Dual Evga Gtx 285 - Sli

[SJClark09]

Damn you guys are luckie, I've wanted to build a gaming rig for ages now but I just have no clue where to start. And seeing funds are low I don't see it happening anytime soon. But now I know FOR SURE where to come if I do decide to build my own.

[newls1]

Evga wouldn't RMA them cause they were "pre-bundled" with an OEM purchase, good try, but no luck. I've been in the "Gaming" PC world for 10+ Years, and im not trying to toot my own horn, but I really do know "to much" about PC's. Steve, being that your A.W PC came with SLi, and the age of it, im will to bet your motherboard is a 680i Nvidia chipset board, am I correct? If so, BE VERY VERY VERY CAREFUL with adding voltage to that north bridge. They run FUCKING HOT, damn near burning. There not the best to OC on, but very do-able of course. I would run your ram slightly above defualt speeds, and really no more, but the good thing about the 680i,780i,790i NB's is that you can clock the ram WITHOUT AFFECTING FSB SPEEDS!!! All though very picky, and you WILL encounter a FSB holes along the way, I can guide you through it all. With those GTX285's you can't increase VGPU due to the fact those cards dont have a software programmable voltage regulator, like the GTX260's, and the GTX295 cards do. Not a big deal though, those 55nm GPU's can scale just fine with out adding Vgpu to the core. You could more then likely achieve 730+MHz core speeds and for sure 2700+Mem speeds. I think those cards use H3C mem chips with are rated for 2800MHz mem (If I remember right) Just keep in mind, watercooling or not, your limit to overclocking has many variables, but the most important one is ambient room temp. If you keep the room the PC is in @ 75f, that will only get you so far, being that everything has a thermal limit in the electrical circuit, im sure you know all this already, but just wanted to throw that out there. People on other forums that im a member of, that are "just getting into OCing" think that since 1 guy got an OC of 4GHz on a certain CPU, means that every CPU can achieve that...... That is not the case. OCing is just a means of getting lucky. I have a golden sample Q6700 sitting here that will do 3.74GHz @ 1.39Vcore, and another Q6700 that takes 1.42Vcore to get the same speed. I know your a damn smart person, no doubt about that, however OCing takes a lot of time. After you boot into your OS with the new speed, you still have many hours of testing with certain programs to MAKE SURE THAT UNDER 100% duty loads for hours on end that the PC will be stable. Evga is the BEST HANDS DOWN company to deal with. They dont make the graphics card, but they back it up, you know what I mean. MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER THEM FIRST!!! Very important! Then once your signed into there website, you want to download there "Precision" software program, and furmark benchmark(google that name) and OC the GPU in 5MHz increments, and test it with furmark, and watch those GPU temps skyrocket! If you call me tonight, i'll explain all this in detail, and more then likely in a way that may make more sense.

Watercooling has a HUGE plus, as it will typically stay any where from 10-20c less temp @ load, compared to air cooling. Watercooling works the best when the RADIATOR is one top of the case, and an AC vent can blow cold AC air over the rad. This will in some cases cool 1-2c BELOW ambient temp, and leave a condensation drop or 2, but NOTHING to ever worry about. Say for example: Your QX6700 @ 3.7GHz with a Vcore of 1.45 (Average) and a 100% load temp of 50c ON WATER, and a 73-75f ambient room temp. That same OC on AIR (If possible) might be in the 75-78c range. Water is the best solution for cooling todays modern CPU's hands down, and doesnt cost much at all, compaired to a highend air cooler. A high end air cooler might be 75-100$. A medium based water kit might run 100-150, where TOP END water cooling is 300$+.....

Here is a top end water setup:

1 D5 DD vario Pump

1/2 I.D tubing

Micro-RES, or just use a T-Line

Thermochill PA120.3 rad (Best but hard to find)

3 x120mm Y.L 88cfm fans

D-Tek Fusion v2 CPU Waterblock

This is just for the CPU loop

etc.... That is nearly $300 right there

You can run multi loops in your case, but be aware that space gets limited. I run 2 loops cause my rule is always seperate GPU from CPU. Those 2 items in 1 loop, gets tuff to cool with quiet fans. You are more effecient with 2 loops. Damn I can go one forever......

For RAD info, a good rad WILL ALWAYS BE DUAL ROW, DUAL PASS!!! That is very important. That typically gives you 550-600watts of heat dissipation headroom. Here is a pic of a badass rad that I would run if a PA120.3 cant be found.

Edited May 13, 2009 by newls1

[meade916]

damn bro i am more and more impressed every time you post hahah......your gooooood!!!

[newls1]

If money is no object, you can run multi D5 pumps in parallel (I.E 2 of them in 1 loop) that will give you increased head pressure, and depending on how much tubing your using, this could also increase cooling ability. Makes for a BITCH to bleed the loop, but would be worth it in the end. The D5 pump is 300+GPH, and nearly 50PSI, so using 2 in 1 loop is balls to the wall. I've done some sick shit along my way of watercooling peoples' PC's, and also works the other way. I've seen some people hack the fuck out of there rigs and destroy 1000+$ worth of hardware. When done right, and you double check everything when all done, you will never have an issue. Every month or so, I like to check the water level, and every 3 months do a complete flush (Algee build up can harm cooling performance) and replace tubing with new tubing. The first time I told someone I was changing my coolant in my PC, and waited for there reaction, I was hooked to watercooling.

**EDIT** Steve, you dont need 1200watts of a PSU to run Quad SLi. Actually wattage is the least to be worried about, it's AMPERAGE that you need. When shopping for a PSU the most important factor is what is the amps on the +12v rail. There are 1200000000watt PSU's out there that only have 30a on the 12v rail. Then there are QUALITY PSU's out there that are 750watt that have 60a on the 12v rail. I ran Quad SLi on a PCP&C (PC power and cooling) This is the ONLY PSU TO BUY as far as im concerned, with 860watt, but had 70a 12v rail, with an OCed Quad, 8GB ram, 2 SSD HDD, etc.... ROCK STABLE and cool running (cool running = efficient) 12v rail specs are very important, and MAKE SURE THE PSU HAS 1 SINGLE 12V RAIL, NOT MULTI 12V RAILS. That was a marketing gimic back 2 years ago, where the designers thought that would be a better way of operating, BUT IT ISN'T. Think of it this way, if your PSU has 4 12v lines, but 2 of them are PCIe 6/8pin connectors that will only feed gpu's, but those 2 lines only feed a total of 30a, and your 2 cards need 45a together, what can you do? NOTHING....see what im saying. SINGLE 12v rail is the only way to go, and that is way PCP&C PSU's are top notch....

Edited May 13, 2009 by newls1

[meade916]

good info! how much to convert my GPU's to W/C with your kit? how hard is it on a scale of 1-10 to get a waterblock on the gpu and get the plastic off shroud and fan out? also, got any pics of your rig?

BTW: here is what was originally purchased with my Alienware - i have since upgraded to 4gb or ram, overclocked to 2.4 and now the newcards...

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/ind...t=0&start=0

do you think AW would skimp out and use a crappy P/S? seems like that would be a warranty nightmare so im hoping they are good....i dont know anything about the rails or how many amps it is...

[newls1]

good info! how much to convert my GPU's to W/C with your kit? how hard is it on a scale of 1-10 to get a waterblock on the gpu and get the plastic off shroud and fan out? also, got any pics of your rig?

BTW: here is what was originally purchased with my Alienware - i have since upgraded to 4gb or ram, overclocked to 2.4 and now the newcards...

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/ind...t=0&start=0

do you think AW would skimp out and use a crappy P/S? seems like that would be a warranty nightmare so im hoping they are good....i dont know anything about the rails or how many amps it is...

If you take a side off your case, and look on the PSU itself, it will state what specs it has, might be in a tight area, or you may have to pull it out, but IT WILL state the specs. A/W (which is owned by DELL) typically uses decent speced parts, much better quality then a off the shelf DELL, or other PC. I have pics off all sorts of crap, i'll dig them up and post em. My kits are external and universal ( www.externalpccooling.net ) HOWEVER, the metal shop that made my cases for 1 1/2 years closed up, and im stuck like chuck, and to be honest, shipping these units was a damn NIGHTMARE! I'm quite certain I can get my guys at shoppts.com to give you my discount (I'll call them, if you want to order stuff) But this is where I bought 90% of everything thru, and there service is 100000% perfect. I can spec up everything you would want, and email it to you (Or just post it here) and you can decide if you want it all or not, or I can make up a kit to do everything, you tell me what you want your goals to be (CPU, GPU, NB, etc..) and I'll spec up a top notch performing kit for ya.

**EDIT*** to answer your question about how hard it is, ARE YOU PATIENT???? If so, 3/10 is what I would rank it. Very easy stuff, just use common sense, you know what I mean bro.....

Edited May 13, 2009 by newls1

[newls1]

To convert from air to h20 for both gpu's wont be cheap, but wont be overly expensive either. Here is what "I" would use to make a GPU only water loop:

1x D5 pump (vario model) $80

2x Swiftech mcw60-r Gpu waterblock (need a GT200 hold plate per gpu as well) 47$ per gpu + gt200 hold downs (???not sure on price)

2x swiftech GTX285 full cover heatsink $28 per GPU

1x Feser Xchanger dual 120mm radiator $110

10 feet of 1/2 I.D tubing $8

1x Swiftech micro-res $30 (of you can do a t-line for $10)

and all the misc stuff needed so add another $40

2x Y.L 88cfm 120mm fans $8

That is what it would take to build a extreme HIGHEND GPU loop. IF you wanted to add your CPU into the use the FESER quad 120mm radiator, that fucker is a beast. Use 100+CFM fans and that should rock the house. dB's will be about 40-45, so it wont be silent, but wont be screaming either. (Actually, what 1 person thinks is quite, another thinks its loud, so I'll leave that up to you to decide)

So this is where im going with this stuff. Just remember, if you can, mount the rad on top of the case using some brass hardware, or whatever, and if your lucky enough to have a central a/c vent near it, or blowing right over it, your temps will be insanely low. The fans on the rad will suck that cold air all over that rad, your idle temps might be 23-26c using like 1.45v and a massive 1+GHz OC...... w00t!

[newls1]

You know I thought finding my pix would be easier then this, but this is the only pic I can come up with at this time. This PC has the PA120.3 on the roof of the tower, guts are 2x GTX280's, 4GB, Q6600 @ 3.69GHz, etc...... This PC isn't mine, but one I build for a family friend of ours.

[Boon]

IIRC Dell used rebadged PCP&C PSUs in the AlienWare and XPS cases. None of their OEM stuff was really up to the task

Ideally you want one of the massive single rail ones but as mentioned above a quality 1000w PSU with plenty of amps on the +12 rail/s should run almost anything you can throw at it right now.

IMO you want separate loops for the CPU and GPUs, with the way things are with GPUs these days you could probably get away with a single quality 120mm rad on the CPU on one loop and a dual 120mm rad loop for the GPUs.

Otherwise you have to use very very free-flowing blocks in your system (3 complex blocks in a row = no flow = hot) and thermally it's a lot better - with only a single rad and the blocks in series the last chip in the loop is going to be getting very warm water through it anyway.

You could use a large common reservoir at the end of the loop but again this could be inefficient i.e if the GPU loop runs a lot warmer than the CPU one.

Watercooling is like doing a big system in a car - if you just dive in and do it you might get good results but it could always be better. If you carefully plan your loop/s and think about the little things you'll end up with a better system in the end.

That rig above is hotness but personally I was never a big fan of putting the rad at the top of the system (unless you had a T-line at the same height as the top of the rad) because they're a total bastard to bleed all the bubbles out of. Air in your rad = poor thermal efficiency.

My rule of thumb has always been rad at the lowest point, res at the highest point. That way it virtually bleeds itself, you just leave the plug out of your T-line or res for a few days

[rrims]

Wow, steve you amazed me. I saw the word "gtx" and "285" and i was...speechless. But its a good thing =)

I am also a fellow computer nerd. I just finished a christmas build, here is my new setup.

Core i7 920 OC to 3.2 on water

4gigs of DDR3

(3) 1tb 7200rpm HDD's

Asus Rampage MB

(1) EVGA GTX 295 (looking to get a 2nd, but my car will be taking my money from me here in a little bit)

And a Lian Case.