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Quad-fire HD 4870 X2s

daw123

daw123

Platinum Member
Hello guys and girls,

I've now installed my second HD 4870 X2 and after updating the drivers to 9.6, it now works properly.

btw the new drivers (released on 16.6.09) also give you manual fan control, whereas the older drivers (ver 8.612) did't.

Here's some photos:
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00028.jpg
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00031.jpg

Also, I noticed (rather unsurprisingly) that the upper card of the two runs much hotter (about 15C) than the other, due to there only being about a 5mm gap between the two cards. Hence the fan intake on the upper card must struggle to intake air due to the other card's obstruction.

Adding the second card has also only increased internal case temps by about 3C (as measured by a digital temp probe on my M Cubed TBalancer). I can live with this.

I've ramped the fans speed up to 75% on both cards and they are now running roughly the same temps (47C) without load.
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...dawilson123/ATICCC.png

I'm chuffed that the card wasn't DOA and the cross-fire seems to be working, although physically fitting the second card was a PITA due to the water cooling tubing and cables being in the way.

Any way, what bench-marking S/W do you use for Windows 7 RC?
 
Sweet. Now they need to make a game that will push those babies. Im assuming your machine crushes crysis?

Please do something with all the wiring. Thats the only thing wrong I can see. Surely there is a way to hide all that stuff.
 
Crazy bastard!

As long as it works, the wiring is only superficial.

How is it scaling? Your profile suggests your gaming on a 24. You thought about going for a 30?
 
Originally posted by: OILFIELDTRASH
Sweet. Now they need to make a game that will push those babies. Im assuming your machine crushes crysis?

Please do something with all the wiring. Thats the only thing wrong I can see. Surely there is a way to hide all that stuff.
Click to expand...

I've been out of the gaming scene for about 5 years, but I am going to be purchasing some new games. First on my list is Crysis (I want to see what all the hype is about) and next with be Terminator: Salvation (I like 1st person shoot 'em ups) and the latest GTA game.

I'm not sure what to do with the cable management; I tried to keep most of the cables tie wrapped to the central pillar beside the 120mm dia fan.

Unfortunately, I've got connections dotted all over the case, so its difficult to keep them nice and tidy with clean uncluttered routes. Also the MB tray is removable, so I don't want to hide the cables behind the tray, in case I need to remove the MB in the future.

I'm open to suggestions though when it comes to the cable management, since this obviously isn't my forte.
 
Originally posted by: Dkcode
Crazy bastard!

As long as it works, the wiring is only superficial.

How is it scaling? Your profile suggests your gaming on a 24. You thought about going for a 30?
Click to expand...

I'm looking out for a new monitor to replace my crappy non-branded 24". I only want to spend about £300 (or $450) for a reasonably decent 24"+ monitor. Any suggestions? I'll be buying it in July.

Edit: Sorry, I've now read the stickie. I think I'm going to go for the 24" Benq G2400WD.

I won't be buying the Terminator: Salvation game since there is an issue with the retail version not installing. Also the reviews have all been very bad.
 
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Nice!

I also want Windows 7 for AVCHD playability on Windows Media Player
Click to expand...

It is so superior to Vista.

I will buy the retail version once the RC liscense runs out. The only nitpick is compatability with drivers, etc, but that will be sorted out long before its available to buy in the shops.
 
Nice one Daw, I have a single 4870X2 in Win7 64bit and it's awesome 🙂. I'd suggest you checkout some of the more graphically intensive games out there, Get Crysis: warhead if you can- Crytek have stated it is better optimized and looks slightly better than the original. Also I'd recommend Stalker + Stalker Clear Sky, Farcry2 and Fallout3. These are the top games atm and are all very graphically intensive (stalker: Clear sky is also DX10.1).
 
That's a weird case configuration 😵, never seen one like that before... PSU on the bottom, rack mounts for hard drives is missing...I'm guessing you slipped 1 or 2 in the top mount section that's usually reserved for front panel devices? Or do you use external drives?

Anyway, powerful system you got there.. You be able to play the Crysis series almost near max everything! lol.
 
your video cards need watercooling more than your CPU. Any plan to watercool the video cards? And why do I get the feeling that your rig was more of an exercise than a need. All those graphic power and not a single recent game purchased yet? You have lots of spare money huh?
 
Originally posted by: shangshang
your video cards need watercooling more than your CPU. Any plan to watercool the video cards? And why do I get the feeling that your rig was more of an exercise than a need. All those graphic power and not a single recent game purchased yet? You have lots of spare money huh?
Click to expand...

He's getting back into PC gaming. So I'd assume he just recently built this rig to allow him to do so..
 
Your cable management sucks, the front two intake fans are obstructed by the cables. You need a lot of fresh air to feed those two cards. There is no way you can put the cables on the side of the case, to conceal them?
Also, up the i7 to the sky. You need the maximum cpu power available to man to have the videocards working as they should. That cpu should do 4 ghz easy, especially since you have watercooling.
 
Bottom mounted PSU cases are always a pain in the balls to keep cable management tidy. If your not gifted at cable management, buying a bigger case with a top mounted PSU helps. At least it does me.
 
Originally posted by: Sylvanas
Nice one Daw, I have a single 4870X2 in Win7 64bit and it's awesome 🙂. I'd suggest you checkout some of the more graphically intensive games out there, Get Crysis: warhead if you can- Crytek have stated it is better optimized and looks slightly better than the original. Also I'd recommend Stalker + Stalker Clear Sky, Farcry2 and Fallout3. These are the top games atm and are all very graphically intensive (stalker: Clear sky is also DX10.1).
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will do.

Originally posted by: happy medium
I noticed your core i7 950 is @ 3.2 ?? I know you can do better then that especially with Quadfire!! Nice setup!
Click to expand...

I'm going to over-clock it hopefully to around 4.4GHz. It's going to take a few weeks of tweaking to get it stable, since I've never O/C'd a CPU before, so its a hell of a learning curve.

Originally posted by: Kakkoii
That's a weird case configuration 😵, never seen one like that before... PSU on the bottom, rack mounts for hard drives is missing...I'm guessing you slipped 1 or 2 in the top mount section that's usually reserved for front panel devices? Or do you use external drives?

Anyway, powerful system you got there.. You be able to play the Crysis series almost near max everything! lol.
Click to expand...

I removed the 3.5" drive bay cage so that there is space for another rad and res / pump for when I add the second water cooling loop. I even offset the fill port in the top panel, so I could add another for the second loop.

The 1.5TB internal HDD is in the middle 5.25" drive bay using a 3.5" - 5.25" drive bay adapter. The SSD is in the the topmost 5.25" drive bay using 2.5" - 3.5" and 3.5" - 5.25" drive bay adapters.

I've also got a 1TB USB external HDD (I've got 50GB of free space on it, hence the need for the internal 1.5TB HDD).

Originally posted by: shangshang
your video cards need watercooling more than your CPU. Any plan to watercool the video cards? And why do I get the feeling that your rig was more of an exercise than a need. All those graphic power and not a single recent game purchased yet? You have lots of spare money huh?
Click to expand...

I'm probably going to water cool the GPUs, but I need to save some cash after my spending spree since the second loop will probably cost about £350 - 450 (or $600 ish). I also need to get a new monitor first.

The second loop will probably be in 2-3 months time. I will fit a 240mm rad to the front 120mm dia case fans and use that for the CPU loop. The 360mm rad will be used for the GPU loop.

I did have lots of spare money. Not so much now though 😀

I also want to get back into gaming.

Originally posted by: error8
Your cable management sucks, the front two intake fans are obstructed by the cables. You need a lot of fresh air to feed those two cards. There is no way you can put the cables on the side of the case, to conceal them?
Also, up the i7 to the sky. You need the maximum cpu power available to man to have the videocards working as they should. That cpu should do 4 ghz easy, especially since you have watercooling.
Click to expand...

Yep, the cable management is crap. I can't think of a better way of doing it though.
Also the inside case temp is only a 3C higher than the ambients (22C), so I'm guessing that the internal tempos have not been affected that much by the rubbish cable management. I could be wrong though (it wouldn't be the first time 😀).

Originally posted by: Dkcode
Bottom mounted PSU cases are always a pain in the balls to keep cable management tidy. If your not gifted at cable management, buying a bigger case with a top mounted PSU helps. At least it does me.
Click to expand...

I can't fit the PSU in the top of the case because that's where the 360mm rad is.

I'm certainly not gifted when it comes to cable management.
 
So wait, if you don't OC why do you have a water cooling set up? And omg those poor cables.

Cable manage is just basically finding or drilling holes underneath the motherboard tray and hiding everything behind it. Even a poorly done management will still look tons better than leaving it out in the open. And because you have watercooling, cable management isn't as huge of an impact as aircooling. And those video cards will take care of themselves with that huge cooler.

And Crysis is probably one of the only games that will max out your system (if not the only). So get on that!
 
Originally posted by: Eureka
So wait, if you don't OC why do you have a water cooling set up? And omg those poor cables.

Cable manage is just basically finding or drilling holes underneath the motherboard tray and hiding everything behind it. Even a poorly done management will still look tons better than leaving it out in the open. And because you have watercooling, cable management isn't as huge of an impact as aircooling. And those video cards will take care of themselves with that huge cooler.

And Crysis is probably one of the only games that will max out your system (if not the only). So get on that!
Click to expand...

I am going to over-clock:

Originally posted by: daw123

I'm going to over-clock it hopefully to around 4.4GHz. It's going to take a few weeks of tweaking to get it stable, since I've never O/C'd a CPU before, so its a hell of a learning curve.
Click to expand...

And I'm going to buy Crysis: Warhead.
 
Looks very good. To let the beast stretch its legs, I'd suggest you have him face "Bejeweled 2". It'll bring the system to its knees.

Originally posted by: Dkcode
If your not gifted at cable management,
Click to expand...
Practice, practice, practice!

OP's cable management isn't the prettiest but I think air circulation shold be just fine. There is no HDD cages so air should enter/rise OK, and the CPU is cooled by water so CPU cooling is a non-issue (relatively speaking). In my opinion, adding a side panel fan and turning off one front fan would be a decent compromise between noise and cooling.

What is that case, anyway? I thought it's Antec an 900/1200 variant but on a closer look I see thumb screws (Lian-Li cases usually come with those). And what's the average/max RPM of the Corsair fans? Just curious. Is the airflow strong enough to reach NB heatsink and mosfets?
 
Originally posted by: KingstonU
Now you need an Intel or Vertex SSD to complete your system, or complete what would be my dream system 😛
Click to expand...

Do you mean one of these? 😉

I've got the OS installed on it.
 
Originally posted by: lopri
Looks very good. To let the beast stretch its legs, I'd suggest you have him face "Bejeweled 2". It'll bring the system to its knees.

Originally posted by: Dkcode
If your not gifted at cable management,
Click to expand...
Practice, practice, practice!

OP's cable management isn't the prettiest but I think air circulation shold be just fine. There is no HDD cages so air should enter/rise OK, and the CPU is cooled by water so CPU cooling is a non-issue (relatively speaking). In my opinion, adding a side panel fan and turning off one front fan would be a decent compromise between noise and cooling.

What is that case, anyway? I thought it's Antec an 900/1200 variant but on a closer look I see thumb screws (Lian-Li cases usually come with those). And what's the average/max RPM of the Corsair fans? Just curious. Is the airflow strong enough to reach NB heatsink and mosfets?
Click to expand...

It's a Lian li A70A. I modded the top panel for the rad and also put a window and some writing in the side panel (not to everyone's taste but I like it).
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG_0930.jpg
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG_0931.jpg

The fan speeds on the Corsair RAM cooler are 3500RPM: http://www.novatech.co.uk/nova...ecpage.html?CSR-FANTRI

I was thinking about replacing the 4 original Lian li case fans with 4 Yate Loon D12SH-12?

The case fans are located:
2 in the front (intake)
1 in the middle
1 at the rear (exhaust)

The Yate Loons spin at 2200RPM plus (as reported by the TBalancer for my rad fans), whereas the original Lian li fans spin at 1300RPM, so the Yate Loons should move a lot more air throughout the case and aid temperatures.

What do you guys think?

Also, if I get rubbish CPU temps when I O/C, I was thinking about firstly re-seating the water block and if that doesn't work, then I'll replace th water block for a Koolance 350. It's supposed to be the dog's danglies of water blocks.

 
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