New Build - "SteamdrivN" - X99-Deluxe3.1USB - First Ever Loop :-)

New Build - "SteamdrivN" - X99-Deluxe3.1USB - First Ever Loop

Build Log – First ever custom water cooled loop: "STEAMdrivN"

G’day all,

My new build is underway and is going to be my first ever water cooled project. As I'm a complete novice with water cooling I thought I should do a build log to record the project and post it here to hopefully gain any help or guidance available from the many experienced builders who have much, much experience and knowledge in such things . I definitely started by reading the water cooling sticky and watching a boat load of "water cooling - how to" YouTube.

Unfortunately my current Core i7-920 has seen better days and is finally going to get a well-deserved and long overdue retirement. The Case, MOBO, 12Gb of RAM and the 1500w PSU are all still good and so I intend to convert those into a freeNAS system sometime next year. My current system, like my previous ones, has had to provide a mix of mainly work, (word processing and spread sheeting etc.) data management (record keeping both personal and professional) and a little entertainment (Flight Sims, 4X and Action RPG type games like Skyrim and Fallout) and the new build will be no different.

I am still working through the final pieces of the parts list, however; the “minister of finance” has agreed to a fairly workable budget so that I can finally play Skyrim with full Project Stability and Maximum Graphic mods, I’m also trying to build a few years of future proofing into the new system, in both the work and entertainment areas.

Most of the parts have arrived and I’ve started doing some ‘pre-build’ bench testing, but as I only ordered the case a couple weeks back; I’m going to have to wait a while till I can start building in earnest, (although delivery shouldn’t be too far away now ).

Trying not to get completely flamed for my choices , the parts list for the build is below:

Sorry this build is taking a while, had to go and help save the free world again - on the bright side the occasional over seas trip does help to fund the odd upgrade or two now awaiting some new, 'replacement' parts (on order) please see below:

Case
CaseLabs THW10;
MOBO
ASUS X99-Deluxe USB 3.1; ASUS X99-Deluxe II;
MVR and North Bridge - Koolance MVR 40/100 Water Blocks;
CPU
Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 5960X;Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 6950X (10(ten) cores with better base speed and a little more overclocking potential );
Bitspower AIX99D Nickel Plated Full-Covered-Block (Black);EK-Supremacy EVO X99 - Full Nickel S2J3 "goofy"
RAM
128Gb of Corsair Dominator DDR4 2666MHz (enough for a decent RAM Drive or two );
2x EK-RAM Monarch X4 (Acetal+Nickel);
4x EK-RAM Monarch Module - Black (2pcs);
GPU
2x EVGA Superclocked 12Gb GeForce GTX TITAN X;2x Nvidia TITAN X (pascal);
2x EK Full Cover VGA Block EK-FC Titan X (pascal)(Acetal+Nickel);
2x EK Full Cover Titan X (pascal) Backplate (Black);
Storage
Adaptec 8805 ROC RAID Controller;
4x Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD (RAID 10);
4x Western Digital WD RE 3TB HDD (RAID 10);
PSU
Corsair 1500W Titanium Series AX1500i;

OS1
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64Bit
OS2
Windows 10 Pro 64Bit

Single Cooling Loop
2x EK D5 Pumps (in series);
2x EK X-RES D5 CSQ 140mm Combo Reservoirs (plus 200mm replacement reservoir tubes);
2x 560mm Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis 560GTX radiators;
1x 280mm Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis 280GTX radiator;(**New**)
About 4m of Tygon A-60-G Norprene 1/2" ID (3/4" OD); and
Various assortment of Bitspower 1/2“ fittings.

Although not ordered yet, I have narrowed down the fan selection to 14x Fractal Design Venturi HP-14 140mm PWM fans and 2x Be Quiet!, Silent Wings 2 140mm PWM fans. But fan selection seems to be really hard these days as there are so many “quiet” fans available and I can’t tell just by looking at the specs which fans will be not only be quiet but won’t have high pitch tones or annoying clicks (I hate high pitch whinny fans even more than clicky ones).
The fan selection above was based on Youtube reviews where I could see and hear the fans being tested. I looked at Noctuas but on almost all the “vids” they seem to make a whiny high pitch sound that put me off them straight away.
I bought 1x Fractal Design Venturi HP-14 and it seems pretty ggod, it's quiet, has a low toned pitch but makes the tiniest clicking noise that you can hear if you hold the fan right up to your ear. If anyone has some first hand experience in what fans will be quiet and not “cliky” or whinny please jump right in and let me know which ones I should be looking at.

I also think I’m going to get a 280mm Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis 280GTX because there will be some free space in the case in front of the MOBO and Res, TBC.



That’s about it for this first post, the parts have started arriving and the “bench” testing I’ve been doing is just to make sure I didn’t get any DOAs, whilst waiting to get started properly.
Pictures of “stuff” and “bench testing" below.



- - - Updated - - -

Reserved

Looks like a beast of a machine. Sub'd.

Since this is a high end build, if you're interested, have a look at the Aquacomputer Aquaero 6 XT. Its a premium controller for fans, pumps, flow meters, temp probes, LEDs, etc and the list is endless. It has its own learning curve. Only problem is it doesn't like 3rd party D5 PWM pumps from the likes of Swiftech, EK, etc because they weren't intel spec'd but will work with its own Aquacomputer D5 PWM if you ever went that route.

As for the fans, I would have recommended the Gentletyphoons but those only come in 120mm. Can't say too much about 140s.

As for the drives, have you looked at possibly going with a M.2 PCIe OS drive? Very fast and better priced then buying many SSDs in RAID. I mean, you won't get the size but the speed will be there, if not faster. Look at the Intel 750 PCIe and the Samsung 950 PRO M.2 since the MB comes with a PCIe adapter for it.

These are just some suggestions but overall this build will be extreme and can't wait to see more of it.

G’day GTX,

The Aquacomputer Aquaero 6 XT – impressive; most impressive.

I’m still researching system and loop monitoring and I definitely like what I just saw watching a YouTube of the 6 XT. Does it take long to set it up? I was considering putting in a Koolance flow meter http://koolance.com/dcb-fm01-flow-meter-adapter-with-display & http://koolance.com/coolant-flow-meter-stainless-steel-with-temperature-sensor-sen-fm18t10 with a couple of either phobia http://www.phobya.com/eng/phobya.html or xspc http://www.xs-pc.com/temperature-sensors/lcd-temperature-display-g14-inline-sensor temperature sensors mounted in a dual mount 5.25; one for loop temp and one for ambient. The 6 XT really looks pretty slick with a lot of head room for adding more monitoring capabilities as time goes by (I also saw a water level monitor on their site), I really like that it can provide dT in real time. I guess I could add the EK pumps to the post build sale – (not knowing exactly what I needed , I think I’ve bought extra fittings, radiator grills, tubing, fan filters and pump tops, (so far) and I've also got a pair of brand new Corsair Dominator cooling kits that came with the 128Gb RAM)

Your so right regarding the Gentle Typhoons , everything I’ve read, watched and/or listened to, shows that GTs are the quietest fans with the nicest tone in both running sound and airflow. It's tragic that you can’t get them in 140mm size; I’d buy 140mm GTs in less than a red hot heartbeat, if someone could tell me where to get them.

I like your suggestion about the m.2, I was also very much considering a Samsung 950 PRO 512GB SSD m.2 (PCIE) http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...isite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/overview.html. However; although the MOBO has a PCIE 2 x4, the top GPU will block off the expansion slot at the back of the case and it also shares bandwidth with the SATA Express connectors; which wouldn’t be an issue if you could get the card in without losing the GPU . The dedicated m.2 (socket3) shares bandwidth with the PCIE 3 x16 slot 5 which is the only “free” slot if you want to get 16 lanes to each GPU - 16,(),0, 16,0,8 (where () is the PCIE 2 x4). I’ve looked into using a PCIE riser in the PCIE 2 x4 with a USB3.0 cable going to a PCIE x16 powered extension and then attaching the PCIe card for the m.2 using one of the case’s back expansion slots that are lower than the bottom of the MOBO. (the THW10 Case will fit XL-ATX), but decided that this would have to be a future addition project. The ASUS X99-Deluxe has a lot of really nice features but most of them “double up” on resources with other really nice features, which can kinda take the shine off if you want to use both.

After much internal debate, I thought going RAID 10 on both the “system” and “storage” drives by using a ROC controller in the PCIE 3 x16 slot 5, would mean that I can give the RAID Controller a dedicated 8 lanes and still have 16 lanes going to each GPU. This set up would also free up the CPU from RAID/storage tasks, provide somewhere near 1500Mb/s reads on the SSD array, future growth using expanders on the storage array and 100% redundancy all round. The draw back/cons were, doing it this way costs a boatload more. I ended up deciding that I’m only going to build a relatively high end system from the ground up, once in my life, so I’m going to give it a go and see if I get the performance that I think I should.

Apart from the RAID performance, my plan for getting sooo much RAM is to 'run' programs in dedicated RAM Disks that will copy themselves back to the storage array when not in use, this should give somewhere between 7000Mb/s and 8000Mb/s speed in both read and write performance for programs while I'm using them https://www.raymond.cc/blog/12-ram-disk-software-benchmarked-for-fastest-read-and-write-speed/.

BTW I like your build log series, your system has grown a fair bit over time

Wow, G5, you have a tone of $$$ tied up in that rig.

What monitor (monitors) are you using?

G5 said:

G’day GTX,

The Aquacomputer Aquaero 6 XT – impressive; most impressive.

I’m still researching system and loop monitoring and I definitely like what I just saw watching a YouTube of the 6 XT. Does it take long to set it up? I was considering putting in a Koolance flow meter http://koolance.com/dcb-fm01-flow-meter-adapter-with-display & http://koolance.com/coolant-flow-meter-stainless-steel-with-temperature-sensor-sen-fm18t10 with a couple of either phobia http://www.phobya.com/eng/phobya.html or xspc http://www.xs-pc.com/temperature-sensors/lcd-temperature-display-g14-inline-sensor temperature sensors mounted in a dual mount 5.25; one for loop temp and one for ambient. The 6 XT really looks pretty slick with a lot of head room for adding more monitoring capabilities as time goes by (I also saw a water level monitor on their site), I really like that it can provide dT in real time. I guess I could add the EK pumps to the post build sale – (not knowing exactly what I needed , I think I’ve bought extra fittings, radiator grills, tubing, fan filters and pump tops, (so far) and I've also got a pair of brand new Corsair Dominator cooling kits that came with the 128Gb RAM)

Click to expand...

Technically speaking, you don't need to water cool the RAM but most will do it for looks if anything.

The pumps I would recommend are the Aquacomputer D5 USB/Aquabus so your fan headers are free just for fans as you have a total of 4 channels @ 30w each. You could adjust each channel to voltage control or PWM which is pretty amazing in of itself and have each fan group separate from the others.

From what I've seen around, a Bitspower dual D5 top in serial with a single tube reservoir attached to it will do the trick. Depending where your placement will be, try going with a big size reservoir to give it that pop and use LEDs (AC Farbwerk) for case ambient lighting. My case lighting changes based on water temps. Blue on idle and fluctuates to Red at full load while my fans and pumps gradually ramp up.

As for the Koolance flow sensor, I use the same display and similar sensor. Unfortunately, it will not work with the Aquaero system. You're better off looking at the flow sensors from AC for the AQ. Their own air and water temps work as well as any other 3rd party really. I had wanted to use 2 AC water temp sensors but since they were out of stock, I was forced to purchase from Phobya which are just fine. When it comes to air and water temp sensors, its fairly universal but when its flow meters and pumps, you have to make sure its compatible with the system as a whole to get your full control and monitoring capabilities. Its really a fun and amazing piece of hardware. I've set up fan and pump curves along with displaying many delta temps. I'd show you some screen shots of the software but don't want to take up space in your build log.

G5 said:

Your so right regarding the Gentle Typhoons , everything I’ve read, watched and/or listened to, shows that GTs are the quietest fans with the nicest tone in both running sound and airflow. It's tragic that you can’t get them in 140mm size; I’d buy 140mm GTs in less than a red hot heartbeat, if someone could tell me where to get them.

Click to expand...

Have you looked at the 140mm Noiseblocker eloops and EK Vardar? I know their 120m versions perform well.

G5 said:

I like your suggestion about the m.2, I was also very much considering a Samsung 950 PRO 512GB SSD m.2 (PCIE) http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...isite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/overview.html. However; although the MOBO has a PCIE 2 x4, the top GPU will block off the expansion slot at the back of the case and it also shares bandwidth with the SATA Express connectors; which wouldn’t be an issue if you could get the card in without losing the GPU . The dedicated m.2 (socket3) shares bandwidth with the PCIE 3 x16 slot 5 which is the only “free” slot if you want to get 16 lanes to each GPU - 16,(),0, 16,0,8 (where () is the PCIE 2 x4). I’ve looked into using a PCIE riser in the PCIE 2 x4 with a USB3.0 cable going to a PCIE x16 powered extension and then attaching the PCIe card for the m.2 using one of the case’s back expansion slots that are lower than the bottom of the MOBO. (the THW10 Case will fit XL-ATX), but decided that this would have to be a future addition project. The ASUS X99-Deluxe has a lot of really nice features but most of them “double up” on resources with other really nice features, which can kinda take the shine off if you want to use both.

After much internal debate, I thought going RAID 10 on both the “system” and “storage” drives by using a ROC controller in the PCIE 3 x16 slot 5, would mean that I can give the RAID Controller a dedicated 8 lanes and still have 16 lanes going to each GPU. This set up would also free up the CPU from RAID/storage tasks, provide somewhere near 1500Mb/s reads on the SSD array, future growth using expanders on the storage array and 100% redundancy all round. The draw back/cons were, doing it this way costs a boatload more. I ended up deciding that I’m only going to build a relatively high end system from the ground up, once in my life, so I’m going to give it a go and see if I get the performance that I think I should.

Apart from the RAID performance, my plan for getting sooo much RAM is to 'run' programs in dedicated RAM Disks that will copy themselves back to the storage array when not in use, this should give somewhere between 7000Mb/s and 8000Mb/s speed in both read and write performance for programs while I'm using them https://www.raymond.cc/blog/12-ram-disk-software-benchmarked-for-fastest-read-and-write-speed/.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I would steer away from PCIe 2.0 since you have 3.0 capabilities. I actually use 2.0, don't get me wrong its still fast (1100 MB/s Read, 900 MB/s Write) but would rather deal with 3.0 for almost double the performance. Go with whatever you feel comfortable with and is exactly how you want it but just giving you a heads up on it since it will blow your mind, not as much as the Ramdisk will though.

G5 said:

BTW I like your build log series, your system has grown a fair bit over time

Click to expand...

Thank you sir. Much appreciated.

gkline said:

What monitor (monitors) are you using?

Click to expand...

I hope he has a surround sound setup for a rig like this.

G’day gkline, and many thanks gtx,

Yes, I have parted with one or two coins getting the new components and I think, I still have a few more coins to bid farewell before I’m done. But as I said, I use the system mainly for income producing activities, so it has to be reliable and have capabilities that will enhance my work, making my out of hours efforts more productive and efficient; it doesn’t hurt that the system also has a reasonable level of entertainment capability either (work/life balance and all ).

Gtx, you’ve made some very solid suggestions , I think after a little more research, if I go with the Aquacomputer Aquaero 6 XT, I’ll also get the PWM pumps and the sensors that match. Won’t hurt to get all the monitoring components from the one place either.

Peripherals

At the moment, I only have triple ASUS VS248H 1920x1080, 2ms, 24inch LED Monitors that I bought a year ago, limited by what my current system could handle, so unfortunately, they are going to have to do for a little while longer. The ‘Minister of Finance and Home’ would have a meltdown if I purchased new peripherals right now. I have let it ‘slip’ to her, that a single 4k 27” monitor would probably be better for my eyesight, if I got rid of the triple 24” set up (but then again, a single 4k 27” in between two 24” might be even better ).

Sound is based on logitech 5.1 speakers with front/base speakers on/under the desk, side speakers on desk out about 1.2m to either side and rear speakers wall mounted at head height (sitting), on the wall behind my desk/work station. It’s a fairly immersive setup and so, so, many times better than what I have to put up at work.

On the $$$$ thing, whilst the whole water cooling idea has always intrigued me, I never realized that it would add quite so much to the build cost. But now that I have started down the water cooling path, forever will it ........

Nice build man! I have very similar build specs and completed my build a few months ago. I have my 5960x OC'd to a stable 4.5Ghz at 1.29v Core Voltage.


I am needing to add a 3rd radiator which will be a VERY tight fit inside my case... however it works for me and I love it plus it looks awesome! HA

My build was my second watercooled setup but first hardline build.

Good luck with your build! Sub'd.

Josh

G'day J'

Truly awesome looking high end build and a snug fit . With 5 x120?, what's your temps like at 4.5Ghz?

Thnx for the good luck

CaseLabs Magnum THW10

The CaseLabs THW10 arrived in flatpack from the USA so I've been busy assembling it.

Putting the case together was great, everything lined up and all screws went in with no issues. The CaseLabs guys do a really great job, this case is my first CaseLabs case and I have to say I'm super impressed.
As I am keen on keeping my computer system fairly quiet, I lined the entire case with a mix of 5mm, 8mm, and 10mm closed cell foam soundproofing. This is the kind of foam that they use in the auto industry to keep engine and road noise out of the cabin of vehicles. My current air cooled Coolermaster stacker system, sitting beside had the same treatment and it is so quite that you literally can't hear it running.

New Build Photos below: enjoy

Hi all,

Unfortunately this build has been stalled for a little while, due to work commitments - therefore I have decided to get a few upgraded parts before continuing (please see parts list in first post).

This hopefully isn't too stupid a question (watercooling noob an all). With a loop with multiple radiators, does the order of components make any difference to overall or individual temps?

ie: CPU Block -> GPU Block -> GPU Block -> Rad -> Rad -> Rad or

CPU Block -> Rad -> Rad -> GPU Block -> GPU Block -> Rad or

CPU Block -> Rad -> GPU Block -> GPU Block -> Rad -> Rad

I recall reading somewhere that the whole loop reaches a "final" amount of cooling and that it doesn't matter what the order is, but this just seems counter intuitive. Can someone please advise if it is better to remove the heat bit by bit rather than letting the water get to near boiling before putting it through the radiators or does it make no dfference?

Any help out there

Well first thing, if your loop is sized correctly you should only see a temperature delta of water to ambient air of 10 degrees C or less, no boiling water here

As to the loop order. Technically having the rads dissipate heat in between each parts will result in each part being cooler due to cooler incoming water. In reality (once again assuming a properly sized radiator and pump) this temperature differential will only be about 1 degree C so it really will not gain you anything. What most around here recommend is to just have the loop order in whatever fashion makes the most sense for tube routing and looks the best. The only critical thing to remember is the reservoir must feed the pump.

G'day Lochekey,

Excellent, someone who knows how to do this stuff.

I have tried to do the temp calculations using TDPs at what appear to be pretty normal overclocks for the 6950x (circa 4.4 Ghz around 300W) and the Titans at about 120% giving again around 300W each.

Trying to work out how much heat the rads should take out of the loop seems much harder to find out.

Basically I've gone with - a 560mm rad will fit comfortably in the Caselabs THW10 case so I got two of those, (there is enough room for another two if needed), but I'll only get those if my temps don't work. Further there is good space to put a 280mm or a 420mm in the front of the case but I wanted to use a little space for temp gauges and flow meter, so I got a 280mm that will fit nicely and leave heaps of room for loop monitoring gear.

All up that should give me 1400mm of rad, the plan will be to have the fans on the 560s in pull config and the fans on the 280 in push/pull. From my reading I think I'll set them at around 750-800rpm for low noise (I've gone with 140mm Fractal Design HP-140 (high pressure) PWM fans). My man cave/computer room is air conditioned and so I can maintain a comfortable 20 degrees C room temp.

Is there a calculator that will let me work out if I have got enough rad to allow for the overclocks I'm planning on? or would you have a link to a post that explains "how to do the maths" to see if I need the extra 560s or not?

Oh, as far as pump goes I've got two D5s varios with EK X-res tops that will be set up in series and set to 3/5 (again noise).

Many thanks for your help

G5 said:

Hi all,

Unfortunately this build has been stalled for a little while, due to work commitments - therefore I have decided to get a few upgraded parts before continuing (please see parts list in first post).

This hopefully isn't too stupid a question (watercooling noob an all). With a loop with multiple radiators, does the order of components make any difference to overall or individual temps?

ie: CPU Block -> GPU Block -> GPU Block -> Rad -> Rad -> Rad or

CPU Block -> Rad -> Rad -> GPU Block -> GPU Block -> Rad or

CPU Block -> Rad -> GPU Block -> GPU Block -> Rad -> Rad

I recall reading somewhere that the whole loop reaches a "final" amount of cooling and that it doesn't matter what the order is, but this just seems counter intuitive. Can someone please advise if it is better to remove the heat bit by bit rather than letting the water get to near boiling before putting it through the radiators or does it make no dfference?

Any help out there

Click to expand...

Firstly, Dear lord, Twin Titans to start!!!

Your minister of finance is indeed not Ferengi.

Anyway, in my meager and also sort of stalled build...

(I forgot a drain point and work has me swamped too)

...I'm planning to try to take some heat away from the main source before I do end up recycling warm GPU water over my CPU.

I'm going with three radiators, two twin fan and one single. The single is going to be the first thing the heat from the GPU hits and exhaust out the back.

Edit: The GPU(s) put out way more heat than CPU

From there I plan to have the loop hit the CPU then goto the crossflow out the top.

The last place for a rad is my front end and it will intake and recycle some heat but my hope is that it is minimal otherwise I will be flipping some fans.

(which would create a total dustbowl of negative pressure)

Edit: II ... also, I may need a larger case, lol, the 2300 is looking tight, I make get a 3300 or a 3500?

Edit: III ... my plan is gpu> small rad> cpu> xflow rad> front rad> res pump> THE DRAIN POINT I FORGOT and again.

Ok so the basic rule of thumb is to have 120mm worth of rad for every 100 watts of rated hardware TDP.

So the TitanXP's are rated at 250 watts a piece and the 6950x is a 140 watt TDP chip. Lets say you overclock slightly and we estimate high on the TDP we will call the gpus 300 watts a piece and the cpu a 200 watt piece this gives you 800 watts of heat to dissipate (please note I am erring on the high side for these values).

If we use our rule of thumb you will need 8x120mm or 960mm worth of rad to cool a 800 watt load. If you are sitting on 1400mm worth of rad you will be plenty fine and then some. This will allow you to get away with running your fans slow to create less noise and still have plenty of cooling capability.

Lochekey said:

Ok so the basic rule of thumb is to have 120mm worth of rad for every 100 watts of rated hardware TDP.

So the TitanXP's are rated at 250 watts a piece and the 6950x is a 140 watt TDP chip. Lets say you overclock slightly and we estimate high on the TDP we will call the gpus 300 watts a piece and the cpu a 200 watt piece this gives you 800 watts of heat to dissipate (please note I am erring on the high side for these values).

If we use our rule of thumb you will need 8x120mm or 960mm worth of rad to cool a 800 watt load. If you are sitting on 1400mm worth of rad you will be plenty fine and then some. This will allow you to get away with running your fans slow to create less noise and still have plenty of cooling capability.

Click to expand...

G'day SalemSaberhagen,

The 'minister' can get a little Vulcan at times but definitely not Ferengi.

Excellent, I may not be the only one with the view of taking away some of the heat between components; although Lochekey above points to it only making about 1 degree C difference. Looking at my case set up I think the loop going from the CPU in the front of the case to a 560mm rad on the PSU side of the case and then back to the GPUs will look quite clean and neat. That will also then put a 560 in between the CPU and GPUs and the 280 and 560 between the the GPUs and the CPU, as you have pointed out the GPUs could make more heat than the CPU.

Excellent, by your rule of thumb, having that amount of spare rad will then help to determine how quiet the build will end up. This is a good thing

Lochekey said:

Well first thing, if your loop is sized correctly you should only see a temperature delta of water to ambient air of 10 degrees C or less, no boiling water here

As to the loop order. Technically having the rads dissipate heat in between each parts will result in each part being cooler due to cooler incoming water. In reality (once again assuming a properly sized radiator and pump) this temperature differential will only be about 1 degree C so it really will not gain you anything. What most around here recommend is to just have the loop order in whatever fashion makes the most sense for tube routing and looks the best. The only critical thing to remember is the reservoir must feed the pump.

Click to expand...

This......

Lochekey said:

Ok so the basic rule of thumb is to have 120mm worth of rad for every 100 watts of rated hardware TDP.

So the TitanXP's are rated at 250 watts a piece and the 6950x is a 140 watt TDP chip. Lets say you overclock slightly and we estimate high on the TDP we will call the gpus 300 watts a piece and the cpu a 200 watt piece this gives you 800 watts of heat to dissipate (please note I am erring on the high side for these values).

If we use our rule of thumb you will need 8x120mm or 960mm worth of rad to cool a 800 watt load. If you are sitting on 1400mm worth of rad you will be plenty fine and then some. This will allow you to get away with running your fans slow to create less noise and still have plenty of cooling capability.

Click to expand...

......and this.

Took the words right out of my mouth. I then proceeded to tell Loch to type just that.

G'day GTX,

Many many thanks to you and Loch, looks like I will be heading in the right direction with help from you guys.


confirmation that more parts are on the way just came in

ekwb
Dear customer, your package was sent 07.10.2016 via .
If there is any delay with your package, you can trace it at with the tracking number attached to your order in your order history.
Thank you for your order! EK Team
Item Sku Qty
EK-RES X3 - TUBE 150 (104mm) 3831109841082 1
EK-FC Titan X Pascal - Acetal+Nickel 3831109831694 2
EK-FC Titan X Pascal Backplate - Black 3831109831700 2
EK-Supremacy EVO - Full Nickel 3831109800188 1

The new and improved components have arrived (see photo in first post)

Asus X99 Deluxe 2 MOBO;
Intel i7 6950x 'extreme'; and
Two (2) Nvidia Titan X (pascal).

I managed to get the two Nvidia Titan X pascals through a 'purchase and freight forward' company - because NONE of the component retailers here in Australia have them.

I am sorry if this is blatant but Phillis at Big Apple Buddy was so amazing I just have to let other people here in Oz know - Go to http://www.bigapplebuddy.com/ and Phillis can get you Titan X pascals and have them shipped to you in Australia delivered within two weeks.

Bench testing round two POST 131GB RAM