Greetings Programs! After 6 longs years I am finally able to start a much needed new build. I thought I'd make a couple posts in some forums in search of answers from people more experienced than myself. I have build my three last computers, the last two have been liquid cooled, and I love it. My new rig will serve as both gaming platform for my inner geek and digital workstation as I am a recient Animation grad looking to break into the industry. I will list my currently planned component purchases and the questions / concerns I have. 1. Component list a. Any components you recommend / do not recommend? 2. Water cooling layout a. Is running 3 rads overkill? b. Pro's and Con's 3. 580 vs 680 a. Can you mod a 680? (making the card take up one pci slot) b. Recommended GPU for Physx Firstly my list of currently planned / already purchased components: Primary Components Case: Corsair 800d Mobo: Crosshair V CPU: AMD FX-8150 Ram: 4 x 8gig Corsair Vengance DDR3 1600 Power Supply: Corsair AX1200 GPU: 3 x EVGA GTX 680 / 580* Physx GPU: Open to suggestion* Sound Card: Creative X-Fi* Primary Storage: 2 x Kingston Hyper X 120gb raid 0 Secondary Storage: WD 1TB 7200rpm Cooling Components Rad1: Airplex Revolution 420/360mm Rad2: Airplex Modulary System 280mm Rad3: Airplex Modulary System 140mm Case/Rad Fans: 7 x Sharkoon Silent Eagle 800 Reservoir: Frozen Q double helix 250mm Pump: DD12v-D5 pump I am an AMD cpu / Nvidia GPU / Corsair fanboy. Though I would like to stick with my favorite suppliers, I am open to suggestions. 32gb might normally be a little excessive for gaming, but will be needed for my Animation needs. Water Cooling Layout I know you should: Run your rez to your pump with as little restriction as possible. Try to avoid 90 degree turns / sharp angles with your tubing. Cool your components in parallel where possible. Am I missing anything important? Is Running 3 Rads Overkill The logical part of my brain says yes, the inner geek in me says hell no! My main concern is about coolant flow restriction. Either during a long gaming session or leaving my rig on overnight crunching a render, I'm concerned about heat. The more rads you run the cooler the system, yes? Makes sense, I'd like to keep my system as cool as possible but don't want to overcomplicate things in the process. The radiators Airplex has made perform very well in low flow systems. Sharkoon SE 800 fans (according to some tech reviews) deliver good static force and keep the noise to a minimum. I am simply looking to create a cool and quiet setup, any recommendations / suggestions would be appreciated. 680 vs 580 Of course I would love to have the latest and greatest GPU's out there. Using new 680's will help maximize my rigs lifespan. Using the new 680's pressents one problem though. Even if i remove the stock heatsink and fan and replace it with a water block, the DVI ports on the end of the card are still two PCI slots big. I'd like to run a Sound Card and GPU dedicated to Physx. If I use 3 680's, they'll cover up the needed PCI slots for said Sound Card and Physx GPU card. I am looking to make my final purchases for my new build come April. I won't have time waiting for EVGA to make a stock card w/c and one PCI slot thin. This brings me to my next question... Can you mod a Video Card? Can I 'cut off' the unused DVI ports on the 2nd PCI row? It's crazy to think about, but I'd like to purchase the 680's and not wait. I'd also like to not ruin 1500$ in vid cards aswell. Has anyone done this? Is it possible? Am I crazy? I can imagine the can of worms I am potentially opening with this one. I see alot of crazy builds out there and I thought I'd give this one a shot. If I can solve the PCI slot issue, can anyone recommend a GPU dedicated for Physx? Do you just buy a card and tell the Nvidia Controller to run card X for Physx? Anyway, these are my questions. Any answers / feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Just a quick answer for the rad. I plan on cooling na i7 and 2x Radeon HD 6970 with one 480 and one 360 so I think you can dissipate the heat with similar setup. Triple rad configuration will cause more trouble because of the piping. As for the topic, since this is planning, you'll be moved to Plannign section.
You might be able to cut off the dvi things of a card, I've seen people do it on a motherboard. I just think thats a creazy risk though. Also the new style of power connectors make the 680 2 slots wide i think, and that will,be impossible to mod. a 580 can be made into a 1slot card, they sell one slot brackets for it to! You got some awesome hardware man, hope you can pull it off!
What about the cooling compnents layout? Should it be something like this: Rez > Pump > CPU / GPU / Mobo coolers > Rad > Rez? Running a multi rad setup, is it better to work a rad in for cooling inbetween coolers? Does it matter / am I over thinking this? I am a little out of touch with Physx. Anyone have any recommendations on what GPU makes a good Physx card? I bought one of the first dedicated Physx cards from BFG (when they were still around). Now it seems you just choose one vid card to run as your Physx processor. Is there a benifit of choosing a card with more vram vs cores? Lastly, does it matter how I mount my coolant pump? The 'conventional' way looks like I would screw it into the bottom of my case. This would cause a 90 degree turn leading into the inlet of the pump. Can I mount the pump on the back of my case and angle the inlet of the pump straight towards my rez?
Yep looks good, and doesn't matter the total heat dissipation of the loop will still be the same. Do you need a multy loop set up i cool a 980x and sli580's on a single pa120.3. If you go on skinnee labs it has all the tools you need . your old school physx card should still cut it Enjoy ya build
Hey ivan. First thing is : do not go AMD. There new 8000 (bulldozer) cpus are bad. In some benchmarks not even beating the previous gen phenom. There not even truly 8 core. They are made up of 8 simpler cores that are. grped into pairs of two. Each pair then shares certain features between them ie a register (cant rem which). This makes them more 4 core than 8. Intel is the way to go. Intels i2600 (sandybridge) would be a good buy if u can't afford a 3930/60 (sandybridge e) as it has hyperthreading. im guessing some of your graphical design software will utilize many threads. If you want the best platform for purpose though as said above the 3930/60 is the way to go. They have upto 6 cores (im sure its 6 tired at the mo)proper cores. Tonnes of cache and are suited for yr needs . If u can't afford them though a 2600 would be a great buy. Lee
