Project: TJ07 Revived

[Harpss1ngh]

Looks like one expensive but badass build.

Yeah definitely expensive, I can't remember how much I've spent on this and now that the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 have been announced my 980ti is going to drop pretty hard on price on the Pascal release date next week before I even get it fitted in my rig! This build is going quite slow, I usually get a build rushed in a week lol but I've had this rig taken apart for months for modding and taking my time and trying not to rush it and make it half arsed.
The machine I have the 980ti in temporarily has a i5-3470T which in the machine I have it in can't be overclocked very far (has one of those zalman low profile coolers and random sticks of RAM) and I think it's bottlenecking the GPU in games where I expected it to get much higher fps, but the i7 950 I have overclocks to about 4.4Ghz stable and it's still fast so it should be fine which is why I didn't bother upgrading to Skylake.

I'll probably wait til the Ti release (Or even a new Titan) before I swap out the 980Ti (and switch to Skylake or newer). Probably won't get another to SLI as the power/price/performance of going straight to Pascal will be far greater going by the benchmarks!

 

[Harpss1ngh]

If you're still looking at slim fans, have you considered the Prolimatech Ultra Slim Vortex?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/prolimatech-ultra-sleek-vortex-120mm-fg-011-pl.html

15mm thick, 120mm size, PWM too.

Just looked at those:

Static Pressure: 0.9 mmH2O

The static pressure is quite mediocre on that fan.

You can tell just from looking at the Blade Design they're not good for static pressure from the shape and because the blades aren't close together enough, that's more a case fan just for airflow.

Thanks for the suggestion though!



I ordered the SilverStone SST-FN123, they're 2000rpm fans and have Static Pressure 1.52mmH2O.

They're also 15mm and quiet. They're like slim Gentle Typhoons which is great since I have a ton of those. Although I'm going to use the two corsair sp120 and buy another 2 for the front 480 Rad and use the GT's for pull and push/pull on the 284.

More pics of my progress to follow.

 

[Harpss1ngh]

New Idea:


Using the sound dampening, thanks OCUK! Should reduce any fan vibration if I feel like cranking all those GT's and SP120's high (although to be fair they're very quiet when cranked halfway)


Pics of the midplate with the dampening coming soon. I think it looks good! It will cover the whole plate and make it look nice and clean without the cut holes, which I didn't plan out properly with regards to only cutting just enough for tubes to go through instead of massive holes! I didn't plan out the tube placement. Feed tubing through by cutting just enough of the dampening and obviously cutting noise and vibration without needing a midplate top should fix that.

(Yep I know I need to sleeve the FP Connectors! Soooooooooonnn)

This is what the top mounted RAD looked like with the SP120's before I realised they were too thick and blocked my CPU 8 pin Power header (Should have looked at other projects where they used slim fan's d'oh!). Still trying to peel off that very strong double sided tape. That no more nails stuff really is tough isn't it! I didn't bother sleeving these, they are very thin black cables anyway, probably too thin for even 3mm sleeving.

You can see the fitting from the fillport bulkhead fitting from the top of the case here, it should drop right above the Res.

(Not sure if it will create havoc with the fill level sensor in my Aquaero pump adapter or if I need to screw the membrane into the top of the fill port but I guess we'll find out soon enough)

My very poor attempt at cable sleeving. It'll be in the basement so it won't be seen but still it irritates my OCD . This was with cheap 4mm sleeving. I will be re-sleeving with 3mm TechFlex 3.2mm sleeving from OCUK and very tight 4mm heatshrink from a cable mod seller and try to make the heatshrink look better. not sure whether to put heatshrink around the connector like others have done on youtube or just try to keep the cable straight without it bending due to the heatshrink pressure. I guess I'll have to experiment which is why I bought extra in case I need it.

 

[Harpss1ngh]

I just ordered myself some MDPC-X. Its due by the end of the week. I'll post some pictures but I can't wait. Either way this build looks like it could become something amazing! Are you having 3 D5's running at once in the loop?

Thanks!

No, 2 D5's now. The AlphaCool Bay Res I got doesn't actually allow two D5's in Serial, one of the D5's would just spin without actually doing anything due to the design of that Bay Res (It's really only supposed to be used for dual loops sharing one Res, which isn't great either tbh). Instead of returning it I'm just going to run it with one D5

 

[Harpss1ngh]

The fill level sensor is actually a differential pressure sensor. Rather than require you to give it one input from the bottom of the column of water and one from the top, it just assumes atmospheric pressure at the top - which is achieved by having the pressure relief membrane (PRM) at the top. You've got multiple ports on the top of that res so you can just shove the PRM in one and the input from the fill port in the other. There's nothing technically stopping you putting the PRM on the top of the fill port but you don't need to. As long as the air space above the water in the res is at atmospheric pressure, you're fine.

You're likely to need a USB connection to the thing in order to calibrate the fill level (just asks for max height and current height). You can read it over Aquabus but you can't calibrate it

Great, that makes perfect sense. Thanks!

I've been meaning to do a leak test before I fully assemble this and use the Aquasuite on my temporary pc to do the calibration. Technically I now have almost everything I need to finish this build now, I could get all of it done over this weekend. Let's see...

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Ah, you'd think that would be so easy! The Aquaero has a 5 pin header for USB - like an internal USB header. The cable supplied is therefor internal to internal but what you need is an external plug to a single internal header. Unless you want to try getting the two chassis close enough to go internal to internal. There may be convertor or ready made cable available but otherwise you can make your own by cutting the end off a USB A to B cable, stripping the wires back and splicing on an internal header - if you have a spare internal to internal with your Aquaero stuff.

Edit: I can take a picture if my thousand words don't cut it

Lol no I actually meant using the internal header.

Although if I get the TJ07 tubed up I could just do it then. The pump will still spin right?

 

[Harpss1ngh]

GTX980ti SLI vs GTX1080

Just a quick update!

I've seen some videos like this one: which shows a GTX1080 beating a single 980Ti and Titan x, but being beaten by a pair of 980ti's in SLI!

Now I'm pretty sure my setup with 1x480, 2x240 rads can easily accommodate a 2nd card and I have a beefy PSU that can take it (I have a Seasonic M12II EVO Edition 850W '80 Plus Bronze' Fully Modular Power Supply[/B] AND an Enermax Platimax 750w '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (EPM750AWT))

What are anyone's thoughts? I think 850W will be enough (Even if it's a 80 plus bronze), but could I get away with the 750W Platinum?

Also I think my i7 950 is still good for two 980's in SLI, but probably not much more.

Edit - probably need a 1000-1200w PSU

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Does SLI these days work nicely? Last time I played with it was around the GTX680s. I think there were issues with it not being overly smooth and not supported by all games. If those issues aren't sorted out then one 1080 is less grief.
Obvious benefits of less power, less heat. Should have enough rads for the heat but power?

SLI is fully supported, 6XX was a long long time ago so I don't see how that is even an issue, especially since so many reviews and benchmarks showing SLI, even Quad SLI with amazing performance. If they still had that issue 4 years later they'd have some very angry customers.

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Update!

Another update!



First thing.....
Just grabbed a 2nd Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX DC3 OC Graphics Card for a decent discounted price.

So now I need:

* a 2nd EKWB Nickel Waterblock
* Black EKWB Backplate
* EK Plexi SLI Terminal thingy - I have a plexi terminal I ordered for a single card, so might swap it instead of trying to stick tubing between 2 terminals!
* SLI bridge
I have a crappy ribbon SLI bridge but they look crap. The EVGA bridge's LED won't work on my Asus GPU's as it's only supported on EVGA branded boards. I'm hoping the Asus ROG dual SLI Bridge LED will work and can be controlled via the Nvidia thingy. I can't see any mention of my GPU's supporting the LED on the Asus ROG bridge however. Wondering if they do, whether the LED is RGB so can be changed to some blue to match my blue UV reactive Mayhems X1 coolant!


Second thing.....

I have decided to keep my Motherboard now and swap out the 4 core 8 thread 45nm 130W TDP i7 950 to a 6 core 12 thread 32nm 95W Xeon X5650 or higher . Xeon's while not officially supported by the Asus P6X58D-E do work as plenty of people online have overclocked Xeon x5650's on these, apparently they can push 4.9GHz on water! That'll sort out any bottlenecks, if any and it is fully supported by the x58 chipset!

The only thing I'm worried about are locked multipliers since the i7 950 is unlocked but the Xeon won't be....

I have a choice to go for:
Core i7-980X (about 180 quid) - 32nm
Xeon X5650 (can be got for like 50 quid)
Xeon X5660 (about 80 quid)
Xeon X5670 (found one for about 70 quid)
Xeon X5680 (found one for about 170 quid)
Xeon x5690 (The best one you can get on 1366, but very rare and expensive - approx £300-400)


So I'm trying to decide which one would be best for performance and overclockability over water (obviously within reason in terms of price difference)

Third Thing...

I will need a new power supply! I see this on OCUK: AX1500i Digital ATX 80 Plus Titanium Modular Power Supply (CP-9020057-UK)

I saw some complaints with teh AX1200i blowing up, but nothing with the AX1500i. So I will probably get this one.



If anyone has any suggestions please don't hesitate to give your input

 

[Harpss1ngh]

SLI is hit and miss at best, hopefully it works out ok for you!

The SLI technology itself isn't the issue, it's game developers and their implementation of it in certain games.

Nvidia are addressing that with Pascal anyway.

 

[Harpss1ngh]

I can save you some sanity on the SLI bridge LED. Read this log from post 74 on.

Unless they've changed it, LED is not RGB and to make it really awkward it's a red LED with a red filter so you can't easily just change the filter out either.

Thanks, that saved me a huge pain in the ass. It's a shame the led's can't be easily changed as I'm not too bad with a soldering iron and soldered some IR LEDS to a pcb a couple weeks ago.

I probably don't want a Red glow in my case. Not sure how that would look. I went out of my way to even get the blue LED Aquaero 6 xt imported from Germany due to shirt supply here so should stick with the theme...

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Why is it even now I see a TJ07 and think Phwoaaar, they just got it so right with that case.

I know, right! Not bad for a case that started production at the turn of the 21st century!

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Hello X5690

Update:

Got myself a X5690


This build definitely is getting expensive hahaha

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Only 6 cores? I think it needs an SMP friend to keep it company

LOL! Yeah I thought about looking at a dual socket EVGA X58, which are my favourite boards but very expensive.

My next build will be an EVGA motherboard based one, but that'll be when the Ti Pascals are released and probably using a Dell XPS case I have lying around which I want to mod with a clear side panel:

Something like this maybe:

It's a very tight case that can only take a thin 240 Rad in the rear (and maybe a single 120mm in the bottom and a 92mm in the rear) but just look at it! You can control all the LEDS from the Nvidia control panel as well. I have a koolance bracket for mounting an external large RAD however it needs a 120mm mount on the outside which there isn't (I had one on an old Cooler Master CM 690 NVIDIA Edition case).

I love retro cases As long as they aren't 90's Beige lol

I might see if I can mod a Rad into the top or something, but its a very nice case so would be worried about damaging it (plenty of cheap ones on the bay though)

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Plenty of room on the side panel for a rad! *cough*

I was thinking that Rad stand bolted to the bottom, cut a side panel

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Pics!

Why I can't use the SP120's in the top

Very masculine choice of socks for pics

visual comparison of the fans:

These Monsoon fittings look amazing:

There's going to be a lot of tubing bends here!

Will be sleeving those ugly pump wires!

The SP120's on my XSPC EX480 radiator, mounted to 7mm Phobya shrouds/decoupling things that I mount to all of my fans. They serve a dual purpose, shroud and vibration dampening, although they can't be seen here. They look like this:

Will add text later...

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Image link is broken but can be pasted. Doesn't look all that much difference in the picture but it's enough that the motherboard tray doesn't catch them?

Have you tried the Alphacool fan shrouds? Not certain how well they fit side by side on a rad but because they wrap round the frame they're probably not a pain to get lined up and stay in place while you get it all screwed in.

Which image link? They look fine to me.


You mean the plexi shrouds? Too thick and don't provide dampening. The Phobya shrouds are only 7mm so perfect for push/pull with two rads in the TJ07's basement

 

[Harpss1ngh]

"Visual comparison of the fans" there's a curly bracket instead of a square bracket so the image doesn't show.

Not plexi shrouds, silicone. Specifically: Alphacool Susurro Antinoise Silicone Fan Frame
I can't post a link I'm afraid. It wraps round the whole frame and so stays in place while you're trying to screw the fans on.

Lol oh I used a curly bracket instead of square lol, I thought I fixed that but I might have 'fixed' it with another curly bracket . Fixed now.


Ahh yeah I see the frame. They look good, not sure how well it works as a shroud but for sound dampening looks good yes. I haven't had much trouble with the Phobya's I guess I'm just used to them now lol.

 

[Harpss1ngh]

I'm not absolutely certain but I may have made an epic fail of n00b proportions with my build. I have a feeling the 980ti's may be obstructed by my Res which is already at the edge of the motherboard plate

Also I received the Corsair AX1500i PSU and it's quite long! There's only about a 10-15mm clearance between the PSU and the 280 Rad.

To make matters worse, to accommodate a drain port on each Rad in the basement of the case, and have tubing go straight up through the basement of the case rather than between the two Rad's, I can't do a push pull on both rads, and to have enough room for it all I will probably need to drill holes for bulkheads under the 3.5" bay where the USB port headers are. It looks like I can still keep the USB headers. Also I may need to have the Rads at an angle instead of flush with the side of the case.

I can't see any project logs that have done it the way I am, but newer cases such as the Caselabs cases (which are huge compared to even a TJ07) can accommodate this easily. I don't want the two rad's to be connected to each other by tubing, I want them to be independent. It makes draining and maintenance much easier and removing the Rad's when I took the case apart was a massive pain because the bottom ports were connected together by tubing previously. .

I will post pics later but if anyone has any suggestions that would be great

 

[Harpss1ngh]

Because of the sliding motherboard tray, you've not got any other flat surface to mount the res to, so you've therefore got it in the right place. What you may need to do is make up a plate that screws onto the holes you've got in the motherboard tray and onto the res bracket and just moves it as far to the right as you need clearance for the graphics card. If the plate isn't too thin and the holes aren't too close together, it should take it.
Failing that, you'd have to make up a bracket to floor-mount it but keep it standing upright.

Would swapping the PSU down to a 1200 or a 1000 help?

I used a PSU calculator and I'll need at least a 1200, but that depends on the OC I get off the GPU's and the CPU so it could be higher. So I got the 1500 to allow headroom.

The difference is:

AX1200i: 200mm x 150mm x 86 mm
AX1500i: 225mm x 150mm x 86mm


The steel plate I will need to look into I guess if I can't move the res enough. The cooler does add extra length so will see how long the actual PCB is but I still think its 10.5" without the PCB which is shorter than the width of the motherboard (about 9.6")