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[BUILD LOG] Working for the man... Part III

2K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Minamoto 
#1 ·
PURPOSE: Workstation for development and administration. Underpowered by most CL build standards - but completely over-built for anything it will ever do in the office. Also because, why not?

PARTS: Nearly everything is coming from the last build of this workstation, which was a rebuild of the previous incarnation but under water. Now it's getting more rad (literally) and a shiny new CaseLabs chassis.
  • CaseLabs SM8 Reverse in Black Matte (with drop-in 480mm mount and 240mm flex bay mount).
  • Asus DirectCU II 7970 w/EK waterblock.
  • Alphacool XT45 Radiators - 1X 480mm, 1X 240mm & 1X 120mm
  • Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP13 & AP14 fans.
  • SSD's and 3TB Spinner
  • MSI MPower Z77 MB with emblems removed.
  • Swiftech MCP35X PWM controlled pump.
  • Bitspower fittings and reservoir.
  • XSPC Raystorm block on the 3770K
  • Various other hardware of no real concern.
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BUDGET: Severely limited - as this is an uncompensated build for the office (it just wouldn't be right to expense this stuff... as it is not even slightly necessary for me to do my job). Basically, I just have a problem having anything in a 'regular' case any more... even if it's a very nice case (this build was previously in a Corsair Vengeance C70 and currently resides in a Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl). They are both very nice cases... until you own a Case Labs case... then they suddenly seem like crap.
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TIMELINE: Immediately. This build should take me no more than a couple hours as everything is presently in place - so other than a backup (always do one - even if the drives are just moving cases...) and a drain and pull - it all should be very fast. I do have some other machines that I could use... but they're mining at the moment so I'd just as soon let them do that (they're earning my next CL case for me after all).

Basically this build is going up just for a referrence to future SM8 owners in case they need some ideas. I will be taking a number of pictures which I'll probably upload in one massive photo-bomb... since I will be using it to upload them most likely.
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For reference, here is where things stand today:


More after the break.... (well, hopefully nothing is broken actually...
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)
 
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5
#2 ·
CASELABS SM8 (Unboxing):













Aquaero LT Mount Mod:










Hmmm... this is just one of the things I am more than slightly disappointed in... good thing it's totally unnecessary for as few fans as I'm going to be running. (For more info see log text)
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CASE ASSEMBLE / FILL / LEAK TEST
Yep... that's the bottom - so you know it has to be filtered... office carpet is death!
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It's called REVERSE ATX for a reason...
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Like that totally unnecessary loop on the return to the reservoir... might have looked differently if I hadn't run out of elbow fittings.... but once it was in there - I actually like it! Plus it's visible through the front and it makes it look more "mad-sciency" IMO.
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Like I give a flying _____.
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(This is why I like this case... can't see this at all - but it's easy to get to. Also you can see that I only sleeved fans/leads/etc. that were visible from the front).
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Yep... I paid extra for the drop-in mount... only to not use it for much of anything.
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However, I know full well that this is not the last, nor the best hardware this case will see in it's lifetime... so the mount is more for future developments - which will have a more detailed log and better cable management - maybe...
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#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by gr3nd3l View Post

Should do a decent job with those Excel spreadsheets!
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Yeah, things were looking pretty dicey with just a 3770K and the one 7970... I may have to go crossfire just to make sure they render fast enough. And if I decide to play a game or two of Hearts while I'm reading some emails... that kind of multi-tasking can bring a lesser machine to it's knees!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by socketus View Post

Cool ! I can't believe you're mining with gpus still. Well, I can ...
LOL, well when the power is free and the GPUs aren't doing anything important... why not! Even if it only amounts to a couple thousand a year - until the scrypt ASICs come out and the difficulty skyrockets... it's bascially free money! Besides the fact that the GPUs are already paid for with the exception of the 280X which is busily earning it's keep as I type this.
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The plans for this build have already collapsed on me - in less than a day!
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I guess it's just about impossible to just 'throw together' anything in a CL case - even one of the little ones - if you can call an SM8 "little" that is. Forgot I've either got to order or make (depending on supplies) some fan splitters to go with those fans. Secondly I was determined to not even sleeve the fan leads on the AP14's - but since my AP13's for the other rads are already sleeved - it just doesn't seem right to leave them naked. Plus I had my loop all figured out until I realized that I'd purchased an Aquaero LT for this with the block. Then my Heatkiller blocks came in for the 7970s in my M8 build - which got me thinking really, really bad thoughts (which if I follow through on will have both builds torn apart and swapping components)...
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If I'm not careful... this could wind up being a much longer/bigger project than it was ever supposed to be - and now my wallet has started looking at me with suspicion and fear!
 
#6 ·
HEHE... OK guys - I just dropped a 'bomb' on post #2.

I'm going to go into some more detail as far as what I did and what problems I encountered... but at the moment I still have much work to catch up on and I'm still having some issues with Win7 installing on the SSD RAID... go figure.
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I want to get things sort of finalized before I bother with final pics - plus I need my tripod. The pictures are crap with this bridge camera - unless I use the flash, which then makes everything wash out. If it wasn't needed for work... it wouldn't have been this hasty a build. I will definitely be rebuilding this again (maybe even 3-4 times). LOL!
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by PCModderMike View Post

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LOL thanks... it's a far cry from the supreme clean-ness of your SM5 - but hopefully, once I get the system sorted software-wise, I can make it clean-ISH at least.
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And now for some of my thoughts on the Aquaero:

I realize that I bought a product that for all practical purposes - shouldn't exist. I'm sure at the price they get for the LT model - they're losing money. However, my initial thought on that is: good!

I have great respect for Shoggy - and the company in general - but this kind of borg-ware initiative really needs to stop happening IMO. Unfortunately since JVJessen is currently AWOL (I'm sure just working hard and busy with holiday stuff) I decided to give it a shot. And here's my issues:

1) Block is ridiculous. This thing was machined by a mentally challenged 5yr old. It will only ever have the fittings that are in it - because even after adjusting the top-plate, filing the punch spurs off of it, and retapping the threaded portion - it still was grinding up the threads on my fittings as they went in. The block it self was full of crap from the milling - wasn't very clean on the back side and was generally pretty cheap - except for the fact that it was half the cost of the Aquaero itself. When you add to that the fact that unless you run barbs to something higher than the unit itself - you lose one of the fan locations (can't get it on with the fitting). That's not their fault however, and I don't blame them for it - it's just the nature of my loop.
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2) However - the output of the fan amps is stupid. The bus is simply too underpowered to be used for 4 headers - and I believe it was designed that way on purpose - not to save power or reduce heat (which could have been done via different component selelctions - see JVJ's design) - but because they want and expect you to purchase the outboard amps even if you're running only 10-12 fans in your rig. Secondly the fact that the software requires additional sofware (AIDA64/Speedfan/Etc) to pass values - inefficiently, I might add, via WMI/Shared Memory - just to be able to get the CPU temp - which is a provided and constant value per Intel and AMD specs...
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3) Overall, it's a pretty nice 'toy' - but as I expected, and now have confirmed - if you're not setting everything up and operating it from the touchscreen... and using D5 pumps or Aquastream units, as well as $100 worth of their other add-ons... it's basically a waste of wattage.
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Now I'm sure haters gonna hate... and I realize that everyone is on Aquacomputer's curlies around these parts - but I can't see how or why personally. To their credit the Aquaero 6 does indeed seem to be a capable and proficient design... and it should be. I guess my biggest question is why the Aquaero 5 wasn't anything close to it.

Anyway... I'm back to stability testing - my other 'disastrous' choice (which I regretted immensely) was flashing my BIOS to 17.12... it's crap. I've gone back to 17.11 and everything seems to have gone back to normal - but as a result of loading everything under 17.12... I have file level corruption in several Windows system files - which is causing IE, Thunderbird, and the AquaSuite software to crash randomly or fail to load at all occasionally. My guess with the latter is actually a corruption in .NET - but it could just be crappy software (actually it IS, but it might have framework issues as well).
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Gotta love rush jobs... even when they go well... they don't go well.
 
#9 ·
Not that anyone is likely to stop by this thread, but I wanted to throw up an updated picture... not really 'build' but swapped MB, tubing and wiring for a better color scheme (IMO at least). Cheers.


 
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