Worklog: Project Raven - Case Labs M8

[TommyD]

Some new toys from Black Friday sales...

Decided the HT Omega Striker 7.1 would be a good alternative to the SB X-Fi Titanium HD since it would not fit into my setup. It definitely does not dissapoint and the price was right.

The Corsair SP2500 2.1 Gaming speakers are f'n amazing! That is all.

 

[aigomorla]

lol dont tell me your going to watercool that sound card... and yes ive seen some nuts do it too...

 

[Rubycon]

lol dont tell me your going to watercool that sound card... and yes ive seen some nuts do it too...

Funniest thing I've seen is Computurd's WC Areca card. I have several of them and they do run warm if not actively cooled. Fortunately for mine the solution was elegant and did not require hacking up the card.

 

[TommyD]

lol dont tell me your going to watercool that sound card... and yes ive seen some nuts do it too...

Oh god no....

 

[TommyD]

Newest little toy for my build, the Razer Black Widow Ultimate mechanical keyboard. I should have my MLG Astrogaming A40 Wireless 5.8 GHz headset tomorrow as well so pictures to come again tomorrow.

I'm also torn on if I should replace my Logitech G700 gaming mouse for the Cyborg RAT 9. I am hearing that they have horrible RMA/Customer service which is a huge detraction and a significant amount of laser/tracking issues. But on the other hand the ones where there are no issues the reviews are great, so I am stuck with a decision to make.

I will also be upgrading my 6990/6970 Tri-Fire to Dual 7970 setup once the Swiftech blocks and the Dual link bridges are released.

 

[shelaby]

wow, just read the whole post and I have to ask...with a beast like this, what do you actually use it for?

 

[TommyD]

wow, just read the whole post and I have to ask...with a beast like this, what do you actually use it for?

Gaming and gaming... and Gaming... and 3D studio max.

 

[cytoSiN]

Drool @ your machine and this entire thread. Thank you sir for posting your exploits.

I'm also torn on if I should replace my Logitech G700 gaming mouse for the Cyborg RAT 9. I am hearing that they have horrible RMA/Customer service which is a huge detraction and a significant amount of laser/tracking issues. But on the other hand the ones where there are no issues the reviews are great, so I am stuck with a decision to make.

I suggest you go wired instead if you want to avoid issues that people are reporting with the RAT 9 (unless you NEED 45g of weight -- the wired versions only go up to 30g). As for tracking, the new 6400dpi twin laser is working out better for people than the previous 5600dpi versions, and you can help that along by using a light colored mousepad like the Razer Scarab. Both the the RAT 7 and the new MMO 7 (which I just got an am absolutely LOVING -- planning to do a review this weekend in a thread I started in the peripherals section a while back) have the 6400dpi lasers and are solid choices if you need a lot of buttons. If you're ok with the amount of buttons that you have, the G500/700 are a quality mice.

 

[TommyD]

Drool @ your machine and this entire thread. Thank you sir for posting your exploits.

Heh, thanks alot



My Astrogaming A40 MLG Wireless 5.8 GHz headset finally arrived, god I hate FedEx.

These will be replacing my Logitech G930s.

 

[TommyD]

I finally have gotten around to upgrading since I wanted to see what Nvidia had up their sleeve before buying the Radeon 79XX series, I'm glad that I waited.

I just have to wait for EK to release some nice blocks for the cards and I will be in business, I'm not quite sure if I want to use them on air while I wait. These are the Superclocked editions, but alas not the 4GB models as I was impatient! I absolutely love the fact that the PCB is tiny, roughly about the size of the 6600 GT. I may end up getting another one maybe in a month for some triple SLI action.

Here is also what I did with some of my tax return

18.4" 1920x1080 res LCD
Intel Core i7 2960XM
32GB DDR3
Dual Radeon 6990 2GB Crossfire
500GB Seagate Hybrid SSD
500GB Seagate Momentus XT
Killer NIC 1102

It's 12 lbs. which kills too carry and the 330 watt power brick is huge, damn near the size of the Xbox 360 power brick. The cooling for the M18X works surprisingly well, my crotch hasn't caught on fire yet!

I upgraded the memory, the hybrid SSD and the Killer NIC myself (yes, I am aware I messed up the text in my pictures. I'm just too lazy to fix it. M18X, not MX18)

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Holy shit

32gb ram? Kinda overkill.....

 

[GoStumpy]

Holy crap :thumbsup:

Talk about a tax return! :wub:

 

[tulx]

32GB DDR3

Well...you could make a RAM disk out of it and store your porn there, so you can open it REALLY fast when you need it. Other than that, pretty much overkill, yes.

 

[TommyD]

Yes I know it is overkill but I already had 16GB from my previous laptop and it was cheap enough, so I was like yeah... screw it and bought another 16.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Well...you could make a RAM disk out of it and store your porn there, so you can open it REALLY fast when you need it. Other than that, pretty much overkill, yes.

Lol

 

[TommyD]

Boooo I can't use my GTX 670 Superclocked Editions because there is a recall on them because a few are faulty, and the 2 I bought are

Good part is that EVGA is doing cross shipping and upgrading everyone who got bad Superclocked Editions to FTW Editions

 

[TommyD]

ICK! The white on the cards throw my entire color scheme off!

I can't wait until EK finishes making blocks for these so I can ditch the huge ugly coolers.

Although, this can be the perfect opportunity to re-sleeve everything that is orange to white and replace all my orange/white LED fans to Gentle Typhoons for the performance gain and matching color and to remove the 2 thick 360 radiators in the other compartment and stuff more hard drives in there.

 

[TommyD]

My 670 FTWs which will replace my ailing superclocks have arrived!

I thought the white on the heatsink for the SC was bad, the green lettering is even worse! At least I won't have to endure it too long as I can order the EVGA 680 Hydro block and back plate since it's designed on the 680 PCB and they will fit.

I also did some benches with the new cards at stock speeds.

3D Mark 11 Score : 9269
3D Mark 06 Score: 32149
3D Mark Vantage Score: 33394

 

[TommyD]

Some of the parts arrived so the water cooling porn can continue. I'm still waiting on a smaller package that has some Bitspower rotary fittings, which is holding me up!

Here are pictures of the XSPC Razor 680 GTX block, the SLI block and the EVGA 680 GTX back plates. I have to say that the XSPC block is pretty nice and wallet friendly, it's definitely a better option for me over the ugly EK circle of death blocks.

Hopefully the fittings will arrive today so I can mount the blocks and get my cards under water.

 

[cytoSiN]

Wow you're not kidding, those PCBs are tiny. Blocks are sexy too! Keep the photos coming!

Also, how do you like the A40?

 

[TommyD]

Wow you're not kidding, those PCBs are tiny. Blocks are sexy too! Keep the photos coming!

Also, how do you like the A40?

The PCB is actually no smaller then the 680 GTX 2GB reference PCB. The 670 FTW edition uses the same PCB.

As for the A40s I love them.

 

[cytoSiN]

The PCB is actually no smaller then the 680 GTX 2GB reference PCB. The 670 FTW edition uses the same PCB.

As for the A40s I love them.

Well, the blocks look small compared to my 570, but it's not a reference design and I don't watercool it, so just ignore me

The A50s are about to hit store shelves (on Friday), and they're fully wireless (5.8GHz). I'm currently using g930s. You recommend stepping up?

 

[TommyD]

The A50s are about to hit store shelves (on Friday), and they're fully wireless (5.8GHz). I'm currently using g930s. You recommend stepping up?

After owning the G930's and now owning the A40 with the 5.8 GHz wireless mixamp I have to say that the A40's are FAR superior in every aspect, sound quality, connectivity and comfort.

The only thing I feel that the G930's have over the A40 is that the wireless module is integrated into the headset.

 

[TommyD]

I just finished everything in the rig and with the photos, so here comes more hardware porn.

The EVGA 680 GTX back plates went on with no problems using the XSPC Razor 680 GTX blocks, the screw heads were slightly larger then the holes but the screw itself was long enough so there was no issue.

I also got my nifty Koolance QDC's into the mix now, so draining my loop or changing tubing will be tons easier now.

 

[cytoSiN]

After owning the G930's and now owning the A40 with the 5.8 GHz wireless mixamp I have to say that the A40's are FAR superior in every aspect, sound quality, connectivity and comfort.

The only thing I feel that the G930's have over the A40 is that the wireless module is integrated into the headset.

The A50s are fully wireless, so sounds like a winner. Thanks. :thumbsup:

Those 680s look sick with the XSPC blocks and QDCs. Much better than the standard EVGA white/green badging.