Project PARVUM ARGENTUM - Lots of rendering, machining and 4 Titan Xs?

[Maki Role]

Project PARVUM ARGENTUM - I need nand, lots of nand - Update 25/11/15

Hello everybody!

First time posting in this forum, been an accountless lurker for too long now. If you frequent other tech sites you may have seen me before though. I wanted to share with you all my new project, titled Argentum, a collaborative work with Parvum Systems!

I present to you, Project Parvum Argentum!

Brief:

A few months back, Justin of Parvum Systems approached me with a proposition. The idea was to create a wall mounted PC in a similar vein to my last project, Loramentum, but with monstrous hardware in mind. Seeing as Parvum did the machining for my last build, the thought of a collaboration project very much whetted my appetite.

So how is this going to differ from Loramentum? Well, scale mostly. This build is going to feature a lot of hardware, both on the cooling side and*in specs. In making this project larger, we also wanted to make some parts more daring. Whereas Loramentum features a simple 2 part clamshell design, we thought it would be interesting to increase that to three layers so that channels can pass over and under each other. What also differs is what stage I'm starting the log at. In Loramentum all the main renders were complete before embarking on the build. Owing to the number of manufacturers involved in this build, it seemed like that would be a tough call, so this time you'll be able to see the design evolve. I'll update the OP when the final renders for the project are completed so that they don't get lost.


I'd also like to give a big thank you to everybody who's decided to sponsor this project and to Justin at Parvum! *Without you guys this project could never have been possible.


Specs:


So what specs are we talking about here?

CPU: Intel Core i7 5960X
Motherboard: Asus X99E-WS (kindly supplied by Asus)
RAM: TBD (likely 64-128GB )
Graphics: 4(!) x Nvidia GTX Titan X (kindly supplied by Nvidia)
Storage: TBD
Power Supply: SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 2000W 8-Pack Edition (kindly supplied by SuperFlower)

Cooling:

4 x 480mm rads
4 x Laing D5
Aquacomputer Aquaero 6 for fan control
Rest is TBD


First Goodies:

Here are the first components to arrive:

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First Renders:

The plan is to do a fully rendered version of the build, like I did for Loramentum. As such, I began to model the components that were sent, chiefly the PSU and motherboard. The following images were made using Autodesk Inventor and Blender (using Cycles to render the images).

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[Feronix]

Oooohhh, an all-out build log. I am in!

 

[MadShadow]

Specs look awesome, can't wait to see more

 

[Davva2004]

 

[Wraith]

Excellent work on the renders fella, and kudos on a balls to the wall all out mental build log.. I can feel the uber power of this system already. Subbed!

 

[SPS]

Lovely

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

Oooh the nerdporn that is about to commence!!!

(you know when it's serious business when you compare that PSU switch to the other PSU switches on the market )

 

[Maki Role]

Oooohhh, an all-out build log. I am in!

Yep the hardware should be mental, hopefully the "case" will be too!

Specs look awesome, can't wait to see more

I'll try my best not to disappoint

*Snip*

Welcome aboard!

Excellent work on the renders fella, and kudos on a balls to the wall all out mental build log.. I can feel the uber power of this system already. Subbed!

Thanks!

Lovely

Cheers!

Oooh the nerdporn that is about to commence!!!

(you know when it's serious business when you compare that PSU switch to the other PSU switches on the market )

Aye that unit is a beast, it's just such an 8-Pack product, big in every sense of the word rofl

 

[Asperatis]

How to make an entry on a forum
Looking very promising, and I just love Parvum build logs!

 

[Maki Role]

How to make an entry on a forum
Looking very promising, and I just love Parvum build logs!

Haha this should be quite a different one too. It's not going into a Parvum case of sorts, it's a wall mount.

So I thought I'd share some of the stuff that's been going on recently. The plan is to make a monoblock for the Asus X99E-WS that will cool everything important on the board. The stock heatsinks are beautiful, but apparently the PLX chips can get a little toasty when using 4 GPUs, which we will be doing. According to some owners they've experiences random crashes when the chips get too hot. The solution is just provide a bit of airflow, which is very easy in a normal case. However, since this is open faced, I can't guarantee that will always be available. That and we thought it would be cool.

Here's the lower section thus far:

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The above model is a little out of date as I've since added some extra cutouts that are needed for it to fit properly. The test block is going to be machined tomorrow, don't want to have the final one milled only to realise it doesn't fit rofl.

I also spent some time making a short video showing the motherboard model:

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[Maki Role]

Right so whilst I'm waiting for the motherboard PLX test block to be machined, I figured I'd update with some of the most recent renders. I meant to post these a week back but I was snowed in with work and my head just froze up. Now that things are slightly less hectic, let's get to it.

Nvidia, about a month back, asked if I could also render the Titan X cards going into the build. Now I was a little hesitant about this as since the cards are going to be watercooled, the stock coolers won't be present later on. They also didn't respond when I asked if they could provide an official CAD file. The coolers themselves look simple, but they're actually incredibly complicated to model. There are curves, lofts, chamfers and fillets everywhere, and some of them quite subtle, almost none of the surfaces are completely flat.

In any case, I did end up modeling the things, and so here they are:

Clay render showing the model itself sans textures:​

This was actually and accident when I misclicked and applied a frosted acrylic material to the whole thing, thought it looked cool though.​

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[Tripp]

Well I'm subbed, love that Asus WS board

 

[WYP]

Looks nice, can't wait to see more.

I'm loving how all these new build logs are appearing

 

[Wraith]

Ohh I do like that, Nvidia make it so!

 

[Fetchez La Vache]

Great to see another Inventor users work. Do Blender materials not have a "fillet edges" or "round corners" feature?

 

[Maki Role]

Well I'm subbed, love that Asus WS board

I've just completely fallen for the WS styling now, find it difficult to appreciate RoG products now haha

Looks nice, can't wait to see more.

I'm loving how all these new build logs are appearing

Thanks!

Ohh I do like that, Nvidia make it so!

*Snip*

Would be like the crystal craze 14 years back, not sure if that's a positive or a negative actually rofl

Great to see another Inventor users work. Do Blender materials not have a "fillet edges" or "round corners" feature?

Not entirely sure what you mean by materials as such? The materials themselves in Blender are purely related to the model geometry itself, although you can fake bits with normal/bump maps etc. like how they fake corner rounding in games. I always just use a real geometry fillet like you would normally do in Inventor, means it translates accurately for the renders.

So this ended up being a much longer gap than any of us had planned. If there's one issue with doing large scale sponsored builds it's that you have to deal with a lot of different timescales and schedules, so they do have a habit of dragging on a bit.

But that said, I do have a proper update for you all!


First of all, I'd like to welcome a new sponsor into the fray, Hexagon PCs! They kindly offered to supply the sleeving for Argentum, and some special stuff it is indeed.

The next big bit of news is that the fourth Titan X has finally surfaced , it's been a long time coming but this build at last has the stated number of GPUs present. Sadly that doesn't mean all too much right now though as we're still missing, well, almost everything else. Hey, good things come to those who wait.

And lastly, and probably most interestingly, we have some PHYSICAL PROGRESS! Somehow the guys at Parvum Systems managed to find some time in the run up to i55 to cut the test block for the motherboard. This is a vital piece as it allows me to work out exactly what works and what doesn't with the design. For the most part it actually fits perfectly, there are only a couple small changes that I need to make to have it all functioning well. We didn't want to commit to copper until we're 100% sure that it's going to work right.

Going for silver, white and a darker grey



Finally 4 GPUs present in real life!





Motherboard PLX block so far





Fits nice and snug
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[paulstung]

Wow, looking awesome fella, and that model is some serious shit dude. It's nice to see the WS E board being used by so many people lately, it does help that it and it's baby brother are the 2 best boards that have come out of Asus for a while.

 

[Maki Role]

Well this has been a very long time coming. I warned people that this project may prove to be a slow burner, but even I wasn't quite prepared for this hiatus.

Long and short of it is sponsors can be very difficult to find, even with a build as well supported as this and a solid portfolio. As such, I've had to wait until I could afford to pick up some hardware myself.

On that front, I'd like to thank Wei Day from G-Skill. Whilst unfortunately they weren't able to aid in this particular project, I'm grateful that they reached out to support offer support for the project. Hopefully we'll be able to work together on a future build

That said, there is at least now some light at the end of the tunnel!

So a few things were needed to get this build at least running. I figured it was useless having all these parts just sitting on a shelf. So I picked up some hardware to get things going, notably a couple SSDs and 64GB of Dominator Platinum DDR4. I also picked up a temporary 5820k just so things can run, along with an H100i GTX for testing and running whilst waiting for WC bits. I'll be using the 5820k later in a future project so I wasn't that worried about picking on up.

2x2TB Samsung 850 Evo


Had this spare from another project, will tide me over until I can grab a 950 Pro for some NVMe goodness.


Much pretty RAM. Still don't get the coolers though.


Slots right in there


Always wanted 8 sticks of Dom Plat, really fills the board up and fits the theme






And a sneak peak too! These are two very early concept renders for the eventual layout. You'll notice it's missing, well, most things currently as there are just so many variables right now. I'm not spending time modelling WC gear when there's no guarantee that I'll be using it.




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[coffeefoot]

This is soo good it's scary !