what video card are you using? If its the 9800 gtx thats in your sig then you might be bottle necking with the gpu.

Normally people have their cases set up so air is taken in the front/side of the case and exhausted out the back/PSU/top, so it's interesting that you saw better results mixing it up like that.

Interesting indeed and nice work - I would be interested in seeing the inards of the case to see how the cable management went. I often thought about changing the direction of the fans as cooler air would hit the cpu first rather than be warmed up before getting there. you went with a V-10? use any guide wires to hold that up? lol

Post photos and some preliminary benches, nice work !

No no its the V8, I thought I said that, if i said v10 my mistake!

Yeah I figured exhausting out the front just because there's more room for the hot air to dissipate, and my bedroom door lets heat in.. Idk.. I may switch them around and see the temperature difference.

I'll definitely take some pictures if you wanna see the inside. Be ware though there's twist ties and DUCTTAPE to keep them neat and tidy. I'm gonna go buy a bunch of twist ties as duct tape looks ghetto and it is probably insulating somehow.. and its not as trust worthy!

Yes 9800GTX, it may be bottlenecking it.. but shouldnt that only be for the graphics test? Shouldn't i see my cpu score skyrocketing atleast?

EDIT: I feel dumb.. the Cooler Master CA-R407ABGP MegaFlow 200 Blue LED Silent Case Fan is 200mm in size. Thats why it was such a high CFM... dur... Oh well. I think next pay I'll grab some new ones anyhow, I broke 2 of my 80mm ones cleaning them.

I'll do a bunch of tests cause I'm bored. Anything suggested I could try to mill through if I have sufficient time to download the apps. But these things will be done.

I have some HDR Fur rendering bench
3Dmark06
Vantage(never used it yet)
Maya 2010 Rendering a normalmap, some raytracing (Raytrace uses cpu to render)
3DS Max 2010
Zbrush 3.5 r3

I don't usually see people use these as testing platform. But It's mainly what I use my machine for. I could post some game benchs if you want but this is more of a 3D workstation for me.

We're getting some i7 machines in at work. I use an i5. If theres a big different I may have to sell off my i5 hah.

wire ties man. Wire ties. Duct tape would leave residue.

better than having cables absolutely everywhere now isnt it!

2 words and a letter

freezer 7 pro.

i believe they sell i5 and i7 brackets for them. of all the coolers i have used besides the copper softball i got form skiman awhile ago. they are the best low priced coolers i have ever used.

hah little late in the game for that. Its already in the machine. I haven't done all the tests yet but it idles at 24-25c right now. Its so monstrous though it pushes against my 250mm side fan.. Also I think I put it in backwards which is why my case temperature is higher.. 37c. Mind you its so big it does "block" airflow. But if the fans blowing the wrong way thats obvious too. I'll switch it.. test... then switch all my fans. IE all fans right now exhaust out the front, ill switch them so the front is intake!

Stock speeds. One without my new V8 and one with my V8! I think i put it on backwards so there may be airflow improvements tomorrow if I unhook it all again.





Overclocking results thus far just with 3dmark06.



This was where I had to call it a night. I got v1.435 vore with 210 x 21. I've been twiddling with the ram since 4.2ghz because it will boot up into vista up at 4.6ghz but will crash once I hit the cpu benches. The video benches dont crash at all.. and getting to 4.2 I had to adjust the memory timings because my memory did NOT want to go above 1600mhz (rated @ 1600) which now have 1.58v on them.

Also my ATI catalyst drivers arn't working at all. The moment I chose to use the overclock options it puts it from 400mhz core and 1200mh memory to 145 mhz core and 1100mhz memory. Then the screen flicks and I just don't know whats going on. ATI Tool wont work either, and Riva tuner doesnt pop up with any OC options like usual. May be a bad driver I got from ATI's website, might try the one out of the box. I got the PCI-E @ 120mhz, something I don't usually do. But it showed a boost from 100... about 200-300pts in the HDR/SM3.0 scores.

So tomorrow is mostly Ram + Videocard and maybe look at some voltages for the cpu, I think i can drop it a bit.

And here is some screenshots i took while getting to where I am.



if none of those images work try this
http://img713.imageshack.us/g/84544404kid.jpg/

Fixed.

In my experience, Ati cards don't like the PCI-E clock above 100

Oooh..maybe..! I'll check that when I get home as I was running it as high as 120. ( I did get improved scores too but maybe its best to keep it at 100 and then tweak the card itself instead).

I also need to find out where I can buy... something to hold my fans in place better than twine and ducttape. Aside from the obvious unappealing nature of how it looks, its also causing lots of vibrations.

I fail to see how a freezer 7 can out perform a V8 but ok if you are wanting a little room back.

I wouldn't move the pci e clock much - for reasons already stated, you may get it to move but no where near what you had it clocked to - and remain stable.

You're doing very well with the OC - keep at it and you will nail down the sweet spot.

Going to use the AMD GPU tools! As it stands I have my proc clocked down just.. cause I do.

3.0ghz

3DMark06: 16393
SM2.0 Score: 6434
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 7565
CPU Score: 4828

I'll post the change soon! (gonna just change GPU)

EDIT: Any idea why in some tools it seems to say.. BIOS GPU 850 and BIOS MEM 4800 (Which is correct). But Current GPU next to it says 400.... yet the default clock on the OC slider is set at 680...... shouldnt the 400 be 850 and the 680.. be 850 ?



Uninstalled and then reinstalled... now I can't even launch CCC and it says I have no driver installed... AND... my screen res won't go any higher than 1400.. !!