Wink

First a little background. I have built PC's since the mid to late 80's, and used to build my own until I got so involved with work, and could just req whatever I needed from there, that I didnt bother building my own.

I am an IT guy, that has spent the last 8 years on the server side, I can talk Xeons and SAN LUNs all you want, but the Desktop work left me behind.

I had an Nvidia ti4200 for years, I would get a new PC from work, drop that card in and an old Ensonique Creative card and off I would go and I could play whatever I wanted.

A Year ago, I upgraded to a AGP version of the 6800 Ultra, and dropped it into a Dell Optiplex 280 with a 3.0Ghz P4.. it was glorious! Then fast forward to June of 2006.. the 7950 Experiment.. I got a new Dell 620 at work, SATA drives, 2GB DDR2 ram.. 3.2Ghz.. PCI-E... hmm the 6800 wont work anymore.. so I go find the baddest PCI-E available at the time.. a BFG 7950GX2.. get it home, and install it.. it wont fit right.. so I hack up the case.. get it to seat.. wont boot.. seems the PCI-E slot wont support X8 or X16.. DOH!!!! $550 card (At the time) and useless.. and that is where the story begins.. armed with little knowledge.. I bought parts like in the old days and cobbled it together.. like this.

Case: Aspire With junk PSU $60
MB:Asus P5ND-SLI (Heard about this thing called Squad SLI , yeah I said Squad)
RAM: 2GB 533Mhz DDR2 from the Dell
Two SATA Drives from the Dell
BFG Tech 7950GX2 1GB
1.44MB Floppy From the dell
Creative X-Fi Music

Put it all together.. and? it didnt work.. there is this funky connector on the video card I had never seen before.. an my PSU didnt have one like it.. so I went and bought a 550 Watt PSU with dual PCI-E outs and a modular cable design that allowed me to plug in only the leads I needed, COOL! Wish they has those 10 years ago!

This fixed my problems and I was fine.. until November..2006.. the day of infamy.

I found another 7950GX2 on Ebay, new.. for $385.. and I bought it.. the MB didnt like it much.. so I broke down and bought a Asus P5N32-SLI Premium Board. Quad SLI worked well! Until it started sucking that 550W PSU down and blasting extreme heat out of the case. I had never seen Power Demand like that on a Desktop, I am used to 12 amp draw on a server, but not a damn desktop!, and the heat.. ***? I may need to buy one of those damn case fan thingies I see on the itnernet or something!

So after some research (Not nearly enough).. I decided to just upgrade it all..

new build.. Part 1..sigh
Another identical Aspire Case
Second 7950GX2
Asus P5n32-SLI Premium with Wifi
2 X 1GB AMP X DDR 800 RAM
Intel CdC 6400
Same Sound and Drives.

Thing ran great.. but still was drawing down the PSU and creating that evil heat stuff.. my feet would sweat next to the case, and my benchmarks got worse and worse.. time to fix both..

Searched out water cooling as a solution and almost went that route.. but the cost was prohibitive.. damn near $240 EACH for custom blocks for thr 7950's.. and I am still nervous about liquid flowing inside my machine.. so I decided Air.. needed air flow, larger interior space, and room to expand if I decided to go water at a later date.. so I got the Cooler Master Stacker 820.. awesome case! I had never seen a case with quality like that before and I was staggered! I have had no complaints at all with the quality or workmanship in anyway! The cards are a pain to get eated and into the slots in the case sometimes, but overall, amazing product.. and 4 120MM fans.. that solved the heat problem.. CPU was still wanting to run around 60C at idle.. a Zalman 7900 fixed that..

I debated getting a high end SLI Ready PSU.. and found a Thermaltake solution, an externally powered PSU that mounts in a 5.25" Bay that suck 250W and send sit back out as two independant PCI-E plugs.. the 550W I have is plenty fine to run everything with headroom for more, if you remove the PCI-E load, and this add on PSU eats the PCI-E up! Another great buy..

So now I am happy, Quad SLI.. Fast Speeds.. Heat Solved.. and the new 7950 decideds to frag out and die.. so I send it out for repair.. In the mean time I am reading that quad SLI is limited because the Clocks are set low to deal with heat issues.. and in benchmarks are only marginally stronger than a pair of 7900GTX's.. I had a 7900GTX laying around.. so I traded the 7950GX2 out for repair for an identical 7900GTX as the one I had.. and gave the Wife my current 7950.. and the first Asus Board and Aspire Case.. it works great for her..

Finally.. done.. and Happy.. and the Asus Premium dies.. It slowly had been going, the NICs had died, then other pieces.. prolly a short from the beginning that was slowly getting more and more pieces..

So tonight I bought a BFG 680i Board.. it was DOA.. took it back and got another.. Got it up finally.. after the Asus had taken out my new RAM.. DAMN!!!!!

So an RMA on the Asus MB and the RAM.. stole a gig of the 533 stuff from the wife for now..

So now I am going to look for SLI Certified RAM since this new MB seems to think it will do cartwheels with it.. if I can get stable and nothing breaking for a week.. I will consider overclocking it some.. lol

here are pictures of the Origianl Quad.. in the Aspire case. I dont have pics yet of the Coolermaster case. But you can seen in the pictures, that the back of the 7950's Talmost touches my HDD's.. like a 1/4 inch clearance.. no wonder i had heat issues!

http://www.thewinkfamily.com/album/t...s.php?album=21

dont laugh at me too hard.. it's been a hard road, and I own guns..

Robert

tubnotub1

Just as a note, from what I understand Quad SLI was not limited because of clock speed, it was limited because of poor driver implementation. Basically... the drivers suck! Anyways, your post was a nice read. Glad to have you around the forums, Im sure you will become an indispensable member! BTW, nice rig!

Wow, just look at the pics, that is a tight fit!

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FlaKing

Yep, you have basically summarized my entire PC experience. One failure of one defective product ultimately leads to the failure of another.

I know myself, I have been through THREE of the same DFI board and this one is kind of... flaky. The first one was okay, it just crashed in every game. No matter what. The second was DOA. This one is neither of the first 2, but it won't overclock like the first one. The first one OCed like a beast. This one will hardly do anything above stock.

__________________

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Wink

Well thanks for the welcome folks.. I hope to suck all of your brains dry before it's over and learn *** I am doing with this thing. It has become a costly little adventure.. The wife and I had planed to purchase a nice HDTV setup for Christmas.. well.. my monitor and Video can do HD.. lol

She hasnt been pleased.. and it has been expressed in a severe lack of marital invitations to come to bed early.. if ya catch my drift

tubnotub1

Atleast you have that 24" monitor to keep you company during those cold lonely nights.

__________________

Syrillian

Same here.... started as a simple AGP upgrade in a Dell.

We should start a support group

__________________
WIP: Scarab
Custom Cases:
Silentium, Halcyon, Indigo, Gemini, Prometheus, Anvil
Case Mods:
Liquid Chameleon, VF1000 LAN box

Semper Fidelis

tubnotub1

You already have one, its called overclock.net

Hi, im Tubnotub1, and I have a addiction.

__________________

Syrillian

You mean I've been at a ginormous/international OCA group the whole time?!?!?!?

Well... "My name is Syrillian..."

Yup! tubnotub1, you hit the proverbial nail smack-dab, dead-center right on the head

__________________
WIP: Scarab
Custom Cases:
Silentium, Halcyon, Indigo, Gemini, Prometheus, Anvil
Case Mods:
Liquid Chameleon, VF1000 LAN box

Semper Fidelis

OpTioN

i started with a hp

and still have one



***?

Wink

Dont get me wrong, I love Dell.. I swear by their Server Equipment.. but the desktops are for..uh.. business purposes

An XPS is different..

Just got some new stuff in this week too.. Dual CPU XEONS with Quad Cores, and a couple Quad Core Xeons with Dual Cores..

So..uh.. without the wife satisfying needs.. seeing Quad core Xeons helped me to ..uh..relieve myself.. lol