Warmachine 3.0 Build

[sbohdan]

BTW, what do you think about these parts? Any suggestions on better ones?

I think we need to start another build thread for your new project. ;)

I'm not complaining about mine being hijacked. I'm glad I started converstation. I'm saying you'll probably get more responses that way. :D

You're looking at $130 for the res and $70 for the pump for a total of $200. I'd recommend the dual bay res from XSPC and the Koolance PMP-450S Strong High-flow Pump or any other Laning D5 based pump.

Like the pump/res combo you're looking at this pump mounts in the res. The pump is a much higher performance pump with the same noise level as the one you're looking at. It's flow rate is 17.4L/min vs the 8.7L/min of the pump you're looking at meaning it's moving better than twice the coolent through the loop, barring restrictions. The pump is $80 and the res is $60 bringing your total to $140 vs the $200 for the Koolance res/pump combo. Unless you particularly liked the styling of the Koolance res which is pretty dang keen looking.

Sorry for hijacking the thread but the fact is It did inspire me to get WC. Thanks for the suggestions - I will consider them but I just might do it your way for now (no reservoir). Keep us posted about the performance data.
Oh and I do envy your case and the WC loop in it - looks awesome (I was thinking of a NZXT phantom white for mine)

[Skippman]

It's not really speed enhancements, rather write enhancements. The NAND in the SSD is only good for so many writes, this in theory minimizes the unnecessary writes. You might want to disable System Restore, that alone likes to take up a bunch of room.

I'm finding my save games take up a ton of room too! I copied over my Fallout New Vegas and Crysis Warhead saves and it was close to a gig. Might have to look into moving the My Documents folder to the RAID0. BTW, Fallout New Vegas with EVERYTHING maxed looks so fluid it's almost unreal. I don't think I've played a game that looked that smooth in a long LONG time. I'm really pleased with my GPU selection!

[JMMD]

Really nice looking build, thanks for sharing all the pics.

[DaddyRabbit]

It's not really speed enhancements, rather write enhancements. The NAND in the SSD is only good for so many writes, this in theory minimizes the unnecessary writes. You might want to disable System Restore, that alone likes to take up a bunch of room.

I'm finding my save games take up a ton of room too! I copied over my Fallout New Vegas and Crysis Warhead saves and it was close to a gig. Might have to look into moving the My Documents folder to the RAID0. BTW, Fallout New Vegas with EVERYTHING maxed looks so fluid it's almost unreal. I don't think I've played a game that looked that smooth in a long LONG time. I'm really pleased with my GPU selection!

I have :
- Disabled hibernate to avoid hiberfile.sys which will equal the size of your installed RAM.
- Disabled power saving (desktop system)
- Moved Music, Video, Downloads, My games, and Pictures to the HDD (later relocated my whole Documents folder)
- Reduced the size of the system restore folder and redirected dump files to the HDD
- While I have left indexing enabled (love Win7 search capabilities!) I relocated the index folder to the HDD
- Set a small static page file on the SSD and a slightly larger one on the HDD (will probably remove the one from the SSD)

Haven't gone through relocating the TEMP folders (it might be a good idea though). I did NOT relocate my whole user profile however as there are some frequently used folders (appdata and such) that benefit from being on the SSD.

I have a second programs folder on the HDD and when I install an app I have to decide where I want to put it. I left Steam games and most used apps (Office and such) on the SSD.

Cloning a pre-installed HDD to an SSD works but you most often will run into partition alignment issues which can kill performance on an SSD). Win 7 should have aligned the partitons correctly on the clean install.

TRIM will automatically be enabled on Win7 unless the SSD is raided.

For me I have about 60% of the SSD used. If I get to 80% I am gonna start looking for a bigger drive as you don't want to fill up an SSD.

[Major_A]

Just curious here, how did you move your Documents folder (aka username folder)? I'd like to do this but I figured if I moved them then Windows would just create a new folder and I'd lose saved games, preferences, etc... Did you tell the registry where to look or some other means?

[DaddyRabbit]

Just curious here, how did you move your Documents folder (aka username folder)? I'd like to do this but I figured if I moved them then Windows would just create a new folder and I'd lose saved games, preferences, etc... Did you tell the registry where to look or some other means?

I didn't move the top level user folder, my profile folder is still under c:\users. I just moved the individual folders under that folder (My Documents pictures music etc) by going to the properties - location tab for that folder and selecting "move".

There is a way to relocate the whole profile but MS doesn't recommend it. I didn't feel it was worth it. You can do this with saved games as well.

[Skippman]

Just curious here, how did you move your Documents folder (aka username folder)? I'd like to do this but I figured if I moved them then Windows would just create a new folder and I'd lose saved games, preferences, etc... Did you tell the registry where to look or some other means?

I didn't move the top level user folder, my profile folder is still under c:\users. I just moved the individual folders under that folder (My Documents pictures music etc) by going to the properties - location tab for that folder and selecting "move".

There is a way to relocate the whole profile but MS doesn't recommend it. I didn't feel it was worth it. You can do this with saved games as well.

Thanks for the tip! Worked great!

[DaddyRabbit]

NP and glad it worked! Very clean and cool build BTW!

[Apoptosis]

Amazon Affiliate links? I have no idea what that is? I only included the links to the parts I'm considering...

BTW, what do you think about these parts? Any suggestions on better ones?

No worries... you copied/pasted someones affiliate URL's... no biggie.

As for the parts... Look solid, but I've not touched custom water cooling loops in some time.

[Skippman]

Well, here's the start of my overclocking. I wanted to get an idea of what my baseline temps were like before I began cranking things up. I ran Prime95 for 10 iterations achieving a max core temp of 47C as per HWiNFO64. I'm going to jump straight to 4.2G and see how it handles that.

[vbironchef]

Cooling will not be your problem with overclocking

[Skippman]

Just started and already into some problems. Using eVGA's ELEET tool I can OC it to 4Ghz super easy. Running Prime95 I'm pulling 57C at peak temps. The problem is I can't seem to get it to stay there. Once I turn Prime95 off it drops right back down to 3.2 which I assume is the speed stepping technology kicking in.

I followed this guide on eVGA's forums to OC it but Windows still won't show it as 3.2G. Am I doing something wrong here?

[sbohdan]

Just started and already into some problems. Using eVGA's ELEET tool I can OC it to 4Ghz super easy. Running Prime95 I'm pulling 57C at peak temps. The problem is I can't seem to get it to stay there. Once I turn Prime95 off it drops right back down to 3.2 which I assume is the speed stepping technology kicking in.

I followed this guide on eVGA's forums to OC it but Windows still won't show it as 3.2G. Am I doing something wrong here?

wow. @ 4Ghz I have max. 50C on air (corsair A70). @4.7Ghz I have 57C @ full load of course (1.428V). Something seems to be wrong with your WC setup or the air flow in your case, because my cooler only costs $30

Anyway to get 4Ghz you only need to:
- set multiplier to x40
- set the bus to 100 (from auto)
- set SPD for memory or if you don't have that, just set the timings and RAM voltage to the specs of your RAM manually
- do not disable any power saving features because there is no need (I have them on even @ 4.7Ghz) - you will get 4Ghz anyway anytime you need it but when idle the computer will save power.
- leave everything else on AUTO (even CPU voltage. no need to raise volts at 4Ghz yet. It will be totally stable @ AUTO)
-disable CPU PLL (these guys are overdoing it. you need that around 5Ghz or maybe from 4.6Ghz but definitely not @ 4Ghz.

That's all you need for 4Ghz. You only need some additional settings when going over 4Ghz.
BtW, your CPU frequency should go down to 1.6Ghz when idle not 3.2 and jump to 4Ghz as soon as you do anything more than reading a page (even opening a browser).

[Skippman]

Wow, seriously? Now I'm worried.


***EDIT***

I fear you may be right. Adjusting the speeds of the fans on the waterblock made zero difference in the temperatures. I wonder what I've done wrong.

[Major_A]

Sounds like bad contact. You try pulling the block off and seeing how the thermal paste spread out?

[Skippman]

Sounds like bad contact. You try pulling the block off and seeing how the thermal paste spread out?

No, but I'm going to this afternoon. The block I'm using doesn't have spring standoffs either, just fixed blots. I was a little nervous about how hard to torque them down using the aftermarket rear bracket so that might be a factor too. It seems to be only the one core that's getting that hot, like 6C higher than the others. Might be an uneven spread of the paste.

[sbohdan]

Sounds like bad contact. You try pulling the block off and seeing how the thermal paste spread out?

No, but I'm going to this afternoon. The block I'm using doesn't have spring standoffs either, just fixed blots. I was a little nervous about how hard to torque them down using the aftermarket rear bracket so that might be a factor too. It seems to be only the one core that's getting that hot, like 6C higher than the others. Might be an uneven spread of the paste.

Or an uneven pressure of the block.

[Skippman]

I took the block off, used a grain of rice sized dab of eVGA Frostbite, and reseated it. Reran Prime95 and monitored temps with HWiNFO64. Still hitting 47C at stock clocks.



I still can't help but feel there's something wrong.

[vbironchef]

Very interesting, With all your water cooling I would have thought that temps would never be a issue. Do you have a fan on your north bridge block? Do you need to use another type of thermal grease? I have a bunch of the Noctua stuff I can send you. Free! Maybe you need to run your new rig overnight just to get everything seated. Then check your tightness of all your components. I don't know since I never had a WC unit of that type. I just want your rig to be awesome.

[Major_A]

If you want to get that CPU toasty run LinX.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... -interface