Project: SYNERGY (TJ11)

[Vicarious]

Greetings fellow overclocker's and Enthusiast's,

I'd Like to share my new build log with all you fine people to get some feedback and maybe help someone with a similar build or a specific component I have.

First a rundown on what parts I'm using for the build then I'll try and explain why I chose these specific parts/configuration, so here are the specs (still subject to change):

SYNERGY

Silverstone Temjin TJ11

i7 2600K @5GHz (Indigo Xtreme)

MSI P67 Big Bang Marshall

SLI MSI GTX580 Lightining Xtreme Edition 3072MB

16gb Corsair Dominator GT @1866MHz, 9-9-9-24-1T, 1.50V (Dominator Extended Fins)

Asus Xonar STX (Upgraded OPAMP)

Corsair H60, Coolermaster Excalibur 2x120mm

Corsair AX1200 (Blue Bitfenix Alchemy Extentions)

OCZ Vertex 3 120gb (Boot)

OCZ Vertex 2 120gb (Games)

2x WD 2TB SATA 3 Caviar Black (RAID 0)

Ok so there's the specs for the hardware, If anyone has any Ideas/feedback/suggestions I'm very keen to hear them.

As of now I'm NOT planing to water cool, due to the fact that there are no GPU blocks available for my cards (plus they look freaking awesome with the TW3 cooler on them), additionally the 2600k doesn't get hot enough to justify WC when the H60 will cope just fine.

The build will be a black and blue theme, I will have some blue LED lighting inside the mobo area and the two gpus have blue LED's on the fans, also the cases's Power button is blue along with all the fan controller and bay bus I'm going to install... see a trend forming?. Oh and i know some of you may be wondering why are you buying dom GT's for a blu build? well im going to buy the dominator extended fins form corsair (... the only place u can get the so they charge an arm and a leg, its gonna cost me about $90 AU to get them shipped here) and paint them .... Blue! you guessed it. Also I'm going to be using Blue bitfenix extensions in my case (mainly because im not going to void my 7 year corsair warranty when the bitfeinx cables look soooo good)

I chose the Silverstone TJ11 for many reasons, I wanted a case that looked good and had the folllowing features so I can use it for future builds;

supports up to XL-ATX

8+ expansion slots

Excellent air / water-cooling options

USB3

Full side window

All aluminium

Obviously I had little choice (plus IMO the case is downright gorgeous), Oh and yes I know this build is ridiculously expensive but please don't let this thread turn into a "I can build a faster system for $2000 less!" argument, Although I am FAR from wealthy I have been saving/planning this build for a VERY long time.

As it stands I already have the GPU's the soundcard and the vertex 2 to those items are non negotiable, but other than that I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions or if anyone has any questions about my build, I'll do my best to answer.

I'm going to take as many pics as I can during the build, and may even through up a video if I can find a camera.

So for now iv'e just got a couple of pics of my new GPU's, sorry for the quality they were from my phone. The rest of the photos I post will be better I promise.

The rest of the parts will be coming in pretty soon, I hope to have the whole build wrapped up in about 4-6 weeks .. so please be patient as im waiting on my tax return

.

So until I have some more pics/info please feel free to comment!!

 

[SieB]

Seems a hell of a waste spending all this money and buying a TJ11 and not doing proper watercooling.

Personally I would buy a 590 and water cool it then add another when prices drop.

 

[Vicarious]

Thanks for the feedback mate, as I said I'm open to suggestions on some things, so do have you any thoughts on another case that you would recommend for this build.

Oh and i was gonna do SLI 590's but they don't scale that well, plus I've had quad sli before in the from of 2 9800GX2 and it was just a PIA with drivers, some games just hate quad setups. That's why I chose the 580's instead as i promised myself i would never go a dual gpu card again (I've also owned a gtx295 briefly). Not that the 590 isn't a BEAST on its own.

 

[SieB]

Thanks for the feedback mate, as I said I'm open to suggestions on some things, so do have you any thoughts on another case that you would recommend for this build.

Oh and i was gonna do SLI 590's but they don't scale that well, plus I've had quad sli before in the from of 2 9800GX2 and it was just a PIA with drivers, some games just hate quad setups. That's why I chose the 580's instead as i promised myself i would never go a dual gpu card again (I've also owned a gtx295 briefly). Not that the 590 isn't a BEAST on its own.

There aren't that may good cases that I know of that will fit the BBM, only ones I know of off the top of my head are the full tower HAF's, Cooler Master Cosmos Pure Black V2 and the Xigmatek Elysium. There is nothing wrong with the TJ11 though, it just seems like a lot of money to spend on a case that is built for watercooling and to not watercool in it.

The rest of the build is ok but I personally wouldn't go with a H60 or any other all in one water cooling system and I would just go with the D14 or if you don't like the look of the D14 something like the Thermalright Silver arrow or the BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro would be good.

Apart from that I wouldn't change anything else.

 

[KiiYzOo]

xigmatek Elysium

or a Silverstone ft02

 

[Vicarious]

The rest of the build is ok but I personally wouldn't go with a H60 or any other all in one water cooling system and I would just go with the D14 or if you don't like the look of the D14 something like the Thermalright Silver arrow or the BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro would be good.

Hmm, yea this is something i have been hearing a fair bit now... I currently have a D-14 in my currently and don't get me wrong i love it to pieces it just takes up too much room (it actually blocks my PCI-e 1x slot on my mobo) and limits my ram choices also. But this is something i will definitively look into a bit more. Any particular reason yoou don't reccomed them? bad experience maybe?

thanks mate.

xigmatek Elysium or a Silverstone ft02

Personally the ft02 is my favorite looking case and if it weren't for its lack of ... lets call it "future expansion options" its too limited (7 pci slots, no XL-ATX, no USB3) other than that I LOVE that case.

As for the Xigmatek its the sidepanel and the fact that my board would look so small and out of place, but it is very cheap and looks great besides that terrible side panel... I haven't completely ruled this option out. thanks for the opinion mate

 

[SieB]

Any particular reason yoou don't reccomed them? bad experience maybe?

thanks mate.

They aren't that good, they are loud and they get hotter over time. They will do the job but a good air cooler like the D14 will be quieter and get lower temps but if you aren't bothered about noise and getting the lowest temps then the H60 would do.

There is a H100 coming out soon which is basically a H70 with a 240mm RAD so if you are going for a all in one i'd wait for that.

 

[S_I_N]

I truely dont understand how they perform as well as they do small tubing lesser amount of liquid. Just dont add up to long cpu on times as the water will hit its point of no return where the water can no longer be cooled good enough to keep temps down. Now the H100 looks a tad more promising as its a dual 120mm rad design but Still I would think the same would happen as well. With the increase of fluid amount a custom built loop allows the thermal displacement can go longer before reaching that point. But then you hit the cost to performance part and I'd think the H100 would be ideal for a mild oc rig.

btw lol forgot to say love the build cant wait til ya post ur build log.

 

[KiiYzOo]

you could mod the side panel of the xigmatek elysium to have a bigger window?

 

[BradP123]

Those are some seriously nice looking cards

 

[Vicarious]

Hey Guys, need a little assistance here.

Does anyone know if I populate the z68 ud7 like i have displayed in the pic below, weather or not the 580's would be in 8x/8x or do they drop to 8x/4x.

Because if possible I much prefer this layout as my 580s will have room to breathe and my soundcard wont be in between them. Plus the is no performance drop when running cards at 16/16 or 8/8 (not really there's like 1% difference or something)

Thanks in advance!!

 

[SieB]

According to the specs on Gigabytes site they will run at x8 x8, unless I am reading it wrong.

http://www.gigabyte....spx?pid=3847#sp

 

[AdrianD2]

I would kill for that case...

 

[Vicarious]

According to the specs on Gigabytes site they will run at x8 x8, unless I am reading it wrong.

http://www.gigabyte....spx?pid=3847#sp

Thanks mate that's how i interpreted it as-well... I just always have a hard time finding out info on how the boards lanes react when you dont populate them in the normal order.

The main reason I'm interested is I am an audiophile and for me having my sound sound card is as important to me as my sli 580's (if not more so). But with sli cards I don't want my SC to inter fear with the air flow and choke my 580's.

I find it frustrating how hard it is to find this info... either than speaking to someone who actually has the board or contacting the support dept. of the brand.

Anyway I'm still deciding at this point between a Z68 UD7 and the Big bang (both of which are only $10 apart for me).

Will update soon though.

 

[SieB]

No probs, it is a bit confusing how they don't explain it fully and make it awkward to read understand.

Out of the BBM and the UD7 I would personally go for the UD7 I think it's one of if not the best looking motherboard there is.

 

[dipzy]

I would kill for that case...

me too lol

 

[nothingspecial]

Looks like the first and third slots are the x16 ones, and the one at the bottom is an x8. Seems the best way to go.

I always thought the difference between the little "clip" at the end of the slot was a good way to judge it, but none of the mobo manufacturers seem to have stuck to a formula for it. Seems a bit of an oversight.

 

[Vicarious]

Hi guys just a quick update, I finally decided after MUCH deliberation the chassis I'm getting for this build.

Oh and FYI it was between a lian-li PC80N, Silverstone TJ11, and lian li PC-A77F. Trust me it was a hard choice as they are all great chassis. But the only one that met all my requirements was.... the silverstone TJ11!!!!!

I have placed the order and should have it and have pics up by the end of the week. Oh and I'm making it my personal mission to answer any TJ11 specific questions you might have, mainly because I've had a hard time finding out all the information I've needed about it and I'd like to help anyone who needs specific measurements/performance questions answered.

I'll update again soon,

Take care all!!

 

[KiiYzOo]

nice, I look forward to seeing it

 

[Vicarious]

Well, its here guys....... and it's AWESOME, but dont beleive what I say just take a look and see for yourselves!!

Something I never saw mentioned is that there are rubber mounts for the PSU's ... man this thing is just quality.

This is how much room is behind the Mobo tray... more than adequate if you ask me.

I'm really starting to think that a Corsair H60 wont fit in this space.....

Synergy is comming along nicely ...

Well the pictures don't really get across just how beautiful this case is in person.. the thing that really blew me away is the quality of the build its just brilliant, I've never had a real enthusiast chassis before and I can honestly say anyone who is sitting on the fence about buying this chassis or any other premium chassis... you will NOT regret it... I mean every time i look at it I smile its just that great. And for your information It ended up costing me (shipping included) the same price to the dollar as one of my 580 LX, yet i still think it was worth every penny!!

Anyways I could go on and on about it, but I'd like to hear your thoughts .. or if you have any measurements or questions that need to be asked just shoot!! BTW do you guys think a H60 will fit is that spot on at the back of the mobo??

Should have the rest of the parts slowly trailing in over the next few weeks... next on the list is my new mouse the new Razer Mamba 4G version. I should have it by Monday.

Will update soon.