# Rampage IV Black Edition/4960X/GTX 780 Ti SLi build log



## cadaveca (Feb 10, 2014)

Many thanks to:

ASUS





for the RAMPAGE IV BLACK EDITION board (techpowerup.com review can be found HERE)


Intel




for the Core i7 4960X CPU


Corsair




for the H100 that keeps me running and the super-fast Dominator Platinum 2666 C10 ram (Dominator Platinum techpowerup.com review  HERE)


Thermaltake




for the 1275W Platinum PSU!  (techpowerup.com review can be found HERE)










yeah, stuff of some sort of other stuff goes here. I'll put this for now:

Pre-build part testing:







and edit as I go! 



I need some part suggestions!

Cases, CPU waterblocks, SSDs!


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## Chetkigaming (Feb 10, 2014)

Sex


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## d1nky (Feb 10, 2014)

case - enthoo primo
cpu block - supremacy nickel clean version
ssd - the one and only samsung 840 pro or not

subbed for sex


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## MxPhenom 216 (Feb 10, 2014)

Dave are you wanting to cool just your CPU? Maybe chipset/VRMs with it?

I know you don't want to water cool the GPUs because you love that cooler so much.

But you could message me on Steam if you want to talk parts.


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## the54thvoid (Feb 10, 2014)

Black socks with red stitching?  Fashion faux pas!


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## MxPhenom 216 (Feb 10, 2014)

Also what do you want to store on the SSD? Windows/Games? Or one massive SSD for everything?


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## Random Murderer (Feb 10, 2014)

subbed


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## ne6togadno (Feb 10, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Hmm, white LED might match nice, too. But I'm not gonna WC VGAs, just CPU.


raystorm is product series. beside vga it has also cpu blocks http://www.xs-pc.com/waterblocks-cpu/



d1nky said:


> yup for looks, the clean ek supremacy all nickel and dominators..... nom nom!


that ek crome looks good only on sun light.
how often sun is shining in your case









acrylic bracket with chrome block and white faceplate will make kick ass combination. but you have to by 2 blocks unless xspc dont agree to let you make whatever combo you like


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## HammerON (Feb 10, 2014)

As others mentioned in the Your PC ATM thread, I would go with the EK Supremacy water block
I would move the posts from that thread to this one, but the system won't let me. It tells me I can move them to a new thread (I would have to create one)
Oh well...


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## ...PACMAN... (Feb 10, 2014)

Personally I think it all looks crappy. Drop all the goods off at my house and I'll show you how to display the hardware like a real man.

Oh and you forgot to thank thermaltake for the toughpower socks.


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## Chetkigaming (Feb 10, 2014)

samsung 840 evo i suggest.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Feb 10, 2014)

I wouldnt get the raystorm dave., unless you got th metal bracket for mounting, otherwise the plastic will flex a bit on the normal one when you tighten down.


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## cadaveca (Feb 11, 2014)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> I wouldnt get the raystorm dave., unless you got th metal bracket for mounting, otherwise the plastic will flex a bit on the normal one when you tighten down.


I don't like the raystorm, honestly. The heatkiller linked in the PC ATM thread and the EK are tempting me.

Thinking about COSMOS SE for case. I can get it pretty cheap.

860W Silverstone can't keep up with this build already. Board reboots with PSU warnings with two cards installed running Fire Strike Extreme. Turn off 12V warning in BIOS, bench runs fine. Kinda funny.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Feb 11, 2014)

yep those cosmos cases are oretty sweet. throw a 360 in the top and cool your cpu, vrms, and chipset.


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## cadaveca (Feb 11, 2014)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> yep those cosmos cases are oretty sweet. throw a 360 in the top and cool your cpu, vrms, and chipset.


not putting blocks on the board. CPU only.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Feb 11, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> not putting blocks on the board. CPU only.



Oh come on!

then I would just get an EK Supremacy (Heatkiller would be fine too, but Supremacy might give slightly better temps) and a 45mm-60mm thick 280 radiator. Alphacool XT45 or UT60 280. What about pump? Do you have one already?

If not id get a MCP350 and then just get a bay reservoir/top for it.


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## cadaveca (Feb 11, 2014)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> Oh come on!
> 
> then I would just get an EK Supremacy (Heatkiller would be fine too, but Supremacy might give slightly better temps) and a 45mm-60mm thick 280 radiator. Alphacool XT45 or UT60 280. What about pump? Do you have one already?
> 
> If not id get a MCP350 and then just get a bay reservoir/top for it.


I will be sure to do the opposite of what you recommend. Thanks!


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## MxPhenom 216 (Feb 11, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> I will be sure to do the opposite of what you recommend. Thanks!


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## t_ski (Feb 12, 2014)

Chetkigaming said:


> Sex





d1nky said:


> subbed for sex


Subbed for socks, I mean sex


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## Arrakis9 (Feb 12, 2014)

How much room do you have between the motherboard and the 5.25's ? considered a tube res at all ? they're a heck of a lot easier to fill vs a bay res or a fill port style res and will make life easy if you ever have to disassemble your loop (it will happen)

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...e=product_info&cPath=59_367&products_id=39186

Also no one says you have to use the LED's for the light bar, also glass in general looks a heck of a lot better than acrylic


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## cadaveca (Feb 12, 2014)

Arrakis+9 said:


> How much room do you have between the motherboard and the 5.25's ? considered a tube res at all ? they're a heck of a lot easier to fill vs a bay res or a fill port style res and will make life easy if you ever have to disassemble your loop (it will happen)
> 
> http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...e=product_info&cPath=59_367&products_id=39186
> 
> Also no one says you have to use the LED's for the light bar, also glass in general looks a heck of a lot better than acrylic




That's pretty sweet, actually, but pricey! Maybe I can ask the company that makes them to sponsor one....


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## Arrakis9 (Feb 13, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> That's pretty sweet, actually, but pricey! Maybe I can ask the company that makes them to sponsor one....



Doesnt hurt to ask, you could also ask Performance-Pcs to give you a couple of freebies to advertise for them considering you make such good reviews and stuff


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## RCoon (Feb 13, 2014)

I came here under the false pretense there would be sexy socks. I demand recompense, my socks are far sexier.

On topic. Let me make sweet love to that processor, oh baby, oh baby yeah.


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## Vario (Feb 13, 2014)

A 4960x!1? Nice.  I think the Cosmos SE is shrunk from front to back if it makes a difference with radiators Cosmos 2 would be the way I'd go!   More space for WC stuff without having to gut everything. None of the Cosmos are really perfect but its the beauty of the design that lures you in. Then the weight of the case makes it stay lol.


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## cadaveca (Feb 13, 2014)

picked up a Corsair Carbide 540 AIR in grey last night...or more accurately, my wife did for me. She came back with a black one first...

I took some pics pulling the case out of the box....the black case...

So I spent about 30 minutes last night getting the rig into the case so that I can make some measurements and start proper planning over the coming days. But before I can devote more time to this rig, I have to get some review work done!

My memory review rig normally sits in a Corsair 300R, and to be honest, I found that case made with cheap stuff, and poorly designed in regards to layout, although well-built. The 540 AIR cost me about 160% of what the 300R did...and oh my god...


This case is pretty awesome!!!








However, I am far from done! Watercooling and some other mods still in the works!  


Arrakis+9 said:


> Doesnt hurt to ask, you could also ask Performance-Pcs to give you a couple of freebies to advertise for them considering you make such good reviews and stuff




Noted!


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## erixx (Feb 13, 2014)

well considered this case is one of the most fit to:
1) work with some parts and hide others (HDDs, PSU)
2) show off perfectly the beauty parts (same as above, hide the horrible ones, show the mobo and Geforces, RAM, etc.)

Congrats!


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## cadaveca (Feb 24, 2014)

After spending some time tri-monitor gaming, I have found the stock cooler and airflow in this case to be wholly inadequate. So I swapped out coolers to get more positive airflow:












Then, my SSD died. That's two in as many months.

So, one dead PSU, 2 dead SSDs, one cooler, one headset... and I'm not that happy with PC hardware at the moment.

I had a bunch of unboxing pics to upload, but lost them on the most recent SSD death. I have to get my camera memory card back and try to get those pics back!


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## M0rt (Feb 24, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> After spending some time tri-monitor gaming, I have found the stock cooler and airflow in this case to be wholly inadequate. So I swapped out coolers to get more positive airflow:
> 
> Then, my SSD died. That's two in as many months.
> 
> ...



Dammnnnnnn! First the Fat Boys breakup, now this.

That XSPC pump/res combo has sexy time written all over it. Is there enough space to even mount anything in the windowed case partition though? Top or bottom left?

Looking forward to seeing how it shapes up.

Thanks for all your work on TPU, enjoyed reading it and learning.


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## cadaveca (Feb 24, 2014)

M0rt said:


> Is there enough space to even mount anything in the windowed case partition though? Top or bottom left?



Right side of the board should be fine. or in the top, or bottom-left. There is all this room on the other side to hide the other stuff:







The only issue is the mad mess of wires in the back, but I think it can be managed with some care, and custom-built cabling. I have to pull the PSU to use for review testing (so I really right now only have one full rig, and doing reviews is a huge pain), so that will give me time to measure out cables, buy the supplies, and then build them.







I'll only need to add wiring for the cooling now, so figuring it all out while keeping it hidden should be fun.


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## d1nky (Feb 24, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Right side of the board should be fine. or in the top, or bottom-left. There is all this room on the other side to hide the other stuff:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Glad you're doing the cables the proper way and not buying them in. 

For anyone not sure what he means, look and learn. Can't wait to see it.


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## puma99dk| (Feb 24, 2014)

hmm i wish Asus made a ROG card for SLI too, bcs this EVGA don't impress me, in this build cadaveca, other then that i luv the hardware and sexy socks


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## cadaveca (Feb 24, 2014)

puma99dk| said:


> hmm i wish Asus made a ROG card for SLI too, bcs this EVGA don't impress me, in this build cadaveca, other then that i luv the hardware and sexy socks


LuLz. The EVGA bridge will be modded as well. It's just a plastic cover, and I will make my own insert to replace the EVGA logo.


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## M0rt (Mar 2, 2014)

How goes the war effort?

Hit an impasse or playing coy?


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## cadaveca (Mar 3, 2014)

M0rt said:


> How goes the war effort?
> 
> Hit an impasse or playing coy?


Suffered some serious casualties with the SSD death, and I've been busy licking my wounds and preparing for the next assault.

I'll post an update tomorrow morning, trying to do weekly updates after each weekend's work. 


A teaser:


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## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 3, 2014)

Wait, Are those 780Ti with Titan Black ACX coolers? Or did you get Titan Blacks? And if so......


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## M0rt (Mar 3, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Suffered some serious casualties with the SSD death, and I've been busy licking my wounds and preparing for the next assault.
> 
> I'll post an update tomorrow morning, trying to do weekly updates after each weekend's work.



Great to hear! Between the SSD's giving you the redass and the PSU swapping (that almost made me cry), I wondered if you had been institutionalized in the interim.



MxPhenom 216 said:


> Wait, Are those 780Ti with Titan Black ACX coolers? Or did you get Titan Blacks? And if so......



The plot thickens!


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## cadaveca (Mar 3, 2014)

M0rt said:


> Great to hear! Between the SSD's giving you the redass and the PSU swapping (that almost made me cry), I wondered if you had been institutionalized in the interim.




Perhaps an institution would be a better place for me. 

As to the PSU, here's stock power from the wall:










Clearly an 850W PSU is a bit too small for this rig.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 3, 2014)

Needs more jigawatts!

Dave, what watt meter is that? Id like to get one for my rig.


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## cadaveca (Mar 3, 2014)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> Dave, what watt meter is that? Id like to get one for my rig.



Uh...model number and stuff is in...






the pic?


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## M0rt (Mar 3, 2014)

The next time something goes awry in Canada and NYC loses power, I know who to blame.

Was that reading at stock CPU/GPU voltages?


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## cadaveca (Mar 3, 2014)

M0rt said:


> The next time something goes awry in Canada and NYC loses power, I know who to blame.
> 
> Was that reading at stock CPU/GPU voltages?



You saw it.  No, really. That's it. 


No wonder my Antec popped when OC'd.


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## coconut wa te r (Mar 3, 2014)

naice


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## M0rt (Mar 3, 2014)

Glad I didn't place a bet on the juice use.

Those GPU's must be pulling right around 300w a pop, if my math is right.


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## cadaveca (Mar 3, 2014)

M0rt said:


> Glad I didn't place a bet on the juice use.
> 
> Those GPU's must be pulling right around 300w a pop, if my math is right.




Yeah, about that. They overrun TDP, both, by 10%, pretty easily. 250W + 10% = 275, add in PSU efficiency, and it really makes a lot of sense that it would be that high. They do seem to boost to 1006 MHz instead of 928 MHz , so I am sure that might be part of it. These Nvidia GPUs really are intriguing... my GTX780 isn't like this though, that's for sure.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 3, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Uh...model number and stuff is in...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Doe! 

Found it, and its $45 on Amazon. jebus!


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## cadaveca (Mar 3, 2014)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> Doe!
> 
> Found it, and its $45 on Amazon. jebus!




I paid $19.99 on sale...


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## Nordic (Mar 10, 2014)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> Doe!
> 
> Found it, and its $45 on Amazon. jebus!


I got myself something similar, a kill-a-watt. Has all the same functions as his but on difference screens. $15 amazon when I got it.

Great build Dave.


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