Project: Irrational Exuberance

Neutrino101 · 13 May 2016 at 16:24

I have continued to finish spraying the 15 fans today. I have however come across an anomaly that I hope that some of the more technically minded members of the community might be able to help me solve.

Out of the 12 fans I have stripped so far 11 have had red copper wire wound around the motor however 1 has had normal copper wire and stands out as different from all the others. Normal red is shown on the left in the picture below and the odd fan out on the right.

All the fans have the same Vardar F-2 packaging and all have the F-2 lables on the back. Is this simply a different batch or has something like a furious Vardar snuck in to my collection? Any advice would be appreciated.

@simpleMr · 14 May 2016 at 17:57

Damn that is a lot of rad and all EK.

Neutrino101 · 19 May 2016 at 20:03

Still waiting for the case to arrive from Parvum so have started to look at the radiators/fans this week.

Below are a few images of the newly sprayed white and black EK Vardar fans placed on the EK rads with some Primochill Revolver fittings.

I plan to get some long 35mm screws (which I will paint white) so that the pair of radiators can be mounted in the lower compartment of the Parvum L1 with the fans on the outside of the acrylic mount and the rads inside to maximise the internal space for airflow. Thanks to the design of the case the fans will still be covered by the outer side of the case.

Next on my list is a good PWM fan controller, anyone got any recommendations? As it is a Parvum build the controller will have to be mounted internally, probably in the rear compartment.

Cenedd · 19 May 2016 at 20:12

Personally I'd go Aquaero 6 if you want PWM. I think NZXT do one too but I've no idea about it.
The Aquaero will give you 4 channels of PWM (also does voltage control), 8 temp sensor headers (4 probes included) and a flow sensor header. It's autonomous so it will run regardless of Windows working and can sound alarms or even shut things down if necessary (given the right cables).
30W/channel so you can run loads of fans via a splitter or pumps directly.
Also expandable with PowerAdjust, flow meters and fill level sensors that will connect to the Aquaero.

Draws pretty graphs too

Omega89 · 19 May 2016 at 21:54

Issues you may have with a aquaero 6 on the parvum atx case there is no place for the LCD display on the front of the case nor is there any space for it anywhere where you can see it! Not unless you get parvum to mod it for you!

Also if you have had any modifications to your case done ou may be waiting a while for your case

Cenedd · 19 May 2016 at 22:22

You could always strip the screen off and run it Aquaero 5 LT style. It's a bit wasteful but if you want the higher power and PWM, it's an option.

Or you can mount it in a non-standard place.

You can even split the screen off and have the tworld halves separate if you want.

Have a look at my project page as this is something I've been playing with. Also some details on the end of the Aquaero thread.

zack1667 · 20 May 2016 at 13:16

Neutrino101 said:
Today I have been looking at the fans. The EK Vardar fans have been highly recommended by a lot friends and I can see why. I hooked some up to test and they are virtually silent and appear to move a lot of air compared to some old Silverstone fans I tested them against. They are however best described as ugly ducklings in the standard black and grey and would be more at home in an industrial factory or warship than a computer case.

As I have some time whilst I wait for the case to arrive from Parvum I have decided to spray the fan blades white so that they better match the White/Black theme of the project. Whilst it is possible to buy all white or all black as stock I really wanted to have a 50/50 mix to match the rest of the case. I suppose I could have bought 15 all white ones and 15 all black and swapped the blades but that would have got needlessly expensive. I have attached a photo of the freshly sprayed white blades next to the stock grey so that you can compare.

Personally I think it makes them look a lot better so will continue and spray the other 14 tomorrow...

Hey man,

Looking good so far, all the components look pretty good, totally agree the superflower PSU's have always had my eye and are well used across the OCUK community. As for fans I have these fans, they are pretty much silent.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/be-quiet-silent-wings-2-fan-120mm-fg-023-bq.html

They also can be screwed on, or put on with the rubber housing which is dead easy to fit, I put my ear next to these and you can virtually hear them.

Look forward to seeing more.

Neutrino101 · 1 Jun 2016 at 17:20

Sorry for the delay in posting, still waiting for the case to arrive from Parvum so everything has been on hold for a few weeks. My advice to anyone ordering a big case direct from them is to order it at least a month before you plan to start the build so that you don't end up waiting on the case.

The good news is that Broadwell E is now here so I can go firm on the ASUS X-99 Deluxe 2 motherboard with a Broadwell E 6900K processor. I will combine this with an EK Waterblocks monoblock. Total cost for the motherboard, processor and waterblock should be just over £1200! Ouch!

On the graphics card front its looking like I will be going 2 Way SLI 1080. All the talk of not recommending more than 2 way with 1080s has put me off the 3 way plans and I can't bring myself to have a 1080 just for Phys-X. The big choice is FE cards or one of the custom cards. I was slightly concerned to see that the FE cards with the EK waterblock can't use the new faster SLI bridge and have to use the old one. I'm not sure how much difference this will make but it has given me pause whilst I wait to see what custom solutions arrive with waterblocks in the coming weeks. Anyone know how much difference the new SLI bridge will make? I have also seen hints that all the custom cards are limited in overclock by a hard voltage cap so are no better than the FE no mater how many power connectors they have. Will wait for some reviews to see if this is true.

leerogers00 · 1 Jun 2016 at 18:20

Looking forward to seeing this monster

Cenedd · 1 Jun 2016 at 19:02

Mmm, 8 cores at 3GHz (pre-overclock of course). 40 PCI-E lanes. 2x16 GPUs + 2x4 M.2 SSDs in RAID0 = perfect fit!

Hmmm, why does the board not have a second M.2 slot :confused:

Can you RAID them across the on-board M.2 and an add-on PCI-E board?

Neutrino101 · 14 Jun 2016 at 17:59

Just a quick update for everyone. I am still waiting for the case to arrive so everything is still on hold at the moment. Sounds like Parvum have had a very busy month with a few unlucky supply delays. Still hopeful the case should be here later this week. Whilst waiting I have decided upon more of the internals as follows:

Motherboard: Asus X99 Deluxe 2

CPU: Broadwell E i7 6900K (Complete with EK monoblock)

Just realised that OC UK provide the above as a pre assembled bundle for only a few quid more than the parts, as it will save me some work will order this evening.

RAM: 32 GB Corsair Dominator (8x 4GB) (May upgrade to 64GB)

Storage: 512GB Samsung 950 Pro SSD M.2 and 2x 512GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD (Raid 0)

GPU: 2 X GTX 1080 SLI (undecided between FE with EK block or waiting for the custom cards at the end of the month)

Also ordered in some longer screws so that I can mount the lower radiators with the fans on the outside of the compartment and rads inside requiring the screws to go through the fans and the 5mm acrylic before securing to the rads. Will spray the heads white to match the colour scheme on the fans. Also couldn't resist getting a new hard tube bending kit from monsoon.

Hope to have more updates shortly as parts arrive. Any advice on the GPUs would be appreciated, anyone got a pair of 1080 FE under water yet? If so would you recommend or hold out for custom cards?

Neutrino101 · 14 Jun 2016 at 18:05

Cenedd said:
Mmm, 8 cores at 3GHz (pre-overclock of course). 40 PCI-E lanes. 2x16 GPUs + 2x4 M.2 SSDs in RAID0 = perfect fit! Hmmm, why does the board not have a second M.2 slot Can you RAID them across the on-board M.2 and an add-on PCI-E board?

I looked in to this but couldn't find an answer, may just get 2 of the M.2 SSDs anyway and use the PCI-E board that comes with the X99 Deluxe 2 and find out. Not sure if you can install the OS to a Raid drive however, tried a few years back and couldn't get it to work.

Cenedd · 14 Jun 2016 at 20:50

Provided the bios controls the RAID adapter (built-in Intel) or the controller has a bootable bios (or these days is UEFI bootable), you should he able to install a RAID set as the OS disk.
I've got an old pair of SATA HDDs running as a mirrored pair on an Intel on board RAID booting Server 2012 and a pair of M.2 SSDs running RAID 0 booting Windows 10 under the onboard Intel controller.
Previously had SATA RAID controllers booting too. Only thing that I'd suspect wouldn't work is trying to make a RAID set out of the on board M.2 and an add-on card with an M.2. I could be wrong though - never tried it - and it may he possible to do as a software RAID set under Windows and still get some benefit.

CapitalOne · 14 Jun 2016 at 21:40

Different board I know but I just set up a RAID 0 sata set on the Asus Strixx X99 and the M2 drive (installed) was not an option, only drives plugged into SATA slots - this was in the board bios RAID config, not the CTRL+I one.

YEMV of course!

CapitalOne · 14 Jun 2016 at 21:45

ETA, without looking like a total numpty, that may have been because I only have the one M2 installed!

Neutrino101 · 16 Jun 2016 at 18:03

Ordered the Motherboard, CPU, EK monoblock and M.2 SSDs, still waiting on the case. Should have enough parts to post some progress in the next week. Will try and see if I can set up a raid 0 between the onboard M.2 and a PCIe M.2 and let you know the results.

Sadly I will be stuck racing a yacht around Ireland for the next 7 days so won't be posting for a week. Hope to have lots of photos of newly delivered kit for everyone when I get back in a week.

Neutrino101 · 30 Jun 2016 at 22:37

So, like a lot of people posting here I am still playing the waiting game for bits to arrive. Almost everything is ordered now so I can give everyone an update on exactly what will be going inside when it finally arrives:

Case: Parvum L1

CPU: Broadwell E i7-6900K

Motherboard: Asus X99 Deluxe 2 (EKWB X99 Acetyl/Nickle Monoblock)

Memory: 64GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 3000Mhz

GPUs: 2 x Gigabyte GTX 1080 FE SLI (EKWB Acetyl/Nickle block and backplate)

Storage: 2 x Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 SSDs & 2 x Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSDs in Raid 0

PSU: Seasonic P Series 1200W Modular Power Supply

Radiators: 2 x EK-Coolstream XE360 1 x EK-Coolstream XE480 & 1 x EK-Coolstream PE360

Coolant: Mayhems Pastel Yellow

Fittings: Primochill Revolvers

Tubing: 13/10mm Acrylic visible (Some soft tubing in lower compartment for ease of maintenance)

Fans: 15 x EK-Vardar F2

I decided against the original plan to use a pair of ASUS Strix 1080s as almost everything I have seen so far of Pascal indicates that when under water no amount of extra voltage is helping with the maximum stable clock speed and the FE are just as good and cheaper than any of the AIB cards. The only AIB cards that are outperforming FE cards appear to be doing so simply due to a better cooler so under water they are wasted money.

Next on my list is braided cables, does anyone know of a good black/white set that will fit the Seasonic P Series 1200W Modular Power Supply? If not then looks like I will have to do them myself...

Cenedd · 30 Jun 2016 at 23:24

No, but I have just discovered that paracord is available in different thicknesses if that helps. I know it doesn'tl, you're after the easy solution - I can relate to that (I wanted Magic Foam to completely wash, wax and Polish my car with no effort

) - but if you end up having to make your own....paracord is a cheaper way of doing it. Personally I prefer the less shiny look...but I do appear to be in the minority *shrug*

Hope the yacht was in some way relaxing

:-?

Neutrino101 · 1 Jul 2016 at 20:32

Cenedd said:
No, but I have just discovered that paracord is available in different thicknesses if that helps. I know it doesn'tl, you're after the easy solution - I can relate to that (I wanted Magic Foam to completely wash, wax and Polish my car with no effort ) - but if you end up having to make your own....paracord is a cheaper way of doing it. Personally I prefer the less shiny look...but I do appear to be in the minority *shrug*

Hope the yacht was in some way relaxing :-?

I will probably end up making up the cables myself, will have a look at paracord, I hadn't thought of using it but it is worth an experiment at least to see what it looks like.

I think there is a gap in the market for "Magic Foam" if I could find something to wash, wax and polish my car in one I would definitely buy it!

Racing was fun last week but the West Coast of Ireland is sadly not exactly relaxing in a yacht.

Neutrino101 · 4 Jul 2016 at 14:34

Parts are finally starting to arrive after what has felt like weeks of waiting for some progress.

Today my EK-FC1080 Backplates arrived.

Sadly I am still waiting on the 1080s so nothing to fit them to yet...

I also received a pair of flexi SLI bridges that I intend to use until I can find or make an HB bridge that fits the 1080 EK blocks. By all accounts using 2 x flexi has the exact same results as using an HB bridge just wont look as good short term.

Just received shipping notification so my Motherboard, CPU and block should all be arriving tomorrow with the GPUs hopefully later in the week. Still waiting on the case from Parvum, 2 months now since it was ordered and the last week has seen radio silence, hoping they have not been adversely affected by Brexit. Still I am confident it will be worth the wait.