Andre's Z77 Personal Rig

[andrevautour]

Say what, a you on Windows 8 ?

I always hated the look of windows 7 so the more minimal clean design of 8 is a very welcome change to me it's also faster than 7 in many areas and just has a more modern feel. I've been using it since it came out oct 26 and I havent had any complaints about it.

have you noticed how t he mpower board skips much of that bios readout stuff right at the beginning and just jumps to the win loading screen? its really fast even when the MSI fast boot turned off but there is a setting in the bios for MSI fast boot and when that is on its even faster. I was extremely impressed with the boot performance of the board!

 

[Etlar]

I have the same on my win 7, i think it is 21 sec to full load in win 7 - So maybe i will try win 8 some day sone, just need some more crash after my build is done

But i most say i like your way to get your build so clean

 

[andrevautour]

I have the same on my win 7, i think it is 21 sec to full load in win 7 - So maybe i will try win 8 some day sone, just need some more crash after my build is done

But i most say i like your way to get your build so clean

Yeah it's really nice how fast the board boots! My dad has the Rampage IV extreme and it still has the tradition bios readout stuff near the beginning of the boot and it takes a lot longer to get the the windows loading screen.

Thank you very much! I lover yours as well and I'm looking forward to seeing your new updates!
I have a fairly large update myself I will write it shortly after I do a few things

 

[Etlar]

Yeah it's really nice how fast the board boots! My dad has the Rampage IV extreme and it still has the tradition bios readout stuff near the beginning of the boot and it takes a lot longer to get the the windows loading screen.

Thank you very much! I lover yours as well and I'm looking forward to seeing your new updates!
I have a fairly large update myself I will write it shortly after I do a few things

My next update will be on the water cooling i will be useing and the new case also - Just miss some items that i hope will come in max 2 days now

The only thing in my linie up that is bad, is my cpu. It is not the best in the linie. It needs 1.225 volts to hit 4400mhz, but i friend that maybe can help me on that point also

 

[andrevautour]

My next update will be on the water cooling i will be useing and the new case also - Just miss some items that i hope will come in max 2 days now

The only thing in my linie up that is bad, is my cpu. It is not the best in the linie. It needs 1.225 volts to hit 4400mhz, but i friend that maybe can help me on that point also

very excited to see this! i will be keeping a close eye on your thread

i'm in the same boat as you man my chip will not do more than 4.5 ghz no matter what and i literally did not know that chips like that existed until i got mine. i assumed that they all would do 4.6 and 4.8 no problem.

what i have done with mine is just set the turbo limit to 44 for each core and left everything else on auto so that way it acts just like stock it auto controls the voltage and puts it down when its idle and puts the multiplier down when its idle too but when it goes to use the cpu it turbos up to 4.4ghz instead of the stock turbo of 3.9ghz. i find that this works well for everyday use and the temperatures are fine so i'm not too worried about not being able to do more.

 

[Etlar]

very excited to see this! i will be keeping a close eye on your thread

i'm in the same boat as you man my chip will not do more than 4.5 ghz no matter what and i literally did not know that chips like that existed until i got mine. i assumed that they all would do 4.6 and 4.8 no problem.

what i have done with mine is just set the turbo limit to 44 for each core and left everything else on auto so that way it acts just like stock it auto controls the voltage and puts it down when its idle and puts the multiplier down when its idle too but when it goes to use the cpu it turbos up to 4.4ghz instead of the stock turbo of 3.9ghz. i find that this works well for everyday use and the temperatures are fine so i'm not too worried about not being able to do more.

I can only say one thing, my bed is working like hell right now. Need to plan my water cooling loop all the way - Need it to be very tit, and also you will not see that mush off tubing

 

[CPMFW]

thats a pretty nice boot time mate...
just ordered a mpower myself will also use win 8 on the build

 

[andrevautour]

DIMM Slot Latch Replacement, Patriot Viper Xtreme Close look and Installation

Hello again everyone,

I have a fairly large update this time.

First of all the dimm slot latches: While the white ones worked just fine, it still have a "repair job" feel to the look of it which didn't quite go with the aesthetic of the board. Luckily I remember in time that I have a 990FX board around that I am going to be shipping soon but it is still here for now. The 990FX UD7 board suits white latches just fine, in fact it looks like it could easily have come from the factory, so I took 2 slots worth of latches off that board and replaced them with white ones from the dead P6T board I mentioned earlier. So now I have all my latches black again and I even have 3 spare black latches if I ever need them in the future.


IMG_1914 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



Here is what the Gigabyte 990FX UD7 Board looks like with half white latches


IMG_1953 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




Here is a picture of the front fan mesh of my 650d and the top mesh. This is mainly for someone else I was talking to about the front mesh resistance noise and he mentioned his case actually has the same hex mesh stuff at the front as the top. Anyway I mentioned I would post pictures of the mesh on my case in my next update.

Front:

IMG_1955 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

Top:

IMG_1957 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


So apparently there has been an update to the 650D and the noisy mesh at the front has been changed to the same stuff as the top. This is nice to hear, but apparently they still havent changed the USB3 ports from a passthrough to a proper header.





So now onto the main update.

This was my snack for last night as I was working


IMG_1954 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr





First here are some close up look images of the new Memory.

I was looking a round a bit for some black memory to go with this new build and the Mpower board. I dislike all the stuff that has gun/knife/ any type of fake vents or anything like that one it so that includes the gskill ripjaw and sniper and stuff like the normal corsair vengeance. i looked at the patriot viper 3 stuff and i know that has a lower voltage, but i didn't quiet like the look of it as much as the viper xtreme kit.


The viper xtreme has black metallic paint on the main heatsink and some copper pices of trim, all real material and the main heatsink is raided a few mm higher than the copper so it has a really nice contrast. it is also substantially heavier than any other memory I've worked with recently, so that also add to the quality feel that this kit has.



IMG_1917 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1918 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1919 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1922 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1925 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1926 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1927 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1928 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1929 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr.



IMG_1930 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1931 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1932 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1933 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1935 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1936 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1938 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1939 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1941 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1943 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1944 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1945 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1946 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1948 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1949 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1950 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1951 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr





IMG_1952 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr










Okay so now on to the installation


IMG_1958 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


some more mesh


IMG_1961 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1962 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1963 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr







Dimm slot latches replaced, back to all black


IMG_1965 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1964 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1966 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1968 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


installed last night


IMG_1969 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


cable details


IMG_1972 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1973 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


this is the state it's currently in as of today


IMG_1982 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1983 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1984 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




IMG_1985 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1986 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




memory installed, today


IMG_1987 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1988 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1990 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1991 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1992 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr




I even added 2 extra cable tie to the gpu power cables to neaten it up just a tiny bit more


IMG_1993 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr



IMG_1994 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

[andrevautour]

thats a pretty nice boot time mate...
just ordered a mpower myself will also use win 8 on the build

the mpower is just really amazing in lots of ways! you dont see any of that bios readout stuff that i still see with asus / gigabyte boards. i found that ssd speeds are faster on there than with x79 and of course memory controller is great, great bios easy to use and nice looking. overall can't really ask for anything more in a board tbh!

do you have a full spec list for your new build yet?

i saw this when i was writing the update so i just finished with the update now lots of new pictures above

 

[andrevautour]

I gathered most of the hardware boxes together for a 'hardware box group shot' earlier today

 

[Mark3Max]

Hey Andre , Your build looks great . Reading about your boot times gets me thinking more and more about getting windows 8.
Did you have to use a extension cable on your 8 pin power for the 650D?
Or did you get or make a custom cable.
I'm not sure my stock Corsair 8 pin will be long enough .

 

[andrevautour]

Hey Andre , Your build looks great . Reading about your boot times gets me thinking more and more about getting windows 8.
Did you have to use a extension cable on your 8 pin power for the 650D?
Or did you get or make a custom cable.
I'm not sure my stock Corsair 8 pin will be long enough .

hey there, thanks very much!
keep in mind that a big part of the overall boot time is the motherboard and how the bios handles the boot process. the windows part of it only takes place once you see the windows logo for the first time, but everything before that is the motherboard bios stuff. the mpower i've found has a much faster bios boot than other asus and gigabyte boards i've seen


I would recommend Win 8 for new high end builds for sure not just because of the boot time which id certainly good but it just has a more modern feel and feature set that Win 7 and it feel more polished and efficient than 7 in my opinion.

I just use the stock cable from the ax850 it is long enough but other psu's may have shorter ones if you get something like the tx or gs etc they might not have the same length cable. personally i dont like extensions just because of the extra mess they create around the back.

here is an up to date picture of what my back panel looks like, this is from last night when i was working on it

 

[andrevautour]

Updated my Rig Gallery post for this build.

 

[Mark3Max]

hey there, thanks very much!
keep in mind that a big part of the overall boot time is the motherboard and how the bios handles the boot process. the windows part of it only takes place once you see the windows logo for the first time, but everything before that is the motherboard bios stuff. the mpower i've found has a much faster bios boot than other asus and gigabyte boards i've seen


I would recommend Win 8 for new high end builds for sure not just because of the boot time which id certainly good but it just has a more modern feel and feature set that Win 7 and it feel more polished and efficient than 7 in my opinion.

I just use the stock cable from the ax850 it is long enough but other psu's may have shorter ones if you get something like the tx or gs etc they might not have the same length cable. personally i dont like extensions just because of the extra mess they create around the back.

here is an up to date picture of what my back panel looks like, this is from last night when i was working on it

Thanks for the reply Andre ,
Yeah the reason I asked is I got out my 8 pin cable for my AX760i and it seemed a little short , I think I'm still going to get an extension just to make sure. Also I think I will try the stock 200mm front fan just to see how quiet it is.
But you rig looks great , I hope I'm able to get my cables as neat as yours, great job.

 

[andrevautour]

Thanks for the reply Andre ,
Yeah the reason I asked is I got out my 8 pin cable for my AX760i and it seemed a little short , I think I'm still going to get an extension just to make sure. Also I think I will try the stock 200mm front fan just to see how quiet it is.
But you rig looks great , I hope I'm able to get my cables as neat as yours, great job.

my guess would that it should be a similar size, but as you can see in the picture if you dont use an extension you have to kind of go at a bit of an angle. if you do decide to use an extension there you may be able to get it a bit neater by going out of the psu, then right along the bottom of the case and then straight up the back right along the very back of the case. that approach will use out a good amount of the length of the extension and probably look a bit neater in the end.

One thing I would recommend if you do end up routing your cables in places where there are no build in cable mounting points, I would suggest going to your local hardware / home improvement store and picking up a pick of zip tie mounting points with doubnle sided tape on them. You can see I used one for my 8 pin mid way up and it just gives you a bit of extra security and it's easier when everything is zipped and secured into place nicely

once you get a pack of these then you can essentially make your own cable mounting points anywhere you want to and it gives you more flexibility than just being locked down to the ones in the case itself. You can route cables all around the outside edges of the case and just try different things.

if you decide to route cables around the outside edges of the back panel of the case, only one major thing to keep in mind and that is at the top where the 2 latches for the door click in there are 2 cutouts in the case and if you run a cable in front of those the latches may not click into place properly and the door might not shut right, so just keep in mind those two locations where the latches on the doors are and if you find the door not shutting right there is a good chance there may be a cable stuck in there so just have a look there to see.

it only costs about $3 for a pack of 8 you can see them on the right here:

 

[Mark3Max]

Thank you for the tip Andre,
I will look for the zip tie mounting points before I start my build.
I will use your pic as a reference for routing.
Thanks again, keep on building

Mark

 

[andrevautour]

Thank you for the tip Andre,
I will look for the zip tie mounting points before I start my build.
I will use your pic as a reference for routing.
Thanks again, keep on building

Mark

no problem! another thing is , like Tom says as your sitting there deciding what way you want to route things, dont be afraid to try it one way and then if you notice a way it can be done that will be better,cleaner, etc dont be afraid to cut a few zip ties and change the routes a bit and then do it up again better. chances are if you are quite fussy you may notice things and end up redoing the cables a few times because you get it to the point where you are happy with it.

 

[andrevautour]

Close Look: MSI R7950 Twin Frozr III

Hello guys,

I have a few more updates lined up that I'm going to space out a bit. I am currently uploading a bunch of detail photos that I took of the build earlier today

For now here is a close look at the graphics card.

As usual when I was looking around for a new graphics card I was looking to see which cards I liked the look of. The first few that I found were the Palit GTX 680 Jetstream and also the Gainward 680 phantom. Unfortunately, neither of these are easily obtainable from my location (Toronto) so I had a look at cards that are easily available at the local computer stores so I could just walk in and grab one. Any sort of stock 670 was out of the question for me because of the horrific placement of the power cables as well as the laughable looking small pcb. I know there are custom PCB versions of the 670 but I wasnt too keen on the look of most of them really. Any sort of blue PCB was also out of the question as I was working on an all black theme for this new build, plus I just don't really like the look fo the blue PCB, so that removes gigabyte, sapphire etc. The Sapphire 7950 Tom tested was appealing to me, but they removed it as an option when they decided to use a blue PCB. I was not interested in Gigabyte cards this time around not only because of the blue PCB, but also because I dont like the look or feel of the plastic body over the heatsink, same applies with the otherwise appealing sapphire card. I just don't think plastic gives the same "quality feel" as metal does. The Asus CUII stuff was also out of the question because quite frankly I just dont like the look of the cooler, I dont like the 3 slot bulky design, I dont like red, and the cards just are not appealing to me for whatever reason. The XFX ghost cards are just an abomination in my opinion so I didn't even look twice at those. Reference cards are actually more appealing to me than a lot of the aftermarket coolers around these days, especially the Nvidia ones because those are quite minimal and elegant looking, but those do have green for nvidia and red for AMD, so neither of those would fit perfectly with my all black build either.

I had been looking at the Z77 MPOWER motherboard at the time and I had always quite liked the look of the MSI Twin Frozr 3 coolers. The Lightning cards are fine too but I'm not totally into the yellow to be honest, or for that matter the massive size of those. I had a closer look at the 7950 TF3 card and it checked all the boxes: it had a high quality metal body, it had a really nice shade of grey for the majority of the body, minimal and clean looking, it had a black or rather dark brown PCB which I love, and the 7950 is a really great card. Not to mention the price was extremely attractive and the Never settle bundle made it a no brainer. So I ended up picking up an MSI Twin frozr 7950 'OC' edition and I absolutely love it, it is a beautiful card, the quality of it is incredible, it is very quiet at stock speeds, and it performs incredibly and overclocks very well.

Here are lots of pictures of the box, contents and the card.





IMG_1374 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1375 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1376 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1379 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1382 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1383 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1384 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1385 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1387 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1389 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1390 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1393 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1394 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1395 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1396 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1399 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1400 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1401 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1402 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1403 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1404 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1405 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1406 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1407 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1408 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1409 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1410 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1411 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1412 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1413 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1414 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1415 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1416 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr


IMG_1418 by Andre Vautour, on Flickr

 

[CPMFW]

the mpower is just really amazing in lots of ways! you dont see any of that bios readout stuff that i still see with asus / gigabyte boards. i found that ssd speeds are faster on there than with x79 and of course memory controller is great, great bios easy to use and nice looking. overall can't really ask for anything more in a board tbh!

do you have a full spec list for your new build yet?

i saw this when i was writing the update so i just finished with the update now lots of new pictures above

new hardware

• case: storm stryker
• cpu: core i7 3770k
• board: msi z77 mpower
• ram: 16gb corsair vengeance pc3 14900 cl9
• gpu: evga 670 ftw
• sound: asus xonar d2x
• psu: corsair ax 760i
• cooling: h100i + sp120´s push/pull

hardware i already have

• ssd: 120gb corsair force gt
• hdd: 2x 1.5tb wd green
• cooling: 6x 120mm white led fan´s
• os: win 7 ultimate (might get win 8 not sure yet)
• peripherals: logitech wave mouse + keyboard, logitech driving force gt, xbox 360 wireless controller

 

[andrevautour]

new hardware

• case: storm stryker
• cpu: core i7 3770k
• board: msi z77 mpower
• ram: 16gb corsair vengeance pc3 14900 cl9
• gpu: evga 670 ftw
• sound: asus xonar d2x
• psu: corsair ax 760i
• cooling: h100i + sp120´s push/pull

hardware i already have

• ssd: 120gb corsair force gt
• hdd: 2x 1.5tb wd green
• cooling: 6x 120mm white led fan´s
• os: win 7 ultimate (might get win 8 not sure yet)
• peripherals: logitech wave mouse + keyboard, logitech driving force gt, xbox 360 wireless controller

sounds good!