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A couple of benchmarks:

AS-SSD (8x Vertex 4 128GB RAID-0):

2ngcu82.jpg


3DMark 11:

6gdkd3.jpg


Heaven 3.0:

rcniw1.jpg


Will post games etc. later.
 
Amazing rig! Please don't run benchmarks at 1680x1050 though! 4x GTX680s need to be tested at 2560x1600 x 3 monitors or at least 1920x1080 x3.
 
8 Solid State Drives are incredibly dangerous. I understand this was a matter of kinky 3.8GB/s speeds, but 8 SSDs in RAID 0 I presume is 8^2*(%break). Please run them in RAID6 at the very least, RAID 10 is preferable. RAID 0 has absolutely no protection whatsoever, if one drive goes down, the rest of the array goes down. I'd recommend simply just two Intel 520 SSDs in RAID 0 and a HDD, or an OCZ Revodrive which unfortunately though will not fit on your motherboard unless you were to go 3-way SLI, which I do not recommend.

Now, why would you go for the 3930K? Why not go for dual processor setups on the EVGA SR-X? Xeon processors are essentially the 3960X with a lower base clock but many more cores. Forget the gimmicky features of the ASRock X79 Extreme 11, dual CPU setups are infinitely better than dual PLX chips. I'm running 2x Xeon E5 2687W on the EVGA SR-X and general performance is absolutely incredible, even in things like games.

The SR-X also presents an opportunity for an even better upgrade, which is 96GB of RAM. You can easily fill all of those slots with some G.Skill and there, you have a manageable size for a RAMDisk which can be configured to transfer data to an SSD and back once you reboot, and everything stored there is stored in an instant since RAMDisks have a sizeable transfer speed advantage over a regular SSD.

Absolutely wasted potential though, unless you plan on getting 7680x1440 in the future. The 4GB of VRAM is hardly being applied here, because you aren't even using a single 1080p monitor. The new Asus WQHD monitors should be more than enough to take full advantage of those, so if you have enough cash left, I'd recommend looking in that direction. I too am currently using a temporary display until those come out in Australia.
 
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I really hope you've considered water-cooling too. The fans on the GTX680 Classified 4GB max out at 50% of their total power, making them absolutely terrible for air, especially when you sandwich them together in 4-way SLI. Don't listen to the other people saying 680s don't benefit from water, in this case, they definitely do. Heck, even the CPU benefits from water because the higher budget you have the higher potential water has. On these high end systems, the advantages of water-cooling rise exponentially, so it's a shame and sad case you will not be water cooling.
 
PlayMadeSimple said:
8 Solid State Drives are incredibly dangerous. I understand this was a matter of kinky 3.8GB/s speeds, but 8 SSDs in RAID 0 I presume is 8^2*(%break). Please run them in RAID6 at the very least, RAID 10 is preferable. RAID 0 has absolutely no protection whatsoever, if one drive goes down, the rest of the array goes down. I'd recommend simply just two Intel 520 SSDs in RAID 0 and a HDD, or an OCZ Revodrive which unfortunately though will not fit on your motherboard unless you were to go 3-way SLI, which I do not recommend.
Click to expand...

I am fully aware that RAID-0 has no protection. The 8-SSD RAID-0 array is for games/programs. It's backed up daily (thanks to Acronis 2013) and I can just reimage array if needed. My main OS drive is 2 ForceGT in RAID-0. I've had some trouble with this as of late with some system files becoming corrupt etc but thanks to Acronis, again, I was able to just hit "recover" and was back to normal in about 20 minutes.

My Games/Programs drive, the 8-SSD RAID-0 array, is ~ 1TB (953GB usable) so it will last me a while as I've installed many games on there and I've just used about 150GB so far.

Also, the speed seemed to have done quite well also:

2820t4j.jpg


PlayMadeSimple said:
Now, why would you go for the 3930K? Why not go for dual processor setups on the EVGA SR-X? Xeon processors are essentially the 3960X with a lower base clock but many more cores. Forget the gimmicky features of the ASRock X79 Extreme 11, dual CPU setups are infinitely better than dual PLX chips. I'm running 2x Xeon E5 2687W on the EVGA SR-X and general performance is absolutely incredible, even in things like games.

The SR-X also presents an opportunity for an even better upgrade, which is 96GB of RAM. You can easily fill all of those slots with some G.Skill and there, you have a manageable size for a RAMDisk which can be configured to transfer data to an SSD and back once you reboot, and everything stored there is stored in an instant since RAMDisks have a sizeable transfer speed advantage over a regular SSD.
Click to expand...

The SR-X has universally been declared a dud. I was actually waiting for EVGA to release it and was going to jump on it but given the fact that the board was a major disappointment as well as Intel curbing any OC potential on the Xeons, I decided to stick with single CPU this time. The reason I went with 3930K is because the 3970X is going to be released soon; I will be getting that.

RAMDisks have been nothing but trouble for me. Although, that was one of the reasons I wanted to go with the dual CPU set up in the first place. This 8-SSD RAID-0 array suffices and is much more reliable than a RAMDisk.

In fact, I'm running my 16GB RAM @ 2400MHz @ CAS 9. I'm happy with it so far.

PlayMadeSimple said:
Absolutely wasted potential though, unless you plan on getting 7680x1440 in the future. The 4GB of VRAM is hardly being applied here, because you aren't even using a single 1080p monitor. The new Asus WQHD monitors should be more than enough to take full advantage of those, so if you have enough cash left, I'd recommend looking in that direction. I too am currently using a temporary display until those come out in Australia.
Click to expand...

Have you not seen the pictures of my monitor set up? 🙄

With my setup, I am maximizing the hardware I have which is great. Look at the VRAM usage in F1 2012 @ 5160x2560 with everything maxed out including 16xQ CSAA:

29vh446.jpg


Love me some Francorchamps:

4ugmdk.jpg
 
PlayMadeSimple said:
I really hope you've considered water-cooling too. The fans on the GTX680 Classified 4GB max out at 50% of their total power, making them absolutely terrible for air, especially when you sandwich them together in 4-way SLI. Don't listen to the other people saying 680s don't benefit from water, in this case, they definitely do. Heck, even the CPU benefits from water because the higher budget you have the higher potential water has. On these high end systems, the advantages of water-cooling rise exponentially, so it's a shame and sad case you will not be water cooling.
Click to expand...

That is complete bunk. I have seen them go past 90% usage on all 4 GPUs and the power well into the upper 70s and low 80s in certain games like Darksiders 2 etc. If at all, my CPU OC is bottle-necking the cards. But at this resolution, the cards are being taxed for sure.

The only downside to air cooling these classy's is the 55% FAN LIMIT. even then, the temps never touch 70C, even at 99% load in Heaven 3.0. In games, they go to around 67 - 68C but never hit 70C even when sandwiched together. The only "water-cooling" I have done or will ever do is the H100. 🙂
 
Baasha said:
That is complete bunk. I have seen them go past 90% usage on all 4 GPUs and the power well into the upper 70s and low 80s in certain games like Darksiders 2 etc. If at all, my CPU OC is bottle-necking the cards. But at this resolution, the cards are being taxed for sure.

The only downside to air cooling these classy's is the 55% FAN LIMIT. even then, the temps never touch 70C, even at 99% load in Heaven 3.0. In games, they go to around 67 - 68C but never hit 70C even when sandwiched together. The only "water-cooling" I have done or will ever do is the H100. 🙂
Click to expand...

You misunderstood, he meant the fan power limit (which you mentioned), not GPU usage 😉
 
Cool.
Kinda sad the SR-X is crap, since xeons can't be overclocked anymore. Wish Intel stepped back on that decision.
 
OVerLoRDI said:
Or allowed enthusiast chips to be used in multiple CPU configs.
Click to expand...

Since they have no competition, they don't have to. Instead, with the chips locked down, they can make 17 models of socket 2011 Xeons. Where in the consumer space they make 3 because you can just buy a cheaper one and O/C it. Look for that to end when there's no reason to buy AMD CPU's at all any more. It's getting real close to that point.
 
Mfusick said:
I have a COSMOS II also for my desktop.

DO you mind telling me what models those blue and red controllers are in front??? That looks bad ass.
Click to expand...

Those are the Lamptron FC5-V2 fan controllers. You can use the jumpers they provide to change the colors of the display.

Upgraded a few parts since I made the last post so I will take some new shots and post them soon! 😀

RAM is now 32GB 2133Mhz Dominator Platinum CAS9. I've seen usage of 24GB while rendering in Sony Vegas Pro 12 and using Photoshop at the same time! 😀

OC'd GPUs to 1372Mhz (+350 on Mem) and get around 60FPS in BF3 with everything Maxed Out (Ultra) including 4xMSAA!

With 2xMSAA, I get over 80FPS with everything else maxed out!

Pic:
13zuc5x.jpg

fk6yps.jpg
 
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