Quad Crazy!! WARNING ALOT of pics

[GTFouts]

Well, I have been putting together this new build for many many months now. Slowly buying things and waiting and waiting and waiting. I designed a custom UFO case with all the things I wanted in an ultimate, future-proof W/C setup and Mountain Mods made it for me. This thing is a monster and I LIKE IT! Some of you may think this is ridiculous, I know I kind of do, but the cooling bug bit me hard, and this was the only way I could scratch it. I know I will never need another case or cooling setup again....EVER! At least I don't think so. Not even with Skulltrail, it is Skulltrail right?, I'm not even paying attention to it really.

Here's whats in the setup right now:

Case - Custom UFO designed for 4 W/C loops
CPU - QX9650
M/B - ASUS Maximus Extreme
P/SP - Enermax Galaxy 1000w
Video - 2 x HIS 3870X2
Memory - 4 x 1 GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1800
HD's - 2 x WD 320 GB SATA2, 1 x WD 200 GB SATA2
DVD - Plextor PX-810SA
Monitor - HP LP3065 30" Flat Screen
Keyboard - Ideazon Merc Stealth
Windows - Vista 64 Ultimate (sitting here waiting to be loaded)

CPU W/B - Apogee GTX w/ copper top (I love this block)
Video W/B - 2 x EK full coverage
N/B W/B - built in to M/B from ASUS
Fans - 12 x Panaflo 120x38 FBA12G12H1BX
Fan Controller - 3 x Nexus Vantec NXP 201
Rad - 3 x PA120.3, 1 x PA120.2
Pump - 4 x D5 constant speed
Res - 4 x Icebox Dual Bay UV Blue
Pump RPM & Water Temp monitor - Scythe Kazemaster KM01
Fittings - Bitspower compression fittings
Tubing - 1/2" Tygon all the way

I put a lot of thought into the plumbing because I wanted ease of fill and drainage. I also didn't want a jumbled mess of tubing so pump and rad orientation was kind of important. Since I had this case custom made, I added a few inches to the depth, so it's now 20" instead of the standard UFO 18" (if I had it to do over again I'd make it 22"). It's also 24" tall instead of the normal 18". This gives me a bit more room for tubing and such without the video cards or M/B tray getting in the way. It also had to be 24" tall for everything to fit since I went with the dual 5 bay setup. In my current setup I was tired of having to pull tubing off of things to drain it, so I put in Koolance universal nozzle bodies. I then drilled 3/4" holes in the bottom of the case and installed Koolance fill ports so I could drain it without removing anything. I just set if over the kitchen sink, take the drain cap off of whichever loop and open its corresponding fill valve on the res. The whole loop drains out in about a minute, very sweet indeed!

Because I have bays on top of each other I had to figure a way to fill the lower bays, so I drilled holes in the top of my res's, tapped them G1/4 and installed 90 degree Koolance swivel fittings with a shutoff valve for filling. I just screw in a barb to the valve, connect a hose and then I'm able to pour in water without having anything over the top of the unit, thus eliminating any chance of spillage into the case, M/B or Power Supply. (Done that before and fried my new Enermax 750 a while ago...sigh...live and learn) Well this did not work like I thought because there was no way for the air to bleed out while the water entered, on the bottom res's that is. Worked fine for the top res's because I could take off the fill cap to allow air to escape. Yes, I could have just filled them that way, but remember, spillage. So I drilled another hole in the back top of the res's and tapped them M4 so I could use the spare brass drain screws with gaskets that come with all Thermochill rads. This gave me an easy way to bleed air for filling plus seal the bleed hole. WARNING!!! NEVER pre-drill a hole in acrylic bays. My first 4 bays I did that and when I went to drill the larger hole for the G1/4 tap, the acrylic would chip BADLY and the bit would dig in severely and end up cracking the res, thus destroying the res. Just drill it with whatever size you need right off the bat. It works fine as long as you don't use any downward pressure and stop just before it penetrates the other side. Then use a dremel to finish the last part. I learned this the hard way and had to buy 4 new res's. Well, once I destroyed the first one I had to keep trying since I was stupid enough to pre drill all the holes first.

I had to put the power supply in the top hole above the motherboard so I would have space for all my pumps and plumbing. This created another problem because of the weight of this huge Enermax. It was bowing my case out and I did not like that at all, so I had to figure a way to support it. I had an extra HD mounting bracket from Mountain Mods and after some intense staring and experimentation, I found that I could modify a piece of it and screw it to the M/B tray. With a piece of dense sticky foam on it, it ended up supporting the rear of the power supply perfectly. Since the foam is sticky on both sides it also keeps the top of the M/B tray in place since there is really no rear support for it, at the top, from moving side to side, which it will do. With all the weight and tubing that is going to be connected to it, well, it can't hurt!

Being that I have always wanted to be able to see just what my pumps were doing and what the temp of the water was, I came up with a way of monitoring them, at least I think I have. Since the D5 pumps now come with an RPM wire, I ordered the Scythe Kazemaster fan controller. I had 1 slot left that I needed to fill anyway. I'm not going to control anything with it, but it looks perfect for monitoring since it displays RPM and Temp for each of the 4 channels, AND, it's blue, so it matches perfectly. I went to Koolance and ordered the temp sensors and fittings for them so I could put them in the universal blocks and monitor the water temp. IF it works, I will be able to see the pump RPM and the water temp of each loop, which will give me piece of mind. I'm just not sure yet if the temp monitor will operate properly with the Kazemaster. I'm pretty sure the pump RPM will, we shall see.

Since I wanted each card on it's own loop, I used the Koolance Swivels again, for 3 reasons. 1 - it allows me to connect the tubing from the side of the card without it getting in the way of the other card. 2 - I can remove the cards individually without having to drain water because of the crossover tube. 3 - it allows me to swivel it for ease of tubing routing and stress on the card from the tubing. I have them on my current 3870's and they work like a charm, don't leak either, which I was very concerned about simply because it was a swivel.

I'm not finished yet, pretty close tho. I still have to order the video waterblocks and that should complete all the parts I need. I will update this with more pics when I get it put together and finished. Pretty crazy isnt it?

[GTFouts]

Heres some more pics

[GTFouts]

And the last for now

[EmAn]

JEeze that thing is nice

:subscribed

[nd4spdbh2]

i dont make it over to the water fourms much... but

HOLLY BLODDY ****ING CRIST, that is one hell of a setup.

[masakabassist]

Holy S*** batman! Awsome set up. I think im going to the classies now, I have yet again been bitten by the upgrade bug :)

[meionm]

The mother of all watercooling overkills

[Elluzion]

O M G!! That is insane..... !!!

4 pumps, 4 res and 3 rads!!! HoLY ****

[EmAn]

how long did it take to leak test and bleed?

[SolidxSnake]

I can't think of a single reason to ever use two PA120.3s and a PA120.2 cooling one computer.... or 4 D5s.

You have too much money. Give me some.

[JamesXP]

More pics and more explanations are wanted.

[GTFouts]

No, there are not 3 rads, there are 4 rads, one for each loop. Thats why its called Quad Crazy, 4 of everything, cept hard drives.

Just ordered my EK 3870X2 waterblocks, should have them Wed. Frozen CPU had them delivered today. They have 5 left as of right now for those that want one. I think I see this up and running this weekend for sure.

EmAn - It doesn't take long to bleed it because I have res's. They do wonders for removing air. Takes about 10 to 15 min per loop to get 95% of the air out once you get the pump to kick in properly. The little bit thats left will work its way out when it does. Understand that each loop is a tad more than 1/2 gallon. As far as leak testing, I use blue shop paper towels and let things run over night and the next day with just the pumps plugged into a old power supply I have. The blue towels will show you the slightest bit of water if it drips on them. I also turn the case all ways so trapped air in the rads will be forced out.

SolidxSnake - I can think of alot of reasons. I personally do not like it when my res's get warm to the touch, but thats just my personal preference. Like I said, I did this so I will never have to set up a case again. Think about Skulltrail and it's possibilities. 2 CPU's, 4 video cards. Thats a lot of heat for 1 loop wouldnt you think? With very slight modification, I can have each CPU on its own loop and 2 video cards on each of the other 2 loops, keeping heat to a minimum, thus allowing maximum OC, which is important to ME. And thats all that matters now, isnt it? I feel that this case will be able to handle anything thats thrown at it for a very long time, longer than I will be around I believe.

JamesXP - I will post more when I finish it this weekend. If you want things explained, please feel free to ask what and I will explain it as best I can

[EmAn]

you're a madman...

when you have it totally set up... put it on a scale so we can see how heavy it is....

I am banking on 100+ Pounds

[Charr]

Everything is very clean, it looks really nice.

Also, I can't imagine how much that weighs :P

[GTFouts]

Weighs 72 pounds without the water or video cards and video blocks. So your probably right, about 100 pounds. But thats cool cause it doesnt go anywhere and its on the Mountain Mod casters. I can push it around with 1 finger, rolls easy, sits right under my printer desk and is totally out of the way. Pretty quiet too because these fans are very high flow fans, so they push plenty of air turned all the way down to 7 volts. Thats why I picked them. I really didnt need the fan controllers, but I had them and had the space on the case for them and they look cool as hell when its all light up, so I put them in. Gives me the ability to crank them up if I really need some serious cooling, but I dont thihnk I will. Gets a bit loud then tho.

Charr - That was also very important to me, keeping things neat and clean. I spent a long time sleeving all wires, modifying all the power supply wires, changing connectors on the fan controllers to color code them so I would never hook them up wrong. Let me tell you, it was a pain shortening the main MB power connector, but it was worth it. Everything in here is replacable without having to rip out wiring, cept for the hard wired power supply wires of course. Since the case is black and all the sleeving is black, it makes it very hard to see the wiring, plus its all run along the bends in the case which helps hide it too. It will look alot better when I'm done.

[EmAn]

hurry up and finish up

then send me some money

[narcotis]

You must have payed as much for your compression fittings as i did for my entire setup lol :D
How many of those are there?

[jason4207]

I'll be watching this one!

Good work man! Looking forward to your results!

Edit: Only thing missing is the (6) 500GB 32MB cache Seagate drives in Matrix RAID0/5.

[voigts]

Where in the world do you people get the money to do this stuff? This is some serious overkill. Man you make me feel poor.

[pak]

are you sure that case is a "custom" ? It looks like the ascension. Some shots further back of the loops would be nice.

--pak

[Ben333]

well it IS crazy... lol... more pics!!

[nikhsub1]

Looks nice! I am interested in the fittings used, and the converters used on the PA with teh fittings?

And guys, how much it costs is not of your business... would you rather he not post because you make a big deal about cost? I will delete those posts on site from now on, and, if you catch me in a bad mood I will ban you for 3 days.

[Ben333]

Looks nice! I am interested in the fittings used, and the converters used on the PA with teh fittings?

And guys, how much it costs is not of your business... would you rather he not post because you make a big deal about cost? I will delete those posts on site from now on, and, if you catch me in a bad mood I will ban you for 3 days.

+1 I'm with scott. I don't have the cash for a system like this but I am verry interested in the results!

[dudleycpa]

GTFouts

Looks GREAT! Makes me want to get wet!

[Brolloks]

This is one impressive setup. I'm not going to lie but I envy that setup. Cost is irrelevant and relative, so keep this technical guys.

Great work and look forward in seeing some results, especially on those X2's :beer:

[LucifurFox]

holy.......

[stdu007]

:eek: what else to say !!! then wow !!! :eek:

[Hazaro]

Frikken beautiful

[SkuToV]

beautiful setup, must be a b!tch to get running without any leaks

[GTFouts]

People, more pics are comming soon, let me get the rest of the parts so I can finish it, couple of days. Supposed to have the rest by Wed.

narcotis - There are 30 of the bitspower compression fittings. They work excellent because they are designed specifically for tygon tubing with 1/8 walls.

jason4207 - I thought about going Raid crazy but decided against it simply because I have no need for that much HD power. Plus I am a Raid virgin and dont know anything about it yet. I am going to use the 2-320GB in Raid for my operating system but am using the 200GB for my master backup drive. That way if my raid crashes, all my important stuff is on the backup drive so I dont loose anything.

pak - Oh yea, it's custom alright. Mountain Mods actually screwed it up by not following my drawings properly. Nothing too serious but my main purpose was to not have to modify it when I put it together except for drilling the drain holes in the bottom. I had to enlarge all 12 fan controller holes, the pa120.2 holes are not positioned where I wanted them and the power supply cover plate was made for the wrong hole, so its upside down. Also the verticle set of fan controller holes is positioned wrong. I wanted the bottom hole lined up with the 2 horizontal sets. Like I said, nothing that caused problems, just not much attention to detail. Kinda disappointed me, but did not hurt assembly, just asthetics.

SkuToV - Not at all. I had 3 loops charged up using my 3870's, before I found the mother board was bad, and didnt have a single leak from the get go. Everything has orings on it and they all seal quite well.

nikhsub1 - Thanks nik for the warning, I was starting to get a little irratated. These bitspower fittings seal perfectly, as long as there is a nice flat surface for the oring to seal, but I am not happy with 2 aspects of them. 1 - I had to put a fatter oring on the 2 GTX fittings because of the countersink on the block. It was too deep for the stock oring to seal properly and the fittings would bottom out on the fins before the oring would seal. A fatter oring solved that problem. A re-design with a longer shoulder is needed so its compatible with everything out there. 2 - since these are knurled and you can only hand tighten them, which is more than enough to seal, it creats a problem when you need to loosen them for tubing removal. It wants to unscrew the base out instead of loosening to tubing nut because its such a good tight fit. Perhaps I am tightening the tubing too much, but it makes me feel more secure knowing that its tightly sealed.
I was going to go Python, if you remember me asking you about them on The Beast, and it was your answer that steered me away from them. Getting a wrench on them to tighten and loosen them would be almost impossible in some situations. Shame cause they are so beautiful, but if you cant access them properly....shrug. So I went with the bitspower because of that and because they were made for tygon tubing. I think thats what really made the decision for me.
The adaptors are Alphacool adaptors for Ehiem pumps. They are G3/8" for the PA rads and G1/4" for fittings. There are 2 styles of these and it is VERY important that you get the right one. If you look at the picture you see that the G3/8" thread has a tiny shoulder before the oring and it is SMALLER than the thread. The other adaptor has this shoulder but it is BIGGER than the thread and doesnt allow the oring to even touch the rad....bad juju. I went round and round with performance PC's on this because they sent me 7 of the correct ones a 1 of the wrong ones. Then they sent me a wrong one again to replace it. I finally had to send them a pic of both to make them understand which one I wanted. I will say they made good on it and I am very happy with them. Pictures on all the web sites show the same adaptor for both, so you cant go by them. They are both 3/8 x 1/4 but the wrong one is shorter than the correct one, see pic below.

Bitspower fittings - Bitspower Premium G1/4" High Flow 1/2" Compression Fitting (For Tygon 1/2" Tubing) (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=393&products_id=22626)
The correct adaptor is - Alphacool Eheim 1048/1250 Outlet Adaptor at G1/4" (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=344)
The incorrect adaptor is - Alphacool Eheim 1048 Intake Adaptor at G1/4"

[nikhsub1]

Thanks for the info GT! Now, are the bitspower fittings for the 1/2" ID, 5/8" OD? If so, I will be using 7/16" ID, 5/8" OD tubing so it should work just fine. Build looks good dude!

[aja]

That is an awesome setup!

Well done, I love how much you thought it through.

Overkill is great, as long as it is well planned overkill :D

[narcotis]

What size tubing do you have?? (Sorry if i missed it somewhere in an earlier post)

I have Tygon 3603 Tubing 1/2" ID 3/4" OD and cant seem to finde any compression fittings to work with it, because the wall of the tubing is so think :(

I orderd some from Danger Den and found out that they in fact did not fit, oh well. wish they would have worked, would have gave me a lot better peace of minde

[-Blue-]

absolutely insane :drool::drool::drool:
subbed

[hafaphoto]

It has been a long time since I messed around with water cooling. That is one interesting setup! Can't wait to see how it works.

E

[||Console||]

i love your setup and case , I have always said to my self if I ever get a new case it will be the UFO !

I loved to see all the planning pay off . Congrats and have fun .

[GTFouts]

Nik - FrozenCPU actually has a bigger selection of the bitspower compression fittings than Performance PC. Mine are for 1/2" x 3/4". All of the desc. tell you what tygon tubing they are for. Look Here (http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g30/c101/s179/list/p1/Liquid_Cooling-Fittings_Accessories-G14_Compression_Fittings-Page1.html).

narcotis - Performance PC's has what you need. Look Here (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=393&zenid=f30a73418b0891e1f825dd0c4c4fc56b).

Console - I thought about it for a very long time. Studied all the different UFO cases, decided what all I wanted as far as water goes, layed it out in Excel if you believe that, and ordered it. I even changed it a few weeks later by adding the 3 fan controllers and the PA120.2 and making it 20" deep instead of 18". Took them 8 months to make it, so I was starting to get a bit irratated at them. Then when it came wrong I was very disappointed, but able to fix it.

I will have all the rest of my parts this week so things are looking real good for a weekend startup. I sure hope so anyway.

[jason4207]

jason4207 - I thought about going Raid crazy but decided against it simply because I have no need for that much HD power. Plus I am a Raid virgin and dont know anything about it yet. I am going to use the 2-320GB in Raid for my operating system but am using the 200GB for my master backup drive. That way if my raid crashes, all my important stuff is on the backup drive so I dont loose anything.



Understandable. It can be a headache to learn.

Just so you know, it is possible to set up a Matrix RAID array where you use the fastest part of the drives in RAID0 for ultra performance, and then RAID5 the rest for redundancy. If you set it up right you can back-up the RAID0 partition on the RAID5 array. If you lose a drive you can swap it out, and then rebuild your RAID5 array (automatic). Then you can restore your back-up of the RAID0. Check out the Matrix RAID sticky in the HDD section if you have a week to kill! It's a long thread.

That being said it is still more risky than having a dedicated back-up drive.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your new monster rig in any case, and I personally can't wait to see your results!

:beer:

[NGL_BrSH]

I want more pics! Looks hot so far.

[karlthomas102]

i need more water in that lol that wont cool nothing lol good job

[jason4207]

We are under a water shortage in my area due to lack of rain over the past several months. We're not allowed to water the lawn or wash our cars.


If it gets any worse we may have to put an extra tube on your rig, and pump some of that water over here!

[voigts]

I'd like to see more pics as well. I am curious how you routed the watercooling given the 4 loops. That is a lot to put into any case and make work neatly.

I meant no offense about the money thing. I just have to admit to a bit of envy also on this as this is one serious rig. You know a rig is getting serious when you almost need to reinforce the floor underneath it due to its weight!

I saw a thread on XS where the Bitspower barbs were mentioned, and I ordered some for the rig I am working on. They are hands-down better than anything else I have seen. I really like the o-ring retainer on them, and the large ID.

[Elluzion]

More pics! what is your goal here with all of these parts?

TOTALLY INSANE SYSTEM

[GTFouts]

Elluzion - My main goal was to make the ultimate WC case so I would never have to do it again, no matter what they developed in the future. I feel I have done just that and there is nothing this setup cannot handle, no matter how insane or hot it is. Yes, it's overkill today, but will it be in a year?, 5 years? 10 years? Will I EVER have to upgrade the case to handle the technology? I doubt it, and thats the REAL reason I did it. Sure, MB, Video, Memory, waterblocks, cant get away from that, but the case and WC setup, I DARE them to make this obsolete!

And since its such an insane system, I went ahead and built it with the most insane parts available, and this is important, WHEN I bought them. Been buying stuff for a year, waited as long as I could for the main things. Thats why its the QX9650 and the 3870X2's. If I built the ultimate case, then I wanted the ultimate parts in it. If I am not mistaken, the hard drives are the only things that could have been better, and MAYBE the MB, but not when I bought them. No sense in embarrassing the case, now is there....:beer:

If I had it to do over I would change the MB to whatever one it is that ASUS makes that is DDR3, dual 16x PCIe slots so that when Xfire does work, both cards would be maxing out in bandwidth. I believe the Maximus is only 16x-8x, I'm not really sure.

Voigts - I had no clue how I was going to put in all the tubing and make it look nice. I didn't think it could be done neatly. I played with the thought of hard piping most of it but decided no, that it was too much trouble and not easily changable. Then when I found the bitspower fittings, well, that decided it for me, tygon all the way. I put the first 2 pieces in thinking to keep each piece as short as possible and not caring about the flow of which part was first, sat back, stared at it for about 30 min, didn't like it and decided to route each loop exactly the same way. Pump - Block - Rad - Res. I'm glad I decided that, it made it easier to look ahead on the routing. But what amazed me more was that it was going in very compactly and looked good, not the jumbled mess I thought it would be. I treated the tubing like I was wiring it, so there is alot more than there could be so it would route together and stay bundled in a neat bundle, splitting off when it needed too. I would say there is about 35 to 40 feet of tubing in there, don't know the exact measurement, all I know is I kept getting to the point of, damn, I need more, order it, put it in, damn, I need more, order it, put it in and on and on and on.

[-Blue-]

the only thing i think would top it is, if you would have built the case yourself
but as i said before it's insane, i would smack you silly until i could convince you to give me your rig... lol

[El<(')>Maxi]

Nice build, a SkullTrail setup would be perfect in there.

[WonderingSoul]

Following: subscribed.

[MasterTelia]

all i can say is

you sick sick man, in a good way

[GTFouts]

Well, Video blocks showed up so far, heavy jokers, but when all put together not really that much heavier than the stock card. Pretty close actually, kinda happy about that. Not too impressed with the machining job of the pads, which was the second thing I noticed right away. I felt they should have been smoother and not shown bit patterns. It would be a serious job to try to lap these simply because of all the seperate pads. There's 3 main chip pads, at different heights, 4 ram pads and 4 other smaller pads. THAT would be some serious lapping...Geesh!

After taking off the fan-sink assembly, I had another thing jump right out at me. The pink thermal pad for the center chip was not lined up properly and did not cover the chip all the way. The pic shows the few millimeters of dull chip that it was not covering, even a little bit of the center silver part. Tsk tsk tsk HIS. I don't know how hot or important that is for that particular chip, but a little more attention to detail is required there, one would think. Also, notice how the second GPU sink is aluminum instead of copper, WHATS UP WITH THAT!

The EK Water block kit comes with everything you need except the Artic Silver. And according to the instructions you put the AS5 on the GPU's and RAM ONLY. All the rest get the supplied thermal pad that you have to be very careful with because you have to cut it up for all the different sized chips. AND there is only JUST enough...NO EXTRA! The directions give you a little diagram for cutting it up properly.

It's just like any other GPU block out there, there are no feet for the screws, soooo, don't tighten them too much. Never understood why they don't do that. Warping a board can really screw it up, yet it just scares you to death because you can't really tighten the screws up to where you think they are secure enough and the block is seated good and snug. The feet wouldn't even have to be perfect, but at least they would be there to prevent you from warping it too much.

Still waiting for Fedex to show up with my MB and the fittings for the video cards wont be here till tomorrow or maybe even friday. Shame but such is life.

[GTFouts]

And some more

[the_cultie]

:drool::eek::drool:

Thats an unbelievable build, I wish it was mine. That water block is some job. Another top class EK block. Can't wait to see more.

[Albaholic]

WOW :drool:.

[EmAn]

Man... you are nuts to say the least. I wish I had the dough to build even half of that system...

We definately need temp reports as well as how far you can overclock that sucker!!!

[GTFouts]

I'm going to get it running stock stable first, with both cards in, but ony using one cause of the drivers. Hopefully next month I will be able to use the second one for how its meant to be . I will need alot of help with this OC. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to all of those strange bios settings. I understand the main ones for OC'ing the CPU but I have never been able to OC memory or my video card for that matter. Kinda sad isnt it, have all this stuff and cant even use it to its full potential. But I am confident that many here will help me get this puppy SMOKIN as fast as it can go!! And in doing so, I will finally learn how to OC all of it instead of just the CPU. Oh Glory Days!!

[Elluzion]

Definetly Subscribed to this topic. Those compressor fittings are very interesting..

[leftheaded]

this thread just blew my mind. can't wait to see all the results from that little fella.

so, have you named this rig yet?

[GTFouts]

Cant think of one that I like that well. I was initially going to call it The Ultima, I dont know. Kinda wanted something with Quad in it since it has 4 a darn near everything....shrug

[wingless]

Possible Names:
FourXForAll (4x4all)
aQua-D
HydroCool
The Quadanator
Aquaman
The Hydraulic Pumping Station
Cool Blue
Darth ReserVader
GTFouts Super Extreme Special: Extreme Edition Series I - Spec V
OMGWTFPWNALLURCOOLINGnator

I think those are some of the only names fitting for such a beast of a cooling machine. You could cool an automobile engine with that setup.

[Anubis_386]

WOW those blocks are beasty .. hell this entire setup is beasty! .. I'm mega jealous man ...

With the stock X2 heatsinks, the first HS (the one closest to the fan, thus the one which gets cooler air) is aluminium as its better at transferring heat to the air and the 2nd HS is copper because its better at pulling heat from the chip .. Well I think that's right .. read it somewhere in more scientific terms but can't remember them exactly ...

[jason4207]

Possible Names:
FourXForAll (4x4all)
aQua-D
HydroCool
The Quadanator
Aquaman
The Hydraulic Pumping Station
Cool Blue
Darth ReserVader
GTFouts Super Extreme Special: Extreme Edition Series I - Spec V
OMGWTFPWNALLURCOOLINGnator

I think those are some of the only names fitting for such a beast of a cooling machine. You could cool an automobile engine with that setup.

Taken!

[GTFouts]

The Hydraulic Pumping Station.....LOL....I cant stop laughing cause your not far from wrong on that one!

[Careface]

Wow.. thats one impressive build >_< cant wait to see what she benches :D

[WonderingSoul]

Why not just buy an industrial freezer and drop an air cooled rig in it :p

[Mycobacteria]

Thats a lot of water nice work...

[Hazaro]

Yeah... Why don't you slap another 1000W in there and add a ~200Watt TEC to each radiator?

[Moto7451]

LOL Simply amazing... and quite overkill hehe.

The next time you have money to burn, please make a contribution to:

The Moto7451 fund
P.O. Box 8837 1/2
North Hollywood, CA 91602

[Dawgdoc]

Holy &$#@%!#%^&@! Batman!!!!

That is one crazy-azz water setup. CRAZY!!!

I cant wait to see what the whole thing looks like completed.

RAID is easy. SUPER easy. If you can do THAT water setup, you can figure out a RAID array in like 45 secs no worries on that.

After you get the whole thing setup and running, might not be a bad idea to go back in and add a few more drives for RAID if you will be doing any gaming on this thing. From the looks of it I assume you will!!!!!!!

Only downside to doing it later, is that you will need to reinstall your OS, but thats only about an hours worth of work.

You, are a madman LOL!!!!

[Dawgdoc]

Cant think of one that I like that well. I was initially going to call it The Ultima, I dont know. Kinda wanted something with Quad in it since it has 4 a darn near everything....shrug

PS - I like Quadzilla :D

[TheGreySpectre]

That is one nice setup you have going on there

[GTFouts]

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!!!!:clap::clap::clap:

The envelope please...........

And the winner issssssss....

QUADZILLA!

Congrats goes to Dawgdoc for this most outstanding name.

Runner up goes to Wingless for his excellent suggestions. (I'm still chuckling wingless, I really liked that)

[Dawgdoc]

I actually didnt make that up completely from scratch unfortunately... Ive heard it somewhere before.

HOWEVER, whoever named their beasts QUADZILLA couldnt hold a candle to you. Your rig IS the QUADZILLA. Others are just impersonators :P

[GTFouts]

Well, if someone complains, I shall withdraw it, simple as that.

Just got my video block fittings so now the cards are ready to go. Still waiting on Fedex to deliver the RMA'd MB. He was supposed to be here yesterday but hew blew it off and copped a bull excuse of noone was there and street address doesn't exist. What a jerk. Lets hope the moron doesn't do it again today, but I figure he will. Address doesnt exist, amazing, if so then HOW have I been getting fedex deliveries for the last 6 years? I swear.....

Just as I figured, the driver did it again, said my address does not exist. I called fedex and they connected me to the supervisor. I told him what was happening and said I want that package that was supposed to be delivered yesterday at my front door tonight, don't care what it takes for you to get it here. He assured me it will be here if he has to bring it himself. My God, I expect and have had this kind of garbage from UPS, but never have I seen this from Fedex before. Damn aggrivating.

[FallenCow]

Hey GTFouts... would you happen to know if those bitspowers fittings fit on an MCW60?
That X2 block is massive! Awesome build so far! You deserve a :beer: when you get done.

[GTFouts]

SIGH....Motherboard is garbage boys....will not initiate video, tis what I sent it back for in the first place...figures...first time I have ever had trouble with an ASUS MB, brand new that is.

SO, Do I stick with another Maximus extreme or do I change it to a different MB. I want one that definetly has 2 16x pcie slots and communicates at 16x also. No sense in putting a slower board in. Needs to be DDR3 and be able to handle the QX9650. Let me hear the suggestions and why you think so. Gonna go ask in the MB section too.

FallenCow - I am sorry, I have no clue. Thay are 1" in diameter and need a good flat surface for the oring to seal. If it will screw on and not hit anything or each other then I guess they would. Look at the pic of it earlier in this post.

[jason4207]

Are you sure it's the MoBo? No video could be a few things.

[GTFouts]

positive, cause the cards and chip work in this rig. Only thing I cant check is the memory, but I should get some kind of video or at least a green light on the monitor....I think.

[Dawgdoc]

If you didnt allready have DDR3 purchased and in your hands Id try to convince you to go DDR2 and get a Foxconn Mars. PCIe 16x-16x, Xfire, all the bells and whistles and clocks like a sonofagun.

But you allready have DDR3....so....

Heh :(

Id prob hold out for x48 if you are married to that DDR3 to be honest, but thats just 1 mans opinion.

Would really suck to look at that whole rig waiting to go and held up by a mobo release though......

To be honest, Id grab some DDR2 that you either have lying around, or pick up some cheap but quality stuff (PC6400 is like $30-$40 for 2gb of Corsair XMS2 or Crucial Ballistix and they both will easily clock at 1100+, likely 1200 for you), get an interim P35 board and plan on upgrading to x48 when it comes out and dust off your DDR3.

[GTFouts]

QUADZILLA BREATHS!!!!!!

2 of my 4 sticks of memory are bad causing me to not have video. Thanks to Jason4207 for smackin me around and suggesting I check the obvious, I found the 2 bad sticks. Took em out and I'll be damned if it didnt start up and go into the bios!

Muahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Move over Brollocks.......COMMIN THRU!!!

[Hazaro]

I still think you should slap 4 TECs on it.

[GTFouts]

Man....Newegg is the best. Got on the customer service chat and had a RMA for replacement in 3 min. WHEW....was scared I just ate 2 sticks of DDR3. It'll run for now with 2GB. Give me a chance to get things up and running I guess. Now I have to learn RAID, get Vista 64 loaded and updated and and and. Hope theres not too much to dload for vista. Satillite internet only allows so much per day....

Plus, I have to get it all cleaned up and finished the way I want it so I can take the pics everyone wants to see. Will work on that tomorrow.

I'm so glad I dont have to order more parts.

[Dawgdoc]

Newegg definitely rocks no question.

I had a few things that I thought were going to be issues with a purchase from them, and much to my surprise and delight they fixed everything. No questions asked.

[911us]

wow...very nice case !

[samurai7]

all I can say when I even glance @ this project is :drool: I mean i'm not that experienced with doing my own mods and builds yet, but i still can appreciate the time and money you pumped into this thing. Kudos man, you and I need to go out for drinks sometime. :beer:

[Brolloks]

QUADZILLA BREATHS!!!!!!

2 of my 4 sticks of memory are bad causing me to not have video. Thanks to Jason4207 for smackin me around and suggesting I check the obvious, I found the 2 bad sticks. Took em out and I'll be damned if it didnt start up and go into the bios!

Muahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Move over Brollocks.......COMMIN THRU!!!

Well I'm sure Quadzilla is gonna whip my Wolfie's ass big time, show us some benchies soon !!

[Careface]

Now that youve got everything up and running, how about some more pics? ;)

[jason4207]

If you didnt allready have DDR3 purchased and in your hands Id try to convince you to go DDR2 and get a Foxconn Mars. PCIe 16x-16x, Xfire, all the bells and whistles and clocks like a sonofagun.

But you allready have DDR3....so....

Heh :(

Id prob hold out for x48 if you are married to that DDR3 to be honest, but thats just 1 mans opinion.

Would really suck to look at that whole rig waiting to go and held up by a mobo release though......

To be honest, Id grab some DDR2 that you either have lying around, or pick up some cheap but quality stuff (PC6400 is like $30-$40 for 2gb of Corsair XMS2 or Crucial Ballistix and they both will easily clock at 1100+, likely 1200 for you), get an interim P35 board and plan on upgrading to x48 when it comes out and dust off your DDR3.

MARS is P35, and I thought all P35 were 16x-4x. :confused:

I still recommend it to everyone, though! That or wait for Black OPs which looks friggin awesome!


QUADZILLA BREATHS!!!!!!

2 of my 4 sticks of memory are bad causing me to not have video. Thanks to Jason4207 for smackin me around and suggesting I check the obvious, I found the 2 bad sticks. Took em out and I'll be damned if it didnt start up and go into the bios!

Muahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Move over Brollocks.......COMMIN THRU!!!

Glad to help! :beer:

[GTFouts]

OK, here's the rest of the pics you guys have been wanting. This is the last of them for a while.

Notice how close the card comes to the SATA connectors with the pink sticker. Can only fit 1 sheet of paper between them.

[GTFouts]

And the rest

[GTFouts]

Quadzilla is parked in the corner and will stay there until the X48's come out. This motherboard is totally flaked. I think it may have fried the rest of my memory or its just seriously wigged out. I am drop kicking it out the back door.

I finished putting it all together, double and triple checked everything, stared at it for about 15 min and then checked it all again. I started it up, the dos screen popped on, I watched it to see all the parameters so I missed going into the bios. No biggie, will let it see there is no OS and just restart it. When it got to the No OS screen it shut off by itself, restarted and I am back to square 1 again, no video and it keeps shutting off and turning on in about 5 sec intervals. I moved the memory to the other slots, took them out and tried just 1 at a time, even left them out. Nothing. No beeps, No video, No startup.

So Quadzilla is dead. SIGH.......... Gave it hell tho didn't I? Hopefully the X48's will be out soon and it wont collect dust for too long. I just hope I didnt hurt the memory, prolly did the way my luck is going.

[Stratus_ss]

man that totally sucks... all that plumbing and the board wont even boot enough for you. Thats weak, seriously weak

[samurai7]

* try's to us his Resto Shammy Abilities on the Quadzilla. "live Damnit! Live!"
man that sucks that ur board fried, and it was such a coo rig too, hopefully it we eventually see the light of day and breath again.

[jason4207]

It's only a matter of time....this is to be expected w/ a build of this magnitude. Be patient Danielson!

:)

BTW, those pics are :eek::drool::eek::drool::eek::drool::beer::beer: :bday:

[Elluzion]

more pictures!!!!!!! :drool:

[Dawgdoc]

MARS is P35, and I thought all P35 were 16x-4x. :confused:
I still recommend it to everyone, though! That or wait for Black OPs which looks friggin awesome!

Hmm....I thought it was 16x-16x, but after doing some more research and reading I think I am wrong. Cant find definitive info 100% but the little bit I have seen seems to be 16x-4x just like other P35.

I likely am wrong with my original statement that the Foxconn Mars is 16x-16x. Does anyone know for certain? (sorry....slightly OT here....)

[Brolloks]

Sorry to see Quadzilla die such a sudden death man :cry:, maybe all the water around scared the begeezes out of the mobo.:eh?:

[Dawgdoc]

Well, I have confirmation that ALL P35 is 16x/4x. I was wrong about the Mars being 16x/16x.

[imposter]

who needs water, im sure you can fill up those tubes with everyone's drool.....

Other than that great job!!! *Drools* ;)

[GTFouts]

Yea...I'm so disappointed. I worked so hard and was so careful with everything. I'm just praying that it didnt trash my memory. The Egg is already replacing 2 sticks and maybe there was nothing wrong with them, not really sure. I am convinced it is the MB. Been strange ever since I first installed simply because it did not lay flat. It wasnt warped much, but I have never had one that did not lay flat on the standoffs before. In hind site I should have sent it back immediately. I'm second guessing everything now and that is irratating me to no end. I was so ready to get started.

I am going to wait for the Foxconn Blackops x48. From all the reading on it I think its going to be 1 of the fastest, most powerful MB out there. Plus you supposedly have more control over bios than ever before. Everyone keeps saying that it is still a young bios and needs work, but they also say that they are wroking hard on it. It has already set a 3dmark record for a single 3870 so far, so I have read, and someone also had it 3dmark stable at 6GHz, on LN2 of course. Sounds very promising.

I will say this, the bios will have more settings than anyone has ever seen, layed out totally different and more user friendly and I will be so confused. I will need help with it for sure. Perhaps I can be the test bed for this motherboard. I will surley have the system to crank it to max on water and the 9650, if I can get the guidance of some of the masters here. They used a 9770, which I didnt even know was out yet. I am hoping that maybe we can get it stable at 5GHz on water. Always the dreamer eh?

[WonderingSoul]

Bummer on the premature death man. You should lend someone else those dual 3870X2s :D

[Froggy]

Check out this thread for Phase, Water & Air results using the Black OPs & QX9650 CPU

Linky (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=177269)

[GTFouts]

This board is really looking impressive. I am almost starting to get over my depression...almost. I could get another maximus to get me buy till these are released....but with my luck they would be released a week after I got it.

As of right now I will wait for the Blackops, but I am not kidding, there is no way I will be able to max it out without help. I hope you guys are up for a challenge and my bios illiterate questions...:)

[Kilyin]

Bummer, I might have cried if I'd set up those loops and then it wouldn't post. Hope you have better luck in the future.

[OCnewbee]

WOW!!!! How was the bleeding on that beast? Very nicely done though. Very impressive.

[voigts]

That has got to seriously bite. After all of that work and careful execution to have it not cooperate because of a problematic MB. You did a great job managing all of that tubing. It really looks fantastic and well organized.

[Springbok]

It could be the power supply...not that it's weak or anything, but I've had weird problems with the OS not loading when a PSU wasn't putting out enough juice. Try running fewer components and see if you can get it to boot, like disconnect some HDDs or a graphics card!

[GTFouts]

It's the motherboard. I am not the only person to have the problem that this MB has. I went to the Asus forum and found alot of people complaining about what its doing. Its a very specific thing and mine is doing that exact thing. So Asus told me to send it back, which I have done, and they will replace it. I will try it if I get it back before the P5E3 comes out. If not, oh well, maybe I'll use it for another PC someday.

I was going to get the Foxconn Blackops but after reading about it, it only does DDR3 1600 whereas the P5E3 does DDR3 1800 and thats what I already have. So the blackops is not an option I guess. Dont understand why they wouldnt have it 1800 ready, but they dont, according to the specs. All the reviews I have read on the X48 P5E3 are very good. They say its rock solid at 500+, so I am hoping, <---- key word, that I can get a stable 5GHZ out of this QX9650 on water. Only down side is I wont be able to WC the NB on the Asus. Now if I find out that the Blackops will handle my 1800 memory, then I will do that because it comes with a NB water block and it has already been 5GHz+ stable on water, the prototype anyway. We shall see just what X48 can do if the gurus here will be kind enough to help me max it out, whichever board I end up getting.

[Ben333]

I still think you should slap 4 TECs on it.

YES! Back in the day lots of people did it and its very effective if you have the money and don't care about all the wasted energy! :)

[Spawn-Inc]

don't rule out the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6, after i check out this blackops board and depending on reviews of it i will end up with the gigabyte one. it looks really nice.

[ziggo0]

pls have my children, you are sexi.

[GTFouts]

Thanks Spawn...I will look into it. I know Dom has had very good results with his X38-DQ6, so one would think the X48 to be even better.

[Spawn-Inc]

it seems to be as good as the x38 and only a slight bit better.

here are some links.
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=1
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_linux_x48&num=1


but the fact that the foxxcon lets you mess with so much stuff in bios makes me want that more. ohwell i'm happy with my system for the next little while so i won't be upgrading any time soon.

[GTFouts]

Thats what keeps bringing me back to the foxconn. I need to read more about it. Only doing 1600 DDR3 just has to be a mistake, at least I hope it is.

[Elluzion]

Thanks for the pics update. Sorry you are having trouble....

haha Quadzilla is hibernating!

[jason4207]

Thats what keeps bringing me back to the foxconn. I need to read more about it. Only doing 1600 DDR3 just has to be a mistake, at least I hope it is.

Don't even sweat that. The Black OPs should work just fine w/ DDR3-1600, DDR3-1800, and DDR3-2000, etc.

That spec listing has no real relevance.

You are OCing, so you can set the RAM frequency to whatever you want.

To run the 2:1 divider you should set the RAM to DDR3-1333 w/ a 333FSB, and then OC the FSB. Once you get the FSB up to 450 you'll be running the RAM at DDR3-1800 speeds. If you can get the FSB up to 500 then the RAM will be running at DDR3-2000 speeds, and I'm guessing the RAM you have will do those speeds.

You can always use a lower divider if you want the FSB higher, and your RAM is topped out.

And you can use a higher divider if needed as well. Setting the the RAM to DDR3-1600 w/ a 333FSB is equivalent to a 12:5 divider, and will allow you to OC the RAM to DDR3-1920 w/ only a 400FSB.

The DDR3-1800 setting on the Asus board is equivalent to a 27:10 divider, and probably shouldn't be used anyway unless you do NOT plan on OCing the CPU (FSB).

[Vyncennt]

I have the P5E series in my own rig, and I feel your pain.

This entire line of boards is buggy and unreliable. I'd like to strangle a few Asus employees at this point....I'm sure you'd love to join me =p

Just a thought....were you aware that you need to raise the NB voltage to run 4 sticks? And also, if you are using performance RAM you need to raise the DIMM voltage also...usually 2.1-2.2? Lastly, were you aware of the over voltage issues with that board? It can easily be a RAM cooker :mad:

[GTFouts]

Just a thought....were you aware that you need to raise the NB voltage to run 4 sticks? And also, if you are using performance RAM you need to raise the DIMM voltage also...usually 2.1-2.2? Lastly, were you aware of the over voltage issues with that board? It can easily be a RAM cooker :mad:

Yea....I have kind of deduced that from reading in the Asus forums. We have a MB that cant start up because the stock settings wont start the RAM. I dont even know what to say about that. I have been in the bios 2 times with it, but unfortunately I didnt know about this back then.....:bang head.

If you max out the 4 displayed voltages (called the CRAZY mode), by that I mean the voltages that have LED's on the MB (CPU - RAM - NB - FSB), then you have the mode mine is trying to startup in. After reading, I think its because the RAM doesnt have enough startup voltage and its freaking out the MB. Why they would have a bios that cant run RAM initially is beyond me. The more I read about it, the more I dont even want to mess with it. I tried everything I could think of to get back into the bios and set the RAM voltage, everything they told many others to try, even tried things that made no sense at all. I could never get it to post again, so I sent it back before I got any more frustrated and ended up breaking something.

Now I'm just waiting for the Blackops to be released. I mean, what the hell, cant dance, might as well get a blackops. Someone has had it 5.5GHz stable on water (chilled water if I am not mistaken) and not that high of voltages either. I would be estatic with 5, and will settle for 4.5 and be very happy. But I think 5 is a very reachable goal, we shall see. Prolly have a Blackops before Asus sends it back anyway.

[Hazaro]

Most boards default at 1.8V, some at 2.0V, some higher performance RAM won't start at 1.8V.

[jason4207]

Love the new avatar GT!

[GTFouts]

Me Too!! I was bored Saturday, so I started up Gimp and began screwing around and came up with that. Its not finished yet, I'm still trying to figure out how to animate it a little. Its getting there tho.

[jt001]

Holy...:eek:

I thought my rig was gonna be extreme with 2 loops, but looks like you've got me beat.

Excellent job routing the tubes, probably one of the cleanest wc jobs I've seen. How about putting different color dye in each loop so you can differentiate them, I think that'd look cool anyway :burn:

Might I ask how you have them configured? Looks like 1 loop per video card, 1 for the cpu, but a whole loop for the chipset seems a bit excessive.

[Stratus_ss]

Might I ask how you have them configured? Looks like 1 loop per video card, 1 for the cpu, but a whole loop for the chipset seems a bit excessive.

and 4 loops on its own doesn't strike you as excessive? LOI

[QuietIce]

Holy...:eek:

I thought my rig was gonna be extreme with 2 loops, but looks like you've got me beat.

Excellent job routing the tubes, probably one of the cleanest wc jobs I've seen. How about putting different color dye in each loop so you can differentiate them, I think that'd look cool anyway :burn:

Might I ask how you have them configured? Looks like 1 loop per video card, 1 for the cpu, but a whole loop for the chipset seems a bit excessive. I can understand wanting each video and the CPU on their own loops - it's wild, crazy, and excessive - but I can understand it and even relate to it!!! :D

I think the NB loop was simply a left-over and also allows for future expansion, like RAM, SB, or MOSFETs on future boards. He did say this was built to be future-proof for several years. In 2-3 years it may be a 2x CPU board in there or 3x video cards - who knows ...?!? :)

[GTFouts]

I can understand wanting each video and the CPU on their own loops - it's wild, crazy, and excessive - but I can understand it and even relate to it!!! :D

I think the NB loop was simply a left-over and also allows for future expansion, like RAM, SB, or MOSFETs on future boards. He did say this was built to be future-proof for several years. In 2-3 years it may be a 2x CPU board in there or 3x video cards - who knows ...?!? :)

Exactly Correct QuietIce! Future Proof setup is the key aspect of this whole project. Multiple CPU's, GPU's, hell, maybe even NB's, who knows what the future will bring. Rest assured, this monster will be able to handle it with nothing more than a hose routing change and still keep everything as cool as possible.

I had the space for Two 120mm fans which I was originally going to use for the 120mm fan hard drive brackets so I had constant air flow accross the HD's. Then I decided if I'm going to put in 2 fans I might as well have them spaced for a PA120.2, just in case...:D After I bought the Maximus MB then why not put a rad in and cool the NB since it has a built in block. Not going to hurt anything and will keep it as cool as it can get for max OC...right? And with the Foxconn Blackops that will probably , no, WILL be going in now instead of the maximus, well, it has a built in NB block also. With the speeds it's supposed to be able to run, the NB loop will be a very good thing I do believe.

For those who are curious about the loops, they are as follows:

loop 1 = res>pump>3870X2-#1>PA120.3
loop 2 = res>pump>3870X2-#2>PA120.3
loop 3 = res>pump>CPU>PA120.3
loop 4 = res>pump>NB>PA120.2

Now consider Skulltrail, maxed out of course. It would be like this I think:

loop 1 = res>pump>GPU1>GPU2>PA120.3
loop 2 = res>pump>GPU3>GPU4>PA120.3
loop 3 = res>pump>CPU1>CPU2>PA120.3
loop 4 = res>pump>NB>PA120.2 (I would assume)

Is that starting to look excessive now? I dont think so, but thats just me.

[Neuromancer]

Thats what keeps bringing me back to the foxconn. I need to read more about it. Only doing 1600 DDR3 just has to be a mistake, at least I hope it is.

Dont worry about what it says it supports that just for people that run stock :)

Or man Gautum running 1830MHz ddr3. (http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=5506689&postcount=1)

And here hes doing 2000MHz! (http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=5506998&postcount=8)

Oh sweet setup man, very well designed and great tube management :)

Must resist urge to buy WC parts!!!

[MadMan007]

I have a quite pedestrian question after looking at the first picks relative to the magnitude of this build. But I really want to know so I'll ask :) I believe the fan filters you're using, the round metal mesh ones with a screw-out insert, are the ones Petra's sells here: http://www.petrastechshop.com/12blalfanfi.html <- is that the ones you're using? If so how do you think they are for dust filtering versus airflow? I have some of these: http://www.petrastechshop.com/12alfanfibl.html which have very little airflow resistance but I'm afraid not much dust filtering either. The holes are about .7mm, I can fit a .7mm pencil lead in to them, so I'm crious if the ones you got may be better on the filtering?

[QuietIce]

I use both of those fan filters. The square black filter does a decent job of filtering large stuff but does let in some dust. In 18 months I'm finally to the point I need to clean the motherboard that's on the other side if it. All you have to do to clean the filter is take a vac across the intake side once a month or so.

The round screen filters do a great job but also need to be cleaned at least once a month or they clog up. The only good way I've found to clean them is to remove the screen and take it to the sink for a good dose of soap & water. The machine using these filters is showing no signs of dust on the motherboard after 8 months - but it is a pain cleaning the little buggers every month ... :-/

[GTFouts]

QuietIce is absolutely correct again. He's on a roll folks! The Dustright removable filters like I am using do an outstanding job of filtering. Exactly the ones you have linked at Petras. I've had them on my current rig for a few years and it stays squeeky clean inside. I got this kind because it is removable for cleaning so you dont have to take the unit apart at all or unscrew any fans and such. But, as Q said above, they can be a hassle only because the screws are so tiny. I personally use a vac to clean mine and it works fine for the major stuff and a quick clean. Taking them off to clean them isn't really too much trouble since you only need to do it once a month or so. Really depends on the dust factor of your room. This is important - when you screw those tiny screws back on, DO NOT tighten them as tight as you think you need too. You WILL strip them very easy. Just screw them in until they just bottom out and leave it. They will never come loose and you will not strip them. There are little standoffs on the base that the screen kind of snaps on too, so just be careful with the screws. These are the only ones I have found so far that are (just screen) removable and lets nothing get into the case. I personaly love them.

[MadMan007]

Sounds tempting, I don't mind some more frequent filter cleaning if it filters better and still has good airflow. Does it? Or is it at least equal to that open-cell foam that's in lots of cases you htink? Too bad I'd already gotten some of those other filters :-/ It's just too hard to tell from pictures how fine a filter is or how much airflow it allows.

[GTFouts]

Quadzilla Awakens!!!

ASUS finally decided to send me a new Maximus MB, that only took them a month....geesh! Amazingly it fired right up and I am actually able to go into the bios and get this monster started!

Now comes the task of installing Vista 64 and all the updates, drivers and all that stuff to get it to a normal stock windows desktop. I will then be able to run 3dmark06 and Everest to get all the stock speed temps and numbers. Hopefully that will be completed by tonight. Then we get to start playing with this super speed setup and see just what it's capable of doing on water.

My goal is to get it to 5.0GHz, might be stretching it on water. I will settle for 4.5 if I have too but I really want 5. I know this setup can do it, I just don't know if water will keep it cool enough, we shall see.

Muahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Tat2monsta]

whooo. nice one. good luck today. hope it all goes to plan

[jorisje123456]

You must get a hard-on just looking at that thing

[GTFouts]

SIGH......whelp.......back in hibernation again.....seems that all 4 of my Icebox res's have failed and are leaking like a danish dam, every one along the bottom back glue joint, all the way across. Whatever glue they used has failed. UN-Frickin-Believable! Bout fed up with these acrylic res's. Time to go to metal. Sorry peeps, will be another week it seems. The Gods hate this rig I am beginning to believe.

[satandole666]

SIGH......whelp.......back in hibernation again.....seems that all 4 of my Icebox res's have failed and are leaking like a danish dam, every one along the bottom back glue joint, all the way across. Whatever glue they used has failed. UN-Frickin-Believable! Bout fed up with these acrylic res's. Time to go to metal. Sorry peeps, will be another week it seems. The Gods hate this rig I am beginning to believe.

When it rains it pours man. Sorry to hear about that. I was just getting caught up on your build progress. You have a nice setup.

Just do us all a favor and don't waste any money on lottery tickets. :-/

[GTFouts]

Going to order 4 of the Alphacool Cape Bullseye res's. Actually thought about it in the beginning but didn't do it. Wish I had now, but, hindsight is 20-20. Just wish they made them with a UV blue bubble, that would look so sweet.

[LucrativeFuture]

Going to order 4 of the Alphacool Cape Bullseye res's. Actually thought about it in the beginning but didn't do it. Wish I had now, but, hindsight is 20-20. Just wish they made them with a UV blue bubble, that would look so sweet.
Are you sure you want anodized aluminum in your loop?

[Sam__]

Sorry to hear bout the problems dude.... rele feel bad for you. :(. hope you get the res's fast and can get it up and running. i wanna see some benchies!

[GTFouts]

Are you sure you want anodized aluminum in your loop?

Not ordering the aluminum ones, gonna get the POM ones. Since they are milled out of a solid block and the bubble has an o-ring instead of glue, then I feel there will be no such thing as leakage with these puppies. Will be an interesting look I think.

I wanna see the benchies too!! Stock vs As Maxxed as I can get it!

[myststix]

I had the same thing happen with my systems a few times. I just didn't bolt it down correctly.

also, you may consider using mineral oil instead of water. It has a specific heat of .4 compared to waters 1.0, but with your amount of radiators, that doens't matter much.

If mineral oil leaks, your system won't get killed either.

[Diddyu]

How loud does that run, it seems like it would sound like a jet taking off.

[HDCHOPPER]

jezzzzzz your haveing a rough time !! sux big time !! :bang head was hopeing it would go all better cause eyem going to water soon & figgered you had it all figgered out for me .

good luck:beer:

black ops is next for me:beer:

[voigts]

This is why I make my own reservoirs. I make mine out of all 1/4" cast acrylic solvent welded with Tapplastics solvent. I take mine and hook them up to the kitchen faucet on almost full flow to pressure test them. If they hold about 30-40psi, they aren't going to leak. It is companies that don't make quality products that give reservoirs a bad name.

I can't believe how much trouble you have had with this build over stupid stuff. It is almost ironic in a sense given the huge amount of time you obviously have spent on the small details and the expense of setting it all up and making it look so good and well organized. Hopefully it will all come together.

[GTFouts]

From reading around on the web it seems that alot of others are having this same problem with these Icebox Res's. It's a shame really that a company would make a product that cant stand up to plain distilled water. All they did was sit there for a month with water in them. No additives, no flow, no pressure. What can I say, live and learn.

I will have my new NON-leakable res's by Wed. I have already removed the bad res's and tied the lines together so I could at least fire it up and get Vista 64 loaded and all updated and all the drivers and programs on. I wont do any OC'n until I have it complete but I may be able to do the stock speed runs to have the starting numbers. Takes me a while cause I have Satilite internet and your only allowed 150MB per day. Makes for some frustration when you have to dload 100's of MB on an install like this.

[voigts]

Takes me a while cause I have Satilite internet and your only allowed 150MB per day. Makes for some frustration when you have to dload 100's of MB on an install like this.

Where in the boonies in GA do you live that you only have satellite and not at least cable?

[Drew@PSU]

GTFouts, this defines the term: "Beast of a system"

Can't wait to see it rocking and rolling, best of luck

[GTFouts]

Its way in the backwoods, so to speak. Not enough houses for them to justify the expense of putting in cable, too bad. They did install a brand new DSL hub a half a mile down the road but the jerks wont turn it on yet because of the same reason, or so I'm told by AT&T anyway....sigh. As soon as they do I will drop this satellite in a heartbeat, believe me, I destest it.

I'm having a little trouble getting this thing OC'd. Don't like the voltages I am having to set to get it to boot. I need to go into the MB forums and post a thread and see if I can get some help on smoothing this thing out a little.

Oh Yea....My First Post On Quadzilla!!!! Muahahahahaha

[WonderingSoul]

I wanna see some temps of those 3870X2s :D

[GTFouts]

I'm going to post some scores and temps here today....soon as I get this beast a little more stable.

[GTFouts]

OK, have some interesting numbers so far, thought I'd share. Still an In Progress situation, but getting there.

STOCK Speeds
CPU=3GHz
MEM=1333
FSB=9x333
Video=No OD turned on, stock CCC speeds

Xfire OFF
Score=16544
GT1=53.903
GT2=53.878
HDR1=115.627
HDR2=71.403
CPU1=1.485
CPU2=2.230

Xfire ON
Score=17801
GT1=54.231
GT2=54.602
HDR1=86.254
HDR2=71.159
CPU1=1.488
CPU2=2.213

All the rest have Xfire and Overdrive ON

CPU=4.0GHz
MEM=1600
FSB=10x400

Score=18518
GT1=58.657
GT2=60.992
HDR1=110.455
HDR2=78.915
CPU1=1.509
CPU2=2.206


CPU=4.4GHz
MEM=1600
FSB=11x400

Score=25110
GT1=77.161
GT2=80.691
HDR1=153.776
HDR2=103.969
CPU1=2.099
CPU2=3.099

CPU=4.5GHz
MEM=1800
FSB=10x450

Score=25936
GT1=80.569
GT2=81.090
HDR1=159.211
HDR2=106.953
CPU1=2.191
CPU2=3.245

Right now my idle temps (in Everest) for the cards are as follows. I guess I need to start the log so I can see what they are during a video stress:

GPU1 Diode=25
GPU2 Diode=28
GPU3 Diode=28
GPU4 Diode=31
GPU1 VRM=37
GPU2 VRM=36
GPU3 VRM=40
GPU4 VRM=37

[Jolly-Swagman]

GTFouts. Man that is sure is one impressive crazy Rig there ,Very well managed too.
Well done!!

[Hazaro]

Nice numbers there, better start breaking out the 13 multi though ;)

[QuietIce]

Pretty awesome speeds you're racking up there ...! :drool:

[GTFouts]

Now I am truely Impressed. I can't believe this 3Dmark06 score with this resolution, amazing!

4.5GHz
10x450 FSB
1800 DDR3
Xfire on
O/D on
No AA

Resolution: 2560x1600

Score: 21773

SM2.0 = 9339
HDR/SM3.0 = 9061
CPU = 6688

GT1 = 75.486
GT2 = 80.170
HDR1 = 88.181
HDR2 = 93.030
CPU1 = 2.199
CPU2 = 3.254

Never expected to break 20k with 2560x1600. Very curious to see what it does when they get Xfire working smooth and maxed.

[WarriorII]

Really nice rig. :thup:

Fantastic job.

Thanks for sharing it.

:attn:

[HawaiiSuperman]

Amazing! What kinda of cpu temps are you getting btw? Thx.

[HDCHOPPER]

EXELLENT ! EXELLENT ! great speed and fantastic scores:drool: thanks for all the post and shareing all the loops :beer:

pat yourself on the back thats 1 hell of a machine :drool:

[GTFouts]

Well, I finally got this monster stable at 4.05GHz. This Maximus Extreme MB fought me all the way. It does NOT want to play nice and I am not pleased with it very much. I felt it should have done 4.5GHz with no problem, but as usual, I was wrong. I am definetly going to give the Blackops a go when it gets released. Perhaps it will OC smoother and with less voltage, we shall see.

Max I can get with this, and feel comfortable that is, is 9x450 DDR3 1800 with a vcore set in bios to 1.43125. Has to be a 450 FSB before it sees DDR3 1800. Not too awful tickled with the temps, but I can live with them, they aren't that bad. I would have thought they would be a bit better, but, live and learn. I had it cookin at 10x450 but the vcore had to be set to 1.6 just to boot into windows and 1.6375 to stay running. It was windows and 3dmark06 stable but not Prime or Orthos stable, and I was not going to go any higher because of the temps I was seeing. Test 2 is one of the hotter tests in orthos, (and it would not get past that test) and the cores would idle in the high 50's to low 60's and load in the low to mid 80's, ON WATER! Unbelievable! I couldn't live with that at all.

So I was forced to go back to 9x450. I tried 9.5, but it acted flakey and just didn't act right at all, plus I had to get into the 1.55 vcore area to get it to boot into windows. Still too hot for my comfort. I keep reading where you should not run Quads above 1.4, but screw it. If this Extreme chip cant handle 1.43125 then it will just have to fry.

So, as far as temps go, now that I have settled on the speed for this MB, they are as follows. Keep in mind that this is idle temps while just running Internet Explorer & Everest, and that Core 0 is 5 degrees hotter because everest is running. If I turn everest off, it drops down to 42-43:

[QuietIce]

That seems awful high on the CPU for idle! Especially with you running a PA120.3 on each! :eek:

Where and how big is the exhaust on your case? Are the Panaflo's cranked up? Did I missing something somewhere? Even at those extreme speeds your vCore is relatively low. I just don't see it ...

[jorisje123456]

Ever thought of replacing those GPU's by 9800X2's? (awfully expensive but with your rig... LOL)

[GTFouts]

I thought so too, especially since the CPU is on its own loop. I dont understand why it is so hot. I know its not the GTX seat because I have had it off numerous times and it is always seated perfectly. I know its not everest because core temp reports the same temps, within 1 or 2 degrees anyway.

It is a quad core, and I read where they run hotter than dual cores when you get above 1.4 volts, maybe thats why, I don't know. Like I said, I am not happy with it, but if you compare it to an air cooled system, it is cooler, or would be if this was an air setup. Can't really speak for others who have air. I would sure like to know what other people's temps are who have the QX9650.

My Q6600 in my other PC runs alot cooler than this chip and its OC'd to 3.6GHz on a p5k deluxe. But its not an extreme chip. Does this make a difference? Again, I do not know, evidently it does...shrug. Water is flowing like crazy, pumps are all cranking at 4400 rpm's, water starts out in the low 20's and ends up in the mid 30's after heat saturation, so there is definetly some heat. I am as confused about it as you and can not discover an apparent reason. All I can deduce is perhaps I have a hot chip.

Right now I have all the fans turned down to about 1/3 speed. They are pulling a decent stream of air, if you put your hand in front of the screens, while staying pretty quiet. There are 11 fans pulling air into the case and 1 pulling it out. Definetly have positive pressure for sure and it is not very warm air inside either. Cooler than I would think with these temps.

So either this chip is a hot runner, or the MB is a hot runner. I really dont know what else to think. I suppose when I change it to the Blackops I will find out for sure. I am definetly going to do that because I have little faith in this MB, being that the first one was totally screwed and this second one is giving me so much trouble.

[Drew@PSU]

Glad to see that you are making progress, shame about that chip though....those temps are ridiculous for a PA 120.3!! Best of luck, maybe the next mobo will help those temps out some more...
-Drew

[GTFouts]

Ever thought of replacing those GPU's by 9800X2's? (awfully expensive but with your rig... LOL)

I know exactly why the video cards run a little hot. The EK full coverage blocks do not have screw hole standoffs. So when you tighten down the block, ever so carefully, it does warp the board a little, a very little, and it doesnt make perfect contact with the memory chips. This I discovered when I took the blocks off once and saw that I did not have nice AS5 squares where all the mem chips were, 2 of them to be exact. So I started putting it on and off to see if it was my fault. I decided it was not my fault because the blocks will just not seat perfectly on the memory. Either the blocks are not machined properly or the mem chips are not seated properly on the cards. Go figure. Both GPU's and the interface chip seat nicely tho, as does the rest of the memory.

[QuietIce]

It is a quad core, and I read where they run hotter than dual cores when you get above 1.4 volts, maybe thats why, I don't know. Like I said, I am not happy with it, but if you compare it to an air cooled system, it is cooler, or would be if this was an air setup. Can't really speak for others who have air. I would sure like to know what other people's temps are who have the QX9650.

My Q6600 in my other PC runs alot cooler than this chip and its OC'd to 3.6GHz on a p5k deluxe. But its not an extreme chip. Does this make a difference? Again, I do not know, evidently it does...shrug. Water is flowing like crazy, pumps are all cranking at 4400 rpm's, water starts out in the low 20's and ends up in the mid 30's after heat saturation, so there is definetly some heat. I am as confused about it as you and can not discover an apparent reason. All I can deduce is perhaps I have a hot chip. I'm also running a Q6600 and though it's not as fast as yours, only 3.4 GHz, I've really got the vCore cranked up. It's at 1.52v and has been for over a week now but SETI/F@H load temps are only 40-45°C on a 120x2 heater core and relatively quiet fans. Your speed is ~20% faster but your vCore is ~20% lower so even with an extreme quad I just don't see those temps. :shrug:

Right now I have all the fans turned down to about 1/3 speed. They are pulling a decent stream of air, if you put your hand in front of the screens, while staying pretty quiet. There are 11 fans pulling air into the case and 1 pulling it out. Definetly have positive pressure for sure and it is not very warm air inside either. Cooler than I would think with these temps. Typically there's only a 2-4°C difference in intake to exhaust air and if anything yours should be on the low side with all the fin area you have. How big a CPU temp difference do you see with the fans cranked all the way up for 15-20 minutes?

You've got the fans turned down but they're pushing against a lot of resistance since your intake to exhaust is 1:12? Have you taken the cover off for 15-20 minutes to see if that resolves the temp issue ...?

[GTFouts]

Hmmmm....not too encouraging at all, 30 min each test time, at Idle.

Covers on, all fans full, 1 to 2 degree difference which is nothing.

Covers off, all fans full, 3 to 4 degree difference on Core 0, 1 to 2 on everything else, which again, is nothing.

It did, however, lower the water temps by 5 degrees, from 30 when I started to 25 right now. But that still did not lower any chip temps.....interesting.....depressing, but interesting.....

[Dawgdoc]

I agree those CPU temps are not looking good.

Even though is a MONSTROUS PITA Im sure, I would try a remount and see how it goes. Also I would check each and every fan to make sure its blowing air in the correct direction, and that you like the direction that your air is flowing. If you have fans blowing hot air in the wrong direction it can mess up your temps more than you may think......

Also, post some 3D scores with default resolution. Thats what everyone uses to compare. Noone really runs the higher than default resolutions except for playing around.

Nice work so far! Dont expect your overclock to just "gel" right away with a beast of this size. It will take weeks (or more) of tweaking BIOS settings, remounting, hardware/driver tweaking, yada yada yada.

But....when you finally get it all set for your 24/7 overclock you are going to be LOVING ANY game you play.

What batch # is your QX9650 BTW? If you are running your ram at 1800 you may be pushing the limit on your ram instead of your CPU. Just to see what happens, I would use only 2 sticks and run them 1:1 FSB:Ram and see how high you can get the CPU then.

[GTFouts]

I already posted all the different scores with default 3dmark06 settings, one or 2 pages back.

I only have 2 sticks of memory. Had 4 to begin with but I returned 2 thinking they were bad and they refunded me instead of sending me replacements.

Here are all the numbers off of the CPU box:

Prod Code: BX80569QX9650
S-SPEC: SLAN3
MM#: 894493
FPO/BATCH#: L739A646T
Version #: E23438-002 1.25V max.
Pack Date: 12/20/07
EAN: 5 032037 008020
UPC: 7 35858 19757 1

1.25V MAX? Good Lord, perhaps all this reading about not going over 1.4 has some merit to it. But if thats the case, just how are you supposed to OC this chip which was designed for OC'ing? Thought thats what extreme chips were all about, I just don't get it some times. I truely do believe its this MB, have no proof, just a gut feeling.

I'm only having this trouble with a 450 FSB setting. 400 lets me do about anything I want with no trouble, but its only DDR3 1600 then. Now I know that really wont make much difference in the end game, but I paid for DDR3 1800 memory, and the specs of this MB say it will do it, only I am finding out it sure doesnt like too. If I drop the FSB down to 400, my temps and voltages drop drastically, to where they should be. Maybe I'll try that again and see just how high I can get it running at 1600 instead of 1800. I'll almost bet I can go 11x or 12x before I get back to these temps and voltages. well, maybe not 12, but 11 for sure, 12 would be pushing it I think.

I guess I am just disappointed that I cant get a stable 4.5GHz with this MB, chip and WC setup while keeping my temps down to normal or a little above normal. I originally thought I could do that easy and that getting too 5GHz would be the pain. Boy was I totally off base on that one!

Just in case you're curious:

Ai Overclock Tuner....................Manual
OC From Memory Level Up.......Auto
CPU Ratio Setting.....................9.0
FSB Frequency..........................450
FSB Strap to NB........................333
PCIE Frequency........................110

DRAM Frequency.......................DDR3-1801
DRAM Command Rate...............2T
DRAM Timing.............................Manual

..............Primary Info.....7-7-7-20-7-60-10-5

CAS# Latency.................................7
RAS# to CAS# Delay.......................7
RAS# Precharge..............................7
RAS# Active Time............................20
RAS# to RAS# Delay.......................7
Row Refresh Cycle Time..................60
Write Recovery Time.......................10
Read to Precharge Time..................5

..............Secondary Info.....8-5-6-4-7-4-7

Read to Write Delay (S/D)...............8
Write to Read Delay (S)...................5
Write to Read Delay (D)...................6
Read to Read Delay (S)....................4
Read to Read Delay (D)....................7
Write to Write Delay (S)...................4
Write to Write Delay (D)...................7
DRAM Static Read Control.................Disabled
DRAM Dynamic Write Control............Disabled
Ai Clock Twister................................Strong
Ai Clock Skew for Channel A.............Auto
Ai Clock Skew for Channel B.............Auto
Ai Transaction Booster......................Auto


CPU Voltage.....................................1.4312 5
CPU PLL Voltage...............................1.62
NB Voltage........................................1.5 7
DRAM Voltage...................................2.04
FSB Termination Voltage...................1.54
SB Voltage.........................................Au to
Loadline Calibration..........................Enabled
CPU GTL Reference...........................0.63
NB GTL Reference.............................0.67
DDR3 Channel A REF Voltage............Auto
DDR3 Channel B REF Voltage............Auto
DDR3 Controller REF Voltage............Auto
SB 1.5v Voltage ...............................Auto

NB LED Selection..................NB Volt
SB LED Selection..................SB Volt
CPU LED Selection ...............CPU Volt
Frequency LED.....................Enabled
Voltminder LED....................Enabled

CPU Spread Spectrum...............Auto
PCIE Spread Spectrum..............Auto

[QuietIce]

Just for grins you might try 4.2 GHz or so with the lid off - maybe even a little active cooling across the board, like an external fan. I still think it's the air-flow, partially supported by the drop in temps you did see. Hmmm, maybe flip the fan directions on the rear rads ...???

[GTFouts]

I've thought about that, but dont like it much. The rear rads are the CPU and NB rads. Then I would be pulling all the hot air from inside the case across them. But I'm still thinking about it. I am going to wait until I get the blackops and see what it does. If I still have this issue, then I will give it a go. Hell, can't dance, might as well flip some fans.


I may end up having to put some fans in the covers. Sure hate to cut holes in the acrylic panels tho. We shall see.......

[Dawgdoc]

A few more suggestions GTFouts.....

Put both of your spread spectrum (CPU annd GPU) to DISabled.

Play with your GTLRef settings. I see you have them on something other than auto. What I typically do is keep those at auto, find my max overclock, and THEN play with them to see if I can gain a few extra mhz. (thats just what I do, others may do differently).

Thats a decent batch QX9650 of week L739A. The final #s of the batch (646) are a bit sketchier, but I think you should get CONSIDERABLY more with an L739A batch of QX9650.

1.4v max is nonsense IMHO. I would put that CPU higher under CONSIDERABLY more volts, but thats just me. Under good water (which you have) once you get your mounts/fans all the way you like them I would personally max this chip at 1.6v for 24/7 usage, but thats just me and I am known to really like the volts :D. I would only use 1.6v if it gains me more overclock, and if it doesnt I would use the least volts possible to achieve the max stable overclock I am looking for.

It is VERY strange IMHO that your temps drop when you decrease your FSB. Temps should be strictly a function of volts, cooling, and ambient temp. FSB and amount of overclock shouldnt factor into temps in any way at all. But hey...Im not there you are so you would know more than I about your specifics.

Check your secondary RAM timings with the manufacturer of your ram, and check on the ram manufacturers forum to make sure your subtimings are not hindering you. For me personally, unless I am benching and looking to eek every last mhz or 1/100th of a second on a bench I keep all subtimings at auto for my 24/7 rigs.

Have you tried a max FSB overclock yet? Drop your multi as low as it will go, or at some reasonably low multi such as 6X or 7X. Then see what your max FSB that you can acheive with the CPU mildly overclocked. At 6X multi you can get 500fsb and still have that CPU at stock so it shouldnt be a limiting factor. That will allow you to see if it is your CPU, or your mobo holding you back.

Check your ram volts. 2.04v looks low to me but I havnt really used much DDR3 so I could be way off. Start with stock volts as per manufacturers recommendations on your ram, and then if you are going to overclock it at all bump it "a bit".

I would also personally set your FSB termination voltage to auto, but I dont think that is likely causing any problems at the low volts you are currently using.

Good luck man!

[QuietIce]

I've thought about that, but dont like it much. The rear rads are the CPU and NB rads. Then I would be pulling all the hot air from inside the case across them. But I'm still thinking about it. I am going to wait until I get the blackops and see what it does. If I still have this issue, then I will give it a go. Hell, can't dance, might as well flip some fans.


I may end up having to put some fans in the covers. Sure hate to cut holes in the acrylic panels tho. We shall see....... You could always go reverse of "normal" and put the rear fans on intake and the front on exhaust. My fans are that way ...

[GTFouts]

I am finding out, thru playing with this pig of a MB, that it has issues, bad ones. When I cant go above 450fsb using 6x no matter if I set things to auto or set them way high, then to me that points right to the MB. It wont work for anything set above 450, no matter what multiplier I use. This mb should be laughing at 6x-anything. I mean, it wont do squat at 6x460 and thats BELOW stock speed for this chip...pathetic.

If 450 is the ceiling for this MB, then trust me, its going to get drop kicked right out the back door. Especially when I have read numerous reviews where they were topping out in the 500's for the max FSB test. Truely is frustrating I tell ya.

[Dawgdoc]

450 is super low for FSB maxout.

Just as an example (not a good one) my Mars can do 600+. Of course, thats a P35 chipset and your Asus Maximus Extreme is an x38.

To be honest, the more and more I read, and the more and more people post results, I cant EVER see myself getting an x38 mobo. At least not when x48 is out there :D

Try increasing your NB volts an see if you can push further.

Also try increasing your PLL volts.

Additionally, some mobos have a "hole" between certain FSBs. Try jumping up 25 -40ish fsb and see if that works. Go for 475, and if that doesnt work try 500.

Ya never know...

[GTFouts]

Ah well....I had to try...kinda felt this MB was Da Debil! I have tried every combination I can think of. I even set all voltages to 1 notch below red and went thru 451 thru 550. It wont even show initial post video as soon as you go past 450 on any multiplier. 450 is this ones max. I hope it enjoys its very short life span. Kinda figures I'd get not 1, but 2 lemons. Figure the odds on that!!!! First time I have ever had problems with an Asus MB....Geesh.....

It works and will stay on 9x450 until foxconn decides to release the blackops. What more can I say......

[Perseus]

Looks nice! I am interested in the fittings used, and the converters used on the PA with teh fittings?

And guys, how much it costs is not of your business... would you rather he not post because you make a big deal about cost? I will delete those posts on site from now on, and, if you catch me in a bad mood I will ban you for 3 days.

Wow, things have changed a bit around here during my break! :beer: Well said nik, and DAMN fine box, GT.

[Vagabond102]

Awesome build man! I just read the entire thread. Sorry for your issues.

I did see something in your post #165. It shows your PCIE at 110. That sucker needs to be locked to 100, or in some cases, 101. There are very very little gains over default that I am aware of, and it can really cause havok. I don't know how this board handles it, but some the FSB will modify the PCIE frequency.

I could be wrong here, but just another Item for you to try.

[Hazaro]

Awesome build man! I just read the entire thread. Sorry for your issues.

I did see something in your post #165. It shows your PCIE at 110. That sucker needs to be locked to 100, or in some cases, 101. There are very very little gains over default that I am aware of, and it can really cause havok. I don't know how this board handles it, but some the FSB will modify the PCIE frequency.

I could be wrong here, but just another Item for you to try.

Clock it up to match his CPU speeds.
I forget where I heard that though.
Mine is running 110

[Lukee]

Wow, what a project.

I thought that the temps would be lower with all that cooling in there. Is there a point where more radiators is "bad"?

[GTFouts]

Has nothing to do with the radiators. I finally did find why the temps were so high at idle. Believe it or not, when running Everest it adds 8 to 10 degrees at idle. I couldnt believe it but its true. If I turn everest off and just have Coretemp running, BAM, temps drop down to the mid to low 30's....Go Figure....

Anyway, I have my BLACKOPS now...Muahahahahaha...going to try to install it tomorow. Man will I be glad to be away from this Maximus, so disappointed in it. But thats ok...live and learn. I will say this, it has hurt my confidence in ASUS, and I was a hard core Asus user....sigh.....

I dont see any reason I can have this monster cookin at 4.5 easy. I am hoping to get it to 5GHz on this water setup, but, that may be a bit much for it. The blackops is an amazing board from what I have read, so we will find out what its maxes are for water. Like I said before, I'll be quite satisfied with a stable 4.5, jumping for joy with 5! Hey, a man can dream, right? We shall see....

[Lukee]

Great. Good to know.

[Mpegger]

Everest is a resource hog for some reason. I've noticed fps gains in most games just by turning it off. And not just 1 or 2 fps, sometimes as much as 20+ fps depending on the game. Wish there was something better though cause most of the other programs I've tried are either outdated, crash prone, or do not/can not monitor as many different parts of my PC as Everest can.

[necrokiller]

May I ask how much money you've spent on this, so far?

[Essenar]

May I ask how much money you've spent on this, so far?

Not too big on reading moderator's posts are ya?

That's personal and asking makes things awkward. He knows that if people want to know, he can say. When making the THREAD, the idea came to him about saying cost. The fact that he didn't say in his first post should tell you and anyone else posting here, that he does not want to say how much he spent.

OP: Great build. I hope you post with results after finding out why the CPU temps are high. Check for kinks in the lines, any of the blocks in the loop causing resistance. Hell, even for all time's sake, just check the blocks for build up or improper fastening.

There's bound to be a reason. You're running rather low Vcore to be seeing those temps.

[apintojr]

Has nothing to do with the radiators. I finally did find why the temps were so high at idle. Believe it or not, when running Everest it adds 8 to 10 degrees at idle. I couldnt believe it but its true. If I turn everest off and just have Coretemp running, BAM, temps drop down to the mid to low 30's....Go Figure....

yes everest reads higher cause its using the wrong TJ for the cpu.

[Fx-53]

How much, if any, difficulty did you have in drilling holes in the case through the powder coating?

[GTFouts]

No Fx-53, not a problem at all. It's just painted aluminum, no different than drilling a hole in anything. UFO's are fabulous cases. The only thing I dont like about them is that the aluminum is a bit thinner than I would like in some places. It need a little re-inforcement around the power supply hole that is above the motherboard. When you mount a supply there, the weight tends to bow out the back, especially if its a larger supply like the one I am using.

Also the thumb screws for the side panels need to be longer when using plexiglass sides. For aluminum sides they are just fine, for plexi they only grab about 1 thread and I cant seem to find longer ones online anywhere. They do hold, but I would much prefer longer ones.

Well, I have the Blackops installed now. I can get it to post just fine at all stock speeds, but the minute I try anything else it wont post at all. I know its something silly that I am missing. I'll have to look around and try to find some guides or writeups that might slap me around and show me what I am doing wrong. I dont feel I am doing anything wrong, but ya never know. Maybe its because I have 4 sticks of memory installed, that has been a problem on MB's before for some reason, I dont know. I'm just happy to have it running right now. Took me 2 days to install this and get everything done the way I wanted, so I'm a bit frustrated that I cant get a very mild OC to begin with. Best thing I can do right now is just sit back, take a break and look around to see. Hopefully I can find some informative Blackops posts.

[andyl33t]

Damn, nice! Looks really good!

[Rickpatbrown]

You don't have a quad PSU setup? . . . and you call yourself quadzilla?

Goodluck with the blackops. I hope your luck turns around.

[Fx-53]

GT- How bad is the issue with the bowing on the elevated PS slot? I'm trying to decide if I want the back to be a triple rad slot to and just have on PSU hole, but I'm going to run the board horizontally and it would put the PSU bay wagging up in the air. What abour some acrylic rod to brace it with?

[Dj Spiel]

nice setup man

[GTFouts]

GT- How bad is the issue with the bowing on the elevated PS slot? I'm trying to decide if I want the back to be a triple rad slot to and just have on PSU hole, but I'm going to run the board horizontally and it would put the PSU bay wagging up in the air. What abour some acrylic rod to brace it with?

Its not what I would call something you would care for or want to have happen to your very expensive UFO case. I had to brace mine before I felt better cause I didnt like it one bit. Now, a normal sized PSU should be just fine, they dont usually weigh near as much as a larger one, but an oversized one, like the Galaxy I have, is very very heavy. You would want to figure a way to brace the rear of the PSP if you use a larger one and the hole is not at the normal bottom corner of the case.

[Endgame124]

Hey Fouts - I've been watching this thread on and off, and all I can say is I'm very impressed.

Regarding your CPU Temp issues, did you ever figure that out? My bet would be a concave IHS on that QX9650 - a good lapping might fix some of the temp problems. On the other hand, lapping a CPU does take a bit of guts!

Awesome Job man!

-Endgame

[omni]

I hate you with a passion .... All I can say is, I can't wait till I am out of college and have a decent job so I can compete with you ;) For now, I will have to stick with my simple setup, and I was all excited about getting water cooling :(

[-orb-]

I hate you with a passion .... All I can say is, I can't wait till I am out of college and have a decent job so I can compete with you ;) For now, I will have to stick with my simple setup, and I was all excited about getting water cooling :(

Whoa whoa whoa, don't rain on GT's parade here. Just because you don't have as nice a setup doesn't mean you have to make him feel bad for it...

In any case it should just make you excited about the endless possibilities with water cooling rather than making you think of how much worse yours may be.

[GTFouts]

Endgame124 - I dont have any temp issues anymore now that I have the Blackops. In my little bit of exp. with the Maximus, it definetly runs hotter than any MB I have had, at least the one I had did. I am also finding that the QX9650 needs more vcore than other chips when you pump it up above 4GHz. So, of course, you're going to have a bit higher temps. Plus, Everest adds another 10 degrees when its running the temp monitoring because it seems to use alot of CPU when doing this. It does the same thing with the Blackops. I have been turned on to a program called Real Temp that I feel alot better with in monitoring CPU temps.

Omni - I'm not here to compete with anyone. I did this for me, and me alone. In reality, this is a totally ridiculous setup that overkill doesn't even begin to define. The cost of putting together a setup like this does NOT justify the end results. A 2 loop system would perform the same, maybe 2 or 3 degree difference at worst. Do not let the WC bug bite you and make you think that more is cooler, this is not true in the least bit. Water can only cool so much no matter how much of it you have. Keep that in mind when you decide to build your own system.

[voigts]

Water can only cool so much no matter how much of it you have.

That is a very balanced, good point. You don't go through the expense and work to make something like this JUST for a few more degrees. You do it because you like doing it.

[BeHappy]

That rig is out of control beautiful...

[omni]

Whoa whoa whoa, don't rain on GT's parade here. Just because you don't have as nice a setup doesn't mean you have to make him feel bad for it...

In any case it should just make you excited about the endless possibilities with water cooling rather than making you think of how much worse yours may be.
This was meant as a "mocking" compliment, it really is a beautiful system, just wish I had the money to invest in such a system :)

[jokers_greg]

....WOW