My 540

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

Soldato
Joined
25 Nov 2009
Posts
5,392
Hello all,

Background: I'm a fitter, I have no computer/IT experience what-so-ever as you'll gather if you go through my previous posts :D I hate software, driver issues, data cloning etc etc but I enjoy building/benching my computer.

I started 4 years ago with a mighty PhenomII X2 550 in a n Antec 300 this kind of progressed into an X4 955 with a H100 but ultimately I always knew I should have gone intel...

Fast forward to the last 3 months or so, I have collected the following parts-many thanks to this forum for the 2nd hand bits! (ToxicTbag, Greboth, Dirtychinchilla, Skylineboy, Stulid and no doubt others too) the only parts to survive the revamp were the RAM and Spinpoint F3 1TB

2500k
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4
Samsung 840 250Gb SSD
HIS IceQ Boost 7950
Seasonic X series 660W
Carbide 540
Akasa 6 channel fan controller
4 SP120's


XSPC RX240
Phobya 240mm
EK DCP 4.0
EK nickel compressions/rotaries
XSPC Raystorm
AquaComp 7950 Block
Primochill tubing

Pump>GPU>Rad>CPU>RAD>Pump
The case was the final part to the puzzle, I got home from work on saturday afternoon and set about building the rig up. This was my first proper attempt at building a fully watercooled rig

Here are a couple of pictures, it aint quite perfect but it's perfectly usable and gamings temps at 4.5GHz and 1100/1500 @1.205v are 48*C and 37*C respectively.

First tube in
C8F6F656-4126-4A4A-AD44-AAF61D4A8846_zpshipohs3d.jpg



Plumbing done
777568A9-79C6-4210-AA3C-6AC372B3DB41_zpsdnbsdp7w.jpg


Started to fill with water
809413D1-AE5F-4EB2-80FB-8B69858E3AAA_zps5pvuynvb.jpg


777568A9-79C6-4210-AA3C-6AC372B3DB41_zpsdnbsdp7w.jpg



Et voila
919EE570-168F-450A-9934-6D7E16A80B76_zps2dnxkc3s.jpg

5A95AC85-5EB0-497F-BAA3-4E592AA573DA_zpsnoh4nejt.jpg

2F038FA2-04A8-4115-B6E8-5E7008BE9A7F_zpsu9acya6a.jpg



It's no 4770k TriFire 7990 but for playing todays FPS at 1080 it's flawless :)

The only thing I want to do to it really is get another 7950 for crossfire and tidy up 'the darkside'.

Thoughts and comments welcomed :)

NoNNoN
 
It is indeed coloured tubing-primoflex, with battery topup water and a kill coil. The fans came from the MM like that, I was going to go for white rings but the cooper looks good with the gpu block IMO.
 
Yup, I was gonna tidy it up with a few angles but the extra cost/increased flow restriction and more leak points left me to conclude that it's just not wort bothering. Whether the pump sits on top of the psu or in front of it there will be a good length either way.

Do you see any issues with it plumbed as it is?
 
Doomedspeed said:
That is stunning....

Loving those Fan rings..

Tubing looks amazing. :)
Click to expand...

Thank you very much. Credit to ToxicTbag for the fan rings though ;)

What do you reckon to the white/nickel/copper/black theme? Kind of wish I'd gone for black nickel fittings???

Morfinel said:
Milk that cow ;)
Click to expand...
Umm yeah

abbotsmike said:
Very smart looking build! Makes me glad to see people still buying the 2500k, convinces me that mine is still nowhere near obsolete!

Also loving the necessary fuel pies in the background!
Click to expand...

I was kind of regretting buying a 2500 seeing as it was 2 year old tech but since having it up and running and benching/gaming on it I cant imagine it being far off todays pace. Also £103 for what seems to be a decent clocker aint bad :)

PS not a fan of the Mr Kiplings Bakewell Tarts... too sickly, by far the best festive treats are the Waitrose all butter mini mince pies.
 
This chip'll do 4.5GHz on stock V and 5GHz with very little fiddling (1.404v) so I'm reasonably sure it's a good clocker. My only other overclocking knowledge was based on the Black Edition chips though whereby I had northbridge and what not to worry about. I'm still learning about the Sandys :)

What was max Vcore agin 1.52v?!
Got loads of headroom :D
 
abbotsmike said:
Woah there! 1.425V seems to become the normal recommended max.

For the fans, it could be that minimum on your controller is higher than minimum on someone elses!
Click to expand...

Cool thanks for that. I've since found the Sandybridge 5GHz thread on here :)

Cleisthenes said:
Everytime I look though logs it makes me want to spend the money on wcing :( I need to stop coming to this part of the forum :p
Click to expand...

Do it. It costs a small fortune and I'm still not really sure whether the benefits outweigh it but it's funky.
 
Yeah I guess if I can get hold of a 7950 (pesky miners:mad:) and the 2500k isn't enough I could always go for a 2600/3770 if needs be.

The sandy/z68 combo cost me around £150 which compared to a 4570/z87 made for a huge saving without too much a deficit in terms of performance so I'm happy.

I'll get the NZXT LED's in tomorrow hopefully and see what that does for me :)
 
Yeah I'll get some pics up if they turn up tomorrow, I've got today and tomorrow off work so doing a bit of benching/OCing whilst I should be Christmas shopping... God I hate trying to buy gifts :( It's not the buying them that's the problem in fact, it's the not having a clue what anybody would like!
 
And the white lights I ordered say white lights on the invoice, and they even say white lights on the packaging but the actual lights are green!!!


Any way, I've overclocked the chip to 5.46GHz and ran a SuperPi 1m time of 6.850s :D
Also got the 1600 ram running 1923MHz!
Max temp of 69*C :)
 
I have a problem... Chances are that I wont be able to get hold of another 7950 so I either
A) deal with it
B) sell it on the MM (£200 maybe with the water block?)
C i)Sell it on the bay with the stock cooler
Cii)Sell it on the bay with the waterblock

What are your thoughts?
I guess if I sold it on I'd be looking at a 280x with a water block :)
 
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