My new system.. with "how-to" on building/putting it together.. in progress..

[-silencer-]

Before anyone comments, my primary use of my computer is terrain database & software compiling, 3D rendering, and video/audio encoding.. so this machine is NOT overkill and is actually necessary for one of my contracts to have more rapid progress (It takes an average of 210 hours straight to compile a terrain database I work on with my Q6600/8GB memory). I've usually gone with higher-end builds in the past, but this is the first time since 1996 that I've gone this far. I'll post my 1996 build later in the thread, as I kept receipts for all parts and I laugh/cringe at the prices/parts that went into it. It was worth it for years, as I know this machine will be as well, especially since I'll be using this for my business contract as well to make up the cost quite easily.

I'll be releasing photos as parts arrive, detailed plans and progress as I construct the case, notes on decisions I've made and why, and final system results/benchmarking. I will NOT be upgrading to new videocards just yet, since I don't need them for my work and I don't see the point of upgrading from my current DX10 cards (8800GTX / 9600GT) to GTX285/295 or HD4870x2 when DX11 cards will be out later this year. Also, since I'm watercooling most of my machine, I only want a single-PCB videocard (which means no GTX295) - that way I can put a waterblock on it and make it only use a single slot on the motherboard.. as my future plans include using all 6 slots on my board. This machine will be about 80% complete by the end of this month, with a couple future upgrades (videocards with 2nd watercooling loop, gaming NIC, and pci-x8 multi-array RAID controller with RAID0 SSDs) down the line.

Enough with the babble.. here's the first two sneak shots..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/preview.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/preview2.jpg

..kudos to anyone who can name the model number of every part there. :) Once everything arrives, I'll get a group shot of the boxes, a shot of the unwrapped parts, and continue my documentation of the process of building a custom watercooled & overclocked computer. And yes, I'll be building a custom case from the ground up (minus the purchase of a Lian Li motherboard tray, HDD racks, and PSU plate).

Thanks to the following sources for providing the parts (with generally what I ordered from them for this build).. all great sources for computer stuff that I've used in the past and will likely use in the future:
Intel representative family member: processor.
Newegg.com: Most computer components.
Performance-PCs.com: Case parts & watercooling supplies.
PetrasTechShop.com: Watercooling supplies & UV cold cathodes.
FrozenCPU.com: Watercooling, thermal, and case parts.
DangerDen.com: Watercooling supplies.
Xoxide.com: Fans!
Dell.com: Monitors.

[heffner]

Looks like Christmas! How come they only sent 1/2 a case? ;P

I always wanted to try the aquarium computer (filled with mineral oil)...maybe some day.

I hope it turns out as sweet as it looks!

Cheers

[suicidesspyder]

Nice it seems like the way your doing this your making it so we can all buy the same stuff as you and build it step by step by you. So like i say bring on the video camera and bring on the teaching. Im sitting here patiently waiting your instructions of how-to-build this awesome computer lol.

[Starbuck_Jones]

Glass from Dell. Very nice

[pinotnoir]

Hey we have the same motherboard, ram, and LCD from what I can see in the photo. Not sure about the drives.

[-silencer-]

Looks like Christmas! How come they only sent 1/2 a case? ;P

I'm building the case out of MDF/acrylic/glass.. for a custom cooling system but also as a sound suppressor. Therefore, I only ordered a Lian Li motherboard tray, 2 HDD racks, and a power supply plate. Once the rest arrives, I'll finish the design of the case and post notes on it.. then off to Home Depot for case material purchases.

[sqeaky4100]

Almost my exact build, seriously, all the way down to the dual 24" 2408s haha.

Except I went with the EVGA x58 mobo.

And I'm using the AMAZING CM 932 HAF case. ( seriously, this thing is slick )

I'm going to start my build once my final Velociraptor 300gb comes in for the Raid 0

Im going on air though, for some reason I just prefer it.

[-silencer-]

Almost my exact build, seriously, all the way down to the dual 24" 2408s haha.

Except I went with the EVGA x58 mobo.

And I'm using the AMAZING CM 932 HAF case. ( seriously, this thing is slick )

I'm going to start my build once my final Velociraptor 300gb comes in for the Raid 0

Im going on air though, for some reason I just prefer it.
Well, two of those packages are 300GB WD Velociraptors.... :)

I picked the Rampage 2 Extreme because it's one of the few motherboards where a good aftermarket waterblock maker has blocks for the mosfets.. :)

(and the 2x 2048's are only half the monitors i'll be using. :) )

As for water.. I'm going over 4GHz on the CPU... hence the CPU, X58 northbridge and ICH10R southbridge, and 2x mosfet voltage regulator waterblocks.. and 4x120mm radiator. :)

[keyclone]

i love checking out these threads. gives me ideas for my own system (but i've got the thermal take liquid cool atm)

[-silencer-]

i love checking out these threads. gives me ideas for my own system (but i've got the thermal take liquid cool atm)
My decisions for the water cooling were based heavily on threads I've read here:
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/t282232.html
I was considering going with a full Danger Den system, as they make quality components, but it seems like I was able to piece together a custom system that's a step ahead of what I could have gotten from any single manufacturer. Since all components use standard G1/4" threads, I'm swapping in all 1/2"ID-3/4"OD compression fittings for a very clean appearance but excellent hold for leak prevention:

Swiftech GTZ cpu block w/LGA1366 adapter
EK Asus Rampage 2 Extreme X58/ICH10R block
EK Asus Rampage 2 Extreme Mosfet blocks
Feser TFC X-Changer 480 radiator w/4x120mm Yate Loon 2200rpm fans
Laing DDC-3.2 with EK X-Top Rev.2 acrylic top pump & Petra Tech gel vibration dampener
Koolance 200mm (~550mL) 4-port reservoir w/120mm bracket
14x Bitspower black sparkle compression fittings 1/2"-3/4"
Tygon 3603 1/2"ID, 3/4"OD tubing
Feser One Blue UV coolant
IC Diamond 7 thermal paste
Teflon tape for thread sealant installing compression fittings

When I add two DX11 videocards later in the year, I'll add:
2x EK Full-cover graphics waterblocks
Laing DDC-3.2 with EK X-Top Rev.2 acrylic top pump & Petra Tech gel vibration dampener
Feser TFC X-Changer 480 radiator w/4x120mm Yate Loon 2200rpm fans
10x Bitspower black sparkle compression fittings 1/2"-3/4"

When this system is complete, it'll have two water loops all sharing off one reservoir so I'll only need to refill/change water at one location. The goal is for high performance while keeping noise to an absolute minimum, which is why I'm having two 4x120mm radiators for a total of 8 fans - with a fan controller to tune the noise/performance ratio.

A few more boxes arrived today. Technically I have everything I need to test the computer *without* the watercooling system (or constructed case), so I'll probably get started. I'd like to have it all tested and ready on air cooling before I void the warranty on a $400 motherboard by ripping the heatsink off the northbridge, southbridge, and mosfets to install the waterblocks. :)

Taking pics in a few..

[-silencer-]

Here's the core of the build:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/core-boxes.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/core-i7box.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/core-i7-heatsinkcpu.jpg
So.. lets check out that i7 965EE stock heatsink I won't be using for more than a few days.. an all-copper base with pre-applied thermal paste:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/core-i7-heatsinkbottom.jpg
..and half-copper/half-aluminum heatsink fins:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/core-i7-heatsinktop.jpg
..and here's the mobo:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/asus-r2e.jpg
..opened up:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/asus-r2e-open.jpg
..with SLI connectors and LED-lit backplate..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/asus-r2e-parts1.jpg
..and accessories.. LED poster, heatsink fan, 6x SATA cables, IDE cable, USB/Firewire plate, thermal sensors, and voltage test leads for a multimeter..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/asus-r2e-parts2.jpg
..a shot of the ports on the sound card that I won't be using. It's not a true X-Fi - there's no hardware processor. It emulates X-Fi functionality by using the CPU..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/asus-r2e-sound-ports.jpg
..and a shot of the card plugged in..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/asus-r2e-with-sound.jpg
..here's the mobo with the EK X58/ICH10R and mosfet heatsinks hovering over their locations..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/asus-with-waterblocks.jpg
..12GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600C8.. physically the same as DDR3-1866C9, so they're capable of extra speed quite easily..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/ram.jpg
..and the optical drives: an LG Blu-Ray burner / HD-DVD reader / DVD burner / CD-burner.. and a basic LG DVD burner with Lightscribe..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/blu-ray-burner.jpg
..the Corsair 1000W power supply.. with a TON of connectors to choose from..:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/corsair-psu-1.jpg
..and the back ports:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/corsair-psu-2.jpg
..and a comparison to a generic 300W power supply I'll be using to power the cooling/lighting systems..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/corsair-with-300w-psu.jpg
..the battery backup for 4x monitors and 300w cooling/lighting power supply.. the main system battery backup (900W 1500VA) hasn't arrived yet..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/battery-backup1.jpg
..the 2x 300GB Western Digital Velociraptors to be RAID0'd..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/velociraptors.jpg
..and the 2x Samsung 1TB hard drives..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/samsung-terabytes.jpg
..and the Lian Li hard drive racks with anti-vibration screws..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/hdd-rack-1.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/hdd-rack-2.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/hdd-rack-3.jpg
..here's the aftermarket top to the Laing DDC-3.2 waterpump (haven't received the pump yet), which will increase flow..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/ek-ddc-top-r2.jpg
..and the EK waterblocks.. 2 smaller ones for the mosfets and a large one that covers the X58 northbridge and ICH10R southbridge..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/ek-waterblocks.jpg
..the radiator with a fan for size comparison..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/radiator-with-fan.jpg
..8x 120mm Yate Loon 2200rpm fans.. for now, 4 for the radiator and 4 for the case.. 0.3A/4W each.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/yate-loon-2200rpm-fans.jpg
..coolant.. blue & UV reactive..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/feser-one.jpg
..the Scythe Kaze Master fan controller / temp monitor.. able to handle 1A/12W per channel, so 2-3 fans per channel.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/scythe-kaze-master.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/scythe-kaze-master-open.jpg
..the Scythe Kama Reader 45-in-1 media card reader.. and Bytecc USB/Firewire/eSATA hub.. both 3.5" bay devices..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/input-hubs.jpg
..various electrical stuff for the case and dual power supply system..
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/atx-extension.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/power-controls.jpg
- military switch with cover & blue LED: controls entire system power by turning on 300w power supply, and through a relay, allowing the 1000w system power supply to be powered on. The cover prevents accidentally shutting the entire system down, and the LED indicates the 300w cooling system is on.
- 2x 16mm vandal resistant button switches with blue LEDs: the computer's power button & power LED, and the computer's reset button & HDD LED.
- ATX power jumper: jumps the 300w power supply so it can be turned on without a motherboard attached to it.
- ATX power extension cable: extends the 1000w power supply cable so I can hack into it without damaging the main PSU cable. :)
- 12v 30A relay: relay the power-on signal from the 300w power supply to the #4 wire (green) of the ATX extension cable.
The reason for the wiring system is to keep the cooling/lighting system on a separate power supply so I can keep cooling components after I shut the system down.

[pinotnoir]

I have that CM HAF case and its pretty amazing. The best case I ever worked in. One thing you may take note of is the rampage motherboard only does raid once you set it to use a raid. Older stuff let you setup a raid and have regular drives too but now the raid controller only does raid once you set it to raid. I had to call asus about that. So it looks like your 1t drives will be raid0 or raid1. I have not started to overclock anything yet. Once you do that I would be interested in hearing the results.

[-silencer-]

I have that CM HAF case and its pretty amazing. The best case I ever worked in. One thing you may take note of is the rampage motherboard only does raid once you set it to use a raid. Older stuff let you setup a raid and have regular drives too but now the raid controller only does raid once you set it to raid. I had to call asus about that. So it looks like your 1t drives will be raid0 or raid1. I have not started to overclock anything yet. Once you do that I would be interested in hearing the results. The 1TB drives aren't intended to be RAID'd at all. I'm going to use one as a media drive and another for my terrain database compiling. The plan is to RAID three more 1TB drives once I purchase the 3ware 8-port RAID controller card.. and run 3 separate RAID arrays off this hardware RAID controller - 2x 300GB Velociraptors in RAID0, 3x 1TB Western Digital Black drives in RAID5, and 2x Intel X25-M SSDs in RAID0. One Samsung 1TB drive will be going into my media PC at that time, and the other may stay in this machine or migrate to the media machine as well. At any rate, the only RAID array now will be the 2x 300GB V'raps in RAID 0.

[-silencer-]

I have that CM HAF case and its pretty amazing. The best case I ever worked in. One thing you may take note of is the rampage motherboard only does raid once you set it to use a raid. Older stuff let you setup a raid and have regular drives too but now the raid controller only does raid once you set it to raid. I had to call asus about that. So it looks like your 1t drives will be raid0 or raid1. I have not started to overclock anything yet. Once you do that I would be interested in hearing the results.
This isn't the way the ICH10R works with the Asus R2E.. I just tested it. Like all motherboards I've worked with, you have to change the IDE mode to RAID in the BIOS if you plan on using any RAID arrays from the on-board chipset, but that doesn't prevent you from creating two separate arrays of different type. I just configured my Velociraptors in a 600GB RAID 0 array, and I made a RAID 1 array from the 1TB Samsungs. You *can* do both. Or I could have created a 2TB RAID 0 array from them.. that's one huge logical drive. My main problem right now is the limited number of SATA ports. I'm going to just keep the one array of Velociraptors since I've also got 2 SATA optical drives (Blu-Ray burner & standard DVD burner), plus an SSD. For now, I'm going to leave off one of the optical drives until I get my media backed up, then one of the Samsung drives is heading to my media server.. so all 6 ports of my motherboard will be in use: 2x 300GB Velociraptors, 1TB Samsung, 64GB SSD, a Blu-Ray burner, and a DVD burner. I may end up purchasing that 3ware 8-port SATA RAID controller card sooner than I thought, especially since I've discovered the setting in the Asus R2E BIOS to manually configure the 2nd and 3rd PCI-x16 slots as either x16/x16/x1 or x16/x8/x8. Since the RAID controller is an x8 card, I don't want an x16 videocard dropping my hard drives down to x1 automatically. In case I can't make it clear enough.. I absolutely LOVE this motherboard. 12GB of memory at 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 is working smooth, settings that aren't defined as being possible in the manual. And I haven't even started overclocking. I'm holding off on that until the rest of my watercooling gear arrives.

From what I've been reading about various X58 boards and 12GB of memory compatibility, I'm extremely happy with Asus/Corsair for giving me no problems here.

[-silencer-]

Crap. Forgot something. The military switch with cover that I had planned on using as my main power switch won't work, since it'll just be switching on the green->black power supply jumper, which uses very low voltage. That means the switch would technically work, but there won't be enough power to light the LED when the switch is on. So I'm adding something quite cool to *ensure* the cooling/lighting power supply doesn't get turned off on accident - something much better than just a cover.. a key switch!:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/8e7a_1.jpg

I'll use this to "enable" the main power supply, then the covered switch will turn on the relay to allow the main 1000w power supply to turn on. I'll post a wiring diagram eventually.

[sqeaky4100]

Few questions:

1) How much total did everything cost roughly? I mean damn, you got the BEST items in each category possible.

2) Which sound card do you plan on finally switching to? I'm planning on this one because it makes front audio a very simple solution, and the red glow of the card inside the case will be cool:

http://www.amazon.com/Express-Blaster-Titanium-Fatal1ty-Champion/dp/B001BDPLJA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1232186890&sr=8-4


3) What Mouse/Mouse Pad do you use? Along with my new build, I'm upgrading these 2 items... Ive been thinking about the new Razer Mamba mouse, but I can't decide on what Mouse Pad to use.

[-silencer-]

Few questions:

1) How much total did everything cost roughly? I mean damn, you got the BEST items in each category possible.

2) Which sound card do you plan on finally switching to? I'm planning on this one because it makes front audio a very simple solution, and the red glow of the card inside the case will be cool:

http://www.amazon.com/Express-Blaster-Titanium-Fatal1ty-Champion/dp/B001BDPLJA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1232186890&sr=8-4


3) What Mouse/Mouse Pad do you use? Along with my new build, I'm upgrading these 2 items... Ive been thinking about the new Razer Mamba mouse, but I can't decide on what Mouse Pad to use.

1. Enough. Although I do have a few connections to heavily reduce prices on a few components.

2. I'll be moving my PCI X-Fi Elite from my Q6600 machine to this one. Eventually, if I end up going with the Killer M1 NIC, I'll put the PCI X-Fi Elite back in my Q6600 and get an X-Fi Titanium Champion.

3. I'll continue using my G15 rev.1 keyboard, G9 mouse, and Steelpad S&S mousepad. Without a doubt, I'd buy these 3 all over again.. especially the mouse.. I love the weight system and wide grip.

[-silencer-]

Another box arrived:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/reservoir.jpg
IC Diamond 7 thermal paste..
Lian Li dual PSU bracket..
Koolance 200mm 550mL 4xG1/4" port reservoir with mounting brackets..

So far, I've been very impressed with the quality of the EK, Feser, and Koolance products. They definitely have that made-in-Germany feel over a made-in-China feel.

I'm currently running this new rig in my old Lian Li PC-70B case temporarily.. going very smooth with no issues so far using 12GB of RAM at 1600MHz and 2x 300GB Velociraptors in RAID 0..

The current plan is to test the entire water system for a 24-48 hour leak check without being installed in a machine during this coming week once the pump, fittings, tubing, and cpu block arrive. Unless I have to work overtime, I'll begin the case build next weekend.

[sqeaky4100]

When you raid 0 2x Velociraptors, are you getting 600gb, or 300gb?

Because earlier you said 600gb, and it had me a bit confused... because I thought you only get 300gb

[-silencer-]

RAID 0 is striping for performance. There is no loss of space. RAID 1 is mirroring for redundancy.
So 2 drives in RAID 0 = the size of drive A + B. (since you're not using extra space - you're splitting data between two drives)
And 2 drives in RAID 1 = the size of one drive. (since everything you write to one drive has to be copied to the other drive)
My 2x300GB Velociraptors are 600GB in RAID 0, or 300GB if I chose to RAID 1 them.

Since KB, MB, GB, TB all use base-2 numbering (instead of our standard base-10), the GB "display" of space for what is "labeled" as a 300GB drive is more like 275GB. 2x300GB Velociraptors in RAID 0 are sold as 2x300GB drives, but technically they're around 559GB in RAID 0. This has nothing to do with formatting or RAID.. it's how numbers are converted in binary. When you purchase a drive, it usually says on the box why they're labeling the drive as "300GB" by stating that 300GB = 300,000,000,000 bytes.

Here's an example on a small level:
Since a kilobyte is actually 1024 bytes and not 1000, a "1 KB" drive (1,000 bytes) would only display as .976 KB (1000/1024). The same goes for MB, GB, and TB. So, depending on the definition, 300GB may not be 300GB. Since all drive makers go by the 300GB = 300,000,000,000 bytes way of thinking in base-10 (decimal) numbering, there's nothing unexpected here when Windows is calculating 300GB in base-2 (binary) numbering. This is why my 1TB Samsung drives only display 931.51GB total space in Windows. It's calculating GB in base-2 (binary), not base-10 (decimal) as described by the drive manufacturer.

[suicidesspyder]

Hmmm just a thought but would it be easy to take and old dell tower with 256mb of ram and im talking 2000 year build and refurbish it rather cheaply installing all new parts. Or should i just buy new parts and a new tower which would be cheaper.

[sqeaky4100]

Makes sense now, cool. I thought I was only going to get 300gb when I built my new system.


How are you going to setup what toons run on what HDDs?

Before I had my main running off of a 7200rpm HDD, and my slaves running off a 10k Raptor ( of which they were symlinked to one another )

So are you just going to use the Raid 0 Velociraptors to run all of your team from?

[pinotnoir]

I have that CM HAF case and its pretty amazing. The best case I ever worked in. One thing you may take note of is the rampage motherboard only does raid once you set it to use a raid. Older stuff let you setup a raid and have regular drives too but now the raid controller only does raid once you set it to raid. I had to call asus about that. So it looks like your 1t drives will be raid0 or raid1. I have not started to overclock anything yet. Once you do that I would be interested in hearing the results.
This isn't the way the ICH10R works with the Asus R2E.. I just tested it. Like all motherboards I've worked with, you have to change the IDE mode to RAID in the BIOS if you plan on using any RAID arrays from the on-board chipset, but that doesn't prevent you from creating two separate arrays of different type. I just configured my Velociraptors in a 600GB RAID 0 array, and I made a RAID 1 array from the 1TB Samsungs. You *can* do both. Or I could have created a 2TB RAID 0 array from them.. that's one huge logical drive. My main problem right now is the limited number of SATA ports. I'm going to just keep the one array of Velociraptors since I've also got 2 SATA optical drives (Blu-Ray burner & standard DVD burner), plus an SSD. For now, I'm going to leave off one of the optical drives until I get my media backed up, then one of the Samsung drives is heading to my media server.. so all 6 ports of my motherboard will be in use: 2x 300GB Velociraptors, 1TB Samsung, 64GB SSD, a Blu-Ray burner, and a DVD burner. I may end up purchasing that 3ware 8-port SATA RAID controller card sooner than I thought, especially since I've discovered the setting in the Asus R2E BIOS to manually configure the 2nd and 3rd PCI-x16 slots as either x16/x16/x1 or x16/x8/x8. Since the RAID controller is an x8 card, I don't want an x16 videocard dropping my hard drives down to x1 automatically. In case I can't make it clear enough.. I absolutely LOVE this motherboard. 12GB of memory at 1600MHz 8-8-8-24 is working smooth, settings that aren't defined as being possible in the manual. And I haven't even started overclocking. I'm holding off on that until the rest of my watercooling gear arrives.

From what I've been reading about various X58 boards and 12GB of memory compatibility, I'm extremely happy with Asus/Corsair for giving me no problems here.

Yeah thats what I was talking about.. You can do a raid0 and a raid1 or whatever. With that controller any new drives have to be in a raid. I had to rma my 1.5t drive cause I didnt know thats how the mb worked. If I add more storage I will make a new raid. Right now I have 1.5t raid0 on it. At this point I may just backup my important files to my usb 500g drive. Once you get that baby going let me know your bios settings for ram and cpu. I have the same ram but my cpu is the 920. I love corsair ram.

[-silencer-]

Yeah thats what I was talking about.. You can do a raid0 and a raid1 or whatever. With that controller any new drives have to be in a raid. I had to rma my 1.5t drive cause I didnt know thats how the mb worked. If I add more storage I will make a new raid. Right now I have 1.5t raid0 on it. At this point I may just backup my important files to my usb 500g drive. Once you get that baby going let me know your bios settings for ram and cpu. I have the same ram but my cpu is the 920. I love corsair ram.
That's not true. If it were, I wouldn't be able to hook my Blu-ray & SSD drives to it. Just because you set from IDE to RAID in the BIOS doesn't mean you can't just hook up a single drive outside the RAID array to it. I currently have the 2x Raptors in RAID 0, and 2x separate 1TB drives, a SSD, and the Blu-Ray burner.. all being controlled by the mobo's ICH10R raid controller. You didn't have to RMA your 1.5TB drive unless the drive itself was bad. You do have to format it to be able to see it though.

[pinotnoir]

Yeah thats what I was talking about.. You can do a raid0 and a raid1 or whatever. With that controller any new drives have to be in a raid. I had to rma my 1.5t drive cause I didnt know thats how the mb worked. If I add more storage I will make a new raid. Right now I have 1.5t raid0 on it. At this point I may just backup my important files to my usb 500g drive. Once you get that baby going let me know your bios settings for ram and cpu. I have the same ram but my cpu is the 920. I love corsair ram.
That's not true. If it were, I wouldn't be able to hook my Blu-ray & SSD drives to it. Just because you set from IDE to RAID in the BIOS doesn't mean you can't just hook up a single drive outside the RAID array to it. I currently have the 2x Raptors in RAID 0, and 2x separate 1TB drives, a SSD, and the Blu-Ray burner.. all being controlled by the mobo's ICH10R raid controller. You didn't have to RMA your 1.5TB drive unless the drive itself was bad. You do have to format it to be able to see it though.

Well mark one loss from Asus Tech Support. I asked them about it and they told me there was no way it would see it. I didnt format it so when you plug it into one of the sata ports it would show as a failed raid between one of my raid drives and the 1.5t non raid drive. That really pisses me off about that because I spend a day trying to reach tech support.

[-silencer-]

Yeah thats what I was talking about.. You can do a raid0 and a raid1 or whatever. With that controller any new drives have to be in a raid. I had to rma my 1.5t drive cause I didnt know thats how the mb worked. If I add more storage I will make a new raid. Right now I have 1.5t raid0 on it. At this point I may just backup my important files to my usb 500g drive. Once you get that baby going let me know your bios settings for ram and cpu. I have the same ram but my cpu is the 920. I love corsair ram.
That's not true. If it were, I wouldn't be able to hook my Blu-ray & SSD drives to it. Just because you set from IDE to RAID in the BIOS doesn't mean you can't just hook up a single drive outside the RAID array to it. I currently have the 2x Raptors in RAID 0, and 2x separate 1TB drives, a SSD, and the Blu-Ray burner.. all being controlled by the mobo's ICH10R raid controller. You didn't have to RMA your 1.5TB drive unless the drive itself was bad. You do have to format it to be able to see it though.

Well mark one loss from Asus Tech Support. I asked them about it and they told me there was no way it would see it. I didnt format it so when you plug it into one of the sata ports it would show as a failed raid between one of my raid drives and the 1.5t non raid drive. That really pisses me off about that because I spend a day trying to reach tech support.
Strange.. the controller has serial-number based RAID addressing, meaning just by plugging in the drives after you select RAID in the BIOS won't do anything to RAID them. They only show up as a RAID drive if you enter the RAID setup (control+i during boot), and then you can assign various drives into RAID arrays or leave them as single standalone drives..

[-silencer-]

More loot showed up:
Swiftech Apogee GTZ waterblock with Core i7 1366 mounting bracket
Laing DDC-3.2 (Swiftech MCP-355) water pump
2x Vantec 120mm fan vibration dampening kits (4x 120mm fan dampeners for the non-radiator fans)
Petra Tech Gel pad for the pump to dampen vibration
Teflon tape for installing tubing compression fittings
2x dual UV cathodes (4 total cathodes.. I'm not really into lighting, but I figure there may be times I want to see in there..)
2x Vantec 120mm fan vibration dampening kits (4x 120mm fan dampeners for the non-radiator fans):
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/water-cpu-pump-gel-lights.jpg
..and a different motherboard tray with better cooling.. the previous one is from a Lian Li PC-6x case with 80mm rear fan, and this new one is from a Lian Li PC-A10 case with a 120mm fan:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/mobo-tray.jpg

[sqeaky4100]

More loot showed up:
Swiftech Apogee GTZ waterblock with Core i7 1366 mounting bracket
Laing DDC-3.2 (Swiftech MCP-355) water pump
2x Vantec 120mm fan vibration dampening kits (4x 120mm fan dampeners for the non-radiator fans)
Petra Tech Gel pad for the pump to dampen vibration
Teflon tape for installing tubing compression fittings
2x dual UV cathodes (4 total cathodes.. I'm not really into lighting, but I figure there may be times I want to see in there..)
2x Vantec 120mm fan vibration dampening kits (4x 120mm fan dampeners for the non-radiator fans):
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/water-cpu-pump-gel-lights.jpg
..and a different motherboard tray with better cooling.. the previous one is from a Lian Li PC-6x case with 80mm rear fan, and this new one is from a Lian Li PC-A10 case with a 120mm fan:


Are those tubes ( UV Cathodes ) the same ones that are in this case?

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Adeamus/DSO%20Rig/IMG_1588.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Adeamus/DSO%20Rig/IMG_1589.jpg

[-silencer-]

Those look like blue cathodes, not UV. But yeah, same type of cold cathode housing. The UV are more purple - like black lights.

Here's what they look like when the room's lights are on:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/uv-lights-on.jpg
Here's what they look like in the dark (although the camera doesn't accurately portray the actual look.. they're actually darker lights, but they light up that UV coolant bottle MUCH more..):
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/uv-lights-off.jpg

Edit:
Now all I'm waiting on is the tubing & compression fittings for the tubing, plus the key switch.. which I doubt will show up this week.... plenty of time to test the water system *if* the tubing and fittings arrive Tuesday. I'm satisfied with the stress test of the CPU/mobo/ram/hard drives so far.. churning away for over 48 hours now with 8x Orthos Prime95 & 3dMark running up front. Once the water system is leak-tested, it looks like I'll be ready to go.. detailed case planning & diagrams begin tomorrow.

[-silencer-]

Testing out all the fans and the Scythe Kaze Master. This thing is slick - rpm readouts in 30rpm increments, temperature sensors accurate to .1*F (can switch between *C and *F), and supports up to 12W (1A at 12 volts) per channel:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/ucfjtm/Computers/scythe-fantest.jpg
I'll run all 8 fans off this thing while monitoring 4 device rpms (like the water pump!) and 4 temperatures (ambient external, ambient internal, water, cpu waterblock). Nearby are two 4" blue cathodes I've had and wanted to test out.. not sure if I'll use them or not yet. You can see the power supply jumper at the end of the ATX cable.. so I can turn on the power supply without it being attached to a motherboard. Note: if you're going to do this, always make sure you have at least 1-2 other devices connected when you power it on - DON'T turn on a power supply with no load.. you could kill it.


All temp sensors and fans work.. I'm actually surprised at how good these fans are - they start operating with as low as around 4v, meaning I can start them up at only ~600rpm and they're silent at that speed. Even at ~1200rpm they're not going to be heard in the case.. perfect. Max rpm with no air restriction (not laying flat on the table) is around 2200rpm.. +/- 30 rpm. They're not quiet at this speed.. it remains to be seen how loud they'll be in the case at 2200rpm.. but that's fast enough to really cool a radiator. :)

[sqeaky4100]

Can you get me a link to newegg of the cathode tubes you chose?

There's a ton of different ones, and it's tough to tell which ones are which color.

Here's a link to a page that you can chose:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001885%2040000255&Manufactory=1885&SubCategory=255&SpeTabStoreType=0

[-silencer-]

Can you get me a link to newegg of the cathode tubes you chose?

There's a ton of different ones, and it's tough to tell which ones are which color.

Here's a link to a page that you can chose:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001885%2040000255&Manufactory=1885&SubCategory=255&SpeTabStoreType=0
I didn't order them from newegg.. here's the ones I purchased:
http://www.petrastechshop.com/lo12ducocaki4.html

However, here's something that *may* be the same original manufacturer and relabeled as Logisys, since it has the same specs listed:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16800888040
It doesn't state if it has 2 actual lights or not - but it does say it has a dual inverter.

[sqeaky4100]

So with these cathods, it appears there is UV ones and regular ones... do the UV ones just light up white/UV things in your case?

Because, I don't need UV if thats how it is... I just need some cool lights =)

[i8screaminmoose]

This is a fun thread. i have done 5-6 builds but never anything as in depth as what you are doing. I don't really like the idea of water cooling just cuase of the consequences to bad fittings. I do however enjoy the custom case idea and wouldn't mind experimenting in that area myself. I think I need to do some research into the raid stuff and learn a bit more there also. Good luck ill keep reading as I wanna see how this baby ends up.

[lunat1k]

What Tubing are you going to use for this?



I found some cool stuff my brother uses for plumbing that does not leak, he uses it for both hot and cold so I wonder if it can be used in this apllication?



it is called "PEX" http://www.pexsupply.com/CategoryPre.asp?cID=515&brandid=



I think I will try this out here on my new system....

[-silencer-]

I don't really like the idea of water cooling just cuase of the consequences to bad fittings.
Compression fittings. As long as you install them correctly, they don't have leaking problems since they aren't clamp-style barb fittings. However, they're not cheap.. $7 each.. x2 per unit. I ordered 14 (CPU, X58 block, 2x Mosfet blocks, radiator, reservoir, pump = 14 fittings needed).


What Tubing are you going to use for this?

Tygon 3603 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD.. ordered 10' but likely won't use anywhere close to that much.. so I'll have plenty of extra for when I add watercooling to DX11 videocards when they come out later this year.


Both the tubing & fittings should arrive tomorrow, so I'll post info then.

[-silencer-]

So with these cathods, it appears there is UV ones and regular ones... do the UV ones just light up white/UV things in your case?

Because, I don't need UV if thats how it is... I just need some cool lights =)
The UV light up a dark purple.. darker than those pics seem to suggest. Then they make all UV-reactive stuff in the case glow bright purple, like the UV-reactive coolant in the water system, and any UV-reactive plastics in the case (some power connectors and motherboard connectors..).

Just get blue/green/red cathodes if you like color/lights. I don't like a lot of bright light, so that's why I'm sticking with a more subtle UV lighting system.

[i8screaminmoose]

Any more updates soon? I wanna see how this turns out.

[-silencer-]

I have the machine up and running smoothly in my old Lian Li PC70B case.. but I'm still in the process of designing the custom case. Trying to fit everything while taking into consideration the materials available and trying to keep the box from getting too large.. it's taking some time. I went to Lowe's two days ago to see what materials they have, and unless my taste changes, I'll be building the case from 3/4" aspen and 1/4"-1/2" birch. Most of the exterior will be aspen, and the interior will be birch. To get a rough idea, there will be a few "areas" of the case as we go higher. The very bottom will hold an air filter horizontal to the floor - likely the sort used in home air conditioning systems. I'm looking for something in the 24"x16" size range. The next few inches of space above the air filter will be the air box - a large filter surface area will help keep the air pressure from becoming too much for the fans. In an enclosed area (except for fans) above the air box will be the two hard drive racks and two power supplies. In another enclosed area (except for fans) above the HDDs and PSUs will be the horizontal motherboard and water pump, with the radiator blowing 4 fans across the motherboard. The top of the case will either have an acrylic or glass window. Now, there will be around 6-8" of space above the window, then there is the 3.5"/5.25" bay box. This will house the controls of the box (key switch for cooling system power, military switch for activating the computer's power, power button & reset button, lighting switch), the USB/Firewire/eSATA/card readers, the Blu-Ray burner & DVDR drives, the Scythe fan controller, and motherboard's LCD poster. I'll probably make it large enough for at least 3 more empty bays.. so if I decide to swap out my X-Fi Elite Pro for an X-Fi Titanium Champion, I'll have a spot for the bay ports. That'll leave 2 more bays for a 2x5.25" Alphacool LCD that I've thought about picking up for about a year now.

I've changed my mind on the design a couple times now, since I'm trying to balance case size, ability to muffle noise, ease of interior access, and where to run the wires & tubing. Once I get this done, I'll go purchase the materials. (And a table saw since I'm tired of having to make a circular saw give me perfectly straight cuts.)

[Noids99]

Only just found this thread. You definitely do start some cool threads Silencer ;)

My new comp build is a little similar to yours so I thought I would run a couple of my choices past you to see if you had considered those options and why you had chosen differently.

1. I have ordered the XSPC top with built in reservoir for my DDC Laing pump rather than separate res and top setup. Mainly because the performance characteristics were better than the EK unit but also for simplicity.

2. How is the 12G of memory going? I have heard some issues with heat when overclocking 6 sticks so have grabbed a couple of dominator fans just in case.

3. Similar to your build, I'm investing fairly heavily in a high quality cooling setup so that I can overclock fairly comfortably. As an offset, I figured I would just grab the 920 instead of the 965. I realise you will probably get and extra 2-300MHz out of it and the QPI is 50% faster. Out of interest, how much difference do you anticipate this will make for your project?

4. I thought long and hard on Mobo choice and changed my mind a few times but ended up choosing the DFI T3eH8 over the R2E as I liked the expansion slot layout better for multi GPU setup. I realise this wasn't a priority for you and that EK chipset block is nice (did you consider the gigabyte extreme with the built in block) but I'd be interested to know if anyone has looked at the DFI and found any issues with it. Interesting to hear your comments re: Asus tech support Pinot. In researching the choices I spent a bit of time checking out newegg customer reviews and it seems Asus had a few problems early on in the release and had to send a few guys into the review area there to mend some bridges.

5. I went the premade case. Have loved the look of the LL Tyr X2000 since it was first released so have grabbed this and gone with a 3 x 140mm rad setup in it. Can't bring myself to cut a window in that exquisite aluminum so have gone for reliable 1/2" barb and 7/16" ID tubing for the connectors seeing the whole setup is enclosed.

Cheers

[Bloodcloud]

awesome build!!!

[Marious]

Very, very nice, I like what you done with it, and those cold cathode kits are sweet, I even did an experiment with my roommate back when we where in college together with them. Those things are great and I am glad to see that they have gone down in price, the ones we ended up using where the 3" and 6" ones they did not have the 12" ones at the place we got them from. They are very nice, have a 320-380 nm Wavelength that we used to harden a UV reactive material, in essence we where trying to create a stereo-lithography machine, we put so many hours into it. Ended up being extremely frustrating, the concept worked, unfortunately the machine did not. We could probably make it work if we put another year into it but man that's a lot of work., but it was a lot of fun to do, this was our final project our senior year. We got an A and all those present where impressed with what we had done even with it not working as expected, but that was our lot even when we did our Sophomore project we had the same issue, lucky for us we had everything else in order, our report, our sources and everything.

[Bloodcloud]

Silencer- How is it performing ?

I would like to copy&paste the system :)

any upgrades planned I could include in my build ?

Edit: I am in EU though I will need to search for some more local suppliers of kit.

cheers
BloodCloud

[-silencer-]

Performs like a champ. I got pretty busy with non-gaming life and took about 9 months off multiboxing since I just didn't have the time. Just renew'd the subscription on all 5 accounts and currently working on a horde team with some friends on Laughing Skull. 5x death knights. Free level 55's on a new server was just too good to resist. Also created 5x orc shaman that are starting from level 1.

I'm still on my old 8800GTX videocard as my original plan was to wait for the nVidia GT300 and DX11 to come out, but I don't think I want to wait forever.. so I'll likely be jumping on a 5870 2GB model when it arrives. (Soon I hope?) I'm *really* looking forward to taking advantage of Eyefinity and 3x 24" LCDs from one videocard. I may hold out for the 5870X2 if it does actually have 3x video support and I have to wait awhile for the 2GB 5870. (Engineering samples show 2x DVI and 1x mini-display port on the 5870X2.. so it looks good.)

If I were to do one thing differently on my rig, I would have just gone with one 300GB Velociraptor and picked up a couple Intel SSDs to RAID0 instead. I'd use the SSD array for the OS, WoW, and a few other games, then keep the 300GB Velociraptor for the OS swap space, applications, and less critical games. I'm also about to fill the 2TB of 7200 rpm drives, so I may have to get a RAID controller soon for extra hard drive cables. That's the one downside of the Asus X58 Rampage 2 Extreme motherboard - only 6 SATA ports! With 2x optical drives (DVDR & BluRay burner), 2x 300GB Velociraptors, 2x 1TB 7200rpm drives, and an SSD.. I don't even have my DVDR plugged in.

[Marious]

Good lord silencer thats a lot of HD space, dont feel bad I got like 2.5TB worth of drives and I just picked up an external SATA to USB so I can plug in what I need to look at.

[-silencer-]

Heh, that's just on that machine. My server (E6600 in an Antec P182) has 10 HDDs of various sizes.. 2x 320GB, 4x 500GB, 2x 750GB, 2x 1TB. That's where my old HDDs go to be useful a little longer.. just over 6TB of space..

[Tonuss]

The 5870 does look like a very nice upgrade, pending whatever NVIDIA releases (assuming they've got something ready to ship soon). It appears to be a good ways faster than current cards without more heat. I'm not playing much lately (on the PC, anyway) otherwise I would be sorely tempted to replace my 4870s.