Offical Show Your Rig Off

swimtech · Jul 24, 2008, 12:17 PM

Here's the innards of my quad system...

Not very pretty I know, but functional...

Mousey · Jul 24, 2008, 01:32 PM

lol your case looks like mine, nowhere to route wires AT ALL.
YES LOW, THERE ARE CASES LIKE THAT!

swimtech · Jul 24, 2008, 02:55 PM

Yeah, I actually mounted the top optical drive one bay down to leave myself room to stuff all those extra cables into - well - sortof...

I'll neaten it up - next month sometime - maybe...

But hey! Good airflow eh?

CDsDontBurn · Jul 24, 2008, 05:57 PM

what i like about your case swimtech, is actually your PSU. i like it when a PSU has the wire cluster facing the opposite side of the side panel. it makes cable management much easier.

swimtech · Jul 24, 2008, 06:28 PM

Funny you should mention that CDs - I lucked out there.

A quirk of the installation was that I had to install the PSU upside down to get the exterior mounting holes to line up. The design of the PSU is such that the fan is on the rear exhausting - so functional orientation didn't matter at all.

I could have mounted the ESata bracket low on the board, but that would have blocked a possibly functional slot. As it was, the top PCIeX1 slot is almost unusable anyway 'cause of it's proximity to the Northbridge heatsink on this board - so I blocked it off instead - with the resultant need to route the ESata cables over the video card.

The white area behind the CPU cooling fan is an artifact of the flash on the camera and the angle of reflection on the metal fins which created a blowout of contrast as recorded by the camera's CCD pickup. I didn't retouch the image at all.

I have another 80mm Antec fan given to me by a friend at work - I'm gonna stick it in the space to the right of the hard drive bays (perspective of the photo...). A 120mm fan is mounted on the side of the case that is removed for this photo, and centered just above the edge of the video card - cooling primarily the Northbridge assembly.

Mousey · Jul 25, 2008, 06:35 AM

My new memory arrived, Christ on a bike it's sexy ^_^ lol

swimtech · Jul 25, 2008, 07:25 AM

Very nice Mousey - nice low timings at that low voltage too.

Double sided 1G modules - those lower density chips have proven more reliable under stress too overall from what I've read...

Mousey · Jul 25, 2008, 07:28 AM

I'm tempted to put my dual channel 2x 512s in the other channel too so i have 3gb. do you think that would be worth it?

swimtech · Jul 25, 2008, 07:52 AM

I'd do it!

matthew_davao · Jul 27, 2008, 09:45 AM

Few updates on the rig.

Will post pics later. Hehehe

Watercooling:
Added HydrX Coolant
Added 5ml Anti-Algae

Hardware:
Installed QX9650

Peripherals:
Zalman FG1000 Gun Mouse
Zalman DS4F Headphones
Logitech G15 Rev2 Gaming Keyboard
Sennheiser HD212 PRO (I wanted the HD215 though, but it was not available when my cousin went to buy one for me.) Great sounding headphones especially for its price.

RoyBatty · Jul 28, 2008, 04:46 PM

So I gave up waiting for AC Freezer Xtreme and ordered Noctua NH-U12P.

Mousey · Jul 28, 2008, 05:47 PM

Now i've got my new high end PSU and some high end memory i've fallen in love with my rig all over again ^_^

[hobo]eclipse · Jul 28, 2008, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoyBatty

So I gave up waiting for AC Freezer Xtreme and ordered Noctua NH-U12P.

im betting youll be happy with it, it feels very solid after mounting, in this summer ambient i see an average of 20c fluctuation from 40c idle to 60c full prime small FFT load. pretty good size cooler as well.

RoyBatty · Jul 30, 2008, 05:23 PM

I hope so, my CPU is idling at 53~60°C

It should arrive tomorrow. I will also try to replace the stock cooler on my HD4850 with a VF900-Cu from my old X1950GT.

CDsDontBurn · Jul 30, 2008, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mousey

I'm tempted to put my dual channel 2x 512s in the other channel too so i have 3gb. do you think that would be worth it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by swimtech

I'd do it!

i wouldn't jump straight to it.

the 1GB modules will be limited to the speeds and latency timings of the 512MB sticks. to me this is a torn decision between increasing system performance by amount of memory. however, it could also cripple system performance because of the memory speeds and latency timings will be slowing down to that of the slower sticks of memory...

Mousey · Jul 30, 2008, 06:20 PM

In the end i decided not to bother, i put the spare 512s in my mum's machine and my dad can have the spare 1gb stick, i waited long enough to have a proper dual channel setup i don't wanna ruin it now lol

swimtech · Jul 31, 2008, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CDsDontBurn

i wouldn't jump straight to it.

the 1GB modules will be limited to the speeds and latency timings of the 512MB sticks. to me this is a torn decision between increasing system performance by amount of memory. however, it could also cripple system performance because of the memory speeds and latency timings will be slowing down to that of the slower sticks of memory...

Yeah, good point CDs - if those 512Mb modules were rated slower it could make a difference. I'd have tried it though, just to see. However, it's likely making a nice difference in your mum's machine Mousey.

Mousey · Jul 31, 2008, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swimtech

Yeah, good point CDs - if those 512Mb modules were rated slower it could make a difference. I'd have tried it though, just to see. However, it's likely making a nice difference in your mum's machine Mousey.

I was figuring i'd get more out of a proper dual channel setup than 3gb, i might as well just wait until i can get another kit of this stuff and upgrade to Vista x64.

It took some very careful prising and a dab of silicone but i managed to seperate the side panel fan from it's beloved dust filter.
Because the side panel fan makes one helluva lotta noise against this grill i'm gonna install it in the front instead so i'll have to intakes and 2 exhaust fans

Just waiting for the silicone to dry atm.

And here's some more innies just for giggles

Uber bright raid ports!