prolly to fill all slots with RAM

ND40oz · Dec 15, 2012

Jake1003 said:
IMO it really all depends" Prolly the best timing RAM are only available on those RAM that he got and prolly to fill all slots with RAM

Yeah, not really on the timings, this is a much better kit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231624 if you want to stick with the red and black theme.

And then you aren't stressing the memory controller as much. Intel officially specs SB-E to run at 1600 for 1 dimm per channel and only 1333 when you're running 2 dimms per channel. All your doing is minimizing your potential for OCing the ram and making it more costly to upgrade to 64GB down the line. But if you don't care about maximizing performance and want it to look pretty by filling up all the slots, by all means, go ahead.

The1stCAV · Dec 16, 2012

ND40oz said:
..........But if you don't care about maximizing performance and want it to look pretty by filling up all the slots, by all means, go ahead.

Yep - just wanted to fill all the slots - do not care for nor wil ever need to upgrade past 32G anyway - so its one of the best timings kits for 32G that filed al the slots.

Well the build was epic this weekend - and more along the typical build for me - if you followed the last build for Frank................we had a similar "OMFG" moment that killed everything.

So things went along well, got it all buttoned up and was setting timings and then Murphy dropped in and said "Went too easy huh? Well do not despair, I can fix that for ya, here let me pop this hose off and see what happens when you walk 1/2 way across the room thinking everything is good with it sitting in BIOS" - yep, Pulled the power as fast as I could, but the ERM kept pumping until I got around to the front of it and killed that too - by then 1/2 the fluid was sprayed onto the motherboard, puddled on the top GTX 580, and a huge puddle below Frank.

Apparently I didn't realize that one of my connections was an SLI thing, so it had one end that would slide to fill the gap - problem is it slid all the way out, it could not handle the pressure in the loop and popped out of the connector, hose still attached. I should have realized this was not a normal fitting, but somehow missed that, it was the right height I needed to use on the CPU, little did I know it had a center piece that slid in and out. I ran a leak test - it went fine. I put Frank down, he was fine, I was sitting there for about 20 minutes and temps were 23c in BIOS and things seemed great. Then I went to go to the bathroom and as I got 1/2 way there, I hear "pop. sizzle" PSU powers off, liquid pumping everywhere, I do a dolphin dive to the PSU to kill the power only to have to then quickly get back around the front and kill the ERM unit which was still pushing liquid out.

The perils of water cooling - its what happens I guess when you build loops after 10+ hours of building everything else, and not realize that you picked up an SLI fitting not an extension - a very expensive mistake that cost the lives of 4 GTX 580's and one Asus Rampage IV Extreme - I can only hope the CPU and RAM as wel as that Asus Sound Card made it out alive, we shall see.

So where there is adversity, there is an equal or greater seed of potential for success or more positive things.

With that said - This being my business machine as much as my personal hobby/gaming machine, I have to get Frank back online, I have no choice,

I just got back from Fry's with another Asus Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard and 3x GTX 4G GTX 680's. Let the build begin - again. Only thing is there are no water blocks yet for these GTX 680's in hand, so the CPU/MB will really only need the internal Rad, meaning that the ERM unit will not be in this loop yet.

.

Jake1003 · Dec 16, 2012

The1stCAV said:
Yep - just wanted to fill all the slots - do not care for nor wil ever need to upgrade past 32G anyway - so its one of the best timings kits for 32G that filed al the slots.

Well the build was epic this weekend - and more along the typical build for me - if you followed the last build for Frank................we had a similar "OMFG" moment that killed everything.

So things went along well, got it all buttoned up and was setting timings and then Murphy dropped in and said "Went too easy huh? Well do not despair, I can fix that for ya, here let me pop this hose off and see what happens when you walk 1/2 way across the room thinking everything is good with it sitting in BIOS" - yep, Pulled the power as fast as I could, but the ERM kept pumping until I got around to the front of it and killed that too - by then 1/2 the fluid was sprayed onto the motherboard, puddled on the top GTX 580, and a huge puddle below Frank.

Apparently I didn't realize that one of my connections was an SLI thing, so it had one end that would slide to fill the gap - problem is it slid all the way out, it could not handle the pressure in the loop and popped out of the connector, hose still attached. I should have realized this was not a normal fitting, but somehow missed that, it was the right height I needed to use on the CPU, little did I know it had a center piece that slid in and out. I ran a leak test - it went fine. I put Frank down, he was fine, I was sitting there for about 20 minutes and temps were 23c in BIOS and things seemed great. Then I went to go to the bathroom and as I got 1/2 way there, I hear "pop. sizzle" PSU powers off, liquid pumping everywhere, I do a dolphin dive to the PSU to kill the power only to have to then quickly get back around the front and kill the ERM unit which was still pushing liquid out.

The perils of water cooling - its what happens I guess when you build loops after 10+ hours of building everything else, and not realize that you picked up an SLI fitting not an extension - a very expensive mistake that cost the lives of 4 GTX 580's and one Asus Rampage IV Extreme - I can only hope the CPU and RAM as wel as that Asus Sound Card made it out alive, we shall see.

So where there is adversity, there is an equal or greater seed of potential for success or more positive things.

With that said - This being my business machine as much as my personal hobby/gaming machine, I have to get Frank back online, I have no choice,

I just got back from Fry's with another Asus Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard and 3x GTX 4G GTX 680's. Let the build begin - again. Only thing is there are no water blocks yet for these GTX 680's in hand, so the CPU/MB will really only need the internal Rad, meaning that the ERM unit will not be in this loop yet.

.

Really insane build! Looking forward to see more

Robertmarcus · Dec 16, 2012

The1stCAV said:
Yep - just wanted to fill all the slots - do not care for nor wil ever need to upgrade past 32G anyway - so its one of the best timings kits for 32G that filed al the slots.

Well the build was epic this weekend - and more along the typical build for me - if you followed the last build for Frank................we had a similar "OMFG" moment that killed everything.

So things went along well, got it all buttoned up and was setting timings and then Murphy dropped in and said "Went too easy huh? Well do not despair, I can fix that for ya, here let me pop this hose off and see what happens when you walk 1/2 way across the room thinking everything is good with it sitting in BIOS" - yep, Pulled the power as fast as I could, but the ERM kept pumping until I got around to the front of it and killed that too - by then 1/2 the fluid was sprayed onto the motherboard, puddled on the top GTX 580, and a huge puddle below Frank.

Apparently I didn't realize that one of my connections was an SLI thing, so it had one end that would slide to fill the gap - problem is it slid all the way out, it could not handle the pressure in the loop and popped out of the connector, hose still attached. I should have realized this was not a normal fitting, but somehow missed that, it was the right height I needed to use on the CPU, little did I know it had a center piece that slid in and out. I ran a leak test - it went fine. I put Frank down, he was fine, I was sitting there for about 20 minutes and temps were 23c in BIOS and things seemed great. Then I went to go to the bathroom and as I got 1/2 way there, I hear "pop. sizzle" PSU powers off, liquid pumping everywhere, I do a dolphin dive to the PSU to kill the power only to have to then quickly get back around the front and kill the ERM unit which was still pushing liquid out.

The perils of water cooling - its what happens I guess when you build loops after 10+ hours of building everything else, and not realize that you picked up an SLI fitting not an extension - a very expensive mistake that cost the lives of 4 GTX 580's and one Asus Rampage IV Extreme - I can only hope the CPU and RAM as wel as that Asus Sound Card made it out alive, we shall see.

So where there is adversity, there is an equal or greater seed of potential for success or more positive things.

With that said - This being my business machine as much as my personal hobby/gaming machine, I have to get Frank back online, I have no choice,

I just got back from Fry's with another Asus Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard and 3x GTX 4G GTX 680's. Let the build begin - again. Only thing is there are no water blocks yet for these GTX 680's in hand, so the CPU/MB will really only need the internal Rad, meaning that the ERM unit will not be in this loop yet.

.

I guess you really got screwed over. Pays to double check your fittings. I stay away from all crystal links, etc. Only rotaries and sli water block links for me. And tubing. What model 680's are you using? If they are the reference gtx 680 4gb's (not the extended pcb model), regular 680 waterblocks should work fine, just an fyi.

Any screen caps of the design of your case? I assume you are still making one in something like sketchup or autocad?

ekuest · Dec 16, 2012

oh man i feel for you cav. that really hurts. i followed since about halfway through frank the first time, and have been silently watching you revamp everything here since the beginning. are you sure none of the warranties cover accidental damage? i know it's a long shot but with such expensive parts you may be able to convince someone to give you like one of the cards or maybe become a build sponsor? im really sorry to hear that happened, but im glad youre keeping a cool head about it and carrying on. best of luck from here on out!

rurd2di · Dec 16, 2012

The1stCAV said:
Yep - just wanted to fill all the slots - do not care for nor wil ever need to upgrade past 32G anyway - so its one of the best timings kits for 32G that filed al the slots.

Well the build was epic this weekend - and more along the typical build for me - if you followed the last build for Frank................we had a similar "OMFG" moment that killed everything.

So things went along well, got it all buttoned up and was setting timings and then Murphy dropped in and said "Went too easy huh? Well do not despair, I can fix that for ya, here let me pop this hose off and see what happens when you walk 1/2 way across the room thinking everything is good with it sitting in BIOS" - yep, Pulled the power as fast as I could, but the ERM kept pumping until I got around to the front of it and killed that too - by then 1/2 the fluid was sprayed onto the motherboard, puddled on the top GTX 580, and a huge puddle below Frank.

Apparently I didn't realize that one of my connections was an SLI thing, so it had one end that would slide to fill the gap - problem is it slid all the way out, it could not handle the pressure in the loop and popped out of the connector, hose still attached. I should have realized this was not a normal fitting, but somehow missed that, it was the right height I needed to use on the CPU, little did I know it had a center piece that slid in and out. I ran a leak test - it went fine. I put Frank down, he was fine, I was sitting there for about 20 minutes and temps were 23c in BIOS and things seemed great. Then I went to go to the bathroom and as I got 1/2 way there, I hear "pop. sizzle" PSU powers off, liquid pumping everywhere, I do a dolphin dive to the PSU to kill the power only to have to then quickly get back around the front and kill the ERM unit which was still pushing liquid out.

The perils of water cooling - its what happens I guess when you build loops after 10+ hours of building everything else, and not realize that you picked up an SLI fitting not an extension - a very expensive mistake that cost the lives of 4 GTX 580's and one Asus Rampage IV Extreme - I can only hope the CPU and RAM as wel as that Asus Sound Card made it out alive, we shall see.

So where there is adversity, there is an equal or greater seed of potential for success or more positive things.

With that said - This being my business machine as much as my personal hobby/gaming machine, I have to get Frank back online, I have no choice,

I just got back from Fry's with another Asus Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard and 3x GTX 4G GTX 680's. Let the build begin - again. Only thing is there are no water blocks yet for these GTX 680's in hand, so the CPU/MB will really only need the internal Rad, meaning that the ERM unit will not be in this loop yet.

.

Damn dude that sucks!
Least you can stretch the budget for new hardware.
Build on!

StatutoryApe · Dec 16, 2012

Dammit, Cav!

The1stCAV · Dec 16, 2012

Whew! Back up and running finally - so I dropped a quick 3D Mark 11 (Extreme Setting):
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5252053

OK, now to get things cleaned up, import the tons of photos, oh an dthe few I took of the new config, considering I was pressed for time, I didn't take a lot of time to take more images of this build and the clean up that I had to do before I could build. So I still want to go through the build, check some cool photos, and then we can discuss what went wrong. I know what happened now and why the pressure backed up and the hose popped.

I will be back with many pictures..............

The good news is that Frank is alive! He's ALIVE! - and more powerful than ever - O M F G!

Here is a benchmark to base the above links results to.........Frank did the exact same test with the 990X and the three GTX 580's and scored a 5703, check out what he did this time around on the new hardware.

Carisma · Dec 17, 2012

CAV,

Have you thought about getting the Yamakasi Catleap Q270 instead of the Asus VG278HE monitor? It isn't 3D capable but they are getting great reviews.

Josep22h · Dec 17, 2012

I cannot wait to get the build on though.........

evilvicious · Dec 17, 2012

can't wait for more pics mate

wra18th · Dec 17, 2012

Damn, that sucked. You had similar problems the last time.

Live and learn I say. Now post some pictures, yeah!

Curlack · Dec 17, 2012

Jesus Christ. I hope this is the only major problem you run into with the new build, (because after all, the little problems are the best

).

And yes, more pictures! At least Frank holds up to his reputation of coming back alive!

The1stCAV · Dec 17, 2012

Curlack said:
0
And yes, more pictures! At least Frank holds up to his reputation of coming back alive!

Somehow I think I got some Steve Austin DNA in Frank, for some reason he keeps holding onto this notion "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build a beast of a PC. Frank N SteinPC will be that PC. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

lol, now here is where the generation gap comes into play - umm Steve Austin the wrestler?No Steve Austin the Six Million Dollar Man. I think Frank thinks that is my budget to, maybe I do need the wrestler to body slam Frank a couple times and get past these "issues" and his stinkin thinkin.

Anyway, getting pics ready - be back l8tr today to post some geek porn..........uncovered and exposed!

StatutoryApe · Dec 17, 2012

Cav, log on for the first time in a week! jeez. lol

wra18th · Dec 17, 2012

The1stCAV said:
Somehow I think I got some Steve Austin DNA in Frank, for some reason he keeps holding onto this notion "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build a beast of a PC. Frank N SteinPC will be that PC. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

lol, now here is where the generation gap comes into play - umm Steve Austin the wrestler?No Steve Austin the Six Million Dollar Man. I think Frank thinks that is my budget to, maybe I do need the wrestler to body slam Frank a couple times and get past these "issues" and his stinkin thinkin.

Anyway, getting pics ready - be back l8tr today to post some geek porn..........uncovered and exposed!

lol, I remember the series premier. He was played by Lee Majors. One of Farrah Fawcett's ex-husbands.

I'm getting a chubby in anticipation of those geek porn pics.

Muegen · Dec 17, 2012

It's like he purposely takes a punch to the gut(well...in this case hose), so he can be reborn bigger and better! CAV has no fixed budget as its 100% Franks will on how much he chooses CAV to spend!

Waiting for geek porn -_-

The1stCAV · Dec 17, 2012

Time was not on my side today as I spent most of it catching up and work related. I did have time here and there to get some pictures cleaned and set aside. I promise I have some good ones I think, there are 72 images that I have worked in LIghtroom and need to put into Photoshop to drop into the template before I post, so its taking more time than expected with work taking center stage. Please bear with me, I will get some images up soon.

I also wrote the below in between conference calls and other work I had to focus on today to explain how this unfortunate event befell Frank. It’s one thing to endure such a traumatic event, it’s another to step back, take a deeper dive and see what went wrong and how to avoid this mistake in the future. I consider myself pretty straight forward, good, bad, and ll in between, I have no issues explaining how things went, how they went right or wrong. I feel this makes my builds very “real” as it is human error that typically causes us problems and we all learn from each other. Those who are willing to share nothing but the good do none of us the favor of knowing what to avoid and what not to do. I hope to be able to shed light in both paths. So without further ado, here is my conclusion as to what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future.

FRANK N STEIN POST-MORTEM
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, roughly 1:30am, Frank N Stein PC suffered a series of tragic events that ended his current configuration – may it R.I.P. Lost in the ensuing chaos was one Intel Core i7 3930K, an Asus Rampage IV Extreme 2011 motherboard, and three EVGA GTX 580 3G GPU’s.

What Happened?
There was a loud POP, and then an ensuing sizzle sound as the PSU shut off instantly. I dove to the back of Frank and unplugged the PSU so it would not try and restart. I then quickly had to go to the front and turn off the ERM unit as it was continuing to pump liquid into the case and over the parts.

Initial Assessment:

Connectors:
The wrong connector was used on the CPU water block. It seems the connector I thought looked good, had the right distance/height I needed, wasn’t the best choice here. It was a single slot SLI connector, short enough to fit between two cards, but has a center section that allows for varying lengths within tolerance of the acceptable distance the center piece slides in and out of the outer piece. Typically in an SLI scenario, there are cards above and below this connector, and assist in keeping these connectors from separating. When they are used in the manner I used them, only one end was secured against the CPU block and the other end that slid out was connected to a flexible hose. This means as the pressure built up inside the CPU block, it was able to relief that pressure by pushing the hose/inner connector outward, resulting in the separation of the connector and subsequent frying of the equipment. The initial thinking was it was this connectors fault, however after a deeper dive, I was able to find the root of the cause and then the light came on as to what happened to cause the chain of events that eventually led to this initial assessment and thinking.

Coolant:

I bought into the marketing of environmentally responsible coolant, no chemical/glycol, etc. So I was paying premium for non-conductive extreme coolant. SO why did things fry? Well you have to love the marketing where they can make tons of claims, then put that one little disclaimer “dust particles or foreign materials can cause connectivity when mixed with this fluid” – what that really means is, we are marketing this as non-conductive to make you feel better, but in the event you really need to rely on it, they can back off saying, well you must have had some foreign materials that caused the connectivity, it wasn’t the liquid. End result is – buy good coolant, but do not buy it based on hoping that it’s not conductive in the event of a catastrophic event. I have about one of the cleanest PC’s, as much as I tear into and rebuild Frank, all parts are constantly wiped/air pressure cleaned, etc and yet thing still fried.

Why was there so much pressure in the CPU block that forced this event to even occur?

This was the question that led me to breaking apart the CPU block again, only to find it fully clogged up more than I showed in that last pic when I cleaned it. This time around though I found a bunch of hair – wtf? How did hair get into the CPU block, much less the coolant? After further investigation it was determined this was not hair, it was carpet fibers. So how did carpet fibers find their way into the coolant? Then I looked around and realized what I had been doing.

If those of you that were here for Frank’s last build saw my carpet was an indoor/outdoor kind of square colored pattern rug. One thing that quickly changed was that rug, however I made the worst choice I could have and that was a shag black rug (damn the sales, it was cheap compared to other rugs of the same size). So I get this shag, then find it’s a 3” thick shag – I cannot even vacuum this thing like regular carpet. The worst part is a year later it still sheds on everything. I am forever pulling out the vacuum for the regular beige carpet because of the trail of black fuzzy that dissipates the further away you get from my office – yes this carpet sheds on socks, and everything else and spreads everywhere.
Because of the shedding this thing does, it has now changed how I do water cooling as it was this shedding that had the impact on that water block.

When I do a build, pristine and clean is as far from my office as a mouse would be from a house of cats. It looks more like a techno A-bomb went off. Water cooling parts hit the floor, tables, tubes go everywhere, funnels, buckets, etc. What was happening was a series of unfortunate events where one connector would pick up a little carpet fiber unknowingly, the tip of the funnel I use for filling may pick up a fiber or two, etc and the string of events went on. The more I filled/drained/refilled the coolant, the more these little fibers started making their way into the coolant where they piled up against the inlet and clogged.

When they clogged the inlet to the CPU cooler, this caused the backpressure. When you have a D5 @ 24v pushing at full power, and then two more pushing at full 12v power, there is a lot of pressure going on, something that can – will pop and it did. It wasn’t something that happened instantly either, it was a slow progression. I had leak tested, flipped and rolled Frank getting air bubbles out of him, etc. This is not like I just fired him up and started using him once I had his coolant in. I had done a leak test for at least 20-30 minutes while I was cleaning the path to set him down and cleaning up everything else so I could get to the point of doing BIOS and getting Frank back online.

The one thing I purchased for this specific build I was using, but failed to “use” and that was the flow indicator. I saw it spinning a couple times and thought all was well. What I didn’t realize was it was slowly slowing down. Had I taken the time to really look at that flow indicator I would have seen it had stopped flowing or had to be spinning very slowly, indicating a blockage or build-up somewhere.

CONCLUSION

Coolant – do not spend the $$ on expensive coolants that boast “Non-conductive” thinking it isn’t going to fry your gear in the event it happens to meet the fate Frank did.

Carpet fuzz – Take care when building loops to ensure that the work area is free of dust, dirt, carpet fuzzies, cat hair, human hair or any other contaminants that could clog up your system. When you set your funnel down, set it on clean lint free loth. When your tubing and connectors are moved around, keep them away from containments.

Indicators – if you buy a tool – USE IT, it could save you a ton of cash. Things like flow indicators could be the difference between avoiding disaster and facing one.

SLI Connectors– Make sure you use them ONLY in SLI scenarios where there is a top and bottom card to help hold them together.

R.I.P Frank’s old Parts……………..

From here everything else will look good - lol.

What happens in my office during a rebuild. As explained above, its like a bomb goes off, all sense of clean and things in their place is destroyed during these times. It then takes me a week to get things all precise and back in its place fully after one of these.

I really hate messy, I like things to be in order and in its proper place, but for some reason, during my builds all that goes out the window and I do things so differently than I do when I do anything else. I get into this zone and nothing but what is going into or out of that case is all I care about at that time, everything else is either in the way or something I need to pick up and use..............now where did I set that screwdriver down at again? I am forever losing things - imagine that. What you do not see is how this really flows not only in my office, but extends into my bathroom, the loft, and the other bedroom. It really does take over as I move things out to get more room and keep from stepping on things as much as possible and the coolants and tubes mainly go reside in the bathtub in my office bathroom when not messing with the water cooling portions. Stuff just gets stuck everywhere, clean up takes longer than the build - lmao.

One thing I must share is the happy speeds I am getting from these RAID 0 Corsair Force GT 120G SSD's. Check out the Writes are faster than the Reads and OMFG - check out the speeds! Can anyone say "1GB" speeds?

garrable · Dec 17, 2012

Sorry to hear about the cooling system failure and the loss of Franks old parts. Hope things turn around quickly. BTW, the speeds on the corsair SSDs are sick!

The1stCAV · Dec 17, 2012

Hands above the desk, ok here we go...........

The1stCAV · Dec 18, 2012

Curlack · Dec 18, 2012

Just a hint?! Now you're just being a tease

.

Carisma · Dec 18, 2012

Are you still planning on getting another GTX 680 or are you going to stick with three?

The1stCAV · Dec 18, 2012

Curlack said:
Just a hint?! Now you're just being a tease .

My wife taught me well.................

Carisma said:
Are you still planning on getting another GTX 680 or are you going to stick with three?

Are you saying that three GTX 680 4G cards are not impressive or powerful enough that I really need to go for four?

I would rather water block them, then get a fourth to be honest. If I got a fourth, I would have to ditch the newely purchased Asus Phobeus sound card as it can only fit in the last PCIx slot currently. Now if I did 4 and wateblocked all four, then I would free up enough room to use the Phobeus, but for now with them still being on air, there is no room for a fourth TBH.

I dream of doing Watercool Heatkiller Hole Editions one day on these GTX 680's, I simply cannot stand seeing them in the 80+C range when with high quality watercooling I can have them chilling around 25-30c regularly. That is what those blocks did for the GTX 285's, the GTX 580 1.5GB cards as well as the GTX 580 3G cards. This is what I hope to do for Frank soon.

Carisma · Dec 18, 2012

The1stCAV said:
Are you saying that three GTX 680 4G cards are not impressive or powerful enough that I really need to go for four?

I would rather water block them, then get a fourth to be honest. If I got a fourth, I would have to ditch the newely purchased Asus Phobeus sound card as it can only fit in the last PCIx slot currently. Now if I did 4 and wateblocked all four, then I would free up enough room to use the Phobeus, but for now with them still being on air, there is no room for a fourth TBH.

I dream of doing Watercool Heatkiller Hole Editions one day on these GTX 680's, I simply cannot stand seeing them in the 80+C range when with high quality watercooling I can have them chilling around 25-30c regularly. That is what those blocks did for the GTX 285's, the GTX 580 1.5GB cards as well as the GTX 580 3G cards. This is what I hope to do for Frank soon.

Three 4G 680 cards are very impressive and drool worthy. I was just curious since you mentioned four 580s before their untimely/unfortunate "death". Personally, I think three GTX 680 4GB cards will last you for many years to come as they are the top dogs now.

Robertmarcus · Dec 18, 2012

The1stCAV said:
My wife taught me well.................

I dream of doing Watercool Heatkiller Hole Editions one day on these GTX 680's, I simply cannot stand seeing them in the 80+C range when with high quality watercooling I can have them chilling around 25-30c regularly. That is what those blocks did for the GTX 285's, the GTX 580 1.5GB cards as well as the GTX 580 3G cards. This is what I hope to do for Frank soon.

Gotta side with you on that. Heatkiller makes the sexiest waterblocks, silver and black perforated steel. So sexy. I plan to get them for my 7970 soon

The1stCAV · Dec 19, 2012

I do love Heatkillers, they have always served me well.

However, if I am going to do something different this build, I may consider these Bitspower GPU coolers. What I like about these is the ability to be able to drop in dual Red LED's and have these edge lit in red, giving Frank the "look" that is clean, yet says "hey check these three bars of red, know what these are? Yeah, power!" This way the CPU block would be lit red and the three GTX 680's would be lit red, with case fans, this should be all the "lighting" I would need and give the accents in the right places I think.

Features:
1. Design For Nvidia GTX680 (P2002) Reference Design VGA Card.
2. Direct-Flow Design On Inlet/Outlet.
3. Included SLI Adapters / Fittings.
4. TOP Cover Made Of Acrylic.
5. Block Base Made Of C1100.
6. SLI Ready Application.
7. Bottom High Durability Nickel Finished In Shining Black.
8. Bitspower Back-Plane Included.
9. RoHS Compliant.

This of course will depend on any additional budget I can scrape up after last weekend.

I wonder if there is a need out there for used GTX 285 or GTX 580 water blocks, I have a few sitting here............I may see if I can post them on eBay and get enough to buy three GTX 680 blocks.

The1stCAV · Dec 19, 2012

The final choice of RAM seems to have been a good one so far. It plays nice with this board, has good timings (9-10-9-28 @ 1.5v). It does run well at the rated 1867MHz and seems to a solid set of RAM modules. I am quite impressed on these over the Dominator GT's I had that did not seem so stable on this board. Once I set the timings and the voltage, this board has not reset them like it was doing with the Dominator GT.

Ofcourse performance wasn't the only deciding factor, they had to be red too, lol, nothing but RED RAM for Frankie!

G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (8 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9Q2-32GBZL

Quad channel kit for Intel X79 LGA 2011, XMP ready
DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900)
• Timing 9-10-9-28
• Cas Latency 9
• Voltage 1.5V

Model
Brand: G.SKILL
Series: Ripjaws Z Series
Model: F3-14900CL9Q2-32GBZL
Type: 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM

Tech Spec
Capacity: 32GB (8 x 4GB)
Speed: DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900)
Cas Latency: 9
Timing: 9-10-9-28
Voltage: 1.5V
ECC NoBuffered/Registered: Unbuffered
Features: Quad channel memory designed for LGA2011 Intel Core-i7 processors and X79 platforms.

Intel XMP 1.3 ready.

They do look pretty nice installed too...........

FrEaKy · Dec 19, 2012

I gotto stop reading these, there making me want to spend WAY more money than I have, or will ever have. My hat off to you sir!

/me closes door, turns corner than peeks in through window and drools.

The1stCAV · Dec 19, 2012

FrEaKy said:
I gotto stop reading these, there making me want to spend WAY more money than I have, or will ever have. My hat off to you sir!

/me closes door, turns corner than peeks in through window and drools.

Oh no you cannot run away now, we are just starting. Besides, isn't that what these forums are for? To get us drooling over "more" and want? I mean, have you taken a look through the "Post pictures of your workstation"? Seriously, that will make you go - "I wants that!" or slobbering as you slither towards thecredit card spitting out those words "my precious, I wants my precious"..........

We all have addiction, many times those cost us major cash, in the case of this addiction/hobby, its certainly up there in the wallet draining department, as well as the potential divorce department, but yet its an addiction, and thus must be quenched.

No sir, you cannot leave, let me pull out some more crack to keep you coming back

Aus10 · Dec 20, 2012

The1stCAV said:
Oh no you cannot run away now, we are just starting. Besides, isn't that what these forums are for? To get us drooling over "more" and want? I mean, have you taken a look through the "Post pictures of your workstation"? Seriously, that will make you go - "I wants that!" or slobbering as you slither towards thecredit card spitting out those words "my precious, I wants my precious"..........

We all have addiction, many times those cost us major cash, in the case of this addiction/hobby, its certainly up there in the wallet draining department, as well as the potential divorce department, but yet its an addiction, and thus must be quenched.

No sir, you cannot leave, let me pull out some more crack to keep you coming back

I'm young but that is something I have learned, our addictions are really expensive. My hobbies include home theater (lots of Avsforum for that one), computers(always have a want for more), and corvettes(favorite car). I'm sure Cav gets that, Frank is a beast, the theater is all paradigm studios, and his brand new car, which just had to get new brake calipers and drilled and slotted rotors etc. I began to wonder is it worth it to put the thousands that we all do into these hobbies? My friend just said as long as it makes you happy its worth it. I go to Avs and see insane theaters and I couldn't imagine what it would be like to watch a movie with 14K clone amps etc. I see Frank and couldn't imagine what it would be like to game across 3 monitors with no lag at all running like 90Fps every game. So were all just like... ok maybe a little bit more

Frank's 2013 upgrade.......

2[H]4U

2[H]4U

[H]ard|Gawd

[H]ard|Gawd

n00b

Weaksauce

[H]F Junkie

Limp Gawd

Weaksauce

[H]F Junkie

[H]ard|Gawd

Weaksauce

Gawd

Supreme [H]ardness

Weaksauce

Limp Gawd

[H]ard|Gawd

Weaksauce

n00b

n00b

[H]F Junkie

Weaksauce

[H]ard|Gawd

Limp Gawd

[H]F Junkie

n00b

[H]ard|Gawd

Weaksauce

[H]ard|Gawd

[H]ard|Gawd

Weaksauce

Weaksauce

[H]ard|Gawd

Weaksauce

Gawd

[H]ard|Gawd

[H]ard|Gawd

[H] Movie and TV Show Review Guy

[H]ard|Gawd

[H]ard|Gawd