Post your custom rig

[pbf98]

No I mean there isn't enough clearance haha the heatsink halfway covers one of the pci express slots and then the third one is just below the video card. If there is the clearance I am not sure that I'd be comfortable with how close it would be.

I have started to notice frame rate drop while playing some games. It used to run all day at 60 fps in 1080.. now the next step down its running at 50 with random drops in the 20s
Its not heat thats the problem it runs between 55 - 60c while playing my games which is mostly black ops 1. Not dust, I clean my PC weekly. I don't know what is causing the drop in performance. So i was thinking either SLI or newer bigger card haha..

I was looking through the cases and this one just stood out so much, it said buy me lol so I did. I just wish I had better cable management skills

 

[Mehta23]

Wow, man your setup is actually sweet!

I may post pictures soon ....

 

[mikedt]

As water-cooled PCs seem to be the current fad the moment. Along with the blue LED craze.

I have to ask, just how reliable and watertight is the Chinese plumbing used in systems like these? I know that water and electricity do not mix.

 

[Ballymoss]

Since you do it yourself, how safe it is partly down to the quality of the components you use but largely to how good a plumber you are.
Water cooling the RAM looks great but is largely unnecessary, cooling the GPU brings benefits but voids the warranty.
Having said that, the moment when you power it up and it works is quite a rush!

 

[pbf98]

I like the blue lights cause blue would be my favorite color haha

I myself,have never trusted water cooling enough to use it on my pc. haha

 

[Ballymoss]

I have never understood the appeal of those galumphing great air coolers. At the risk of repeating myself if you got a "sealed loop" cooler such as the Corsair H100 you'd have loads of space. Re the keyboard and mouse are the Drivers up to date?

 

[mikedt]

I have never understood the appeal of those galumphing great air coolers. At the risk of repeating myself if you got a "sealed loop" cooler such as the Corsair H100 you'd have loads of space. Re the keyboard and mouse are the Drivers up to date?

The H100 is pre-made of course. Presumably they warranty it watertight as well. It's not a DIY mass of plastic pipes and jubilee clips, that you fill up, turn on, and cross your fingers.

I got thinking about this, because we had a mass of plastic pipes and jubilee clips(the central heating system) explode on us yesterday, in a torrent of hot water and steam. If that happened inside a PC, or even if it sprang a leak, game over I think.

TBH I like air cooled, probably because I drove a VW Beetle for years.

 

[EVGA_RobB]

Since you do it yourself, how safe it is partly down to the quality of the components you use but largely to how good a plumber you are.
Water cooling the RAM looks great but is largely unnecessary, cooling the GPU brings benefits but voids the warranty.
Having said that, the moment when you power it up and it works is quite a rush!

Not sure on other companies, but taking off the stock cooler and using a GPU waterblock WOULD NOT void EVGA's warranty unless there was water damage. All we require is that if you have to send it in for RMA, you remove the waterblock and reinstall the original heatsink. Or for those who don't want the hassle, we usually produce a limited quantity of high end cards in a series with our own custom blocks already in place.

 

[EVGA_RobB]

Thanks a ton, guys! I didn't want to get a gpu that wouldn't take advantage of the i7, i appreciate the tip. I have a Seagate goflex 1tb external drive. Would I be able to remove that from its housing to use in a rig? Also, you don't think those components were used too extensively to be a concern?

What type of usage will the graphics card be providing? Heavy Gaming? Monitor Resolution? All of these things are important when choosing a video card. For instance, I have a 570 right now and that plays most games that I play on high with no problem (single monitor, 1920x1080). That said, games like BF3 I may need to turn a few things off to get desired performance. If you decide to go triple monitor (surround gaming), then you would need a very high end card or SLI 2 decent cards. For my usage, I will be switching to 2 x GTX 560s until I can afford a major upgrade (triple monitor setup now).

 

[Ballymoss]

What type of usage will the graphics card be providing? Heavy Gaming? Monitor Resolution? All of these things are important when choosing a video card. For instance, I have a 570 right now and that plays most games that I play on high with no problem (single monitor, 1920x1080). That said, games like BF3 I may need to turn a few things off to get desired performance. If you decide to go triple monitor (surround gaming), then you would need a very high end card or SLI 2 decent cards. For my usage, I will be switching to 2 x GTX 560s until I can afford a major upgrade (triple monitor setup now).

The impression I got from Savage Shadows was that he didn't want to break the bank when building his PC. Thats why I suggested a GTX 460 as a very affordable but powerful card and of course it could be run in SLI with a higher power PSU.

Not sure on other companies, but taking off the stock cooler and using a GPU waterblock WOULD NOT void EVGA's warranty unless there was water damage. All we require is that if you have to send it in for RMA, you remove the waterblock and reinstall the original heatsink. Or for those who don't want the hassle, we usually produce a limited quantity of high end cards in a series with our own custom blocks already in place.

Thats impressive - I didn't know that. I have the GTX 690 and I couldn't contemplate ripping off the beautiful cast metal casing and installing a waterblock myself. What is the price differential between a reference GTX 690 and one with a pre installed waterblock?

 

[Savage Shadows]

What type of usage will the graphics card be providing? Heavy Gaming? Monitor Resolution? All of these things are important when choosing a video card. For instance, I have a 570 right now and that plays most games that I play on high with no problem (single monitor, 1920x1080). That said, games like BF3 I may need to turn a few things off to get desired performance. If you decide to go triple monitor (surround gaming), then you would need a very high end card or SLI 2 decent cards. For my usage, I will be switching to 2 x GTX 560s until I can afford a major upgrade (triple monitor setup now).

Mostly heavy hi-res photoshop usage (32 bit image quality sort of stuff) and graphic design with some dabbling into learning some basic game design. And likely dual display between an hdtv and a hi-res monitor. I MIGHT decide to do some casual gaming, but I've never been big into pc gaming.

The impression I got from Savage Shadows was that he didn't want to break the bank when building his PC. Thats why I suggested a GTX 460 as a very affordable but powerful card and of course it could be run in SLI with a higher power PSU.

You are right, budget is what I'm going for here. I'm trying to build something for around $250. I might even try flipping a couple of rigs though to raise my budget. I was thinking I could build something with the components mentioned, 500 gb and a standard dvd drive for around that, and sell it for $350 without too much hassle. That right there should land me a brand new i7-3770. I figure that if I could make $75-$100 a flip, I could build myself a respectable rig with new parts in about a month.

 

[imnotmikal]

I don't have pics yet.

Here's my spec list:
Case: GX2-W Black by Velocity Micro
Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V/Gen3
CPU: Intel i5-3570K @ 4.6GHz
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
RAM: G.Skill RipJaw X Series 2x4GB 1600MHz
Disk 1: Intel 320 Series 80GB SSD
Disk 2: 2x1TB Seagate Barricuda in RAID1
Optical 1: LG BluRay Burner
Optical 2: Samsung DVD Burner
Video: EVGA GTX 550Ti SC 2GB
Case Cooling: 5 120mm Scythe Fans [4 Intake (2 Front, 2 Side); 1 Exhaust]
PSU: Antec "High Current Pro" 750W Modular

Future Mods
RAM: G.Skill RipJaw X Series 4x4GB 1600MHz (2x4GB Added)
Disk 1: 2x80GB Intel 520 Series SSD in RAID 1

Here's a screenshot of it stressing (to show OC)
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12084540/PC/1.png

I'm gonna have some benchmark scores up in a sec, and I'll try to get actual build pics up later.

Since this post, I have upgraded to a Radeon 7970, and taken the 2 1TB drives out of a RAID 1 and made them into a 2TB RAID 0.

 

[Mehta23]

The impression I got from Savage Shadows was that he didn't want to break the bank when building his PC. Thats why I suggested a GTX 460 as a very affordable but powerful card and of course it could be run in SLI with a higher power PSU.



Thats impressive - I didn't know that. I have the GTX 690 and I couldn't contemplate ripping off the beautiful cast metal casing and installing a waterblock myself. What is the price differential between a reference GTX 690 and one with a pre installed waterblock?

Dont think they have a water cooed 690 yet

EVGA | Products | Product List

 

[Ballymoss]

Mostly heavy hi-res photoshop usage (32 bit image quality sort of stuff) and graphic design with some dabbling into learning some basic game design. And likely dual display between an hdtv and a hi-res monitor. I MIGHT decide to do some casual gaming, but I've never been big into pc gaming.



You are right, budget is what I'm going for here. I'm trying to build something for around $250. I might even try flipping a couple of rigs though to raise my budget. I was thinking I could build something with the components mentioned, 500 gb and a standard dvd drive for around that, and sell it for $350 without too much hassle. That right there should land me a brand new i7-3770. I figure that if I could make $75-$100 a flip, I could build myself a respectable rig with new parts in about a month.

Its always worth, when looking at money for a new pc, to look around your place for things you could sell on ebay. In my own case when I was looking at rebuilding my second pc (it eventually turned into a completely new build!) I used to have a collection of about a thousand photos of old railway stations and trains. I sold them off on ebay and got staggering prices - at one stage I was averaging

 

[Mehta23]

 

[Ballymoss]

The golden rule I have found on ebay is that it is better to split a rig into parts rather than sell it whole. People generally will not bid a realistic price on a complete rig, no matter how high end it is.

 

[Mehta23]

Oh, like motherboard bundles.

My old pc has nothing really of value - 1.6GHz AMD Sempron Single core, 1GB ram, 80gb hdd no graphics card...

 

[EVGA_RobB]

Dont think they have a water cooed 690 yet

EVGA | Products | Product List

Correct. We did not. We did do 680s as well as a few of our other 6 series cards IIRC.

NVIDIA's direction on the cooler for the 690 was insane (good), so we didn't mess with it. We will have to see what the next series brings to find out if there will be another dual GPU solution and if we choose to put it to water (and no, I don't have any inside info at this time when or what the next GPU series will be announced).

 

[Fr0stTr0n]

Got my Asus ROG themed project "Dark Wind" finally all done!

 

[pbf98]

Did you do the plexi installation and fitting yourself? I love the way the case turned out and makes me want to do something similar

 

[Mehta23]

*dies with envy*

 

[Fr0stTr0n]

Did you do the plexi installation and fitting yourself? I love the way the case turned out and makes me want to do something similar

I bought that from coolermaster, all I did was install the etched Asus ROG emblem but I have done my own windows in the past other case projects like "Night Fire" and "Cold Fusion" using kits

 

[Ballymoss]

Superb work Fr0sTr0n ! :beer:
Speaking of Coolermaster I have managed to order the alternative full height window side panel and it arrives this afternoon, all the way from Holland. Can't wait

 

[Ballymoss]

Speaking of which....

 

[Mehta23]

Wow.

Meanwhile the side panel on my case doesn't even align properly, so there's a bit of light leakage :-(