My Central Heating

[Diablo]

Drive mounting for 5.25 is tooless, with some neet little clip things (or the option of using screws). The hdd rack needs screws to fit the disks, and takes upto 4 disks, in the space of 3 bays.

Its a bit limited on that front, so I need to get some 2.5" instead of 3.5" if I need more storage.

Its well built (quite heavy) but strong, and the arms on the top and bottom make carrying it possible (if not easy). Oh and the rad mounting is pretty nice.

 

[naveen.the.1]

wow you have got a ton of stuffs in there man.

 

[painejake]

Yeah cables are a bit crazy there V.nice rig though :O

 

[Diablo]

New upgrades

In preparation for a pair of Samsung 128GB SSDs, I've bought myself an upgraded RAID card. Honestly the motherboard POS that I've worked with in the past pale into insignificance compared to a decent dedicated one.

I have an adaptec 5805, PCIe x8, with dual core 1.2GHz processors and 512MB RAM.

I'm waiting till christmas for the SSDs and another spinpoint, so currently its just running a RAID 0 of two F1s, which are getting around 140-150MB/s write, generally lower as they are limited by the read off any other drive.

My bluray drive exploded (no - literally) with one of the chips in the power board having gone everywhere, it took out my DVD writer, so I've upgraded those two.

To cool the RAID card (passive but says it needs decent airflow), I've got a 2000RPM 38mm fan (special offer at scan) which seems to kick out enough air.

Finally I also imported a case side from coolermaster:

Photo was taken while installing the RAID card so obviously there are more cables on show

 

[DeMoB]

Are the samsung SSDs a done deal already?

They're the worst SSD drives currently out, so I urge you to get something else if it's not too late.

As to why they are the worst check out this:

http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3631&p=19

Dan

 

[Diablo]

They are a done deal, but that article refers to rebranded older samsung chips. These ones use a samsung controller and memory:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/03/17/review_storage_ssd_samsung_mmd0e56g5/

Hopefully these will be alright, if not I'll ask for an exchange under trade description act.

 

[tinytomlogan]

How much did you pay for the raid dude? Ive got a 16 port Adaptec inbound atm.

 

[Diablo]

Enough...last one from ebuyer so about £360 odd, plus £80 for a bbu I figured as I only have space for 8 disks, there wasn't much point getting any more than 8 ports. It is blazing fast though, I've never been limited by a read speed from an unraided disk compared to a raided write.

 

[__Miguel_]

That is probably the most ingenious use of an Artigo kit I've ever seen! Nice one!

Now, how do you route cables and work your way around the fact you have a system inside a system? I can't really tell, there are too many wires to try and make sense of (not trying to bash, but even after cable management, V1 simply had too many cables, and V2, well, has watercooling in it, which in itself blocks most of the fantastic view of the rest of the components...)

Also, congrats on taming that cable jungle on V1. Whenever I build a new case, I always try to think ahead with cable management (like routing wires beneath the motherboard and such), but there is always a time I have to say "hey, where can I put this one?" and "how much more wire can there still be?" (just to realise I'm building a uATX case with a non-modular PSU and I haven't even tucked away half of the cables... ).

Keep it up!

Miguel

 

[Diablo]

I had the wires coming through from a hole I cut in the rear mesh, then cable tied to the rad (so they were out the way) then dropping into a drive bay. However because I have my new SSDs and too many HDs, the pico has been removed, and sits on my desk.

Its a bit annoying the number of wires (especially with the raid controller) because they just won't reach behind the mobo. I built my Dad's pc in a little Lian Li box, and every time I look at that with the wires all tucked away I'm jealous. Cheers for the comment and good luck with your project

 

[__Miguel_]

However because I have my new SSDs and too many HDs

Hmm, does the controller card use those multilane cables, perchance? A single connector can handle four HDDs in a single sweep...

the pico has been removed, and sits on my desk.

Sad to hear that. Do take pride on the fact that it's probably the neatiest PC you'll EVER have... lol

I built my Dad's pc in a little Lian Li box, and every time I look at that with the wires all tucked away I'm jealous.

That's not a fair comparison. At all.

Your dad's PC probably is a single-disk, single-GPU system, without all the bells and whistles your rig has. That's several magnitudes easier to cable manage a low-component system...

Take my two current rigs, for example: the NAS only has the bare essentials, and even with three HDDs in it, the most cables I need are actually for the HDDs. The gaming rig (built around a GA-P55M-UD2 and a CoolerMaster 341 case) needs more power connectors with a single SATA HDD + ODD! I've got to tell you, I'm glad I didn't go IDE for the ODD, I'd be in SERIOUS trouble. And besides, GPU power connectors and HDD controller card data connectors are ALWAYS on the worst place possible for cable management (same thing for the SupremeFX card, front panel connectors that high and back is a headache in and on itself...).

In the end, each single new item you insert in a case usually needs two more cables, and seldom only one (in which case they gobble up space like there's no tomorrow, right?). So high-end systems will ALWAYS be hard to cable manage unless you mod the hell out of the power connectors to make them a single long one with several outputs AND buy extra-long data connectors you can route over, under or around anything else in the case.

My rig is actually complete right now. I've not gotten around to putting the side panels yet (one month and counting... ), especially because setting the memory was giving me a hard time (I wanted to force a GSKill DDR3-1600 low-voltage, low-latency kit - the CL8 Ecos - to work at 1T at standard timings and voltages... talk about wishful thinking!), so I kept it open since right after I mounted everything up. But I like it, it's small and packs a punch (i7 860 on board ). And when I finally get around financing that HD5850/5870, it will be even better (great thing I chose the case I did, it's the only one deep enough to handle those beasts without having to cut anything...

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[Diablo]

Yeah, the raid card uses SAS Mini to SATA cables (2 sets of 4 fanout cables)...rats nest. The pico is sitting on my desk, dwarfed by the open air server next to it. My Dad's is quite a nice PC (QX9770, 4850, single disk) but your point about high end pcs is very true. It takes a lot of skill to stealth cables (tips hat to people like TTL). He has the corsair 750w modular PSU which is amazing, the best design I have ever seen on a power supply.

If I didn't have the raid controller it would have extra length sata cables on it but wouldn't be so fast.

I know what running memory can be like...I had a nightmare time sorting out why Dad's pc was crashing...the memory was objectin to being run at its natural speed (1333MHz) so it had to be dropped, memtested, prime95 etc.

Sounds like you've got a really nice rig there. I'm waiting to see what Fermi performance is like, but those 5870s are really tempting...if I had the money.

Once you stick watercooling in its another challenege to get the pipes looking neat, while allowing things to be accesible and not kinking them.

 

[__Miguel_]

Yeah, the raid card uses SAS Mini to SATA cables (2 sets of 4 fanout cables)...rats nest.

Damn, even with SAS connectors you're still on a weird place on cable management? Auch...

It takes a lot of skill to stealth cables (tips hat to people like TTL).

You forgot about the INSANE amounts of PATIENCE you also need to have to properly route/shuffle cables around, of which TTL also seems to have plenty. As for me, I don't like to keep going back to just about anything (unless, of course, the significant other, but that's another subject altogether... lol), and if it's not ready within a 5 to 10 minutes span, I start to cut corners like mad... lol

Luckily I just cut corners on non-work-related matters. I'd be in a VERY big trouble if I also cut corners at work...

Sounds like you've got a really nice rig there. I'm waiting to see what Fermi performance is like, but those 5870s are really tempting...if I had the money.

Thanks for the compliment.

This rig has been a WIP for the last 3 to 4 years. It started as a uATX system (E4300, 945G-based, IGP only) for general browsing, then it evolved to a P5E-Deluxe-based rig (E7200 + 4870), and this X-mas it returned to uATX (I like small systems, what can I say?). During all of this time, the only things that really stuck were the ODD (which came from another system to this one), the 4870 and the 37'' LG FullHD LCD TV.

FullHD gaming ROCKS, btw

I was an NVIDIA fan in the past. They had the best options pretty much since the TNT/TNT2 era; the FX5200 was probably the longest-running entry-level card available, and it was rather nice; and the 6600GT was a beast, same thing with the 8800GT. But since my X1950Pro, I haven't been able to justify buying NVIDIA (they're great cards, but for a while now I find bang/buck more on the ATI side of things). I hope that changes, or else ATI will become Intel back on the Netburst era...

Once you stick watercooling in its another challenege to get the pipes looking neat, while allowing things to be accesible and not kinking them.

Man, I don't even want to hear about WC... It's nice to see, especially those complicated loops and whatnot, but I haven't got the patience (and/or anal retentiveness, depending on your POV... lol) to either take that much time to make everything clean or to sit around long enough for the air to bleed out...

Cheers.

Miguel

 

[Diablo]

Quick update. My thermaltake 1500w PSU didn't like something and started to show a low 3.3V line, followed by doing endless F3/F6 cycles before booting, so I replaced the PSU.

Options are pretty limited, as the thermaltake is a rebadged Corsair 1000W, PC power and cooling have a very nice 1600w unit, but it was captive and insanely loud.

Ultra X4 didn't have two 8 pin CPU sockets and was too long and hard to get. In the end it was between an FSP Everest and an Enermax 85+ 1250W.

The enermax won it, with its very nice modular design and post shutdown cooling. I decided to spend the extra this time and get something truly lasting.

The big 120mm fan is cooling the RAID card, which needs constant air over its heatsink. All fluid is going to the other half of project LifeSupport, which started out as project recycle, and now has basically turned into project "hey isn't this just my old rig?".

The PSU was the last bit of my rig when I originally built it. This also means that the total value of all my computers has got into very large numbers.

A lot of stuff has been relocated to the oter PC now, such as the fan controller.

 

[Speedy624]

Cable management or not, i'm getting very jealous of your system dude. What is the Artigo thing you have used for? You have something to do with the sound (creative), what is that? What are the 5 things at the bottom of the case? Something box but I can't see the whole thing.

 

[Diablo]

Cable management is now pretty good, I made a real effort after I built project LifeSupport (with my server housing the pumps and rads as it runs cooler). The artigo is a PICO ITX PC, a fully functioning PC with a 1GHz Via C7 processor and a 120GB disk.

Its really slow, but it does stuff like torrenting and downloads fine, which is mainly what I use it for, as it uses so little power and is pretty quiet so I can leave it on all night.

The Creative thing is part of the Fatal1ty Champion package, basically just a volume control and headphone/phono out, which is good for really late night work, when 560W of sound is not appreciated by the neighbours.

The box with 5 things is an icy box drive caddy, which has hot swap bays in, lockable and with error lights. It has a fan (which I replaced for a Silent Eagle). Its basically so that if any of the drives in the RAID array fail, I can replace it. One of the things I bought with the RAID card.

Much as I love the Behemoth, its not without its problems. Boot time is about 2 minutes due to the RAID card POST, and the 5970s are a bit loud. Also the quad radiator doesn't fit anywhere so I just have it in between the server and main rig. Also I had to do an insurance valuation for home insurance...and it hit me how much all of it had cost.

 

[Diablo]

Some long overdue updates to this thread. A lot of the drives went over to my little storage server, which has since had so many bits added to it, it got too hot in the Asgard and had to be put into the Xaser (I'd like to put it all in a fortress 2 or similar but oh well). The server went into the Asgard, with a recovered 280GTX. I moved all the watercooling back into the cosmos for an entirely self contained fully water cooled behemoth.

As it stands, Loop one is on the motherboard and CPU, cooled by a TFC double and a black Ice GTX single rad. The single is in the very front of the case, with the pump right behind it, and the double in the roof. This leaves me with two 5970s, which at stock run red hot and obviously heat the rest of the case up. I have a thermochill 480 on top of the case, with the hoses going through the grommets on the back of the case. Not the tidiest of solutions, but a 480 is hardly small. The blocks are EK acetal, which are relatively easy to fit.

I've had a nightmare with the 5970s, as one of the fans started shrieking, leading to an RMA (before I watercooled), I was then sent another 5970, DOA. Anyhow, the loop is all up and running, with loads of 59C after half an hour of kombustor multi GPU, at 900 clocks. Any other program runs in the mid 40s, so I can't really complain (even folding runs a lot cooler than furmark).

 

[tinytomlogan]

What water blocks are they dude? Looks good but there are a few of those tubing loops that could be made to look a bit better. We all know what Im like about tidy though!

 

[Diablo]

The GPU blocks are EK Acetal + Nickel, really nice looking blocks and the performance is phenomenal. With just the one card in the loop 45C after 30 mins on kombustor. I would have neatened up the loops a bit, but I ran out of cash and ended up reusing a lot of tube, most of which wasn't the right length. I'm also using 1/2" ID, and after scalding myself earlier with boiling water bending one tube, I though better of it. I'll probably do a nicer job when I have time...and tygon.

At least it's quiet...the very gentle hum, both of my other rigs drown it out.

 

[alienware]

Looks bloody great dude. True beast