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Building A Sandy Bridge Z68 PC; Builing a new PC give me some feedback.
Topic Started: Sep 15 2011, 02:01 AM (3,695 Views)
majinpowers
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Sega Does What Nintendon't

Here is what I ended up getting for my Z68 Sandy Bridge gaming rig!
Total cost of this build was $2024 plus shipping. Built September 29th 2011

Motherboard $350
GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD7-B3
CPU $315
Intel Core i7-2600K
Memory $150
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB DDR3 1866 memory
Heatsink $120
CORSAIR H100
SSD $220
OCZ Vertex 3
HDD $160 [$80 each]
Western Digital Caviar Black WD7502AAEX 750GB [x2 in Raid 0]
Video Cards $400 [$200 each]
GIGABYTE GV-R687OC-1GD Radeon HD 6870 [X2 for CrossFire setup!]
DVD Drive $19
Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner 24X w/ LightScribe
Case $150
AZZA Hurrican 2000R
PSU $140
COUGAR-SX850 850W

Updated parts to reflect what I ended up getting and what the total price of my build was.
Edited by majinpowers, Nov 23 2011, 04:32 AM.
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kuroi
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Welcome To Warp Zone!

Upper 80's is fine under a full load. I've been told that the AMD boards don't start getting bad until about 110, and don't alarm/error till 120. That was the case with my 5850's anyway.
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hooflung128
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My only complain is that the 2600K doesn't do Vt-d, only Vt-x. For a gaming machine that means jack all... but if you use your gaming machine to run virtual machines it can mean the 2600 pulls ahead of the pack by far.

The PC is smoking man and looks good. We'll have to get a 'Show your rig' section here so we can all pimp our rides out.
Youtube page | My HeatWare rating.

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majinpowers
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Sega Does What Nintendon't

hooflung128
Oct 10 2011, 07:38 PM
My only complain is that the 2600K doesn't do Vt-d, only Vt-x. For a gaming machine that means jack all... but if you use your gaming machine to run virtual machines it can mean the 2600 pulls ahead of the pack by far.

The PC is smoking man and looks good. We'll have to get a 'Show your rig' section here so we can all pimp our rides out.
I do want to try and get Windows 98 working with VirtualBox or VMplayer or something just so I can play some old PC games, but I haven't had much luck getting 98 running on my old rig.

A thread to show off everyones PC's would be cool, I would love to see everyone's rigs.

n8great321
Oct 8 2011, 10:34 AM
Three fans on the GPU! That thing's a beast. Nice build, you will be very satisfied with it once you start playing some games.
So far I am happy with it, the heat coming from the cards in CrossFire is the only thing I dont like.

I have been playing Dead Island on it and some Final Fantasy XIV but that's about it so far. I am going to order Metro 2033 from Amazon since its really cheap and try it out.

MN12BIRD
Oct 8 2011, 11:53 PM
Yeah nice build! I didn't realize there was an H100 now. I've used the H60 and I think H70 IIRC and I heard the H80 wasn't much better than the H70. Well maybe not enough to justify the price I guess. The rad on the 100 is much bigger though. I really hated installing the waterblock/pump onto the CPU bracket it had these two clips you had to screw down and the one was really stripped I thought I was going to break it the thing had to be cranked on so hard to get it to tighten. That would have sucked if it broke 'cause where else you gonna find that clip? Would have had to beg Corsair to send me another one! Just a fluke bad threads on the one.
So far I am pleased with the H100, I haven't ever used any of the other Corsair water cooling kits to compare but for my rig to be overclocked to 4.4 with max temps around 60 I am pleased.

It would sux to have to RMA a kit for a bad screw. Thats the type of luck I have most of the time.

kuroi
Oct 10 2011, 06:31 PM
Upper 80's is fine under a full load. I've been told that the AMD boards don't start getting bad until about 110, and don't alarm/error till 120. That was the case with my 5850's anyway.
I hope your right I haven't found much info on the heat of the 6870s and so far that's the only thing I dont like about my setup.
Edited by majinpowers, Oct 11 2011, 01:21 AM.
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MN12BIRD
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I know my stock 4870 would get up into the high 80's but I'm surprised your tripple fan cards are getting that hot. Then again it's overclocked and with two cards on top of each other the top card is going to run hotter. So I agree it's well within safe margins.
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kuroi
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Welcome To Warp Zone!

I totally meant to say 5870, not 5850 earlier. I was looking into multiple video cards early on this year for bitcoin farming, and I can tell you for a fact that I was able to run my machine for weeks at a time in full load in the low 80's. The best I could find is that they said to keep it under 100 for constant use like that.
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majinpowers
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Sega Does What Nintendon't

I moved the cards into the 2 8x PCIe slots because they have a space in between them and it dropped my temps to the 70's under load. This sux tho because I got the premium board because it had 2 16x PCIe lanes but using them makes the top card hit high 80's and low 90's. Final Fantasy XIV Online makes the card heat up more than benching it does when its got everything turned up.

I might look into water cooling them depending on how hard this will be and if I have the room. Don't know what I would need for a crossfire water cooling setup.

On a side note I tried installing Dirt 3 today to see how it was because I got it for free with one of my video cards and I couldn't even get it to load. I looked online and everyone is having the same issue but I never could find a fix for this. Do any of you guys play Dirt three and if so how did you get the game to load up?
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kuroi
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Welcome To Warp Zone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs1cUFwJmGE
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majinpowers
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Sega Does What Nintendon't

kuroi
Oct 12 2011, 01:53 AM
great video, I guess those cards just run that hot! His was hitting in the 80s in non crossfire setup.
Edited by majinpowers, Oct 12 2011, 02:14 AM.
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n8great321
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Those cards look really close to each other with that setup. The top card doesn't have enough room to suck cool air in so that's why the temps are high. The top card will naturally be hotter (that whole *physics* thing with heat rising) but your cards aren't going to melt or anything anytime soon. Does your case have the option for a side fan or do you already have one? That could help a little.

How many PCI-E 2 slots does your board have an how many run at x16? Seems like a bad board design to put the two x16 slots so close to each other.
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kuroi
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Welcome To Warp Zone!

n8great321
Oct 12 2011, 03:54 PM
Those cards look really close to each other with that setup. The top card doesn't have enough room to suck cool air in so that's why the temps are high. The top card will naturally be hotter (that whole *physics* thing with heat rising) but your cards aren't going to melt or anything anytime soon. Does your case have the option for a side fan or do you already have one? That could help a little.

How many PCI-E 2 slots does your board have an how many run at x16? Seems like a bad board design to put the two x16 slots so close to each other.
I have to agree with this right here, as far as bad design goes. A side fan also might be a good idea, depending on the case, but it might not be feasible.
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majinpowers
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Sega Does What Nintendon't

the case has 2 large side fans that are set for intake... I dont know the size of the fans but more or less the entire side is made of 2 fans LOL. I even zip tied a small fan to the sides of the cards and it helped a little.

I agree the 2 x16 lanes should be where the 2 x8 lanes are on the board. Using the 2 x8 lanes I have no issues with the card overheating. After looking at the heat results in that video tho I guess my cards should be running in the high 80's under max load so I might move them back into the x16 lanes and see how it goes. when there in the x8 lanes the top card max heat is in the 70's.

Having the cards Overclocked or not dont really make any difference in the heat issue.

The front fans on my case are very weak so I might just have to buy some aftermarket fans for it.
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Omi3D
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A very nice build there. I built a simular unit just recently in a blue theme. I went with the H60 cooler due to space and to limit crowding near the CPU caps & memory slot. Works great. OC's to 4.8 @ 1.5v on Corsair LMP 1600 Ram.

Suggestion: I think the issue you were seeing with tightening the cooler mount is because the mount is placed backwards. This puts it at an angle that make the top mount screws difficult to turn. In the underside image I see the clearance gaps designed in the bracket for the two CPU board mount screws are opposite to the screw heads of the mainboard's screws. Remount it in the proper orientation and youll see a big differance in the mounting.. not to mention the uneven pressure will be eliminated on top of the CPU for the copper contact plate. This should provide the best cooling possible as well. Again nice build.
Edited by Omi3D, Nov 1 2011, 11:11 AM.
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metcar
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i decided to go with a setup similar to yours except i'll be going with a i5 2400 and only one video card a 6850 radeon and 8gb of ddr3 1600mhz ram. also gigabyte board is the 113 dollar one can crossfire/sli but only at 8x.
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majinpowers
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Sega Does What Nintendon't

you should be happy with it! So far I am very pleased with my PC. Its able to run anything I can throw at it on the highest settings. Plays Metro 2033 with ease.

I hope you got your HDD's already because the prices on theme are going up like crazy. No idea why.
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metcar
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yeah all the benchmarking sites show that on average it's a hair slower than the i5 2500k and about 5-10frames slower than the i7 2600k. yeah i got my HDD back in October , I know the reason it's because all of the HDD factories are in Thailand where they are having floods so most of the factories are out of action due to the flooding.
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majinpowers
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Sega Does What Nintendon't

That setup your building is "hackintosh" compatible. The GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 will run OS X lion 100% out of the box with that 6850 video card.
Edited by majinpowers, Feb 5 2012, 06:18 AM.
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metcar
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interesting i don't think i'll be doing a hackintosh pc just regular old win7 x64 lol . well the i5 2400 doesn't overclock well only the k" models overclock well like the 2500k and the i7 2600k. i'm happy with the 2400 though i'm hoping that cyber monday newegg or amazon has a sale on cpu's so maybe i can get a 2500k or even a 2600k for under $200.
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