Kooling with the kretins.
So, I'm putting together a new rig from the ground up for the first time in almost four years... And it only seems proper to chronicle it here. Been a while!
There will be no crazy R404A chillers this time around. No 650GPH+ MagDrive pumps. No 3/4" ID hosing.
In fact, most of my parts are retail this time. I just don't have a lot of time to fab anything due to my schedule, but I will be slapping together an interesting watercooling setup with 3672 cubic centimeters of radiator -- so a wee bit of fab is bound to happen. ;] No, I'm not missing any decimals there. I have some weird mod ideas involving UV spraypaint, too, so we'll see what happens.
My primary goals with this build are:
a) Create a cooling system that is capable of dissipating a lot of heat and staying close to ambient without generating any audible noise over a whisper.
b) Don't completely obliterate the Cosmos case, because it's nice and cost too much money.
c) World domination.
d) Spray balls with UV blue paint.
If I can accomplish at least one of these goals, I will be satisfied. That's the whole point of setting many goals. That way you can fail at most of them and still be a winner.
With glow in the dark balls.
As of this post, I've currently got a lot of stuff coming in the mail but nothing happening yet with the actual build. Just gonna lay down some specs and materials to start with, with a build log and plenty of pictures to come later.
First, the good stuff!
360mm HWLabs Black Ice GTX Gen II Rad -> 1/2" ST HF Barbs
240mm HWLabs Black Ice GTX Gen II Rad -> 1/2" ST HF Barbs
Sidewinder has a great sale on these if anybody is interested in upgrading a rad or three. These are the latest Black Ice models and compare pretty favorably with the Thermochill and Feser rads for roughly 70% of the cost. Good deal, IMO. They come in any color you want, as long as it's black.
MCP-655-B Pump w/Impeller Kit and RPM tail-out -> 1/2" Barbs
Tried and true. I've always had good luck with these units. Some people say bad things about the variable speed 655's, but eh. This is a fixed speed model.
Swiftech Apogee GTZ w/ iC7 hold down plate
Just can't beat it right now. Sidewinder has these on sale, too! I think I love Sidewinder. They came in almost $200 cheaper than the other stores I was shopping when it was all said and done, although I did order a few cooling items from Performance PC as well.
Swiftech MCW60-4870
I hate the cost of a full coverage block, but not as much as I hate the idea of epoxying micro-sinks to a brand new video card. Maybe when its days are through somebody will buy the card with the block. *shrug* This was a fairly reasonable $89. Over $30 cheaper than some of the EK full coverage blocks, and a better chamber design and build quality to boot.
6' Feser 1/2" ID 3/4" OD PVC / UV Blue on Blue
EK RES 250
I like these simple little elegant reservoirs. My intention is to mount this on the side of the case with the top protruding over a bit, and the fluid gurgling up in side it like some kind of bizarre flow meter / tourist attraction all in one.
A bunch of ransacked 120MM fans, 120MM fan shrouds and other materials from my last 'serious' builds. You know, back when the 1Ghz Athlon was king. lawl
So that about does it for the cooling loop. Of course, all that cooling would go berserk and murder innocent kittens if it didn't have a healthy supply of heat to keep it occupied...
System Stuff
CM Cosmos RC-1000-KSN
Antec Signature Series 650W PSU
MSI X58 Platinum
MSI HD4870 1GB
i7 920
6GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600@Cas9
300GB VRaptor
1TB WD RE3
The theme of this hardware build is "upgrade paths".
CFX? Upgrade path.
Media Center 5-drive RAID5 array? Upgrade path.
RAID0 System drive, or SSD? Upgrade path.
I spent most of my budget on the case and cooling setup because, bottom line, those are the pieces that stick around for a while. And going from such a crappy, old computer to such a current build, I really don't know what I'm missing. No sense in paying for parts I don't need right now.
That, and I want to be able to play with my TEC collection in a few months when I get bored. ;]
Now the waiting. I hate waiting.
There will be no crazy R404A chillers this time around. No 650GPH+ MagDrive pumps. No 3/4" ID hosing.
In fact, most of my parts are retail this time. I just don't have a lot of time to fab anything due to my schedule, but I will be slapping together an interesting watercooling setup with 3672 cubic centimeters of radiator -- so a wee bit of fab is bound to happen. ;] No, I'm not missing any decimals there. I have some weird mod ideas involving UV spraypaint, too, so we'll see what happens.
My primary goals with this build are:
a) Create a cooling system that is capable of dissipating a lot of heat and staying close to ambient without generating any audible noise over a whisper.
b) Don't completely obliterate the Cosmos case, because it's nice and cost too much money.
c) World domination.
d) Spray balls with UV blue paint.
If I can accomplish at least one of these goals, I will be satisfied. That's the whole point of setting many goals. That way you can fail at most of them and still be a winner.
With glow in the dark balls.
As of this post, I've currently got a lot of stuff coming in the mail but nothing happening yet with the actual build. Just gonna lay down some specs and materials to start with, with a build log and plenty of pictures to come later.
First, the good stuff!
360mm HWLabs Black Ice GTX Gen II Rad -> 1/2" ST HF Barbs
240mm HWLabs Black Ice GTX Gen II Rad -> 1/2" ST HF Barbs
Sidewinder has a great sale on these if anybody is interested in upgrading a rad or three. These are the latest Black Ice models and compare pretty favorably with the Thermochill and Feser rads for roughly 70% of the cost. Good deal, IMO. They come in any color you want, as long as it's black.
MCP-655-B Pump w/Impeller Kit and RPM tail-out -> 1/2" Barbs
Tried and true. I've always had good luck with these units. Some people say bad things about the variable speed 655's, but eh. This is a fixed speed model.
Swiftech Apogee GTZ w/ iC7 hold down plate
Just can't beat it right now. Sidewinder has these on sale, too! I think I love Sidewinder. They came in almost $200 cheaper than the other stores I was shopping when it was all said and done, although I did order a few cooling items from Performance PC as well.
Swiftech MCW60-4870
I hate the cost of a full coverage block, but not as much as I hate the idea of epoxying micro-sinks to a brand new video card. Maybe when its days are through somebody will buy the card with the block. *shrug* This was a fairly reasonable $89. Over $30 cheaper than some of the EK full coverage blocks, and a better chamber design and build quality to boot.
6' Feser 1/2" ID 3/4" OD PVC / UV Blue on Blue
EK RES 250
I like these simple little elegant reservoirs. My intention is to mount this on the side of the case with the top protruding over a bit, and the fluid gurgling up in side it like some kind of bizarre flow meter / tourist attraction all in one.
A bunch of ransacked 120MM fans, 120MM fan shrouds and other materials from my last 'serious' builds. You know, back when the 1Ghz Athlon was king. lawl
So that about does it for the cooling loop. Of course, all that cooling would go berserk and murder innocent kittens if it didn't have a healthy supply of heat to keep it occupied...
System Stuff
CM Cosmos RC-1000-KSN
Antec Signature Series 650W PSU
MSI X58 Platinum
MSI HD4870 1GB
i7 920
6GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600@Cas9
300GB VRaptor
1TB WD RE3
The theme of this hardware build is "upgrade paths".
CFX? Upgrade path.
Media Center 5-drive RAID5 array? Upgrade path.
RAID0 System drive, or SSD? Upgrade path.
I spent most of my budget on the case and cooling setup because, bottom line, those are the pieces that stick around for a while. And going from such a crappy, old computer to such a current build, I really don't know what I'm missing. No sense in paying for parts I don't need right now.
That, and I want to be able to play with my TEC collection in a few months when I get bored. ;]
Now the waiting. I hate waiting.
0
Comments
For the radiators, why not go with a Swiftech MCR320-QP and MCR220-QP instead of the BI GTX rads? They are both cheaper and also perform better than the BI rads with low noise, low flow fans so you can keep it quiet? I'm using the MCR220-QP Res (has built in reservoir on tank top) and I'm perfectly satisfied with it's performance for the price.
Also, Petra's Tech Shop has a hell of a deal going on the Laing D4/MCP650 pumps for $29.99. It's a little noisier than the 655-B but also outperforms it too and for that price you can get 2 of them for what you will pay for the 655-B.
GTZ block is a great choice. I have one myself and love it to death. I have a regular MCW60 on my 8800GTS (G92) and it performs fantastically. Running Furmark in stability test mode, my temps on the gpu have a hard time reaching 40 C even when overclocked. It mostly stays around 38-39 C under Furmark. So IMO Swiftech has a damn good design in this block.
For tubing, you also might look at putting some of the silver antimicrobial Tygon in the loop, which will help keep the critters at bay and keep your loop clean.
I expect some pics when you get this beast up and running.
Mason; that's a sweet setup. I hadn't seen that thread yet, but good to know that the MCW60 and 4870 mesh well together.
The BIOS reflash isn't something I've read much about up to this point. Was your stock BIOS not capable of changing the GPU freq over a certain amount?
Mudd; glad to see that you are digging the ST blocks. They really look fantastic and I can't wait to play around with 'em. My last block was a MAZE2. LOL
On the hose issue, I ran into problems with Tygon kinking in the past. I take it you are happy with the silver-lined stuff, though, or you wouldn't be recommending it.
Rad choices, rad choices... So many rad choices. There is definitely a trade off between low-noise performance and high-performance potential, and I was looking hard at the QP series before I ended up on the GTX's. Perhaps I should have stated my goals a little more clearly, but the reason I finally settled on the GTX's is that it leaves me with the option of increasing the air flow to dissipate heat from pelts whenever I get bored with straight watercooling. Since I already have a bunch of 226-watt pelts and industrial power supplies sitting around, I wanted to give myself room to play with 'em in the future. With the QP, the gains to be had by adding a little noise to the equation are a lot less. At least that's the thinking behind it, but it's really hard to say either way which one works out better without having both radiators to compare in the same system and situation.
Leo; not as much as I am, I assure you of that.
About the pumps I linked: I just couldn't pass the deal up on those D4 pumps and ordered me 4 for $100. Even though I don't need pumps right now I just couldn't pass that deal up and I figure that I can sell 3 of them for a good price for the buyer and pretty much recoup my expenses. If I sit on them a month or 2 and then sell them for $40 each I cover my cost for them plus shipping.
<hr>
Why I am so hung up on a stupid RPM tail:
One of my planned side projects is a programmable system monitor. I work as a software engineer with involvement in mid- and top-tier development, so as a way to familiarize myself with low-level development I've decided to build a circuit board with a USB interface that can monitor voltage and report the readings to a driver.
This could then interface via the serial bus with a C++ driver and C# .NET GUI with the intention of providing a fully extensible system interaction framework for .NET developers. Anybody with C# .NET programming experience could write a custom application that monitors system level inputs (and OS/software environment conditions) and responds in a given way. If my circuit board also provides relays and outputs, then this could even be used to control all kinds of normally autonomous components.
So, without getting too carried away, I basically want to create a software-driven fan bus.
Cheers for the input, as always, mudd. Now I'm off to change my user title to King Kretin of Babbleon.
I hope you accomplish this one. :]
A return to the glory days? Perhaps.
Cheers guys. It is really great to see how much interest this build is generating. I am super psyched.
Just one contractual matter that must be ironed out beforehand:
Can the articles include pictures of my glow balls?
I think my glow balls with be > than BrakeNutz. I could even put a timer circuit on a UV tube... FLASHING glow balls.
Better yet, STROBE balls!
How women put up with me, I do not know. I mean *cough* woman *cough*.
I hope you succeed man, because choosing between a new world leader that would consider painting his balls with UV paint or simply seeing UV painted balls is not a choice I'd want to make.
Hot damn, Brian! Thanks for sticking me on the front page with such a glowing endorsement. You could have at least downplayed my legacy a bit and spared everyone the disappointment when they see a mangled Cosmos, a failed watercooling rig, a blown processor and two bright, blue balls at the end of this thread.
And with that, I take the record for most subsequent posts in single thread that make mention of balls.
That's an Icrontic achievement, right?
If I do say so myself, this build is off to a good start.
Newegg screwed up my original order, so instead of working on the build project this week I worked on my self-control as I sat frothing at the mouth, staring at the watercooling equipment which all arrived well in front of the computer hardware.
Finally, Newegg's credit for my first order posted to my account so I was able to place a new order. For the most part, the components are the same, except...
Sapphire 4870 1GB instead of MSI. The MSI card is out of stock right now, and I noticed that the PCB color of the Sapphire card is the same as that of the MSI X58 Platinum mobo, so that works out nicely.
G.SKILL CAS 8 6GB kit instead of Corsair CAS 9 kit. This is for sale right now at Newegg for the same cost as the slower Corsair memory.
Scratched the 1TB drive for now to save some green. I will use my older storage drive and put off the whole mass-storage aspect of the build until I have money for a proper RAID setup with multiple drives. I have many terabytes of movies and music that is currently burned to DVDs and CDs that I want to eventually get on local drives.
I had never seen a Cosmos case in person... Talk about fricken' huge! The mid-sized proportioning disguises the sheer massiveness in photographs. The layout and quality of the case is perfect. The thing feels so solid. Can't wait to get this system together.
Tons of pictures... Too tired to do anything with them tonight.
Shouldn't have scavenged the DVD burner from my old system. Thing is borked. Can't read some media; unfortunately that includes the driver CD that came with the X58 Platinum.
The new system is so quiet... And fast. After I built the system I started the Vista install and went to have a couple cigs. When I got back in ~8 minutes later, the Vista install was completing. Farkin' sweet.
Thankfully, the DVD burner reads the Vista DVD. Heh.
OK, no more thoughts right now, pictures tomorrow -- although nothing too exciting going on yet.
I've got some 200 pictures of my unpack / initial build so far that I need to start going through. Here's a few teasers that I reverse-smuggled back to the office with me...
All pictures are posted to my flickr account...
The i920... I have no idea what this stepping amounts to at this point. Need to see some pictures of other production i7's to get a sense for it.
The business end of the 920... The flat contacts on the CPU are a nice touch. The motherboard has the pins on it for Socket 1366, which I believe is much less likely to be damaged. Plenty of mobo pictures to follow later, with some graphic close-ups of me violating the pinned CPU socket, of course.
Annnnnd a shot of the air cooled system after the initial build-up... This was a thrown together build for the sake of getting the OS and drivers installed and some baseline benchmarks, so please judge harshly.
The Cosmos box had a gash in the side of it. It looked inviting. I could not resist.
Yeah, I'm workin' the thumb. You know it.
The sSpec codes are different for each processor.
I have another close-up picture of my 920 that shows a tiny barcode and includes what I recall as being the Revision and Stepping codes. I will post it up tomorrow in a blog entry with some mark-up showing what markings mean what on the Core i7.
I have Googled the ever living piss out of this subject and cannot find a single image of a retail Core i7 that details the different markings on it.
For example, my 920 shows up as Revision C0 in CPU-Z 1.49, but on the bottom there is a clear "001" marking in the same gold trace layer as the pin contacts. What does it mean? I aim to answer these questions over the next day or so and share my findings with you all.
The engineering samples that all the review sites got appear to have been conservative in their capabilities. A wise move on Intel's part.
My 920 at totally stock speeds is beating the reference baselines set by 920 ES's and matches 940 ES's in many cases.
Integral compute power: ~82G/flops
Float compute power: I don't remember.
Memory bandwidth with 6GB @ DDR-1066 CL8 on 4.8Ghz QPI is 18.7GB/s!
Latency is slightly better than 2GB DDR2-800 CL2.5!
Crysis: Warhead @ 1920 x 1200, Gamer, 2x AA 16xAF = LOL BUTTER.
This thing is a monster. Straight up. And I haven't even clocked it yet.
With stock cooler, the in-die core thermistors all read 29C idle / 53C full OCCT load. Very respectable for a stock cooler on a 130W processor. Intel's power management is second to none.
Core i7's have on-die TDP monitoring and reporting, which HWMonitor and Sandra pick up, so my TDP calculator will soon be filled out.
Okay, done spamming my own thread for now. Trying to logically break up these posts a bit so it doesn't turn into one TLDR novel. Probably failing on that count.
Quick question. What Video card are you using? Also will you be mounting your radiator up top between those 120mm fans and the case?
The 240mm rad will be up top where the two fans are currently, and the 360mm rad will be externally mounted to the back of the case using custom brackets and shrouds. The 120mm rear exhaust fan will be blowing air into the top third of the radiator, with external fans pushing and pulling air through the rest of it.
Sapphire HD4870 1GB
Great pix so far. I'm loving this so much.