Riff Tamson

[AlienALX]

Sun decided to grace me with its presence so I responded in kind and took some photos. Firstly my nice tidy desk.

Some one has some tidying to do... Note : PC is very messy inside having been built and rebuilt about ten times last night.

Roof back on.

In this pic you can see lots of hard drives. However, look around them. There is a black/transparent piece that covers the entire side. It clips in, has lots of wires hidden under it (including the front panel ones I was trying to get to !) and is a complete sod to get off and back on again.

The pump, finally behaving itself ( I had to literally fill the res up to the limit to stop it spitting and bubbling, though that's the res's fault really)

The front. You will notice the chrome res bolts are gone and I replaced with black button hex bolts instead.

And a quick side profile shot, though again everything is about as messy as it can be right now. I got a refund on an Ebay con so when it hits the account I think I am going to order some 16 hole combs and fit them. IIRC the pins come out of the Bitfenix Alchemy quite well?

 

[AlienALX]

Afternoon all. For the past couple of days Gareth and I have been trying to get the T-balancer to connect up to the PC so I can take control of the fans. Sadly for some reason it seems to hate the motherboard and no matter how you connect it up it does funny stuff. For example when you plug it in internally it corrupts Windows and stops the rig booting. If I connect it up using the external USB B socket it shuts down the PC. All very odd but I suspect it may be a UEFI thing going on ? no idea. Suffice to say I am just going to have to leave the rig as it is. It's quiet, but not as quiet as I wanted it but compared to other servers I've seen it sounds like a silent fart.

Any way, moving onward and upward I have only a few small jobs left to do. The GPU cables looked sort of OK until I removed the cable tie (which looked cack) and then they just sprouted everywhere. I thought about how best to sort them out and decided on these.

I have ordered six, three per cable. I wanted 16 hole combs but a certain company wanted me to buy ten of them otherwise "It's not worth it".

So I will get those fitted when they arrive, IIRC Alchemys come apart quite easily requiring little force they will definitely look better. I will clean them too (with a damp cloth) as they are pretty filthy. I mean I have had them for about three years.

Moving on, one of the main jobs left to do is sort out the main cover. I don't want it to go back in as it is because it's kinda transparent and won't match anything. So I am going to attempt to cover it which will be quite difficult as it has a battery compartment that usually houses two rechargeable batteries to operate all of the internal lights that come on when you open it and the lights on the back panel IO which you press a button to light. Thing is it was getting in the way and the case does all of that when plugged into the mains any way. So I removed the batteries and the carrier etc.

I also got some logos through from a couple of companies so I would like to take the chance to actually put a design on the cover.

We shall see

The rig is working very well now though and I have been on it as much as I can because the CPU draws an absolute maximum of 60w under load. So yeah, won't save me a fortune but it's helping

 

[AlienALX]

I'm not dead, just close

Not been feeling very well at all lately. Currently taking more pills but waiting for them to work can be a bit miserable, and I usually feel worse before I feel better. Any way, I haven't forgotten about this build in fact I have been doing a little now and then. Just severly lacking motivation atm, asking myself why I am bothering, not being happy with anything I do to it...

So yeah, what has happened since I posted last? not much. I finished up concluding that the T-Balancer either hated my motherboard or was broken. I suspect it not to be the latter tbh, as it works perfectly until you hook it up to the board.

I figured out what was making all of the noise in the rig. It was the hard drive duct blower fan. Ten seconds in Alien control center soon sorted that out.

I bought and fitted six cable combs. Red. The cables are shabby though. At some point I must have been quite rough with them because they are fraying and when I removed the pins I had nightmares. Four snapped, then I realised that I needed to use more force than I was happy with and I had to make a lot of repairs where the paracord had frayed open. I did my best, could have done with a few more if I'm being honest.

I got two hose clamps for the Fury X because I wasn't happy with where the hoses wanted to go.

I also began working on the cover panel. First of all I cut the edge where it had been cut before (in a bit of a hurry, so wasn't marked or straight) and then welded on a cap. I also wrapped the outer part with silver brushed vinyl.

It was difficult to wrap because it had no flat or defined edges. What you see was cut freehand and took about two hours. I still need to make a new part that covers the Fury X radiator and the Powercool fan logo, as I really don't like either. That will be welded on, and the flat parts covered in brushed black.

I'm in no mood to be running the rotary tool though, so god knows when I will do that.

 

[AlienALX]

Work continues very very slowly.

As you can see I have now made the rad cover, which has become a part of the main cover. I traced it, shaped it up then cut it out and welded it on before covering it.

The gap in the silver will eventually be covered in black brushed vinyl as it has some cut scars on it and some plastic weld marks. TBH I intended to cover it black any way, regardless of any damage. The edges (45 and 90 deg) will remain clear and I will eventually fit a few LEDs in it so that it lights up red when you open the case.

The case has a full lighting system fitted to a door switch. It's so you can see what you are doing when you take the side off. So I am going to convert it to red LEDs for show, then when you fit a side panel they all go out

 

[NVIDIA]

Just amazing! Any other exterior plans?

 

[AlienALX]

Just amazing! Any other exterior plans?

No. Through experience I have found that if you cut into an Alienware you always regret it tbh. I've tried to make all three of them look great without the side panel fitted. That way if I want to keep the dust out or if they're not used for a while I can just put the side panels back on intact.

The last one I cut cost me $18 to replace. It then cost me £100 in shipping.

This particular case was Dell's best. It has everything. Lights inside that switch on when you open it, lights outside that come on at the press of a button so you can see what you are doing, vented roof, motorised front, full computer controlling it all.. Madness.

I got it used from a Dell recycler on Ebay. £200. I ran the service code on the back and whoever bought it spent about seven grand on it lol.

So yeah learned from experience. Don't mod the outside unless you can revert it to stock and don't sell them you always regret it and miss them badly

 

[AlienALX]

Finished.









There were loads more things I wanted to do but I am getting tired of it. It's good enough. Won't win any awards but was never supposed to

That's the last time I ever say simple and loop in the same sentence though

 

[Doomslayer]

Damn how many systems have you finished in the last 6 months about 4 or something, Here's me can't even get 1 done :lol:

 

[AlienALX]

Damn how many systems have you finished in the last 6 months about 4 or something, Here's me can't even get 1 done :lol:

I've finished all three now. I had my 2014 and my wife had the 2008. Then I was given back my 2006.

So the mission was to mod both my 2014 and the 2006 and leave my wife's well alone. Then as I finished the 06 she says "I don't want my rig any more you can have it back".

So yeah, then the plan became mod all three. She gave up her desk and chair too (gotta sell the chair) but the main plan is to basically set them all up side by side on her old desk, free up space on mine so I can have most of my headphones on a bar and my amps etc all tidy.

I will be doing the move around soon. Already got the KVM switch and have planned it all out

 

[Excalabur50]

Well done Alien well done

 

[AlienALX]

Update ! so I have been using this rig as my daily beater. Mostly because it's the quietest rig I have (600 RPM fans on the CPU rad for example and only two) and secondly because I just love this rig so much. It's built like a brick out house, has features that just rock (like a button on the back that lights up the entire back outside so you can see what you are doing).

Well the other day I thought I would take a look around to see what I could find in the CPU department. I firstly considered getting a 3930k or something but I was certain that it would be wasted in this board (X79 UD3) as it has pants phases and you can only get about 3.6 ghz or so before it craps its pants.

I was certain also that I had the Rev 1.0 board which is even worse than the 1.1.

Any way after a lot of research (and nearly making a terrible mistake !*) I found one of these on Ebay (note I drew this using the actual CPU to take everything from)

OK so this is where it all gets a bit weird. It's called a QE5F. If you look around using that as a search word it brings you to a Xeon E5 2680 V2. However, the E5 2680 V2 is actually a ten core CPU, not 8 core. But this thing is called the exact same name and even has the 25mb of cache that comes on the 10 core model, but still only has 8 cores

Very strange. Any way, on Sunday (two days after I had ordered the CPU) I found out that it does not work on Rev 1.0 boards. On Gigabyte's site it says 2680 but if you look over to the right it says N/A. In other words it does not work. Why Gigabyte did this instead of just not listing the CPU god only knows.

So I was kinda worried that it would not work. I decided to get out my torch (flashlight) and have a poke around and I noticed it said Rev 1.1. I quickly went back to Gigabyte's support list and....

PHEW. So this made me happy. The CPU came today and I fitted it and... Well it works

So I ran some benchmarks.

Before - 2ghz boost on all 8 cores, Ivy EP.

Cinebench.

After, 3.1 ghz boost on all 8 cores. Ivy EP 25mb cache.

It's about 100 points short of a stock 5960x. Well, one that boosts to 3.3ghz. For £100 it's incredible..

Couple more benchmarks.

3DMFS regular (not Extreme)

3DM12 Time Spy

So this rig has now become my daily rig. Just need 8gb more RAM when I am not so skint and it's not so blood suckingly expensive and I will be all set

*I thought I had a V1 board and did not read the chart correctly. Doh.

 

[WYP]

Certainly an interesting development. Great performance on that CPU, especially for the price.

 

[AlienALX]

Yeah I spent hours and hours researching. You can get the same as the one I got from HK for about £130. Problem is there's then taxes on that etc. When I bought it the seller wanted £170 but I chipped him down because I can't sell ES on with it being illegal etc.

Very happy. Amazing what it has done to the gaming performance. I can now run DE as smooth as butter with higher settings than I had before.

 

[Bartacus]

Nice find! I've read through that Xeon stuff too, until my eyes blurred, looking for a suitable upgrade on my x79 rig. I almost picked up a 3960X for $300CDN, but then I saw those Xeon options and started reading. Then I got confused, lost, chickened out, and spent the $$$ on water cooling gear instead.

 

[AlienALX]

Nice find! I've read through that Xeon stuff too, until my eyes blurred, looking for a suitable upgrade on my x79 rig. I almost picked up a 3960X for $300CDN, but then I saw those Xeon options and started reading. Then I got confused, lost, chickened out, and spent the $$$ on water cooling gear instead.

hahaha yeah it's a bloody minefield is what it is !

Wouldn't matter so much if Gigabyte only did one bloody revision. I guess reviews of the UD3 were poor so they revised the phases?

 

[AlienALX]

Just when you thought it was all over it actually wasn't

I upgraded the ram today to 16gb, that should keep the wolves from the door. Then tonight I had an idea. I upgraded the bios before I put the new CPU in but tonight I thought about the T-Balancer BigNG (the computer within my computer that controls all of my fans).

The last time I connected it up it made the PC reboot and all sorts of other nasties. Then I remembered the bios update and figured I should try it again. And....

So I was all like...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4kHmbZTvyI

Will get an internal cable made up for it soon

 

[AlienALX]

Another small update. I have been considering my storage options, given that this rig is now my daily driver. The rig has 6 spinning drives in it (that thankfully spin down until you use them, though this is part of the problem). The problem is I like to play Fallout 4, Doom and Mafia III. All of which depend on the speed of your drive for the loading times. Fallout 4 and Doom are the worst.

I tested both Doom and Fallout 4 on my OCX ARC 100 (regular SATA III speeds) and on my Asus RAIDR and both benefited from the extra speed. IIRC the RAIDR does about 800-900 on reads, the only important factor really.

I considered buying a NVME drive and sticking it in an adapter (might still do this, I shall see) but I figured I would fire up the Triad and see what was on the RAIDR. Everything I play, basically. So for now I have taken it out and put it (the RAIDR) into Riff.

It was a philosophy of proportion. Triad had three SSDs and Riff had one There is still ample SSD room on the Triad, but now I can play my favourite games on Riff without being able to make a cup of tea every time a level loads up.

I have spoken to a mate of mine and he is making me (literally) a cable that goes from my USB3 internal header to the T balancer. That should be here pretty soon

 

[AlienALX]

Slight update cable has now been made using a low profile USB3 connector into a USB2 one. Now I can connect up the T balancer properly It should arrive tomorrow.

Doh, a pic would help.

 

[AlienALX]

An update ! If you read the "Latest purchase" thread you will note I just bagged some WC gear in order to water cool the Fury X. Just let me update on the post before this though. Sadly the internal USB2 - USB3 cable for some reason did not work, so I still do not have control of the Tbalancer. I don't know why it doesn't work but it hasn't really hurt anything.

Also, the pump has been running flawlessly since I built the rig, so don't let the price put you off. It's been absolutely sterling and I haven't even had to top up the coolant or even touch it. Talking of the coolant, it is still lovely and red and clear.

OK so let's move on. I managed to source a block and back plate locally.

So block and back plate as follows.

If you followed the thread you will remember I used a single bay res with a dual bay front panel like this.

OK, so what I have done now is basically buy another single bay res.

Only with a pump installed.

This will slot in below the existing res giving me what will look like two res stacked. I then bought this cover. Top half will show CPU water levels, bottom half will show GPU water levels.

I bought 8 Bitspower fittings, which should be plenty.

Some 8/11 hose (same as the card uses now)

Leaving me only needing a rad. I'm a bit skint now so it could be a few weeks away, but obviously I am starting to plan things out now.

I am also going to replace the tired out GPU cables bringing a fresher look to those too.

 

[ADmodz]

Another small update. I have been considering my storage options, given that this rig is now my daily driver. The rig has 6 spinning drives in it (that thankfully spin down until you use them, though this is part of the problem). The problem is I like to play Fallout 4, Doom and Mafia III. All of which depend on the speed of your drive for the loading times. Fallout 4 and Doom are the worst.

I tested both Doom and Fallout 4 on my OCX ARC 100 (regular SATA III speeds) and on my Asus RAIDR and both benefited from the extra speed. IIRC the RAIDR does about 800-900 on reads, the only important factor really.

I considered buying a NVME drive and sticking it in an adapter (might still do this, I shall see) but I figured I would fire up the Triad and see what was on the RAIDR. Everything I play, basically. So for now I have taken it out and put it (the RAIDR) into Riff.

It was a philosophy of proportion. Triad had three SSDs and Riff had one There is still ample SSD room on the Triad, but now I can play my favourite games on Riff without being able to make a cup of tea every time a level loads up.

I have spoken to a mate of mine and he is making me (literally) a cable that goes from my USB3 internal header to the T balancer. That should be here pretty soon

Looking sweet dude.watching this one