# Norton's Build Log- Final 2012 rig?



## Norton (Sep 30, 2012)

I've built a whole bunch of crunching rigs this year 

figured that I would share my last build for 2012 with everybody 

First off here's a list of the rigs, and their components, I have running/will be running for WCG:








This is the breakdown of what I have or need for the build:
*UPDATE-* I have all of the pieces I need- last of the parts should be here by 10/10 

*Case- Fractal Define R4*
Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl w/ USB 3.0 AT...
*PSU- Corsair TX850*
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V ...
Misc...
*case fans-* 
*Corsair AF120 Performance Edition (2 pack)*
Corsair Air Series AF120 Performance Edition CO-90...
*Zalman F4 135mm (2)*
ZALMAN F4 135mm Case Fan
*fan controller- Bitfenix Hydra Pro*
BFA-HDR-KSPRO-RP Hydra Pro Fan Controller
*Motherboard- ASUS M5A97 EVO*
ASUS M5A97 EVO AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX...
*Ram- Corsair Vengeance (2x4GB DDR3 1600, CAS 9, 1.5v, Blue)*
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM...
*CPU- AMD FX-8120*
AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-...
*Cooler- Spire Thermax Eclipse III*
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085EYMV6/?tag=tec06d-20
*Video Card- MSI 6870 Hawk*
MSI R6870 Hawk Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PC...
*Hard Drive- Western Digital 640 Black*
Western Digital WD Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM...

Will start adding pics as the build progresses- more to come soon.....

Thanks for stopping and taking a peek!


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## [Ion] (Sep 30, 2012)

Subbed, I'm excited for this


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## Norton (Oct 6, 2012)

Found the last few pieces (CPU, PSU, a few more fans) and they're on the way.... should have everything in hand by Wednesday 

Updated the 1st post with the new pieces 

Will take some pics when everything gets here


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## [Ion] (Oct 6, 2012)

It's funny looking at your dedicated WCG build vs mind--I have an 80GB HDD, no case, a $5 GPU, and you have a WD Black HDD, a HD6870, and a case I'd love to put my main rig in 

Also, I thought that you had the 750w PSU?


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## Norton (Oct 6, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> It's funny looking at your dedicated WCG build vs mind--I have an 80GB HDD, no case, a $5 GPU, and you have a WD Black HDD, a HD6870, and a case I'd love to put my main rig in
> 
> Also, I thought that you had the 750w PSU?



This is actually slated to be my 2nd/spare main rig. I was able to stash away some pretty nice pieces from upgrades, trades, and some other great deals I came across over the past 6 months.

On the psu- The seller thought it was a TX750..... turned out to be a TX850


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## NHKS (Oct 6, 2012)

subd..
FT-01 & define R4 are among my favourites.. 
appreciate your contribution to WCG crunching, Norton.. keep up the good work!.. i might get tempted enough to join the team in near future because of ppl like you..


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## BUCK NASTY (Oct 6, 2012)

Everyone knows "last rig of the year" always happens in December. Let me know if you need any bits or pieces to finish up.


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## stinger608 (Oct 6, 2012)

NHKS said:


> subd..
> FT-01 & define R4 are among my favourites..
> appreciate your contribution to WCG crunching, Norton.. keep up the good work!.. i might get tempted enough to join the team in near future because of ppl like you..



Why wait????? This is an awesome WCG team and always welcome fellow crunchers in!!! Doesn't matter how many PPD's you do a day, all that matters is that it contributes to a great cause and we have a hell of a lot of fun.


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## [Ion] (Oct 6, 2012)

Norton said:


> This is actually slated to be my 2nd/spare main rig. I was able to stash away some pretty nice pieces from upgrades, trades, and some other great deals I came across over the past 6 months.
> 
> On the psu- The seller thought it was a TX750..... turned out to be a TX850


Ah, that makes more sense.  To me, much of that seemed overkill for just a spare rig--I cheap out on the non-essentials.  Getting a surprise like that is cool! 


BUCK NASTY said:


> Everyone knows "last rig of the year" always happens in December. Let me know if you need any bits or pieces to finish up.



My 920 is scheduled to be the last rig...but we'll see, a FX-8 might have to get added as well.  Too temping


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 7, 2012)

I am in the process of putting my final rig of the year together. I need to change some fans and install the os which will be tomorrow.


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## [Ion] (Oct 7, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> I am in the process of putting my final rig of the year together. I need to change some fans and install the os which will be tomorrow.



This is the X4?  Gaahhh, I stand no chance against you


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 7, 2012)

Yeppers man. Well it's actually another x2 that unlocks to x4 and I will clock it to atleast 3.4. It has ran at 3.6 as that what the bios of this board was set for and the chip actually booted at that. So I may be able to get a nice oc out of it also. After this build is done then I will work on the clocks some on the other systems.


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## Chicken Patty (Oct 8, 2012)

Subscribed.


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## Norton (Oct 11, 2012)

Last of the parts have come in 

Teaser:


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## [Ion] (Oct 11, 2012)

Just the PSU?  Is that it? :shadedshu
We don't get to see everything else?


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## Aquinus (Oct 11, 2012)

It just wants to crunch so bad. It's the little engine that will.


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## Norton (Oct 11, 2012)

@ Ion







More pics tomorrow....


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 11, 2012)

Norton said:


> Last of the parts have come in
> 
> Teaser:
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/121010/TX850.jpg



Give you $20 and a unopened orange frosting covered brownie for it.


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## stinger608 (Oct 11, 2012)

Pics or it didn't happen.


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## Aquinus (Oct 11, 2012)

Soooooo, it's tomorrow! Where are the pictures?


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## [Ion] (Oct 11, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> Soooooo, it's tomorrow! Where are the pictures?



Yeah!  That's what I want to know!


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## Norton (Oct 11, 2012)

Pics tonight gents- will start laying everything out after 8pm and will take a nice group shot for everyone.


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## Capitan Harlock (Oct 11, 2012)

im curious about how is your powerbill every month with 6 pcs + 1 of the new build or you have a solar pannel system?


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 11, 2012)

We are able to justify the added power usage as we are able to lower our heating cost in the winter to negative numbers.  7 rigs make for a great heating system.


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## Capitan Harlock (Oct 11, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> We are able to justify the added power usage as we are able to lower our heating cost in the winter to negative numbers.  7 rigs make for a great heating system.



well if you are rich or the powerbill in your coutry is low or solar system pannel good for you,here is like hell and the company who tell is the productor is not the real dealer .
here in italy the company enel bring eletricity from france who make it with nuclear when 8 months ago we have vote for no nuclear= nothing that is made by nuclear resourses.


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## Norton (Oct 11, 2012)

Capitan Harlock said:


> im curious about how is your powerbill every month with 6 pcs + 1 of the new build or you have a solar pannel system?



Power bill is higher than normal but I have some secondary locations I use where power use is not an issue.

and it will help with the heat in the Winter


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## [Ion] (Oct 11, 2012)

Norton said:


> Power bill is higher than normal but I have some secondary locations I use where power use is not an issue.
> 
> and it will help with the heat in the Winter



That it definitely will.  Even when it's 45F outside and I have the windows open, the computers still keep it plenty warm 

Any new pics for us?


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## Norton (Oct 12, 2012)

Pics- I'll just leave these here (sorry for the crappy cell phone pics )



Spoiler: CPU, Ram, HDD












Spoiler:  6870 Hawk











Spoiler: Motherboard











Spoiler:  fans











Spoiler: More fans











Spoiler:  Still Moar fans :D











Spoiler: cooler view 1











Spoiler: cooler view 2











Spoiler: PSU


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## [Ion] (Oct 12, 2012)

That's a really nice set of parts you have there! 

When are you going to assemble it?


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## Aquinus (Oct 12, 2012)

I have the blue variant of your 6870 and the reference 6870 as well. It idles real low but it's loaded temps at higher voltages don't get handled as well as the reference cooler. If you have the option for a side panel case fan, I would opt for it. The GPU will benefit from it.


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## Norton (Oct 12, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> That's a really nice set of parts you have there!
> 
> When are you going to assemble it?



Thanks- I plan to get everything together this weekend 



Aquinus said:


> I have the blue variant of your 6870 and the reference 6870 as well. It idles real low but it's loaded temps at higher voltages don't get handled as well as the reference cooler. If you have the option for a side panel case fan, I would opt for it. The GPU will benefit from it.



I've run this card before in the Fortress and it ran a little warm but never hot. This case will be running 6 fans total so I think the card should run pretty cool.

- 2x135mm Zalman's in the Front (Intake)
- 2x120mm Corsair's in the Top (Exhaust)
- 1x140mm Fractal in the Rear (Exhaust)
- 1x140mm Xigmatek in the Bottom (Intake)


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## Daimus (Oct 12, 2012)

@Norton
Do you plan to bump the 8120 a bit higher? Up to 4 GHz on all cores for example?


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## Norton (Oct 12, 2012)

Daimus said:


> @Norton
> Do you plan to bump the 8120 a bit higher? Up to 4 GHz on all cores for example?



I'll run the 8120 at 8150 settings at minimum (3.6Ghz) and yes as long as everything runs stable I will run at 4Ghz. The 8150 in my main rig is 100% happy crunching 24/7 at 4Ghz so I don't see any reason not to do the same with this one.


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## Daimus (Oct 12, 2012)

This nice EVO board has exellent DIGI-VRM, so I hope your system will be stable as a rock


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## NHKS (Oct 12, 2012)

Norton said:


> Pics- I'll just leave these here (sorry for the crappy cell phone pics )
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=48678&stc=1&d=1350012335
> 
> ...



looking good, sir!.. gamers too would be impressed with that build..




Norton said:


> ... This case will be running 6 fans total so I think the card should run pretty cool.
> 
> - 2x135mm Zalman's in the Front (Intake)
> - 2x120mm Corsair's in the Top (Exhaust)
> ...



135 size Zalman is non-standard i guess.. will it fit the R4 or you intend to use ties?
i thought i saw 3 Xigmateks in the pics.. where do plan to use the other 2, CPU cooler?


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## Norton (Oct 12, 2012)

NHKS said:


> looking good, sir!.. gamers too would be impressed with that build..
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks- most decent gaming rigs also do well crunching so they are somewhat related. Will eventually replace these rigs with a server.

The Zalman fans have 120mm mounting points and the Fractal R4 can fit 120 or 140mm fans so they should work fine and the other 120mm Xig's are just spares at this point (the Spire TME III cooler comes with 2x120mm PWM fans)


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## NHKS (Oct 12, 2012)

^ i am not much aware abt WCG crunching.. but i always thought it is cpu/compute/thread intensive.. would a gpu complement it further? and yes, multi-socket server builds should save some space too( besides adding performance) when compared to having separate single cpu mainboards.. 

and as for the 135mm fans having 120mm mounting points.. u r right!.. i just noticed in the pics that the fans dont have a conventional full-square housing bracket, does make sense!


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## Norton (Oct 12, 2012)

NHKS said:


> ^ i am not much aware abt WCG crunching.. but i always thought it is cpu intensive.. would a gpu complement it further? and yes, multi-socket server builds should save some space too( besides adding performance) when compared to having separate single cpu mainboards..
> 
> and as for the 135mm fans having 120mm mounting points.. u r right!.. i just noticed in the pics that the fans dont have a conventional full-square housing bracket, does make sense!



Crunching is all about cores/threads, clock speed, and stability. The more you have of each the better you can crunch. Stability wise- it's not just a matter of being Prime95 stable or anything like that.... in order to crunch w/o throwing errors you actually need to back off on gaming/benching grade overclocking.

As far as GPU's, WCG is just now getting into GPU crunching and the modern cards seem to be doing very well with it. 

Sneekypete suggested those fans and I can't thank him enough for the assistance he provided with the case, cooler, and the fans.... He gave me a great deal on them


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 12, 2012)

nice rig that is going to be.


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## Norton (Oct 13, 2012)

Mobo with cooler installed... ready to get installed in the case


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## [Ion] (Oct 13, 2012)

That's a really attractive HSF on there! 

Are you going to get it fully assembled and crunching tonight?


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## Norton (Oct 13, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> That's a really attractive HSF on there!
> 
> Are you going to get it fully assembled and crunching tonight?



Should have it online by later tonight. Installed all of the fans a little while ago so that part's out of the way


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## [Ion] (Oct 13, 2012)

Norton said:


> Should have it online by later tonight. Installed all of the fans a little while ago so that part's out of the way



Amazing, let's see if you can get 100k tomorrow!


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## Norton (Oct 14, 2012)

It's Alive!!!  

Definitely need a better camera


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## JrRacinFan (Oct 14, 2012)

M5A97 Evo.; Beautiful board isn't it? Looking nice man.


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## Norton (Oct 14, 2012)

JrRacinFan said:


> M5A97 Evo.; Beautiful board isn't it? Looking nice man.



Thanks Bud!  I have the 99X and 97 Evo's... only difference between the two is the 8x/8x Crossfire/SLI support on the 99X. The M5A99X in my main rig has been trouble free since I installed it (knocks wood..)

Got this board from geeks.com as a refurb for $55


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## JrRacinFan (Oct 14, 2012)

Norton said:


> Thanks Bud!  I have the 99X and 97 Evo's... only difference between the two is the 8x/8x Crossfire/SLI support on the 99X. The M5A99X in my main rig has been trouble free since I installed it (knocks wood..)
> 
> Got this board from geeks.com as a refurb for $55



Before I decided to get mine, which is now not here, I was contemplating between it and the 970 Extreme 3 (for it's sli support). Deciding that I may not had a possibility of going SLI I skipped it and went Evo. 

Loved the board and wish I had a reason to get another.


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## [Ion] (Oct 14, 2012)

Norton said:


> It's Alive!!!
> 
> Definitely need a better camera
> *Images Removed*


Wicked setup! 

That MSI Twin Frozr card looks great!

But I see your GPU and CPU idle.....  :shadedshu


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## Norton (Oct 14, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> Wicked setup!
> 
> That MSI Twin Frozr card looks great!
> 
> But I see your GPU and CPU idle.....  :shadedshu



The rig will be working this afternoon after all of the updates are finished


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## Norton (Oct 15, 2012)

Got Windows all updated yesterday and let it crunch overnight on CPU and GPU work units and it did fine. It's still spooling up but I did manage to get 2-3,000 points generated overnight 

Temps are OK (cores@43C, die@54C, VRM's@48C) and should improve somewhat as the AS5 TIM breaks in over the next few days. Will need to figure out how to get a fan blowing onto the VRM's so I can overclock it w/o getting them too hot.

I shut it down for the day to give it a rest but will fire it back up this evening while I'm home so I can keep an eye on it.


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## [Ion] (Oct 15, 2012)

You're giving it a rest 

That seems like fine temps on the VRMs...what I've done on the 860 that I think works well is to pull the metal bracket off of a slot fan and put it on top of the GPU pointed at the motherboard.

How fast is the GPU doing these WUs?


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## Daimus (Oct 15, 2012)

Norton said:


> Got Windows all updated yesterday and let it crunch overnight on CPU and GPU work units and it did fine. It's still spooling up but I did manage to get 2-3,000 points generated overnight
> 
> Temps are OK (cores@43C, die@54C, VRM's@48C) and should improve somewhat as the AS5 TIM breaks in over the next few days. Will need to figure out how to get a fan blowing onto the VRM's so I can overclock it w/o getting them too hot.
> 
> I shut it down for the day to give it a rest but will fire it back up this evening while I'm home so I can keep an eye on it.



CPU@cores temps seem to be a bit hot. You are running it at stock freq, right? What CPU votage shows CPU-Z under full load?


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## Norton (Oct 15, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> You're giving it a rest
> 
> That seems like fine temps on the VRMs...what I've done on the 860 that I think works well is to pull the metal bracket off of a slot fan and put it on top of the GPU pointed at the motherboard.
> 
> How fast is the GPU doing these WUs?



The Fractal case actually has an 8th slot running at 90 degrees to the others so I think I can make a bracket to install a fan off of it and aim it right at the VRM's 

The 6870 is running the WU to 99.415% in under 4 minutes


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## [Ion] (Oct 15, 2012)

Norton said:


> The Fractal case actually has an 8th slot running at 90 degrees to the others so I think I can make a bracket to install a fan off of it and aim it right at the VRM's
> 
> The 6870 is running the WU to 99.415% in under 4 minutes



Ah yes, the benefits of going w/ a high-end case with extra features.  That should help too 

That's actually slower than I would have thought, given what I heard from Daimus about his AMD GPUs.  My GTX470 will do to 99.415% in about 2:40..then just over 20 seconds of CPU-only work.


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 15, 2012)

Great looking build norton!!! I can't wait to see the numbers this thing produces.


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## Daimus (Oct 15, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> Ah yes, the benefits of going w/ a high-end case with extra features.  That should help too
> 
> That's actually slower than I would have thought, given what I heard from Daimus about his AMD GPUs.



So I have a slightly different GPU - HD6950 unlocked&overclocked to HD6970.
It is running the WU to 99.416% in from 2m05sec to 2m40sec. Full completion takes from 3m10sec to 3m50sec.


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## brandonwh64 (Oct 15, 2012)

Daimus said:


> So I have a slightly different GPU - HD6950 unlocked&overclocked to HD6970.
> It is running the WU to 99.416% in from 2m05sec to 2m40sec. Full completion takes from 3m10sec to 3m50sec.



Yep I am running X2 6950's unlocked at stock clocks and I get the same times as daimus.


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## Norton (Oct 15, 2012)

Daimus said:


> CPU@cores temps seem to be a bit hot. You are running it at stock freq, right? What CPU votage shows CPU-Z under full load?



Will need to double-check the voltage but for the moment everything is in auto. I'm not overly impressed with the Spire cooler so if the temps remain high I may pick up another Xig Night Hawk or maybe one of those water cooling units.



Daimus said:


> So I have a slightly different GPU - HD6950 unlocked&overclocked to HD6970.
> It is running the WU to 99.416% in from 2m05sec to 2m40sec. Full completion takes from 3m10sec to 3m50sec.



The 7870 and 7850 are the true speed demons with the GPU WU's....
7850 to 99.415% in 01:40
7870 to 99.415% in 01:25 
and almost no lag out of them


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## [Ion] (Oct 15, 2012)

Norton said:


> Will need to double-check the voltage but for the moment everything is in auto. I'm not overly impressed with the Spire cooler so if the temps remain high I may pick up another Xig Night Hawk or maybe one of those water cooling units.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





So, basically, a HD7870 is nearly as fast as a pair of GTX470s.  I wonder how AMD cards are so successful at this...


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 15, 2012)

Nice numbers Norton  So what kind of ppd do the 7850's put out? ♪♫ The wheels in my head go round and round ♫♪


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