New build - help needed!

T

taveston

n00b
Joined
May 15, 2011
Messages
19
I've had just finished by first attempt at building a PC and was pleasantly surprised when the machine actually booted. Here are the specs:

Silverstone FT03 case
Intel 2600k @ 3.4 Ghz with Corsair H70 closed loop water cooler
Asus P8P67-M Pro
Silverstone Strider 1200w PSU
8 GB DDR 3 1600 Mhz Corsair Vengeance
Intel 520 series SSD 250 GB
1 TB Western Digital 7200 rpm 8MB Cache
2 x Geforece 590 sli
Apple 27" Cinema Display
Windows 7 64 bit

And here are some photos (can anyone tell me how I can enbed these - I tried the insert image button but it didn't work)

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/img2151n.jpg

Unboxing

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/215/img2224ju.jpg/

Front

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/89/img2222a.jpg/

Back

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/714/img2231u.jpg/

Setup

The first thing I need advice on is cooling, the system runs very loud and pretty hot as well and I am wondering if I have the right fan set up. The cooler and the case installation instructions were a little contradictory but here is how I set it up:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/coolingr.jpg/

Second thing I need help on this performance - with no overclock and 2 x 590 in sli I get 8,500 in 3d Mark 2011 - am I right in thinking this is low? Also when I used the Asus auto tweak utility to OC to 4.4 Ghz (should it go higher with an H70?), the highest it could go, the score didn't change at all, so it feels as though something is wrong... Also the first card gets pretty hot but not the second card - maybe it's not being used? (in nvidia control panel it says Sli is on though...

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/193/sliew.png/

So in summary:

1. Are the fans set up properly
2. Anything I can do to make the system quieter (new fans maybe?)
3. Should I be able to OC higher, if so, how?
4. How can I improve my 3D mark score, is sli working?

Thanks for your help

Tom
 
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Your processor will down clock itself when it's idle so that's normal. Your 590s have 1.5GB per gpu. Since its a 2 gpu card its marketed having 3gb of ram, also completely normal.

As for you 3Dmark score. I don't bench my comp with that so I wouldn't know if thats a good score or not. I run a game I like to play and if its smooth, I'm happy =D However, I see that you don't have SLI enabled. So go to your nvidia control panel and enable it and rerun 3dmark.

For noise, your cards will get loud, esp if you have two of them. I got so fed up with mine I ended up water cooling it all. With all that power ya just gotta live with it.
 
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The Silverstone FT03 would be the last case I would think of to run two GTX 590's...

That fan setup is not good, hot air is getting trapped inside the case. Reverse the two fans on the Corsair H70 and the two 80mm fans at the bottom and you should obtain better temperatures. Think cool air coming in from the bottom/side and hot air going out the top.
 
Shaman said:
The Silverstone FT03 would be the last case I would think of to run two GTX 590's...

That fan setup is not good, hot air is getting trapped inside the case. Reverse the two fans on the Corsair H70 and the two 80mm fans at the bottom and you should obtain better temperatures. Think cool air coming in from the bottom/side and hot air going out the top.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough I did this over the weekend and the temps actually went up - the CPU by +10c and the GPU by +5

I am now experimenting with the bottom fans pushing air out the bottom (to work with the exhaust from the 590s) and the H70 fans pushing up (note that the manual for H70 says that for the best performance the fans should intake).
 
Of course the H70 will perform better if the fans act as intake, but if you look around this forum you will see almost everyone is running the fan(s) on their closed loop WC systems as exhaust (because it's usually located at the top-rear of tower cases) and they are happy with their temperatures.

But if you want to run the H70 fans as intakes, you should reverse the middle 120mm fan (the one above the PSU) so that you have a top-to-bottom airflow config.

In any case, with two GTX 590's crammed in such a small case you're always gonna have high temperatures.
 
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You scores are very low. I can break 6300 with my 4.8ghz 2600k and a single 6970. You should be over 8k with just one card. Make sure you have everything setup for SLI in the nvidia control panel. You can download MSI after burner or GPU-Z and run 3d mark or a game and it will show you how much load you are getting on each GPU. If there not all loading up then somthing isn't setup right. Also run CPU-Z and see how much voltage your seeing at load. When I tried the auto overclock just to see what it would do it set my voltage way to high. But thats was on my MSI board. Just somethings to help you trouble shoot. Good luck and nice rig.
 
Thanks both

I now have a 10k 3dmark11 score on one card but I have a new problem! Can't get sli to work, both cards recognised and two sli bridges tried but no joy. Option just isn't available in the nvidia control panel.

Also I can oc CPU to 4.7 ghz but only with LCC enabled and I am 1.5v under load, this isn't good right?

I will experiment with the CPU intake fans reversed but def get better performance with the h70 fans on intake even if counter intuitive
 
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