Project cheap overkill...

[Tylerspyler]

So, this is really my first forum post on any site, forgive my newbie-ness.

I dont know why i even have this pc! its is vastly most powerful than I intend to use. It started life as a craigslist find for like $200. With that, it had...

*z800 mobo with 2 x5570 cpu's

*an intel ssd 160gb

*a corsair 650w psu

*2 astek intel AIO watercoolers

*some random noisy case fans

*a usb 3.0 card

*EVGA GTX260 

*8 1gb sticks of ecc ram

*and some misc other stuff

The cable management on it was dreadful when I picked it up...

   

 As of this post, I have changed it quite a bit. I just wated a pc that will be stable, not overheat, and could run just about anything I would throw at it.

 

 It now has the following...

*same mobo, cpu's, and water coolers but, with better thermal paste, cable managment, and such.

*ASUS ROG STRIX 1070 (clocked at 2.126Ghz stabe)

*Thermaltake 750w toughpower

*samsung 850 EVO 250gb ssd

*32gb ecc ram

*2tb hitachi hdd

*2 siverstone 120mm fans

*and a random dvd burner, just in case.

 

At idle, it is reasonably quiet. just the AIO watercoolers have a slight low pitched hum. However, I have found that the z800 mobo will not ramp up the fans on the watercoolers. So I spend a couple hours messing in SpeedFan and got it sorted out. HOLY CRAP! It gets loud at 100%. I now have the curve at a reasonable level to where it is a happy medium of quiet and cool. I ran 4-5 back to back runs of 3DMark 11 basic, and the cpus never got above 72C, and gpu stops at 65C even when overclocked. I was able to acheive a score of 17,257. https://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/12341284.

Anyways, I just wanted to see what others thought of this setup. I dont have many "good" pics of it yet, as it is not finished yet. Over the course of a few months, I have spent around $800 on the whole thing. I am hoping to get a better case soon, as the one I have now is, well... Underwhelming to say the least. 

[Go_Flux_yourself]

looks like you did a good job of overhall. that thing should still be able to run any game or app easy i love old xeon still very powerful. i am useing a x5560 in one gaming pc and a first gen i7 950 still as my streaming pc so 

[Nicnac]

I love how cobbled together this looks  

great machine you have there

 

[Tylerspyler]

Just an update on the project. 

 

I scored a full 100% stock Z600 Workstation off craigslist. I was originally going to try and put the z800 board into the chassis and make it work but, The chassis is very modular and the mobo is just as good as my z800. (albeit very strangely shaped) So now begins the process of transfering all the neccessary hardware into the new case. only drawback, I cannot use my Astek Intel AIO watercoolers as they will not fit into the case without cutting it up. So if anyone knows of a reliable small AIO water cooler, let me know!

 

This thing is very very heavy for its size. I am guessing around 35-40lbs with all my hardware in it.

My puppy decided to help with the part transfer process. On a side note, are the Quadro 4000 cards good for much these days?

It also came with 32gb of some really nice looking ram

The Asus 1070 fits like a glove!

The cpus that came with it are 2 xeon x5650 6 cores (24 with HT) @ 2.67Ghz. I might swap them for my x5570 for higher clock speed of 3.33Ghz, but I need to upgrade the coolers first.

[G.Reaper]

Nice machine you've got there. I'm a little jealous

As for the Quadro 4000 cards, I actually have two in SLi in my gaming rig... or I was until one of them stopped working due to a PSU failure. The remaining card i actually have overclocked with EVGA precision from it's stock 475 GPU/1400 VRAM to 650 GPU/1600 VRAM and it runs Doom 4 at well over 30 FPS without any issues, on high settings. (granted my monitor resolution is only 1280x1024)