Rampage IV Extreme + 3930K rebuild with 4-way SLI GTX580

[FS~Phat]

4x New 3GB GTX580 Cards and the MB block arrived today!

I picked up a few more bits n pieces today to make the next attempt at hotwiring the cards less hassle and help me to repair the old cards.

A finer tip 0.3mm tipped iron for precision soldering.
2pin connectors to mount to the PCB so I dont have to have wire hanging off the cards and risk pulling pads/resistors off! I'll just plug the wires in after the cards are installed!
Ribbon cable for the PCB wiring to the 2pin connectors.
Chipquik SMD kit to lower the melting point and make it easier to safely remove the CORRECT resistor now I have the right instructions.
Flux Gel.
Fine tip needle hooks and tweezers to help with precisely holding the wire/components in place.
pics to follow

[FS~Phat]

Success! 1st card modded and working and it's even a cleaner mod than I had hoped!!

Here's the stuff that arrived and the pics of the finished card. I still have to re-mount water blocks and do the other cards.














The solder job




The 2pin socket mounted



The cable connected



Installed for testing



The 1st card vcore (VGA1) registering in software @ 0.978v (default 2d volts with VGA tweak disabled)

[FS~Phat]

All 4 cards successfully modded and tested!
Blocks and full testing tomorrow!

[FS~Phat]

All up and running 1st Go! Pheeeww!!!!

Here's the Koolance block installed on the R4E along with CPU and Ram blocks.







Here's the whole board assembled for checking.






















Installed and running!!!!!!!!!!!!










Now off to tweak!!!!!!!!!

[FS~Phat]

Mission Accomplished!
CPU 5Ghz @ 1.55v max temp 78c
GPUs 1000/2200 @ 1.32v max temp 55c
Peak power draw PSU1 1300W PSU2 850W (at wall)

Not sure if I can really go any further than this and I've achieved the holy grail of 1000 on the GPUs!

Ill do some CoD benching now!!!

3dmk11 P23133 http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2778260

[335th_GRAthos]

Eheem... the last pictures seem a lot darker Phat. Is it because the fuses in your house burnt when you powered it up???? LOL!


Nice stuff!!!!


~S~

[FS~Phat]

I was playing COD for an hour today in 6048x1080 surround which pushes all 4 GPUs to 100% constantly.

It pushed the GPU core temps to 61c and water temp to 51c out of the GPUs and 47c after cooling in the radiators. This was after 1 hour. The CPU wasnt much better at 42c after CPU and 40c after cooling.

Ambient temp in my room is about 28c at the moment.
CPU idles at 40c with 35c water & peaks at 75c with 40c water
GPUs idle at 34c with 34c water & peaks at 61c with 47c water

The system was rock solid and stable drawing a constant 1800Ws from the PSU's during that time.

You should have felt the hot air coming out the exhaust fans! Almost as hot as factory GPU air coolers when on max load! Ambient temp in my room went up to about 32c.

Also did a proper noise level test at ear height (sitting next to it) and the system makes 36dbA at idle and 46dbA at full noise. A few people asked a while ago and I didnt have a meter capable of going below 50dbA.. I bought the most expensive iphone App ive ever seen! Signal Scope Pro for $80. So there you have it.

Subjectively that means it sounds about twice as loud under full load compared to idle but it's actually pretty tolerable really!
The joys of having an Aquaero 5 XT controller system!

Oh and it's barely liftable at 52Kgs!!! (114 pounds)