Ghost's Build Log: Part 3

[Ghost]

Hello and welcome to the third part of my build log.

 

I've been promising this build log for a while, but have been trying to find some time to type everything up and clean up all the photos, due to laziness it has taken me 2 months to start that process. As to why this is part 3 of the build log, I tend to upgrade my PC rather than build a new one every few years, calling this a completely new PC would be an exaggeration. Expect Part 4 in a few months, I have a few things I know I want to improve already. All the updates and progress shots should be posted over the next week or so.

 

I would also like to thank Monsoon for sponsoring the “Monsoon Series 2 D5 Bay Reservoir” and “Monsoon Free Centre Fittings” in this build.

 

 

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To start you off on component selection:

 

Hardware

• Mobo: Asus Maximus V Formula
• CPU: Intel i5 3570k
• TIM: Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra
• RAM: 32GB (4*8GB) G.Skill Sniper 1866MHz.
• PSU:  Corsair AX760i (770W Platinum)
• GPU1: MSI R7970 3GB
• GPU2: Powercolor R9 280X TurboDuo 3GB
• Case: Cooler Master 690 Advanced II
• SSD 1: Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
• SSD 2: Corsair Force 3 120GB (Back-up dual boot OS)
• HDD 1: WD Velociraptor 300GB (Game Drive)
• HDD 2: Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 3TB
• HDD 3: Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 3TB
• HDD 4: Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1.5TB

Water-cooling

• Pump: XSPC Laing D5 PWM
• Tubing: Primochill LRT Advanced 10/13 Clear
• CPU: Watercool HEATKILLER® CPU Rev3.0
• Mobo: MIPS Asus Maximus 5 Formula Z77 Dual Mosfet POM
• GPU1: Watercool HEATKILLER® GPU-X³ 79X0
• GPU2: Watercool HEATKILLER® GPU-X³ 79X0
• Res: Monsoon Series 2 D5 Dual Bay Reservoir
• Fittings: Monsoon Free Centre
• Rad: Watercool MO-RA3 LT (3*3 120*120)

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To clear up a few instantly questionable choices:

• MVF was bought initially because of water-cooling support and Fan Xpert.
• 32GB of RAM was bought for $109USD on Black Friday, that's cheaper than a 16GB kit in the UK so I couldn't resist.
• Both the R9 280x and HD7970 have the same PCB. R9 280x was more available.
• The WD Velociraptor is an old boot drive from before SSDs were affordable, it is still fast enough to be a game drive for games that don't fit on the SSD.

The case has been extensively modified to make it look much better. The process was fully documented in Part 1. An album of that is available here: http://imgur.com/a/WWax7

 

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If you just want picture of progress with minimal context this is the build log in picture form: http://imgur.com/a/kBSce

 

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This build log will be split into sections, all the update links will be put here:
Name - Date - Link

#1 Cleaning and Prep - 27/Dec/2014 - Clicky

#2 De-lidding               - 04/Jan/2015 - Clicky

#3 GPU Preperation    - 27/Feb/2015 - Clicky

 

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Latest Images:

 

 

 

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Thanks for reading this far and I hope you enjoy following this build's progress.

[Ceatra]

Looks nice, but aren't the parts a little bit old. You know the 5th generation Intel processors are already out.

[Ghost]

Looks nice, but aren't the parts a little bit old. You know the 5th generation Intel processors are already out.

I don't think a ~5% increase in frame-rate justifies a CPU+Motherboard upgrade that would probably cost £400.

 

Achieving a high overclock can give me that sort of improvement.

[Norman_the_Owl]

Oh god those mismatching GPUs would kill me

[Ghost]

Oh god those mismatching GPUs would kill me

Don't worry, they will be getting blocks on them instantly.

[Norman_the_Owl]

Don't worry, they will be getting blocks on them instantly.

They're both reference PCBs i take it?

If they are this build just became perfect, i like older stuff for some reason  :wacko:

[Ghost]

They're both reference PCBs i take it?

If they are this build just became perfect, i like older stuff for some reason  :wacko:

They both have the same PCB

[terrytek]

Any reason why you have just one 300GB WD drive and 3 other Seagate drives? Seeing those 2 brands in one PC makes me go insane.

[Ghost]

Any reason why you have just one 300GB WD drive and 3 other Seagate drives? Seeing those 2 brands in one PC makes me go insane.

The WD drive was a old boot drive. All the other drives were bought as storage drives. The velociraptor is getting replaced by an SSD at some point anyway.

[terrytek]

The WD drive was a old boot drive. All the other drives were bought as storage drives. The velociraptor is getting replaced by an SSD at some point anyway.

Ah, ok. I was about to go insane. But you should really show some pics.

[Ghost]

Update #1 - Cleaning and Prep

 

As this build was re-using a lot of components needed to be cleaned, and the new R9 280x block needed to be flushed as well. After disassembling all the blocks I mixed de-ionized water with some acetic acid to speed up the cleaning and ran it through all of the components that needed cleaning overnight. To clean the 3*3 radiator I just put it in the bath and poured the diluted vinegar followed by de-ionized water into the top port, and it slowly drained through the entire rad to the bottom. In the first picture you notice that I had two pump/res combos hooked up in the cleaning loop. The second one was retired from an old system and never cleaned so I took this opportunity to do it.

 

 

 

All the water blocks were also disassembled and cleaned using a cotton swab and isopropyl. The build-up you can see in the CPU water block was after 6 months of use in de-ionized water silver plugs and corrosion inhibitor. Rather grim to be honest. It did come out very easily so no harm done. Apologies for appalling camera work. But I was doing this at night with no natural light.

 

 

The Monsoon Res was also disassembled so I could clean it properly, something I wish I could do with all reservoirs as cleaning them and getting the waterline mark out can be very difficult. Just flushing out a reservoir is never as good as wiping it down with isopropyl and a cloth.

Before:

 

 

 

After:

 

 

And here’s another picture of how bad the tubing was after 6 months and a before and after shot of the Monsoon Silver Bullet fittings after cleaning.

[GhostWindGamer]

You told me about this so long ago now it's finally here  

[Ghost]

Update #2 - De-lidding

 

The next step was upgrading the CPU, by de-lidding. After watching a few people’s shaky cam attempts at de-lidding I decided to opt for the vice method, and honestly, not because I thought I would be more successful but because it is much faster. I didn't want to spend an hour under stress cutting away at the IHS.

 

 

After a few tentative hits with a hammer I decided to man up and gave it a hard smack, it came right off. At that point my camera decided the table was more interesting than a CPU and I only noticed when I loaded the pictures on my PC. The second picture focused correctly at any rate.

 

   

 

So I spent the next hour or so cleaning the die and this is the result, unfortunately the vice did dent the IHS in a way that meant it could not lie flush on the CPU PCB. I had to correct that with a precision file. If anyone is planning on de-lidding I recommend getting something between the vice plates and the IHS to protect it.

 

    

 

Then of course I was still worried that I had somehow damaged the chip. So I did some 4am POST-ing to ensure everything was working. Spoiler: It did. (Terrible lighting because 4am)

 

 

Unfortunately my temps with the waterblock directly on the die were terrible as I could not apply enough pressure on the die. I had to put the IHS back on, (with the improved TIM) to get the temperature improvements I was expecting.

[Norman_the_Owl]

Look, one picture!

A good start anyway.

 

The rest are broken for me i think

[Ghost]

Look, one picture!

A good start anyway.

 

The rest are broken for me i think

I hit enter to make a new line and the forum decided to post the update. 

 

It has now been fixed.

[kachel94]

OMG OMG OMG! finnally someone else using Monsoon free Centre fittings.

 

[Norman_the_Owl]

I hit enter to make a new line and the forum decided to post the update. 

 

It has now been fixed.

Yay, pictures!

 

Your vice is very nice and clean, im impressed

[UselessBread]

Oh, this is happening. Nice.

[Analog]

Looking good mate! What thermal compound are you intending to use on that de-ledied CPU, simply MX4 or something more exotic?

[fringie]

All daaa RAM.

 

P.S. Ghost is awesome, he helped me pick my parts for the first part of my loop (for the first one I made) earlier this year .

[Ghost]

Looking good mate! What thermal compound are you intending to use on that de-ledied CPU, simply MX4 or something more exotic?

I used Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra. To be honest, if you can afford it and don't care about ever returning your CPU, the stuff is awesome. I used AS5 prior to it and CLU is just leagues ahead.

 

You will be seeing more of it in the next update.

[GhostWindGamer]

@Ghost is this R.I.P another build log?

[Ghost]

@Ghost is this R.I.P another build log?

Nope, not this time. Will post an update today, just been busy with other things.

[Ghost]

Update #3 - GPU Preparation

 

Its been a long time since the last update, not because it took long to do, but because of other commitments and lack of time. At any rate, lets get right into it.

 

So the next step was getting the heat-sink off the new R9 280x. I have to say, the heat sink was actually quite terrible compared to the one I got on my MSI card with a blower style cooler. The VRM was cooled by a separate heat sink altogether. As I understand a lot of cards do this now, but this was my first experience with one, and I’m glad I was getting rid of it, (the heat-sink, not the card ).

 

 

 

 

And this is what the original TIM and VRM heat sink looked like. Eurgh. Why do they always apply so much TIM? It just ends up going everywhere

 

 

 

The card also came equipped with 4 rubber blocks that were taped to the card with double sided tape to stop the heat sink hitting the PCB when the cooling unit flexed. At first I was worried they were permanently glued and I would have issues getting them off.

 

 

 

 

So then I started applying thermal pads and TIM (Cool Laboratory Liquid Ultra). I have to say, CL LU looks awesome when applied. You have to apply it with a paint brush, spreading a drop about the size of a grain of rice across the entire core. You have to be very careful as it's out right conductive and will short things.

 

 

 

And then there were two. Unfortunately the back plates were different from some inexplicable reason, but I guess the second one isn’t an HD79X0 anyway and no-one will notice right? Please tell me no-one will notice!

 

[CJPowell27]

The difference isn't super annoying with the backplates at least