[MERGED] Your Main PC - Pictures, specs and discussion <IMAGE HEAVY>

marco_polo

Fair play Bepolite some seriously tasty work there .

Danger781

Gumbi wrote: »

Hey man, what voltage you need to get 1100 on that 7950? Also, can you push you memory any further than 1600? 1600 implies you have Hynix, and any 7950 959mhz ed I've seen with Hynix have managed 1800 plus on their memory. Also you can get a modded versio of Trixx with memory voltage control, I'm sure you could get 1800 plus with a minor (if any) voltage tweak.

I don't think the question was targeted at me, but I'm getting 1100 on stock voltage.

I was using the standard version of Afterburner and it wouldn't let me push it past 1600Mhz on memory but it seemed stable. Ended up dropping it back to stock as it was performing better in benchmarks on stock memory than when overclocked, which was strange.

Should probably re-test that again at some stage.

marco_polo

Danger781 wrote: »

I don't think the question was targeted at me, but I'm getting 1100 on stock voltage.

I was using the standard version of Afterburner and it wouldn't let me push it past 1600Mhz on memory but it seemed stable. Ended up dropping it back to stock as it was performing better in benchmarks on stock memory than when overclocked, which was strange.

Should probably re-test that again at some stage.

Seems to be an AMD quirk, I read this interesting article a few months ago after scratching my head for a while while overclocking my HD7850 memory, it seems sometimes lesser vram speed is more.

http://www.techbuyersguru.com/VRAMocing.php

Gumbi

Danger781 wrote: »

I don't think the question was targeted at me, but I'm getting 1100 on stock voltage.

I was using the standard version of Afterburner and it wouldn't let me push it past 1600Mhz on memory but it seemed stable. Ended up dropping it back to stock as it was performing better in benchmarks on stock memory than when overclocked, which was strange.

Should probably re-test that again at some stage.

What 7950 and what voltage? My 7950 won't go past 1000mhz on stock voltage, but the voltage is very low at stock anyways. Oh, and there's something which occurs sometimes, if you are scoring lower with higher memory clock speeds and it seems stable, it's because there is some error checking going on that slows down the process.

You can unlock higher clock speeds and voltages easily enough in Afterburner, or by using Trixx. Also, if you get a modded version of Trixx, and if your card supports it, you can overvolt your memory.

marco_polo

Gumbi wrote: »

What 7950 and what voltage? My 7950 won't go past 1000mhz on stock voltage, but the voltage is very low at stock anyways. Oh, and there's something which occurs sometimes, if you are scoring lower with higher memory clock speeds and it seems stable, it's because there is some error checking going on that slows down the process.

You can unlock higher clock speeds and voltages easily enough in Afterburner, or by using Trixx. Also, if you get a modded version of Trixx, and if your card supports it, you can overvolt your memory.

Ahh so thats whats going on

Danger781

Should this error checking be bypassed while benchmarking? If that's possible that is.

Gumbi

Danger781 wrote: »

Should this error checking be bypassed while benchmarking? If that's possible that is.

By error checking I mean loosening of timings etc to account for instability, thus potentially accounting for lower performance at higher apparent clockspeeds.

Bepolite

My settings are below in Trixx. I could not get this setting to work in the CCC. I also had to disassemble the card and apply new thermal paste. Under stress (Heaven) the card hits 74C with about 80% fan and seems happy enough there.



Just ordered the braided cables. Thank you all for your kind words

Genghiz Cohen

Bepolite wrote: »

My settings are below in Trixx. I could not get this setting to work in the CCC. I also had to disassemble the card and apply new thermal paste. Under stress (Heaven) the card hits 74C with about 80% fan and seems happy enough there.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/657661/274754.jpg

Just ordered the braided cables. Thank you all for your kind words

You have such a clean looking desktop it's kinda ruined by the text in the shortcuts. If you want no text you can enter a blank character (ALT+255) and you get a shortcut with just a picture.

Gumbi

Very nice! Those seem to be bang on my voltages at those clock speeds! Have you applied the plus 20% power limit. And how hot do your VRMs get? GPUZ should tell you this.

BloodBath

Decided to run some tests with my 7970 as it has the Hynix memory and I only had a modest 1500 overclock on the ram. Gpu was at 1200mhz@1.225v for all tests. Cpu (3570k) was at 4.5ghz@1.225v. All tests done in Catzilla at 1080p. Stock card settings were 925/1375.

Memory Speed|Score Result|Gain
1500@1.5v|8663
1600@1.5v|8777|114
1700@1.5v|8897|120 (A few noticeable artifacts)
1800@1.6v|9045|148 (Still some artifacting)


Over the course of tests the GPU maxed at 76c. Cpu maxed at 61c. Vrm's at 74c and 83c. Gpu fan speed at 56%.

Backed down to 1150@1.2v/1650@1.5v for everyday use. Scores 8577 with this.

Bepolite

Gumbi wrote: »

Very nice! Those seem to be bang on my voltages at those clock speeds! Have you applied the plus 20% power limit. And how hot do your VRMs get? GPUZ should tell you this.

TBH I'm actually completly flumuxed by overclocking GPUs. Any links to guides would be very much appriciated. I take it the 20%+ power is different to applying voltage?

Gumbi

Bepolite wrote: »

TBH I'm actually completly flumuxed by overclocking GPUs. Any links to guides would be very much appriciated. I take it the 20%+ power is different to applying voltage?

Scroll down the list in Trixx (it's kind of hard to see but use the arrows to the right). Slide the power slider all the way to the right. It will allow you to prevent yourself being power limited in any way by allowing your card to draw more power if necessary (but at 1043mv you probably won't be limited in any such way, al though there's no harm sliding it all the way just to be sure).

ED E

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

You have such a clean looking desktop it's kinda ruined by the text in the shortcuts. If you want no text you can enter a blank character (ALT+255) and you get a shortcut with just a picture.

I love you man. Hero.

Edit, alt codes dont work on this PC.... ???

Danger781

ED E wrote: »

I love you man. Hero.

Edit, alt codes dont work on this PC.... ???

How random..

Genghiz Cohen

ED E wrote: »

I love you man. Hero.

Edit, alt codes dont work on this PC.... ???

I had to use the Numpad on this computer.

[Rasta]

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

I had to use the Numpad on this computer.

Afaik they only work with the numpad numbers.

ED E

Tried that, but numlock was on. Remove numlock, tada! Cheers lads.

uncle_sam_ie

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

You have such a clean looking desktop it's kinda ruined by the text in the shortcuts. If you want no text you can enter a blank character (ALT+255) and you get a shortcut with just a picture.

Or, you could just put it onto the Taskbar,

Keimps

So I finally got all my parts last Friday evening!!

Very first build I was going to do for me so I was very excited and hoping that everything would go well.
The only thing I was a little bit anxious about was the CPU, as I had heard it can be fragile. But it went very very easy.

I used this Asus video (since I have a very similar motherboard) to help me out with the build, which made it even easier, just time consuming as I wanted to do everything relaxed and take my time for it.

Well, the complete build went very well, no major problems at all! Only one RAM stick wasn't recognized at first, but after some inspection I found out it wasn't clicked in correctly so not making contact completely.

The HDD wasn't recognized in Windows at first, when checking in the Bios it was which made me feel relaxed because then it was probably something easy, which it was. Google helped me find the answer swiftly.

First connected the few important parts just to check if the mobo worked, which it did, before screwing it in into the case.
Then checked if everything else worked before starting the cable management.
Well can I say that this case is very large and very well designed for great cable management. I was able to do a decent job on it I think.

When all was connected I inserted the USB drive with Windows 7 on it.
Went very smoothly. And may I say that the SSD is AMAZING (first SSD ever for me), Windows literally starts up in 8 seconds lol.
When I wanted to download some drivers I was unable to use the LAN connection for some reason -which turned out to be the driver for the LAN wasn't installed yet hehe.
The Asus cd with drivers that came with the motherboard was very useful and had all the basic drivers I needed! (It even had a Google chrome installer on it).

I wanted to place the case on the desk, but the wife wouldn't have it hehe, so it does its job under it now.

So here are the spec of all that is installed.

NZXT Phantom 530
Asus Z87-A
4670k
GSkill 8GB 2133Hz RAM
250GB Samsung Evo SSD
1TB Western Digital Blue
Nvidia Gigabyte Windforce OC GTX 770
Samsung DVD Drive
Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit

Creative T20 Speakers
Dell Ultrasharp u2312hm
Skiller Sharkoon keyboard (budget gaming keybaord)
Gigabyte Mouse (budget gaming mouse)

And some photos of the process of course.































Now have to start saving again for upgrades!
First upgrade will be the CPU cooler so I can start overclocking (the stock one is also quite noisy).

Bepolite

I'm hoping something is going to replace that stock cooler

I'd also move it from under the desk. It's where I always had my rigs but you get loads more dust (although you've carpet rather than wood floors), but the main reason is under the desk will heat up and prevent the hot air rising away from the PC. You'll end up cycling warm air back into the machine. On the plus side your feet will be very cosy.

Congrats on a nice build!

Keimps

Thanks man.

I still have to figure out the best place for the case indeed. I Might try behind the monitor (if I can convince the wife).

And yes, as you said; First upgrade will be the CPU cooler so I can start overclocking (the stock one is also quite noisy).

ED E

+1 Stock cooler looks plain wrong in such a nice case.


Maybe put it on the left of the leg of the desk(cant see if there's space there from the photos. Its a little big to go on the desk itself.

Calibos

My latest acquisition is the beginning of my most audacious build yet. Its the first of many acquisitions that will take place over the next few months as finances allow. I'm not going to give anything away but any uses of this case I have seen are merely variations on a theme. What I am going to do in this case hasn't been done. I think its going to impress people both aesthetically and functionally. Its a Corsair Carbide Air 540 btw.



The only hint might be in the name I am giving this build.

Density³

Genghiz Cohen

Completely passively cooled!

Also
Anyone used http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ ?

Deano12345

Upgrades ahoy ! Getting new Steam HDD's on saturday too

Calibos

I've edited yesterday's post about my Corsair Air540 to tone down the hyperbole must have been the excitement about the new case arriving!

It will be an impressive build alright but I wouldn't go so far as saying it would 'blow peoples minds' like I said yesterday during my giddy excitement phase

I suppose there's no harm posting what's going into it here either. It's more Overclock.net I don't want to post too much about it. Reason being that I might be able to get some of the parts sponsored and Corsair George who designed all the best Corsair cases in the last few years is a regular over there. The build is going to take till Christmas probably and I didn't want someone over there with more cash liquidity than I, liking and implementing my main idea and getting sponsorship for it instead of me or simply it now not being innovative enough to persuade George to sponsor some parts.

Anyway, it's going to be an i7 4930k Hex Core overclocked on an Asrock Extreme9 x79 mobo with 32gigs of ram, 2x R9 290x or GTX 780's, 256gig Samsung 840Pro, 2 LSI Sata controller cards (16x Sata ports), dual Nics, 26x (not a typo) 3.5" Hotswap HDD bays, 1x2.5" Hotswap HDD bay, 1x slot load BluRay RW, watercooled mobo, GPU's and CPU with a 360 rad and a 240 rad, 14x 120mm Corsair AirSeries Case and Rad Static Pressure Fans and 1x 140mm fan. Oh and a Corsair AX1200 modular Platinum PSU to power it all.

I'll also be building in a 17.6" 1920x1080p laptop LCD panel that will raise and lower out of/into the centre if the case.

Yes!! It will all fit. I've measured thrice!

I'm going to Virtualise it with Hyper-V. The VM's will be Server 2012 running Flexraid for parity protected pooled media storage, 8+ 2&5MP (megapixel) IP cam recording, MySQL database for a shared library for our 10 xbmc capable devices, SAB/Couchpotato/Sickbeard. A VM with Openelec XBMC and 2x Windows 7 VM's serving 2 old underpowered laptop clients and the bonus of using remoteFX to game on all the non gaming devices in the house. As it stands remoteFX is fine for the kind of slower paced games preferred by those users and thus likely to be played by them in the short to medium term . (RTS's). RemoteFX can only improve and hopefully at some stage to the point where GPU pass through will attain almost local performance meaning all types of games including FPS's will be very playable. The Win7 VM's will be allocated 2x CPU cores and a GPU each. Locally, those GPU's will be used in SLI/Crossfire mode to drive a 1080p 120" 3D projection system.

Think that covers most of it.

Serephucus

The one thing you didn't mention is what sort of storage you're going to be running with those LSI cards, unless I missed it.

Sounds like an awesome build. Can't wait to see the log.

Calibos

Actually, just while visualising the build again for the purposes of the parts list of the above post I realised I can fit another 240mm rad in. None of which will be visible btw.

Calibos

Serephucus wrote: »

The one thing you didn't mention is what sort of storage you're going to be running with those LSI cards, unless I missed it.

Sounds like an awesome build. Can't wait to see the log.

The Cards have 2 SAS ports each and I'll get four 1xSAS->4xSATA cables. Those combined with the 12 Sata ports on the motherboard add up to 28x Sata ports.

Getting a 4tb WD Red for parity, another 3tb red for storage, I've a 2tb WD green from an RMA and 7 other drives of various makes and models from old PC's and slow old underpowered Dlink Nas's. When I fill the other 16 bays with WD Reds I'll start swapping out the old smaller drives with more Reds.

The lighting scheme I have chosen has been done before but is rarely done perfectly and I have some insight into how the perfect result is achieved. The modding company that obviously have the same insight into how it's done well are charging $200 for pre-made versions. The things can be DIYed perfectly well for a few euro when you know how to do it. I'll post how it's done well in the eventual build log. Where I'll break new ground here will be how my case fans will be integrated with the lighting scheme.

The machine is designed to serve the needs of lots of adults in this household and thankfully that also means financial contributions to the build from same.