Oops!

[Stan_Lite]

I appear to have clicked on the buy now button

I was rooting through my spare parts drawer and found some hard drives, a 600W PSU and some old GFX cards. I decided it was a bit of a waste having them doing nowt so I've decided to build a dedicated Folding rig out of them and the above wot I just ordered. I'll be using the Noctua cooler off my current gaming rig since I also clicked the buy now button on the watercooling components for that this morning.

I'll be Overclocking it as far as it can go and Folding bigadv WUs on a native Ubuntu install.

Should help get me back to the top producer slot

 

[Stan_Lite]

what did you get in your watercooling basket?

Fans:
Qty: 6
Product: Xilence Red Wing 1500RPM 120mm - PWM

Fan controller:
Qty: 1
Product: Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus - Black

Hose:
Qty: 3
Product: 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD Tygon R3603 Hose 1m

Reservoir:
Qty: 1
Product: EK Multioption RES 250 Rev.2
- Option: x Bitspower 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD Compression -Matte Black

Coolant dye:
Qty: 1
Product: PrimoChill Dye Bomb - Blood Red

Coolant:
Qty: 1
Product: Thermochill EC6 Non Conductive Coolant - Clear

CPU block:
Qty: 1
Product: Alphacool HF 14 Yellowstone - B / R / B - 775/1156/1366
- Option: x Bitspower 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD Compression -Matte Black
- Option: x EK 1366 Motherboard Backplate

Radiator:
Qty: 1
Product: Black Ice GT Stealth 360 Radiator
- Option: x Bitspower 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD Compression -Matte Black

Pump:
Qty: 1
Product: 12V Laing D5 Vario Pump (Swiftech MCP655)

Got the Alphacool block as it's red and black to match the colour schem and got fairly good reviews. All the stuff has Bitspower Matte black compression fittings on. Should look pretty cool and take some of the heat off my poor CPU.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Had OCZ RAM a few times in the past and never had any trouble - hopefully this time will be fine too.

 

[Stan_Lite]

the yelowstone, ek res and D5 are all excelent
but the fans and rad are not a great compo.

Unprecedented Ultra-high 30 FPI (Fins Per Inch) fin density providing dramatically increased heat transfer surface area
this is great for delta or san ace fans but pants for the redwings (they struggle on 12 fpi rads like the PA's).
Send the fans back or get a new rad if you like the fan colour.

The bitspower compressions look the bees knees - expensive but great

Red tube is better that die - the die will separate in time especially with a hot i7 in the loop. But drain and fill the loop with distilled/di ionised in a 6-8 months and you'll be fine.

the coolant is a waste but will save you getting a killcoil / nuke

Not a bad spec for a new watercooler but you need to sort the rad/fans out.
If you have money to burn the 55mm feser triebwerk is great - or the 38mm san ace (if you can find any Model No 9G1212H1011)

Thanks for the input - I'm a total noob when it comes to watercooling. Been looking at the Triebwerk fans and they look pretty nice. Would I get away with the 1200 rpm ones or would I need the 1800 rpm? The 1800s would be a little on the loud side (but not unbearably so I don't think) - the 1200s are about as quiet as the Redwings but not much higher airflow. I'm assuming the 1800s. I suppose I could just get the 1800rpm and slow them down if need be with the fan controller - they're only a pound dearer than the 1200s.

I really like the bitspower compressions - I was looking around for black fittings and was going to go with some plastic things I found and then I stumbled on the Matte Black fittings and thought they looked like just the ticket. As you say, not cheap but worth it imo

 

[Stan_Lite]

Primochill ghost fitting are black (I'm guessing they are the plastic ones you were considering) and the airflow numbers are with no obstruction.
slap a high fin rad infront and the redwings airflow is a gnat's wing above zero (seriously)
Good case fans - but poor on rads.

Gentle typhoons are excelent but will not match the colour scheme (unless a little gray is acceptable)
half the cost of the triebwerk too.

As will all fans above 25mm depth - fan controller is a must, and the 1800 are a better bet.

That's the ones, Ghost.

I found a review on Bit-Tech that compared the two Triebwerk fans and the gentle typhoons (and the Silent Eagle) and the Gentle Typhoon had a good airflow through the rad to noise ratio but the TK-122s had the best total airflow through the rad.

Anyway, it's all academic now as I've already ordered them (the 1800 rpm TK-122s) - had to get them ordered early enough for delivery tomorrow.

 

[Stan_Lite]

I'm really rather miffed. Watercooling gear arrived an hour ago and I excitedly unpacked everything and had a good nosey at it all. When I was fitting things together, I noticed a flaw in my plan - the damned compression fittings won't fit on the waterblock - the holes in the top are too close together

I've had to order two barbs for it instead so I won't be able to set it all up until tomorrow. I'm not happy with the supplier as it offered the compression fittings as an option when I selected the block. I foolishly assumed that, since they offered them as an option, they would be compatible.

NM.
On another note, the Triebwerk fans arrived - they're huge

Just waiting for the bits for the new i7 rig to arrive so I can at least put that together - only thing is, I have to take the Noctua cooler off the gaming rig to get that one working. At least if I do that, I can start fitting the watercooling gear so it's ready just to fit the barbs tomorrow when they arrive and I can get it tested.

 

[Stan_Lite]

She's built

Apologies for the naked cruncher porn.

Build was relatively easy - overclocking was a challenge. These i7s are a lot trickier to OC than the old chips but so rewarding. She's currently stable at 4.2GHz on air RAM is running under speed but I'll tinker with that later. CPU temperature is close to 80 degrees at full load which is absolutely fine.

Running bigadv on a native Ubuntu 9.10 install and HFM estimating over 28,000 ppd Used Finstall to install F@H and had to manually update to the new client as it still uses 6.02. Simply a matter of replacing fah6 with the new one and then had to manually edit a couple of files to make it run bigadv from the service. Seems to be working fine.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Ignore.

Does that mean you posted something and changed your mind or are you putting me on your ignore list?

Once I've had breakfast and got the hangover under control, I'll be making a start on the watercooling for the gaming rig so that it's ready for when the barbs arrive. Once it's all together, I'll get the loop tested and see what's what. I have to work out how to fix the rad onto the case as I don't have any screws short enough that fit - may have to resort to cable ties for the time being.

 

[Stan_Lite]

[nosy]By the by, what was in the Glencairn?[/nosy]

It was actually Penderyn. I had it a few years ago at the OcUK Christmas meet in Swansea and proclaimed it (loudly in the middle of the pub) to be ****e. I felt I may have been a little harsh so I bought a bottle from Tesco the other day to give it a proper try. I have since upgraded it from ****e to unpleasant. Only reason I was drinking it last night was because it was all I had and I don't do overclocking without whisky

Yay! PC porn!

4.2GHz, nice OC. What settings did you use?

Also, what is the general method for OCing an i7? There are like a million things to tweak by the looks of it. My C2Q was as easy as pie in comparison o.o

To be honest, I can't remember. I'll have a look later as I may have to tinker with it a bit more as it's frozen on me a couple of times today. It ran perfectly fine overnight for about 10 hours but has frozen twice since I moved it through to the other room Will see how it goes - if it freezes again I may have to ease it back a bit.

On another sad note, got my watercooling all set up and switched on to test. All the fittings seem to be perfectly fine but the waterblock is leaking like a sieve. Currently waiting for a reply to my RMA request.

 

[Stan_Lite]

You've obviously never seen my welding

 

[Stan_Lite]

Never mind deltas, get some of these puppies in it:

Seriously though Grimgoth, get yourself a better case and cooling (either that or keep it naked like I have ). You're strangling the potential of that chip.

Sirius B.
Had a quick look last night as I had to tinker after it locked up again. The settings I can remember are that it's running at 200x20 with turbo boost switched on giving me 200x21 Vcore is now at 1.4V (nudged it up from 1.375 last night and it seems to have stabilised it) and uncore at 1.315V. Ram is underclocked atm with a x6 multiplier taking it to 1200MHz with timings of 9-9-9-20 and on 1.66V (might try tinkering with that but it's working fine for now). I did nudge up a couple of other voltages but I forget which ones - not sure what difference they made (if any) but I read them somewhere on the web.

As reported above, lifting the Vcore to 1.4V appears to have stabilised it. It's now run about 10 hours uninterrupted. HFM is reporting a TPF of 29.23 and ppd of over 29,000. Total ppd for the farm, according to HFM, is 54,589 and that's with the gaming rig still out of action. With that up and running on SMP2, I should easily get over 70,000 and when it's on bigadv when I go to work in a month or so, it should be around 80,000

Better buy some more gfx cards KE1HA

 

[Stan_Lite]

My gaming rig, running Prime95, had temps of 87-85-84-82 (was 80-77-77-75 while folding). As Berserker says, I've had the same with all my Q6600s. The lowest difference I've had has been 3 degrees - the worst about 7 degrees.

Impressive OC on stock volts. I read of people getting awesome clocks at stock all the time on the net frequently but I've never been that lucky. Surprised your temps are so high for stock volts though.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Only got the e-mail to send back the faulty block this morning. Luckily, I had the foresight to order a replacement from OcUK on Friday which arrived a half an hour ago. It's an XSPC Delta V3 (they didn't have any of the Yellowstone ones) - the shiny retention plate doesn't match the colour scheme but it'll do for now. Got it plumbed in and has been running for 10 minutes with no leaks so far. I have to go for an eye test shortly so I'll leave it running while I'm away. If it all looks good when I get back, I'll add the dye, top up the reservoir and leave it running for another few hours to make sure it's all good before I attach the block.

My first watercooling build - I'm all excited

 

[Stan_Lite]

Well, I've got it working - sort of.

To start with, the machine refused to boot when I started it. All the fans would come on but it would just hang there and not post - it just did nothing. I tried all sorts of things; reset cmos, took the battery out etc several times. Then I had a look around and it looked like the backplate was contacting a couple of connectors on the back of the MB so I took it off and re-fitted the block and, hey presto, life.

Of course, I'd reset the bios so I had to start from scratch. This board is a bugger to OC and it took me ages to get anywhere with it. I partially blame my choice of drink for the difficulties I had. Instead of the traditional whisky, I fuelled myself with 3/4 of a bottle of Booth's gin

At the moment, she's Folding away at 4.2GHz but that's with the fans on full tilt (those Triebwerks are quite loud at full speed) and the temps are not good - 86-80-81-75. Vcore is only just over 1.4V and I'm not happy that it's 100% stable at that. The fact that the overall temperature is so high with a relatively low Vcore and there is an 11 degree difference between two of the cores would suggest the block isn't seated properly. I think I'll take the block off, reapply TIM and reseat and see if that makes any difference. I'm pretty sure the flow is OK because, when I put the dye in, it went all the way around the loop in a matter of seconds - wish I'd bought a flow indicator now so I could be sure.

I'm not sure about this CPU, it was running hot before as well. When it was at 3.8GHz under the Noctua, it was over 80 degrees at 1.376V. The new rig, under the same Noctua, runs at 4.2GHz with a Vcore of 1.4V and rarely hits 80 degrees. I have a sneaky suspicion this may just be a hot chip. If reseating it doesn't make any difference, I may swap the two CPUs and see if that makes a difference.

Might be the board that's at fault. In which case I might end up swapping the Gigabyte board into the gaming rig instead of the Bloodrage. I want to have the fastest, most stable setup as my gaming rig. Swapping the boards would ruin my red/black colour scheme but I value performance over aesthetics. I'm not going to mess around with it just now - I have a hangover (bloody gin) The current WU is due to complete in about 4 hours so I'll let it finish that and then faff about with it.

 

[Stan_Lite]

so are you using the block without a backplate or
have you added some plastic washers behind the board to give more clearance or
have you 'trimed' the excess from the components.

Backplates can make a real differance (air and water)
and 11c is way to much on water at load.
sounds like uneven pressure or an air bubble.
If you have the thumb nuts at the front you could try adjusting them while watching the temps.
my guess is one is overtighten.

when you first setup a loop it's very easy to overtighen one side more that the others.
One reason the swiftech mounting hardware is so good - is it stops this happening

Running without the backplate at the moment but I've looked out some rubber washers to use as spacers. I'll fit the backplate I bought to use with the Yellowstone as it seems more substantial than the one which came with the Delta V3. I've tried fiddling with the thumbscrews but the RAM is kinda in the way. I'll try my best to get them all even when I refit it. I'll also fire up the loop while I've got the block off and give it a bit of a tap in case there's an airlock.

Any other advice gratefully received - thanks for the help so far

 

[Stan_Lite]

The v3 doesn't really get airlocks but still worth giveing it a shake

I thought that myself - it looks like it would be difficult for air to get trapped in there but, while I've got it off, I may as well give it a shake/tap.

Now that things are more or less how they will be running while I'm home (while I'm away at work, the gaming rig will be running bigadv instead of SMP2 so should be worth an extra 10k ppd), here's a gratuitous "look at my output" screenshot

 

[Stan_Lite]

Update.

Took it all apart and found the problem. I've managed to score the heatsink of the CPU - quite badly and the block slightly. I've sorted it the best I can and applied twice as much TIM as I usually would. I've installed the backplate and put it all together and the temps dropped about 8 degrees. Going to have a look for a lapping kit to sort it properly.

In the meantime, I've dropped the OC - I can actually get 4GHz (191x21) on stock volts (1.29375V) this brings the temps right down so I can drop the fans down to the lowest setting on the fan controller. This will save me from becoming deaf in one ear Running Prime on all eight cores gives me a max temp of 72 degrees with the fans on low.

Can't compare the Folding temps for now as it's picked up an A2 WU - dropping my ppd by about 15k

 

[Stan_Lite]

Dam that's a high PPD

Stan what rad are you using? I get a max temp of around 72C when folding on an A3 and around a max of 75C under IBT/LinX with 1.375vcore @ 4.2Ghz. (With a HK 3.0 and a PA120.3)

I'm using a Black Ice GT Stealth 360. In order to get 4.2GHz stable with my board, I need over 1.4V - which gives me about 84C Prime95. Hopefully when I get the CPU lapped to remove the scratch, the temps will drop a bit.