-Post pics of your computer-

[shadow001]

Shadow we are gonna need more pics.!.!.!

Only thing i could do is take a picture of the system alongside the three 27" screens in eyefinity....

[mullet]

Get on it!!!!!!

[shadow001]

Get on it!!!!!!

First thing tomorrow morning then....Still doing updates drivers wise, and in windows itself and in some games.

[Greasy]

Why the hell do you need three laing D5s for just four cards in parallel? Couldn't you run that whole rig with just one D5 strong or an mcp35x2? Hell a couple of varios in series could probably pull it off too.

That's overkill to the max.

[shadow001]

That's overkill to the max.

Goes nicely with the rest of the system being total overkill, and it's 3 1440p screens....


Like you once said, i am a hardware enthusiast and will die a hardware enthusiast...

[bill dennison]

Just for redundancy should any single pump fail.....In any case i have a huge smile on my face since i'm already using the system right now, as i was under the impression that i'd have to redo the raid 0 setup and with that, go to the trouble of reinstalling all the software over the next several days, but no the raid controler detected the drives properly and i setup the boot options and windows booted right away as if nothing had happened....

hmm you have 3 pumps in parallel for redundancy ?

i have my two d5's in series and when one stops flow is just reduced

with parallel you can get it flowing through the dead pump and not much to system

[shadow001]

hmm you have 3 pumps in parallel for redundancy ?

i have my two d5's in series and when one stops flow is just reduced

with parallel you can get it flowing through the dead pump and not much to system

Didn't notice he mentioned in parallel actually, they're in series with my setup too...

[slaWter]

I haven't had the chance to clean up the cables yet but you get the idea.





Xigmatek Praeton low profile ^

This is my first time using ASRock and so far so good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157312&Tpk=asrock%20z77%20itx

Note: I may or may not have been nude while taking these pics.

Thanks for the photos!

So the cube form is mainly there to fit a normal ATX PSU. I thought it might be to somehow fit a full profile PCIe card.

It's a nice form factor for a desktop but a weird one for a HTPC for example.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Didn't notice he mentioned in parallel actually, they're in series with my setup too...

I was talking about the video cards being in parallel since they aren't really all that restrictive.

[shadow001]

I was talking about the video cards being in parallel since they aren't really all that restrictive.

Less restrictive flow is acheived this way, and the heat generated from one card doesn't transfer to the other card like it would in series, since all cards receive cold water at the same time, and exit warmer water at the same time in a parallel setup.


Anyhow, one last picture, though the lighting isn't very good as it's shitty weather outside.




Yes, the case is wider than my chair or the monitors....

[Zero]

Nothing special as its cost effective but clean and efficient. I could be cleaner with the cables but meh...

Nice! I have the same case and it's awesome (picked up for $60, can't complain). Well ok I can complain, my mobo's SATA ports don't really match up with the cable management holes. But it's hardly the case's fault.

Nice clean build.

[Roadhog]

Less restrictive flow is acheived this way, and the heat generated from one card doesn't transfer to the other card like it would in series, since all cards receive cold water at the same time, and exit warmer water at the same time in a parallel setup.


Anyhow, one last picture, though the lighting isn't very good as it's shitty weather outside.




Yes, the case is wider than my chair or the monitors....

Loop temperatures are the same throughout.

[demo]

Yeh I thought water temp quickly stabilizes throughout the loop.

I put together a cute little secondary PC today.

Lian Li PC-Q02A mini ITX
i5 3570K
8GB Corsair Vengeance
ASRock Z77E-ITX
Intel 80GB X-25M G2

Fast little beast.

I haven't had the chance to clean up the cables yet but you get the idea.





Xigmatek Praeton low profile ^

This is my first time using ASRock and so far so good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157312&Tpk=asrock%20z77%20itx

Note: I may or may not have been nude while taking these pics.

That is a cool build

[BababooeyHTJ]

Less restrictive flow is acheived this way, and the heat generated from one card doesn't transfer to the other card like it would in series, since all cards receive cold water at the same time, and exit warmer water at the same time in a parallel setup.

Yes, less restrictive flow is achieved this way meaning it really doesn't need to be on its own loop. Doesn't a couple of pumps in series also make up for lost head pressure? Having a single loop would have looked cleaner and might have netted you better temps.

Also water temp doesn't vary much through out an effective loop from what I've heard.

[Roadhog]

Yes, less restrictive flow is achieved this way meaning it really doesn't need to be on its own loop. Doesn't a couple of pumps in series also make up for lost head pressure? Having a single loop would have looked cleaner and might have netted you better temps.

Also water temp doesn't vary much through out an effective loop from what I've heard.

It's a closed loop so there is no head pressure.

[Sazar]

Less restrictive flow is acheived this way, and the heat generated from one card doesn't transfer to the other card like it would in series, since all cards receive cold water at the same time, and exit warmer water at the same time in a parallel setup.


Anyhow, one last picture, though the lighting isn't very good as it's shitty weather outside.




Yes, the case is wider than my chair or the monitors....

Why in the world do you not have a mechanical keyboard

If too loud, get some o-rings and reduce key travel at the same time

Btw, per the grapevine, Logitech should have mechanical keyboards being released soon (like October)

[shadow001]

Loop temperatures are the same throughout.

Maybe so, but it's still less restrictive this way and frankly, with the amount of money already spent on the setup, it isn't 3 extra extensions between each card, worth about 30$, that's going to break the bank....

Yes, less restrictive flow is achieved this way meaning it really doesn't need to be on its own loop. Doesn't a couple of pumps in series also make up for lost head pressure? Having a single loop would have looked cleaner and might have netted you better temps.

Also water temp doesn't vary much through out an effective loop from what I've heard.

Cleaner with a single loop?.....Perhaps, but it would mean dealing with much shorter tubing lenghts overall, wich would also be making tighter radius turns with a higher possibility of kinking the tubes, and being a bigger pain to work the tubing into those tighter turns, and i don't really like the use of those spiral coils on the tubing.


I like the fact that each one has it's own loop with their own pumps and powered by a seperate power supply, so unless the power goes completely out due to external factors, there's no chance of a single failure affecting the entire cooling loop.....One or the other might be affected, but not both at the same time.

Why in the world do you not have a mechanical keyboard

If too loud, get some o-rings and reduce key travel at the same time

Btw, per the grapevine, Logitech should have mechanical keyboards being released soon (like October)

Funny you should mention it, a friend of mine got one of those razor mechanical keyboards last week and it failed 4 days later with one of the keys stopped working and he took it apart and couldn't get that key to work no matter what he tried....

[BababooeyHTJ]

Why in the world do you not have a mechanical keyboard

If too loud, get some o-rings and reduce key travel at the same time

Btw, per the grapevine, Logitech should have mechanical keyboards being released soon (like October)

About damn time that they catch on. Although I doubt that I'm going to be replacing my $60 Rosewill anytime soon.

[shadow001]

Been doing reference baseline temperature checking with the CPU's overclocked to 4 Ghz and trying out various games and the load temperature, even though the room where the PC is in is at 28*C, doesn't exceed 50*C on the hottest core( the others run cooler).



Even more impressive are the GPU temps, wich at stock clocks and again playing games that i have, don't exceed 45*C, so it's looking good once i overclock them as i'm doubting they'll even hit 60*C under load...


Fans and pumps at 50% on both loops so the system is barely audible, and plenty of cooling power left in reserve if going for an all out overclock(crank everything up), or leaving the system under load for long periods of time without supervision(Me going to bed).

[BababooeyHTJ]

How are the vrm temps with those blocks? I just picked up a couple and am wondering what to expect. You can monitor them with HWinfo64.

[shadow001]

How are the vrm temps with those blocks? I just picked up a couple and am wondering what to expect. You can monitor them with HWinfo64.

I'll install the utility this weekend and let you know on the VRM side of things.


EDIT: I'll try it now and with the heaven benchmark demo on the single middle screen while the utilities are on the side screens...

[shadow001]

Did 4 passes of heaven at 2560*1440,8x AA and 16x AF and extreme tesselation, and the results are as follows:


GPU's leveled at 48*C and VRM's leveled at 54~56*C between all 4 cards at the end of the 4th pass(took a while to get there), and again room temperature at 28*C and pump and fan controls at 50%, so expect lower figures if i cranked it up.

[Ristogod]

Funny you should mention it, a friend of mine got one of those razor mechanical keyboards last week and it failed 4 days later with one of the keys stopped working and he took it apart and couldn't get that key to work no matter what he tried....

Rule 1. Don't buy Razer.

Mechanical keyboards are so worth it. I have a Coolermaster Storm Trigger. It's absolutely fantastic.

[aviphysics]

Less restrictive flow is acheived this way, and the heat generated from one card doesn't transfer to the other card like it would in series, since all cards receive cold water at the same time, and exit warmer water at the same time in a parallel setup.

This also can be a problem. If somehow a restriction develops in one of the cards, you wouldn't really notice until the card overheated. If they are in series, the flow will slow down and you will be able to notice right away. If the flow rate is high enough, it shouldn't matter if the last card is getting sloppy 4ths.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Did 4 passes of heaven at 2560*1440,8x AA and 16x AF and extreme tesselation, and the results are as follows:


GPU's leveled at 48*C and VRM's leveled at 54~56*C between all 4 cards at the end of the 4th pass(took a while to get there), and again room temperature at 28*C and pump and fan controls at 50%, so expect lower figures if i cranked it up.

Thanks, if thats at 1200mhz then that is really good. What core voltage are you running?

[BababooeyHTJ]

Well, I just installed my new Koolance blocks and the new motherboard and am bleeding the loop now. It looks a lot cleaner than it did before. So if all goes well I'll get to see how the temps are with my cards. I'll post a couple of pics later.

Oh, it really is pretty crappy of koolance to not include any screws for around the gpu. I have a non reference card which didn't come with a backplate so the screws were too long. Thankfully I had some rubber washers lying around from my HR-03 bracket.

[shadow001]

This also can be a problem. If somehow a restriction develops in one of the cards, you wouldn't really notice until the card overheated. If they are in series, the flow will slow down and you will be able to notice right away. If the flow rate is high enough, it shouldn't matter if the last card is getting sloppy 4ths.

Hence why i've been monitoring the temps of both the GPU's and the VRM's and there's hardly any difference between the 4 cards even after putting them under load for over 30 mins running heaven non stop....We're talking 2~3*C differences here, so it's nice and even between all 4 and i can only imagine if i cranked the pump and fan speeds to max, but i don't want the system sounding like a vacuum cleaner...

[shadow001]

Thanks, if thats at 1200mhz then that is really good. What core voltage are you running?

0.030v higher than stock on all 4 to keep it even.

[shadow001]

To keep any confusion out of this, the earlier heaven benchmark runs were run at stock, fans and pumps at 50%, and the temperatures were:

GPU's averaging 48*C( across all 4).
VRM's averaging 54-56*C across all 4 cards.
Voltage for the GPU's at 1.170mv(stock basically).
Clocks at 925/1375 Mhz( core/memory).


The run i did just now was with the cards overclocked and fans/pumps set at the same 50% of their max as the stock run, and the results were:

GPU's reaching a peak of 54*C across all 4 GPU's.
VRM's at 64*C across all 4 as well.
Voltage for the GPU's at 1.200mv(+ 0.030 volts).
Clocks at 1125/1575Mhz( core/memory).


No graphical anomalies detected and it seems like the cards couldd run this endlessly at the overclocked settings without issues, so the cooling handles this just fine and can handle way more....The question is, how much more do i push it...

[BababooeyHTJ]

Nice I'm just hoping to be able to pull off 1.2v with the vrms at a comfortable temp. The pos xspc block that I had couldn't do that.

[Progression]

Why in the world do you not have a mechanical keyboard

If too loud, get some o-rings and reduce key travel at the same time

Btw, per the grapevine, Logitech should have mechanical keyboards being released soon (like October)

Yeah, you would think with that kind of setup he would've had a mechanical keyboard...

[shadow001]

Nice I'm just hoping to be able to pull off 1.2v with the vrms at a comfortable temp. The pos xspc block that I had couldn't do that.

It comes down to the amount of radiators you have available, since they're the ones transfering the heat within the water to the ambient air, and in my case, i'm using three, double thickness radiators in push pull mode with a total of 10 fans just for the GPU loop.

1 single 120 mm radiator( push pull fan arrangement), and a pair of 240 mm radiators( also push/pull fan arrangement), though there are 4 video cards to cool down, while in your case it'll be 2 cards to cool down right?


Are you using the same radiator for both the GPU and CPU cooling, and having everything in the same loop?...

[BababooeyHTJ]

I have an xspc ex120 and RS360 rad. I should be good for two cards and a low power cpu.

[shadow001]

I have an xspc ex120 and RS360 rad. I should be good for two cards and a low power cpu.

I saw the pictures you posted a couple of pages ago, and it should handle it though keep in mind that ambient temperatures also play as part, as both my runs were made with the room temperature at 28*C( decently hot summer day).....My readings would obviously go up on an even hotter day or lower on a colder one if i left the fan/pump speeds the same.


So i suspect that my absolute maximum overclock will be reached once winter rolls around and the room temperature is usually set at 21*C where the computer will be.

[slaWter]

Yeah, you would think with that kind of setup he would've had a mechanical keyboard...

Is there a mechanical keyboard with a display like on the Logitechs?

Since I don't type on my PC, I don't care a lot about the feel and comfort of the keys. The display is more important for me.

And for typing, I prefer laptop-style keyboards somehow.

It comes down to the amount of radiators you have available, since they're the ones transfering the heat within the water to the ambient air, and in my case, i'm using three, double thickness radiators in push pull mode with a total of 10 fans just for the GPU loop.

1 single 120 mm radiator( push pull fan arrangement), and a pair of 240 mm radiators( also push/pull fan arrangement), though there are 4 video cards to cool down, while in your case it'll be 2 cards to cool down right?


Are you using the same radiator for both the GPU and CPU cooling, and having everything in the same loop?...

Did you ever try your setup with a simpler water cooling setup?
I don't think that all those radiators and separated loops are necessary. I haven't messed with water cooling in years but it always seemed quite efficient to me.

Sure temps would be higher but still within reason. And the system remains somewhat silent, probably still the only reason why people should use water cooling considering the huge and annoying hassle water cooling comes with.

[shadow001]

Did you ever try your setup with a simpler water cooling setup?
I don't think that all those radiators and separated loops are necessary. I haven't messed with water cooling in years but it always seemed quite efficient to me.

Sure temps would be higher but still within reason. And the system remains somewhat silent, probably still the only reason why people should use water cooling considering the huge and annoying hassle water cooling comes with.

I posted about that earlier actually, and it would involve using shorter tubing lenghts with tighter bend radiuses in a few locations that would have a higher tendency to pinch, and i hate using those spiral coils to avoid that problem since they don't exactly look great visually.

[slaWter]

I posted about that earlier actually, and it would involve using shorter tubing lenghts with tighter bend radiuses in a few locations that would have a higher tendency to pinch, and i hate using those spiral coils to avoid that problem since they don't exactly look great visually.

Why, are the pumps too weak for a single loop with 2 CPUs, 4 GPUs and a 360 radiator?

[Mangler]

It comes down to the amount of radiators you have available, since they're the ones transfering the heat within the water to the ambient air, and in my case, i'm using three, double thickness radiators in push pull mode with a total of 10 fans just for the GPU loop.

1 single 120 mm radiator( push pull fan arrangement), and a pair of 240 mm radiators( also push/pull fan arrangement), though there are 4 video cards to cool down, while in your case it'll be 2 cards to cool down right?


Are you using the same radiator for both the GPU and CPU cooling, and having everything in the same loop?...

In his case, it has nothing to do with the radiator capacity, the xspc block only has passive cooling of the vrm area.

[BababooeyHTJ]

In his case, it has nothing to do with the radiator capacity, the xspc block only has passive cooling of the vrm area.

The gpu was sitting at 42c while the vrms would hit over 90c in Crysis at just 1.1v. You would think that with actual waterblock would wick some of the heat off of the vrm block but it doesn't. I'm surprised that there aren't many users complaining about the vrm temps on those blocks. I did look around for some reports on the temps before I took the gamble.

[shadow001]

Why, are the pumps too weak for a single loop with 2 CPUs, 4 GPUs and a 360 radiator?

Mostly my issue having a single failure point where hardware can get damaged if it stops working, and this setup is worth a fair bit of money, so i split it into 2 loops, each having their own pump and a backup, powered by their own power supply and their own pump regulator....In short, to have the cooling not working would involve having more than 1 piece of hardware going bad at the same time, or not having power at all wich wouldn't boot the system anyhow, so there's no worries about overheating.

In his case, it has nothing to do with the radiator capacity, the xspc block only has passive cooling of the vrm area.

Gotcha....It isn't a full cover block where everything gets liquid cooled.

The gpu was sitting at 42c while the vrms would hit over 90c in Crysis at just 1.1v. You would think that with actual waterblock would wick some of the heat off of the vrm block but it doesn't. I'm surprised that there aren't many users complaining about the vrm temps on those blocks. I did look around for some reports on the temps before I took the gamble.

That is toasty on the VRM side of things, but i'd be worried about your power supply as while it is 850 watt corsair, as you're going to add a second card and overclock and it's a sure thing that once they are, they're going to draw over 200 watts a piece easy under load, so that's 400+ watts right there just for the cards themselves.


Add the motherboard power requirements, the CPU power requirements since it's also going to be overclocked, the memory, the pump power and fans, HDD's or SSD's, and the PSU will handle it but will be running not far from it's max capacity and as a general rule, if you want it to last for the long run, you shouldn't draw more than 70~75% of it's full capacity.


I was kicking the living crap of that 1500 watt silverstone i was using before and it died on me relatively quickly and it was running pretty much the same hardware, and it's the reason why now everything is split between a pair of 1200 watt ones, as they're not being stressed anywhere near their limits so they should last a fair bit longer.