Just had a response from Corsair and they cant supply dual head pcie cables. Mucho disappointed as it means I'll need a new psu for my planned upgrades and I cant afford one alongside a 2nd gpu 
Project: Style Over Substance (SOS)
- Thread starter Cyanide
- Start date
I'm hoping to pick up a 2nd XFX 6950 in the next couple of months to match the current one. I don't think I'll put them under water as the setup looks good as it is and the cards match the rest of it fantastically as they are (and they don't run particularly hot!)
I reckon I can get away with my HX620 still, AnandTech have got 6950 CF @ 509w in Furmark (full system load with a last gen-i7) and the 620 is good for at least 620w constant (more than likely up to 640-650w). Gives a bit of overclocking headroom still. Not too concerned about it being close to the limit as I'm not going to be running constant benchmarks so in reality it'll probably only be ~450-500w on a full on gaming session. I'll just need to rig up a pair of molex-PCI-E connectors and split them across the cards so each one has got a dedicated PCIE and a molex.
It's not the cost of the braiding that worries me, it's the having to spend another 6 hours (or more seeing as there'd be extra PCIE cables) ripping my fingers apart and burning myself with a lighter trying to fit it all 
:O HOLY THREAD REVIVAL BATMAN!
Not done much in the last year, all my money's gone on my daughter who was born in February
I have, however, just upgraded to an FX8320 @ 4.4ghz, benchmarks to follow and another radiator's going in soon so I'll see how far she'll go!
Not done much in the last year, all my money's gone on my daughter who was born in February
I have, however, just upgraded to an FX8320 @ 4.4ghz, benchmarks to follow and another radiator's going in soon so I'll see how far she'll go!
Me again!
Finally got round to doing an improvement I meant to do aaaaages ago!
To start with I drained and removed the old cooling system
The top rad was a little bit dusty...
Then I squeezed a 240 rad in the front of the case, in front of the HDD rack and behind the case fans I moved a few years ago. It was insanely tight and I had to get my dremel on the old screw holes to make them bigger as they didn't quite line up
The fans then sat in front with Magicools rubber gasket in place to cut out vibration. For the time being I'm still using the Corsair LED case fans that came with the case.
Unfortunately the fans stuck out a tiny bit too much to get the front panel back on so I shoved a cutting disc on the dremel and did some minor surgery.
That then meant the front grill could go back on
And of course I couldn't re-use the manky old tubing so I've replaced it all with lovely new 1/2" white tubing with clips, moved the pump, replaced the GPU and tidied everything up a bit!
Finally got round to doing an improvement I meant to do aaaaages ago!
To start with I drained and removed the old cooling system
The top rad was a little bit dusty...
Then I squeezed a 240 rad in the front of the case, in front of the HDD rack and behind the case fans I moved a few years ago. It was insanely tight and I had to get my dremel on the old screw holes to make them bigger as they didn't quite line up
The fans then sat in front with Magicools rubber gasket in place to cut out vibration. For the time being I'm still using the Corsair LED case fans that came with the case.
Unfortunately the fans stuck out a tiny bit too much to get the front panel back on so I shoved a cutting disc on the dremel and did some minor surgery.
That then meant the front grill could go back on
And of course I couldn't re-use the manky old tubing so I've replaced it all with lovely new 1/2" white tubing with clips, moved the pump, replaced the GPU and tidied everything up a bit!
Love it!I'd do the same with mine but I need the side fan, I'm thinking of swapping it out for a couple of 120/140's for a bit more airflow too.
Still got one of my HDD bays, I've got about 6 drives crapped in to it though
I'm using it for media rendering so its a minimum of 4 drives
I'm probably going to change some fans and drop an Aquaero in it. As it stands my Max CPU temp with a huge OC and 100% load for 3 hours doing a render is about 41c, I'd just like some better control over fan speed
At some point in the not too distant future I'll be moving to team blue as well, just not sure if I'll swap out the stuff on this build or start again and go water cooled M-ITX/ATX
I know! And the scary thing is that I used to hoover the rad every week or 2 from the top - just goes to show how important a strip down and deep clean every now and then is!
Look what turned up today!
Don't like the fans being all black though so I've decided to repaint the blades white to match the rest. Masking them up isn't easy!
Don't like the fans being all black though so I've decided to repaint the blades white to match the rest. Masking them up isn't easy!
All painted
Pair of EK Varder F4-120ER's paired up with a PWM splitter hooked up to...
a very untidy Aquaero 5 LT. I need to fix it down and do some cable management but I wanted to get it all set up and working first.
I LOVE Aquasuite. It's seriously amazing.
I've got temperature sensors on the water at the pump inlet and first rad outlet as well as just in front of the rad picking up air temperature and one in between the RAM sticks.
I've got the 2 GT1450's on the top rad on a channel together running a slightly steeper curve (don't mind if they ramp up, they're silent!), the pump's on 100% on it's own channel, my new Phanteks PH-F140SP is on another channel linked to the motherboard temperature and the Varders are on a gentle curve on PWM mode- they're currently sat running at 25%
Only gave them a quick test before painting so I don't know it it's affected anything but there's certainly no difference in sound levels. The F4-120ER is an amazing fan, I've got them on PWM running at around 25% (~600rpm) and they're absolutely silent. When needed the aquaero ramps them up gradually - at full whack they sound like a typhoon but shift soooo much air!
Mmmm... Perspex...
Just need to straighten up the trim a bit, neaten the cables and get some better lighting!
Just need to straighten up the trim a bit, neaten the cables and get some better lighting!
Cheers guys
What's peoples thoughts on lighting? It's currently just lit by the LEDs from one of the old case fans sat in the front which I may well remove when it's complete.
I'm debating cathodes above and below the motherboard for a bit of glow but I'm not sure.
What's peoples thoughts on lighting? It's currently just lit by the LEDs from one of the old case fans sat in the front which I may well remove when it's complete.
I'm debating cathodes above and below the motherboard for a bit of glow but I'm not sure.
So this has happened -
I'm not posting pictures of the build yet as I've replaced the PSU but the Cablemod kit was out of stock and there was no way I was re-doing it myself so it looks 'ruddy awful at the moment!
EVGA G2 650
MSI Z97 Krait Edition
EK Supremacy MX Acetal
4790k
And soon to be added - 16Gb Kingston HyperX Fury White
I'm not posting pictures of the build yet as I've replaced the PSU but the Cablemod kit was out of stock and there was no way I was re-doing it myself so it looks 'ruddy awful at the moment!
EVGA G2 650
MSI Z97 Krait Edition
EK Supremacy MX Acetal
4790k
And soon to be added - 16Gb Kingston HyperX Fury White
I take that back, one of them now seems to have a bearing issue so I need to replace it
*note to self - don't paint fans!*
I decided the GTX960 wasn't powerful enough as I want the latest version of this build to last a while so I picked up one of these -
It needs a bit of modification - not happy with the bright green "GEFORCE GTX" logo and if I'm voiding the warranty to do that I might as well change the silver to white
I've also got some white RAM sticks turning up today and I'm getting very impatient waiting for OCUK to get a white Cablemod kit in so I can get everything finished.
I'm also pondering the front of the case as the front grill doesn't fit quite right at the moment. I may remove the grill and replace it with some sort of custom job - it could end up just being fan guards though!
It needs a bit of modification - not happy with the bright green "GEFORCE GTX" logo and if I'm voiding the warranty to do that I might as well change the silver to white
I've also got some white RAM sticks turning up today and I'm getting very impatient waiting for OCUK to get a white Cablemod kit in so I can get everything finished.
I'm also pondering the front of the case as the front grill doesn't fit quite right at the moment. I may remove the grill and replace it with some sort of custom job - it could end up just being fan guards though!
It will now you've pointed it out!
That was just the test run, I've straightened it up and closed the gap up before fixing the acrylic in place fully
Update!
Board went bad and got RMAd, I've got a new one so I've given things a bit of a spruce up when fitting it.
First of all, I decided I hated the green "GEFORCE GTX" so much I couldn't cope with it anymore. And whilst I was at it I got the white spray paint out again. Clearly I've not learned my lesson yet
It does look AMAZING now though -
No more green light!
And credit to MSI and Kingston - these 2 looked damned sexy together -
Board went bad and got RMAd, I've got a new one so I've given things a bit of a spruce up when fitting it.
First of all, I decided I hated the green "GEFORCE GTX" so much I couldn't cope with it anymore. And whilst I was at it I got the white spray paint out again. Clearly I've not learned my lesson yet
It does look AMAZING now though -
No more green light!
And credit to MSI and Kingston - these 2 looked damned sexy together -
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It's actually a piece of moulded rubber with green paint on. You can pop it out and sand the paint off. It looks black/grey when it's off but it's actually clear so the LED shines white through it when it powers on
I think some of the newer cards have moved to coloured rubber/plastic but the older ones should all be painted clear rubber.