Project Donnager, main rig upgrade

[Voodoo Rufus]

If that's the case I wonder if Fractal has changed their clearances significantly from the R6. I can mount my double-core 280GTX with push/pull fans and it has tons of space to clear. Only thing you might sacrifice is a drive cage if you're using those.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Gpu reassembled and test fitted the hoses. Tomorrow evening should be fill and leak test.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Pump mounted, hoses clamped and leak tested. Three 90deg fittings used. I think it needs a little more radiator dance but I think it's ready to power up tonight.

 

[EarthDog]

Clean man... looking good!

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Thanks, bud! This has taken way longer than I would have liked, but hopefully the end result is good.

Next up: update the bios, test ram speeds for XMP at 7200, then on to Windows.

 

[Woomack]

Looks nice. Now the test phase

In my last rig I had a problem to install a graphics card so close vertically and it couldn't be installed otherwise. I see you still have enough space to add a second PCIe card on a second riser if you had a weird idea to do that in the future
RAM should go up to at least 7600-7800, maybe 8000, on your motherboard. I had no chance to test it but there are some results around the web, and even the QVL looks pretty good, especially for a 4-slot motherboard.

These reflective IO covers are a bit confusing in photos. I have the same on my ROG motherboards and often I have to change angles for photos, but it's for reviews. I don't know what's with that new ASUS design as it's designed like to force on users buying other ROG products so they fit the best. Probably that's the marketing idea around it.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

I suppose I could. I have a PCIE3.0 riser from the R6 case I could put there to place my 10gbe card back in. Woomack, you didn't even give me a chance to test XMP before suggesting going for 8000!

All testing went great last night. Bios updated, ram is at 7200 with the bios set to "XMP II - Tweaked" and passed four runs of memtest. There's another setting buried deeper for two different sets of Tweaked ram settings but I haven't explored the difference yet. I'm amazed that XMP at this speed has been no difficulty at all. CPU SP rating is 111, which seems pretty fair.

Tonight is Windows install, and start tinkering with things. I have yet to adjust the fan profiles to water temps, but defaults are running quiet.

Wife got the honors of peeling off the glass protection film to christen it. She'll be happy to have the kitchen back after this.

 

[EarthDog]

I'm amazed that XMP at this speed has been no difficulty at all.

Welcome to Intel!

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Maybe it's "welcome to Asus". I've run primarily Gigabyte for a decade and all they've given me is grief with ram. Not so much with eVGA, Asrock and Asus.

 

[EarthDog]

Very few boards gave me fits at 7000+ when testing. If they did, they were generally cheapO boards that just lucks out and supports a few kits at that speed. This platform has matured quickly and well so I can't say I'm at all surprised...board partner be damned.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

I didn't even have to try and it broke 40k in R23. CPU is rock solid.

Idle:
Water temp 27C
VRM 37C

R23 30 min test:
CPU 325W
CPU 97C max, 93C average
Water temp 30-31C
VRM 52C

Cooling system is working great. The fans are still on auto but spin up hard on R23, but that kept the water temps very low. VRM runs super cool as well. Obviously overbuilt and well cooled.

Having issues with the GPU. I think it might be the riser cable. Video sometimes glitches, and any 3D load crashes out or reboots the machine. Don't have time to mess with it this weekend.

I should have spent more attention on flushing and cleaning. The GPU block collected two tiny fragments of something, and there's a tiny hair stuck to one of the fins, too. Won't hurt temps, but I can see it and it bugs me.

 

[Woomack]

If you have PCIe 3.0 riser or 4.0 is not the best, then manually set PCIe 3.0 in BIOS, and it should solve the issue.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

It's a 4.0 riser. I set the PCIE switch to 3.0 and it still doesn't play nice.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Well, it doesn't appear to be the riser cable. I switched to my Fractal PCIE3.0 cable and the card still glitches out.

Now what? Reorient the loop and eliminate the riser and tear down the GPU/block and clean it all again?

 

[Zerileous]

DDU and reinstall drivers. But I'm guessing something isn't making good contact. Maybe one of the thermal pads is slightly out of place or the incorrect thickness. At least check contact on everything.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

What's DDU?

 

[Zerileous]

Display Driver Uninstaller: https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

It fully removes drivers in case your issues are driver related. Then you can re-install them cleanly. Mainly used when someone is switching between brands or having other driver issues.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

Thanks. I'll try that first before draining the system and doing a GPU tear down again.

 

[JLK03F150]

You want to download a new driver package and DDU to disk first. Unzip DDU to a desktop folder.
Reboot to Safe Mode - just normal Safe Mode, no networking. Also unplug the network cable.
Run DDU in Safe Mode then reboot.
Once back in regular Windows run the new driver package install.
Reboot.
Plug the network cable back in & you're done.

 

[EarthDog]

Never ran DDU in safe mode...is that a requirement? Just ran it on the desktop... but its also been a couple of years.