[Build Log] TT Core P5 6950X Custom Loop

[EarthDog]

When stressing the system I know that I am pulling more power than 750W. I know that because I put most of the parts for this new pc in one of my other machines with 750W psu and shut down the computer twice under full load. I agree that 1050W was probably enough, but I like the idea of keeping the total load closer to 50% where the psu is at peak efficiency. I had not bought the white Seasonic yet, the one in the pictures is an old 750W. I add also think the corsair link software is cool.

The problem was with the PSU then... that 50% thing is silly (Sorry). All it does it make you spend more money for an overpowered unit. The efficiency difference between 50% nad 75% loaded is 1% if that on most PSUs. Unless you F@H or something like that, you will NEVER make up the difference in cost versus efficiency.

The 1080's are 225W cards at MAX stock (typically they run less than that). While your CPU is 140W. The rest of the rig isn't close to 150W which includes the board, pump, fans, drives, etc.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Are you sure it wasn't a defective PSU? The reason I ask, is you may have a bad part that caused the machine to shut down, and if the PSU is older and not normally stressed like that, you might not know it's bad until pushed. I was just wondering if you investigated that further, and not just assumed it was because the wattage draw was to great.

Oh, it was thoroughly investigated. It all points to the PSU.

Source

 

[adenineX]

This is everything I have or will be powering with this system: http://outervision.com/b/tfNGfs

I had assumed that any of these psu calculators would err on the high side, but this is way over what you guys are saying. Does the calculator recommendation seem way off?

I would have gotten the white Seasonic if I didn't get spooked by my other psu getting overloaded. After the 750W shut down twice in a row when running Firestrike I switched out that Psu with a 1000W evga and ran the same exact tests without a problem. I have been building systems for many years and never had a instance of exceeding my power supply before. I was not sure that was the cuase right away.

Anyways, the damage is done. I already spent 2 hours and about 80 zip ties running my cables in the back of the case.

What is the downside of having a higher wattage then necessary? (Besides the initial cost).

 

[EarthDog]

Nothing outside of the initial cash outlay.. no worries otherwise.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Lets see the finished project.

 

[adenineX]

Ahhh... Going through some headaches with the stupid PCIe riser cables. The ones from Thermaltake seem to work sometimes, and only show up as x4 or x8.... or sometimes x16... Sometimes a black screen to stare at for a while... sometimes everything seems to be working....

I was told that this might happen when I started this build. In knowing these issues may come up I figured a way to install the riser cables so that I could remove and replace them without tearing down my loop. That saved me some headaches. Thanks Caddi Daddi!

I have ordered some new cables that others have had success with. I should be getting them tomorrow and hopefully have this project completed. Right at this moment I have both video cards detected and got windows installed. Temps are pretty good with the single 480 rad. Idling between 22c-25c and 52c-55c running Aida64 stress test. I have not done much more than that so far. Just need to get rid of these crap riser cables.

Took a couple quick shots. More to come once the lighting is set up. I broke the UV cathode that goes into the res. Have another one coming tomorrow along with some RGB strips to hook up to the mobo headers.

 

[EarthDog]

That's... that's hot.





What's with the m.2 slot orientation that has the m/2 drive stick out from the board all about????

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Very nice OP. Its looking good other than the few bumps on the road. We've all been there trust me. Some worst than others. Nonetheless, can't wait to see some of your upcoming updates.

What's with the m.2 slot orientation that has the m/2 drive stick out from the board all about????

Most Asus boards are oddly designed like that from what I've seen so far. Don't like that ether. Feels like an accident waiting to happen.

 

[EarthDog]

Ahh, I have two ASUS X(9 boards in hand that do not have them... but they are the ROG line. Perhaps that is the difference. Can't say I am too keen on the idea.

Did this setup make it to Z170 as well? You say most, but, I really have never seen it before, LOL!

 

[GTXJackBauer]

All the darn Asus boards I have seen, whether the X99 or Z170 seemed to have those M.2 brackets. I should say I didn't inspect all their boards though as they have many boards compared to everyone else.

 

[adenineX]

The X99 Deluxe II is the only one with the weird M.2 slot that I know of. It does come with a really handy little plastic peg that holds in the drive. Much easier than the tiny screw on other drives and you cant lose it.

Well, it is just about done. The fancy 3M shielded PCIe cables came today. I am going to add some RGB strips to back light some of the dark areas, install the new cathode tube in the res when it comes, and switch out the UV 3mm/5mm LED's for a standard blue color (like I have on the GPU terminal and pump in these pics.) The UV doesn't react with the liquid like I was hoping and the blue LED's light up the plexiblocks so much better.

I also got to spend a little time overclocking. I got the 1080's through Firestrike Ultra at 2.126ghz and the 6950X stable at 4.241ghz / 1.34v. I can get the cpu to go higher, but the temperature jumps up quick with any more voltage. I will probably end up dropping down to 4.1ghz for everyday. I could get the 1080's to anything more than about 2050-2065mhz with the EVGA ACX cooler. All of this watercooling gear gets me an extra 50-75mhz, Yeah!

Here is what she looks like as of last night.

 

[EarthDog]

The X99 Deluxe II is the only one with the weird M.2 slot that I know of.

Yeah, I would like to see some links to other boards if it has it!!!

Anyway, looking great man!

 

[adenineX]

Guess what happens, at least in my case, when you have a 6950x @ 4.25ghz /1.35v, two evga gtx 1080 SC @ 2.15ghz / 70% overvolt, and a 1200W titanium psu running Firestrike ultra? "Woom..." Black screen and reboot.

If I lower the voltage everything runs fine. Can I really be adding that much additional wattage/amps by upping the voltage in precision ocx?

The power supply is brand new and I also tried a different 1000W with the exact same result.

I put in the exact specs that I was running in this psu calculator and it recommends I get an Arc Reactor (hehe, they also say they are out of stock for a while).
http://outervision.com/b/AHPQvf

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Maybe it was the same board I kept seeing over and over. Could have been different chipset boards? I don't remember and too lazy to look it up but I'm sure its out there. lol

As for the rig's black screen and reboot, it seems like you have some bad OCs that need to be tinkered with. A CPU like that will create alot of stress to itself, especially with that many cores. Try finding a stable clock at a 1.3v max. I know for Haswell-E, 1.3v was advised at max when running 24/7 clocks. Some chips will clock better than others. Same with the GPUs. You will have to figure out which GPU clocks the least and match the other GPU to it. You need to OC each one individually to see what you find stable. It will be a lengthy process but that is the best way to do it.

 

[EarthDog]

Guess what happens, at least in my case, when you have a 6950x @ 4.25ghz /1.35v, two evga gtx 1080 SC @ 2.15ghz / 70% overvolt, and a 1200W titanium psu running Firestrike ultra? "Woom..." Black screen and reboot.

If I lower the voltage everything runs fine. Can I really be adding that much additional wattage/amps by upping the voltage in precision ocx?

The power supply is brand new and I also tried a different 1000W with the exact same result.

I put in the exact specs that I was running in this psu calculator and it recommends I get an Arc Reactor (hehe, they also say they are out of stock for a while).
http://outervision.com/b/AHPQvf

There is no way in hell that 1.2KW unit, or the 1KW unit isn't enough.

There is also no way you are adding 50% or 70% more voltage to the cards. That slider is or should be, mv. It BARELY changes the voltage.

For an illustration, let's math.......: 2 180W cards + 140W CPU (stock). Let's say the cards both use 50% more power and are 250W each (not likely close to pulling that much). Let's DOUBLE the CPU output to 280W (also likely not pulling that much). Total that up and you have 830W. Add in the board/ram/fans/pump, you are likely hitting 900W... and that is an absolute worst case, everything in your system is running 100% load which only happens while stress testing, not in games or benchmarks like FS.

Perhaps go buy a Kill A Watt meter and see what it is reading. I am betting you are not stable on the GPU overclock... simple really. What test in 3DM is it going black screen on? Did you raise the power limit as well? More details would help.

ALso, 1.3V for Haswell-E is pretty conservative for a limit if you ask me...

 

[Leegit]

The X99 Deluxe II is the only one with the weird M.2 slot that I know of. It does come with a really handy little plastic peg that holds in the drive. Much easier than the tiny screw on other drives and you cant lose it.

Well, it is just about done. The fancy 3M shielded PCIe cables came today. I am going to add some RGB strips to back light some of the dark areas, install the new cathode tube in the res when it comes, and switch out the UV 3mm/5mm LED's for a standard blue color (like I have on the GPU terminal and pump in these pics.) The UV doesn't react with the liquid like I was hoping and the blue LED's light up the plexiblocks so much better.

I also got to spend a little time overclocking. I got the 1080's through Firestrike Ultra at 2.126ghz and the 6950X stable at 4.241ghz / 1.34v. I can get the cpu to go higher, but the temperature jumps up quick with any more voltage. I will probably end up dropping down to 4.1ghz for everyday. I could get the 1080's to anything more than about 2050-2065mhz with the EVGA ACX cooler. All of this watercooling gear gets me an extra 50-75mhz, Yeah!

Here is what she looks like as of last night.
View attachment 180725View attachment 180726View attachment 180727View attachment 180728View attachment 180729

Why do you have two SLI connectors on your 2 GPUs. Isn't the second one redundant

 

[adenineX]

I ordered a kill-a-watt yesterday which should be here today. It is strange, it only dies during 3DM Firestrike Ultra. I can ADIA64 and other stress tests without problems. I am going to redo my overclocks today and see if I can isolate the issue. I have never had issues like this with my other systems. I would think that my max wattage being pulled would be around 800W, maybe 850W. That PSU calculator has me confused... :0 I will know exactly what wattage is being drawn later today. Thanks.

 

[adenineX]

I am waiting until I can find a EVGA HB bridge. The two ribbon cables are supposed to work in place of the HB cable.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/4m534q

So far it has worked fine. I am having an issue running Firestrike though. I will have to compare the two ribbon cable to the HB bridge when I finally get one.

 

[EarthDog]

I think someone has tested that and it didn't make a difference until maybe 4K..?

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1080_SLI/22.html

 

[adenineX]

Yeah, larger surround set ups and 4k are the only instances where the HB bridge is required. I am running 4K monitors and would theoretically be needing the HB. I am going to see if there is any difference on my system by taking one of the cables off today.