Corsair 540 "Cube" Sandy Bridge E/SLI Titan

I'm going to do this one correctly - this means lots of pictures/updates!

The hardware will be pretty much smack on with what I currently have:

HAF X
i7 3930K
X79 - UD5
16GB Corsair Vengeance
SLI Titans
750GB Samsung 840 EVO

But - the HAF X is being dumped for a Corsair Carbide 540, the H100 and the GPU air coolers are being dumped too, in favour of a custom water loop. There are a few little aesthetic additions too.

The new case and loop setup will most likely be re-used for my Haswell-E/Maxwell build next year if things go to plan.

XSPC X20 pump/res combo (kindly donated by Si from bittech)
XSPC Raystorm
8 x Corsair SP120 Performance Edition
EK-FC Titan SE Acetal/Nickel x 2
3 x Phobya Molex to 6 fan header PCBs
Hose Cutter
Thermal Cleaner
Thermal Paste
PM Nuke PHN Concentrated Biocide
Alphacool ST30 240
Alphacool ST30 360
Masterkleer 3/8" ID - 1/2" OD 3m
EK-FC Terminal Triple Parallel
EK-FC Terminal Blank
Cable Ties!
Feser compression fittings x 6
Feser 45 degree dual rotary compression fittings x 8
Alphacool T Piece
Feser Aqua Bi-Distilled Water 2L
XSPC White LEDs (Raystorm)
Bitspower White valve
EK Water Blocks FC Titan SE Backplate x 2 (on clearance for £12 each on OCUK)
BitFenix Alchemy 24pin ATX extension 30cm - White
BitFenix Alchemy 8pin PCI-E extension 45cm - White x2
BitFenix Alchemy 6pin PCI-E extension 45cm - White x2
BitFenix Alchemy Internal Audio Extension Adaptor 30cm - White
BitFenix Alchemy 2pin I/O extension 30cm - White x 3

Have already posted on a few other places but I'm after as much feedback/advice as possible. If you see something you think can be done better, let me know!

Current rig:



Some new shinies:

Very nice specs, how long until you will have this beast inside a 540?

I'm hoping near christmas day, the other half has purchased it for me but refuses to give it up until nearer/on the day!!

Dude....I have a HAF932 (it came out like 3 months before the HAF X) and you have to know that the fronts USB s are unuasable.they will break after 1 month! Better get the 900D or Phantom 820....I think somebody who has a build with 3930k and SLI Titan can afford this...

GamingDj said:

Dude....I have a HAF932 (it came out like 3 months before the HAF X) and you have to know that the fronts USB s are unuasable.they will break after 1 month! Better get the 900D or Phantom 820....I think somebody who has a build with 3930k and SLI Titan can afford this...

Click to expand...

its going in a 540... not a haf x

Hey mate, I've had the HAF X for a long time now, I'm getting the Corsair 540

I assume you are talking about the HAF X USB ports anyway. But I have not had issues with it in the time I've owned it.

Have you had the chance to inspect an Air 540 in person before? It's a great case, but sometimes I think it might've been better if I had gone with a Caselabs M8 case. There'll be plenty room for your components in the 540, but beware: The plastic window attracts dust like nothing I have ever seen before, if you want some lighting, be sure to take this into consideration

Interested to see where this will go

Yeah, I have an NZXT HUE and some XSPC raystorm LEDs that will be illuminating the inside, I have seen the 540 yes, it's sat in its box downstairs!

Managed to get in and take a look at some of the parts last night/earlier today! Just taken delivery of 2 more fans and all the braided cables too.

Only the second Titan block I'm waiting on now then!

240 Rad





EK Titan Block





SP120s (2 more coming)



EK Backplate



I've done a little testing with the current setup, the fans are sounding good to me running at 7v, but even at 12v they are so much quieter than other fans I've had before.

I gotta say, the more EK gear i see the more I'm starting to dislike their branding again big silver brandy circles on black.. it's almost as bad as that blocky acrylics/mylar with circled etched into it again bit too ostentatious to me

I preferred them when they were just straight-up plain shiny not frosted blocks.

But that's just me, I think (ninja edit: Bitspower) are taking over that department, their last few blocks have been flippin gorgeous.

SuB said:

Betfenix

Click to expand...

Are they a new gambling organisation?

I really like the quality of the EK stuff, the cooling is very good, there are only a few that cool better I think, coupled with the backplates I should see some decent temps.

I'm not so fussed on the silver - I would have personally loved it in white and may actually get a friend to make me up some white EK logos to stick over the top of them. But that's just an idea so far.

Cheers

Cracking the Gigabyte Titan out, stock cooler off, thermal pads off, die nicely cleaned (couldn't get some of the old thermal paste off the edges - opted to leave it rather than rub away with cotton buds)!

Most cleaning was with metal bright then alcohol to remove it all.









Then I realised the EK block didn't include any washers!! So at the moment the card is upside down on the waterblock waiting for the nylon washers to arrive! So I moved onto the CPU...

H100 off, CPU cleaned up and in the middle of spreading the TIM, then with the Raystorm on with fittings & LEDs

Keep the updates coming dude, good log going here

Cheers matey.

Only a small fairly inconsequential update.

I've fitted all the blocks to everything now, have loads of pics but not had time to upload yet. Fired it up and was using it for a few hours, was all ok, then just randomly froze on a chrome page, shut down, wouldn't start back up. The motherboard power on button lost its LED backlighting too so something went wrong somewhere.

Turned it all off, left it all unplugged, checked to make sure nothing was wrong, there was no leaking, nothing had popped/burned so unless it was something hidden behind a heatsink I don't know what it could be.

Anyway, left it for a day and plugged it all back in again today and it appears as if it's perfectly fine. It did the same thing a little while ago so not sure what it is, perhaps a loose connection somewhere. Will run a few bench tests when I get home tonight.

Very intrigued dude! looks like its gonna be an awesome build!

Thanks matey, not too far from me



So they will happily run stable at 1280Mhz Core (876Mhz standard boost clocks) and 1682Mhz (1502Mhz standard) Memory with 1.3V running through them, at less than 48 degrees, which isn't so bad considering they hit 72 degrees on air at 1.2V.

That's an increase of 46% on the core and 12% on the memory. Though to be fair I haven't touched the memory much just yet. They should scream along in games and benchmarks now.

Will run some perhaps later if I have a chance. Pics of the current 'setup' to follow.

So finally had a chance to sit down and look through it all. Have now received my second EK waterblock as the first leaked from between the acetal and nickel layers, tested it three times (damn are those O rings hard to line up on the terminal connectors), but was still leaking so sent it back.

As promised, a few pics of the 'bench' setup.

Fixing up the blocks:



And backplates!













And some fun hashing power:



The Asus card is 77.2% ASIC quality, the Gigabyte is 72.8%. They are 24/7 stable at 1255Mhz core, 1752Mhz memory, so that's +379 and +250 (+500 in afterburner) accordingly. Running at 1.3V they stay under 60 which is decent as at stock 1.08V they would hit 72 and get quite loud under my fan profile.

Now just waiting for christmas day to put it into the new case!

Very nice, Question for you, How did you get 1.30v ? Or is that normal for a Titan ?

1.08V is stock (ish), 1.212V is the highest you can go in afterburner and the like.

However if you shut down afterburner you can run a command line prompt and manually edit the profile text files to unlock it to 1.3V, that's where afterburner stops then. However, you can also use another program to push it as far as you want from then on... some people have hit 1500Mhz on titans with fully unlocked voltages.

It of course also needs a custom BIOS to enable the power slider up to a higher value.