Scratch Build – In Progress PARVUM LIGHTNING - Updated 14/06/2016

Really?

I had a tri fire SR2 rig that didnt have any problems,heavy OC's on the 6 core Westmere's too,all on a 1500w Platimax,4.2 OC on both chips with all cores,300w a piece at full bore
They were 680's tho,not the most powaaaaaah hungry cards...
I think you would be good with a decent 1500w,dual psu has a certain epeen value tho.

 

I anticipate it will pull at least double what my current rig does and as that could really use an extra 100W or so, I think that 1800W is easily justified for 2011 + quad keplar. I'd hate to be stuck in the same situation as I am now where my overclocks are limited by the PSU rather than thermals. It seems only right to have equal overkill of both cooling and power just to keep it all balanced.

Accommodating a pair leaves more options to choose from too, aside the 8-pack and Titanium Superflower there aren't many single PSU's of such proportion. I just said dual 1200's as I would prefer them to be identical, suppose there are a few nice 1000's available now. The visual impact and epeen of dual PSU's is definitely a factor too, i'm not really big on storage so it should make a nice feature for the back. Need lots of sexy overkill fan controllers too, I do like those, might bring my pair of Aquaero 5 LT's into the mix.

JR

 

I think you might be over estimating a little,there are a multitude of x99 and quad gpu rigs all over OCN that are 1500w PSU powered and have heavy OC's. What happened on your previous rig to think that you had a supply issue? I mean,most PSU's have a 10% overvoltage anyway,I doubt you were breaking into that too often?

Just my 2p as always.

 

Currently I have a Seasonic OEM AX860 with a pair of 780 Classy's each happy to sit at 1333/6800 @1.3v and a 4820k that will do 4.7 given enough voltage. Pushing everything that hard at once OCP will kick in and turn it off. I've checked it out testing with a single GPU and measuring the power draw at the wall. So it definitely isn't an unstable clock or faulty component causing the problem, I know it all well by now as i've had all the hardware for over a year.

The TDP of the cards is 250W, with 375W available I think allowing 300W per card when overclocking isn't a monumental over-estimate. 300-450W for the CPU and remaining motherboard duties puts it on the wrong side of 1500W already and there's got to be some headroom to work with. I don't see the point in cutting it fine. Plus more plugs for a lazy clean cable life is always good.

JR

 

I hear that.....

 

I suppose most of the recent 1500's do have 10x 8-pins but it's a nice to have a bunch of peripheral sockets at play so each cable can be peripheral to a single SATA, or single Molex. Then get a D5 vario with just a peripheral connector on it so everything is just pure sleeve rather than connector>connector>connector>connector. The main logic behind pushing the idea was just that it's striking and it opens up far more different options, there aren't many 1500+'s that I like whereas pretty much everyone in the PSU game turns out a sick 1200W.

JR

 

I am all about hardwiring stuff in,I despise 4 pin molex with unbridled passion,SATA I can live with but the rest needs to go....

Enermax is the way to go for mad power units for me.

Dual PSU's used to have rail balancing issues which is why I went Soviet with the 'one big PSU' path,is this still a thing?

 

That is a good question, there are quite a few dual PSU's out there so it's definitely possible but whether it has a negative effect on ripple in all cases I don't know. Connecting two PSU's to the same component is definitely problematic as if there is any variance between the output of the two units one is effectively pulling current from the other and something in the middle could lose big time. Whether GPU's are completely isolated from the motherboard slot power supply I don't know for sure. Time for some research I think.

JR

 

I couldn't be more excited to tell you guys that EKWB are on board with PARVUM LIGHTNING. When i've figured out which door the mail man will be coming to I will set up camp right behind it, awaiting a huge shipment of clean CSQ acetal epicness.

Currently I have a pair of FC-780 LIGHTNING blocks which I found at OCUK and hopefully two more are incoming from a completely 110% legit looking Italian eBay store as they were discontinued by EK. I cannot wait for the next update, if I don't get rinsed by the Italians!



JR​

 

Finally I have managed to scrape together 4 GTX780 Lightning blocks! from retailers that I never knew existed in various corners of Europe. ...yes I do know this is only 3, I may have got impatient and installed one already ^_^



Also just a couple of other things from EK.





Quite possibly not enough fittings, because, you can't have enough fittings!





Impatience struck for a second time and I may have unboxed everything without taking any pictures along the way.



...because Acetal.







EK, how did you know, all of my favourites <3







Just because they weren't quite black enough already I also got some cover kits for the D5's to make them extra clean.









I was really torn whether to use a power delivery block on the motherboard or not. On the one hand I wanted it to be as extreme as possible but retaining the XPOWER identity was also really important to me.



Luckily this revision allowed half of the stock heatsink to be refitted. Although it doesn't make contact with any components visually it completes the board for me.









I'm really pleased with how balanced the board looks with the blocks fitted, it will be orientated in the build as it is here inverted. I've consciously kept the EK logo's upside down so the board as a whole looks right. I won't invert every logo in the build, but to me this just seems right.







Huge thanks to EKWB! I can't wait to get all 4 Lightnings blocked up.

JR​

 

It's awesome to have Noctua on board with Parvum Lightning, their logo looks right at home on the banner. Since experiencing the iPPC on project Chocolate Box I have been totally in love with their no-compromise way of doing things. I can't wait!

The time has come for the Lightnings to part ways with their Tri-Frozr coolers, i've finally found 4 blocks from far away corners of the world... Italy, Germany and Stoke-o.. Newcastle-under-Lyme. I was impatient and already blocked one card which is just as well as they are enormous.











With them all stripped back it's time to reflect on the epicness of a GK110-425-B1 on a Lightning PCB.









Each of the backplates had to have the holes opened out to fit EK's larger 3mm screws, I had contemplated switching backplates, they aren't as clean looking as I would typically like. However the Lightning identity was something that can't be taken away, the blue LED's scattered through the power delivery are an awesome touch. I can't wait to see how they illuminate between each block, especially as they are right over the nickel plate.





Now there are four again, all dat power!





Hey XPOWER, I see you down there.













Suddenly the motherboard doesn't look very significant in magnitude!











Loved this update, there is something crazy and overkill about Quad-SLI that can't be equaled. Seeing all of the EK parts married together in such proximity is phenomenal, their fittings really stand out being consistent in diameter and knurling across the entire selection I have.

Just a few more parts to find and it will be time to make progress on the case

JR​

 

144K resolution ready.....

 

Epic! Have you cut the case yet?

J.

 

Nope, i'm trying to get as much stuff as possible before cutting the case so it can be just as big as it needs to be. Radiators and Power supply(ies) are all thats left. Well and a CPU, memory and storage but they don't really change much. Unless I decide I absolutely have to watercool the memory just to get a bit more Clean CSQ acetal on the motherboard.

JR

 

I don't think this update is going to need many words, some hardware just speaks for itself!











Come on, you didn't think there was just one F12 now did you













Some matching iPPC's that are just a little bigger and a little more airflow orientated too...



























Huge thanks to Noctua for making this update so epic! I know their support is rather uncommon for a project of this nature, which makes it even more special. I'm sure a few of you are already thinking that yellow and brown, might not be the best combination of colours, well me too. Despite my love of Noctua brown this will be addressed, you'll just have to stay tuned!

JR​

 

We get it! You have fans!

 

Noctua hype, awesome photos JR. Gratz on Noctua sponsorship... Never really seen that many projects sponsored by them... I'm seriously jelly. Those pictures showcase the range so well !

 

That is a lot of fans, a lot of everything actually. Looking good.

 

That many Noctua fans, I feel like it should be in a modern art gallery..

 

That's a ludicrously insane amount of money to spend on a games machine.


I approve. Carry on.