SOLVED rebuild suggestion

[leighspped]

desktop rebuild

so right now here are the spec's for my current rig

Fractal Design R3
2x 120mm front intake
1x 120 mm rear exhaust fans
(not installed yet)
1 side intake and 2 top 120mm exhaust fans

Sabertooth x79
i7-3820e overclocked 4.5ghz (Akasa Venom CPU cooler)
32gb of g.skill z ram
2x radeaon 7970
1200watt psu

2x 256 ocz vector 4's
2x 120gb ocz vector 3
1x 3tb western digital black edition
1x lg blurry player
3x 3tb external usb 3.0 drives


so im having a lot of problems with heat. so i started to check my clock speeds, took it down a notch down to 4.5 its running at now which isn't giving me any cpu issues but the problem lies in the vcore and the heat generated by the south bridge blows air right onto other overheat components which my temp graph shows as the "motherboard" for what its worth.

so my first step to go back to stock clock speeds which made almost no difference, still lots of artifacting and low frame rates. next i tried disabling the crossfire and that seamed to have fixed the issues a little, at least for far cry 3 but its still running very hot under load.

it seams that one of my next option is to water cool everything.

so i was thinking that my case may not be up to task of supporting extreme water-cooling and deal with more internal storage options.

my thought it todo a double radiator system. and probably do 2 loops. one for the GPU cards and the second to handle the MOBO and CPU

right now i was looking at a case-labs case probably a Magnum TH10


so the question are as follows

what other cases should i look at?

i think the motherboard is holding everything else back? if so when would the next wave of MOBO hit the market? asus put the sabertooth out around this time last year

lastly i think i might need as much as 20TB of storage (part of why i selected the case i did) which sata cards would make the most sense?

 

[leighspped]

so did i post in the wrong section or should i have put this in a few smaller post in different section?

 

[Robert17]

What HS are you using now?

 

[Conumdrum]

Well once you are ready for specific water cooling stuff after selecting your basic regular stuff then head over to WC and begin at the WC stickies.

 

[leighspped]

sorry HS?

 

[Robert17]

HS = Heat Sink. CPU cooler.

Like Conumdrum says, head over to the Stickies, lots of well-practiced info to mull over is only a mouse click away.

 

[leighspped]

lol yea for got to mention Akasa Venom CPU cooler

any suggestion on how to keep the vcore cool? everything else hold up but the seams the mobo is the real weak point of the build?

where in the sticks should i start?????

 

[woboy]

Air flow over the VRM cooler may be the problem, if that is heating up. You are a bit crowded. Possibly reorientating the CPU hest sink up might help.
Or using more forceful inlet fans
A Noctua NH-C14, a top down heatsink, might be worth a try. Since the VRMs and HUB have their own fans case airflow seems the likeliest culprit.
Not an experienced opinion, seems worth some experiments.
Case side off with a large box fan blowing in was an old time diagnostic for air reaching the motherboard.

 

[Conumdrum]

lol yea for got to mention Akasa Venom CPU cooler

any suggestion on how to keep the vcore cool? everything else hold up but the seams the mobo is the real weak point of the build?

where in the sticks should i start?????

The WC stickies? Well at the top and it will take a few weeks once you start understanding how to calculate your heatload, figuring how much rad you need, picking the right rad fan combo (lots of important choice/things to know), What constitutes a balanced loop, etc etc. Pumps, fittings, types of reses etc etc.

Etc.

Don't even focus on that stuff now. Your case will easily hold the radiators you will be needing. Get the rig parts figured out, if you buy the wrong GPU a waterblock (the good full cover ones) might not be availible (won't fit or will smoke the GPU, seen it happen). Keyword is REFERENCE GPU.

Lastly don't rush headlong into watercooling. Folks that do that ask way to many questions covered in the stickies, make really bad mistakes and you don't want to ruin your GPUs or Mobo, or pump, or PSU etc.

And it can be hard on us (we are here for free of course) and even harder on you when you get confused. The stickies are there for a reason, to prevent the (yes I really mean it) silly mindless questions that used to come almost every day. We do much better now and folks build great rigs here. Except for the few from that part of the gene pool that shoulda bought a DELL.

WC is actually simple when it comes to physics. It's the engineering execution that makes it hard if your totally new at it.

 

[Conumdrum]

And I'm one that will say SLOW down when I see issues to help you. And wait till you got some solid research under your belt before I jump in again. Some others will do the same in a gentler tone.

 

[leighspped]

ok ok conumdrum, i have spent a couple weeks looking at the stickys, ive been lurking but i have been doing a lot of reading. this is my second water cooled build but my first was many years ago using an all in one koolance case......

so one of the first issue i have is they dont make non generic water-blocks for the sabertooth x79. since its the hard of my problem i worried i cant water-cool it at this point and need to look down the road to see what new options come to market.

im worried i wont have the choice to water cool if i don't order my GPU blocks soon. i know i need full coverage, so i looked at the koolance water block which seamed like the best
http://koolance.com/vid-ar797-video-card-vga-amd-radeon-hd-7970-water-block
the gpu should be able to handle a lot even over the coming years, but if making the case over heat it doesn't really mater. i view the video card as the last upgrade when ever possible

im not worried by the 2011 cpu socket its new and fresh to the market.


as for the rad's; well if i need to which cases (which i would to fit an x-atx board) i feel the need to make sure i have more then enough overhead when it comes to water supply. the case labs case mentions has an option on the top for dual 120x4.

this leads me to believe that i should do 2 loops to keep overall temps lower

first loop would go cpu-out to north bridge in (even though im running into heat issues on the south-bridge) back to rad.
second loop its just video cards run in serial

i think it makes sense to go out and get a second power supply since the mentioned cases will easily hold both plus both radiators

is there still more i should read about? (ie how to calculate heat load rather then cover it up with huge rads)

 

[Conumdrum]

One loop is easier, no reason for two. There are thermal reasons for one loop.

Don't need to cool the mobo. But it's your stuff.

There is a sticky to calculate the DT of your parts. That said a 120x4 and a 120x3 would be fine, but it's little money more to just do 120x4 times two. And it will be super quiet.

Why do you need a second PSU?

 

[leighspped]

so a little quick math puts me a little under 1000 watts of load. 250 watts min for cpu, and another 500 watts in video cards. and since im fairly admit about water cooling the motherboard i assigned it 200. so for overheads sake its atleast a 1000watts

so does that still sounds like a single loop with a 120x4(ie something that doesnt fit current case)?

i do like idea of not need all those doubles of stuff but i know i need to pay to play so.....


the idea behind the second power supply is 2 fold: first it would allow for cooling to stay on on 24\7 keeping the fluid to the lowest ambient temp. also it would prolong the installation. i can swap hardward and keep the same kooling system just change blocks and hardware box would stay largely unchanged......

 

[Conumdrum]

For low water temps and quiet fans I myself think 125 watts max per 120 x1 rad space. So 120x4 isn't enough. Think your wattage calcs are high though.

Run the fans and pumps all the time for what reason?

Please explain, I think your missing something about ambient temps and how fast the water heats up when you use the rig.

 

[leighspped]

my understanding is it takes about 30 minutes of load to reach efficiency for a "proper" size loop (meant to be vague). water temps can only ever get as low at the room temp. ie if the rooms 100f the mim water temp will be 100f, once the machine is turned on it will generate heat and go above room temp in this example 100+


the point of running the fan system different psu is to not take any power away from the other psu. also the acoustics variation will be lower, but not a computer building point, you think its wasted cost?

i gave my specs, what do you calculate my power to be at? i knew i was over estimating, im interested in how far your numbers are from mine

but you agree for overhead atleast 120x4 if not more like 120x6 in some configuration?

 

[leighspped]

still no one suggested any other case?

 

[Conumdrum]

"right now i was looking at a case-labs case probably a Magnum TH10"

Good choice HUGE but a dream for many users. You can afford it, it's a dream case, get it.

Wrong forum. You do know we have a WC forum where all WC things should be? And wonderful YELLOW sickies.

And a seperate PSU for your idea is totally 100% wasted cost.

Not pulling any punches here. I tell it as it is. That's why my name is mutant.

 

[leighspped]

ok im going to start taking the plunge into the stickies for watercooling!

so looking into the pricing and seeing how quickly it becomes a 700$ case, it had me thinking its better to keep storage in a separate machine if i don't really need constance access with 6gps. since getting as many drive out of there as i can will keep temp lower in the case.

so i guess now im on the hunt for a case that will support 2 120x3 rads and atleast 5 drive

seam more manageable