Corsair H005

[wlucas]

Overheating, would you believe......

What, an overheating computer?

Being more serious, that is great you are doing that for the kids, but the aim, IMO should be its long term functionality. IMO you are cramming too much stuff in there to have it be a reliable system...

Thank you for your kind words. Would you believe me if I tell you that when i get done it will function at 4.6Mhz and provide some child years of reliability and enjoyment? If you have not looked at my profile, please let me tell you that I am one of the best reliability engineers in the world today!

 

[wlucas]

What, an overheating computer?

Being more serious, that is great you are doing that for the kids, but the aim, IMO should be its long term functionality. IMO you are cramming too much stuff in there to have it be a reliable system...

This fan should significantly help to remove the GPU heat. 40cfm will really move
some air through the case.

 

[EarthDog]

This fan should significantly help to remove the GPU heat. 40cfm will really move
some air through the case.

naa, not really at all. Its clear to me that device will exhaust whatever heat it manages to suck up inside the case. The same location where the problem exists in the first place.

You overbuilt for the case my friend, back it off, especially if this isn't for you to deal with once it leaves your hands is my best suggestion.

 

[trents]

Your absolutely right. This is a horribly designed case for the components I am installing in it. It would not of been my choice for a build of this type. I am starting another build this week, to play with these new Ivy Bridges a little more. My new build will be using a NZXT Phantom 820 case.

Back to the subject at hand. I only took this build on to see if I could take an obsolete Alienware and turn it in to a functional powerhouse. The whole challenge of this build is to get past the challenges we have discussed while keeping the case as original as possible. I donate my builds to under privileged children and I can already imagine the smile on the childs face that ends up with this vintage Alienware with quite a surprise under the hood.

The kids will love the racy design of the case. Kids dig on things like that. Looks like a bat mobile or something super heroish.

More power to you!

 

[RnRollie]

to get any internal heatin gproblems under control, some plexiglass ducting can be arranged i guess

 

[wlucas]

I popped three 12gb Titan's in my vintage Alienware today.. The first issue I ran in to is that the Titan's are significantly longer than the GTX760's and butt right up to the Corsair radiator. I purchased some Antec 120mm fans (1600rpm 56cfm) and replaced the stock fan on the access door and put one in the rafters of the case (hidden) just to the left of the second set of memory sockets (C&D).

To get the case hot I put the system through some exhaustive 3DMark benchmarking tests running the tests for approximately 7 hours. I set up recording for my frequency and temperature monitoring so that I could look at temps relative to time and CPU frequencies. I ran my processor at 4.6Mhz 1.325 core voltage and my memory at 2000Mhz, 1.55v. My fans were set to turbo mode.

According to my AI utility, the motherboard temperature ran as high as 57@ and my CPU hit a high of 68c for a relatively short period of time. Throwing out the outliers, I came up with a case mean average temperature of 51c at 100% load. GPU temperatures on the Titan's averaged a high of 69c at full load. Idle temps of my processor averaged 24c, while the motherboard averages 39c. The Titans ran very cool at idle, at an average of 27c.

The most disturbing issue that pretty much made up my mind of how i finished my vintage Alienware build, was that I did not consider power consumption. Running the processor, fans and liquid cooling, the system averages about 190w power consumption. With 2 GTX 760's, high wattage peaks at about 580w. The titans pegged the PSU at full tilt, 850w and were obviously needing more. I stuck a 1,200w PSU in and pegged it as well and no doubt, I am still underpowered.

Faced with having to purchase a 2000w psu and giving it another try, I made a call to the folks at EVGA and simply asked them how much power I was going to need to run my current setup, they recommended 2000w and a minimum of 200amp. The cost of running this setup is prohibitive for most middle class people. A disadvantaged family could never afford it and the case will not take a power supply of that size.

So I have finished my build with the purchase of a EVGA GTX 780 3GB. I toned down the over clocking to 3.9 and some change. I ran a 3DMark Firestrike test just for the heck of it and I am very happy that this build achieved a score of 10,241. A little fine tuning will bring that up a few notches, but not bad for a semi tuned build. Case temps are under control and the Corsair H105 is performing outstandingly.

I am now starting my next build, a system for myself for a change, that I am waiting on the case and MB to arrive this week.

I will be using a NZXT White Window Edition 820 case with a Rampage Extreme IV Black ED MB, Intel 4930K CPU, 32GB Corsair Vengeance PC1700 2400Mhz RAM, Corsair H110 liquid cooling (i'm hooked), One EVGA GTX Titan Z 12gb GPU, (I have two more for donation or sale if anyone needs them), Corsair 1,200w digital PSU, 4 Intel 3500 series 600gb SSD, 1TB WD Black, LG BlueRay (1st slot), LG DVD (2nd slot).

I am very excited about the new build and wish the case and MB were already here. All other parts have come in. This will be my first PC since I switched to MAC in 2009. I want to thank everyone for their input in helping me get my radiator straightened out in my vintage Alienware. I have already found a deserving 12 year old who will be receiving it by the end of this week. I will post some pics of the new build soon.

 

[EarthDog]

Glad you scaled things back a bit as that is all for the better in the end.

You system looks like a beast, though you can easily get away with something a lot cheaper (for example, there is not need for that motherboard - its made for extreme overclocking and you are buying features you will not use). Do you need 32GB or is 16GB plenty. 8GB is fine for a gaming rig 16gb is futureproofing while 32GB, unless you actually use more than 16GB is a waste of cash as well.

4 SSDs? I assume in Raid0? Do you need that throughput? Meaning, do you work with large sequential files frequently?

....or is this build just because you have the money and can regardless?

 

[NeonCancerCandy]

holy crap i wish i had that kind of money to throw around.
i can't even imagine that sort of disposable income.

 

[wlucas]

Earthdog, you bring up some very good points. All I can say is that I like to have more than i need just because I don't ever want to be lacking what I may need in the future. I have been an avid computer nut for many years. Before the internet I use to run bulletin boards under Opus and GT Powercom. Even back then I bought equipment that frankly was overkill for what i was doing.

That said, I have learned over the years to find wholesale sources to take a bite out of the financial sting my hobby costs me. I budget about $250,000.00 a year for my hobby and usually spend it all. Some of it I write off by donating builds to underprivileged youths.

I don't normally post on sites such as yours but my desire to learn more about liquid cooling brought me here. I am not trying to show off or impress anyone with my builds, I am just telling people what I have in my system so that maybe they can give me informed advice. Quite frankly, most of the people that reply to me have systems that make mine look weak.

holy crap i wish i had that kind of money to throw around.
i can't even imagine that sort of disposable income.

Neon, I am not sure any income these days is disposable....lol. I can tell you that over the course of my career, I have made a lot of money doing things on the side. For instance, my brother and I were the first people to ever sell cars on eBay, were the largest dealer on eBay and were the driving force that helped to launch eBay Motors. That is just one of many things I have been involved with in my life.

My steady profession is reliability engineering. In that field I certainly did not make a fortune. My last position only paid $185,000.00 annually. I have always made my hobby money with different businesses I have either started or invested in on the side. That said, most of my hobbies are funded with money I put aside for giving to charities. My favorite charity is giving to my church and then giving to underprivileged children. I was a very underprivileged child and it does my heart good to help young people.

Finally, this board and many others are filled with people who appear to spend substantially a lot more money on their personal systems than what I do for myself.

 

[EarthDog]

I hear ya wlucas, and certainly understand your plight. I am saying you can have your cake and eat it too, while actually spending less. I am sure since you can toss around 250K just for a hobby, you likely saved and budgeted well among making a hell of an income so you can see where I am coming from.

While it is seemingly a drop in the bucket against your budget, its still a waste of money to get such a high end board and never use it to its capabilities. You wont be lacking what it has to offer unless you decide to go into sub-zero cooling and benchmarking. If that is a twinkle in your eye, go for it. Otherwise, save $250 and get a board that still has everything you need and more. Or if you just want it for no reason, that is OK too. But you came here to ask our advice and most don't have a tenth of that budget so understand that our minds are in completely different places.

You can also give more to the kids with what you save... (and also by building more appropriate rigs for their uses but still high performing machines - there are other reasons to go along with that as well...).

 

[wlucas]

Great point

I hear ya wlucas, and certainly understand your plight. I am saying you can have your cake and eat it too, while actually spending less. I am sure since you can toss around 250K just for a hobby, you likely saved and budgeted well among making a hell of an income so you can see where I am coming from.

While it is seemingly a drop in the bucket against your budget, its still a waste of money to get such a high end board and never use it to its capabilities. You wont be lacking what it has to offer unless you decide to go into sub-zero cooling and benchmarking. If that is a twinkle in your eye, go for it. Otherwise, save $250 and get a board that still has everything you need and more. Or if you just want it for no reason, that is OK too. But you came here to ask our advice and most don't have a tenth of that budget so understand that our minds are in completely different places.

You can also give more to the kids with what you save... (and also by building more appropriate rigs for their uses but still high performing machines - there are other reasons to go along with that as well...).

I have already paid for the new MB and RAM, I guess I could send it back. That said, what MB would you suggest for my Intel 4930k? That said, I am not impressed with the 4930K and from what I have read, the extreme edition is a complete waste of money and the one below mine, is not worth owning. Should I return the processor and buy something different? How about the case and psu I have mentioned. Please tell me your dream build?

 

[wlucas]

Some final pictures



With the EVGA GTX 780 installed. As you can see, I was forced to turn the Radiator around again due to the size of the 780 GPU. I contacted Corsair and they told me that they actually have a case that requires the radiator to be mounted vertically. They assured me that mounting it with the plumbing on top will not affect its performance whatsoever.



Side access panel fan install. Note the way Alienware powers the light and fan on this access cover. There are four contact points that when the panel is attached contact four contacts on the bottom of the Aurora case. These contacts power the fan and a green led in the Alien emblem on the side panel. I wonder if any other case manufactures have ever done this. I hate having to disconnect a cable every time I pull a side panel off to disconnect the fan so I can lay the panel aside.



I had to fabricate a bracket to stick the fan in the "rafters" as I referred to it, but that fan really made a difference in the case temperature.

 

[EarthDog]

A "reasonable" dream build to me would be something along these lines...

CPU - 4930K (4960K is a huge waste of cash, budget be damned)
MOBO - ASUS Z79 Deluxe
RAM - 4x4 GB DDR3 2133 CL9
SSD - Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
GPU - EVGA 780 Ti

Now, what monitors and resolution you play games at will determine which GPU(s) and subsequently power supply you should get... I am not sure you have mentioned that (or I missed it).

 

[wlucas]

I like your taste in components

A "reasonable" dream build to me would be something along these lines...

CPU - 4930K (4960K is a huge waste of cash, budget be damned)
MOBO - ASUS Z79 Deluxe
RAM - 4x4 GB DDR3 2133 CL9
SSD - Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
GPU - EVGA 780 Ti

Now, what monitors and resolution you play games at will determine which GPU(s) and subsequently power supply you should get... I am not sure you have mentioned that (or I missed it).

I don't play games with my computer so never really gave that question any thought. I buy PSU's per the recommendations of the components that I install. See I still have a lot to learn....lol

 

[wlucas]

I had not seen or heard about the Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD until I clicked on your link, (I buy a lot from New Egg as well) but after seeing it, I just ordered four of them. Great price. I paid close to that for the Intel 600gb SSD's I just recently purchased.

As for the deluxe edition, I am curious as to why you would prefer it over the Sabertooth. They are fairly close in cost.

Out of curiosity, do you have any idea why the Vengeance RAM costs more then the Dominator line. I may be misunderstanding something, but it appears the Dominator line is better RAM.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

I'd recommend as I am sure ED would agree too would be Seasonic or Corsair for PSUs.

As for the RAM, it might be out of stock from newegg and a 3rd party retailer could be selling it at a higher price. Dominator are the better of the two and Platinum is the top of the line.

 

[EarthDog]

Indeed, but that is why you joined here.

Honestly, if you do not play any games, get a more 'budget' oriented card... then it really doesn't matter what the resolution is on your monitor (saw your reply in your other thread). I would say to grab a 27-28" 2560x1440p monitor or since you have the budget, get a 4K monitor. Just know that with a 4K monitor, if you decide to play games, you will need two GPUs to do it well or a single Titan Z or single 295x2).

So if you don't go that route (4K) grab a Nvidia 750ti, and a quality 650W PSU (Seasonic 650W comes to mind) which will hold for any single GPU and overclocking the heck out of it and the CPU

 

[wlucas]

I like the Corsair too

I'd recommend as I am sure ED would agree too would be Seasonic or Corsair for PSUs.

As for the RAM, it might be out of stock from newegg and a 3rd party retailer could be selling it at a higher price. Dominator are the better of the two and Platinum is the top of the line.

I like the Corsair PSU's as well. FYI, I have had some issues with the Thermaltake 850w digital I bought for this build, with it failing to communicate through the USB to its monitoring software. From what I have read, there are numerous people dealing with the same issue. After contacting their tech support, I do not have a whole lot nice to say about Thermaltak.

I purchased a Corsair 1,200w digital PSU for my upcoming build.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Don't worry, Corsair's software isn't up to par either. Its run by Corsair Link software which is a botched product. I blew $150+ down the drain for it and regret it. I would have rather gone with a Aquaero 6 XT with all the bells and whistles to better monitor my water cooling system and among other things since its the only reliable monitoring and controlling software out there for us for the time being other than a simple fan controller.

I mean you could really have some fun and go surround for whatever reason and have some fun with it if you like multi-tasking since you don't do much gaming.

I also forgot to add since you like building rigs and for a good cause, I am surprised you haven't started Folding@Home with a off the wall multi GPU rig for a good cause as well. I can only imagine the PPD you'd produce.

There are many examples of using a powerful machine if you're not particularly gaming and Folding is one of them as well as benchmarking and or entering contests etc.

 

[NeonCancerCandy]

Neon, I am not sure any income these days is disposable....lol. I can tell you that over the course of my career, I have made a lot of money doing things on the side. For instance, my brother and I were the first people to ever sell cars on eBay, were the largest dealer on eBay and were the driving force that helped to launch eBay Motors. That is just one of many things I have been involved with in my life.

My steady profession is reliability engineering. In that field I certainly did not make a fortune. My last position only paid $185,000.00 annually. I have always made my hobby money with different businesses I have either started or invested in on the side. That said, most of my hobbies are funded with money I put aside for giving to charities. My favorite charity is giving to my church and then giving to underprivileged children. I was a very underprivileged child and it does my heart good to help young people.

Finally, this board and many others are filled with people who appear to spend substantially a lot more money on their personal systems than what I do for myself.

only $185k a year? only... what a weird way to use that word. "only" and "$185k" don't belong in the same sentence XD


it's really admirable that you're doing this for kids. Not enough people in the world care about the less fortunate.

If i ever want to buy a car from e-bay i'll have to contact you =P