I hit the ORDER button ;)

[rrohde]

On a side not, the Asus AI software also allows to quickly switch between fan profiles (e.g. silent to full blast); that seems to be another benefit...

 

BTW: 4.63GHz at 1.39Volts....not too bad for stock intel fan and cooler and with the click of a few buttons

 

I got my i7-4790K from the default 4.0GHz cranked to 4.8GHz via that software, at an adaptive setting of around 1.3xx Volts, and it is quite stable - as you said, with the click of a few buttons. :)

 

My poor man's excuse for a water cooler (Corsair H100i) is not much better than the Cooler Master tower cooler heat sink and fan I had in there before... oh well. Curious to see what your "legit" water cooling system does!

Edited February 16, 2015 by rrohde

[BitMaster]

On a side not, the Asus AI software also allows to quickly switch between fan profiles (e.g. silent to full blast); that seems to be another benefit...

 

 

 

I got my i7-4790K from the default 4.0GHz cranked to 4.8GHz via that software, at an adaptive setting of around 1.3xx Volts, and it is quite stable - as you said, with the click of a few buttons. :)

 

My poor man's excuse for a water cooler (Corsair H100i) is not much better than the Cooler Master tower cooler heat sink and fan I had in there before... oh well. Curious to see what your "legit" water cooling system does!

 

 

I actually never wanted a WC System myself as I built one a decade ago, took three days and 1000 curses spelled into the night, a steel cutter disk, rivets and tools you can't name :)

 

Well, this was anno 2001 and time has changed, the systems have become grown up and easier to handle and adopt into the current, given case/tower etc...

 

 

The reason why I went WC is that I got this pile of IT equipment for free, worth like 5k € from a customer I service, 2 Asus boards equipped with i7's, fat RAM, multiple enterprise 3.5" disks, Adaptec Raid Card, Diva Logic Controller etc... real nice stuff....just no case far and wide and I had moved to Notebooks many years ago ( 2006, Dell XPS SLI Nv notebook --> Asus G73 series etc.. MacBookPro Retina now ) so all I had left was a 15 year old Chieftec tower in my cellar that came back from a friends music store counter where it did its job many many years.

 

So, I took 4 x 80mm fans and stuffed it all together, borrowed me a 480GTX and finally had a System for DCS 4 free with twice the fps compared to my MacBookPro Retina. I really wanted to stop torturing my Apple for DCS, that thing did its job, no errors etc. but it is not made for that task and I don't wanna kill it with DCS.

 

I thought, hey..get a new tower and get "one of those" Corsair Ready-2-Go WC systems with 120 or 140mm dual-fans and I can be as silent as the system ( same specs as yours basically ) I built for a friend some weeks prior to my endeavour. Almost not noticeable and clean looking was my goal.

 

Well, I still needed a GPU and I didn't want fall short there, still having spend no money I opted for a 980GTX and went looking... ahhhh this ASUS beast, watercooled=silent AHHH my eyes went big. Since I can buy net price wholesale things are not that expensive for me I have to admit, cut the VAT and some 5-20% depending on what it is...so I clicked that Asus Poseidon along with a 250GB SSD 850Pro to overcome this HDD deal I wasn't used to while using the Apple with SSD, it was slower elsewhere but the SSD you don't want to miss in DCS !!!!

 

So having decided on the GPU put me back with the WC system as I now need one that is "open" so I can add the GPU with its ¼" fittings.

 

I checked the company we used in 2001 and heck, they are still alive and roaring so I went and looked at their stuff regarding a cooling system that does CPU & GPU.

Well, they have all that and more and looking at the radiators I thought, bigger is always better, the price difference is minimal and if looks are ok I accept an external radiator, 3 x the size of a dual 140mm radiator. What can you ask more for ?

 

You can meanwhile replace displacement with Turbo chargers, but cooling still goes by the old & golden rule, more mass and area is always better and more efficient.

Yeah, I also still believe a V8 always beats a straight-4 but thats another story :)

 

So I called those guys up and asked them for a quote of a complete system based on my Mainboard, CPU and GPU. It really needs some brain time to put all those jacks and connectors in so you don't end up 2 fittings short while assembling it.

 

Knowing that a missing CPU fan cannot cool the VRMs anymore I decided to also add VRM and NorthBridge coolblocks and listened to a view fellow guys in here and at waterloo's forum to put more quick connectors in to ease maintenance over time.

 

The thing is, they just introduced their new CPU block, called Heatkiller IV Pro pure-copper and it just went into production on their own CNC machines. My place on the pre-order list is somewhere on page 16 I guess as I am still waiting for my HKIV to fall off the CNC table :)

A week ago they told me it's close...so I wait.

 

I thought less stuff inside is always better and cleaner and I opted for the big radiator as it will do its job with less noise to no noise at all in standard desktop mode, just the pump.

Yes, I admit, the WC system is 1.5x the price of a Poseidon, agreed !

The WC system is an investment into the future whereas the 980 is old and shabby in 2 years time, maybe 3 years. The cooling system can run way longer than that with minimal cost and maintenance and big enough to allow up to 1200w of cooling and more...enough for 2 x SLI and a fat CPU in the future.

 

 

While I was waiting I found out that the loudest and hottest part in the current rig is my PSU when I overlock to 4.2 or higher....the CPU temp goes SKY HIGH if any other prog but DCS that uses more than 2 cores at that speed is working, so I stay away from 4.4 or 4.6 which does work so far, but I am afraid of killing the CPU....old cooling paste etc.... I can wait those 1-2 weeks.

Knowing that the 980 will add more load than the 480 and even more when overclocked, plus the pump and 4 x 180mm fans....well that could get very close to what the Corsair 750 CX-M just CAN'T deliver anymore and I went looking for a PSU.

A friend came by with a defect part so we went online for RMA and stumbled across this sale, 50 € off normal price for the Corsair AXi-1200, best price I have ever seen, 1 left in stock, DANG..I ht that button FAST, believe me :)

 

When the AXi came in I decided to start building the rig as I saw that the Corsair Carbide 500r allows to work on the mainbord while it is mounted and connected, I can remove all cooling caps from VRM and NB without taking it out again, that was what I wanted to know to not do things twice etc..

 

Didn't take long and I had the stuff from 1 case into the other, all cable well hidden, nice and clean. I went for a 4.4GHz ride in the Mig21 and it was no comparison, the bigger fans, the more juicy PSU and I could just hear the Case next to me, still all air cooled but less than half the noise

compared to 4 x 80mm and 750W PSU.

 

 

I could drive to Frankfurt/Main and pick up more parts which came in ( Warthog Hotas, Asus ROG 27", 16GB 2400MHz DDR3 2x8GB and some more stuff but the SSD and 980 are in backlog :( :(

 

The SSD are set to 16th March which is a nogo, I rather cancel and check elsewhere, can't be, I get that SSD everywhere but not at germanys biggest wholesale ???? wtf ???

 

980 GTX Poseidon.....26th February....we will see, they started with the 22h Feb. ..slowly moving it further away every other day...that card is very very rare I guess.

 

 

I have enough to do meanwhile to adopt to my new Combat Rudder Pedals and the Toe Brakes, I get better but it really took a couple days and 10h flight time to reactivate the old senses as I use to fly rudders for many years but meanwhile used a twiststick which f.. up my brain !

 

And this TrackIR thing...OMG this is IT !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I was prepared but not for this head on dive into immersion!!!!!

 

It took me a while to tweak TIR to my liking and I am nit done yet I guess but SA is 10x easier to achieve and maintain now....and I have the CoolieHat for trimming now, how easy :)

 

 

 

That's the story and the status, still waiting on the actual goodies to boost performance but got the underlying thing as far as I can prepared.

 

The real bad thing is, otherwise I would have driven 300km to pick up the 27" ROG screen, is:

 

That freaking 480GTX doesn't have DP !!!!! and the ROG only has DP !!!!! argue

 

So I cannot test the screen until the 980 arrives with its DP jacks.

 

 

Bit

Edited February 17, 2015 by BitMaster

[rrohde]

Wow. Danke for the write-up. That's quite a bit of reasoning behind going your water cooling route, and I think that's going to be so worth your while.

Guess in comparison I got lucky that I built my current PC from scratch, which I hadn't done in years because I used -- like you -- gaming laptops; I didn't have any existing cases or PSUs lying around. I had no idea where to start, so I went to http://www.pcpartpicker.com just to learn about what people are using to build PCs these days. :) That got me started, and I pieced my PC together, a couple of components at a time, from paycheck to paycheck.

At this time, I am still looking to add another 16GB of RAM, and another 980GTX for SLI purposes.

Next up would be a better seating situation, so maybe a Playseat or an Obutto, but we'll see.

One thing for sure, though gaming laptops just don't cut it for flightsim immersion. Oh, and yes, I agree - TrackIR is a total game changer; can't fly without it anymore. :)

[BitMaster]

I have to add as well that I am a freelancer in IT for 15 years now with changing fields of focus but I still have lots of IT stuff lying around like fans, cables, etc... I don't do that stuff anymore but focus on LAN and Firewalls...but I still know how to build a PC....haha

 

 

I killed the Order at Techdata and hit the button on amazon !!!!!

 

 

980 GTX and SSD will be here in 1-2 days, Prime :) Yihaaaa !!

 

 

SO where's da cooling ?

 

 

Bit

[BitMaster]

Everything is in and installed but the Cooling System.

 

Just got Win7 installed, the SSD and 980.....need a few hours...

 

tested the gysnc on a 760gtx...... PLAIN AWESOME with TIR

 

no fu%%ing tearing anymore...simply GONE !!!!!!!!!!

 

with 50-80fps on a 760gtx....now wait for 980

 

 

...installing.....

[rrohde]

Nice!

 

Don't forget to share some pics. :)

[BitMaster]

I save the pics for when the watercooling has been put in.

 

I yet haven't had the chnace to actually fly, other than cursor style flying to check fps real quick and get a glance of what it will be like once finished.

 

FPS go anywhere from 60 to 130, depending on how high I set FSAA amd it`s submodes MSAA and TS(S)AA .

 

I am going to set those in DCS to off and force them as FSAA and MSAA from Nvidia Settings for dcs.exe. Done the settings but kitchen command postponed take-off to 10pm. The runway needs cleaning and the officers hall needs the broom too she said....well...YES SIR !!!

 

..more later

 

Bit

[BitMaster]

OK, I got confirmation of shipment for the cooler stuff :))

 

The standard cooler cannot sustain 4.4 GHz LoL.

 

its ok for DCS but my son took a ride in BF4, all maxed out, and the 4 cores where heating up to the point where BF4 went from 134 fps to 4 fps OOOPS.

 

back to desktop I had a 90°C+ warning ouch.

 

Got a Corsair H110 along with another 500r case for my sons PC so I will see the difference in workload, standard closed loop cpu only and watercool-everything setup in same case.

 

This will take a few days once the stuff is finally in but I will also do pics and fps checks :=)

 

 

So far, the screen is awesome, this GSYNC is really a killer thing.

Even with a 760 GTX and GSYNC on a Mach 1 low flyby is real smooth, you can turn your head with TIR and fixate the tower on the flyby, no tearing, no flickering, with the 980 gtx it's same smoothness at higher fps, but in general, smooth is smooth and the 980 gtx seams luxury now with gsync in the game. more fps doesn mean smoother, you can have tearing at 120 fps with SLI at 4k and have less fun than with a 760gtx and gsync, strange how technology advances and intelligence replaces brute force attempts.

Gsync for sure is a clever attempt to fight visual clutter of most kinds without the need for ultra high GPU power, it works with a any recent gtx and some GT´s afaik.

 

The 980 goes anywhere from 60 to 144 fps depending on where you dial FxAA in.

 

With modest 4x MSAA and TSAA settings it will almost always be above 100 fps, mostly around 130.

 

If you tune everything in that goe4s through NV panel and force 16Q AF and true 8x FSAA compared to MSAA and TSAA the fps will vary between 50 and 90 fps, mostly around 60-80fps.

 

Settings max, civil traffic off, WQHD, HDR normal, no tree shadows.

[BitMaster]

Despite my bad mood about StarForce.... ANYWAY grhhh !!!#

 

The stuff arrived and I put it in in a few hours. No surprises, no leaks and generally you dont have to be afraid of WC DIY if you can chnage your car's tyres or put up a cupboard, it aint more complicated than that.

 

What didnt work is the MoBo cooler for the SouthBridge, the Geforce card is blocking it all LoL could have saved some euros there but I didnt know before. VRM blocks have been left off too for now as I didnt wanna take the board out again and the CPU could be fitted through the cut out hole of the MB tray. I am not sure if I will mount the VRM blocks or if I try to give it back/refund or sell in ebay.. time will tell.

 

The CPU goes way beyond what Air could achieve, I have been up to 5.2 GHz with prime somewhat "stable" for an hour until BSOD, reboot or something. Maybe enuff for DCS and Desktop but not reliable and temps where in the 70's°C, which is too high for me.

 

With 4.9GHz it stays below 1.5V at full clock under prime95 LargeFTT's max heat, which is good, and it runs all night, no BSOD or such, rock solid Asus stuff. I guess the 5.x limiter is the Mobo and not the CPU.

 

I have lttle time today, so pics will come tonight when I am home from work.

 

 

The radiator is awesome, big and very very cool, it chills my leg and CPU idles at 1°C above room temp, which is 20°C, so my cpu is 21° atm in Desktop.

 

Apart from the 4 fans on the rad I cant hear a thing :) and those I will tie to a fan controller to turn them down to 600 rpm, now 900.

 

The Asus Poseidon easily goes 1400 clock and 7998 RAM at max power target.

 

result is 60 fps lowest in cockpit, max everything Mig-21 WQHD, 100-144 fps external views.

 

Bit

[PureEvil]

are you using "offset" - way for adjusting voltage for cpu? if yes, try setting voltage manually, it will be lower. i can run 4,8GHz with 1,395v this way. to lower temps under load you can try cpu lapping (if it's not flat enough). also, do you have hyper-threading on or off?

 

"16GB 2400MHZ ( which they refuse to run at )" - i don't think your MB support 2400MHz memory.

Edited March 1, 2015 by PureEvil

[Demon_]

i7 3770K, i use offset -0.040v at 4.4Ghz.

I always tweak (manually) by the mobo bios.

 

You can run at 2133Mhz: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8P67/specifications/

Your board can support SLI?

Edited March 1, 2015 by Demon_

[PureEvil]

What i mean is not to use offset, but set voltage directly, that can result in a better overclocking overall.

[Demon_]

I agree. The best way.

[BitMaster]

Hey everybody :)

 

after causing a lil smoke & heart attack due to lack of common sense...ahhem the system is back up and hummin' along :=)

 

I accidently connected the Fans with a Floppy-Drive connector and blew all 4 fans plus 1 cable that looks like a Marshmellow over fire...LoL

...all I wanted was to minimize the power cables routed from the case to the cooling tower to make it safer in handling. I need 12V for the pump, 12V or 3-4pin FAN conn for the fans and it MUST HAVE a fan connector connected to the pump, without that cable it will only run in bleed-mode and try to get air out but wont go into full mode, attach the fan cable (CPU fan makes most sense here, so the rpm match your GUI) and the pump switches to normal operation. That just were too many seperate cables for my taste, tiny wires etc... so I had to solder a 1m female-female 3pin Fan cable, shrink it in tubing, wrap the 12V Molex's unused conns but one with tape (waterdrop tight) and generally make it idiot proof and water proof as much as you can after initial run up and proof of concept.

Well, while I did that I swopped a fan conn with a Floppy conn and BANG, 4 new fans dead and some bad bad smell HAHA shit happens guys and I was real happy that the board booted and ther Poseidon still blinks green ;))) that would have been a disaster, but homemade too.

 

Luckily, nothing but the 4 fans died and best of all.

 

This god damn Mo-Ra3 Radiator cools BF4 PASSIV, no fans, nada needed.

 

It plain cools by it's mass alone, CPU stays below 50°C if you dont overdo

OC. Which is perfect for daily work. ATM the cores are at 20-17-19-18 °C, normal room temp at around 20°C. Sure, if the air is 36°C in summer I will need fans, but i can use it now, as it is, until I find 1 big fan instead of 4 x 180mm fans. Some 320-360mm gotta be around, just havent found one yet for PC use, only automotive.

 

The Voltage is tricky, I am not done yet with finding a sweetspot.

I ahve read a few articles on how the 2600k likes to be oc'ed and it all

works but it wont let me drop VID (the Voltage CPUZ shows under full load)

under 1.49 and still run prime stable for more than 1-2 hours. I dont consider 1-2h prime till BSOD stable, it's gotta run all night to pass my personal reliability test :) ...and it didnt.

 

I took different approaches, all manual, all AUTO, a mix of it, LLC AUTO and MAX, Spread Spectrum OFF and AUTO, heck... it all works somehow but reliable results only seem to come with 1.45V min. and best yet is 1.49VID.

 

The actual Volatge applied, to my surpise, is often less then dialed in and varies a little bit and the highest it went was 1.51xV.

 

I admit, I would like to stay below 1.35VID and that's why I am not done yet.

 

 

The DDR4-2400 should run on my board, it says it supports up to 3000 in OC. They go to 22xxMHz when I oc the BCLK but I would like not to overdo on the BSCLK.

 

Temps stay around 50°C (48-51) with prime running for hours at 1.49V so the temps should be no problem. They only went 70+ when I tried 5.2 until BSOD.

It may play a role or not, but Artic Silver says this new Ceramic-2 cooling paste needs a few days or better "cycles" of hot and cold to settle in and deliver full cooling performance. On my first tries I was able to skyrocket the temps way beyond 70°C at modest clocks. I know cant get to 60 anymore and the paste seems to have settled in.. ?? I am not sure about this but the fact that temps went generally down speaks for it.

 

 

I outfitted my sons PC with a Corsair H110 and Carbide 500r case, what a nightmare !!!!

Same case, 5 x the noise. That H110 and it's stock fans are just nothing but loud !!!! I cant recommend it unless you are willing to spend another 50 € on 2 x 15db 140mm fans to somehow enjoy computing without ear protection. Even my son, age 13, usually not really bothered by fans and noise, said it is way way too loud and reaches your ear even with headset or ear plug-ins.

Cooling performance is good, assembled is 30min and if you choose another, bigger, tower it might even fit in without hassle and cutting stuff out with steel cutting tools (still gotta do that to make it fit the way it should).

Right now the fans sit on top of the case and the rad inside, with air being sucked out. it would be better to have it other way round but the hose jacks collide with the steel casing....serious tools needed and you have to take everything OUT to keep it clean. On Nnxt overhaul this might happen.

He has a i7-920 with 6x2GB Modules and that is why I think it wont really OC stable, despite he has a A-Batch D0 stepping CPU, which is the 1A Grade of 920's and should at least do 4.8 and most do 5 to 5.2 with low V settings.

Well, this board has run 24/7 as a Backup server in a rackmount and has dont its duty already, I think either the amount of modules or age of mobo

hinders me in getting that thing stable at anything beyond 2.66 GHz but thats another story. Just to show how different 2 H2O coolers can be in the same case, 30min compared to whole evening, no cables compared to 2 water hoses amd 2 power cables but also the flexibility on the modular sight but the easyness on the Corsair closedloop solution.

I think my son is better off with a "daddy-install and forget" solution and I am happy to have some new stuff to learn and cope.

 

I made the pics, currently sorting them out and will post them later today.

[BitMaster]

here are the promised pics:

 

some general words to some pics,

 

- 3051 Empty case and PSU

- 3036 1.5L bottle and Mo-Ra3 as size comparison

- 3080 15" MacBook Pro and Mo-Ra3 as size comparison

- 3082 it just wont work without cables, no nice & clean without work

- 3071 Quick Connectors to seperate case and radiator

- 3085 + 3066 cables and hoses are long enough for either side, left or right

- 3074 + 3078 the payback for messy cables outside is a clean and lean inside

- 3070 the more you organise them, the harder it is to work on the machine

- 3072 external visual

 

 

# 3082 made me reorganise the power cables and cause the shortage.

I have since then consolidated 1 fan cable as I can grab 12V from the pumps Molex-Molex-Fan adapter that I put inbetween to not pry the board in the pump loose whenever I conn-disconn the pump (rec. by manuf. this way). From there I route 1 3pin fan cable to a 1-in-8 4-pin Fan Board where the 4 fans are "usually" connected. That saves me 1 cable from the case but it also disallows monitoring and regulation...so I am not sure if it stays this way cause I dont need any fans on the rad unless I do the hardest of gaming at 4.8GHz, prime95 for hours or a real hot summe day. I would like to be able to switch them off and on easily, maybe automatic depending on temperature (water and/or CPU/GPU).

There are many solutions around, I have to check which one works with my system etc...

 

 

my goal is to have only 2 hoses and 1 combined Power cable that feeds the pump and the fans and also gives rpm signal to the pump for normal mode operation. This signal may come from the 1in8 board but then you loose all monitoring if your pump still works. You have to have visual on the pump and reservoir and check it. Well, the water level needs to be monitored anyway by eagle eye method, so skipping the CPU-fan conn on the mobo isnt that bad, just keep an eye on the pump and check that it BLINKS green, not steady, steady means bleed-mode, on-off-on-off endless.

 

I will have to check if it plays DCS in passiv mode but if my son did BF4 on all cores below 50°C at stock speed I should be able to OC it as DCS only tortures 1 core and a bit.... I will see, if not I have to order 4 new fans and keep checking for a big 320-360mm fan to make it even more silent and effective compared to those 4 Phobya Fans, which were low noise but still too loud for my taste without regulation (900rpm standard).

 

I can make more pics if you want specific details and info, just ask.

 

 

Bit

[BitMaster]

forgot to mention,

 

there also is another solution for replacing the 4 fans cooling power,

 

another Mo-Ra3. That would for sure even cool things down on the hottest summer day and would be zero db all the way as the pump makes absolutely no noise at all.

 

Just that 4 fans are 1/4th of the prize for a 2nd rad....

 

Bit

[PureEvil]

which MB you've got? asus p8p67? http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8P67/specifications/

 

Memory

4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 2200(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/1866(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 Hz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory

Dual Channel Memory Architecture

Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)

* According to Intel® SPEC, the Max. 32GB memory capacity can be supported with DIMMs of 8GB (or above). ASUS will update QVL once the DIMMs are available on the market.

* Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.

* Refer to http://www.asus.com or user manual for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).

* Due to CPU behavior, DDR3 2200/2000/1800 MHz memory module will run at DDR3 2133/1866/1600 MHz frequency as default.

[PureEvil]

wont let me drop VID (the Voltage CPUZ shows under full load)

 

you should look for CPU VCORE, not VID.

[Demon_]

I use CPUID HWMonitor: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

 

Note: CPU-Z shows the cpu vcore.

[PureEvil]

i once had some sort of issue with hwmonitor and cpu-z, they both showed VID instead of VCORE. problem solved itself when i was reinstalling windows (for other reasons).

[BitMaster]

The Board is an Asus P6T SE and it really says 2200MHz, you're right.

 

It's my son's X58 WS that says up to 3000 OC

 

DANG...too many boxes in here, and they all praise something else haha.

 

 

I use the Asus Turbo V tool and the field is labeled "CPU Voltage" only.

 

The OC pages I found all referred to the value CPUZ shows if you run prime, that is your VID under full load. Actually, I dont know, all i can say is that it varies in value when priming over hours, whereas temp settles soone ror later once the system has heated up