Foxconn Blackops - 3 X PCI-e for £80

Dear all,

For us mortals who can't afford Core 7 rigs, I've just spotted that Overclockers have the £250 Foxconn Blackops C2D (socket 775) motherboard for £79.99 inc. It's an X48 DDR3 board and has 3 PCI-e sockets (plus a shedload of other goodies included like watercoolable NB). Good review on Custom PC site for those of you who remember it.

Just bought one, so will let you know how it fares with the 4870 X2 and an E8400 when I can plug it all together.

Craig...

 

That's a deal! A very good deal. But it's a shame it requires DDR3. Chances are if you have a 775 board already and RAM, it's going to be DDR2, which of course you cant use in the Blackops. So when you factor in the purchase of DDR3, it bumps the cost some. Still, it's a deal!

 

Indeed, if you want to upgrade your existing kit to a better mobo, the DDR3 bit is a problem.

...but I'm building from scratch (on a budget!) and I've also got 2 X 1Gb sticks of the DDR3 OCZ Flex II watercooled RAM PC3-16000 for £30 + VAT from aria.co.uk - overclockable to 2000Mhz on this board (allegedly!) - it is too wide to use on triple channel Core i7, so I understand. Not sure how far I'll be able to push an E8400 (1333Mhz) with the RAM, but will be fun trying to find out

Going to have the e8400, NB and 4870 X2 on one loop to an RX360 triple radiator blowing through the roof in a Cosmos S case, and the RAM and two raided 1Tb water cooled disks in a second loop blowing out through the floor on a single RX120 radiator, using two XSPC 750 dual bay pump/resevoirs. Got all the bits cheap as chips by surfing around.

If only I knew what I was doing! Might have to stick with the Pentium 4 if it all goes pop!

Craig...

 

Exactly. But for 80 quid it's still quite a deal, especially considering at one point in time it was the most expensive 775 mb you could buy.

That's OK, 30 quid plus VAT. I've got a couple of the Flex II's but DDR2's. Words to the wise - mixed metals. Make sure you are using a corrosion inhibitor in your loop! The Flex II's water jackets are aluminium, not copper.

Cool. Post some pics when you get it up and running. Don't want to be critical, and I've never used them myself, but those integrated pumps/res don't have a reputation as the strongest out there. I'd try and choose water blocks that have the least restriction possible, especially for your main loop.

I'm sure it'll be fine. Ask questions if you're not sure. Either here or over at xtremesystems "Liquid Cooling" forum where most of the water cooling gurus hang out.

 

Tell me about it! The NB block is copper on the Blackops, but the bolt-on lid to convert it to a waterblock is aluminium, so I've got a nice little battery circuit there right away!

I know, but a combination of space (lack of, with the radiator on the floor) and price mean that it is the most cost effective solution. They are 750l/h pumps in them, taking up 2 bays each, so havce a reasonable amount of oomph (I hope!).

These Flex II blocks come with a nice little manifold at each end, splitting down to 4 smaller tubes to feed each side of the RAM, with the reverse setup at the other end to rejoin the loop.

Was looking at a Koolance block for the 4870 X2, but have concerns about the Sapphire card being a standard PCB layout - been on loads of forums, but can't seem to get a definitive answer, so a bit wary about blowing another £100 on a block. The Blackops NB built-in block is quite a large open channel, with heatpipes to the SB and VRMs, so should have low restriction (but not sure about the effectiveness, as the fins inside look a bit weedy - low surface area?). Was going to recycle the Zalman CPU block from the current Reserator V2 setup from the P4 machine (cools 135W TDP pretty effectively!)

Cheers for that Clive - will do. Got the original steer for the Blackops from the bit-tech forum, so will dive in again when I start the plumbing!

Have we decided on the Number 1 Folding spot user name, as I'm going to restart the folding Dells tomorrow in the office and was going to reset the IDs then?

 

I believe they vibrate a bit as well, try to isiolate it with rubber grommets.

We're using CustomPC

 

Nice looking board, with the integrated water-cooling block. Have they really made it with mixed copper and aluminum parts

Anyone know a LGA775 board with three doubly spaced PCI-E 16x slots?

 

Yes, that was pretty dumb on the part of the manufacturer - cooper cooling solution, but provide a top made of aluminium for water cooling. Tom, of ChilledPC fame makes a black delrin top for the Blackops - Chilled PC Foxconn X48 Black Ops Delrin Top. 8 quid plus the P&P, so probably a tenner all-in. Don't think he stocks them anymore, just makes them on demand with his CNC.

As I said, not criticising or telling you not to use them. Just avoid any impingement type blocks like the Swiftech or Koolance 350. By way of comparisum, the D-Tek Fusion, Enzo or Heatkiller are nice free-flowing CPU blocks.

You might want to consider a parallel spur for the memory.

Yes, it's quite a problem with all the PCB revisions, and non-reference designs, just to be sure you're buying a block that's actually going to fit the card.

Don't know anything about the Zalman, but if you know it cools OK then why not use it.

As saspro said, the username is "CustomPC". Jump on in when you're ready.

 

Thanks Saspro. The Cosmos S has a good 'tool free' locking mechanism... which I'm going to rip out and bolt all the gear in place using rubber grommets and other insulation as you suggest I probably won't be able to hear the vibrating pumps because of all the spinning fans

Is there a problem if I start folding as CustomPC from tomorrow when I restart the servers?

Craig...

 

Feel free to start early.

 

Isn't that what I described - there's a 3/8 or 1/2 barb which splits into 4 smaller tubes - 2 to each of the inputs at one end of the RAM stick, and the mirror image at the other end, with 4 back into 1 - isn't that a parallel circuit? (I was sh!t at physics at school, by the way)

Thanks for the pointers to the other stuff, will follow it up and see what the ever dwindling funds will allow.

Craig...

 

Any 680i SLi will have 2 16x and a 8x all double spaced. They are what I use for my 3x9600GSOs
And they can be had on e-bay for £30-£40

 

Ignore me anyway. I re-read what you wrote. I had it in my head that you were going to put the RAM in the main loop with the CPU, GPU and NB blocks. Not the case.

My Flex came with the manifolds, which splits to 4x 1/4" to the water jackets and back to another manifold so you can use a 3/8" or 1/2" barb on the manifolds. So yes, both sides of each module are in parallel. I was actually thinking about using Y splitters and putting the whole Flex thing (to/from the manifolds) in parallel with another component. That's what I did when I was using the Flex on a Gigabyte Extreme P45 board to get the best flow through the CPU block, put the Flex manifolds in parallel with the NB block using Y splitters.

 

Hmm...



Definately going to have a think about this... I have been looking for a reason or excuse (or a reasonable excuse?) to build an i7 folding rig, but given the stupid number of spare C2D processors that I have lying around the workshop, this might well be the more cost effective solution.

Still really want to start folding on an i7 machine though. I could build a single rig to outperform my whole farm basing it on an i7 chip

 

Gah! ya all mean! Must resist the urge to buy new parts before i head to the USA..........

Must wait......

Must wait.......

Resistance is futile......ARGGHHHH!!!

*sits gibbering in the corner*

 

I thought all the gear was cheaper in the States - I guess it depends on which currency you're paid in

 

I thought about one mega-loop/ Y splitters so that I could fit a single heavy duty pump, but decided to go the two loop route because the tubing was going to get messy around the GPU:

Loop 1 - Pump/res > Rad (on floor) > HD1 > HD2 > RAM > Pump/Res - keeps all the tubing away from the Graphics card, and is low heat from these components, so a single rad will dump it out OK.
Loop 2 - Pump/res > CPU > NB > GPU > Rad (in roof) > Pump/Res - keeps all the hot bits in a single loop with a triple rad and 3 fans to dump it out of the roof.

That's the theory anyway! Got bloody yards of tubing to play with

Craig...

 

Whilst surfing, I cam across this mobo in various US websites (who don't ship to the UK) and it was $133 - or £133 if you don't try too hard on the exchange rate - hence why I couldn't believe Overclockers doing it so cheap - I'm guessing that other socket 775 parts will start to crash in price with the Core i7 and i5 (or whatever they call it) starting to pick up pace in the mass markets now.

The only reason I got to by the bits was that I showed the financial controller (missus) the CustomPC review showing list at £245 - using women's handbag logic ("it was £180 on sale for £90, so really it was a bargain darling!"), she couldn't argue that £80 was a steal

 

Makes sense. I hope it all goes well and don't forget to post pics.

Just be sure you check the CPU socket pins real closely when you receive the mb from OcUK!

 

Will-do. Have treated myself to a dremel to cut out the mesh on the roof to get better airflow, as well as some extra ducts in the mobo tray to route the cables up the back well out of the way to get to the power sockets on the mobo neatly. Not a classic build like some of the other systems you see, but adventurous enough for a techno-peasant like me!

Sounds like you had a bad experience with them and bent pins then?