Cool system build

[ddrueding]

Pleasantly surprised at how well this one turned out, considering the only part I've even seen before was the optical.

Antec LanBoy Air
Intel i7 860 (2.8Ghz)
4x 2GB Kingston
Intel DP55KG
HIS 5770 IceQ 5
RevoDrive 180GB
Seasonic X-400 Fanless (80 Plus Gold)
SATA Optical

The real standout so far is the motherboard; the slots are very well placed and well supported. In the BIOS, the PCI config screen includes a diagram of the board (for orientation) and a list of every slot, whether it is populated, and what speed it is running at. It also came with overclocking software (I no longer have any need for a non-Intel board).

Installing 7 now...let me know if you want anything particular.

 

[ddrueding]

A picture of a skull on the board? With LEDs integrated into it (eyes flash with HDD activity). BIOS control of brightness (you can disable the whole thing). Who took control of Intel? They've gone nuts...

 

[ddrueding]

Wow. The NIC driver needs to be installed from the CD. While I was there I noticed Acrobat Reader and decided I could skip the download. The disk still has version 5.0 (!).

 

[LunarMist]

It's pretty gauche, perhaps designed for the younger set.:?:
Wouldn't noise be an issue if using 8+ drives and typical modern video card?

 

[ddrueding]

I actually kinda like it. I suppose if you are the type to use the word gauche, it isn't for you Not sure how much noise a drive would make with the sophisticated suspension system, but I did pick a low-power card with a quiet cooling system for a reason. This chassis with it's two 120mm door fans would do really well with something like this. The fanless PSU looks really good in there as well.

 

[LunarMist]

It's black/yellow with LEDs in the photos. Where do you put that case to fit the decor? Maybe it would attract insects in the great outdoors.
There should be a 100% black version without LEDs.

 

[ddrueding]

I got the black/blue version. Much less obnoxious, but it still has the LEDs. All the internal components (MB, GPU, PSU, SSD) are blue/black as well.

 

[Handruin]

Sounds like a nice build! I like the one review I found on the power supply. I didn't know there was still an active market for fanless PSUs. Are you using the stock HSF for the CPU?

 

[ddrueding]

Sounds like a nice build! I like the one review I found on the power supply. I didn't know there was still an active market for fanless PSUs. Are you using the stock HSF for the CPU?

Yeah, at least for now. We'll see how quiet I can get it.

 

[CougTek]

Why didn't you buy 2x4GB RAM? It's basicly the same price.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm still going through existing stock.

 

[CougTek]

I added up the components' cost and I end up with 1130$ without the Revo PCI-E drive (which I don't know the cost). I don't think that system will draw 200W even at full load. Are you sure it needed a 185$ enclosure? Shouldn't you reserve such an impressive enclosure for a system which consumes a little more juice, like something built on an X58 motherboard or something?

Sorry for the criticism, I'm just worried for your finances.

 

[time]

:rofl:

 

[Pradeep]

It's pretty gauche, perhaps designed for the younger set.:?:
Wouldn't noise be an issue if using 8+ drives and typical modern video card?

Actually the 5770 is nice because it is a) modern (DX11, DTS-MA etc), and b) quiet.

 

[ddrueding]

I added up the components' cost and I end up with 1130$ without the Revo PCI-E drive (which I don't know the cost). I don't think that system will draw 200W even at full load. Are you sure it needed a 185$ enclosure? Shouldn't you reserve such an impressive enclosure for a system which consumes a little more juice, like something built on an X58 motherboard or something?

Sorry for the criticism, I'm just worried for your finances.

Much like the P190, 99% of the machines in this chassis will not require this chassis. This machine has it because I have a client with interesting tastes and a healthy budget. His last system was in a P190 and didn't have any expansion cards at all and an SSD.

 

[ddrueding]

Oh, and the Revo is about $550.

 

[Mercutio]

A picture of a skull on the board?

Intel has been doing that on some of their consumer products for at least the last three years. I know it sounds weird but they DO make some hardware they intend to market to gamers and the like. They're just not very good at it since they don't put robotic dragons and anime shit all over their motherboard boxes to let us know how XXXTREME their hardware is.

 

[ddrueding]

Win7 seems to think this is a well balanced system, scoring 7.4 across the board (except for storage; 7.9)/

 

[LunarMist]

Actually the 5770 is nice because it is a) modern (DX11, DTS-MA etc), and b) quiet.

I wrote typical. I understand that case might be nice for a quiet system. I'm not so sure about a normal system.

 

[ddrueding]

Intel's "Auto Tune" in their control center took the CPU to 3.51Ghz. Sweet.

 

[ddrueding]

Interesting note. I've been using this system as my main office rig since it was built without issue.

Today I swapped the 4x 2GB Kingston modules for 4x 4GB Corsair. BIOS detected it fine, but upon startup it immediately corrupted the drive. Swapping back to the other RAM and a bunch of ScanDisks got the system to boot again, but a bunch of stuff (firefox profiles, etc) are toast. Scary.

 

[Santilli]

Over clocked to 3.51? Might this have caused the ram to corrupt the data???

 

[ddrueding]

An excellent point. I'd forgotten than this system was OC'd. I'll try again later on.

 

[Santilli]

One of the reasons I'm not a fan of overclocking, unless I can just OC the processor.

 

[Stereodude]

One of the reasons I'm not a fan of overclocking, unless I can just OC the processor.

I'm pretty sure he didn't overclock his HD. :cheese:

 

[ddrueding]

I suspect he means OCing more than the multiplier.

 

[Stereodude]

Considering there are adjustable multipliers to keep the RAM and other peripherals at a given speed as you increase the FSB I'm not sure what he's actually talking about.

 

[ddrueding]

I've done a fair bit of overclocking, and I wasn't aware of multipliers. Increasing the uncore frequency directly changed the speed of the RAM.

 

[ddrueding]

Another interesting observation. I have the MB set to dynamically adjust the CPU fan speed, and it is keeping the CPU at 86C. If I turn up the chassis fans, it slows down the CPU fan. At present it is under 2000RPM.

 

[Handruin]

I'm pretty sure he didn't overclock his HD. :cheese:

I actually saw similar file corruption (not the entire hard drive) when I was accidentally OCing my memory on my i7 860 build. I posted about it a while back, but after correcting the speed in my Corsair RAM in the BIOS, I never had the problem again.

 

[ddrueding]

In this case I made sure I wasn't OC'ing the RAM itself; 1333Mhz, and even upped the voltage from the 1.5v printed on the DIMM to 1.65v. Wouldn't even successfully run Scandisk without crashing.

 

[time]

Another strike against Corsair then?

 

[ddrueding]

Too early to draw conclusions, I didn't mess with it too much. Once I have a test system put together I'll screw with it some more.

Edit: I haven't actually had any issues with Corsair in the past.

 

[Bozo]

Another interesting observation. I have the MB set to dynamically adjust the CPU fan speed, and it is keeping the CPU at 86C. If I turn up the chassis fans, it slows down the CPU fan. At present it is under 2000RPM.

What program do you use to monitor the temperatures and fan speed?

 

[MaxBurn]

Core Temp is the best I have found for intel cpu temps.
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

 

[BingBangBop]

Core Temp is the best I have found for intel cpu temps.
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

I'm a real temp fanboy, myself.

 

[ddrueding]

I'm using the one provided by Intel.

 

[Handruin]

What program do you use to monitor the temperatures and fan speed?

I've been using the trial of Argus Monitor and it seems to be OK.

 

[LunarMist]

Argus is not good for my system. It immediately crashes and reboots.

 

[CougTek]

Core Temp is the best I have found for intel cpu temps.
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

What's wrong with Speedfan? I'll try Core Temp and see if the temperatures it reports are different than Speedfan.