Haven't seen a mod from you for awhile, what's the TRI-SLI scaling like, worth it?

Dia01Haven't seen a mod from you for awhile, what's the TRI-SLI scaling like, worth it?

I have to run some more testing in games, but, my tests at 2560x1600 indicate that turning up AA and AF has very little cost. I think that is where Tri SLI will shine. I will be posting more information as I move along through testing the platform on the Tri SLI thread.

forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=71382

vapochill + high CPU OC = 10/10
tri-SLI + waste of money + lots of heat - no GPU WCing = 7/10
stock "franken cooler" on board + lots of heat = 6/10
very clean system = 9/10


overall 8/10

sweeeeet!

10

Ah yes, HeavyH2O strikes again with a system that makes everyone else feel bad :P Very clean and impressive.

Just beautiful,as allways!Great components,powerfull cooling and overall look of the rig!9/10 from me!plz rate and comment my rig at:

www.techpowerup.com/gallery/1213.html

Clean, cool & powerful. Awesome job on modding & build Quality.

Thanks, guys. New toy to play with.

ty_gervapochill + high CPU OC = 10/10
tri-SLI + waste of money + lots of heat - no GPU WCing = 7/10
stock "franken cooler" on board + lots of heat = 6/10
very clean system = 9/10


overall 8/10

Those are legitimate critiques. Actually, if Tri SLI does not work out, I can move a card to a new home. But, gaming at 2560x1600 almost requires this. :-)

As for the watercooling, I will defer that effort until I know the cards are all solid. I have been testing each card individually and that is a pain with watercooling installed. Additionally, I will likely Step Up the cards to GTX 280 or the GTX 280+ if it is released early enough.

I never found that cooling the board helped much on the OC. I already removed the stock heatsinks and applied proper thermal paste (AS Ceramique). Seems to keep cool enough.

thats some nice setup max respect.
10/10

can i just ask, how much (total) have you spent on that god like rig?!?!?!

kyle2020can i just ask, how much (total) have you spent on that god like rig?!?!?!

Not that much, actually.

CPU - $250
RAM - $150
Case and PSU - $300
Vapochill - $400
Hard drives -$600
Motherboard - $250
DVD - $20
Fans, etc - $50
And, recently $900 on the video cards.

So, about $ 2,900. Cheaper than Voodoo or like. :-)

HeavyH20Not that much, actually.

CPU - $250
RAM - $150
Case and PSU - $300
Vapochill - $400
Hard drives -$600
Motherboard - $250
DVD - $20
Fans, etc - $50
And, recently $900 on the video cards.

So, about $ 2,900. Cheaper than Voodoo or like. :-)

wow thats quite impressive. £1.5K on an epic build. DO WANT! :D

sounds like a sweet build,

You bet, "Do it Yourself"

too rich for my blood... all those VGA's are a waste of money.. shoulda bought a 4870x2 and ditched the NVIDIA mobo.. bad NB not stable enough for me. The phasechange is good though ;)

_jMtoo rich for my blood... all those VGA's are a waste of money.. shoulda bought a 4870x2 and ditched the NVIDIA mobo.. bad NB not stable enough for me. The phasechange is good though ;)

all those VGA's are a waste of money.. shoulda bought a 4870x2
- agreed

ditched the NVIDIA mobo
- agreed

Don't mean to crap on the thread.

I don't like my 780i so much. I can reach stable clocks and have had not nearly even close to as many problems with mine as some others (still on my first board even), but the high power consumption due to poor investment NVIDIA made [didn't upgrade their chipsets and kept the large manufacturing process] and the insane amount of heat it creates scares me.

I can run my board fine in excess of 2,000MHz FSB QDR with a NB (SPP) voltage of 1.3v which is not too bad. So, I disagree that their NB sucks; I just believe the whole board is subpar in general.

I cannot wait for the x58. IMO x58 will kill the NVIDIA motherboard/chipset division and NVIDIA will be only making GPUs at that point.

ty_gerI cannot wait for the x58. IMO x58 will kill the NVIDIA motherboard/chipset division and NVIDIA will be only making GPUs at that point.

You hit the nail on the head. The x58 will be a new turning piont for future technology. I cant wait either... but i can.. im going to stick with my P45 mobo and E8500 i have ordered untill all the bugs are worked out with the X58 / i7 chips.

HeavyH20Not that much, actually.

CPU - $250
RAM - $150
Case and PSU - $300
Vapochill - $400
Hard drives -$600
Motherboard - $250
DVD - $20
Fans, etc - $50
And, recently $900 on the video cards.

So, about $ 2,900. Cheaper than Voodoo or like. :-)

Where in the world are you buying all those parts for those prices..i.e. qx6850 for $250 !!! k newegg has that chip for 999.99$ And only 900 for 3 evga 260's... all i can say is wow. give me a link to where your buying that crap.

_jMWhere in the world are you buying all those parts for those prices..i.e. qx6850 for $250 !!! k newegg has that chip for 999.99$ And only 900 for 3 evga 260's... all i can say is wow. give me a link to where your buying that crap.

Cought that as well. He must be purchasing second-hand and likely has no warranty on the CPU.

Best QX6850 price I could find on short order:

QX6850: $888
www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=1064

I don't believe he says he bougt anything retail? I've seen QX's go very cheap new, through certain programs not available to the general public. Nice build HeavyH20!

erockerI don't believe he says he bougt anything retail? I've seen QX's go very cheap new, through certain programs not available to the general public. Nice build HeavyH20!

Intel Retail Edge - $249 - new with warranty - QX6850 - this is the reason why there are so many brand new sealed QX6850's on fleabay as of recent.

EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 - $299 retail for $900.

As for the NVIDIA chipset, I got sick of buying a new Intel chipset motherboard for every single revision of a CPU. I have had no issues with the NVIDIA boards. Had them since the NForce 3 days, so it is probably a comfort factor. Deviated from the path with a MSI PowerUp Edition 975X board and a GigaByte DQ6. Worst mistake(s) of my life. I have three 680i boards and the 780i board with no issues, so I cannot say that I am not pleased with the quality. Worked solid on all my systems.

As for video cards, I tried the x1900 when it came out and recently had a 3870x2. Nice cards. I looked at the 4870x2, but, for the same cost as a couple of GTX 260 cards, I opted for the 260's. The third 260 was thrown in the mix since I was curious about Tri SLI.

HeavyH20Intel Retail Edge - $249 - new with warranty - QX6850 - this is the reason why there are so many brand new sealed QX6850's on fleabay as of recent.

EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 - $299 retail for $900.

As for the NVIDIA chipset, I got sick of buying a new Intel chipset motherboard for every single revision of a CPU. I have had no issues with the NVIDIA boards. Had them since the NForce 3 days, so it is probably a comfort factor. Deviated from the path with a MSI PowerUp Edition 975X board and a GigaByte DQ6. Worst mistake(s) of my life. I have three 680i boards and the 780i board with no issues, so I cannot say that I am not pleased with the quality. Worked solid on all my systems.

As for video cards, I tried the x1900 when it came out and recently had a 3870x2. Nice cards. I looked at the 4870x2, but, for the same cost as a couple of GTX 260 cards, I opted for the 260's. The third 260 was thrown in the mix since I was curious about Tri SLI.

You still havent said where you bought this stuff.. i would really like to know where i can buy a QX6850 for 249$

_jMYou still havent said where you bought this stuff.. i would really like to know where i can buy a QX6850 for 249$

Nowhere, unless you are in the retail channel sales or know someone. There is the program called "Intel Retail Edge". You take Intel tests all year, build up points, and you get a deal from Intel. Most people simply flip the item on eBay and make a little money.

HeavyH20Nowhere, unless you are in the retail channel sales or know someone. There is the program called "Intel Retail Edge". You take Intel tests all year, build up points, and you get a deal from Intel. Most people simply flip the item on eBay and make a little money.

Yea i just found it. Funny thing is... i already have the 3000 chips for the QX6850 for 239.99.. i dont work for best buy.. but my friend does and hes coming over to let me use his stor chain and employee ID in order to buy this cpu.. Thanx for that lil tib bit of info... im going to save over 700$!!!!

_jMYea i just found it. Funny thing is... i already have the 3000 chips for the QX6850 for 239.99.. i dont work for best buy.. but my friend does and hes coming over to let me use his stor chain and employee ID in order to buy this cpu.. Thanx for that lil tib bit of info... im going to save over 700$!!!!

That is pretty much how I got mine. I simply bought it from someone who was in the program.

260 gtx the best!!

HeavyH20As for the NVIDIA chipset, I got sick of buying a new Intel chipset motherboard for every single revision of a CPU. I have had no issues with the NVIDIA boards. Had them since the NForce 3 days, so it is probably a comfort factor. Deviated from the path with a MSI PowerUp Edition 975X board and a GigaByte DQ6. Worst mistake(s) of my life. I have three 680i boards and the 780i board with no issues, so I cannot say that I am not pleased with the quality. Worked solid on all my systems.

Amen to that, my XFX 790i Ultra motherboard was probably the best damn overclocking board I have owned, and that includes the very top end x38 boards I have had......managed over 600FSB without breaking into a sweat and solid as a rock.....I appreciate some may have had not so good experiences but the same can be said about every board more or less.....at the end of the day, we can only judge by our own experiences and TBH.

Tatty_OneAmen to that...

I personally liked my IP35 pro abit board better. A lot of people said bad things about that abit board and poor overclock results but I had really good luck with it and no issues.

I haven't had any hardware issues with my 780i, but have had a few software annoyances/glitches which caused me to re-install my OS twice so far (bad motherboard chipset drivers which I couldn't recover from [bsod's in both regular and safe mode]).

ty_gerI personally liked my IP35 pro abit board better. A lot of people said bad things about that abit board and poor overclock results but I had really good luck with it and no issues.

I haven't had any hardware issues with my 780i, but have had a few software annoyances/glitches which caused me to re-install my OS twice so far (bad motherboard chipset drivers which I couldn't recover from [bsod's in both regular and safe mode]).

It is simply the Ford versus Chevy argument. People have a good experience with the Intel chipset, they will like the Intel based boards. I have personally had good luck with NVIDIA and bad luck with Intel, so my path is set, good or bad.

Well, small update. Had to get a bigger PSU (1200 Watt) and opted to get the QX9650 to get some more clocks out of the system. So, a little bit of a change up over the next week.

I voted 5/10 because:

The computer its really good, extreme specs and everthing but its not impressive in terms of beauty like these one of example http://www.techpowerup.com/gallery/1738.html this one is amazingly beautiful for me... its not just about the specs for me...

EditoI voted 5/10 because:

The computer its really good, extreme specs and everthing but its not impressive in terms of beauty like these one of example www.techpowerup.com/gallery/1738.html this one is amazingly beautiful for me... its not just about the specs for me...

Agreed, it is all about taste. Beauty to one and ugly to another. I personally do not like black internals or bright PC colors. Some people like sports cars in bright colors with turbo four cylinders, ground effects and neon lights. Others like more conservative items, like a silver BMW M3, or a nice black Cadillac CTS-V (Corvette engine and a 6 speed). For me, no matter how nice the car is, I could never get past a weak powertrain. I love understated power. In spite of that, I did vote high on that system because of the effort and design put forth by the owner even though it represents a system I would never own or want. However, I never vote based on my tastes, just the execution that particular system by recognizing the effort put forth by the owner. As for my taste, it is pretty obvious; I just like clean, neat, black and silver and as much freakin' horsepower as possible. :-)

HeavyH20Agreed, it is all about taste. Beauty to one and ugly to another. I personally do not like black internals or bright PC colors. Some people like sports cars in bright colors with turbo four cylinders, ground effects and neon lights. Others like more conservative items, like a silver BMW M3, or a nice black Cadillac CTS-V (Corvette engine and a 6 speed). For me, no matter how nice the car is, I could never get past a weak powertrain. I love understated power. In spite of that, I did vote high on that system because of the effort and design put forth by the owner even though it is represents a system I would never own or want. I never vote on my tastes, just the execution. Besides, I just like clean, neat, black and silver and as much freakin' horsepower as possible and this is the result of that interest. To each their own. :-)

Very well spoken. I'm even less picky about looks than you. Give me 1000hp and primer for a paint job, over a show winner with a stock drivetrain any day.

I noticed we have similar Ideals, but opposite tastes. I love turbo 4's (minus all the flashy stuff), Fords, and Intel chipsets. lol.

Anyway, as always, amazingly clean. 10/10 from me.

Can't wait to see if you decide to go water on the cards.

EDIT: Is that powder coating on the inside of your case?

Nice specs. Sweet vapochill.

BTW, are you using the supreme fx? If so, i'd say ditch it and go for an x-fi. SupremeFX is just a riser card for the internal soundcard and is not a separate soundcard itself ^^ hth.

That looks awesome

Wile EEDIT: Is that powder coating on the inside of your case?

No powder coating, good old elbow grease. I polished all the aluminum in the interior of the case so that it has a nice sheen. I liked it better than painting.

Bjorn_Of_IcelandBTW, are you using the supreme fx? If so, i'd say ditch it and go for an x-fi. SupremeFX is just a riser card for the internal soundcard and is not a separate soundcard itself ^^ hth.

Just the built-in soundcard. Seems to be working pretty good.

Jacko28That looks awesome

Thanks

Very nice! 8/10!

10/10 for me, sweet system!

Looks beautiful. I love what you did to the case side window and your cable management is flawless.

9/10 for me