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System Specs

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Posted in Uncategorized on August 29, 2008 at 11:14 am

CPU:  I decided on the Q6700, I would have chosen the Q6600 before the price drop on the Q6700. I thought the x10 Multiplier may come in handy, and it was only a little more money. I had also heard that later batches of Q6600 does not overclock as well as the earlier batches.

RAM: 4 GB’s of OCZ Reaper PC-9200, this RAM is rock solid at high frequencies.

GPU’s: Two 8800 GTX’s XFX. These have dropped in price since the release of the 200 series, so they were a bargain, but will also perform well at high resolutions. XFX cards are known to overclock well. I decided to get a pair which were not factory overclocked, as you can save a lot of money doing that yourself. EVGA cards are also known to overclock well, however they do cost more.

PSU: Antec Quattro 1000. I choose this PSU because of its stability, and I would need enough power for the 8800 GTX’s as they are power hungry cards. The 1000 w is also needed for the 9 120mm fans, the two Liang Ultra 18w DDC pumps, and the LCD. The size of the Quattro compared to other 1000 w PSU’s is relatively small, compared to the Galaxy for example. I also heard the 80mm fan in the PSU is very noisy, even though it is advertised as Quiet, so this needs replacing.

Motherboard: EVGA 780i sli. I bought this board as I had had experience of the 680i from EVGA, and that board overclocked well. The board also supports 45nm CPU’s, so it is also future proof. 

Water cooling system

Loop1: This cooling loop will be for the CPU and the SPP (Northbridge). The northbridge on the 780i gets very hot when overclocking, EVGA supply a fan but it can get very noisy. To cool the northbridge I choose a D-Tek FuZion water block with the Quad nozzle (v1), this will also be lapped. The SPP has a Viper John water block, Viper John makes custom water blocks, and he is well known in modding circles, this particular block has had great feedback from other users. This loop is powered by a Liang DDC Ultra 18w, which has a XSPC reservoir attached to the top of it. The tipple radiator from black ice can be mounted internally in the top of the case.

Loop2: This loop is for the two 8800 GTX’s, the loop is also powered by the same pump as the first loop. The radiator is different, it is from XSPC and will be sided mounted on to the case. I choose full cover blocks from EK.Originally I was going to have one loop, but after finding out how hot the 8800 GTX’s would get, I decided to have dual loops. I did not want the overclock on the Q6700 to be limited by heat.

Case: KXNG from AC Ryan, this is less of a case, and more of a foundation on which to build your mod. The case is also made of acrylic, I have not always been a fan of acrylic cases, I always thought they looked a bit tacky, and fragile, but this particular case looks great, and has a lot of modding potential. I was worried about cable management in a case like this, there is nowhere to hide!

• The Finished Product
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• System Specs (100%)
• The Finished Product (60%)