# Contest rigs



## Aquinus (Dec 1, 2012)

Hello everyone,

Yesterday while I was at work I got a text from my wife; "you're computers are here." So I will be doing some unboxing pictures and what not. Here is a teaser until I wake up a bit more and start unpacking these puppies. 

Thanks again to Team TPU, Norton, and ThE_MaD_ShOt (plus some others, please let me know if you contributed to the charity rig and I will throw you name here.) 






P.S. They arrived at the same time despite coming from two different places being shipped out on two different days. Great timing. 

Update: Here are the rest of the pictures. I'll be powering up the machine from Norton once I have a moment to clean up and make room for it somewhere. I suspect since I have little room in my office that it will run in my living room (where the pictures were taken,) hooked up to the Plasma since I don't have an extra display. On to the pictures!

Rig #1 -- In particular, I really like this case. Thank you, Norton. 













Also Norton, was this just an extra case fan? It was floating in the case not hooked up to anything.




Rig #2 - Charity Rig


----------



## Jetster (Dec 1, 2012)

Nice


----------



## Aquinus (Dec 1, 2012)

Updated with pictures.


----------



## Peter1986C (Dec 1, 2012)

In the background there is a clue about you being a father.


----------



## Norton (Dec 1, 2012)

Great timing on getting them both at once! 



Aquinus said:


> Also Norton, was this just an extra case fan? It was floating in the case not hooked up to anything.



I had that fan zip tied neatly into the case to draw air in from the side panel to cool the NB and VRM's (used a mobo header for power). Here's a pic so you can see where I used it:






*Disconnected it so it wouldn't get damaged during shipping.


----------



## Bow (Dec 1, 2012)




----------



## [Ion] (Dec 1, 2012)

That's awesome!  Have you decided on a recipient for the charity rig?


----------



## Aquinus (Dec 1, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> That's awesome!  Have you decided on a recipient for the charity rig?



I have but I just tried to start up the charity rig and it isn't posting. Motherboard 7-segment display is saying "FF". Running just one stick hasn't done anything. I'm about to reseat the processor.

Edit: So I take the cooler off and the CPU isn't completely in the socket. I've cleaned it off, put it back in and I'm about to re-mount the cooler.

Edit 2: Put the cooler back on, booted it up and presto, we're in business.


----------



## Norton (Dec 1, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> I have but I just tried to start up the charity rig and it isn't posting. Motherboard 7-segment display is saying "FF". Running just one stick hasn't done anything. I'm about to reseat the processor.
> 
> Edit: So I take the cooler off and the CPU isn't completely in the socket. I've cleaned it off, put it back in and I'm about to re-mount the cooler.



USPS must have bounced that box around a bit too much :shadedshu

You should be able to check this on the Black rig by making sure the cooler is still tight, the cpu would have to rip out through the pcb to come out of the socket with the mounting system that Xig uses.


----------



## [Ion] (Dec 1, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> I have but I just tried to start up the charity rig and it isn't posting. Motherboard 7-segment display is saying "FF". Running just one stick hasn't done anything. I'm about to reseat the processor.
> 
> Edit: So I take the cooler off and the CPU isn't completely in the socket. I've cleaned it off, put it back in and I'm about to re-mount the cooler.
> 
> Edit 2: Put the cooler back on, booted it up and presto, we're in business.



Glad that fixing it was so easy 

I assume that you're going to crunch on the other rig?


----------



## Aquinus (Dec 1, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> Glad that fixing it was so easy
> 
> I assume that you're going to crunch on the other rig?



Absolutely. I'm going to install (already have in fact,) installed Ubuntu with XBMC. BOINC is installed, I just have to set it up.


----------



## [Ion] (Dec 1, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> Absolutely. I'm going to install (already have in fact,) installed Ubuntu with XBMC. BOINC is installed, I just have to set it up.



Sweet!  Ubuntu works very well for dedicated crunchers.  My C2D running Ubuntu x64 is doing ~50-75% higher PPD than the one running Windows x64 (they're both nearly identically-clocked C2Ds with 6MB L2).  I'm really very impressed with it


----------



## Aquinus (Dec 1, 2012)

[Ion] said:


> Sweet!  Ubuntu works very well for dedicated crunchers.  My C2D running Ubuntu x64 is doing ~50-75% higher PPD than the one running Windows x64 (they're both nearly identically-clocked C2Ds with 6MB L2).  I'm really very impressed with it



Yeah, I figured that it could double as a HTPC. Using the right CPU scheduler should make BOINC almost invisible on *nix. Also I tend to run BOINC as a service on *nix so it's very transparent.  That is what I'm doing on my 940 right now and that is at work.

Also, I do know who the charity rig is going to. A co-worker's tower broke a month ago, he is a student and doesn't have the money to invest in a new rig and is using a single core AMD laptop from 6 years ago as well as a dell with a skt775 Pentium 4. It's perfect for him because he already has a 6750 to slap in it (I already broke the news to him, he is very excited.)


----------



## cdawall (Dec 1, 2012)

I like that Cougar case. Can't wait to see how these go.


----------



## Aquinus (Dec 1, 2012)

cdawall said:


> I like that Cougar case. Can't wait to see how these go.



It's the thing I like the most about all of it. It's a very nice chassis. It's as solid as it looks as good, it's not just looks. I should ask Norton for case recommendations from now on.


----------



## Norton (Dec 1, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> It's the thing I like the most about all of it. It's a very nice chassis. It's as solid as it looks as good, it's not just looks. I should ask Norton for case recommendations from now on.



Actually, after using the NZXT Source 210's I was a little disappointed with this one as far as building in it. However:

- It does look nice
- It's a little shorter than the 210
- I got it real cheap as a NewEgg special w/free shipping


----------



## cdawall (Dec 1, 2012)

How noisy are the fans in it?


----------



## Norton (Dec 1, 2012)

cdawall said:


> How noisy are the fans in it?



I'm guessing not too bad, it was OK for me.

The case only came with an orange Cougar fan in the back- there's 2x120mm 1200 rpm CM or Rosewill fans on top and a 140mm Xigmatek in the front


----------



## cdawall (Dec 1, 2012)

Norton said:


> I'm guessing not too bad, it was OK for me.
> 
> The case only came with an orange Cougar fan in the back- there's 2x1200 rpm CM or Rosewill fans on top and a 140mm Xigmatek in the front



2x120mm rad fit in the top?


----------



## Norton (Dec 2, 2012)

cdawall said:


> 2x120mm rad fit in the top?



I don't think it's possible... I barely got the board in the case with the cooler installed and needed to take out the rear fan to get the cpu power connector plugged in.

This pic shows how tight it is up there:



Spoiler:  pic


----------



## cdawall (Dec 2, 2012)

Norton said:


> I don't think it's possible... I barely got the board in the case with the cooler installed and needed to take out the rear fan to get the cpu power connector plugged in.
> 
> This pic shows how tight it is up there:
> 
> ...



Wont clear my memory thanks.


----------



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Dec 2, 2012)

Aquinus said:


> I have but I just tried to start up the charity rig and it isn't posting. Motherboard 7-segment display is saying "FF". Running just one stick hasn't done anything. I'm about to reseat the processor.
> 
> Edit: So I take the cooler off and the CPU isn't completely in the socket. I've cleaned it off, put it back in and I'm about to re-mount the cooler.
> 
> Edit 2: Put the cooler back on, booted it up and presto, we're in business.



Hmm thing must have taken a hell of a bounce. The extra cables where tucked up in the front really neatly when I got done with him. I though that cooler was pretty snug and not heavy at all. Well atleast all is good with it. Glad you got them man.  Keep us posted on them and the dealings with the charity rig.


----------

