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IceEmQuick
n00b
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2009
- Messages
- 49
Current System Specs are as follows:
MB: ASUS ROG Extreme III
1- Core i7 930 2.8 Stock
RAM G.Skill Ripjaw 2000Mhz - 6MB
1-TB Seagate HDD
1-Silverstone HDDBOOST with 32 MB SSD (will talk later about this)
1-ThermalTake TR2 RX 1200 Powersupply
1- ATi 5970 (Had plans for 2, but will wait for next gen, current one works just fine)
1-ThermalTake Armor Plus Full Tower Case with 1 -230mm side fan and 2 140mm bottom intake fans, 1 - 120 mm front Intake Fan, 1- 120mm fan from HDD cage blowing at video card (measured temp of the air at that fan to be no warmer that 3 degrees over ambient).
Now I dabbled in a very serious WC system from Swiftech YEARS ago. I had a Peltier setup on the old P4 when the best P4 was 3.06. I could OC that to over 4.8 but the power bill to run everything was crazy and Each MB would last about 6 months before a Cap would go. I actually bought out a companies stock of 6 boards because at this time AMD's 64 were the way to go, but my system would shred them. I had to have RDRAM, but the boards I got only cost me 25 a piece after I worked out a deal with the guy (he was selling them for 75 - this was back in 05).
Earlier this year I had an LGA775 system that I moved from an Air Cooled to a Corsair H50 and when I pulled air in and re-did the fan's, and created some clear ducting, was able to keep the whole case just as cool, if not cooler as if the front was intake and back was exhaust. It worked, and the temps were actually better than most sites got but I like doing my own thing mostly, so I bought the system above (Never buy a system, thats my motto, yes it may take hours to put together and test and deal with crap but in the end you understand that machine and all the quirks and everything.) I delt with a DOA MB, a bad Motherboard that wouldn't recognize the middle RAM AND a bad CPU. I will give NewEgg 5 stars as they shipped out 3 (yes 3 different CPU,MB, RAM via fed ex at their expense and paid for return WITHOUT charging my card). When I got it working with the air cooler I made sure NewEgg got everything back and was very happy with how they treated me. I like the fact they trusted me, but considering the amount of Biz I do with them its not surprising.
So I order me up an Apogee XT with their Radiator with internal pump. It was a 2 fan size Rad. I ordered 4 117 CFM fans so that I get a nice push/pull combo.
I must say that the install was NEARLY painless. My dump ass forgot to teflon tape the intake and it ended up passing the 24 hour test, but thank god I don't trust myself and I built a system kill switch which I mount on new W/C systems (I designed myself). Basically it gets wet, conducts, cuts power. I could take up time and put together a schematic if you would like. But it cut off after 48 hours after a dribble came out and triggered the switch, but a little more came out and fell down on the video card. I would say maybe 1 or 2 drops max (I need to expand the switch and or rely on more of a capillary action to cover more area, but using that takes time.... thinking 2 in series would have stopped at 1 drop and none would have landed on the card.
The good news is the 5970 is fully covered so there was no coolant that got into the card and if it did it was distilled and tested and was not conductive.
I got upset when I saw that I didn't teflon the intake. Some people don't believe in that tape, some use a liquid version, I prefer the good old tape. It has YET to fail me in any of my W/C systems, the only failures were the ones that sit between the machine and keyboard....
I get that puppy fixed and run it through tests for 4 days. It passed.
Now the fun time. I like a good over-clock, nothing crazy that requires me to go nuts or push temps, but I don't like wuss over-clocks either... IMHO and believe me I am humble, if you buy a 2.8 to over-clock to 3.4-3.6, thats a waste, but as I said, it my opinion. In the real world, there is NOTHING wrong with it, but in Ice's world, I call that bull shit.
After a few hours, I settle on what I feel is a decent mix of temps, voltages and, speed.
CPU Speed: 4101 MHz
CPU Voltage 1.28300 V
QPI Voltage: 1.24400 V
IOH: 1.19100 V
IOH OCE: 1.50800 V
ICH 1.111 V
DRAM 1.58700 V
CPU PLL: 1.81200 V
From what I can tell for that OC those voltages are actually pretty damn low. I confirmed at power points to what was being output into the RC TweakIT and they all were with in a hundreth if less...
I would say I got either a great MB with a great CPU or just got a CPU that came from a hell of a good batch. I keep my Computer Rooms Temp at 20 degrees Ambient and run the four Rad fans at 100%. They make noise, but nothing that isn't bearable. This is a gaming PC that I use to RIP stuff on, so I can stand the noise, and where i'm at in FL, the Window A/C unit used to keep this room very steady in humidity and temp year around drowns out the fans of the PC anyway and isn't bad.
Here is a screen of the Temps after 5 Runs of Linx run at max memory...
Now here is the system with the old 850. When I pushed the system way hard and had furmark and linx going the power supply shut down. It wasn't a blue screen or anything like that, I could tell because no lights to the system what so ever. So when I put in the 1200, I rewired it MUCH cleaner. Compared to the old which you see here, all you see is the MB power coming from behind. I couldn't stand the clutter, but the pics were from the first stable runs, so I wasn't worried about making it look good, which it does now.
I bought the 1 Gig drive and had everything installed and wanted an SSD, but I didn't want to re-do the system. Plus at the time a 64 was going for 200+ or more, I can't remember. But I read a good review off Hardware Canucks and for the price I tried one. I timed pressing enter after my password until a finished program box popped up. It went from :52 seconds at its best to about 15 seconds after. I bought a 32 Gig SSD.
Its not quite the Hybrid drives out there, but honestly I have come to like this setup a lot since it attempts to write to the SSD only when needed and do it evenly. I told my buddy about this and he got one and it worked well for him. Basically it caches everything in the first xx(drive size) of the mirrored HD. Windows loads quick, and so does VS 2010 and Office 2010. I think it maybe time to move to a 128 or 256 at this point and yes I would keep using the HDDBOOST. I would just have turn off the system and literally unplug the old drive and plug this one in and boot.
Thats its... Some think its nice, some don't care.... it works for me, and I find that what works for me isn't everyones cup of tea.
But I will say my WC system is very SIMPLE compared to some of the wonders I have seen out there. One day I would love to go all out like that. I have to give props those who do it right, and double props to those who use more than one loop.
I know some people in the W/C community shun the Corsair H50 and H70 and you really shouldn't.... I'm not saying go out and buy one and step down from a good W/C setup, but recommend it to someone looking for a cooler. Get them to use it.... see how well it can work and how quiet it can be for general work and turn the fan(s) up for gaming and turn on that O/C profile and show that that water done right can be as good if not better than air.
I hope I didn't put anyone asleep or piss anyone off, wasn't my intent... hope you enjoyed my view...
Cheers!!!
-IceE,Quick
MB: ASUS ROG Extreme III
1- Core i7 930 2.8 Stock
RAM G.Skill Ripjaw 2000Mhz - 6MB
1-TB Seagate HDD
1-Silverstone HDDBOOST with 32 MB SSD (will talk later about this)
1-ThermalTake TR2 RX 1200 Powersupply
1- ATi 5970 (Had plans for 2, but will wait for next gen, current one works just fine)
1-ThermalTake Armor Plus Full Tower Case with 1 -230mm side fan and 2 140mm bottom intake fans, 1 - 120 mm front Intake Fan, 1- 120mm fan from HDD cage blowing at video card (measured temp of the air at that fan to be no warmer that 3 degrees over ambient).
Now I dabbled in a very serious WC system from Swiftech YEARS ago. I had a Peltier setup on the old P4 when the best P4 was 3.06. I could OC that to over 4.8 but the power bill to run everything was crazy and Each MB would last about 6 months before a Cap would go. I actually bought out a companies stock of 6 boards because at this time AMD's 64 were the way to go, but my system would shred them. I had to have RDRAM, but the boards I got only cost me 25 a piece after I worked out a deal with the guy (he was selling them for 75 - this was back in 05).
Earlier this year I had an LGA775 system that I moved from an Air Cooled to a Corsair H50 and when I pulled air in and re-did the fan's, and created some clear ducting, was able to keep the whole case just as cool, if not cooler as if the front was intake and back was exhaust. It worked, and the temps were actually better than most sites got but I like doing my own thing mostly, so I bought the system above (Never buy a system, thats my motto, yes it may take hours to put together and test and deal with crap but in the end you understand that machine and all the quirks and everything.) I delt with a DOA MB, a bad Motherboard that wouldn't recognize the middle RAM AND a bad CPU. I will give NewEgg 5 stars as they shipped out 3 (yes 3 different CPU,MB, RAM via fed ex at their expense and paid for return WITHOUT charging my card). When I got it working with the air cooler I made sure NewEgg got everything back and was very happy with how they treated me. I like the fact they trusted me, but considering the amount of Biz I do with them its not surprising.
So I order me up an Apogee XT with their Radiator with internal pump. It was a 2 fan size Rad. I ordered 4 117 CFM fans so that I get a nice push/pull combo.
I must say that the install was NEARLY painless. My dump ass forgot to teflon tape the intake and it ended up passing the 24 hour test, but thank god I don't trust myself and I built a system kill switch which I mount on new W/C systems (I designed myself). Basically it gets wet, conducts, cuts power. I could take up time and put together a schematic if you would like. But it cut off after 48 hours after a dribble came out and triggered the switch, but a little more came out and fell down on the video card. I would say maybe 1 or 2 drops max (I need to expand the switch and or rely on more of a capillary action to cover more area, but using that takes time.... thinking 2 in series would have stopped at 1 drop and none would have landed on the card.
The good news is the 5970 is fully covered so there was no coolant that got into the card and if it did it was distilled and tested and was not conductive.
I got upset when I saw that I didn't teflon the intake. Some people don't believe in that tape, some use a liquid version, I prefer the good old tape. It has YET to fail me in any of my W/C systems, the only failures were the ones that sit between the machine and keyboard....
I get that puppy fixed and run it through tests for 4 days. It passed.
Now the fun time. I like a good over-clock, nothing crazy that requires me to go nuts or push temps, but I don't like wuss over-clocks either... IMHO and believe me I am humble, if you buy a 2.8 to over-clock to 3.4-3.6, thats a waste, but as I said, it my opinion. In the real world, there is NOTHING wrong with it, but in Ice's world, I call that bull shit.
After a few hours, I settle on what I feel is a decent mix of temps, voltages and, speed.
CPU Speed: 4101 MHz
CPU Voltage 1.28300 V
QPI Voltage: 1.24400 V
IOH: 1.19100 V
IOH OCE: 1.50800 V
ICH 1.111 V
DRAM 1.58700 V
CPU PLL: 1.81200 V
From what I can tell for that OC those voltages are actually pretty damn low. I confirmed at power points to what was being output into the RC TweakIT and they all were with in a hundreth if less...
I would say I got either a great MB with a great CPU or just got a CPU that came from a hell of a good batch. I keep my Computer Rooms Temp at 20 degrees Ambient and run the four Rad fans at 100%. They make noise, but nothing that isn't bearable. This is a gaming PC that I use to RIP stuff on, so I can stand the noise, and where i'm at in FL, the Window A/C unit used to keep this room very steady in humidity and temp year around drowns out the fans of the PC anyway and isn't bad.
Here is a screen of the Temps after 5 Runs of Linx run at max memory...
Now here is the system with the old 850. When I pushed the system way hard and had furmark and linx going the power supply shut down. It wasn't a blue screen or anything like that, I could tell because no lights to the system what so ever. So when I put in the 1200, I rewired it MUCH cleaner. Compared to the old which you see here, all you see is the MB power coming from behind. I couldn't stand the clutter, but the pics were from the first stable runs, so I wasn't worried about making it look good, which it does now.
I bought the 1 Gig drive and had everything installed and wanted an SSD, but I didn't want to re-do the system. Plus at the time a 64 was going for 200+ or more, I can't remember. But I read a good review off Hardware Canucks and for the price I tried one. I timed pressing enter after my password until a finished program box popped up. It went from :52 seconds at its best to about 15 seconds after. I bought a 32 Gig SSD.
Its not quite the Hybrid drives out there, but honestly I have come to like this setup a lot since it attempts to write to the SSD only when needed and do it evenly. I told my buddy about this and he got one and it worked well for him. Basically it caches everything in the first xx(drive size) of the mirrored HD. Windows loads quick, and so does VS 2010 and Office 2010. I think it maybe time to move to a 128 or 256 at this point and yes I would keep using the HDDBOOST. I would just have turn off the system and literally unplug the old drive and plug this one in and boot.
Thats its... Some think its nice, some don't care.... it works for me, and I find that what works for me isn't everyones cup of tea.
But I will say my WC system is very SIMPLE compared to some of the wonders I have seen out there. One day I would love to go all out like that. I have to give props those who do it right, and double props to those who use more than one loop.
I know some people in the W/C community shun the Corsair H50 and H70 and you really shouldn't.... I'm not saying go out and buy one and step down from a good W/C setup, but recommend it to someone looking for a cooler. Get them to use it.... see how well it can work and how quiet it can be for general work and turn the fan(s) up for gaming and turn on that O/C profile and show that that water done right can be as good if not better than air.
I hope I didn't put anyone asleep or piss anyone off, wasn't my intent... hope you enjoyed my view...
Cheers!!!
-IceE,Quick
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