XXL_Folding

[Stan_Lite]

Actually, thinking about it. It's kinda strange being told the PC you're building is less practical than a quad socket server machine which will have no other purpose than sitting in a corner crunching numbers for a distributed computing project. I kinda like it

Also, there's a good chance I might end up using it as my gaming rig. I'm going to get it built and see how it performs as a gaming rig and, if it turns out good (can't think of any reason it wouldn't), I may well tart up the existing gaming rig and flog it to go towards a 4p rig.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Stan: don't worry I think we all have to get the SR-2 & multi-gpu bug out of our system

I think you've hit the nail on the head. This is something I'm going to have to do at some point. May as well do it now and get it out of the way.

Usually not at the same time though

So get it out of your system!

If you insist

Of course I sometimes get half way though one build then change my mind and go for something else, watch out for that

Been through that a couple of times already. I've been on the internet looking for bits for this build and see cool stuff and start thinking of other possible projects. I've had to be firm with myself and concentrate on the job in hand. I think it's partly because it's taking so much longer than my usual builds; what with parts being delayed and holidays/work etc. I think If I'd got all the stuff together in one go and then just got on with it, I'd have been less distracted. In future I'm going to have to try to plan things so that there are as few delays as possible but also keep in mind that taking ones time means a neater, more meticulous build.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Are you still waiting for bits?

If you haven't yet decided on your loop order, I would suggest going pump -> cpu1 -> cpu2 -> rad1 -> gpu's -> rad2 -> res -> pump.

Wasn't sure how many rads you were planning, but I'd get the fastest flow hitting the cpu's first as believe it or not the CPU's will need it more than the gpu's ime.

I was planning on a dual loop system. 2 CPUs, motherboard block and 4 GPUs is just too much for 1 triple rad and a single. I was intending using the Hailea water chiller I have from a previous build but I'm pondering putting a radiator in the front bays like you did in your Elysium on the Nostromo build. Was it easy to fit with the EK brackets? Did you have to drill new holes or did you manage to use existing holes?

Stan Lite

Total Posts: 106,385
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106k posts

Don't be fooled. I bought 100,000 in a charity post count auction a few years back.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Having done a Quad GTX680 Watercooled rig myself I know what it's like to do something like this. I had mine set-up on a separate loop for each GPU & CPU all in a Corsair 800D - I'm sure it's somewhere on one of these threads

I'm impressed

I'd like to see that if you can find it. I had a bit of a look but couldn't find it.

I'm becoming more and more inclined to forget about the chiller and go self contained. It's a noisy @£%^$& of a thing, takes up a lot of room and it only got me an extra 100MHz on my i7 920 over standard WC. I think I'll still go with dual loop - as much for aesthetics as anything else. I might see if I can fit Monstas in there. I'm sure one will fit in the top and there's a good chance I'd get one in the front as well.

For the moment, I'll just be doing the initial CPUs + MB loop with the stuff I have now and having the 3 670s with the stock coolers until I get the new GPUs. Between waiting for 700 series, work and holidays, it's looking like it'll be around August before the final configuration is settled. By then there should be waterblocks for the 700 series if that's the way I choose to go.

Thanks for all the input guys, you've given me a lot to think about and it's been a big help. Keep the advice coming

 

[Stan_Lite]

Hmm.. Stick with 120mm fan rads, all 140mm fan rads are poo because of the fans.

That seems to be the general consensus.

360 in top, 360 in front, 120 or 240 in the bottom (if you can git it to fit with that monster PSU) AND.... 120 exhaust at the rear either inside or outside the case, I think you could fit it inside.

I'm actually toying with the idea of a 480 in the front. I don't really need an optical drive and I was thinking about getting one of those mcubed fan controller things so no need to use up a bay there either and I can use pump top reservoirs. I can't fit a 240 on the bottom because of the humungous PSU. If I can fit the pum/res combos in with the 120 there, I'll leave it. If not I'll take it out. 120 at the back sounds like a good idea, might see how that'll fit.

Go for thick low fpi rads where possible, but also if necessary swiftech make not too thick rads that have really good performance on low speed fans.

Been reading some reviews and labs and it looks like the UT60s are among the best so, since I've already got one, I'll stick with them.

If going for dual loop, you are going to run into pump/res space issues once you have all that radiator acreage stuffed in there. I'd still go for a single loop but thats just me, I'm tired of dual loops

As I said above, I'll use pump top reservoirs. With a bit of luck, I can fit two in alongside the bottom rad. If not, I'll remove it.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=21799698&postcount=125

It was a bit OTT

A bit OTT? You nutter

 

[Stan_Lite]

This is turning into a real problem child

Got home from work on Friday and had a think about things over the weekend and decided to change a couple of minor things. I ordered a couple of bits and set about making the required changes to what was already done. One of the things I had to do was change one of the hoses on the mosfet block so I set about removing said hose. Unfortunately, in my haste, I yanked too hard and the whole block came away, stripping the threads. I had to take the whole thing apart to put the original heatsink back on. Disappointing but not a show stopper.

So, today I was expecting the new bits to come so I put it all together again and when the stuff came this afternoon, I got the loop set up just the way I wanted it. Plugged in the power and set about filling the loop. That was where I encountered the next problem. The loop wasn't filling properly. It was getting as far as the main motherboard block and not getting any further. "great", I thought, "a blockage". I switched off and took the whole thing apart again and dismantled the block but there was no sign of any obstruction I tried the block on it's own but nothing. It would pump as far as the first port and stop. I tried switching the inlet and outlet but got the same result. It refuses to pump through, even though there appears to be no reason why it shouldn't. I decided at that point to abandon the motherboard block and I've re-fitted the original.

I'll have to leave it for now since, not only can I feel the rage coming on but, when I switched the pump off originally, the back pressure caused water to shoot out of the open fill port of the res, splashing all over the motherboard. I'll have to let that dry out.

For now, I'm having a cup of strong tea and some ginger snaps, after which, I shall tidy up, have tea, have a bath and then get blind drunk. I shall resume building tomorrow if my hangover isn't too bad. If it is, it'll have to wait another day

 

[Stan_Lite]

She lives!!!!

Sorry to hear that
RMA the block maybe?

Bought off MM. To be honest, I got such a bargain on the bundle I bought, I wouldn't have the neck to complain - the guy only charged me a fraction of what the stuff was worth. Anyway, I haven't put it back together and tested it again yet, it might still work but, the fact that it has failed once puts me off using it - just in case.

Can't you blow in the hose making the water go through a tad further. Just putting pressure on the fluids in the reservoir.

Tried that. Nearly ruptured myself blowing so hard.

Anyway, enough of that and on with the update.

This is the rascally mosfet block - "it came off in me hand, honest guv"



Got the loop put together this morning and ran it for a few hours to test - all good.



Then came the moment of truth. I was dreading switching it on after all the trials I've been through getting the damn thing built. I had visions of switching it on and nothing happening or loads of beeping. Anyway, I took the plunge and on she went. After what seemed an eternity of flashing and churning - SHE LIVES!!!



Had a bit of an issue installing Windows. The SSD showed up fine in the BIOS but, when I tried to install Windows, it couldn't find it. Did a bit of Googling and came across something that said Windows installation sometimes doesn't recognise a drive if it has a dodgy MBR so I followed the directions and opened a command prompt, started diskpart and did a clean of the drive. Hey presto, when I tried the installation again, there it was



Temps are pretty good. The lowest core at idle is 17C and the highest is 24C. Running prime it's between 34C and 40C should give me a bit of headroom for overclocking.

Now Windows is installed and monitoring programs and updates installed, it's time to start overclocking the CPUs and RAM. I'm just about to have dinner then I'll get cracking with that. I'll find the max OC and run Prime 95 overnight to test thoroughly and tomorrow, I'll install the GPUs, OC them and benchmark. After that I'll tackle the cabling. maybe then I can get my dining table back.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Nice one Stan, good to see it up and running. Let me know if you need any help oc'ing it, they can be fun to try and get the most out of em. The [H] forum has a nice thread about getting them up to speed for crunching.

Seems to be going well so far. Currently testing on 3.7GHz - max temp so far 65C on small FFT. Should hopefully be able to squeeze a bit more out of it.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Nice one Stan, good to see it up and running. Let me know if you need any help oc'ing it, they can be fun to try and get the most out of em. The [H] forum has a nice thread about getting them up to speed for crunching.

Spoke too soon. 3.7GHz was as fast as I could get it to run stable. I've got 3.7 rock solid on 1.36V. Can't get above that even with Vcore at 1.45V. I haven't really touched anything else as I'm not sure what is likely to be effective. Do you think fiddling with the VTT would help any? I'm perfectly happy with 3.7 but, if I can get higher, I'd be even happier.

Looking good man!!!

Wow 17 degrees on idle. How cold is it in your room? O.0

Never thought about it until you mentioned it. I think Coretemp may have been a bit out there. My room temp is about 21C through the day and about 17-18C in the evening. Would need to be a very special watercooling loop to cool it to below ambient

Soo.. Any news on why the mobo block was stopping water?

Nope. Won't be doing anything with that until I've finished with the build.

 

[Stan_Lite]

OK. Got her up and running for now but I'm not totally happy. For one thing, I can only get 3 GPUs to work in it. If I put the 4th 670 in it, the whole machine slows down and becomes jittery with erratic CPU usage. I've tested all the 670s individually and all 4 slots in use individually with no issues at all. With 3 cards in, it runs beautifully; as soon as I put the 4th card in, it all goes wonky I've had to put the 4th 670 in with the 690 in the gaming rig to fold on.
Secondly, the CPU performance is a huge disappointment. I thought with 16 threads at 3.4GHz I'd be getting awesome PPD. Instead, it's not even close to the performance from the 3770K (4.5GHz). I'm not sure whether it's a problem with my set-up or whether these E5620 Xeons are just pants. Either way, I'm not impressed

Having posted in the DC section, I've got a few things to try when I get home in 3 weeks. If anyone else has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

Anyway, here's a photo as she stands just now.



Plan for the future is to hopefully get it to run with 4 GPUs and to watercool them. I'm not sure if I'm going to upgrade anything now as I'm a bit fed up with it and really don't want to spend any more cash on it. I might just finish up the watercooling and call it a day. Thinking about re-doing the gaming rig. I quite fancy the Corsair Carbide 540 cube case. I might get a better motherboard and move everything over to that and get another 690 with block and make a watercooled quad sli gaming rig.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Well it certainly looks good. These CPUs gice as much as an overclocked 3930k if I am correct. What clocks are you running them on?

If you want bigger PPD I guess you have to run them in Linux overclocked to try and do big adv. WUs.

I'm running at 3.4GHz. I did get them Prime stable at 3.8GHz but, as I've found many times in the past, Prime stable ≠ Folding stable. I'll have to have a good tinker with things when I get back as I never really had time to fiddle before I left for work.

As for Bigadv, I think I'd probably be struggling to make deadlines just CPU Folding, never mind with GPUs as well. From what I've read hex cores would keep me comfortably within the deadlines but I'd think GPU Folding alongside would be a no-no. Apparently, adding one hex core to give 10 cores (20 threads) would be fine as well. Not sure If I want to go down that route though. The whole point of building this was for a kickass, multi-GPU system and I think I'd like to keep it that way. I'll look into other ways of getting into Bigadv mega points.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Sadly only 5620s for now. Always on the lookout for cheap hex cores though.

 

[Stan_Lite]

I know it's been a while but there have been a few developments. Due to hardware accidents (2 burned out 670s and a knackered motherboard), the new gaming rig has been cancelled. I had been running bigadv on Ubuntu on the SR-2 and was going to put the 690s in the new gaming rig. I bent some of the pins on the motherboard for the new gaming rig and rendered it useless so I've shelved it for now and I've decided to run the SR-2 with the 690s as my gaming rig (also Folding). I also got hold of a couple of hex core X5650 Xeons for a good price which has beefed things up a bit.

To that end, I have been redoing things and have made a few alterations.

Got her built back up and now setting up for gaming and Folding. Finished overclocking and now testing for stability - so far so good, all stable and temps at perfectly acceptable maximums. running Prime95 small FFTs and Unigine heaven at the same time. CPU temp maxing out at about 46C and CPUs at about 67C. Got a pretty decent OC on the CPUs - running at 4.0GHz (50% OC). 690s are a huge disappointment though. Best stable OC is +45 on GPU, that's 957MHz with a boost of 1084MHz

Never mind, here are some pics:

Side on - check out the neat GPU cabling Tubing is XSPC 13/19mm and fittings are all monsoon. The monsoon fittings look really good but are a bit of a pain; you need to tighten as many as you can before installing as it's really difficult getting into tight spots with the tightening tool.



Top rad - Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper 360mm with 1450 rpm Gentle Typhoons in push pull configuration. You can just about get a fag paper between the bottom fans and the RAM - I've tried it



Front rad from the side - EK Coolstream XTX240 with the same fan configuration as the top rad.



CPUs - 2X X5650 Xeons with Koolance waterblocks. Oc'd to 4.0GHz



GPUs - 2X GTX 690s in quad SLI with EK waterblocks. Paltry OC of 957 (1084) gpu and 6480 mem.



Cabling at the back - about as neat as I can make it.



Front on. 2X Akasa fan controllers, cheapo DVD-RW and XSPC bay-res/pump combo with a D5 pump. Also showing front view of 240 rad. Leaving the front cover off for now so I can top up the res. Experience has shown me that the water level takes a few days to drop to its final level and the front panel is a pig to get off.



With the side panel on. I hate the side panel, it's fugly. Might consider modding it in the future.



That's all for now. As I said, I'm currently setting up and benching, will update again if there are any further significant developments.
I also need to solder the power switch. I managed to pull one of the wires off when I was building it (clumsy sod). I've currently got the reset switch wired up as the power switch until I can find someone with a soldering iron I can borrow (not buying one to fix one switch as it will probably never get used again).