Andre's Z77 Personal Rig

[andrevautour]

Hello again everyone,

Today I have another update this time it is a bunch of details photos that I took yesterday afternoon.

I am also planning on maybe cutting out the front fan mesh behind the front panel, so expect an update about that when I do that.

Here is another group pictures expect this time with the SSD box which was missing in the last one. This will be likely outdated as of today though because I'm planning on picking up one of the new M4 256GB drives later on this evening.



IMG_2019 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2023 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2025 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2028 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2029 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_2030 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2031 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2032 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2033 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2034 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2035 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2036 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2037 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2039 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2041 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2043 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

[dieseldog49]

Sexy looking build, I like the heatsinks on that mobo waaay better than the bullet and gattling gun ones on my Big Bang II, heck I bought waterblocks for that board just so I could get rid of them. The yellow on those really makes the board pop.

 

[andrevautour]

Sexy looking build, I like the heatsinks on that mobo waaay better than the bullet and gattling gun ones on my Big Bang II, heck I bought waterblocks for that board just so I could get rid of them. The yellow on those really makes the board pop.

thanks! I agree I always prefer a simple more minimal heatsink design vs something that looks like a gun or a knife or something like that. To me that sort of stuff just makes an otherwise great quality board look a bit tacky you know? I love the all black aesthetic of the Xpower II board but like you I dont like the guns and bullets on it. I would like a combination of the two 100% black with no gun stuff at all and that would be a lovely broad in my opinion!
Same applies to the gigabyte Assassin stuff and a lot of the ASRock stuff it doesnt have to be weapons on it but just cheesy looking designs on otherwise nice minimal boards.

I also dislike memory like the Gskill sniper / RipjawsZ etc for the same reasons.

Heading over to have a look at your build now I'm excited to see what you've done!

 

[andrevautour]

I got a new SSD and I will have an update on that shortly. Also, I heard someone say don't go above 1.5V for memory of Ivy Bridge, I'm just wondering why that is?

 

[andrevautour]

Close Look: Samsung 840 Series 250GB

I was at a local computer store earlier this evening planning to get a Crucial M4 256GB as I mentioned earlier, but I saw right next to it the Samsung 840's and they were only $10 more, so I figured I'd give it a try this time.

Aesthetics wise I really love the minimal, all black look of the Samsung as well as the strip of mirror around the edge, I think it's a lot nicer looking than a lot of other brands with crappy looking stickers on theirs.

Here are some pictures:


IMG_2065 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2066 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2067 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2068 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2069 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2071 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2074 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2076 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2078 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2079 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2080 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2081 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2082 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2083 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2084 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2085 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2086 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2087 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2088 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2089 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_2090 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

[FlangeBBK]

Looks sweet, what kinda read/writes are you achieving from it compared to the Crucial drive?

 

[andrevautour]

Looks sweet, what kinda read/writes are you achieving from it compared to the Crucial drive?

thanks, i like the minimal look too. the crucial was a 128 so those always have slow writes, it was rated at around 500 mb/s read 175 mb/s write and i got 500/180 out of it with the z77 motherboard. this one is rated at 540 mb/s read and 250 mb/s write. there is also a 840 pro series that i was looking at that is rated at 540 read and 520 write but i ended up going for this standard version.

i havent actually ran a bench on it but im going to put it in right now and ill post a screenshot of the results in a few minutes for you.

 

[andrevautour]

Here are some performance numbers to compare. On the top left is my dad's Crucial M4 256GB connected to his Rampage IV Extreme using the Intel Controller, The top right is my Crucial M4 128gb on my old Sabertooth X58 board, bottom left is my M4 128 on my new Z77 Mpower board, and bottom right is my new Samsung 840 on my Z77 Mpower board.

Here is a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7HzdJlpT3Q&feature=plcp

 

[Etlar]

Damn i need to get my self in gear whit my build, but is missing the last parts so i can go ahead and build my self a lovely pc

But Andre, i do love your build and time you take to make this post on your build

And that SSD is damn sexy i most say

 

[Etlar]

I got a new SSD and I will have an update on that shortly. Also, I heard someone say don't go above 1.5V for memory of Ivy Bridge, I'm just wondering why that is?

I will say the same have my Corsair on 1.65v and have no problem on it

 

[The Orange One]

I Like your Choice for a SSD. Samsung make pretty good SSD's, imho

 

[andrevautour]

I will say the same have my Corsair on 1.65v and have no problem on it

I've tried a few different kits of memory in this and I have noticed that it does perform and work better with 1.5V

I temporarily had Kingston HyperX in there which is 1333mhz with XMP 1600 @ 1.65V and when it was at XMP it did not wake from sleep properly, but performed fine at 1.5V 1333MHz

Then I tried a kit of GSkill sniper which had no XMP on it but was 1600MHz 1.5V and that worked fine, woke from sleep fine, etc.

Next I tried a 16GB kit of G Skill RipjawsZ stuff which was 1600MHz 1.5V stock with an XMP of 2133 MHz @ 1.65V with this kit it worked fine at 1600 stock but same thing as the Kingston XMP 1.65V did not wake from sleep properly and would crash waking from sleep at XMP 1.65V

When I was selecting new memory to but I picked the Patriot Viper Xtreme stuff over the newer 1.5V Viper 3 stuff because I liked the aestheticvs of it better than Viper 3, but this Xtreme stuff is also 1.65V at XMP setting. The same thing with this, it is fine at 1600MHz and 1866MHz at 1.65V, but will not wake from sleep at 2133 MHz 1.65V just like the RipJaws stuff and Kingston stuff when it was 1.65V

So judging by what i experienced with those kits mentioned above Z77 does not seem to like anything above 1866MHz / higher speed XMP profiles when it's at 1.65V, at least not on my board.

I originally was planning on getting Viper Xtreme 2400MHz stuff and my guess is maybe that stuff would have ran at 2133MHz because it has a higher 'stock' speed to start with and you wouldn't need XMP to get 2133 MHz, but I am not paying extra for it to run at a slower speed then it's rated just because Z77 doesn't like 1.65V

Right now I am running my viper Xtreme stuff at 1866 and it is fine but I did not pay for 1866 I paid for the 2133 stuff so I might see about returning it and getting a kit of the 1.5V viper 3 stuff instead.

Keep in mind though that all of this is just based on my board, my cpu, and those few kits of memory I had around to test and it may be different with different setups.

 

[andrevautour]

I Like your Choice for a SSD. Samsung make pretty good SSD's, imho

Thanks! as far as I know Samsung are one of the better brands for SSD, I have heard they are up in the top 2 with Intel. I really like the aesthetics of this the minimal black design is very appealing and the regular non-pro version provides good performance for the price. The 840 Pros do have 540read/520write speeds though so much faster on the write speeds for those and better IOPs too, but not a huge deal for me though.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-7PD256BW

 

[Etlar]

I have my Corsair 1833 @ v 1.65 and have no problem whit sleep mode on my win 7 pc, and have testet my friends Gskill in this pc whit 2400mhz @ v 1.65 and no problem whit that.

So it is funny to see that some people have that fail, when i dont see it my self.

 

[andrevautour]

I have my Corsair 1833 @ v 1.65 and have no problem whit sleep mode on my win 7 pc, and have testet my friends Gskill in this pc whit 2400mhz @ v 1.65 and no problem whit that.

So it is funny to see that some people have that fail, when i dont see it my self.

Yes I wouldn't be surprised that some setups can do it. Honestly I have a suspicion that the processor may be playing a roll as well because it definitely doesn't seem like a very good one that I have it literally will not do anything above 4.5GHz which is way lower than most 3770K's as far as I know. I'm not too worried about this as the 3770K is great and more than enough for most things even at stock but I do wish I could at least get 2133 MHz memory running properly. Not really sure what it is to be honestly be cause I did think 2133 MHz was a sure thing with Z77.

 

[Mark3Max]

I just placed my order for my build 3 hours ago , and got G. Skill Ares 2133 @ 1.65v . So I guess I'll just try it and if it doesn't work well I will be ordering different memory.
Is that the only problem you had with it was waking from sleep?

 

[andrevautour]

Close Look: Lamptron FC6 Fan Controller

I know this is not really that new and that I did put this into my build a few weeks ago but one of the things I want to do with this build log is a comprehensive look at each of the individual pieces of hardware used in the build as well as comments, discussion, sharing personal experiences, benchmarking and performances results and the rest of the normal build log sort of stuff.


Here is a closer look at the controller that I have selected for this build.

I picked this controller because I wanted something that was simple and elegant looking, a simple digital readout of RPM, and something simple to use with straightforward analog dials to turn on it.

So that eliminated all of the touch screen stuff with potentially more features and as a result more cables, clutter, etc. I had a look at some of available fan controllers with analog dials and simple RPM readout. I liked the look of the lamptron quite a bit and i especially loved the idea that the fans could be individuality turned completely off, which provides endless configuration options for setting up the fans. I like to have the system setup very very quiet when it is idle so I have the CPU fans hooked up to the case's fan controller and all the case fans controlled by the FC6. I can even have all the fans completely off when it's idle and the temperatures are still great because there is loads of passive ventilation in the case and the GPU and CPU each have great coolers on them that are also extremely quiet when idling.


The quality of the FC6 is quite good overall. It has a very nice brushed aluminum face plate that you can get in silver or black, the dials all have a weighted feel to them because they have some sort of resistance built in, it looks very nice, it comes with 4 individuality sleeved fan extensions and a 4 pin molex extension that is black with black individually sleeved cables as well, and 4 temperature probes that are white. The other thing it comes with are a little calendar that sits on a desk.

The performance is good, it does exactly as it's supposed to, controls the rpm of the fans beyond the specs that are listed on the box, although if you have it set too low it will have trouble spinning the fans back up again once its been off for a while, but that is to be expected. For example the Noctua NF-P12 fans I use in my case have on the box 1300 RPM full and 900 RPM with low noise adapter, but I can actually get them all the way down to about 350 RPM with the FC6, which is quite impressive as far as I'm concerned.






IMG_0013 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0014 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0015 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0017 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0018 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0019 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0020 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0021 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0022 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0023 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0024 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0025 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_0026 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




You can also change the color of the display via jumpers at the back. I guess if I had to have a complaint about this is that it would have been a bit easier to switch color if there was a switch at the back to change color instead of the jumpers. If you have it tucked up somewhere tight with all the cables attached it may be fiddly and difficult to access the jumpers to change them.


Here are the pictures of the different colors that Lamptron provides:

Blue:

Cyan:

Green:

Purple (darker in real life)

Red:

White (another small complaint is that the white is not very pure and clean but more blue, which is the case with other RPG displays and LEDs too.

Yellow (might give this another try later on to go with my Mpower board)

Here are a few pictures that I took:


IMG_1088 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1086 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1084 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1083 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1080 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1078 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHyXvqCr_sI

 

[XANADV]

Hello again Andre! Nice specs. That cooler almost gave me a heart attack though...

 

[CPMFW]

nice update as usual

 

[andrevautour]

I just placed my order for my build 3 hours ago , and got G. Skill Ares 2133 @ 1.65v . So I guess I'll just try it and if it doesn't work well I will be ordering different memory.
Is that the only problem you had with it was waking from sleep?

very nice! excited to see what you do with it! it seems like most newer memory is 1.5V and that does seem to be preferable and more modern lower volts is generally better, right? that is the case in other area anyway so i would probably go for 1.5V stuff if it wasn't a matter of liking the looks of a 1.65V set better, but i doubt if it's a big deal i feel like it might be a cpu related thing or it might be something else all together because i would think even a not so great cpu should be fine with 2133 so that is just a guess that it's cpu related, who knows really.

Hello again Andre! Nice specs. That cooler almost gave me a heart attack though...

thank you. personally i love the nh-d14 cooler both performance and looks wise but a lot of people do prefer a closed hydro cooler because of the smaller size.

nice update as usual

thanks man!

I am currently working on a new update right now. There will be an update later on with photos and a video. One hint is that it has to do with fans and as usual noctua