Oscar's Silent and Cool P182 X38 QX9650 & 8800 Rig (no56

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oscar3d
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Oscar's Silent and Cool P182 X38 QX9650 & 8800 Rig (no56

Post by oscar3d » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:38 pm

Cheers SPCR!

Many thanks for the cool ideas from the members falcon26 and Konnetikut, about how to do good cabling.

This is the fruit of 10 hours of work and 1.5 months of investigation on this forum.

Case: P182B with pre-applied Acoustipak Deluxe V2

-Modified with tin snips and dremmel to create external SATA power/data ports on the back.

CPU: Update: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3.00Ghz running @ 4.00Ghz. Not Lapped with AS5

Former CPU: Intel Cure 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz stepping G0 (SLACR)running @ 3.01Ghz. Lapped until 2000 Grit (mirror finish) and applied Arctic Silver 5.
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Lapped until 2000 Grit, mirror finish and used a 3/16 thick/ 1 1/4 diameter washer to make it a solid fit and tight.
PSU: Old good Corsair 620HX
Motherboard: ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WI/FI AP (X38 Chipset )
Video Card: EVGA 8800 Ultra KO @636 Mhz.
Sound Card: Bluegears B-Enspirer 7.1 (tossed out buggy Creative and never going back)
Memory: 4 GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR3 12800 (1600Mhz) rated to run at 8-8-824

Since I'm running 4 sticks of 1 GB each , the X38 chipset gets very limited, so I ended up running them @ 1333MZ 9-9-9-24 (timings on Auto for now)

HD: 3 Western Digital (2x250GB for Xp and Vista selective boot) + 1 320GB for Backup.

All drives enclosed in "the best": SMART DRIVE 2002 Copper. You can find them in endpcnoise.com they are expensive, but I've used them for 2 years now. Temps on drives never pass 32C:-)
All drives routed to the CASE using AKASA SATA PCI-BRACKET (SATA EX-BLUV)

Optical Drives: 2 ASUS DVDRW Dual Layer

Floppy Drive: Yes, matushita. Needed to run Memtest and other stuff.

Fans:

- Exhaust : Scythe S-Flex SFF21F (1600RPM) running @ 1028 RPM w/ Fanmate.

- CPU Cooler: Scythe S-Flex SFF21E (1200RPM) running @ 1028 RPM w/ Fanmate. Yes, matched speeds to assure even flow of air.

- Mid Case Fan: Scythe S-Flex SFF21D (800RPM) running @ 830 RPM. No need for undervolt, it's silent enough.



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As you can see this is a much more tough rig, specially trying to match what Konnetikut did for his rig. I had to add one more DVD drive, and a Floppy. Luckily I found the thinnest floppy cable ever, it's brand is COOL CONNECTIONS and is yellow and you can find i at Fry's :-)

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Taken without flash, and tweaked the exposure (Sorry :-P) You can observe the Acoustipak foam at the back of the panel.


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A closeup on the Video and Sound cards. Unfortunately all the Asus X38 motherboards (P5E3's and Maximus) are a very tight fit for a Thermalright HR GPU cooler. Specially since I use the sound card, because also play games. No Zalman VF1000 either... impossible if I want to use a sound card. (I guess good warning for all new Asus X38 adopters)

The PCI at the top of the board is very tight. The sound card collapses for less than a mm with the heatsink of the GPU. It's a KO version of the EVGA 8800 Ultra, so that heatsink at the bottom of the card means a NONO for a sound card there.



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Yes. You see the cables at the top of the PSU. Those are the AKASA SATA PCI bracket cables, that will let me rout the enclosed hard drives outside the case. So no noise, and no vibration. GONE. You wonder how did I put those there?


Simple. Electrical tape, and then covered with aluminum tape.

There is a review of this connector here:http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/akasa_sata/index.shtml


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The SATA cables look almost invisible, assuring a good airflow. I still wonder why did I left that hard drive cage at the bottom? Looks? :-) Probably to keep some of the case's original weight and diminish vibration.


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Here is what I did, carefully took the connectors from the AKASA SATA brackets, and placed them on the holes. Calculated the lenght/wide for a good fit. Then tin snipped and used dremmel to finish. 4 washers and screws and voila!


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A closer look to the mod. Not perfect but close. I needed to make sure that the cables were all shielded and protected from the PSU electrical/heat emissions as much as possible. More than a week using this computer and no problems whatsoever :-)

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Another shot. Sorry, it's blurry, adjusted exposure.


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Acoustipak Deluxe V2 applied on the main panel door. Had to cut it very carefully. The Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme is very tall. So I had to be strategic.


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A look at the back of the rig.

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A new baby born!!


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Acoustipack foam on the front door. NOT A PROBLEM!! :-)

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As posted on Mike Chin's P182 front panel door thread about poor airflow for powerful videocards, this was my mod job on the doors, so I won't need to take them out. ELEGANT and EFFECTIVE! Just a knife, and firm hands!



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As you can see you don't notice anything unless you really look them close with a flashlight. YEP! Idid my cuts on both upper and lower grills, couldn't resist. And EMI, no, it's not happening to me :-)


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The 800RPM Scythe S-Flex fan inside.

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Overall look. Yes, I had to clean all the garbage. Not the IPOD of course!:)
Also you might notice that the Case is inside a wood desk, thats exactly why I had to take out the drives, and I've done so like I showed from the last 2 years since I started with a Sonata, then a P150 and now this. No vibrations here.


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This is how the cables go from the back.From my DYI SATA power/data ports to...

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The SMART SRIVE 2002 hard drive enclosures. In my experience, THE BEST cooling enclosures for hard drives. They are expensive though, 70-80 bucks per unit. I have three because I've been byuing them as I needed them. They are designed to be used either outside or inside the case....

CPU Coretemp after 2 hours of Prime 95 on 4 cores. Running @ 3.01 Ghz 24/7!!

On Idle: 38 C

On Load: 62-63 C

GPU after 1 hour of Crysis Demo

On Idle: 60 C

On Load: 82 C

UPDATE: Just switched to a Yorkfield QX9650:

I'm running it on this silent rig @ 4.00Ghz.

Idle: 31C
Load: 63C


The BACK PANEL CABLING!!

Sorry, no pictures yet unless I have to open it again.

The good thing. Is it possible to have foam in the back panel and still be able to put all the cables in the back?

YES!:-) It takes a while, and lots of patience.I've spent no less than 6 total hours figuring out the best way to route the cables on the back panel, following the pictures of Konnetikut's rig. Again, this one was tough, because I have more peripherals than his rig, but his good sense of order and great pictures helped me a lot.(Thanks champ!)


Thanks for all the good ideas in this forum that helped me conquer a useful rig and quiet It is exciting, and I cannot tell you how many times I sweated cold doing this, specially routing the cables, lapping the CPU, and installing the CPU cooler with a washer mod for better fit.

But it is thanks to this place that I've found the best people to help me out answering my concerns. Cheers to all!

Any questions, suggestions or critics,are always welcome to help me and help us!

Thanks!
Last edited by oscar3d on Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:26 pm, edited 8 times in total.

Ashex
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Post by Ashex » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:30 pm

Very nice job with the case :), I'm guessing the fan controller on the back of the case controls the case fan on the back?

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:54 pm

No, the fan mate on the back controls the CPU fan.

I have another fan mate that is hidden and sticked in the DVD drive cage on one side,that one controls the exhaust fan.

I was thinking that the the fan that you will undervolt/overvolt the most should be the one that you will use the most, and as such it should be close to reach.

Unfortunately, I've tried for about an hour to search for another spot in the P182'sback to place a second fan mate. I couldn't. :-( It had to go inside. Thanks for watching!

MoJo
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Post by MoJo » Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:05 am

Your temps are awesome, especially for the 8800 Ultra.

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:24 pm

Thanks!

As for the temps on the 8800 Ultra I'm not very happy to know that the P5E3 Deluxe or Maximus, won't let you install a Thermalright HR-90 cooler on it, at least with a 120mm fan. So buyers BEWARE! :-(

I might be able to fit a modded VF-1000 with 120mm fan in there.
That will require taking out the bottom heatsink of the card, so I thing I will have space to put the sound card on the upper PCI again.

Or, maybe wait for whatever Nvidia has to offer next year. I've heard that the D8E version is dual PCB. I hate dual pcb video cards, so I will have to wait longer. :-(

The stock GPU cooler is quiet enough, but still has become noisiest thing in my right, but at least keeps the hot air outside the case.


BTW: Crysis SP Demo SUCKS on Vista!![ XP ROCKS!!!!![/b]

Mr. B
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Post by Mr. B » Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:16 pm

How long did you take to complete the door mod? When I first attempted this mod on my doors I thoguht I could do it with just an X-acto knife but it seemed it would take forever.

Nick Geraedts
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Post by Nick Geraedts » Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:19 pm

I'm actually somewhat surprised by your CPU load temperatures. Perhaps it's just because my case has far more airflow than the P182, but my load temps never go above 51C when I'm at 9x333. What VCore setting do you have?

Otherwise, it's a very slick looking setup you've got there. :)

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Mon Oct 29, 2007 4:27 pm

How long did you take to complete the door mod? When I first attempted this mod on my doors I thoguht I could do it with just an X-acto knife but it seemed it would take forever.

It took me about an hour total. It's hard with the knife I am showing, you need a firm hand. You start cutting all the pieces in the back vertically, and then start doing 3 passes in each one horizontally, and they will start detaching. It tires your hand they are many of them.

I'm actually somewhat surprised by your CPU load temperatures. Perhaps it's just because my case has far more airflow than the P182, but my load temps never go above 51C when I'm at 9x333. What VCore setting do you have?

Otherwise, it's a very slick looking setup you've got there


Yeah, I'm very surprised too. I'm actually having the VCORE on AUTO, but I know I should lower it, and strat testing it. It's the first time I'm running a quad-core, I used to have a dual-core X6800 running at no more than 40C (Coretemp) in my old P150.

What are your Vcore settings? I really need to get into serious overclocking techniques. :-)

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Post by Konnetikut » Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:32 pm

Well done.
I must say, that door mod seems pretty slick. Gotta try that some time.
Don't forget to have the break-in period for the AS5 before you leave it on 24/7.

Nice floppy cable. :wink:
Last edited by Konnetikut on Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

falcon26
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Post by falcon26 » Mon Oct 29, 2007 7:11 pm

Dam fine job their :-) Now you just have to get the Crysis demo and put that baby to work and let the silence begin :-) Again excellent job I love seeing other people's work :-) I'm thinking about changing my scythe sflex fans for some of those new scythe slipstream fans :-) I heard their pretty quiet....

Nick Geraedts
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Post by Nick Geraedts » Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:43 pm

My VCore is set at 1.275V in BIOS, and turns out to just a tad over 1.2V as reported by CPU-Z. I'm running 4x Rosetta@Home right now (24/7 actually) and the highest temperature in CoreTemp 0.95.4 is 43C.

I have a feeling that the "auto" setting is actually raising the voltage above stock since you've got an overclock. Set it manually and see how things go. :)

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:15 pm

Thanks falcon and Konnetikut fo you kind words.

It definetly makes me feel proud. I know it still needs more tweaking but I'll get into there later. But thanks to your guidance I'malmost there.

One one bad thing tough. My front side panel (case) USB doesn't work. I guess cutting that audio cable of the case messed something up. I've tried setting it on the Bios and no matter the front panel of the antec doesn'twork :-( Probably will need to buy a USB HUB, that sucks!

To Nick, thanks for the answer'!! :-) I'll definetely try to lower my VCORE on the weekend.

meansizzler
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Post by meansizzler » Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:22 am

Nice cabling, GPU temps seem ok, although I had same card but superclocked version and it just got to go 88-90 range..., was faulty anyway.., like how you got the acoustiapck in there...

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Wed Oct 31, 2007 2:15 pm

Do you guys know of any modded Zalman VF1000?

I swear I saw some pictures of a guy who installed it on his 8800, removed the zalman fan and ziptied a 120mm Scythe on it.

If that's the case I might be able to take the sound card and put it on the top PCI and have space to have my 8800 modded.

Only concern is the stupid hot-air being stuck in the case if I do this.

Too bad there is no aftermarket cooler for 8800 that exhausts hot air.

BTW: Have you guys seen arctic-cooling site lately? I think these guys are on a down-trend really to crash its buisness.

meansizzler
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Post by meansizzler » Wed Oct 31, 2007 7:15 pm

oscar3d wrote:
I swear I saw some pictures of a guy who installed it on his 8800, removed the zalman fan and ziptied a 120mm Scythe on it.
Tha was me.... :D , except I ziptied the Scythe to a HR-03, if you want some advice then lsiten, change the CPU cooler for a Ninja then the HR-03 + Scythe will fit.....

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Konnetikut
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Post by Konnetikut » Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:20 pm

meansizzler wrote:
oscar3d wrote:Do you guys know of any modded Zalman VF1000?

I swear I saw some pictures of a guy who installed it on his 8800, removed the zalman fan and ziptied a 120mm Scythe on it.
Tha was me.... :D , except I ziptied the Scythe to a HR-03, if you want some advice then lsiten, change the CPU cooler for a Ninja then the HR-03 + Scythe will fit.....
b...bu....but that wasn't his question!! :shock:

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:06 am

Nope :-(

I'm not talking about the Thermalright HR, I can't fit that thing on an Asus X38, no at least with a 120mm fan.

I'm talking about the Zalman VF1000 GPU cooler.

eztiger2
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Post by eztiger2 » Mon Nov 05, 2007 5:29 am

I like what you've done with the disks. That Akasa bracket looks very useful.

Do you find you need the foam under your boot disk even with the carpet there?

Very tempted to do something similar with my rig (same as yours except with a cheapskates 8800 GTS :) ).

Kev

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:47 pm

In case you want to purchase the stuff for the disks:


AKASA SATA EX-BLUV
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/akpcfrpawisa.html (it's out of stock there) but you can order it from UK...


http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/cus ... at=0&page=

SMART DRIVE 2002

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std ... e2002.html


Even if I have carpet, if you notice I have a platic carpet protector on the floor, and thus som little vibration gets transmitted to my foot. Specially on the thrid drive marked in green (picture above) But putting the foam guarantees not a single feeling or noise from the hard drives.

tyeh26
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Post by tyeh26 » Mon Nov 05, 2007 11:06 pm

hey what did this fan door or whatever it is look like before?

it doesn't look like they let aire through before you cut them.

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i'm thinking about adding some fans to the front of my case, but i dont' know how to make it look good. I need matching fan grills, so I'm thinking I can make it fromt eh case material i use to cut a hole..

thanks.

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:02 am

No, they didn't let air go through as they should. This was one of the flaws on the P182's design as pointed by Mike Chin.

Now if you see the pictures above, there is one with two doors. The door on the right is the orginal, and the one on the left how they look after modding them.

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Sat Nov 17, 2007 2:28 pm

Just an update:

I've just intealled a QX9650 Yorfield on this rig.

Do you want to know what you can do with that chip in a silent rig like this?

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This is with Prime 95. I'm running it @ 4.00Ghz (10x400) and VCORE 1.4V PRIME stable. Outstanding. Considering that this is a SILENT rig, so the fans are not running full speed, the case doors closed.

I've seen some great benchmarks on air from this chip running @ 4.5Ghz on air, but those have been taken with the mobo and CPU OUTSIDE the case.

Also 74C on full load is not a concern. The TJunction of this chip is 100C.

But anyway I expected more from my Thermalright 120 :-(

So this is the reality check my friends.

Running at stock speeds with a Vcore of 1.25V (YES YOU HEARD ME!).

Idle: 26C
Load: 46C

Nick Geraedts
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Post by Nick Geraedts » Sat Nov 17, 2007 3:43 pm

Two things...

1) You're crazy
2) I'm jealous :P

Very nice setup you've got there.

zorrt
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Post by zorrt » Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:16 pm

have u ever kicked ur hdds with them being on the floor like that? Nice case setup anyways...can I have your old quadcore? Also can't believe you have a floppy drive there! Can't boot off a USB stick?

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Post by MoJo » Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:40 pm

I... can't believe it.

The QX9650 has a TDP of 130W. I have a QX6700 which is similar, and an 8800 Ultra (stock cooler, rear vent mod). Unless you live in the Arctic, I don't see how you could achieve that kind of overclock with those temperatures. I have Nexus 120mm fans, an extra Kama bay, I lapped my CPU and Ultra-120 Extreme, used Arctic Silver (150 hours burn in), removed all the inner doors and filters, yet only manage 67C at 2.9GHz and stock voltage (1.35V). It's not silent either, that's with fans at around 10V. Silent is 7V or less for Nexus 120s.

I'm not suggesting you are a lying, I'm just amazed. Maybe Yorkfield does a lot better in the real world than on paper? 130W TDP can't be right if what you say is true.

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:33 pm

Hey Mojo:

Just learn that the TDP on this processor means Sh...t

Other crazy guys out there are making 4.7Ghz ON AIR!! Yes, ON AIR!!
But they do it with the mobo outside the case and with 119CFM fan on top of the cooler.

I'm planning to run this at stock later, or just a tad bit OC. But I consider 4Ghz on this processor a MODEST overclock. I say modest because I'm a silencer, and I wanted to know what this nice chip can do for silencers like us.

This chip with the unlocked multiplier is the real ovrclocker's dream.

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Post by zoob » Sun Nov 18, 2007 3:40 pm

Hi from XS! :P
I hope to be joining the Yorkie club soon. Pay day comes this Thursday :)

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Wed Nov 21, 2007 4:20 pm

Awesome, post here as soon as you get it to show your findings. :-)

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Post by MoJo » Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:54 am

Indeed. It looks like it might be worth selling the QX6700 and buying a new CPU. The difference is massive.

oscar3d
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Post by oscar3d » Thu Nov 22, 2007 2:35 pm

Update:

WOW! Lowered my temps at 4Ghz. Just a 0.05v in VCORE makes all the difference in the world. Just set the VCORE @ 1.35 in the BIOS.

I'm so happy I could die. This chips is worth the bucks, despite of being freking expensive. LOL! It does the job...

Image


So the new formula in my silent rig is

10x400 @ 1.35VCORE.

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