Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...

DNAF

wpirobotbuilder
By wpirobotbuilder
in Build Logs
 Share Followers 7
Posted

Definitely Not A Fanboy

Intel CPU with AMD GPU. Intel and AMD compete, so not a fanboy.

I thought it was clever...

.

First gaming PC, but not the first PC I've built. There were a bunch of reasons I decided to build right now:

  1. The release of the 4790K. I'm sure that gaming performance won't be affected that much compared to the 4690K, but I also do lots of engineering work with programs like MATLAB and Solidworks, which benefit greatly from single-threaded performance, and the guaranteed 500MHz boost over the 4690K is very appealing. Also, Solidworks rendering gets a performance boost from Hyper-threading, but also provides some growing room. Further down the line I may turn this into an ESXi machine, which will benefit from Hyper-threading.
  2. The flood of 290s on eBay. I don't mind spending $500 for a single GPU setup, but the $1000+ price tag for a good dual-GPU setup was a little overbearing. You can get 290s on eBay from $200 to $250, so I picked up two of them, and will probably get a third one eventually. The scaling for 290 Trifire is decent from what I've seen (hardocp).
  3. Linus' review of the Enthoo Pro. It looks good, has 8 PCI-E slots, and I may watercool down the road.
  4. Products on sale:
    The EVGA PSU was $50 off; $180 for a 1300W PSU is pretty impressive, plus there is a $30 mail-in rebate.
    The Z97 MPOWER was $25 off, came with a $30 combo discount, and had a $10 mail-in rebate
    The MX100 was $10 off on Newegg when I bought it.

Also my current PC is based on an old quad-core Q8200, which is really showing its age.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($339.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 MPOWER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Diamond Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire)  ($250.00)
Video Card: Diamond Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire)  ($250.00)
Video Card: Diamond Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card (3-Way CrossFire)  ($250.00)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2 1300W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit)  ($95.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1933.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-31 09:03 EDT-0400

 

Why did I get the parts I did?

  • CPU - see above.
  • Cooler - awesome performance when overclocking.
  • Motherboard - Had the perfect PCI-E layout:
       The first GPU slot is offset by 1, so the NH-D15 can be installed.
       There is 1 slot inbetween GPU 1 and GPU2, so airflow will be better.
       Trifire support, with the last PCI-E slot supporting a GPU, so I can do 3-way SLI in a case with 8 slots.
       Room to install another 4x/8x card (NIC, RAID card, etc), even with Trifire
  • Memory - Compatible with the cooler, but I won't be getting it yet. I have two 8GB sticks lying around from a server build which I will be using.
  • SSD - Inexpensive and got a good review from Anandtech. Power loss protection is awesome. All other storage will be over the network, provided by Tophat (my storage box).
  • GPUs - see above. I will eventually be going for 2.5K or higher resolution (I have that AOC 3440x1440 monitor on my wish list).
  • Case - 8 slots, supports the NH-D15, and good support for watercooling.
  • PSU - Can handle 3 GPUs with room to spare, and was on sale.

1. 2014-Aug-28: Build Problems, Overclocking, and Final Pictures!

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

grats for graduating to quad core mustered race

also them reference 290's ouch...

Specs

CPU: i5 4670k i won the silicon lottery Cooler: Corsair H100i w/ 2x Corsair SP120 quiet editions Mobo: ASUS Z97 SABERTOOTH MARK 1 Ram: Corsair Platnums 16gb (4x4gb) Storage: Samsun 840 evo 256gb and random hard drives GPU: EVGA acx 2.0 gtx 980 PSU: Corsair RM 850w Case: Fractal Arc Midi R2 windowed 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

grats for graduating to quad core mustered race

also them reference 290's ouch...

i agree with the reference GPUs gonna be a little toasty to say the least

5820k@3.8GHz| Corsair H100i |Gigabyte x99 SLI | Corsair 16GB | EVGA 780Ti SC ACX SLI x2 |240GB SSD120GB SSD 512GB SSD 2TB HDD | 3x ASUS VN247H 24" ( nVidia Surround)

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

grats for graduating to quad core mustered race

also them reference 290's ouch...

 

 

i agree with the reference GPUs gonna be a little toasty to say the least

toasty how? reference cards are recommended for SLI / Xfire by a lot of people. it's because the space between cards are a load less than with a single GPU solution.

Spoiler

CPU: R5 1600 @ 4.2 GHz; GPU: Asus STRIX & Gigabyte g1 GTX 1070 SLI; RAM: 16 GB Corsair vengeance 3200 MHz ; Mobo: Asrock Taichi x470; SSD: 512 gb Samsung 950 Pro Storage: 5x Seagate 2TB drives; 1x 2TB WD PurplePSU: 700 Watt Huntkey; Peripherals: Acer S277HK 4K Monitor; Logitech G502 gaming mouse; Corsair K95 Mechanical keyboard; 5.1 Logitech x530 sound system

 01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01100101 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 00101110

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

toasty how? reference cards are recommended for SLI / Xfire by a lot of people. it's because the space between cards are a load less than with a single GPU solution.

but the fact that its a reference 290 those things cant cool for sh*t regardless of cross fire or not

Specs

CPU: i5 4670k i won the silicon lottery Cooler: Corsair H100i w/ 2x Corsair SP120 quiet editions Mobo: ASUS Z97 SABERTOOTH MARK 1 Ram: Corsair Platnums 16gb (4x4gb) Storage: Samsun 840 evo 256gb and random hard drives GPU: EVGA acx 2.0 gtx 980 PSU: Corsair RM 850w Case: Fractal Arc Midi R2 windowed 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

toasty how? reference cards are recommended for SLI / Xfire by a lot of people. it's because the space between cards are a load less than with a single GPU solution.

ive always heard the heatsinks and fans arnt that good and can easily cause high temps

5820k@3.8GHz| Corsair H100i |Gigabyte x99 SLI | Corsair 16GB | EVGA 780Ti SC ACX SLI x2 |240GB SSD120GB SSD 512GB SSD 2TB HDD | 3x ASUS VN247H 24" ( nVidia Surround)

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

but the fact that its a reference 290 those things cant cool for sh*t regardless of cross fire or not

I wouldn't know first hand, I stay away from AMD since they are more expensive than Nvidia here so they have no appeal to me personally. (not fanboying, I'd buy one if it were the cheaper option)

Spoiler

CPU: R5 1600 @ 4.2 GHz; GPU: Asus STRIX & Gigabyte g1 GTX 1070 SLI; RAM: 16 GB Corsair vengeance 3200 MHz ; Mobo: Asrock Taichi x470; SSD: 512 gb Samsung 950 Pro Storage: 5x Seagate 2TB drives; 1x 2TB WD PurplePSU: 700 Watt Huntkey; Peripherals: Acer S277HK 4K Monitor; Logitech G502 gaming mouse; Corsair K95 Mechanical keyboard; 5.1 Logitech x530 sound system

 01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01100101 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 00101110

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

i agree with the reference GPUs gonna be a little toasty to say the least

 

grats for graduating to quad core mustered race

also them reference 290's ouch...

I know they're going to run relatively hot, but AMD says that running at 90+ degrees is fine. They're also better for watercooling in terms of block compatibility.

 

toasty how? reference cards are recommended for SLI / Xfire by a lot of people. it's because the space between cards are a load less than with a single GPU solution.

Their temperature target is 95 degrees by default, which is typically considered to be dangerously hot. AMD says these GPUs can take it, so I'm not worried. The only downside is that I may not get maximum performance out of the cards, but given that I will be running three cards, I'm not worried about FPS.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

ive always heard the heatsinks and fans arnt that good and can easily cause high temps

The design sucks for a regular setup, but a blower type setup that reference cards use blows heat directly out the back instead of onto the second GPU resulting in better temperatures.

Spoiler

CPU: R5 1600 @ 4.2 GHz; GPU: Asus STRIX & Gigabyte g1 GTX 1070 SLI; RAM: 16 GB Corsair vengeance 3200 MHz ; Mobo: Asrock Taichi x470; SSD: 512 gb Samsung 950 Pro Storage: 5x Seagate 2TB drives; 1x 2TB WD PurplePSU: 700 Watt Huntkey; Peripherals: Acer S277HK 4K Monitor; Logitech G502 gaming mouse; Corsair K95 Mechanical keyboard; 5.1 Logitech x530 sound system

 01000010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01100101 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 00101110

 

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I know they're going to run relatively hot, but AMD says that running at 90+ degrees is fine. They're also better for watercooling in terms of block compatibility.

 

so you might be water cooling later on? :D

Specs

CPU: i5 4670k i won the silicon lottery Cooler: Corsair H100i w/ 2x Corsair SP120 quiet editions Mobo: ASUS Z97 SABERTOOTH MARK 1 Ram: Corsair Platnums 16gb (4x4gb) Storage: Samsun 840 evo 256gb and random hard drives GPU: EVGA acx 2.0 gtx 980 PSU: Corsair RM 850w Case: Fractal Arc Midi R2 windowed 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

so you might be water cooling later on? :D

I might be; it depends on how it performs under air cooling, in terms of heat and noise.

 

Also the loop for this setup would be pretty expensive. I might grab an H220-X so I can save a bunch on the pump/res, but three GPU blocks, a CPU block and a 480 rad isn't cheap.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

I might be; it depends on how it performs under air cooling, in terms of heat and noise.

 

Also the loop for this setup would be pretty expensive. I might grab an H220-X so I can save a bunch on the pump/res, but three GPU blocks, a CPU block and a 480 rad isn't cheap.

no offense but how have you not seen a noise test with a reference 290(x) yet? there's plenty of videos each of them showing its stupid loud at 30%+ fan speed 

Specs

CPU: i5 4670k i won the silicon lottery Cooler: Corsair H100i w/ 2x Corsair SP120 quiet editions Mobo: ASUS Z97 SABERTOOTH MARK 1 Ram: Corsair Platnums 16gb (4x4gb) Storage: Samsun 840 evo 256gb and random hard drives GPU: EVGA acx 2.0 gtx 980 PSU: Corsair RM 850w Case: Fractal Arc Midi R2 windowed 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

no offense but how have you not seen a noise test with a reference 290(x) yet? there's plenty of videos each of them showing its stupid loud at 30%+ fan speed 

I've already stress-tested the 290s that I have, they're not that bad.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Hope you have earplugs... Reference coolers are loud and very inefficient..

Ran mine for half a night before switching to the g10's, and then switching to full waterblocks.

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

No Intel SSD and AMD RAM? Not cool, bro. Nonetheless,

 

iYOXpB3.gif

This post brought to you by a chronic lack of patience and sarcasm!

Also, the PSU tier list is a joke that nobody should actually take seriously

Zenith (dual-socket Pentium III XP rig)

 

2x Pentium III 1266MHz (cooled by new-old-stock Cooler Master MicroFin coolers), 512MB PC133 ECC, Supermicro P3TDDE, 80GB Barracuda 7200.7 (OS and basic programs), 160GB DiamondMax Plus 9 (games), Radeon 9600 Pro, Enthoo Pro, Corsair CX750M, Windows XP Pro SP3

Consoles: Softmodded 1.4 Xbox w/ 500GB HDD, Xbox 360 Elite 120GB (Falcon w/ busted laser), XB1X 1TB, PS1 1001 (don't really use), PS2 Slim 70000 w/ FreeMcBoot, PS4 Pro 7015B 1TB

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
  • Author

Build Problems, Overclocking, and Final Pictures!

 

The computer is done! I figured the intermediate steps would be kind of boring, so I decided to just share the final results, as well as the challenges.

 

Problems

 

I initially wanted to make sure everything worked just fine with two GPUs, and that everything else worked (which it did). So I ordered the third 290 (another eBay card).

 

When installing the third one, however, I ran into the first big problem: The GPU wouldn't click into the slot on the motherboard. As it turned out, the chassis' front panel connectors were interfering -- the housing for the pins was just a little too tall.

 

I already had the GPU, so I had two options: Water cool the rig, or do some modding. I don't want to spend another thousand on this PC, so I got some M/F jumpers off of Amazon. These housings are the same height as the original chassis ones, but I took out my knife and decided to cut them down as far as possible.

 

post-653-0-70099900-1409230750_thumb.jpg

 

I was able to take about a third of the original length off of the header housing -- any further, and the crimp that holds the wire to the housing would have been exposed. You can (sort of) see the length difference in the picture. This worked, and I was able to get the GPU into the slot comfortably.

 

Then I couldn't get Trifire running -- I don't think the board correctly auto-configured the PCI-E lanes right. I forced x8/x4/x4 in the BIOS, and it ended up working.

 

Overclocking

 

This was really exciting for me -- I've never done any overclocking before. I started with P95, then switched to OCCT because P95 has issues with Haswell (slipped my mind).

 

I didn't get the greatest chip. I was able to overclock a little bit, but I backed off a lot. I was able to get 4.5GHz on all cores running with 1.29V, but wouldn't have gotten any higher without going over 1.3V. So I stopped overclocking for a bit, but eventually came back. I wanted to get something extra out of it. So I settled for 4.4 GHz on all cores, which I got with 1.2V (quick and dirty). I haven't tried to lower the voltage yet, since it's only consuming an extra 8 watts under full load, so I'm not too worried. I ran it for 8 hours without any issue, then for another 12.

 

I don't think I'll overclock the GPUs, at least not yet. I have them on uber mode, so they make a good deal of noise. Fortunately, I live by myself and my headphones keep the noise away.

 

Power

 

It idles at around 90W, but under heavy load (OCCT with 6/8 threads running, and Furmark at max) I've pulled about 915 watts with it. In Tomb Raider and BF4 I've seen it be in the mid-600 watt range, with the least intensive games being in the high-200 watt range.

 

Performance

 

I'm running on a dinky 1600x900 monitor right now, but plan to go 2.5K at some point. Right now I can crank everything all the way up, and it looks like I'm gaming at a much higher resolution. In BF4 I was getting around 150 FPS average, with dips down into the 90s occasionally. In Tomb Raider I get about 120 FPS average, with dips down into the 90s.

 

Storage

 

Since I'm a storage nut, I have to talk about it a little. I've just got the 256GB SSD in there (drive cages are out for better airflow to the GPUs), and everything else will be on an iSCSI target running off of Tophat (my storage box). I do need to add more storage to Tophat, and I found a pre-flashed 9211-8i with the IT firmware, so I might go for it soon. I haven't updated Tophat in a few months, so maybe there'll be one coming soon? :blink:

 

If I really need more local storage, it'll probably end up being flash storage. I might get a 512GB MX100 in the future, they're so inexpensive.

 

Final Picture

 

Here it is:

 

post-653-0-33655400-1409231789_thumb.jpg

 

I have room for a PCI-E 2.0 card (x4), which I might go for. I have acquired a 10GbE NIC (Intel x520), and plan to at least try and install it. The idea of 10GbE gets me very excited.

 

That's all folks!

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

 

 

I have room for a PCI-E 2.0 card (x4), which I might go for. I have acquired a 10GbE NIC (Intel x520), and plan to at least try and install it. The idea of 10GbE gets me very excited.

 

That's all folks!

10GB! sweet! But can you utilize it? 

Pentium G3258 @ 4.2GHz | Asus R9 290 | MSI Z97s SLI Plus | 2x4GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 1600MHZ | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo | 250GB 840 Evo |Evga Supernova 750W | Win 7 Home Premium | Corsair Obsidian 800D |

i5-2450M @ 2.50 GHz | 8GB RAM | 500GB 5400rpm HDD | Nvidia gt630m | Win 8.1 Pro |

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

10GB! sweet! But can you utilize it? 

Not at the moment, but with another x520 I could have a direct connection between it and some other machine (probably Tophat).

 

More likely is that I'll get a switch with 10GbE uplinks like this one, then connect systems I want on 10GbE to it, and leave the rest at gigabit.

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

cool build, how big is the case in person. Just asking as I'm looking to order that case for new build fairly soon.

Dimensions? Relative to other cases?

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

relative to other cases

A bit larger than a Define R4

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use, and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei
Build Logs: Tophat (in progress), DNAF | Useful Links: How To: Choosing Your Storage Devices and Configuration, Case Study: RAID Tolerance to Failure, Reducing Single Points of Failure in Redundant Storage , Why Choose an SSD?, ZFS From A to Z (Eric1024), Advanced RAID: Survival Rates, Flashing LSI RAID Cards (alpenwasser), SAN and Storage Networking

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

nice 

More pictures please

|CPU: Intel core i5 3570k @ 4.5GHZ |Motherboard: Asus Z77 -V lx2 Full atx |RAM:Kingston HyperX Fury 2x8GB DDR3 1866MHz |GPU: 2 X ASUS AMD Radeon HD7850 2gb Crossfire |Case: Corsair Carbide 300r |Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2tb2 Samsung 840 120gb ssd raid 0 |PSU: Seasonic 750w 80+ PSU |Display: lg 32" 1080p 60Hz |Cooling: Noctua NH-D14 + 4Noctua NF-P14 scythe Kaze Q-12 Fan Controller |Keyboard: SideWinder X6 |Mouse: Razer DeathAdder 2013 |

Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Got to sound a airoplane taking off when gaming?

But cool build

IntelCorei54670k,Maximus VI Formula,Swift tech H220, 16gigs Corsair Dominator platinums, Asus DCUII GTX 780,1x256 840 evo, 1x 2TB Segate barracuda, Corsair AX 860, 

3 X Noctua NF-F12, 2x Noctua NF A-14, Ducky Shine 3 Blue Leds Blue switches, Razer Death Adder 2012, Corsair vengence 1400  

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Followers 7
Go to topic listing Build Logs

×