New Surround Gaming Rig

[Cecil]

Finally had a massive movement of parts tonight (like $750 worth of buying/selling and more to come).
So parts that are settled on or have.

3x ASUS VW266H 1920x1200 LCDs
2x GTX470s (one EVGA one ASUS)
Gig P55A-UD4P
Antec TruePower New 750w PSU
2x2 Gskill ECO 1600 7-8-7-24s or 2x2 Corsair XMS3 1600 7-8-7-20
Cooler Master 690 Advanced II

Parts in lingo or need to get

i5-650 (in talks with someone local to trade my 5770 for it, if not buying i5-750 I think)
Cooling stuff (more below)
Possibly new SSD (Mushkin Calisto Deluxe 60Gb for $160 seems like a killer deal)


For cooling I cant make up my mind. I really want quiet, so I was thinking of running a loop for just the cards off my spare MCR-120. Doing so I could leave my bench setup loop how it is, and when I want to bench 2d put it on there. If I want to cool the CPU I either take apart that loop and put the MCR-320 on the back of my case which would be pretty loud, or pay for another 2x120 rad.
I have a TRUE sitting here for the CPU, and figure for daily use thats plenty.

Any suggestions on what you would do? I do have an extra CPU block coming I could put in the bench loop and put the XT on the i5.

Using MCW-60s for the GPUs with the stock unisink for mem and vregs.

Pics this weekend when its done.

[Hondacity]

nice....

psu fan might be audible...

single loop with a 320... :D

use 6 fans and you're all set....

i hope you have all the tubing...and clamps...

[Cecil]

Ive got plenty of tubing and clamps, enough for two loops. Im trying to figure a way to fit the 320 at the top of my case without losing the HDD dock. How would it work with only two fans installed? Better then a normal 220?

[Hondacity]

it should work with only two fans...

as long as there is negative pressure ...through the rads..then you'll be fine

[Cecil]

Im in talks with someone to get a Koolance 140mm rad. They any good? I could put that up top, and put my 120 behind the back exhaust fan in the case. Then use this pump/res.
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/x2o750du5bay.html

Also planning on having quick disconnects before the gpu blocks so I can change cards easily.



EDIT: He wouldnt be able to ship the rad till saturday, that wont work for me.

[Hondacity]

i'm not fond of plexy ....

any rad actually words ok..getting a good 140mm is the problem...

with qd you need a good pump..ddc3.25 fits the bill though

[Cecil]

I have an MCP-655, and the pump/res I linked is almost matches it in the review I read.


Also, just popped the EVGA 470 in my AMD rig for now to do some pcmark. It seems like a pretty good clocker, though I dont know average clocks for 470s. Stock is 607, I got it to 767 so far with 63% fan speed stable through kombuster and L4D2 on stock volts (.987). Its beastly :laughing:

[Hondacity]

point of view - brand

clocks the 470 to around 760mhz i think...

[Cecil]

Looks like Im getting a HWlabs GTX120 to add to the Swifty 120. Should be plenty that way.
Also, got a buyer for my ST SSD so, going to get another. Making a thread for that.

[Cecil]

The guy that was going to trade me his i5 650 dropped out. So, which of these three options should I go with?

Used i5 650 from someone for $110 that says it did 5GHz with air once. Would get here Saturday.
New i5 760 from ewiz for $184 (coupon and $6 cashback) but wont be here till monday or tuesday.
Go to MicroCenter for i5 750 for $192 after tax and gas, get it tomorrow.

Main use is gaming, and newer games do take advantage of the extra cores in reviews, but thats at a low res. With playing at 5760x1200 would the added cores do much to help or not?



EDIT: 760 seems to be out. I forgot I have no idea what BIOS is on the board, so I dont know if its supported yet or not.

[Hondacity]

i760

higher multi....

[Cecil]

I got a good deal on a 750 ($130 shipped) . I also figured out (I think) how to fit the 320 + the 120 + the HWlabs GTX120 in the case to cool the CPU and both GPUs. Ill add my MCP-655 as well. Dang, 5x120, two pumps, and 3 blocks in a mid tower lol.

[Hondacity]

130$ sounds like a goood deal and 45nm can take a beating :D

pics of that 5x120 or its not true:P

[Cecil]

The ^*&$^%( sold it from under me. I pissed now and just going to go up to MC and get a new one, at least I can start working on it tonight!

[Cecil]

Just got back, I had no idea had batches were good for the 750s, so I just used the unprooven method of going with the lowest last two digits. Ended up with L936B313. Only google results for L936B show German? forums saying ~3.6 stable at 1.1ish, so hopefully its good.

[Hondacity]

3.8ghz should be easy..

[Cecil]

3.8ghz should be easy..

Im going for 4.2, at least.

Right now I just put the stock cooler on cause I got to test this board, and the rest of my water stuff wont be here till Saturday. I also ran out of cash before I could get an other SSD, so Im just going to set up XP and Vista on my WD 320 for now.

[Cecil]

Got most of it up. The HWlabs GTX120 didnt make it this weekend, so I did the rest and will add it when it comes. The SSD wont be here till tuesday as well, so Im still on my XP/Vista drive.

Just for the fun of it been trying to see how far I can get on stock volts or less. Stock is 1.2v for this chip, but 1.1 got 3.4 with ease so far.

Both GPUs idle at 40c and load about 50c. The CPU idles about 30c and loads at 60c. Im hoping the other rad will take about another 2-3c off. At this rate I should be able to get 4.3Ghz stable under 75c, and both GPUs to about 800core stable.

The 320 rad didnt fit how I wanted to, so its kind of diagnal at the top. So air flow isnt as good as it could be for it, but it still works. I have two blowing air in from the top in to it, and one on the bottom of it towards the back.


Ill post pics once its all done. Still got clocking to do for now.

[Hondacity]

omg 1.1v ....

i rarely use low voltage now lol

[Cecil]

omg 1.1v ....

i rarely use low voltage now lol

Lol I dont want to get bored so fast so Im taking my time with it. Next step is to see if I can get 4 with less then 1.2.

I think this kit of ram sucks though. Using my 2x2Gb Corsair XMS3 1600 7-8-7-20 cause they match the look of the board more then my ECOs :cool3:
Tried to boot at 1700 8-8-8-24 1.6v and it wouldnt. So Ill probably have to pop the ECOs in here unless I can get these higher with maybe more vtt and 1.65 or something.


Am really annoyed that there is no uncore multi adjustment on this board. Im hoping there is a modified bios out there somewhere that has it.

[Hondacity]

i don't think there is uncore for the p55....

only qpi multi...

i'll dig bits about that..

[Cecil]

The default uncore on this is x18, with no way of changing it. I thought it would be the same as 1366, maybe not. Havent messed with 1156 before really.

[Cecil]

Whats the max safe vcore and vtt for these 24/7? Im up to 1.275vcore, 1.27VTT. At 190x21 Linx fails after the second run. Is there a reason to mess with PCH and PLL, or just try more VTT? Ram is only at 1520 7-8-7 1.64v.


EDIT: Went ahead and jacked the volts a bit more. Got to try to lower them some before moving on to keep under 75c.

[Cecil]

Im certainly a lot happier. That extra rad knocked 11C off my idle temps, at least. About to start testing out 4.2 again.

[Cecil]

Heres the pics, all done.
http://s864.photobucket.com/albums/ab207/ctmaudi/PC%20Setups/August%202010%20Main%20Gamer/

Ram is giving my issues going over 1600, guessing the mem controller is just really weak.

[HITandRUN]

Man I love the LCDs! :thumbsup:

[Cecil]

The voltage increase needed past 4Ghz just doesnt seem worth it for daily use. 1.3Vcore/1.29VTT for 4, but needs about 1.33/1.33 for 4.1. Plus 4.1 has a lower ram speed if going with 195x21 apposed to 200x20 for 4Ghz.

Got both my 470s running Kombuster at 800/3500 stock .987 volts, 50C load.