FrankenPC 2015 Edition

ApolloX75 · January 27, 2015

So. I'm new to the LTT forums so I'll start with a small intro. I've been building systems since about 1997, started with the old K6 platform and Thunderbirds. Started water cooling with the Athlon XPs and first S939 X64s. I sold my old faithful i5 2500K system about two years ago and instantly regretted it. I just recently sold off my old Phenom II system and switched to a laptop but now I'm back to desktops.

I don't do normal rigs. I do bizarre. I love cable management and I make em stupid fast while keeping the cost low. So. FrankenPC is born. And if Linus sees this yes its the same one from the Lifehacker Q&A.

FrankenPC is a Core2Extreme QX9650 on an EVGA 790i FTW DPM board. This same board has been sitting in a closet since about 2008 after being the fourth one back from repeated RMAs and I got so pissed off I locked it away.

I slapped it into a new Anidees AI6 case with a Corsair CXM600 and I'm resurrecting my old Swiftech ApogeeDrive water block (replacement pump incoming) and a 240MM rad. Also have a shiny Gigabyte GTX 970 to round out the crazy.

I got a G.Skill 2X4GB DDR3 1600 kit working (surprise! Board does support 4GB sticks!) and at the full 1600MHz too which confirms my suspicion that newer 1.5V RAM is much better quality than the 1.65V junk from late 2007.

I shall post my current benchmark numbers later with my E8400 test CPU plus pictures of the current setup so all can marvel at ridiculousness incarnate.

Enflics · January 27, 2015

Great, Welcome to the forums, good to see someone with solid experience!

JoaoPRSousa · January 27, 2015

ApolloX75 · January 30, 2015

Love that Bean gif.

Anyways update time. My Core2X just arrived finally (late thanks to Canada Post as usual) and is now in and running.

For now I am only using a (broken) Freezer 7, I'm still waiting for the opportunity to order a new pump assembly for the ApogeeDrive. Need an MCP355 or similar to make it run again. So I'm seeing relatively stable temp ranges of 40C at idle to 72C at full tilt in 3DMark.

I'll post more pictures after I have a word with my Nexus 5 about camera functionality.

ApolloX75 · February 8, 2015

Wow. So tonight finished installing a Hyper 212 to handle the QX untill I complete the water loop. Power up the system and get into bios fine. Then bloop, screen gone. Odd. Case side off, pull a fan header off that wasn't working right, power back on. Beeping, error code 26 on the display. Hmm. Assume 790i has kicked the bucket already. Nope. GTX 970 had a heart attack. RMA time.

Update: It was just the 790i f***ing with me again. Card is fine and OC's like a beast. Picture bombardment hopefully tomorrow evening.

ApolloX75 · February 24, 2015

And FrankenPC scores an upgrade! I've been posting 3D Mark benches in the 3D Mark Thread, but I'll link some here for everyone.

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4015185 First bench with the QX9650 @ 3.66GHz

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4031997 Broke 9000 in Firestrike with a hefty 970 OC.

So it does alright and certainly better in some areas than I expected. In games it's more than passable and gets better with titles that are pre-2014. Dragon Age Inquisition averages a good 30-36 FPS and Assassin's Creed Unity is probably (as normal) the most troublesome peaking at around 32 FPS and dipping as low as 14, with frequent hitches and pauses. Battlefield 4 keeps stable at high details at around 36-44 FPS at 1920x1080.

Now the extra good news! I scored a 4670K for a ridiculous deal so now FrankenPC will become an up-to-date monster! As soon as I secure a new motherboard I'll update the build. And I'll make sure to document the upgrade better than I did the build since I'll have my workstation put together again instead of building on the floor.