Henrik
New member
We are three Swedish students from ABB Industrial High School, we decided to build a computer. In order to make it unique, we decided to do it in wood where the name Silva comes from, which means wood in Latin ... The computer will also watercooled.
We began by looking for sponsors and we got sponsorship from: Intel, Microsoft, Norton and not least VBIK (Västerbergslagen engineering club)
We would like to thank all our sponsors because without them this project would not have been possible!
But above all we would like to thank VBIK who has helped us allot!
Then we started to sketch out how the chassis would look like. We decided that we wanted a clean design.
Once we had decided how the chassis should look like we began designing it in SolidWorks and the result is as followed:
We began by cutting all the boards to the right sizes ..
Then we drilled holes for the plugs..
I then cut a plank in half, to then be glued wich would make the plate the motherboard is mounted ..
And suddenly the backbone of the chassis is finished ..
Holes for the IO panel and expansion slots ..
Tests so that everything fits, which it did
Did holes for cable routing to the motherboard ..
I think the result turned out very good
Now for what has taken the most time to.... the front where the 3 x 120mm fans should sit "funnels" where made in a wood lathe which helped tremendously ..
Now, we encountered a problem .. how the f**k we should mount the "crescent" so that the milling would not hit the mounting device?
We bolted it down from the bottom
Here are a bunch of pictures on the computer in its current state.
Update 4/30/11
Went down and started with the funnels for the top of the chassis like on the CAD image. This time it did not take that long, because now I knew exactly how it should be done.
Note the height difference between the two funnels .... there are two 18mm planks that are glued together on both funnels, but still 3-4mm of difference: S It was time for the grinding machine ...
If anyone is wondering how we got the straight cuts on the funnels.
We learned from our mistakes and chamfered the crescents before we cut them out.
And finally some pictures of today's accomplishment. (note that neither the crescent or the funnels are glued and need to be sanded).
Update 5/13/11
Today we had some time to go down and work with the chassis
We did the power on button, the hole for the front panel USB, painted the motherboard plate and the hard drive cage, extended the USB wire and sanded all the panels to be ready for the wood finish.
Here is the power on mechanism
And the hole for the two USB
The chassis is sanded and the parts i mentions are painted
Personaly i think the black matches the wood perfectly.
Last but nor least the USB extension... a little ghetto but no one will see it anyway
Update 7/20/11
Hey guys
We are not dead if thats what you think, I realize that it's more then 2 months ago sens we did our last update and I am very sorry for that, the reason is that the watercooling we ordered took 8 weeks from UK to Sweden... because it got sent to Denmark... and when we finally got the package it was incomplete.. I am truly sorry for the wait.
But non the less here are some photos of the progress so far.
Getting ready to mount the water block,
The GPU had a big area where the heatsink did not make contact,
The GTX460 GPU itself,
The block mounted
I made some mounts for the radiator,
Now the we start mounting all the parts
Notice that one fan is missing, it will be installed later because a friend of mine has it
The Water loop is done
Right now the system is up and running. I'm running Prime95 ATM, but you will have to wait for the overclock result. But I can give you a spoiler: its running Crysis 2 @ 1680x1050 DX11 maxed at around 30-35 FPS that's with a i5 660 and the GTX 460 both overclocked I think that's pretty good for the specs.
When the computer is 100% complete i will go out and get some nice final shots of her in her natural habitat
Update 7/22/11
So it's time for some Overclocking results, more will come but for now SuperPi and 3DMark V.
It is my first time overclocking on the 1156 socket, and I come from the good old LGA775 with the beloved FSB < 3 So if you can give me some tips don't hesitate.. these settings are not in any way refined, I just wanted to see if we could reach our goal of 20000+ Vantage points.
Specs:
Motherboard: P7P55D-E PRO
CPU: I5 660
GPU: Gigabyte GTX460-OC
Memory 4GB Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz
Powersupply: Corsair TX750
Harddrive: No SSD so I dont think you care
But it's 250+1000GB
Watercooling:
CPU Block: HK Rev3.0 LC
GPU Block: XSPC Razor GTX460
Reservoir: Magicool Plexi 250
Pump: Laing D5 Vario
Pump Top: EK-D5 X-Top Rev2.0
Radiator: Aquacomputer 360mm AirPlex XT
Coolant: Thermochill EC06 - UV Blue
First of the bone stock Vantage score.
SuperPi @ 4.445Ghz @ 1,360V This was the best result i was able to get because the Bclock did not want to go higher then 170. I need to fiddle around with the settings more.
The 3DMark Vantage score, CPU @ 4,45Ghz GPU @ 920/1840/2000Mhz
I was not happy with 1,360V for 24/7 use so I went down to 4,2Ghz with 1,322V. I have had experience with close to 1,4V because I degraded my QX9650 when I was running 4,0Ghz @ 1,4V for two months.... Now i must run 3,7Ghz @ 1.32V for it to be stable.
Update 7/23/11
Today I am a happy man
I joined the 5Ghz club with the I5 660
After spending some time finding the stable Bclcok of 200 and a functional IMC voltage for that clock I started to raise the multiplier, first I got a bootable 4,8Ghz that was at 1.480V BIOS with loadline calibration. Then I bumped up the IMC voltage to 1.31V (it was at 1.21V) to hopefully lower the needed Vcore for 5Ghz. Then I went for a Vcore of 1.576V witch got me a validated 5Ghz
I think i could go lower on the Vcore for 5Ghz but i just wanted a validation of 5Ghz and i don't think i will be pushing her more, i don't want to kill the chip.. And don't think this was in any way stable because it BS'ed at the third loop in SuperPi 1M..
The 5Ghz validation
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1920348
Write what you think all comments are welcome
We began by looking for sponsors and we got sponsorship from: Intel, Microsoft, Norton and not least VBIK (Västerbergslagen engineering club)
We would like to thank all our sponsors because without them this project would not have been possible!
But above all we would like to thank VBIK who has helped us allot!
Then we started to sketch out how the chassis would look like. We decided that we wanted a clean design.
Once we had decided how the chassis should look like we began designing it in SolidWorks and the result is as followed:
We began by cutting all the boards to the right sizes ..
Then we drilled holes for the plugs..
I then cut a plank in half, to then be glued wich would make the plate the motherboard is mounted ..
And suddenly the backbone of the chassis is finished ..
Holes for the IO panel and expansion slots ..
Tests so that everything fits, which it did
Did holes for cable routing to the motherboard ..
I think the result turned out very good
Now for what has taken the most time to.... the front where the 3 x 120mm fans should sit
"funnels" where made in a wood lathe which helped tremendously ..
Now, we encountered a problem .. how the f**k we should mount the "crescent" so that the milling would not hit the mounting device?
We bolted it down from the bottom
Here are a bunch of pictures on the computer in its current state.
Update 4/30/11
Went down and started with the funnels for the top of the chassis like on the CAD image. This time it did not take that long, because now I knew exactly how it should be done.
Note the height difference between the two funnels .... there are two 18mm planks that are glued together on both funnels, but still 3-4mm of difference: S It was time for the grinding machine ...
If anyone is wondering how we got the straight cuts on the funnels.
We learned from our mistakes and chamfered the crescents before we cut them out.
And finally some pictures of today's accomplishment. (note that neither the crescent or the funnels are glued and need to be sanded).
Update 5/13/11
Today we had some time to go down and work with the chassis
We did the power on button, the hole for the front panel USB, painted the motherboard plate and the hard drive cage, extended the USB wire and sanded all the panels to be ready for the wood finish.
Here is the power on mechanism
And the hole for the two USB
The chassis is sanded and the parts i mentions are painted
Last but nor least the USB extension... a little ghetto but no one will see it anyway
Update 7/20/11
Hey guys
We are not dead if thats what you think, I realize that it's more then 2 months ago sens we did our last update and I am very sorry for that, the reason is that the watercooling we ordered took 8 weeks from UK to Sweden... because it got sent to Denmark... and when we finally got the package it was incomplete.. I am truly sorry for the wait.
But non the less here are some photos of the progress so far.
Getting ready to mount the water block,
The GPU had a big area where the heatsink did not make contact,
The GTX460 GPU itself,
The block mounted
I made some mounts for the radiator,
Now the we start mounting all the parts
Notice that one fan is missing, it will be installed later because a friend of mine has it
The Water loop is done
Right now the system is up and running. I'm running Prime95 ATM, but you will have to wait for the overclock result. But I can give you a spoiler: its running Crysis 2 @ 1680x1050 DX11 maxed at around 30-35 FPS that's with a i5 660 and the GTX 460 both overclocked I think that's pretty good for the specs.
When the computer is 100% complete i will go out and get some nice final shots of her in her natural habitat
Update 7/22/11
So it's time for some Overclocking results, more will come but for now SuperPi and 3DMark V.
It is my first time overclocking on the 1156 socket, and I come from the good old LGA775 with the beloved FSB < 3 So if you can give me some tips don't hesitate.. these settings are not in any way refined, I just wanted to see if we could reach our goal of 20000+ Vantage points.
Specs:
Motherboard: P7P55D-E PRO
CPU: I5 660
GPU: Gigabyte GTX460-OC
Memory 4GB Corsair Dominator 1600Mhz
Powersupply: Corsair TX750
Harddrive: No SSD so I dont think you care
Watercooling:
CPU Block: HK Rev3.0 LC
GPU Block: XSPC Razor GTX460
Reservoir: Magicool Plexi 250
Pump: Laing D5 Vario
Pump Top: EK-D5 X-Top Rev2.0
Radiator: Aquacomputer 360mm AirPlex XT
Coolant: Thermochill EC06 - UV Blue
First of the bone stock Vantage score.
SuperPi @ 4.445Ghz @ 1,360V This was the best result i was able to get because the Bclock did not want to go higher then 170. I need to fiddle around with the settings more.
The 3DMark Vantage score, CPU @ 4,45Ghz GPU @ 920/1840/2000Mhz
I was not happy with 1,360V for 24/7 use so I went down to 4,2Ghz with 1,322V. I have had experience with close to 1,4V because I degraded my QX9650 when I was running 4,0Ghz @ 1,4V for two months.... Now i must run 3,7Ghz @ 1.32V for it to be stable.
Update 7/23/11
Today I am a happy man
After spending some time finding the stable Bclcok of 200 and a functional IMC voltage for that clock I started to raise the multiplier, first I got a bootable 4,8Ghz that was at 1.480V BIOS with loadline calibration. Then I bumped up the IMC voltage to 1.31V (it was at 1.21V) to hopefully lower the needed Vcore for 5Ghz. Then I went for a Vcore of 1.576V witch got me a validated 5Ghz
I think i could go lower on the Vcore for 5Ghz but i just wanted a validation of 5Ghz and i don't think i will be pushing her more, i don't want to kill the chip.. And don't think this was in any way stable because it BS'ed at the third loop in SuperPi 1M..
The 5Ghz validation
http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1920348
Write what you think all comments are welcome
