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Dell XPS 710 BTX to ATX Conversion

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John, congratulations on the project it was a success and looks incredible. I never did get around to do the back grille, makes me want to finish mine. It covers up that large hole in the back very well.

Very stout system as well. I hope you plan on doing some gaming 🙂

I would use Heaven as a good way to stress your GPU's

http://unigine.com/products/heaven/

Some people may say to use Furmark, but I think it's a little unrealistic and causes your cards to run extremely hot.

Download this CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html Download the EXE not the zip file and un-check all of the crapware that comes with it.

You should also download HWmonitor http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html Good way to monitor all of the system and HDD temps.

Prime95 IMO is still the best way to stress your CPU - From your results your CPU temps look great. Prime95 does not stress you GPU's at all.

I can't say for sure if your 750watt PSU is a max or continuous rating? I don't see your system pulling more than 550Watts from the wall and that's completely stressed out. You should be fine. Don't use the PSU calculators, they are marketing crap. A good way to check is to buy a $20 killawatt meter off of Amazon. Then you can stress everything at once and see what you are really pulling.
 
Face2Face, definitely will be doing some gaming (and if I don't wring its neck my son will!).

I will follow your advice on Heaven and CPU-z and HWmonitor and Prime95.

And I'm VERY relieved about the power probably not being an issue. The KillaWatt is available on Amazon here but has US plug and socket but there is a UK equivalent so I've ordered that. Thanks!
 
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FX-8350 CPU temp test with CPU fan off:

Ambient: 20degC, CPUfan at 0 RPM
Idle: core 16, socket 28, MAINfanRPM 571, GPUs at 31
with MAINfan at max
Prime95 (Small FFTs): core 56, socket 69, MAINfanRPM 1200, GPUs at 27

This really is an over-the-limit torture test but it shows the effectiveness of the main fan setup (Silverstone 180mm). On its own it couldn't quite hold the CPU below 70deg, though the curve (in Argus) was flattening out. Then the curve dipped. Then it dipped again, and began to establish a repetitive cycle every 20 seconds or so, that prevented the temp exceeding 69deg. Is this what throttling behaviour looks like?

FX-8350P95nocpufanscreen_zpsb4eecdb2.jpg
 
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Looks like it could be. I wouldn't advise running the CPU hard with no fan on the heatsink. But this shows the tunnnel air effect of the XPS is very good. With the fan on the heatsink your temps are excellent. I am more interested to see how hot your GPU's get while gaming or running the heaven benchmark. Wonder if the 180mm fan is enough to feed everything in your system.
 
Face2Face said:
Looks like it could be. I wouldn't advise running the CPU hard with no fan on the heatsink. But this shows the tunnnel air effect of the XPS is very good. With the fan on the heatsink your temps are excellent. I am more interested to see how hot your GPU's get while gaming or running the heaven benchmark. Wonder if the 180mm fan is enough to feed everything in your system.
Click to expand...

I'm very keen also to run the GPU tests but I need a few hours so that's scheduled for Wednesday. Meanwhile I've tried undervolting the FX-8350.

With MAINfan idling at 570 RPM, CPUfan at 1255 RPM (whisper), ambient 20C, running P95 Small FFT my temps are:

Stock V: 55C
-0.025V: 51C
-0.050V: 46C
-0.075V: reboots

Seems like this CPU can run very cool even with the fans turned down.

The power socket energy monitor turned up today. I'll play with that tomorrow evening, then load Heaven.
 
Face2Face said:
I can't say for sure if your 750watt PSU is a max or continuous rating? I don't see your system pulling more than 550Watts from the wall and that's completely stressed out. You should be fine. Don't use the PSU calculators, they are marketing crap. A good way to check is to buy a $20 killawatt meter off of Amazon. Then you can stress everything at once and see what you are really pulling.
Click to expand...

You were right. That energy monitor is really useful. Power during Heaven hovered around 410W, so nothing to worry about.

For the record the power from the wall during P95, with undervolting the FX-8350 is:
Stock V: 292W
-0.025V: 270W
-0.050V: 260W
 
Face2Face said:
Looks like it could be. I wouldn't advise running the CPU hard with no fan on the heatsink. But this shows the tunnnel air effect of the XPS is very good. With the fan on the heatsink your temps are excellent. I am more interested to see how hot your GPU's get while gaming or running the heaven benchmark. Wonder if the 180mm fan is enough to feed everything in your system.
Click to expand...

I ran the Heaven benchmark full screen at 2560 x 1600.

Heaven1945_zps28b7464c.jpg


With ambient at 20C the GPU temps on the GTX 660s flattened out at 75C/75C and they held their fans at 48%. I started with the MAINfan at 1200 RPM (100%, noisy) and then repeated the benchmark at 1000 RPM and 800 RPM (quiet) and in both cases their was no change in the GPU temps so I assume they are getting all the air they need even at 800 RPM (the FX-8350's HSK fan was at 50% and its temp hovered around 32C and peaked at 40C).

I have no previous experience with GPU temps. 75C seems high to me but if they were stressed I suppose they would have increased their fan speed?
 
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John Tauwhare said:
You were right. That energy monitor is really useful. Power during Heaven hovered around 410W, so nothing to worry about.

For the record the power from the wall during P95, with undervolting the FX-8350 is:
Stock V: 292W
-0.025V: 270W
-0.050V: 260W
Click to expand...

410W thats not bad at all with a 8350 and two GTX 660's. Nice undervolting numbers as well.

Your GPU temps look right on par with stock GTX 660 load temps. I think the one intake fan is enough..

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6276/...-review-gk106-rounds-out-the-kepler-family/16
 
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brilliant work i am following your guide for my own mod though i have made my atx tray back plate retractable on rails more like a hot swap server tray 🙂 , i have sent you a pm regarding the front panel spots when you have time as i am having trouble getting them to work as you have , thanks again ace post
 
Thanks for the update on the toggle switches i get it now 🙂 going to play about and see if i cant combine it to a single 7 pole rotary switch

ive started tracing the pin out on the audio first 10 pins on the 40 pin header are for audio still to decipher some will post my findings up when i am done getting square eyes
 
First of all congratulation for your exelent work! but now i have a question and a favor to ask you.

Can you explanin me a little bit more about how to pinout the front panel?

I pinout the 6 cable power panel and find the pwr btn but nothing else, when i pin it back and try to use the 40 pin cable nothing happend! Can you show me more pictures about how did you do that?

Ty bro your work is amazing!
 
John Tauwhare said:
Questions: is there a better load test for the FX-8350 and what should I use to load the GPU(s)?
Click to expand...
For the GPU stress test I would use Unigine Valley stress test. They also make one called 'Heaven' which is good also. It stresses your GPU but more importantly it's rendering actual scenes so you can see if there are any artifacts popping up on screen.

Also, use TechPowerUp GPU-Z for a lot of information about your card and the 'sensor' tab will give you realtime stats in terms of cpu/mem clock, temp, fan speed, memory used, power consumption. etc.
 
John, I'm new here and can't send you a message until I hit 25 posts but I have some questions. I also have a Dell Inspiron XPS 710 with a motherboard that has expired and want to do some upgrading. Your post on here is excellent and I wanted to see if I could get some advice concerning a build I have in mind. Can you PM me so we can continue this in private and won't clutter up your post? Thank you!
 
gijeff85 said:
John, I'm new here and can't send you a message until I hit 25 posts but I have some questions. I also have a Dell Inspiron XPS 710 with a motherboard that has expired and want to do some upgrading. Your post on here is excellent and I wanted to see if I could get some advice concerning a build I have in mind. Can you PM me so we can continue this in private and won't clutter up your post? Thank you!
Click to expand...

You may be better off sending John a Skype msg. His skype info is under his name. I haven't seen him on here in awhile.
 
I waited until the Kaby Lake release to upgrade my 2700k. As part of the project I decided to add AIO watercooling for the CPU and went for a twin-fan 240mm unit which would just fit behind the front case fan. This was easy to attach using 4 90deg brackets riveted to the Dell's original base plate.

0JT080_zpsaeohrc9a.jpg
 
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The CPU radiator would take most of the incoming airflow so I needed another source. To provide this I vacated 3.5 drive bays, but still leaving me with a DVD drive.

0JT081_zpswh5abjj5.jpg


And this meant moving the 3 LED switches off the dedicated blank box and onto the On/Off/Reset + USB 3.0 box.

0_JT082_zpsxhgdozbq.jpg
 
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Then, with a bit of cutting, I fitted a 140mm Phanteks fan into the back of the front drive bays cover.

0JT083_zps1lxacvjk.jpg


And clipped it back into the case.

0JT084_zps0zhdcltv.jpg


Removing the drive doors left void which I covered with horizontal bars cut and trimmed from a spare part and stuck on with epoxy. So the top of the front matches the bottom.

The top door still works for the DVD and the lower door still hinges down for access to the On/Off switch etc.
 
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Everything installed now.

0_JT085_zps2hmkwmuv.jpg


And much more airflow.



This is with my new setup: i7-7700K (relidded wih CLP) @5.0/1.30V, ASUS Z270 PRIME, ID Cooling FrostFlow 240 AIO, 16Gb G.Skill TridentZ@3200, Zotac GTX970 SLI, 2xWD Black PCIe 256Gb M.2 in RAID0, 256Gb OCZ Vector150, 2xToshiba 1Tb in RAID0, beQuiet! Dark Power 850W psu.
0JT086_zpsj0jxfeze.jpg
 
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Hey John,

I love what you did to the case. It's awesome that you still have it and it's good to see you back on again.
 
I have to say that looks pretty sweet. Never knew those XPS cases were that huge, though. Nice job to keep it in service, and with that amount of thoroughly modern hardware and cooling to boot!
 
Wow, awesome case mod! I always thought those XPS cases were pretty slick-looking, although kind of bulky, and of course, BTX. I never owned one, but I've seen plenty of them on Craigslist in days past. Never seen one modded with a Z270 board and SLI though. 🙂
 
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