DT build KneeBridge 2600K 16Gb ram setup (heavy on pics)

[DoubleTop]

So, it's known as the knee bridge machine after Coiler termed it that after my retail therapy response to damaging my knee !:knock:


So what did I order? Thanks to the Aria wishlist feature, that's easy :)

The short version, i7-2600K 2.40Ghz Sandybridge (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel+Core+I7+%281155%29/Intel+Core+i7-2600K+3.40GHz+%28Sandybridge%29+Socket+LGA1155+Pro cessor+-+Retail+?productId=43214), ASUS P8P67 Pro (B3) (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Intel+1155+P67+%28B3%29/ASUS+P8P67+Pro+Intel+P67+%28REV+B3%29+Socket+1155+ DDR3+PCI-Express+Motherboard+?productId=43854) and 16Gb total of Mushkin Silverline (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR3/Dual+Channel+1333MHz/8GB+Mushkin+Silverline+%23996770+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+ 1333MHz+9-9-9-24+?productId=41882), not forgetting the best value cooler on the market in my opinion, the Hyper212+ (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Fans%2C+Heatsinks%2C+Coolers/CPU+Coolers/Coolermaster+Hyper+212+Plus+CPU+Cooler+?productId= 39577) from Coolermaster (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products?search=coolermaster)

Wishlist link (http://www.aria.co.uk/WishList/ZSxf5YEHy3LHIdn5n6YPVA,,)

So how was my shopping experience? I rang sales to discuss the items I wanted, placed the order and 10:20am the following morning the order turned up. I have to admit to a small query error that I made with sales, a nice bit of DT fail whilst on painkillers that gave, Robin, Rawz and Coiler a giggle.

All images have full unedited version as links to them, and as asked elsewhere, all taken with a Panasonic DMC-FZ38 with most settings on auto, but in macro mode for quite a few of the shots. All hand held shots and that's noticeable on some shots that could have done with being a bit steadier.

So, not to hold you in suspense any longer, here's the box, in all it's glory ...

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010147.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010147.JPG)
Quality packaging from Aria

So the full order also had a SATA dvd drive, as the one in the retiring setup was IDE. Very happy to see a lot of airbags, but due to bad knee I couldn't have the normal fun of popping them, that made the kids happy as they got that job :)

Firstly, some shots of the motherboard box and the internal packaging of the motherboard. I took pictures of this as it was refreshing to see a new way of packig the board. For too many years, motherboards have been shipped with all accessories on top of the board, "protected" with a thin bit of cardboard. Well done ASUS with this one in my opinion.
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010150.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010150.jpg)
Shiny box!!!
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010151.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010151.JPG)
Motherboard without the load of leads, manuals etc on top!! WIN!
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010152.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010152.JPG)
What lies beneath?
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010153.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010153.JPG)
2x SataII leads, 2xSataIII leads, USB, SLI Bridge, ASUS Quick Connectors and the paperwork


Comments, I have to commend ASUS, the motherboard was nicely organised and once again the ASUS quick connectors are still one of my favourite little jumpers EVER!! Even better, they were the same configuration as the retiring motherboard, so these new ones didn't even get opened.

[DoubleTop]

So, what does this board have then, time for some close up shots of things that I had no idea about until I did actually read the manual for once :)

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010154.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010154.JPG)
EPU - new one on me
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010155.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010153.JPG)
Now this I like, 8 sata ports nomnomnom
note the film is still on the very shiny nicely polished heatsink
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010156.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010153.JPG)
Functional, yet still quite pretty
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010157.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010157.JPG)
TPU, another one to look up to see what it is !
At this point I'm interested in all of these marked LED's spread over the motherboard, I'll explain those in a moment
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010158.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010158.JPG)
Another switch to find out what it does! EPU&TPU ???
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010159.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010159.JPG)
That's new, what's with the DrWho Tardis like blue thing sticking out? Bluetooth onboard!!! WOOT
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010160.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010160.JPG)
Lanes a plenty
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010161.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010116.JPG)
That very pretty heatsink in more detail

[DoubleTop]

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=HMMvTCuBcZLfu2YL

Lots of new buzzwords, but what does it all mean?

It means you get one of the easiest to use motherboards I've had for some years. I recently built a machine another machine with another board manufacturer, but the general experience for me just wasn't close. I'm come to the BIOS later. So what are those EPU and TPU switches for? Well I have to be honest, I don't know why there are switches as they can be set in the bios anyway! So what does it actually do? EPU is all about monitoring your power usage, stepping control on the entire system, fans, memory, cpu, vga and hdd. My system is normally 100% load all of the time, so not of great use to me? Wrong! Powering down each part rather than a global power down seems to work well, yes sometimes a small lag is there on my storage drives when the power back up, but you'd be surprised at how much the noise level is affected.
What's TPU then, TPU is awesome, no other way of putting it. Using the ASUS AI Suite utility, you can do all the things normally you get stuck in the bios for direct in windows. How did I use it, well I let the autotune do it's thing and then went and set those values in the bios, means I can have one less program running as I'm a bit stuck in the old ways of liking a clean bootup. Being very honest though, once this rig was totally built, I get the feeling I could launch everything and not notice!!!

*more coming soon on the rest of the features*

So onto the next part, a box of a CPU, not inspiring but here comes some more pictures of the next steps, the CPU installation.

[DoubleTop]

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010162.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010162.JPG)
The beast of a CPU
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010163.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010163.JPG)
16Gb of ram looks like this :)
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010164.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010164.JPG)
CPU in the box, the fold on the left, away from cooler ++
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010166.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010164.JPG)
Amazing when you think of the size of coolers that came with previous Intel chips
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010167.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010167.JPG)
The most I've spent on a CPU in some time, so lots of pictures
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010168.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010168.JPG)
i7-2600K keeping the pins off the CPU
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010169.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010169.jpg)
Time to get nervous - this is the expensive part that must be got
right
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010170.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010170.JPG)
Take your time, make sure you have things the right way round!
Now I'm missing an image here, simply because I forgot to take it.

I'd like to re-assure people who may follow this though, the crunching noise sounds horrid as you push down the socket clip for the first time, just think about how nice a contact all those pins are getting with the cpu, a nice even so closure and let the mechanism do it's job. Take it slow, don't slam down, nice steady even pressure as you close the socket and clip in the retaining loop.

[DoubleTop]

the cpu is in place now, securely in the retaining socket. My cooler of choice, the Hyper212 has a backplate to fit. Now the backplate is designed for a multiple of sockets, so don't force anything, positioned correctly the nuts and bolts just slide through. There are notches in the plate, just like in the retaining mount. The middle notch is needed, and one of the shots shows this for the mounting clip :)

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010171.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010171.JPG)
Hyper212 mounting plate
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010172.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010172.JPG)
Moving the screws to the right position
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010173.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010173.JPG)
Placing the clips in place, my apologies for no mention of how to spread the heatsink paste, there are numerous opinions of how to get the best transfer. I'm in the camp of using the Nectar card to spread a nice thin even layer, place on the heatsink, a tiny twist each way and then secure in place. Securing in place, don't tighten each screw one by one, spread out half tightening with diagonal pairs and keep going until they are fully in place.
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010174.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010174.jpg)
It just looks the business !!
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010175.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010175.JPG)
I just love the clean reflections
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010176.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010176.JPG)
Enough yet?
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010177.jpg
Sneakyness time, taking shots of the ram that show the glorious shiny heatsink some more :lol:

Now it's time for a little video :eek: Why, because of the ram slots in this board. How many times do you see on ebay and forums, board is fine, one ram clip is snapped. Well this board only has the one!
ttAjM2gKsco

[DoubleTop]

11 more shots to go :D


http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010178.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010178.JPG)
Removed the protection film, it looks even better !!

Now time to take a look at the chassis, what is all this nice new shiny stuff being put into. An original Coolermaster Stacker case, with four sata caddies and a Nexus fan controller.

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010179.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010179.JPG)
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010180.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010180.JPG)
The original stacker + the new board all assembled

It's all got to be taken apart, the IDE drive needs to come out, so time to show off some of the cooling features of the case, and give it a good clean, which surpisingly showed me how much of a good job the filters do!

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010181.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010181.JPG)
The drive bay with the front intake fan
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010182.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010182.JPG)
The board to come out, yes also cooled with a Hyper212
A bit of a spaghetti western install, but tbh, the case has no window and it's so roomy it doesn't affect airflow, note the 80mm fan in the top as well as the 120mm exhaust.
http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010183.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010183.JPG)
An odd picture you may think, but another plus point for the new ASUS board. Gone is the fiddle of making sure the backplate metal hasn't fallen down when you've put the board in and blocked the port. USB always the culprit with these and to get the board in with backplates with this style I always hated them, bend the backplate so you don't have the chance to scratch the back of the board on the mounts as you slide the board into place. This new padded style = win win :) More plus points for this board.

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010184.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010184.JPG)
It's a cavern !! the black thing is a cylindrical type intake fan that blows nice clean air around the motherboard, controlled using the front fan controller, placing up to full can affect the board temps by anything up to five degrees depending on ambient temps.

I got a bit excited now, it took a trip into the loft to get the correct 8pin EPS for the board as the retiring one was 4pin. Note I left the existing ASUS quick connectors in place as well.

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010185.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010185.JPG)
Fired up first time !!

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010186.jpg
Some nearly cable management.
For those who've never seen an orginal coolermaster stacker, the black thing that is attached to the chasis is an intake fan, keeps the board nice and cool :)

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010187.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010187.JPG)
Internals in a bit more detail
front panel audio leads JUST reach!


http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010188.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010188.JPG)
GTX 460 1Gb and everything installed now

Oh no, here we have a problem, compare this image to the one with the retiring motherboard, the CPU is closer to the front of the case, and those Hyper212's are not short. Side of case as seen in earlier photo won't go one, the 80mm fan that's attached to the side panel is fouled by the heatsink :cry

Torx screwdriver, side panel taken apart and fan&mount removed, it's not like the case doesn't have enough ventilation and these new Sandybridge CPUs must be quite cool, just look at the stock heatisnk that came with it!!

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010189.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010189.JPG)
You can see why I had to remove the fan now


So thats all the photos, so how does the machine do. Well put simply, it's been on 24/7 running BIGADV units for Folding@Home. Guess when it sent back it's first unit :lol:

Folding stats (http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=56002)


System Specs

Jeantech 800W psu, modular


In the drive bay earlier shown with the intake fan we have
2x Intel X25V? 40Gb SSD, non raid - OS on one, Virtual machines on the other
1x Velociraptor = Games

The caddies, 1x500Gb and 1x1Tb drive, two empty caddies awaiting replacements on next purchase. Files all backup up elsewhere and on external drives for now. I have more than enough, spare two are purely for resilience.

Palit GT460 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/NVIDIA/NVIDIA+GTX+460+Series/Palit+GeForce+GTX+460+Sonic+1024MB+GDDR5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=40861)
Asus P8P67 Pro (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Intel+1155+P67+%28B3%29/ASUS+P8P67+Pro+Intel+P67+%28REV+B3%29+Socket+1155+ DDR3+PCI-Express+Motherboard+?productId=43854)
16Gb Mushkin ram (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR3/Dual+Channel+1333MHz/8GB+Mushkin+Silverline+%23996770+%282x4GB%29+DDR3+ 1333MHz+9-9-9-24+?productId=41882)
Sony optical dvd writer (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CD%2FDVD+Drives/Internal/SATA/Sony+Optical+DVD+Writer%2C+AD-5260S-0B%2C+SATA%2C+Black%2C+OEM+?productId=40716)

[DoubleTop]

so you have the specs, you have the build log :)

If you want a benchmark running, just shout and I'll do my best to accomodate.

DT.

[Josh]

Very nice mate, good job.

[andyn]

Quality tech porn, thanks for taking the time :).

[scottmac]

Really nice

Always amazes me to see 16382 MB at the post screen, only feels like yesterday when it was 16382 KB !

[FlasH]

Benchmark please :P looking good though!

[DoubleTop]

Benchmark please :P looking good though!

which one, and at stock or max overclock if CPU :idea:

[joker3327]

love the Stacker case !! very nice build

[FlasH]

which one, and at stock or max overclock if CPU :idea:

Both :)

[DoubleTop]

Both :)

which benchmark though :lol:

[coiler]

very nice, and a fine fine purchase!

[FlasH]

which benchmark though :lol:

All of them? :weeee

[Bigian88]

Wheres the cable managemant :P

[DoubleTop]

Wheres the cable managemant :P

if you can find it nice one :lol:
http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2698

A couple of wraps was the best I could manage, and due to the size of the case, the front USB cables only just reach the bottom of the board.

[Bigian88]

Grab yourself a slightly more practical case and fill it with 2TB drives ;) no need for that many drive bays!

[NickCPC]

Go on then DT, I'll take you on at the Custom PC Benchmarks over the weekend if you want a race :lol: fastest overclocked settings you can reach? (can do stock race too if you have the time/can be bothered!)
http://video.cloudfront.bit-tech.net/CPCSuite2007.zip
Be interesting to see if my crippled 2500K + speedy RAM can keep up with your super 2600K and outrageous 16GBs! :P

Also great build log ;)

[f12f12]

the last board had the same cooler? how could this one not fit?

[DoubleTop]

Grab yourself a slightly more practical case and fill it with 2TB drives ;) no need for that many drive bays!

it's not about size, it's about redundancy - my work is VERY important, it pays the mortgage ;)


Go on then DT, I'll take you on at the Custom PC Benchmarks over the weekend if you want a race :lol: fastest overclocked settings you can reach? (can do stock race too if you have the time/can be bothered!)
http://video.cloudfront.bit-tech.net/CPCSuite2007.zip
Be interesting to see if my crippled 2500K + speedy RAM can keep up with your super 2600K and outrageous 16GBs! :P

Also great build log ;)

I've family visitors this weekend, so some PC tinkering might be just what I need on Sunday night :)


the last board had the same cooler? how could this one not fit?

it's under one of the photos


Oh no, here we have a problem, compare this image to the one with the retiring motherboard, the CPU is closer to the front of the case, and those Hyper212's are not short. Side of case as seen in earlier photo won't go one, the 80mm fan that's attached to the side panel is fouled by the heatsink :cry

The height is obviously the same, but as the positioning is different it wouldn't fit, it was tight with the retired board, but a simple nono with this one, I may custom fit a thinner bezel fan there if I can find one, I know they exist .......

DT.

[Lisa]

That was ace thankyou.xx

Same motherboard as me and I also noticed the "crunch" of the cpu when installing it. It made my hair stand on end, which had the benefit of making me about 2ft taller :D

[RaMarcus]

Nice write up DT, glad it went well. How is the overall experience compared to using the old machine?

[cruciate]

Love the PC, but what I want to know is, Hows the knee?

[jammi]

nice amount of ram you have there

[DoubleTop]

Nice write up DT, glad it went well. How is the overall experience compared to using the old machine?

It's not even in the same category, yes I've setup the SSDs slightly different having my virtual machines on one instead of on the velociraptor, but I honestly cant remember the last time it kicked the hourglass mouse pointer up :)


That was ace thankyou.xx

Same motherboard as me and I also noticed the "crunch" of the cpu when installing it. It made my hair stand on end, which had the benefit of making me about 2ft taller :D

It's those little odd things that people never mentioned in my experience, and it's always nice to have someone mention the little things :)


Love the PC, but what I want to know is, Hows the knee?

Still in "rest" state, walking gives a tinge on every step, but I am walking a little more, still driving to the office though.


nice amount of ram you have there
compared to some of my servers, that's nothing :lol:

Thanks for all the comments, makes me want to build another one!

[El Wayneo]

Epic PC but i can't really afford to splash the cash this time round.

Ivybridge FTW!

[NickCPC]

Epic PC but i can't really afford to splash the cash this time round.

Ivybridge FTW!
LGA2011, you know you want it ;)

DT - sorry I still haven't benched yet, will try and post my stuff in the next 48hrs. If you're busy dw though!

[NipNip]

One word, Awesome :)
Such a well laid out process and photo's. Seems like there is even a hint of an Engineer in you somewhere

[DoubleTop]

update coming in a few minutes, with some new pictures once they are uploaded, brought a thinner 80mm fan and without the mounting bracket, using AcoustifanFanGasket instead, I can get my equilibrium of 3in, 3out back again :)

DT.

[cruciate]

DT, your medial ligament shouldn't hurt while walking still. Ask your physio if they are sure its not cartilage damage. I'm not saying it IS, but I would be asking the question.

[DoubleTop]

so, thanks to the purchase of an 80x80x10 fan, coupled with a pack of anti-vibration fan gaskets I have my side intake fan back on, at a nice low rpm of 680 :) Barely a breeze :lol:

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010210.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010210.JPG)

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010211.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010211.JPG)

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010212.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010212.JPG)

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/thumbs/P1010213.jpg (http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/P1010213.JPG)


So now I'm back to normal setup for the small price of a smaller depth fan, pics taken when the machine was on, shutter speed caught the fans stationary!! It's dropped the "system" temp by a degree, at full load and all fans at minimum. Going to use that benchmark suite that was posted in it now :)

Fans layout is now front intake, side intake, long-side intake, top exhaust, psu exhaust and rear 120mm exhaust.

DT.

[NipNip]

I see that you seem to have perfected your fan set up. Are there any good sources of information you would recommend reading to get optimal air flow, or good vs bad practices?

I'm going to be putting myself together a new PC at the beginning of April after having Laptops for the past 4/5 years. I have forgotten a lot of information that I need to relearn

Cheers

[DoubleTop]

Go on then DT, I'll take you on at the Custom PC Benchmarks over the weekend if you want a race :lol: fastest overclocked settings you can reach? (can do stock race too if you have the time/can be bothered!)
http://video.cloudfront.bit-tech.net/CPCSuite2007.zip
Be interesting to see if my crippled 2500K + speedy RAM can keep up with your super 2600K and outrageous 16GBs! :P

Also great build log ;)

I've no idea if these number are any good tbh, not able to find much to compare to :lol:

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/cpc2007-103x48-a1.JPG

Quite conservatice settings, no changes on the many voltage options, just the CPU to 1.42, BCLK to 103 and CPU ratio 48, so 4.95Ghz, the magic 5Ghz requires a lot more playing about.
Boinc at those settings does a bench 4711 Whetstone and 12,576Dhrystone.


I see that you seem to have perfected your fan set up. Are there any good sources of information you would recommend reading to get optimal air flow, or good vs bad practices?

I'm going to be putting myself together a new PC at the beginning of April after having Laptops for the past 4/5 years. I have forgotten a lot of information that I need to relearn

Cheers
It's not just about the case, it's the surroundings as well. Personally I seem to get better results with equalisation cooling, so do better with negative pressure and some better with positive.

DT.

[NickCPC]

I've no idea if these number are any good tbh, not able to find much to compare to :lol:

http://www.doubletop.org.uk/pics/aria/dt-sandybridge/cpc2007-103x48-a1.JPG

Quite conservatice settings, no changes on the many voltage options, just the CPU to 1.42, BCLK to 103 and CPU ratio 48, so 4.95Ghz, the magic 5Ghz requires a lot more playing about.

Interesting! Nice scores.

Stock (according to CPU-Z I was running at 3.6GHz, 1333MHz RAM for this)
http://i56.tinypic.com/2h3yebl.png

Overclocked (Only managed 4.7GHz on 100.2MHz BCLK with 1866MHz 9-9-9-24 RAM tonight... this beta BIOS is useless)
http://i53.tinypic.com/snja0y.png

Slightly faster in the multitasking but much slower in image editing and video encoding. Some more results from the CPC guys here if you're interested: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2011/01/03/intel-sandy-bridge-review/8 and on page 9.

Don't know what's going on with my board, no matter what I do I can't get over 1.385V on this BIOS. *awaits B3 replacement and crosses fingers*

EDIT - pics seem to be hit and miss
OC 4.7 Image 2016 Video 3608 Multi 1785 Overall 2470
Stock Image 1472 Video 2691 Multi 1377 Overall 1847

[DoubleTop]

hmm, I'll run again later and tick the button for advanced so I get more info like yours is showing. So my first go beats you, I did notice that during mutlitasking the CPU throttle back down to it's idle 1.6Ghz, even with the speedstep stuff turned off - got to find a way around that.

DT.

[doctorfonz]

I'm sorry to say it, but, I hate you! ...*very* nice system you got yourself there!

I know you're a folding fan, so overclock that mother, get the latest SMP client on it, and let me know how many PPD you can get with the new a5 units on bigadv?!?

[DoubleTop]

40K cpu, 10k GPU :)

It's having a rest at the moment, made my million points this month with ease :D Playing with overclocks a little.

DT.

[coiler]

i've read this "kneebridge" post in todays posts so often, i'm almost expecting intel to make an official release

[gadget_addict]

Hehe, methinks Mr DoubleTop availed himself of the exact same special offer on Aria as I did, 16GB of Mushkin Silverline, i7 2600k and P8P67 Pro here too...

That crunch when the cpu was going in freaked me out:eek:

I had never seen that case before, I was expecting a 400mm fan or something behind the side panel mesh :p


In my case, I had to get a new psu, my old ocz 600w just didn't have the juice for the 6850 I got, bought a xfx (seasonic) 850w :lol:

[DoubleTop]

you'll notice I make no reference to what I paid :D

There is a selection of side panels you used to be able to get for the Stacker range, I've seen one modded to take a full side fan, but tbh they are not that efficient and cause flow issues. I tried putting a 120 on there, and it made no real difference to the system temps apart from making the area around my legs breezy !!

DT.

[doctorfonz]

40K cpu, 10k GPU :)

It's having a rest at the moment, made my million points this month with ease :D Playing with overclocks a little.

DT.

Thats insane! ...my i7-860 is getting around 20k!
My lowly GTS-250 only brings in 5k on top of this, but 5k is 5k.
...I've been holding back on the GPU upgrade, dunno whats best.

[DoubleTop]

Thats insane! ...my i7-860 is getting around 20k!
My lowly GTS-250 only brings in 5k on top of this, but 5k is 5k.
...I've been holding back on the GPU upgrade, dunno whats best.

at that was at 4.3Ghz, it goes to 4.93 reasonably easy - 5.1 is possible but not for extended periods of time :)

[Sarky]

Don't know how I've missed this, but anyway looks real nice! Bet that CPU blows your old one away :).

One thing I don't like, was when I read you were using a Jeantech 800W modular PSU... :P

[DoubleTop]

Jeantech modular is now 6years old :) I had bad supply of electric at my old house so brought a PSU from a retail shop worldly type ;) so that I could take it back. I went through I don't know how many other units, so had everything on UPS with surge protection. This one was replaced as well but then we moved into new house with new electrics, I was able to sell all the protection. I still have box and receipt :lol: I have no idea who "really" made the unit, but it has been rock steady, on the past three incarnations of systems in this case.

I was tempted to put the PSU into the bottom fitment, as my case has both top and bottom mounts for PSU, and I also have all the cabling to run two PSU units in the one case :lol:

DT.

[Sarky]

Wow, wonder if it has any form of circuit protection then. 6 years old for an 'unbranded' is pretty good! :)

[I3R0K3N7FEET]

i hasa 1 question.

What does DT do with all his PC's other than upload illegal tech pr0n?

;D

nice photos :D

[Dunny774]

I wish I had a lot of money to do this ... :)


Nice build

[lucas4]

very nice :D!

also just noticed that the Asus board has dropped in price :weeee

the board is defo top of my list :D!!

how u finding it?
when r these benchmarks coming? or have i missed them :lol:?

[DoubleTop]

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products?search=CPU-I71-BX80623I7260 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products?search=CPU-I71-BX80623I7260)

Couldn't resist :lol: There are some quick benchmarks using the CPC bench Nick posted, you'll need to shout the exact program you want for other benchmarks :)

DT.

[goshko94]

WHats hte difference between 8GB and 16GB of ram in games ?

[Sarky]

Very little, same with 4GB and 8GB. 8GB or more is usually needed with VM, video editing and photo editing.

[DoubleTop]

WHats hte difference between 8GB and 16GB of ram in games ?


Very little, same with 4GB and 8GB. 8GB or more is usually needed with VM, video editing and photo editing.

What Sarky said, there is very little difference as not many games will utilise it all, or get even close :) GPU card ram I would suspect makes a difference, but once again only if the game in question utilises it, down to the methods used. DirectX is the king in this respect, it really is a nice framework :)

Gaming benefits from a CPU that can feed the GPU, a GPU that is fast and running from SSD means load times are blink and it's loaded.

DT.

[NickCPC]

Computer Shopper has released a new bench if you wanna have a run of that too DT?
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/coverdiscs/187/expert-reviews-windows-7-benchmarks

It's gonna take most of today to download on my 1Mb connection (actually, as I'm back in York tomorrow I might get it then) but I'll post back results if you want another race?

[DoubleTop]

downloading now .....

[NickCPC]

Ooops, forgot about this - downloaded and ran. 4.6GHz, basically same setup as CPC scores. Image 135s score 127, Video 235s score 132, Multi 323s score 139, overall score 135.

Think a Core i5 2500K at stock scores 100 on all tests but there's a weighting of 1:2:3 on image:video:multi too, but it sorts it for you if you feed it into that spreadsheet. Will update with my laptop scores too when it's done!

EDIT - Firstly noticed there's a mistake in their spreadsheet, your overall score is the same as the time taken for the image test which is clearly wrong. I've used

=(F3+(G3+G3)+(H3+H3+H3))/6in I3 to correct this, which actually doesn't alter my overall score for my desktop.

Laptop (specs as per sig) Image 308s score 56, Video 1247s score 25, Multi 2416s score 19, overall score 135 (on an ooold & messy Win7 install, like >1 year).

[theste]

Very nice job done there mate :thumb:

[coiler]

KNEEBRIDGE FTW!

DT hows the knee and the kneebridge going?

[DoubleTop]

machine is rock solid, knee is holding up, four weeks without injury playing football now. No twinges, just muscle aches from doing exercise :lol:

The 2x40Gb SSD structure was going to change this weekend to a 60Gb Mushkin with the 40Gb Intel Value x-25, but went stunt kite flying instead as the weather was perfect.

DT.