Sugo SG-03, i7 920 and GTX 285 (XFX)

the-wi$e-one · 22 Oct 2009 at 23:58

Hi All,

Basically I'm thinking about making a high performance SFF PC, i am planning on going to uni next year to read computer sci, and also plan to do some gaming on the system aswell. The main reason for it being SFF is so that i can lug it home in something like the SUGO Pack during holidays. The main thing I am worried about is heat, if i go down this route I will upgrade the front 120mm fan and add another of the same, then I was going to add a crossflow fan at the rear and mabye a system blower in the top PCI Slot?

The motherboard that I plan on using is http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-323-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1283 this baby. Initially i will have 6gb of DDR3 1333MHz and eventually upgrade to 12gb. by adding another 3 2gb sticks.

also at a later date if they improve SLI i may add another GTX 285

many thanks!

Will

EDIT: sorry forgot to say there will be 2x 1TB Caviar Black HDDs in the case also, not that it will make a massive difference to heat.
also any other suggestions for cooling other than that of liquid would be appreciated. Maybe coolers on the bottom of the HDDs also?

WSS · 23 Oct 2009 at 10:43

Sure you can fit all that in the case? The PC in my sig is the one i'm using right now at uni, (Sugo SG01-F SFF Case | i5 750 | 4GB OCZ Platinum 1333MHz @ C7 | Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 | 8800GTX ) and apart from more space around the CPU end, its pretty full. Very much doubt you'll manage a crossflow fan in there as well, and your heatsink might overlap a RAM socket or two.

Apart from that, temperatures will be insane with the amount of kit you're going to be putting in there.

the-wi$e-one · 25 Oct 2009 at 23:09

bumpty bump bump, any more views, particularly from SG-03 owners?

PinkFloyd · 26 Oct 2009 at 09:40

More than one GTX would be very cosy! I think you'd be pushing it trying for SLI.
I've got a 3GHz q6600 in my SG03 with the silverstone NT06 cooler, the psu sits just on top of that and helps pull some air though - but don't expect really low temps. I've also got the crossflow fan in the back - it is wedged in there so tight, I guess with a different motherboard the cpu socket might be further away from the back of the board and give it a bit more space.

The harddrives won't get too hot, especially the front one - with 2 120mm fans at the front it will have plenty of airflow - mine is always cold to the touch. The second drive gets warm due to lesser airflow (cable management is a bit pants atm) but I've not had any stability issues with the whole rig.

In the middle of the summer at a lanparty I hadn't cleaned the dust filters on the front for a while rendering the front fans useless. My CPU was hitting 75 degrees under load and the psu was too hot to touch! Still had no crashes

(wish my laptop was this stable -.-)

the-wi$e-one · 26 Oct 2009 at 14:19

PinkFloyd said:
More than one GTX would be very cosy! I think you'd be pushing it trying for SLI.
I've got a 3GHz q6600 in my SG03 with the silverstone NT06 cooler, the psu sits just on top of that and helps pull some air though - but don't expect really low temps. I've also got the crossflow fan in the back - it is wedged in there so tight, I guess with a different motherboard the cpu socket might be further away from the back of the board and give it a bit more space.

The harddrives won't get too hot, especially the front one - with 2 120mm fans at the front it will have plenty of airflow - mine is always cold to the touch. The second drive gets warm due to lesser airflow (cable management is a bit pants atm) but I've not had any stability issues with the whole rig.

In the middle of the summer at a lanparty I hadn't cleaned the dust filters on the front for a while rendering the front fans useless. My CPU was hitting 75 degrees under load and the psu was too hot to touch! Still had no crashes (wish my laptop was this stable -.-)

Thanks for the reply PinkFloyd, so since your Q6600 is OC'd as long as I keep the i7 at the stock 2.66, do you think that the temps would be comparable?
and yeah I thought SLI may be a bit optimistic

. I was talking to a friend about it but I couldn't get him to see the idea of SFF. Also do you have a bezel for your 5.25" optical drive? make it blend in a bit more?

Once again Cheers!

Guardsmon · 26 Oct 2009 at 14:22

You must have a lot of money to through around if you are looking to build the spec you are talking about, and why you'd need 12GB of ram is anyones guess.
I guess you want the 2x1TB drives for storage, but as you are looking to make a fast gaming machine, why not look at getting 2x single platter drives instead and then using external drives for storage - would run faster.
It sounds like a nice rig, but with the space constraints of the SG03 (especially around the CPU) I think you are going to push your luck here - ok it might work, but hot and costly.

Why not think about something like a lian li A05n or a slightly larger case that the SG03 (possibly V350?). I had a PC7+ for the 4 yrs of uni and could take it home on the train when needed, admittedly it wasn't fun, but it was do-able.

Also depends what gaming and work you are going to be doing on your computer, but i5 setup might be just as good for you, but a lot cheaper.

the-wi$e-one · 26 Oct 2009 at 18:15

Guardsmon said:
You must have a lot of money to through around if you are looking to build the spec you are talking about, and why you'd need 12GB of ram is anyones guess.
I guess you want the 2x1TB drives for storage, but as you are looking to make a fast gaming machine, why not look at getting 2x single platter drives instead and then using external drives for storage - would run faster.
It sounds like a nice rig, but with the space constraints of the SG03 (especially around the CPU) I think you are going to push your luck here - ok it might work, but hot and costly.

Why not think about something like a lian li A05n or a slightly larger case that the SG03 (possibly V350?). I had a PC7+ for the 4 yrs of uni and could take it home on the train when needed, admittedly it wasn't fun, but it was do-able.

Also depends what gaming and work you are going to be doing on your computer, but i5 setup might be just as good for you, but a lot cheaper.

I don't have huge amount of money, the idea was to build it slowly, and i dropped the idea of SLI

good point on the HDD's BTW. The eventual 12GB of RAM would be for Photoshop work and video editing as I do a fair bit of that in my spare time, also with programming it can be useful a high spec machine also for the gaming

Guardsmon · 26 Oct 2009 at 20:53

I guess, yours and my idea of high spec and not having a lot of money is slightly different... A well good for you. Still the i7 over an i5 is a lot more and won't help too much when gaming. Let us know how it goes.

the-wi$e-one · 26 Oct 2009 at 23:17

Guardsmon said:
I guess, yours and my idea of high spec and not having a lot of money is slightly different... A well good for you. Still the i7 over an i5 is a lot more and won't help too much when gaming. Let us know how it goes.

Hmmm.... maybe not. But do you know if the Triple Channel Memory would make a noticeable difference over dual? and also the temps i5 vs i7? are they a great deal diff? also maybe s1366 is better than s1156 because of the upcoming i9's

JonDavies · 27 Oct 2009 at 11:16

Let me know how this goes.

I wanted to put an i5 and a gtx 260 into a lian cube case but been advised it will be very difficult to fit it in, if not impossible. I dont know if the Sugo is larger mind. Any thoughts?

the-wi$e-one · 27 Oct 2009 at 12:13

JonDavies said:
Let me know how this goes.

I wanted to put an i5 and a gtx 260 into a lian cube case but been advised it will be very difficult to fit it in, if not impossible. I dont know if the Sugo is larger mind. Any thoughts?

the SG-03 is marketed to support 2x 10.5" Graphics Cards, but i think i'm going to have to do it soon if the rumours of Intel discontinuing the i7 920 are true

kerrgreg · 27 Oct 2009 at 12:23

I7 is the way to go speed wise and performance

im at uni have the rig below and do lots of programing abit of gameing and the like

theres no point going for anothing else really the cost differance isnt massive

JonDavies · 27 Oct 2009 at 12:45

I'll have a look at the sg 03. I was reading another thread and it looks like u will deffo need extra cooling and might need to mod it so the airflows are the same direction not against eachother

Guardsmon · 27 Oct 2009 at 12:49

I'm not saying that the triple channel won't help and that the i7 isn't better than the i5's, just that they cost more and for gaming generally the performance difference doesn't justify the cost difference, atleast for me.
Go for a 1366 setup if you are really looking for the best and want i9.... again its more about money for me.
Good luck

the-wi$e-one · 27 Oct 2009 at 14:12

PinkFloyd said:
More than one GTX would be very cosy! I think you'd be pushing it trying for SLI.
I've got a 3GHz q6600 in my SG03 with the silverstone NT06 cooler, the psu sits just on top of that and helps pull some air though - but don't expect really low temps. I've also got the crossflow fan in the back - it is wedged in there so tight, I guess with a different motherboard the cpu socket might be further away from the back of the board and give it a bit more space.

The harddrives won't get too hot, especially the front one - with 2 120mm fans at the front it will have plenty of airflow - mine is always cold to the touch. The second drive gets warm due to lesser airflow (cable management is a bit pants atm) but I've not had any stability issues with the whole rig.

In the middle of the summer at a lanparty I hadn't cleaned the dust filters on the front for a while rendering the front fans useless. My CPU was hitting 75 degrees under load and the psu was too hot to touch! Still had no crashes (wish my laptop was this stable -.-)

any chances you can post some pics of the inside of the SG03 fully loaded?

the-wi$e-one · 27 Oct 2009 at 14:12

Guardsmon said:
I'm not saying that the triple channel won't help and that the i7 isn't better than the i5's, just that they cost more and for gaming generally the performance difference doesn't justify the cost difference, atleast for me.
Go for a 1366 setup if you are really looking for the best and want i9.... again its more about money for me.
Good luck

thanks for all the help

=========================================================================================================

Any idea on the PSU Wattage? I was thinking 750-800W?

Goksly · 27 Oct 2009 at 21:43

I wouldn't get the SG03 and put an i7 in there personally... got a E8400 with NT06-E cooler and the PSU sitting on top. Idle is about 45c with 2 x 120mm fans on the front of the case.

If you really want to go down that route, I've seen other users fit in the corsair water cooler (H50 is it?), or, depending on the motherboard you might be able to fit a thin 120mm fan, or normal 80mm/90mm fan under the NT06 which might help.

All I know is the i7 is toasty compared to the E8400!

PinkFloyd · 28 Oct 2009 at 11:56

Yeh I've got a standard 120mm squeezed under the NT06. My case is so wedged in!

Guardsmon · 28 Oct 2009 at 12:12

Goksly said:
.... I've seen other users fit in the corsair water cooler (H50 is it?),...

Would be a very tight squeeze, but would certainly help keep the temps down. Only question would be where to mount the rad? Would it fit in the front? With some modding you could fit it in the back top.

Goksly · 28 Oct 2009 at 13:37

Don't think you'd fit it in the top.
The rig I've seen with it in had it mounted at the front (top fan). It looked tight but IIRC he said he fitted it without modding the case.