Baby Blue Update 2015-2016

This is the rig I built in July last year mainly as a workstation but also for some gaming (usually older games, I refuse to pay more than £5 for a game). Over the past year it has been great, I often prefer working on it as the single core performance and GTX is much better than the dual 6 core & Quadro (though now supplanted by a 980Ti) unit I use at work. It was build on a budget, hence the Xeon, smaller wattage PSU and 760.

Current specs are as follows:
Case - Coolermaster N200
Mobo - Gigabyte Z87 MX-D3H
CPU - Intel Xeon E3-1230v3
RAM - 16Gb Hyper X Fury 1600Mhz
GPU - EVGA GTX 760 4Gb
PSU - Coolermaster V550S
OS/Programe Drive - 250Gb Samsung 840 EVO
Games Drive - 120Gb Crucial M500
Backup Drive - 1Tb Seagate Barracuda
CPU Cooler - Xigmatek Dark Knight Nighthawk
Additional Cooling - Coolermaster Jetflo 120 blue
Silverstone cable extensions.

Over the next few months I will be looking at a number of updates to the components and some modding to the case to try and iron out the problems I have with it. So, in no particular order -

Water cooled GPU upgrade - The 760 has served me very well for both applications and gaming but the 4Gb memory feels very limiting in Iray (a GPU raytracing plugin for 3DS Max) and I often find I can't render large Archviz scenes that I am able to in Corona (the other render engine I use) which uses regular system memory. I haven't yet decided on a card(s), 6Gb 780's are like hens teeth, as are Titans and Titan Blacks that also seem to have held their price where available. I will probably wait to see that the next gen of Pascal architecture cards are like and if they are price prohibitive grab a 980Ti before they disappear.
AMD are developing Fire Render which uses code from Corona Render and will be fully compatible with materials, maps and lights so R9 390/390 X with their 8Gb memory would also be an option. Either way I want to water cool the cards, no only to reduce noise but they will likely be rendering for up t 24hrs at a time. I would be looking at a 240mm XSPX rad in the front, Monsoon fillings in blue and black to match the rest of the build. Matte black soft tubing. Can't decide on the pump/res setup.
I don't want to add a CPU block, I love love love that Xigmatek cooler and the maximum I have seen the CPU get up to even after 24hr of rendering is 50 degrees and will only add to the cost of everything.

This will probably mean a better PSU, which will likely be an EVGA G2 series, either 750 or 850W also with Cable mod black and blue replacement cables

Case Mod - Remove the hex airflow cutout on the intake of the case, it combines the the Jetflo fans create a horrible wind tunnel noise. I also want to add some acoustic foam.
 

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First update - extra 16Gb of RAM, in black. Yes I saw Tom's video and it was genius.

Apologies, focal point of the images are awful, camera was on auto and I was in a rush.
 

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Your System looks great mate. Well done.

I'm looking forward to seeing future updates.
 
Benchmarks attached for those that are interested are below. I have used ones that are more relevant to the sort of programs/workload the system will see. I normally use Iray as my GPU render engine of choice but there isn't an easily accessible benchmark scene. Anyone interested in comparing cards from Nvidia's "Professional" and gaming lines can see the results here; http://www.migenius.com/products/nvidia-iray/iray-benchmarks-2015

The only game I had installed that was relevant was Tomb Raider 2013.
4xSSAA, TressFX Off, Everything else is maxed out.
1920 x 1080 - Min = 24.5, Max = 44.5, Average = 34.0
2560 x 1440 - Min = 14.6, Max = 26.4 , Average = 19.9
 

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Ordered the radiator which should arrive in a couple of days - XSPC EX240. This will hopefully match the Dark Knight heat sink quite well.

I'm not sure what to do about the pump/res combo, I'm tempted by the Magicool DCP450 as its only £30 and would mount easily to the Radiator, but at the same time its only £30....is it too good to be true? Does anyone here have any experience with it?

The other option is putting together an EK/Alphcool setup which would be significantly more expensive but probably give me piece to mind that its not going to fail quickly.
So far I'm looking at a EK-DDC X-RES 100 CSQ - Acetal (£25.00) mounted to an Alphacoon DDC310 (£37.68). I am presuming these are compatable, and that the Alphacool DDC is just a branding variant of the regular Liang DDC so all the fixing positions will be the same?
 
Rad arrived. Very pleased with it. Not quite a match to the Dark Knight but better than and Alphacool or EK Rad without painting.

Settled on an EK-XRES 100 DDC MX, slightly cheaper than the CSQ version but I don't want the EK rings as they dont appear anywhere else in the build. Might purchase a replacement top that includes a G1/4 hole. Also going with an Alphacool Laing DDC310 Single Edition Silver Nickel, again for cost but also the nickel plating should sit well with the nickel/Chrome Mobo heat sinks nicely.
 

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No new parts to update until Monday when my new GPU arrives. Took advantage to OcUK's frankly silly prices for the MSI 780s they got in and grabbed a 780 6Gb for £230, not going to leave that card there for that price given how difficult it is to get 6Gb of Vram for less than £500.

Keplar is also better performing than Maxwell for a lot of the applications I use so it won't be much slower than the 980Ti I have at work and having the same amount of Vram means I don't have to worry about not being able to work on large Iray ArchViz scenes at home.
 
Beautiful rig. Could you make that V on the power supply blue like on the cables

Thank you for the kind words. I could, but the PSU will be leaving. My new 780 6Gb arrived but I'm having the same problem with that I had a few month ago with a 780Ti that I bought, the PSU trips out above 70% TDP (it was 60% for the Ti). Seems the daisy chained PCIE connections are't able to supply enough clean power to the GPU.

I'll probably pick up an EVGA G2 650W unit as they are on sale at Scan and get some custom decals for it done at work along with the black/blue cable mod kit. I prefer the asymmetry of the Silverstone cables I currently have but there is next to no room around the rear of the case and I need to shorten the 24 pin Mobo cable so that I can fit a pump/res combo on a rad in the front.

Cable management at the rear for those interested, sorry cameraphone photo.
 

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Stuck for which PSU to get and would like some input.

Option 1: EVGA 650W G2 - Pros: On sale at CCL for £70 with free delivery, 80+ Gold, Basically a Superflower unit. Cons: Not sure about that crinkle finish and how it will look in my build, and will have to do something about the stickers. No room to expand GPU's in the future.

Option 2: Corsair RM 650X - Pros: Best looking out of these three and wouldn't have to do anything about the sticker on the side, 80+ Gold. Cons - More expensive thatn the EVGA unit at £78 with free delivery, no room to expand GPU's in the future.

Option 3: Seasonic M12-II EVO 750 - Pros: Room to expand GPU's in the future for only £10 more than the EVGA. Large flat area for some decal artwork. Cons - Fairly bland design, only 80+ Bronze
 
Went with a Corsair RM 650x PSU as it was £72 on Ebuyer.

Some pics of the card, sorry the lighting is appalling in my office. Hate the slight difference in shade of the 6 pin & 8 pin connectors and the visible copper trace on the PCB, hopefully the full cover waterblock & backplate will hide it all.

Also, voided warranty if remove the heatsink? Boooo MSI!!!
 

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PSU arrived on Saturday morning but didn't get a chance to fit it and the 780 till this evening. Quick and dirty photos. I was very worried all the cables wouldn't fit behind the motherboard tray but with some gentle persuasion they did. Just. Very happy with it so far, the finish matches my case perfectly but I'm not sure about the side graphic though.

I will definitely get the Cable mod kit, probably the basic set (24 pin, 8 pin & x2 6+2 pins) which should ease the space issue to the rear where the cables sit over the lower rolled lip of the motherboard tray which really pushes the back panel off.

Booted up fine, and no more problems with the PSU tripping off under load. GPU boosts to 1031.7 Mhz in Valley Benchmark (954 Mhz base & 1000 Mhz boost standard) and have so far hit 1100 Mhz OCing manually @77 degrees.

Next up is the Cablemod kit in black and blue and perhaps a change of case fan. I love the look of the Jetflo Blue fans I have but they are obnoxiously loud, even though I have the RPM limiters on them. Torn between Coolermaster Silencio PWM fans or Bitfenix Spectre Pro PWM fans.
 

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Right, Pro Duo Installed and not without a multitude of problems, most being self inflicted.

First off a rivet holding the rear panel and I/O panel together fouls on the rad, the screws were just long enough to catch a thread. There is also a rolled steel edge that fouls display cables so I had to "mod" an HDMI cable before grabbing a DP adaptor from work.
Then the system would output a display so I put my 780 back in and the card told me to put the power connectors in correctly, I discovered I hadn't added the +2 pins to the 8 pin extension cable and that a second +2 pin on the daisy chained connectors wasn't seated properly in the card connector.

Once the system booted and I installed the drivers (which installed Raptr at the same time without my permission, not cool AMD) my resolution would go any higher than 1080p. Switched to HDMI and I was back up to 1440p, turned out the DP to DVI adapter I had borrowed from work as my own DP cable was pushed a third monitor on my desk at work was a single link not dual.

I should state that the card is not mine, its a loaner unit from AMD as in my spare time I'll be testing their new raytracing plugin Fire Render for 3DS Max so it will eventually go back. May as well post the Valley score as well though.
 

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Right, Pro Duo Installed and not without a multitude of problems, most being self inflicted.

First off a rivet holding the rear panel and I/O panel together fouls on the rad, the screws were just long enough to catch a thread. There is also a rolled steel edge that fouls display cables so I had to "mod" an HDMI cable before grabbing a DP adaptor from work.
Then the system would output a display so I put my 780 back in and the card told me to put the power connectors in correctly, I discovered I hadn't added the +2 pins to the 8 pin extension cable and that a second +2 pin on the daisy chained connectors wasn't seated properly in the card connector.

Once the system booted and I installed the drivers (which installed Raptr at the same time without my permission, not cool AMD) my resolution would go any higher than 1080p. Switched to HDMI and I was back up to 1440p, turned out the DP to DVI adapter I had borrowed from work as my own DP cable was pushed a third monitor on my desk at work was a single link not dual.

I should state that the card is not mine, its a loaner unit from AMD as in my spare time I'll be testing their new raytracing plugin Fire Render for 3DS Max so it will eventually go back. May as well post the Valley score as well though.

Nice one, even if the Radeon Pro Duo is on loan. Reviewers couldn't even get hold of this card.

Would love to see what you think of it from a productivity standpoint.
 
Would love to see what you think of it from a productivity standpoint.

For what I use it for - GPU raytracing it would be too limited by the 4Gb of VRAM. The entire 3DS Max scene has to fit onto the VRAM so the more the better, otherwise you have to downscale textures and delete polygons or render out multiple passes or render out at a lower resolution. I'd take a slower card with more VRAM, hence why I had a 780 6Gb even though it would be outperformed in pure render times by an overclocked 970 or a 980.
Thankfully Fire Render is pretty quick, much more so than iRay (which Nvidia has removed features from in their "new" plugin while now charging £250 a year for it) so I'd probably go with a couple of 390/390x's. They are implementing a "out of core render feature" to use system RAM without impacting performance too much though so I will use the card to do a fair bit of testing on that.
AMD are also loaning me a Fire Pro W9100 32Gb card for my workstation at work but I normally don't touch "Pro" cards with a bargepole due to their frankly obscene prices and zero performance benefit over a gaming card in the programs I use.
 
Now that is a lot of power connectors on that biatch!... Damn!.

I must admit that AMD sticks out a bit better than Nvidia, with more sleek looking GPUs.
Even though you'll hardly ever see it, I still quite like the "RADEON" touch on the back of the IO plate :)
 
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Right, Pro Duo Installed and not without a multitude of problems, most being self inflicted.

First off a rivet holding the rear panel and I/O panel together fouls on the rad, the screws were just long enough to catch a thread. There is also a rolled steel edge that fouls display cables so I had to "mod" an HDMI cable before grabbing a DP adaptor from work.
Then the system would output a display so I put my 780 back in and the card told me to put the power connectors in correctly, I discovered I hadn't added the +2 pins to the 8 pin extension cable and that a second +2 pin on the daisy chained connectors wasn't seated properly in the card connector.

Once the system booted and I installed the drivers (which installed Raptr at the same time without my permission, not cool AMD) my resolution would go any higher than 1080p. Switched to HDMI and I was back up to 1440p, turned out the DP to DVI adapter I had borrowed from work as my own DP cable was pushed a third monitor on my desk at work was a single link not dual.

I should state that the card is not mine, its a loaner unit from AMD as in my spare time I'll be testing their new raytracing plugin Fire Render for 3DS Max so it will eventually go back. May as well post the Valley score as well though.

That valley score seems a little low, on the same settings i get 2400+ on my 970. Other than that, it looks nice. Interested to see how the Pro Duo would perform with other benches and programs
 
Kilbane has a point there, I kinda thought that card would give an epic score in Valley. My 2 950s score 2684.

EHWVWtm.jpg
 
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