Project Merciless

[BillUp]

OMG, the waiting for this has killed me!! 3 weeks of sleepless nights lol, but it turned up today yay!!

I just couldn't buy an internal Optical Drive and maintain my integrity on these forums

. Tom would call me a looser lol.

Yes Tom, I agree, the PSU does look better with the fan up!!

It also has the advantage of allowing to pull some of the non modular cables neatly into the case, which means less behind the panel for me to hide. I used the SSD bracket to help with keeping the cables tidy, as well as locating the Agility 3.

Getting close now, I need a 1TB WD Black Sata III for storage, W7 64bit, an MSI GTX580, and an NH D-14. I wont be overclocking anything until I have the GPU so the cooler can wait till last. I recon 6 weeks and the rig will be finished

. Cant wait!!

I had to take one more picture as they is just amazing!! My misses is so jealous as I love them more than her. PC porn at its finest!!

Can anyone give me any tips on the timings for the Muskins? I have the timings set as 7-8-7-24 and the voltage at 1.65v, at 1600Mhz, they are working fine in the BIOS. Are there any other timings I need to adjust, or do I leave them all on Auto? I have the read to pre time set at 8 following TTL's instructions for the Asus board.

 

[ruthless_villain]

nice rig and i dont mean to be a hater/troll etc but wouldnt the black ridgebacks look better in that rig you know, red just seems a bit out of place

 

[BillUp]

I'm not building this rig for looks villian, the HAF912 has no window, so I wont be showing it off. I need performance, so the colour had no bearing. I still cant but help myself when I touch them though!!

 

[ruthless_villain]

I'm not building this rig for looks villian, the HAF912 has no window, so I wont be showing it off. I need performance, so the colour had no bearing. I still cant but help myself when I touch them though!!

ahh ok then

 

[Chaney579]

The Americans are world leaders in space travel, and I for one want to see as much money thrown at NASA as possible.

I live in Texas, and HOUSTON at that.

You can figure what way i sway

 

[BillUp]

I'm a mad amateur astronomer, and I love cosmology, so its imperative the Americans don't pull out of the space race. Last launch of the space shuttle on Friday

 

[alicarve]

looking good

 

[gert van rooy]

looking realy good m8 keep up the good work

 

[BillUp]

nice rig and i dont mean to be a hater/troll etc but would the black

ridgebacks look better in that rig you know, red just seems a bit out of

place

You have got me thinking now Ruthless lol

. Even though I wanted performance, I still want it to look nice. I am now thinking watercooling as well, and a window. The Redline is staying so I need to figure out how I can use Red and Blue in the same case.

I'm thinking Red cable sleeving to go with the Red fans etc, I guess it really is done by balancing the colours out, so one is not more dominating than the other?

I'm looking at the case and thinking about removing all the hard drive bays, and putting in a 240mm Rad and having the reservoir in the 5,25inch bay slots. I can remove the front 220mm fan, and put this in the top of the case. Add a fan in the side door, and one in the back.

I'm pretty sure I can squeeze it all in, but I wont buy cheap water cooling, this is not an option as I still want performance. I should have chose a bigger case, but I am limited for room as it has to go in my desk.

Decisions!!

 

[BillUp]

Lovely Mushkin sitting all snug

Fits inside the HAF912 with plenty of room to spare. I can also fit a 140mm door fan as well. I also have plenty of room to stick a 200mm roof exhaust fan.

With 6 fans, I needed a way to control them and didn't want to much bling up front, and the Phobya does look good. It also does exactly what I need it to do. The rig is silent at 6 volt, and almost silent in 12 volt mode. I need to adjust the Phobya to make it fit without a gap, I need better mounting screws to do this though.

So I'm all up and running now. I still need a drive for storage, a GPU (using the iGPU at the moment), 2 fans, and I'm done

. I still need to work out how to overclock the Z68 and get it stable. I am stable @ 4.6Ghz @ 1.35volt, temps 27c idle and topping out at 72c under load (prime95). If I can get a stable 4.8Ghz OC @ around 1.4 volts, I will be very happy. I'm going to need some help with settings to do this though.

 

[BillUp]

Just bought a new Camera so thought I would take some better pics.

The pitfalls of a non modular PSU, but I think I have managed to keep it pretty tidy. The inside of the case is virtually wire free.

A new 200mm Coolermaster High Flow fan fits perfectly in the roof, even with the NH-D14

A 140mm Yate Loon on the side panel also fits perfectly.

If anyone wants to know whether the NH-D14 fits in the HAF 912, it does with room to spare.

Now for the really happy bit. After a good 2 hour Prime 95 run with just the 2 fans that arrived with the case, I was topping out at around the 79C mark under load with a 4.6Ghz OC and idling around the 35C mark. I was not happy about that as other people were getting much better temps. So I was hoping it was a lack of proper airflow around the case that was causing it. Boy was I right. With the 2 new fans I have been able to drop the temps under load by 8-10C. Well chuffed!!

The above screen shot is from a Prime 95 blend test running for 40 minutes. I am happy with this for a 24/7 OC, although I want to get the voltage around the 1.35v mark. It is at 1.375v at the moment, so need to have a fiddle.

Yes I know, still no GPU, I'm saving like a madman for one at the moment.