Reader's Rig Photo Gallery

[Merlin]

CoolIt

I did have to RMA the first coolit, by the way I had to cut one screw shorter http://www.pbase.com/merlinsgraphics/image/81904593
Because of the return.
But the new one, I saw that the return was now, no way near the long screw. Must have been a design change.

 

[sbrehm72255]

Here's a few changes after the holidays and cold winter nights..............

 

[Americanfreak]

You can check out a few I have done

 

[Krazy K]

Is it christmas yet? I know this isn't safe or whatever but it runs fine. It is a mess but it gets plenty of air! How about another free case contest for the poor guy that needs one...

 

[Krazy K]

Here's what it looks like now. Problem 8 solved. Problem 9 and 10 have appeared.
Case

Full internal

Liquid cooling by Koolance

Problem 9, how to get all of this in the case when I don't even have enough room for my hdd's!

 

[zacharyt1122]

Hey guys! New to the forums, but have been reading Techgage for a while. Wanted to show off my machine. I didn't build it, ABS did, but thats because it had been a while since I built a machine, and I wanted to try out water cooling

Probably my next machine I will build (I am buying a house, so I will probably build a HTPC).

Tell me what you think.

Its a QX6700 oc'd to 2.93 (keeping it low till warranty is up), SLI 8800 GTX's (oc'd from EVGA), 4 gigs ram, and 1.2 TB of space. I even have it to dual boot 32 bit XP and 64 bit Vista.

 

[Merlin]

Nice Rig, Zach
I may do some water cooling myself.
Gotta get the heat down on the GTX280 and might as well do the CPU as well.

Merlin

 

[zacharyt1122]

Thanks Merlin. Honestly, its nice to look at, but I wouldn't do it again to be honest. It keeps it at a steady 50 C, and I have seen air coolers that can do that.

The video cards had some heating issues when I played Assassins Creed (for some reason, no other game out there made it overheat). So I bought a cheap small box fan from Wal-Mart, and it keeps them about 10-15 C cooler (and without all the work of adding an aftermarket cooler or additional fans.) I have to dust it about once a month, however.

 

[Kougar]

Looks good, I like how the CPU fan is still in place over the block!

Just to defend watercooling's good name and give you a comparison: at full CPU load + GPU load, my CPU temps are between 50-55c just now (according to Realtemp). They would be lower without the overclocked GTX 260 in the same loop running Folding@home.

Watercooling performance depends greatly on a large number of factors. I will agree that low-end and those cheap self-contained WC kits are not worth touching nor the time/hassle involved to get them running as compared to a high-end air cooler. I don't have a TRUE Black to test, but I am sure an air cooler couldn't touch my temps.

 

[zacharyt1122]

Thanks, Kougar, actually the fan promotes circulation through the case, which more water coolers should do.

But the problem with my water cooling setup (Gigabyte 3D Galaxy) is that to get better temps, you have to turn the fan up, which it can get REALLY noisy, which is the exact opposite of what I wanted from a watercooling kit.

Maybe my next extreme build I will research quiter coolers

 

[jvargaszabo]

Watercooling

There are some pretty sweet rigs on here. I'm making my own external watercooling solution, but it's really just cooling a thermoelectric module that I'm going to have on my CPU. I've tested the rig, it works, just need to fix a few leaks.

What I really want to find, though, is some decent quick-detach, no-spill bits, to make the system a bit more modular. Anybody know what I'm talking about? I've seen a few, but none that will fit my 1/2" ID vinyl tubing.

You can check out my specs in my sig, I'll post pictures later. I can't complain

I posted something about my watercooling stuff in a new thread, not knowing about this one. Like I said, pictures will follow.

 

[Krazy K]

If I were to name this rig, I would have to call it Phoenix since it has risen from the ashes, or RMA's, and is finally back together and running in somewhat of a stable state. The power is now coming from a 750 silencer, the board is now a M2N32 and the gpu has been dumped until I can get the RMA going on the 8600.

The temp at 3.3ghz broke 60C so I leveled it off there. As you can see the cooler wants to face up, which won't hurt in the case with the top exhaust fans. The cooler isn't anything special so a new one is moving up on my wish list. The passive cooler is impeding the fans so it had to be blocked up so it can clear the cooler. If you have a M2N32 and love your cooler, gimmie a reply. Otherwise I might look at something like a Tt Bigwater 760i or the CM V8. A decent fan controller would be nice to toss into the mix to get rid of the onboard headers.


Just like in the review, the back side didn't have that much room to tuck all the cables into and you just have to force the foam and the cables to fit in the same place. Otherwise the case is pretty nice to work with. The tool-less expansion in the back is a bit hard to work with. The ledge is recessed and you can't get a screwdriver on it and the angle with a hard makes it hard to get much torque on it with your hand as well.

How many people will tell me that taking my 3 SE16's out of RAID5 and striping them is a bad idea?

 

[Kayden]

Here's a few pic's of my Behemoth the specs are below. I did put the wheels back on that came with case and removed the extension that I added to my desk there to give it better air flow. The original setup was a 3 fan setup with the radiator going into the case but the airflow was abysmal thus causing a wicked cavitation when the fans were running at 100%, so I purchased the riser and added the 4 fan radiator system. The noise is quite diminished, with the hole at the top of the case all ready it gives an extra bit of air flow and the tubes did not have to be ran outside the system. (c:

There is only 4 more things I need to get for my upgrade to be complete. They are 3 more monitors and a arm stand (since I no longer have the desk extension) for Nvidia's Surround Gaming, this should be done by Sept.

 

[Rob Williams]

That's a sweet setup, man! Is that an older chassis? Don't see too many nowadays with a bare metal interior. How cool do those dual 580s run in SLI, out of curiosity? I'd imagine that even one of those would run much cooler than the single air-cooled one I have in my rig

Any idea of the monitors you plan to go with?

 

[Kayden]

That's a sweet setup, man! Is that an older chassis? Don't see too many nowadays with a bare metal interior. How cool do those dual 580s run in SLI, out of curiosity? I'd imagine that even one of those would run much cooler than the single air-cooled one I have in my rig

Any idea of the monitors you plan to go with?

Yeah it's a Lian-Li chassis though I am not sure what model because Koolance modified the top of it to fit the 3 fan and recessed radiator unit and then put in their 5.25" combined reservoir/pump/control bay unit. Here is the link to it and I also included a pic of what my rig looked like before, a lot of history with this chassis since 2007.

http://www.koolance.com/product_archive/product_info.php?product_id=275

Those two cards in that pic btw were my BFG 8800 GTX OC in SLI as well, they served me well until I got my 580's. The 580's even on the heaviest load I have had them running max temp has been 58c no joke, idle right now as I type this up 37c on GPU1, 38c on GPU2 and my CPU is at 32c. The best part is they are all OC too and these are their idle temps even with my room being at 79f currently.

I believe I have worked out the monitors and I am going to get the Viewsonic VG2436WM-LED 24-Inch. I was going to go with an Asus monitor but I kept seeing one bad or middle of the road review after another about it's performance with gaming or settings just not configuring just right so I kept looking until I found this Viewsonic. I'll tell you what it wasn't easy finding an LED with a VESA mount at 24" or 23" it's primarily LCD and I can't have LCD. I have been to newegg, tigerdirect and a few other places and the reviews have been very positive on this monitor, so for $50 more then what I wanted to pay on each monitor I am going to suck it up and spend the $150 more.

For the stand I am going to get this bad boy Ergotech Triple Horizontal. I looked at a lot of stands and this one stood out as having the most solid base. Then when I took a closer look I noticed how the monitor mount attaches to the arm and you tighten it down from the top, not putting pressure on the pin holding in the slider therefore it also gives another load point. This way it gives you a far less chance for it to break and dropping a $250 monitor and there is nothing wrong with that. (c;

I think it will be a good setup when it is all said and done, any thoughts?

 

[Rob Williams]

You've been an SLI fan for a while then, huh? Were the 8800 GTX's your first foray into that? I have only ever run SLI or CrossFireX for benchmarking, never for a regular machine since I never seem to be able to support dual GPUs and the other components I need just fine. Battlefield 3 might be the first game in a while to force me to work around those issues ;-)

Those two cards in that pic btw were my BFG 8800 GTX OC in SLI as well, they served me well until I got my 580's. The 580's even on the heaviest load I have had them running max temp has been 58c no joke, idle right now as I type this up 37c on GPU1, 38c on GPU2 and my CPU is at 32c. The best part is they are all OC too and these are their idle temps even with my room being at 79f currently.

Those are some sweet temps! The GTX 580 in this rig is running at 48°C at the moment, and it's doing nothing!

I believe I have worked out the monitors and I am going to get the Viewsonic VG2436WM-LED 24-Inch.

Looks like a good choice to me. If you're going to go 3x1 for gaming, I don't think you should ever skimp, that's for sure. That monitor looks good and has totally flat sides (not bubbly like some others), so it should look great in that configuration.

For the stand I am going to get this bad boy Ergotech Triple Horizontal. I looked at a lot of stands and this one stood out as having the most solid base.

Be sure to let me know what you think of that. I can't recall the company that makes the mount we have here for our 3x2 monitor configuration, but I don't think I'd trust the company again. I ended up breaking a piece by accident while putting it together because It never secured the monitors well enough (I don't think tape is an ideal solution with multi-monitor setups).

What I do like about that mount you linked is that it just has a single base... that's nice. The one we have here almost extends the entire way across and doesn't exactly look too aesthetically-pleasing.

 

[Kayden]

You've been an SLI fan for a while then, huh? Were the 8800 GTX's your first foray into that? I have only ever run SLI or CrossFireX for benchmarking, never for a regular machine since I never seem to be able to support dual GPUs and the other components I need just fine. Battlefield 3 might be the first game in a while to force me to work around those issues ;-)

Those are some sweet temps! The GTX 580 in this rig is running at 48°C at the moment, and it's doing nothing!

Indeed they were. I have never had my hands on a modern ATI card in a machine for me though, so I haven't tried CrossFire at all. From what I have heard and experienced the software is a major pain. I do like the fact these cards came OC out of the box so I didn't have to touch them at all and they are covered under warranty by EVGA.

Also I have a huge flaw when playing games I like them to really look pretty, so when I start looking at what to buy for a gaming rig I try to see what will last me the longest amount of time. When SLI started to make it's way to the market I figured I had to jump on board and it lasted a healthy 4 years, heck the VC lasted longer then the motherboards did.

I am a little bias though go SLI with the 580's, since you all ready have one of those cards in your machine. I did forget to mention my average temp when playing a game is around 47c with the likes of FONV, BFBC2, CODBO it is just games that use DX11 or a ton of memory like DA2 or GTA4, along with 3d Mark 2011 that really get my video card temps that high. Just hope that cool Canadian weather holds out if you go SLI. (c;

Looks like a good choice to me. If you're going to go 3x1 for gaming, I don't think you should ever skimp, that's for sure. That monitor looks good and has totally flat sides (not bubbly like some others), so it should look great in that configuration.

Thanks. I really searched high and low for a low bezel because I know that can be a killer. The current Samsung PX2370 is guilty of what you describe and was only supposed to be a temp but plans changed so I have been stuck with this longer then I expected. I don't try to skimp on much when it comes to PC parts but I wanted to get this in a certain time frame but when the reviews for the ASUS monitor started to roll I changed my mind, quality over speed any day. I have to push it out another month but like I said before plans change but at least I will get something reliable and not a lemon.

Be sure to let me know what you think of that. I can't recall the company that makes the mount we have here for our 3x2 monitor configuration, but I don't think I'd trust the company again. I ended up breaking a piece by accident while putting it together because It never secured the monitors well enough (I don't think tape is an ideal solution with multi-monitor setups).

What I do like about that mount you linked is that it just has a single base... that's nice. The one we have here almost extends the entire way across and doesn't exactly look too aesthetically-pleasing.

I will certainly let you know after I have had some time to tinker with it. Yikes on the one you got! Anything that snaps like is what I am trying to avoid a single stress point and I think this one covers that quite nicely. I didn't want it to mount to the desk, wall or have one place to tighten on the arm that holds the monitor just bad engineering. I think Red Green would disagree about your tape comment there (c;

 

[Doomsday]

Btw, wheres Merlin?!? Is he ok?!?

 

[Kayden]

Btw, wheres Merlin?!? Is he ok?!?

Isn't he a Wizard? Shouldn't we expect him when we see him?

Seriously, I was just going through the mugshot page and saw he lived in Florida. I am Cali and I know no one out there. Have you tried to PM him?

EDIT: I also saw you can msg him through yahoo, via the msg board. I'd try givin that a go Doomsday.

 

[DarkStarr]

I need to post up mine, but I think I will wait till I get my EK Supreme HF Rev1 (I like the looks of the oval shape better )