X99 FT03 Build Project - As of Sept 22 14 [CLOSED/PAUSE FOR NOW]

[DarkSilentSC]

So my first build happened on fall 2009 using X58 build. Used it for 5 years switchig graphics cards, SSDs, RAMs, Overclocking CPUs (which really didn't go quite well). Even though the X79 platform came out, I carefully waited for Haswell-E to come out. And it did so I started a second build project which will become a successor of my old X58.

 

My old build was as follows:

 

Intel Core i7-920 D0 (Right now settles at about 3.8Ghz)

Kingston HyperX DDR3 PC3-12800 Memory (6 x 4GB)

OCZ Vector 256GB SSD

2x EVGA GTX 780 Ti Reference Model in SLI

EVGA E760 X58 Classified Motherboard (This board is still not dead yet!)

Creative Sound Blaster Fatality Pro PCI-E Sound Card

Corsair H50 Cooler

Corsair AX1200 Power Supply

Lian Li PC-P80 Case

 

 

My New build parts list: [As of Sept 10]

 

Intel Core i7 5960X [GOT!]

Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 PC4-21300 RAM (4 x 4GB) [GOT!]

AsRock X99M Killer vs. (Future Asus ROG Micro-ATX Board here)  [GOT!]

Silverstone Strider Evolution 1200W Power Supply [GOT!]

Corsair H80i Cooler [GOT!]

ADATA Premiere Pro SP900 256GB M2 [GOT!] [Returned: I made a mistake with PCIe based M.2.]

Plextor 256GB Slim M.2 PCI-E [GOT!]

Silverstone Fortress FT03 Case [GOT!]

 

 

I'm going to take the challenge to fit all these parts into the case, if you know what I mean by people who used FT03 before.

Pictures and status to be updated if I get more parts in...

 

[As on post #23: Currently trying to find sweet VCore spot for 4Ghz. Already at 1.18V and the CPU gave in after 30 min of Prime95.]

 

Sept 22 14:

[Declaring FINISHED for now, even though it's not really complete. When I get extra time, I'll work on adding a window to a panel and paint motherboard heatsinks to further match black / white color. Thank you for watching and I appreciate your responses!]

 

[Jerakl]

Good luck! I'll watch this. I might be looking to upgrade to X99 later. 

[GhostWindGamer]

I have a X58 board

[ViruZ_HUN]

YIPPIE!

I respect you sir:D

 

Please make more pics!. I don't mean 1 or 2. I MEAN millions:D

[DarkSilentSC]

Yesterday night I finally ordered X99M Killer from AsRock, instead of waiting for Asus. Few reasons:

1. Onboard sound can only perform so much compared to dedicated sound cards. My brother had Crosshair IV motherboard with Creative X-Fi software for onboard sound. After messing around with the EQ, it turns out that the bass volume temporarily took over the treble and other sound level, and then recovers after bass volume decreases. [i could already see few people calling me audiophile] I decided not to put too much confidence on Realtek ALC1150 too too much. Even gigabyte's Core3D Audio processor won't perform as well as my existing Fatality Pro sound card, I'm guessing. Why is this brought up as a reason you might ask? After 2-way SLI-ing my GTX 780 Ti, I don't really have any space to place my sound card. The only gripe I might have is buy another USB sound card and leave my fatality pro card collecting dust.

2. I didn't really see any websites doing a review about X99M motherboard. I'll also take this opportunity to do a review on this board as well. Plus I'm going to do a serious gamble here by painting the heatsinks as well. I'm willing to take the risk of losing the warranty. Since my FT03 case has silver color, I'm thinking of going with black and white coloring.

 

Reason I liked about getting FT03:

One of my primary goal for this build is try to come up with a smaller size than my huge Lian Li PC-P80. This means I will have to take some consideration on air flow control around the case. The idea of having computer parts mounted vertically really sold me since RV01 case. I really find bringing cold air from bottom and exhaust hot air upwards plausible so FT03 was my choice. And the overall design! Couldn't say more.

 

H80i:

Because my CPU cooling solution will be located on exhaust side of the case, I must have a big radiator to cool my 5960X. I'll only know how the temperature looks like after OCing this up to 4.2Ghz. This is a worrisome unit for my build because of the size of the radiator. I'll see how well my build goes as I start installing other parts into the case.

 

Strider Gold Evolution 1200W:

I asked the sales person "Bring me the most powerful power supply that can fit into this case!" And this is what I got. Didn't really do much study for the PSU. Learned hard lesson on me trying to run 3x GTX580 with only 1000W PSU. Never doing that again.

 

Noctua NF-R8 80mm Fan x2

I'll take the word from Linus to use these two fans as my air intake. Most likely my case will have negative pressure, but hopefully this will better motivate the air flow.

 

More notes to follow...

[MourningSouls]

The strider Gold Evolution is a pretty decent unit. Though I have mixed feelings on you way of buying things.

 

Also I could've swore the FT03 used 120's for intake.

[DarkSilentSC]

The strider Gold Evolution is a pretty decent unit. Though I have mixed feelings on you way of buying things.

 

Also I could've swore the FT03 used 120's for intake.

Totally understandable. Feel free to put opinions and critiques too!

 

If you take the shroud off, there is a spot to mount 2 x 80mm fans. Will try to get some pics tonight.

[DarkSilentSC]

My old X58 rig.

 

[DarkSilentSC]

My potential new rig. Still waiting for my memory and motherboard.

The rubber mounts that are used to install these two fans.... real pain they were without removing that rear panel. Had to use a piece of thread, create a knot around, and pull it to place the fans properly.

Proudly purchased 5960X.

Had to remove the rivets holding this triangular support on the top right side of the case. This enabled me to put the radiator with the water pipes away from the central case area. Once you have a drill just bigger than the size of the rivet hole, you can drill through the hole to remove the rivets quite easily. Beware the sudden pop-in when you exert too much force towards the case.

[DarkSilentSC]

My motherboard (ASRock X99M Killer) is finally here! Here are unboxing photos:

Came with newegg and intel promotion codes.

After removing the cardboard box and air cushions, here is the motherboard box.

Opening the box gives you: AiCloud Service pamphlet, Motherboard manual, Software Installation Guide, XSplit broadcaster coupon, Driver CD w/ case decal,

I/O Shield (looks very cheap), 2x SATA III Cable (1 angled, 1 straight), screw for M.2 Mount, HDD Saver SATA Power adapter, and 2-way SLI Bridge.

[DarkSilentSC]

More motherboard pictures:

 

 

Plextor 256GB PCIe SSD Installed:

 

5960X Installed:

[jezza39]

Looks good, any reports yet on how that mobo is going for you? Seeing as rumours for an ROG RVG are slim to non existant, I think I might be grabbing the same board as there really isn't much else on the market mATX wise and I'd much rather buy from ASRock than EVGA

[DarkSilentSC]

Ongoing build... Two challenges:

 

1. Stick a ram closest to the radiator

2. Messy cable management on the back.

 

[ace2k8]

Looking nice. 

[Syraz]

Really want to know how thsee Asrock x99 mobo's work, the extreme6 has the right color scheme I want..

[DarkSilentSC]

Placed 2nd GTX 780 Ti:

 

Couple pics of GTX 780 Ti:

 

I'm in trouble and I may need your voices on how to clean this up... X_X

[DarkSilentSC]

Looks good, any reports yet on how that mobo is going for you? Seeing as rumours for an ROG RVG are slim to non existant, I think I might be grabbing the same board as there really isn't much else on the market mATX wise and I'd much rather buy from ASRock than EVGA

  

Really want to know how thsee Asrock x99 mobo's work, the extreme6 has the right color scheme I want..

I'll answer to these questions in detail AS SOON AS I GET MY DOMINATORS. Man they take forever to get here!!!

By the way, pull-only on the radiator shouldn't be too much of a sacrifice, right guys???

Right...?

[Santhox]

   I'll answer to these questions in detail AS SOON AS I GET MY DOMINATORS. Man they take forever to get here!!!

By the way, pull-only on the radiator shouldn't be too much of a sacrifice, right guys???

Right...?

I generaly got no idea bout pc but maybe you can fit the rad ontop ? like where you got the "Pull" fan. I dont know how much space you got ontop there but im just throwing out ideas

And why dont you use the Hot-Swap bay ?

[MourningSouls]

As far as the cable management goes, I've got two thoughts.

 

First is to move the bottom HDD to the hotswap bay, and use the new space to put the cables. Though I have doubts about whether they will all fit.

Or what I think is the better idea, buy Corsairs white sleeved cable kit. It'll cut down on how much excess cable there is. I'd also move the HDD for this idea too.

http://www.corsair.com/en/professional-series-gold-ax1200-individually-sleeved-modular-cables-white

 

As for the RAM and fan clearance issue, I'm not really sure. I think I'd just go to a thinner rad before I dropped a fan from an H80.

 

 

Also, I like your fan choice.

[DarkSilentSC]

As far as the cable management goes, I've got two thoughts.

 

First is to move the bottom HDD to the hotswap bay, and use the new space to put the cables. Though I have doubts about whether they will all fit.

Or what I think is the better idea, buy Corsairs white sleeved cable kit. It'll cut down on how much excess cable there is. I'd also move the HDD for this idea too.

http://www.corsair.com/en/professional-series-gold-ax1200-individually-sleeved-modular-cables-white

 

As for the RAM and fan clearance issue, I'm not really sure. I think I'd just go to a thinner rad before I dropped a fan from an H80.

 

 

Also, I like your fan choice.

 

The corsair cable kit... I totally did not see that coming. That really cut me some marks on my lack of consideration really on what PSU to choose.

 

Going with a thinner rad is not going to be an option for me. Actually, I'm thinking of going for a very high airflow fan on the exhaust instead.

The idea is to have high airflow on exhaust to "suck" air to cross the radiator, rather than high static pressure.

 

What do you and other people think? Does the static pressure happens both on inlet and outlet area of the fan?

[ALXAndy]

How are you going to cool the motherboard to prevent it throttling ?

 

X99 is a very hot platform with serious VRMs.. I just worry you're asking a bit much by stuffing it in there with a pair of 780tis butted together like that.

 

Do you intend to fully water cool it?

[DarkSilentSC]

How are you going to cool the motherboard to prevent it throttling ?

 

X99 is a very hot platform with serious VRMs.. I just worry you're asking a bit much by stuffing it in there with a pair of 780tis butted together like that.

 

Do you intend to fully water cool it?

I'll go with the current configuration for now. After OCing my CPU up to 4.2Ghz, and if I see any component going above 80C, I'll start adjusting the cooling strategy. If things comes to worse, I'll just throw another 120mm right on front of the motherboard, but trying to avoid it since it will kill the appearance.

 

Another side note regarding of push fan, if I start compromising the RAM that goes underneath that fan by removing whole bunch of heatsinks (as much as removing the top heatsink fin), that would be a very dangerous game to play. I'm even thinking of placing a very high air flow fan as a pull fan instead. Bash all you like, but I just can't ignore the light bars on the dominator series.

 

Oh and are you finding that 2x80mm noctua fans on the bottom will not suffice for 780 Tis?

[DarkSilentSC]

Well this is sad.... I just got a call saying that the dominators are back-ordered and expected to be shipped on Sept 30th.

 

I have to wait that long to start up my system.

 

[DarkSilentSC]

Okay. I installed temporary ADATA RAM kit and got it running and set up.

 

As for overclocking... I've placed 1.18V Vcore for 4Ghz but it's still not stable after 30 min of Prime95... Oh come on. Looks like I got a not-so-good CPU.

Temperature went as far as 84C. Pushing to 4.2Ghz is going to be a super pain as soon as I remove a push fan.

[DarkSilentSC]

I finally got my dominator platinum and I'm done for now. If I ever get extra time to further work on my build, I'll add window panel and motherboard heatsink painting to complete black / white color combination.

 

Thank you to those who watched and responded.