Long time flightsim fan, I have been using my good old Q6600 @ 3.6 Ghz for 6 years now. While it did serve me well (and still does as my file server), it could no longer handle FSX. I have always wanted a water cooled PC anyways, and decided this was the right time.

 

Setup:

 

(Main hardware)

 

Intel 3930k @ 5.0 Ghz

Asus Rampage IV Extreme

Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400 Mhz 16 GB (4 x 4 GB)

Samsung 840 Pro 512 GB

Evga GTX 680 4 GB

Dell 30" 2560 x 1600

Samsung 27" 1920 x 1200

 

(Cooling hardware)

 

Caselabs STH10

3 x 480 SR1 Rads

EK-D5 Dual Top pump

EK Supremacy CPU block

EK ASUS RIVE motherboard block

Heatkiller GTX 680 GPU block

All around noiseblocker fans

 

(Temperatures [if you are interested])

 

38C Idle (its the same temp even at stock clock speeds)

78C Load (Prime95)

65C Load (FSX)

 

[Affinity is set to 4094, indicating all 11 cores for textures and core 0 is left for fiber - works great as without this only 2 cores would be 100%, with this all cores are 100%]

 

Main addons tested : PMDG 737NGX, PMDG MD-11

Addons installed : REX, UTX, GEX, TrackIR.

Settings : Every slider set to max, except bloom, ground shadows off, and cloud draw distance is at 80 mi.

 

Overall there is a massive difference in performance between my old PC and new. In airports that are not near big cities but still have a good deal of complexity and high textures (Philedelphia, St. Louis, Austin, Dallas), I get constant 30-35 fps inside virtual cockpit and at least 50 or more outside. In cities that are extremely complex, such as manhattan, chicago, london, the fps drops to about 15-18 when flying over downtown areas, but stay around 25-30 when flying nearby.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are still times that this massive build is brought down to its knees, but there is a good improvement over the old build.

 

Another point I want to make about the power of OC. They say that 100-200 Mhz does not make a difference and that one should not risk a cpu like 3930k at 5.0 Ghz. They may be true for regular games such as BF3, but for FSX, every Mhz makes a difference. This is the only game that actually keeps all 6 cores at 100% periodically. No other game brings my core temperatures as high as Prime95 like FSX does. That being said, I could see a good 5-6 and sometimes up to 9-10 FPS difference between 4.5 Ghz and 5.0 Ghz. The RAM also makes a massive difference between 1600 Mhz and 2400 Mhz (2-3 FPS). When you add it all up, the water cooling and the massive build does pay off. 737NGX becomes a beauty to fly.

3 x 480 rads, ROFL. You need to post some pics of that thing

I think your temps are high for having that level of cooling. I get similar temps on Ivy Bridge @ 4.9GHz (high volts) with a single 360 rad.

 

Nice system though, enjoy!

I think your temps are high for having that level of cooling. I get similar temps on Ivy Bridge @ 4.9GHz (high volts) with a single 360 rad.

 

Nice system though, enjoy!

 

I don't think they're high. You simply cannot add rad after rad and expect temps to go down every time. 3 x 480 is flat out overkill.

I think your temps are high for having that level of cooling. I get similar temps on Ivy Bridge @ 4.9GHz (high volts) with a single 360 rad.

 

Nice system though, enjoy!

 

Maybe because he's not de-lidded? Or does the 3930 not suffer from the TIM From Hell issue?

 

BTW OP, awesome system!!! Post some pic of your watercooling system!

Or does the 3930 not suffer from the TIM From Hell issue?

 

No it doesn't Efrain. It's only Ivy

No it doesn't Efrain. It's only Ivy

 

hmmm Interesting. Thanks, Dario.

 

I don't think they're high. You simply cannot add rad after rad and expect temps to go down every time. 3 x 480 is flat out overkill.

 

I agree it's overkill, I run my 680 on the same rad and temps there are absurdly low in the low 50's at most. There is something to be said for more cooling capacity up to a point though. I built a workstation with dual 8-core 3.1GHz Xeons a few months ago for a customer and his load temps on a single high capacity 480 rad were outstanding in the low 50's during stress testing.

I don't think they're high. You simply cannot add rad after rad and expect temps to go down every time. 3 x 480 is flat out overkill.

 

Yes, actually you can. Before I respond to you though, have you actually had any first hand experience with these components? Its easy to google things and do "he said she said" and point fingers. If you have built water cooling systems and by systems I don't mean H100 or 240 rads in a full tower ATX systems, I mean systems where the cooling of the system costs more than many people spend on their computer, feel free share you experience.

 

That being said, when I first built this PC, I had only 2 x 480 RADs. I have had so many people tell me it was an overkill as it was and there was no point of adding more rad. Fine I said, but I wanted to try anyways.

 

What ended up happening was, my GPU temps dropped from 50s to 35-38s (that's LOAD temps under furmark for 1254/3490 OC), my CPU temps dropped by full 7 degrees under load (before 5.0 Ghz stable was resulting in insane temps of 85-88C), and more importantly I get a pretty insane delta temperature of only 4C under load. Furthermore, the entire point of this system was to have a massive overclock with very little amount of noise. I am running all of my fans at 600 rpm (they are already extremely quiet even at full speed), and unless you stick your ear on to my rads, or see the case lights, you wont even notice that the PC is on. All of this for a massive 5.0 Ghz Overclock, it's hard to believe. Just the GPU temp drop alone proves that extra rad surface makes so much difference. Yes, I could run my fans at 2000 and my room would be like a wind tunnel, but that's pretty much the whole point.

 

My stock load temps are 45C average. My 4.8 Ghz load temps are 61C Prime95, 52C FSX. It's just that for 5.0 Ghz (and I'm anal like that as my goal was 5.0 Ghz), I need to up the voltages so much that I get an extra 10C.

 

Here is a picture of the build, I apologize for the big size:

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/20121209142048.jpg/

Very nice machine. Enjoy it

I agree it's overkill, I run my 680 on the same rad and temps there are absurdly low in the low 50's at most. There is something to be said for more cooling capacity up to a point though. I built a workstation with dual 8-core 3.1GHz Xeons a few months ago for a customer and his load temps on a single high capacity 480 rad were outstanding in the low 50's during stress testing.

 

What CPU are you running and what vcore/clock configuration?

 

Its easy to throw temps out there without backing them with numbers. Show me a 6 core 3930k that putts out 245 watts of heat under 1.55 vcore that has its temps in the low 50s and I will ship my PC to you free of charge and give you as a present:) I am also running my rams at 2400 Mhz which requires a lot of VTT and VCCSA voltage and power phasing (DRAM voltages are at 1.65).

Oh boy, what started out as a promising thread, is turning into an e-penis match. Guys, the OP has a very nice system and is sharing some insight into what performances can be had with an elaborate water cooling config. Why does it always have to turn into a "my system is better than yours" debate?

Oh boy, what started out as a promising thread, is turning into an e-penis match. Guys, the OP has a very nice system and is sharing some insight into what performances can be had with an elaborate water cooling config. Why does it always have to turn into a "my system is better than yours" debate?

 

You see, its not even about my system or his system, when people see something nice and extreme, something that is out of their reach, they immediately go into an aggressive attack mode and try to find defects or faults.

 

-If someone buys an LGA2011, he must be stupid because an 2600k is the same thing really.

-Who needs a custom water cooling loop when there is H100, 1/10th of the price.

-Overclocked ram is waste of money

 

See where I'm going with this? It's common pattern on internet. I am speaking from first hand experience though. The numbers are out there. The 3rd rad made a huge difference in my temps, thanks to that I am able to run 5.0 Ghz 24/7.

 

I am going to go for a TRI way SLI in couple of months and thats another reason why I have so much rad. Its not like I will run 1 GPU and 1 CPU in this loop all the time.

 

Anyways, thanks for the compliments, it was actually a lot of work to put it together.

600RPM fans is a key piece of the puzzle and with that info your numbers make more sense.

 

For the record, you should take a look at my system specs before assuming anything about my motivation or qualification.

1.55V? Wow. Are you sure you want to do that for just a couple hundred MHz? You could be probably be running at 4.8GHz or something with much lower Vcore. Obviously if you wanted a water cooled system and you are ready to do whayever it takes to get 5GHz and 2400MHz in your RAM (which is merely a 6-7% faster that 4.8GHz & 2133 RAM) you probably don't even want to hear about that, but one may argue it pays off for just that little perf boost. But to each his own.

 

something that is out of their reach, they immediately go into an aggressive attack mode and try to find defects or faults.

 

-If someone buys an LGA2011, he must be stupid because an 2600k is the same thing really.

-Who needs a custom water cooling loop when there is H100, 1/10th of the price.

-Overclocked ram is waste of money

 

Well, now this is plain stupid, sorry to say. You assume it's out of reach and that's the only reason why we get agressive? wait a second, I didn't see anyone going aggressive, oh and it's definitely not aout of reach of my wallet, but it's our of reach of my common sense when I know I would be getting essentially the same performance if I was to get that machine