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Martinje's SLI Surround Rig

M

martinje

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2004
Messages
1,348
Ok I am working on my surroung gaming rig. The thing holding me back is my case has yet to ship. I ordered a white Phantom Case to go with it. The components of the my surround build will be the following;

Case: White Phantom Case (being worked on)
Motherboard: Asus Rampage 3 Formula (testing it now)
Memory: Patriot DDR 3 1600 Sector 7 (testing it now)
CPU: I7 950 (Goal OC it to 4.2 Ghz) (being tested now also)
Hard Drive: 2 1 TB Samsung F3 in raid 0 (will be here tommorow)
SSD OS Drive: Intel 80 gig HD (have it in the box)
CPU Cooler: ECO ALC 240 MM (have it in the box)
Video Card: 2 Nvidia 480 (not ordered waiting for the case to ship)
Power Supply: NZXT Hal90 1000W (using for testing the above)
Monitor: 3 Dell U2311H (have them in the boxes)
Keyboard: Logitech G19
Mouse: Logitech G9x

My motherboard, memory and CPU came in today. Put in a cheap video card so I can run memtest on it overnight. I did not use my ALC 240, just using the default intel CPU cooler. I will leave it over night testing with memtest. If everything goes well tommorow morning I will turn it off and put everything back into it's boxes.

Here are some pics :







 
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Who makes your White Phantom case?

Where did you buy everything from?

What's the purpose of this system?
 
@tiraides - Think it's more of a build/pic thread, think he's already bought everything =)

@martinje - Some of the components seem excessive for what you need but I'm sure you'll have a good time with it in the end heh. Post more pics when you get everything done~
 
Update, memtest had 0 errors in the morning. I will pack everything back up and start waiting for my Phantom Case to ship,
 
Update: Decided to stick with Intel for the SSD. I bought an 80 gig SSD from BestBuy with the 10% off coupon.

ALso great news, I finally managed to order the Phantom case. The Egg got them in stock and ordered it. Will have it on Wednesday. Will post more pics that night so come back to look at them.
 
Well guys the Phantom Case Finally Manage to come in today. I started to work on it after work when I got home. (Unfortunately I got home late, I got rear-ended but not much damage to my truck)

Here she is;








First thing I did was to install my Asus Rampage III Formula board in;



Now my plan is to install another 200mm fan at the second space at the top, and then install my ECO 240MM system underneath it, with it's own set of fans. Here is a picture with the ECO 2400 MM installed and one of the top fans installed also. Still missing the fans attached to the ECO 2400 mm ;





Well the fans for the ECO 240mm are pretty thick and I knew I was going to be over the memory so I decided to install the memory and see how it was going to do. HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM! The patriot 7 gaming series memory comes with very long heat-sinks, and unfortunately they dont allow me to install me secondary set of fans I wanted to install. here is the picture ;



With thinking hats on, I decided to go ahead remove the top fans and install the ECO 240mm directly to the top of the case. With the 2 fans underneath it, and have the fans hooked up to the CPU fan socket on the motherboard. I will use the fan I removed from the top of the case as the side fan now. Added my trusty Artic Silver 5 as my compound Here are pics;







Now this is where I decided to stop it for tonight. I am a bit tired from the process because I am taking my time and want to make sure everything is perfect. The 2 samsung F3 should be here tomorrow. I am not sure if I will work on it tonight, because it's still not a complete kit. I am still missing the 2 480's I will be installing. I have yet to come across a good deal. So no need to rush this system. Here is a goodnight picture of the entire project with the remaining equipment waiting to be installed;

 
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Last night I did not work to much on my future computer. I just added the power supply as seen here;





After the power supply, I started wiring the board up. On a positive note, the board booted up then started beeping due no video cards being installed. I also added the intel 80 SSD drive in. My Samsung F3's came in today and maybe I will install them tonight if I have time. The thing I am being bumped on is, no [H]OT deals on the 480's. I was hoping there will be more deals now. Here is a picture with the motherboard connections at the bottom. Hard to see;



Finally guys, I don't mind if you all post ideas or comments on the thread, I appretiate some feedback from you guys.
 
Looking forward to a completed system PLUS pics of the surround setup.
(just ordered 3x2007fp's to do the same thing, portrait surround!)
 
Well my Samsung F3's came in and I started putting them inside the sleeves of the case. Here is a picture of the Samsung HD's and the Intel SSD. I cant believe how small the Intel SSD is compare to the Samsung F3's.





Now this is the Hard Drive installed in the Case. I decided to put the 2 F3's on the right and the SSD on the left.



once the Hard Drives are in, I started to work on all the cables from the back side. Came out every nice. Only thing missing are the cables to power the 2 video cards.



Now for some very BAd news guys. During testing of my I7-950 I notice the temperature being to hot on the CPU. Sometimes it was reaching 91's with a mild OC. So I decided to put everything in stock, and in stock settings my idle temp was 49 and under load 71! I could not believe it. Is it possible my ECO is not holding it's end of the bargain? So I took it out, and put back my intel heat sink. To my surprise, at stock settings, my idle 32 and load 66! This is with the intel STOCK heat sink! I have had to put this build on HOLD, until I get the ECO 240mm issue resolved.

On contacting Eco, I send them an email with my findings on Sunday, and I got a reply on Monday to send him pictures of the setup and a copy of the invoice. I email him a copy of the invoice and directed him to this thread with all the pictures. I have not heard anything from him as of yet. I will keep you posted on how the situation goes, but as of now my gaming rig project is on HOLD :( .

One small bright side, the wife got tired of seeing all those boxes on the floor in the office, and she said just order those damn video cards so we can have a normal office LoL.

I will keep you posted on this thread on how this gets resolve with Coolit.
 
UPDATE FROM COOL IT,

I got an email what are my temperature after I have reset the heat-sink used the vertical line down on the middle of CPU. Told him it has not change I see the same 50C at idle and 71 on load on a stock I7-950.

First time I used the dot in the middle of the CPU, second time used the credit card swipe methord, and this third time the vertical line in the middle of the CPU.

All the times I have gotten same temp result. If I go back to Intel CPU, my temps drop to 32 idle and 61 load.

So far not impress with Eco service department. I will keep you all posted.
 
Hi Martineje this is Barry w/ CoolIT.

We were just talking about your support case and I took a look at this thread. I am not sure from the pics but it looks like the only two fans you have pushing air across our rad are the two 140mm fans built into your chassis?

If thats the case, you aren't going to be getting nearly enough air though the rad.. a fan blows almost all of its air around the outside of the structure (at the end of its blades) so if you are using a 140mm fan on a 120mm radiator hardly any of that is going to get pulled through the rad.

I also noticed you might have a gap between the fans and the rad itself.. is that right? If so, air is going to take the path of least resistance and go around the rad and not through it.

Again, not sure if this is the case but take a look at those two things and let us know. Might be a problem w/ the cooler too but please check those two things first to rule them out.

I would suggest taking the radiator out of your case, putting the two fans on it that came with it and trying a bench like that. Keep us posted, thats a really nice clean build and we'll make sure you are running fast, cool and quiet.

Barry @ CoolIT
 
BARRY If you have READ my original EMAIL that I send to your support system I have made no modifications to your Cool it system. The 2 fans that you see are the ones that came with your system like I have stated to Andrew. I have also stated to Andrew under the load the board reports the fans at 1600 RPM. BOTH fans are RIGHT on the radiator, and the radiator is mounted to the top of the PHANTOM case. Took a better picture






Further more if you really want to help me, you can give me a call, I have left a voice mail for you all to call me no one ever did. I get irritated I have responded to your questions in the EMAIL I have sent to Andrew and are found under my case. Guess how many USEFUL responces I have 0 ! All the questions you have asked have been asked by Andrew and are listed under my case #. Just like I have stated to Andrew in the email, the fans are connected to the CPU power port directly to the motherboard. Thanks for given sugestions that I have allready answered in my case. Now if you are saying the kit that sells for 135 dollars plus shipping that includes 2 fans is not enough to cool the radiator and I should have bought the 4 fan kit then we have a serious problem!

The case is wide open with no type of covers, it is basicaly in a open area. I am sorry if I am sounding rough here, but you are dealing with a HardOcper that thinks twice before installing things. I got over 2k woth of equipment being held up by your device and have yet to receive a call or a solution for the problem.

Gladly will take any USEFUL sugestions.

Thanks
 
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Barrolde said:
Hi Martineje this is Barry w/ CoolIT.

I would suggest taking the radiator out of your case, putting the two fans on it that came with it and trying a bench like that. Keep us posted, thats a really nice clean build and we'll make sure you are running fast, cool and quiet.

Barry @ CoolIT
Click to expand...


Barry I went ahead and took your advice, and made the extra effort and removed my ECO and left it at the desk, Just so you know the CORE voltage is set to 1.2 VOLTS, before it was at 1.25 so I removed .5 more to see whats the best we can do. At these voltages this thing should be my guess 25 idle and maybe 50 on a load. Here are pictures of the setup;





Here are the results on the test you had me do;

IDLE is at follows, I have CPUZ open so you can see the CPU at sotck with 1.2 volts;


Dont know why the images are not right side up, they are when I upload them.
At Idle we are at 44 C

Now lets look at LOAD



Dont know why the images are not right side up, they are when I upload them.


65 C

So at what 1.2 Volts, we are almost at intel stock heatsink marks. I have gone an extra mile to show that this ECO 240 has a serious issue and you all have yet to recognize it, but you all sure do give lots of things to try. Now that I have gone the extra mile including; Re-pasting my heatsink 3 times, installed the Intel heatsink twice, and removed the radiator and do testing with it outside the case. All have given me about the same result. I need to see how much of an extra mile you all are going to do for your customer now.

Barry if you want I can remove the ECO 240mm and install the Intel heatsink and show how the included heatsink beats my 150.00 dollar (after shipping) ECO system. I dont know what other test I can do now to prove that the ECO has some issues. Now compare that to the results that HARDOCP got at the following;

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/07/21/coolit_eco_c240_performance_review/3


Now hopefully with this information you cna get with Andrew and go the extra mile to help a customer that put faith in your product.

Thanks
 
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how frustrating it must be to have this be the thing holding you up. You go into a build thinking, "well maybe i'll have to RMA my ram" or something, but never this... :(
 
chockomonkey said:
how frustrating it must be to have this be the thing holding you up. You go into a build thinking, "well maybe i'll have to RMA my ram" or something, but never this... :(
Click to expand...

Tell me about it :( ..


COOL It update;

They have been in contact with me and I will be shipping my ECO 240 back in for them to take a closer look. Unfortunately I wont be able to ship it till Moday due to me being on a business trip till Friday night. I am sure once they do receive it they will make it their top priority to resolve the issue.

So I will remove the Eco unit and ship it out on next Monday back to ECO. The unit is being shipped to them at their expense and want to recognize that, not many companies do that anymore. I will keep you posted guys but for now I will probably wont update any further until I get my Eco back. Thanks for all the people that come and look at the thread every day.
 
My Video Cards came in Finally!



Now this is with one of them inside the Rampage.



Now here is a picture with both bad boys inside.



I could not wait till my ECO Coolit to come back from ECO so I put the intel stock heatsink and turn this babies on.

Here some screen in portrait running Heaven Benchmark.







Now this is the se result on the First run in everything in stock settings;



I cant wait till my CoolIt ECO 240 comes in and I can finish this build. Im playing now with it because I cant wait and having a blast!

COOL it Update: They will be shipping me a replacement unit no later then tomorrow. I will keep you posted once I receive it.
 
Wow! Nice build looks well thought out. A Little overkill in some areas but it's nice to see folks still take the time to make Visually appealing setups.

Kudos to you.

Hope everything works out on the cooler situation. I've always been nervous about canned Water Cooling Setups.
 
Thank you for all the compliments.

Get ready for some [H]ard updates tonight. My cooler arrives today and I will finish building her TODAY. Even if I have to miss part of the Monday night football game tonight. Also I always name my computers, and I will be sharing her name to all the [H]ard members.
 
Well I spoke WAY to soon. I received my ECO 240 and as I open up I notice pieces of cardboard paper. The unit was just tie wraped to the card board. It did not stood up the DHL shipping and the tie wraps broke off the card board. The weight of the CPU bend one of the pipes of the ECO 240.

I called ECO and their responce " Please send me a picture and you will probably wont hear anything till tommorow"

This is my new ECO 240 with a 90 degree angle to it. What ya think, just bent it back and see if I can make it work?

 
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I am HAPPY to REPORT this build is DONE!! CoolIt was nice to send me a replacement while I was using the dented one so I can continue building. They actually send a replacement VERY fast that I was not expecting it. So KUDOS to them for taking care of their customer.




Back to my build, I added a PCI EXPRESS Fan in the middle of my 2 480's to keep the heat from the bottom card to reach my top card. It's being controlled by my fan controller that came with the Phantom Case.



Here a Layout picture with everything installed;




I also bought the fan that goes in front of the case to help bring in cold air from the Front, it's also being controlled by the Phantom Fan Controller;



Now remember at this time I still had 2 Eco Systems So I ask Cool It if I could buy the 2 fans from them, and they where COOL enough to sell them to me at a GREAT DEAL ! So I bought them and this is the new outcome...





Now this is now the final OUTCOME FINALLY Completed.









Now I also kept my part of the bargain to the wife and started cleaning the office. I am now down to only 4 boxes left and I promise her I will finish tonight. (Tomorrow I leave on another business trip.)

I would like to thank the Cool It crew after everything is said and done. We did have some small glitches but at the end of the day they got the job done. If you would ask me if I would buy from them again, I would say yes. The second cooler came damaged from shipping and the following day they had one build for me. I taught it was going to take another week and therefore lost my COOL-ness and maybe spoke way to soon on my complaint to them. So my apologize to COOl-It and they did take care of me at the end.

Finally I hope you all enjoy all these pictures and sticking with me through out the entire process. Now I am sure you are all asking the number 1 question, what's the computer name. While working with her and putting her together, I dont know how but it just felt I was working with a Amanda. So that's her name. Now dont ask me how that happen but it just did. So if you ever hack into my home network, and see Amanda, thats my new baby. Please dont hesitate to ask any questions or comments. Once again thank you for sticking with be through the good and bad.

I can see it now PLEASE post some specs;

Well Amanda is running a 4.22 Ghz with HT/Turbo on. Took 1.375 Volts on the CPU, and 1.25 on the IOH to have her stable. My idle temps are about 42-46 just depends on the fans. Under load, Prime 95 = 85 - 87 C and on Lynx it will jump up to 90 C then drops back down to 88. In long gaming sessions, highest reading has been 56 on the CPU.

On the 480 side of things, I OC them just a bit, GPU at 850 and the memory only 100 mhz over. They idle at 44-45 C and in long gaming sessions I see them peak at 66-67 C. In Furmark it will get them toasty to 75 C. Now the top video card sometimes is 1 to 2 degree cooler. I think thats because the big side fan blows more air to the top card.

Finally thank you for your time and Enjoy.
 
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Acutally Im very impress with the case. I think its a great air cooling case.
 
Yeah Roliath, I thought I Coot It was going to take a long time to get me a replacement, and the following day they had one shipped. I was not expecting that, so I wanted to make sure that information was posted. Thanks for spending time on the thread.
 
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