Project: Cosmos-S-Trail

[coolmiester]

Agreed that the info is thin on the ground to say the least rrjwilson when it comes to Skulltrail.

I remember a couple of guys saying to me......oh you're going to be running Skullfail which didn't exactly breed confidence but i was adamant i wanted to go with it.

The BIOS was the first hurdle believe me but i've taken notes all the way through and tbh i think i got this thing cracked.

At first it was all a bit hot and clunky but i'm seriously falling in love with this thing now especially with this CM Ultimate PSU and once the temps are under control with a bit of H2o it should be killer..........but if all else fails at least the case will be hot

 

[Hassan]

BLOODY HELL. Never seem TWO Intel Extreme Chips working together.

This is gonna be like 2 Bugatti Veyron of the computer world

 

[Luigi]

they're all 16x slots, however there are 2 nvidia chips in there to run the sli, So I think there is 2 'sets' Of sli slots...

Cheers for that Ill be ordering one from coolercases once my case comes a along a bit

 

[PV5150]

I need to change my underwear.

I'll join you Holy crap that looks sweet :yumyum: Well done on your progress so far

 

[w3bbo]

Top two PCIe slots for SLI.

 

[rrjwilson]

I've literally just read the CustomPC review for the board which effectively claims its a board for nutters and useless without the Core2Extremes (Xeons anyway really).

All slots are for SLi thats why two nForce 100 chips are useds under that black HSF. I can also confirm thatnks to the review using certain one does not return it to lower speeds but that is given it is already on PCIe 1.1 anyway.

 

[Luigi]

That doesnt make sense... The way I see it is that there are 2 nforce 100 chipsets, each capable of sli and giving 2x 16x pci-e lanes....

So, if one controls 2 ports, the other the other 2, then you can only use 2 ports that are on 1 controller, unless the controller can work together on sli, but I doubt that...

Theres only one way to find out...

 

[rrjwilson]

You are right in that theory and I completely agree with you.

Intel has not given ANY indication of the slots that should be used though in any of their documentation (including release notes).

 

[JorisS]

That's one big motherboard there.... :|

 

[Hassan]

I DEMAND AN UPDATE!!!

 

[coolmiester]

Chrome vents match the chrome Cosmos rails like perfect - let me get the paint machine polished tomorrow and i'll try and get some better pictures...

 

[Kougar]

That just looks slick! I love that build quality, isn't anything left anywhere to polish, great job with that system! :worship:

You must be calling it the h2o build because of all the drooling.

 

[coolmiester]

In keeping with the black / chrome theme and thanks to Eddy i got a couple of Nickel-Plated EK-FC9800 GX2 SLI Blocks expressed over and set about getting them fitted.

Took about 2 hours in total but time flies when your enjoying yourself - they do look a bit naked without the covers on so after a little trimming i re-used the covers though i'll have to find some way of fixing them properly because there nothing to actually fix them to but i'm sure i'll find a way.

Also had the front bezels anodised (cheers Tom) but they were to dull so had them painted and clear coated which looks much better and got the Aquagate ones fitted though the it was starting to get dark out and the pictures aren't the best but you get the idea.

Oh yeah, the board with all blocks added now weighs in at a staggering 6670g

 

[Aqua-Pc's]

looking good

So what are the Cooler Master Kits like then? please say they improved since the viva

 

[coolmiester]

looking good

So what are the Cooler Master Kits like then? please say they improved since the viva

LOL, theres nothing in there belonging to Coolermaster Pas...........only the box

 

[Aqua-Pc's]

ye ye before you gutted them

 

[coolmiester]

There not to bad actually apart from the aluminium radiators they use.......suppose there OK for a first time kit and they do use a little db-1 pump but not my cup of tea tbh

 

[haofeng]

that is one B-E-A-UTIFUL motherboard(pretty heavy too). I would go as far as to say that its orgasmic. I just love all that black:why can't all motherboard manufacturers use black pcb's? they're just so much sexier. Its puts even some of the best rigs i've seen to shame...:drool:

 

[jokers_greg]

that looks unbelievable! Well done. Any chance i could get one of those GX2 waterblocks off of ya?

 

[coolmiester]

that is one B-E-A-UTIFUL motherboard(pretty heavy too). I would go as far as to say that its orgasmic. I just love all that black:why can't all motherboard manufacturers use black pcb's? they're just so much sexier. Its puts even some of the best rigs i've seen to shame...:drool:

One of the main reasons i went with the Skulltrail and Zotac tbh as i've took some stick in the past for not colour coordinating

that looks unbelievable! Well done. Any chance i could get one of those GX2 waterblocks off of ya?

I got a couple of second hand ones for sale - well there not really second hand as they were just used for sizing up the lay-out of the cards but no water has been through them and always handles with cotton cloves so no marks on them what-so-ever

Anyway.....

Taken all of the above on board about the SB being covered by the cards i had to make some serious decisions.

The dilemma has always been that in order to run Skulltrail with two GX2's in a Cosmos they have to use the top two PCi slots due to the PSU location directly below. (see here)

The good news was the reply from Intel that its fine to use the top two PCi slots - the bad news is that in order to do so i would have to remove the card covers so as not to obscure the SB fan too much.

There was no way around it so not much point in dwelling on the "what ifs" so took the covers back off the cards and got them mounted and tbh i'm quite liking being able to see all of the blocks and running the hose through the cards is looking a strong possibility and should look pretty cool if i can pull it off.

Just did a quick bit of hose routing to show how this would look...

Anyone see anything i don't because you start to become blind to the obvious but i think im good to go with that.