Deep End

Appleby · 12 Mar 2012 at 21:33

Sooo . . . . Just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water.

I end up having a conversation today something along the lines of;

"(Appleby), you haven't done anything with socket 2011 yet, have you? Well do you fancy it?"

So I'm now the proud owner of one of these

and one of these to power it

Yes I am a jammy git and yes I'm over the moon

. I have a 2011 fitting kit on order and I will be ripping my current system apart asap so it begins (again) . . . .

Appleby · 13 Mar 2012 at 11:14

I know, I wish I had some more space so I could have the system up on my desk with a window but the room is a bit small. I guess building it was the fun for me and I always know its there. (Plus I have a picture of it as my background on my work pc

so I see it every day)

I will be draining it all over the next couple of days. I wonder if the CPU and GPU blocks will line up again? I'm hoping so as I love how it looks!

Appleby · 18 Mar 2012 at 18:45

A little comparison between the old board and the new. Socket 2011 is huge in comparison!

Next up I like to buy things to last so I may as well go all out! Remember with great power supplies, comes great responsibility (to get more crazy hardware!)

In place

Board in

Everything back in as it was. Hardly had to adjust the tubing.

All done!

Less than an hour later I was reinstalling windows and I'm posting from it now!

I'm going to give the system a little time to settle before I start overclocking.

I'm really hankering after a second GTX580 for some SLI goodness. So if I sell my old mobo and CPU . . .

Appleby · 19 Mar 2012 at 12:47

Heat wise no difference so far at stock speeds. It consumes a little more power but overall I am happy with it. I guess whether its worth the extra is up to you, I'm rather under using mine. I only have 4x2GB sticks of ram and I don't think I will use all that power very often (I will try though). I will let defiantly be keeping this thread up to date so you will soon know about overclocked power and heat! The only thing I would say though is that I could do with the EK block for the VRM's there isn't a lot of airflow over them and after a prolonged BF3 session last night they were fairly warm!

Appleby · 3 Apr 2013 at 00:19

So, one year later, this project is going to swing back into life. Since this point, I've upgraded a little more. I now have 2 520 series SSD's in raid 0, a second 580 for SLI (waterblock incoming). I'm going to be re doing all the tubing. A few more upgrades here and there, maybe watercool the motherboard. I'm also in the process of updating my office and server so that may make an appearance too!

So here I go again . . .

Appleby · 3 Apr 2013 at 18:38

Thanks, It will be about a week till anything starts (dissertation due in next Thursday).

The Bitfenix fans are great. Lots of air moved and very quiet even at full whack. (I bought 2 more for my house mates PC) I would recommend them!

I always thought the shoggy sandwhich looks like a giant liquorice all sort. Works a treat though!

Appleby · 4 Apr 2013 at 22:28

Thanks everyone. I managed to do a quick and dirty upgrade to put the second 580 under water but no proper changes yet.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for fast RAM? Dominator platinum seems a bit expensive, Samsung green is a little boring to look at (silly reason I know). Is Patriot Viper any good? The stuff in Intel Extreme Masters colours looks interesting! I want 16GB of 2133 if possible?

One GTX580 heatspreader

One grubby block, one clean block. I have to give it to Mayhems, no gunk no mess and the colour hasn't stained after a year!

A little sneak peek, as I say a very quick job of shoving the other 580 in!