New build, also the first

Hello people! My english isnt really awesome, hopefully this is not going to be much of a issue.

Little story first. Recently my computer crashed... badly! So i decided to take what i had in bank to buy a new one. Looking around at Alienware, DigitalStorm, iBuyPower, Velocity blabla... god prices are just insane, impossible to get the right information on whats inside the case and the customer support is awfull in most case. So i decided to check for other options...

Soo i got the brilliant idea... why not making it yourself?! Now its at this point that you hear my girlfriend saying how dumb i can be sometime and slapping me behind the head...
Cause ya, i never really build any big system. In the past 10-12 years i did build some but the basic. Soo ya, since its not everyday i can afford something like that, better start today no ?!
Also this system will be for two things. First for gaming, since i never really had a "real" one before. Second for my work, graphic designer and photographer.

Soo long story short, since that brilliant idea to build my own expensive little baby... i realised that i knew little about today hardwares and stuff. Soo since a month i made my class, readed everything i can, most post on forums, reviews, project logs, asking friends, random people, youtube, etc... i have a headache since i started. Mostly cause she keep slapping me behind the head for a month...

I made my class yes but, we all know, nothing is better than a veteran point of view. So i decided to ask around on this forum to see what people was thinking about... mostly EVERYTHING related to this project. People just keep telling me im freak to do that. So i want to be exactly sure about every part of this project. Accepting every kind of help, critic, comments, ideas, everything that can help me out with this beast.


Budget - 7,000$ US
I must say that im living in Canada(east), sooo shipping cost is something to think about.
And not more than 7,000... have a car and a rent to pay!!!

- Intel Core i7 980x 3.33 Ghz
- EVGA x58 Classified 3-Way SLI
- Corsair 1000w or EVO 1250w
- 12GB Corsair Dominator 1600
- x2 EVGA Nvidia gtx480
- x2 Intel x25-M 160GB SSD Raid 0 (OS)
- 640GB Western Digital 7200rpm (Data)
- Whatever CD/Dvd burner
- Memory fan cooler... i heard the corsair one make lot of noise
- 140mm fan, havent decided wich one yet

Build into a Corsair 800d

Since i said it would be a beast, its also going to be watercooled... of course!
I had to read ALOT on that and still reading... and if someone know a good way to choose all fittings/barbs needed for a Dual loop after reading my post... tell me! Little a hard time choosing direction and angle and etc.

- CPU block: EK-Supreme HF
- Mobo block: EK-FB EVGA x58 Classified
- GPU block: EK-FC480 GTX
- Rad 1: Thermochill PA120.3 (cpu + mobo loop)
- Rad 2: Thermochill PA120.2 (dual sli loop)
- Rads fans: gentle typhoon 1450 (or 1850?)
- Reservoir: EK-Multioption Advanced 250
- 2 Pumps: 2x Laing DDC MCP335 Lain DDC MCP335
- 2 tops: EK-DDC X-Top V2
- Tubing: Primochill primoflex 3/8"ID - 5/8"OD
- Fan controller: Lamptron FC5V2

-Barbs/fitting/etc - Bitspower... havent decided what i need yet

...
- MDPC Sleeves (love these!)



After calculating, ill probably going to make some change on the two SSD for just 2 big HDD in raid 0. Shipping cost can be a real issue sometime
Not sure yet, giving myself 2 weeks to finish this shopping list and starting sending money around the world.

For the water cooling dual loops. I was thinking 1 Res than...
Loop 1 (pa120.3) - Res > Pump 1 > Rad > CPU > Mobo > Res
Loop 2 (pa120.2) - Res > Pump 2 > Rad > Gpu > Gpu > Res

Power supply hmm... i know corsair is coming up with a gold 1200w that i would like but for now... im not sure. Do a corsair 1000w would be enough ?

Im pretty much following some other project logs. The Corsair 800d was my first choice and when i found what people have done with it, it confirmed everything. Since im far to be pro, i think its more safe to follow a couple of good project logs. Just to have some directions to follow. Im a noob, cant do miracles!

Soo one Rad on top (pa120.3) and second one (pa120.2) next to the power supply a the bottom. Still thinking where to put the 2 pumps hmm... actually, still having that fitting/barbs issue...

Im thinking about overclocking, lets just say... yes i will... but i dont know how... but im not there yet hehe

Im aware that the 980x and the 12gb memory is too much for a "gaming" system, but i also going to work on it sooo...

Soo its pretty much all little details i can give for now.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated... im here for that. If its too tell me that im stupid to start a project like that, i allready know


Peace people


Ohh on a side note. Aesthetic approach would be either black/grey/white/white tubing with UV lights or a orange/yellow theme... just so you know! hehe... maybe yellow/blue... decisions, decisions, decisions!

Dude stick around in these forums for awhile before you order your parts....my guess is you could build an absolutely kick-*** rig without dropping 7 G's.

Good luck with the build.

- Cobra

Cobracity said:

Dude stick around in these forums for awhile before you order your parts....my guess is you could build an absolutely kick-*** rig without dropping 7 G's.

Good luck with the build.

- Cobra

Click to expand...

Thx Cobra,

yes i could probably hang around for months and keep "studying" everything i can, but the problem is, i kind of need a comp at home pretty soon. Not being able to work at home is starting to be a problem.

Hopefully it will not cost 7,000! hehe, lets just say i could reach that high. Main goal of course, isnt to burn money but at the same time having something worth the price.

Alegorik said:

Thx Cobra,

yes i could probably hang around for months and keep "studying" everything i can, but the problem is, i kind of need a comp at home pretty soon. Not being able to work at home is starting to be a problem.

Hopefully it will not cost 7,000! hehe, lets just say i could reach that high. Main goal of course, isnt to burn money but at the same time having something worth the price.

Click to expand...

Hi!

I am a professional photographer too. Built my rig last year (920, P6T v2, GTX295, etc). I have been building my own rigs since 2005 but only got into water cooling after about a few months worth of reading. Hardcore WC is not mass marketed and it requires quite a bit of technical know how. I am not tech inclined so I had to spend a bit of time to understand a little bit of the science.

My rig was primarily built to handle 24mp RAW file processing (LR2 or C1Pro) and real time burn/dodge in LR. Only way was to go 4ghz on the 920 else dodge/burn would lag. The GTX295 was for MW1&2 and BFBC2. Checking parts for best price/performance and *most* importantly, stability took quite a lot of reading. Learning OC took me quite a bit of time.

I recently took the plunge and frankensteined my rig (spec is in my sig). It's a newbie setup but I've learned quite a bit with hands on experience. My next step is probably doing a customized case later on while using the MCR320 as the foundation. Here is the end result. No bling but a lot of zing. I've pushed it to 4.11ghz so far, > 50% over stock and work has gotten slightly faster. Feels a bit like a new rig from last year.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4454885&postcount=144

My suggestion is to build your system on stock air 1st. Get it burned in, troubleshoot (DIY systems are generally fuss free if you get the right parts), do a proper OC and start studying WC in earnest with FAQs from here, XS and RRT. It's quite a bit of work and the wrong step can either mean you waste more money/time or get your stuff shorted out, etc. Modding cases to fit radiators takes quite a bit of work.

As Conumdrum has said, 'Take it slow.'

Btw, the 980x is a great processor but it offers approx 28% improvement for a >200% price levy. Just my opinion. But maybe the extra money can go to a nice NEC or EIZO or a 27inch Dell.

Have fun!
Wes

Thx Wes!

I stopped using LR cause of the overall lag with previous systems long ago. Only my MAC can handle it... along with 24x36 300dpi prints file of 1-2GB! hehe

for the 980x, youre right. I was mostly looking for the 6core, the price is high but the overall performance for what im doing with it (while working) is way better.

Loving your rig, i do wonder where you gonna put the rads now

I actually like that suggestion of running on stock air first. I would just be worried about how high the temp would go on stock (along with the noise hehe). But thats good, i do need to start somewhere anyways and so far it sounds like a good first step to me. Even too, ill be able to figure out my fitting/barbs/etc setup that way hehe.

Starting on air is a fantastic idea. Since you have been out of the game for awhile this will allow you to troubleshoot before you add products from the unknown. This will also give you a basis to compare from. My suggestion, if you do choose air to start, is to buy a different cpu heatsink. The stock one is garbage. Learning how to mount with an air cooler is much easier than tearing down your wc loop because you messed up (experience here). Since the GTX 480's put out a ton of heat I would opt for a 120.3, but from the build logs the easiest to mount at the bottom is a 120.2. The PA's do not use standard G 1/4" threading, they use 3/8". Depending on what you plan to do, you may need a converter. Also, I noticed you only listed one res, you will need one for each loop you do. Well, technically you do not NEED a res, but "T" fill lines are no fun. I believe that is everything until one of the gurus join this thread.

For your psu question: According to Tom's Hardware the GTX 480, under load, draws 450w.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-480,2585-15.html
Since you will have two of them that is 900w under load. If you add 226w (cpu), under load and at stock, (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-980x-gulftown,2573-12.html) that is roughly 1126w under load. I personally like to have some headroom on these matters. I do not own either the cpu or the gpu, so I can not tell you how much you need from experience, only according to the numbers I have found.

Alegorik said:

Thx Wes!

I stopped using LR cause of the overall lag with previous systems long ago. Only my MAC can handle it... along with 24x36 300dpi prints file of 1-2GB! hehe

for the 980x, youre right. I was mostly looking for the 6core, the price is high but the overall performance for what im doing with it (while working) is way better.

Loving your rig, i do wonder where you gonna put the rads now

I actually like that suggestion of running on stock air first. I would just be worried about how high the temp would go on stock (along with the noise hehe). But thats good, i do need to start somewhere anyways and so far it sounds like a good first step to me. Even too, ill be able to figure out my fitting/barbs/etc setup that way hehe.

Click to expand...

No probs, you'll be shocked at how a nicely oc-ed 920/930 runs LR burn/dodge. I read that the 980x can do 4.3ghz without breaking a sweat. Unbelievable. The key for me is working at speed of thought, anything slower breaks my concentration. Btw, I clocked RAW -> 8 bit TIF, it's 4.85sec/image on the 920 @ 4.11ghz. Faster & cheaper than a Macpro!! woohoo. I run dual systems and have been on Windows since Win 3.1 and Mac OS9, Win7 64bit is the best OS. Ever.

The other thing that you might want to spend money on is a solid SSD and land the LR the preview jpgs on it. There's lots of lag there during loading, esp when you have hundreds of images in the folder.

Higdon's right about the stock cooler, try to buy a 2nd hand TRUE or Megahalem from OCN. Lots of good folks selling 2nd hand stuff in the FS cooling section.

I think you might know this. About getting equipment for work, make sure your vendor has a no nonsense return policy. That's top priority.

About my rads, I am in love with the 3x120s and 4x120s. I probably have to fab a new acrylic case or something, the cases all require extensive work and no current case can take 2x 480s internally comfortably.

Have fun dude,
Wes

[rant]Okay, enough is enough, I have to be missing something. Why is it, when someone has a good budget, they choose the stuff their hardware into an 800D? I just don't get it. With a real budget there are so much better cases to be had. It's like building the ultimate SFF beast, then shoving it into a plastic ThermalTake LAN Box. What is it about the 800D that is attractive? I can only figure two things: The aesthetics are good, and it has cable management holes. Otherwise, it's an overhyped steel box, very poorly designed for water cooling, has terrible airflow, and hotswap bays that nobody besides server technicians will ever use. What is the appeal?[/rant]

Sorry for my rant, there. I just don't get it.

Anyhow, hmm, a dual rad is not going to cut it for two GTX 480s. It's enough for one, with medium to high-speed fans. It's also not enough for the 980x, so swapping rads isn't an option either. You're going to need, at the least, two triples. Normal, 50mm thick, non-slim triples.

A pair of triples will fit into a Silverstone TJ07, Silverstone Fortress FT02/Raven 2 (that's right bro, front and bottom), Mountain Mods Pinnacle 24, Lian Li PC-A77B (can't find in stock in US at the moment), etc.

Higdon
Thx! Confirming me about starting on stock air first.
Sounds like with these numbers ill go for the evo 1250... atleast until someone tell me i need more hehe and the res ya, at first i was thinking to put two of the same res on top of each other and make single loop with each. T solution always looked a pain for most people soo i wasnt sure


Wes
Ahah i was on Vista for a month before it crash. Almost happy the damn thing crashed

For the SSD ya, i should find another way to save money then removing them for HDDs. The two SSD in raid0 just sound sexy to work with!

About your last line, im pretty much wondering too. How and in what to fit 3 gigantic rads into a case with 2 480

Going to check around every single case possible, mostly the ones Ilden listed and lets see hows possible !

Ilden said:

[rant]Okay, enough is enough, I have to be missing something. Why is it, when someone has a good budget, they choose the stuff their hardware into an 800D? I just don't get it. With a real budget there are so much better cases to be had. It's like building the ultimate SFF beast, then shoving it into a plastic ThermalTake LAN Box. What is it about the 800D that is attractive? I can only figure two things: The aesthetics are good, and it has cable management holes. Otherwise, it's an overhyped steel box, very poorly designed for water cooling, has terrible airflow, and hotswap bays that nobody besides server technicians will ever use. What is the appeal?[/rant]

Sorry for my rant, there. I just don't get it.

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Ahah no worry, i was asking myself the same since last week. For me ist aesthetic only. All black and simple design. But at this point sound like ill have to find another one... 2 triple will recquire more place hehe.

have you considered using a corsair h50 for the cpu cooling, its watercooling but without the hasstle and it gives really good performance.

good luck.

rlzla said:

have you considered using a corsair h50 for the cpu cooling, its watercooling but without the hasstle and it gives really good performance.

good luck.

Click to expand...

Thx rlzla. Thats exactly what i was thinking to use before getting into the watercooling part of the overall system!

you could always get a mountain mods case with a rad base and just do a 120.4 for your gfx and a 120.3 for your cpu, that'll give you headroom. Also, you may want to do some thinking on the dual loop idea, i don't know how photo editing and what you listed draws on the cpu and gfx, but unless its pulling about 80% on each pretty constantly, you should think about just doing it all on one loop (you'll still probably need 2 pumps) because that's how your overall temps will be best.

Also, consider changing that 7200 rpm drive out for a 5400 1.5tb drive if you stick with the ssd's. there's no real reason to have a 7200rpm drive AND 320gb of ssd's, you do your data storage on the hdd and your programs and os on the ssd's.

m0r7if3r said:

you could always get a mountain mods case with a rad base and just do a 120.4 for your gfx and a 120.3 for your cpu, that'll give you headroom. Also, you may want to do some thinking on the dual loop idea, i don't know how photo editing and what you listed draws on the cpu and gfx, but unless its pulling about 80% on each pretty constantly, you should think about just doing it all on one loop (you'll still probably need 2 pumps) because that's how your overall temps will be best.

Also, consider changing that 7200 rpm drive out for a 5400 1.5tb drive if you stick with the ssd's. there's no real reason to have a 7200rpm drive AND 320gb of ssd's, you do your data storage on the hdd and your programs and os on the ssd's.

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Hi!

I just did some testing. Although Photoshop does use a bit of the nvidia GFX card, it's very limited. My card stays at 10c delta most of the time. However, the CPU does get pushed to 90-100% usage for encoding. According to Gabe's (Swiftech) latest data at XS, a single loop should suffice.

As for the 7200rpm vs 5400rpm, I am running 1.5TB WD Green drives. There's a slight difference in file open/save operation. The physical size of each file can go from 40mb to 100mb so sequential transfer time does have an impact on large Photoshop batch actions. If I had the money I would have gone for 1.5TB Blacks.

Atm, the programs (including 2 games) and stuff occupy about 60GBs+ in my OS drive, so a Raid0 of Intel 80GB SSD should suffice.

Wes

Ah, I didn't know that photoshop had such large files, yea, a 7200 is probably the better decision.

m0r7if3r said:

Ah, I didn't know that photoshop had such large files, yea, a 7200 is probably the better decision.

Click to expand...

No worries. Professional photography is a specialized field and the requirements can be extreme on some cases. There are folks who regularly work with 200-300mb files.

Wes

Yea, I've done webdesign, so I figured it was similar to that, but clearly its on a much larger scale.