Computer rebuilt - any ivy out there?

[mikeymad]

Well my main rig has a failing motherboard. (tyan)...

This thing (when I was bench testing it)

I am looking at a new motherboard and CPU (I cannot give up the case). Going with the new Intel i7 3770S chip and an acer z77 board (along with SSD, etc)...

Anyone out there running Ivy bridge chip yet?

Almost ran to Frys tonight and bought a pile of stuff (in stock), but I am testing my resolve to take my time and just do it right (and save on tax and driving). I can do it, if it is not whisky, I swear.

Cheers,

Mikey

[cobra_kai]

I've got my 3770k on hand but not running yet, waiting on my last watercooling bit to come (the new swiftech Apogee Drive II) before I tear down my old rig and upgrade everything. Upgrading from an i7 920 + ATI 4890 system.

[Aura]

Jesus I've fallen behind the enthusiast stuff. Ivy finally came out, eh? Will be interested to read impressions.

Love the psu Mikey, my HX520 failed after 3 years and they auto-upgraded me to an HX650 when I RMA'd.

Edited June 2, 2012 by Aura

[mikeymad]

Nice cooling unit cobra. I am going with a basic setup right now. Just to get my system up and running again (and recover the RAID).. I will be rebuilding the water cooling later in the year when I drop in the new GPU(s) (GTX670). Waiting for the cooling jackets for those to get out there as well.

Cheers Aura -- Yeah I have done a lot of research in the last week (getting caught up).. been years for me too. I hope to build up this system to go another 5-6 years out. The current rig was built about '06 - so it has had a run. And if it was not for the motherboard issues I would be using it for a while longer.

[cobra_kai]

Thanks, it was definitely a bit of an impulse purchase for me. My old CPU block was budget item - enzotech sapphire - and I was considering upgrading anyway. Then I saw the APDII announcement on xtremesystems and decided to go for that. 670 is a good choice I picked one up on thurs. 15% off from the newegg business sale. I don't imagine they will be under $340 again any time too soon.

[mikeymad]

Good luck on your build...

I got my main computer system back up and running. Turned out to be the water pump.. it was not running - so the system was overheating and shutting itself off (thankfully). I knew that it was overheating, but I thought it was a bad motherboard - not a pump issue. Was able to get it going (after checking all the connections) with a good ol' fashion, bang on it approach. Still looking at a rebuild - but it can be later in the year now (I hope)...

[blessingx]

[agile_one]

^^^ lol

Glad you got it running, Mikey. Never underestimate the value of a well placed boot in the pants.

[Grahame]

Percussive maintenance

[grawk]

water cooling is the bane of my existance. We use water cooled systems at work, and even with VERY specialized and expensive equipment, we still have regular pump failures.

[mikeymad]

I had a reservoir leak a couple years ago. Other than that it has been solid (swiftech), but there is no real way to tell in my system if it is running (no movement, and less noise than fans). It was not till I felt the CPU after shutdown that I realized that it was Fing hot. I moved the tubes around and saw a small bubble, turned on the computer and it did not move.. oops.

I think that when I rebuild I will put something in that lets me know it is running - a clear reservoir or one of these things...

Otherwise I will have to keep and eye out and do the Fonzie approach... (nice Ric)

cheers.

[cobra_kai]

My pump - swiftech mcp355 - has been going strong for about 4 years now. The age of the pump was part of my motivation for getting the apogee drive as well, a little redundancy. That being said a flow meter/visualizer or whatever something like that is called is not a bad idea. You can get reservoirs with them built in like this: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ekwaekspresd1.html

[mikeymad]

to start my build I have to break down first....

Full:

Empty:

got to love the feet:

Okay Fedex man where are my parts?

ready for battle:

the old stuff:

Got a pretty basic build to start with then adding water and graphics back into the mix later (more research need).

[tkam]

I assume you'll be doing some OC'ing and ivy chips seem to run about 10 C higher than sandy bridge chips running at similar clock speeds. Still it's pretty easy to hit 4.5 ghz without much effort.

[mikeymad]

Yep - Once I go full water I will up the clock a bit. but I am more working on a long term super stable system.. not a hot 6 month gaming machine..

[mikeymad]

So I was happy today too see parts come in....

Mounted:

And looking clean...

Back in it's case

And hey look the BIOS Runs....

Now a lot more work begins - may not post in this thread for a while.

[tkam]

How's the noise from the fan(s) on the shroud covering the motherboard?

[mikeymad]

loud - I turned it off for now - I will try it on a lower speed later

[manaox2]

Wow, a voodoopc case. I had an m series laptop of theirs before they were bought by HP and really loved it. Where'd you locate that?

[mikeymad]

Traded two bottles of scotch for it. (my friend out of San Jose)... I knew a long time ago that when I needed a new computer - it would be a rebuild - cannot get rid of the Lian Li case.

[mikeymad]

Okay - crappy photo of the screen... (32" Sony TV to give scale of box)

But up and running Windows 7 last night -- boot time from SSD - 21 seconds... Happy with that...

Super stable at 31C CPU, 34C Motherboard (and about 10 other monitors on the board.. all fine)... Going to drop in about 7TB of drives and this phase is done.. will start the GPU/water treatment soon.

Cheers

[tkam]

I actually finished building my new PC over the weekend - same motherboard as you. I have the two little fans for the board set to run in silent mode and I can't really hear them. Probably the part of the build I'm most happy with is the case - it's a Corsair Obsidian 550D. It's damn silent - using the same CPU cooler and same graphics cards as the old rig had and it's amazing how much quieter it is. I can actually walk in the room now and other than the power led I wouldn't know the PC was on.

[mikeymad]

nicely done - enjoy

[mikeymad]

So I bought 4x4TB drives, and tried to put them in on Friday.. wanting to setup a RAID 10. 

 

I have been having a few mystery issues with my new rig over the months. Various freezes and a few blue screens here and there. I learned that when I got it up and running to just leave it that way (didn't turn it off for months). Well it did not like this major restructure. Dropped in the new drives and the system got all upset. Freezes, would not boot, would not recognize drives, a few blue screens. I did get it up and running a few times, but would end up freezing and throwing random blue screens now and then. I started a process of elimination, to the point I had it completely stripped down to just the motherboard, memory, operating system SSD. I pulled all the other drives and the GPU, using the motherboard HDMI output for display. BIOS refresh, drivers updated.. Still issues including the monitor going into colored snow pattern (crazy)... 

 

The final straw was when it was freezing in the BIOS... At that point (3am) I called it... Used my work laptop to put in an RMA for the motherboard, and went to bed.

 

Sent the mother(fucking)board back to Asus this morning. My hope is that I just got a bad one and the return will solve many of the issues that I was getting. Otherwise I might just buy a nexus 10 and be done with it for a while...

 

Cheers,

[Knuckledragger]

Mikey, if you don't mind me asking where'd you get the 4TB drives and how much did you pay?  I've been needing to build a new disk array for a while, and every time I've checked the price/GB for 4TB drives has been lousy.  In the mean time, my FLAC collections continues to grow and it's getting a might crowded.