[PROJECT] Atlas Folder

[AtlasShrugged]

Project "Atlas Folder" is the name of my first ever water build. I'm starting more or less from scratch to build a reasonably quiet and very powerful dual loop system that can run 24/7, and I'm dedicating the effort to my father Tony.

My goals are twofold: One, to build a strong gaming rig upon which to game (EQ2 mostly) and two, to run Folding@Home's GPU client on my three EVGA GTX280 SSC cards simultaneously.

Running F@H is the reason that I want the computer to run 24/7 and a lot of people do that, however, for me and many others F@H strikes particularly close to home. My father has Huntington's Disease, a hereditary genetic disease that is slowly eroding him away day after day. I won't detail F@H (http://folding.stanford.edu/) or Huntington's Disease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntington%27s_disease) other than to provide these links. F@H is pretty widely known in these circles and HD is, like many genetic disorders, cruel and terminal.

This is my first build project of this magnitude so I'm welcome to any constructive criticism. I've been reading this and other forums for several weeks now getting a feel for what some of the best components and vendors are and I feel like I've done a reasonably good job of parts buying.

The Goal
A large mildly overclocked dual loop system with one loop consisting of CPU/NB and the other loop consisting of three GPUs which can be run unattended 24/7 with automatic shutdown features in case of fan/pump failure, abnormal temps, etc.

The Loops
1) Reservoir -> Pump -> CPU -> NB -> Radiator -> Back to Reservoir
2) Reservoir -> Pump -> GPU1 -> GPU2 -> GPU3 -> Radiator -> Radiator -> Back to Reservoir

The Parts As Links
Electronic Components
EVGA 790i Ultra Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188025)
EVGA GTX280 SSC Graphics Cards x3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130368)
Intel QX9770 Quad Core Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115051)
4GB SuperTalent 1800MHz DDR3 RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609274)
Dell 3008WFP 30" LCD Monitor (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Monitors/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=223-4890)
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153054)
HT OMEGA CLARO Plus+ 7.1 Sound Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271003)
Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speaker System (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121120)

Water Cooling Components
GTX280 water blocks - Danger Den Tieton x3 (http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=353&cat=18&page=1)
Swiftech MCP355 12v DC Pump x2 (http://www.swiftech.com/products/mcp355.asp)
XSPC Laing DDC Reservoir Pump Attachment x2 (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7226/ex-pmp-62/XSPC_Laing_DDC_Reservoir_Pump_Attachment_-_Laing_DDC-1T1TPlus_MCP-350355_No_Fittings.html?tl=g30c107s152)
Thermochill PA120.3 x3 (http://www.thermochill.com/pa1203.php)
D-TEK FuZion v2 CPU Block (http://www.dtekcustoms.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=210) with nozzle and quad core mid-plate
EK Waterblocks EK-NB/SB 5 (http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ekwaek5ac.html)
120mm Yate Loon D12SM-12 Case Fans x12 (http://www.petrastechshop.com/12yalod1cafa1.html)
Danger Den FB (Fat Boy) G 1/4 Fittings x10 (http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=318)
Danger Den Micro Stubby SLI Fittings x6 (http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=330)
Danger Den Thermochill (Fat Boy) G 3/8 Fittings x6 (http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=352)
Petra's "PT_Nuke" Biocide (http://www.petrastechshop.com/pepcobi1.html)
Tygon 1/2" x 3/4" tubing (30 feet) (http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/ty1id3odlatu.html)
Herbie Clips (30) (http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/heclnyhoclsi.html)

Hardware Components
Mountain Mods Ascension case with Trinity Front and Horizon back (http://www.mountainmods.com/ascension-cyo-choose-your-own-p-483.html) ("BDS")

Things not yet purchased
Fan Controllers

So there's the list, I'm as confident in it as I can be without having received all of the components and tried to fit them together yet. I think it's a solid list of high quality parts judging from what I've been able to research.

Decision Justifications, Self Critique and Free Association
First, I have this computer running on air at the moment while I'm waiting for the MM case and WC components. I've run three instances of F@H GPU client on my three GTX280 SSC cards and they get pretty hot under the load (sometimes ~90*C) and the fans run 100% constantly which is somewhat loud. Obviously the GPU load would benefit from water cooling, which is why I elected to put two PA120.3s in the GPU loop. Since I have a PCI sound card I'd like to free up a PCI slot by water cooling the GPUs also, which seems doable with the Danger Den GTX280 WB the "Trieton" (http://www.dangerden.com/store/product.php?productid=353&cat=0&page=1), or the EK GTX280 Block (http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7827/ex-blc-500/Ek_nVidia_GeForce_260_GTX_280_GTX_VGA_Liquid_Cooli ng_Block_-_Acetal_EK-FC280_GTX_SLI.html).

What I don't know is if the two rad GPU loop needs two pumps... the MCP355s with the XSPC tops are are pretty good, we'll see. It can't be worse than 90*C with fans on full.

I don't have an air flow design yet. I suppose I'm going to put the three rads in the front of the MM case with the Yate fans in the back of the case pulling cool air in and the fans in the front on the rads pushing warm air out of the case through the rads... This doesn't seem right but it doesn't make sense to pull cool air through the rads, heat it up and put it in the case with the electronics right? Need to research this one some more.

As for GPU blocks I'm waiting to see what Danger Den has for their Trieton in a couple of days. They're adding a backplate to it to cool the RAM which I'd like, but it may not be a single slot solution anymore.

I guess that's it for now, I'll post a pic here of my three GTX280 SSC cards and get more serious about pics when the MM case and WC parts get here and this project starts moving in ernest.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

AtlasShrugged

Mediocre iPhone photo:
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8592/img0091br9.jpg

[Blundie]

Wow, that is just cruel :ROTF: 3x280's? holy crap :D

[Pellepel]

wow insane hardware, welcome to XS :up:

[AtlasShrugged]

Let me be the first to Welcome you into the "elite" MM Ascension - BDS fraternity...

Thanks RRR! :D

I really like the layout of the BDS because I need the additional rad space and because of the horizontal motherboard tray. The weight of three GPUs and their blocks would put a strain on vertical PCIe slots that I'd rather not have. Horizontal ftw! :up:

Question, Should I wire the fans and pumps to a second PSU? I have plenty of them around.

As for my father, thanks for your nice comments. He's been declining for years and when I discovered F@H a couple of years ago I quit my SETI team and started my own little family folding team. In the last few days of just messing around with my GPUs and F@H my GPUs have shot to the top of my folding team. They've passed Dual Core computers that have been folding for months.

AtlasShrugged

[septim]

Welcome to XtremeSystems! Looking forward to another BDS Ascension build.

[lolhalol]

this sounds like its gona be a sick build... and for a worthy cause as well... gogogog man cant wait for updates.

[AtlasShrugged]

Well over the course of the week many of my parts have been trickling in so I thought I'd post an update.

Yesterday I received my Mountain Mods Ascension "BDS" case and I assembled it last night in my company's manufacturing room. Assembly start to finish with about four beers in me took about an hour and a half total. The first 20 minutes or so was in removing the packaging... and that's not an exaggeration.

My first impression with the MM case is pretty good. I ordered the black anodized version and the finish is quite nice. I was very surprised how light the whole kit is, and how rigid it becomes once it's fully assembled. The motherboard tray doesn't seem to have any hard mount to the support bracket so I'll either add one or simply pad it somehow. That's a nit though. The whole thing looks pretty nice and high quality all around.

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/4193/img0098qg0.jpg

Partial assembly:

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5219/img0100fu0.jpg


I got down to installing the casters and found that the nuts and bolts that hold the casters on didn't have any washers. I was concerned about them loosening over time without the right hardware so I decided to install some split washers along with them. Finding the right split washers was a major pain too. I had to turn around. Man I was sore today.

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/3474/img0103xn3.jpg

The finished product:

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/1061/img0104rm4.jpg

Well it's not a lot, but it's a start. :)

AtlasShrugged

[AtlasShrugged]

Today I received my orders from Sidewinder and FrozenCPU. This included my pumps, tubing, reservoirs, tubing cutters, clips, CPU water block, NB water block and three PA120.3 radiators.

With the parts available there wasn't a whole lot I could do, but I did put the XSPC tops on the pumps. Hopefully this weekend will be more interesting. :)

http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/7600/img0110zw0.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4777/img0114ji5.jpg

[Breezyjr]

looks good.... and welcome to the "club." The BDS Ascension club, that is..:welcome:

And, I know what you mean about the saran wrap.... I remember opening my MM Duality case, and thinking.... "they must have stock in plastic wrap" heh

Frustrating when you get down to those itty bitty pieces all wrap up.... ARGH.

heh

Anywho... looking forward to the build... and really looking forward to the 3x280s..... I've been thinking of the setup for myself.

later,
breezyjr

[Fragger]

For a 24/7 machine I would of used D5 pumps instead of DDC's which arent known for their longeviety.

*Sits back to watch the fireworks*

[SeanB]

good call, but im sure two will be fine, if he starts to fold with this beast,it shouldnt matter :)
watching this, good luck

[WhiteFireDragon]

wow that is some REALLY nice hardware. how much did the whole setup cost you? few paychecks huh? and it looks like you've done your research on all this already. i'm not sure i would trust a thermaltake PSU though. PC P&C or corsair are a little better, even if it's max wattage is a little lower. you system draws about 700w at 100% load from everything, so i think HX1000w would be good. maybe a few others can give their opinions on this too. and one last thing, i know i'm just hopping on the bandwagon, but i think the prelude soundcard would be better for gaming than that claro. other than that, really looking forward to your build! GL

i too pray for you dad...

[N3it1]

Is this supposed to be a worklog but its slowly turning into "how i can praise mountain mods best" thread?
I mean yeh,the thread opener got great cause,great setup but why i see almost every worklog same persons praising MM even if the worklog dont even have MM case?
Just my 2cents,reading this forum alot,not so much post's but reading.
Dont want to start flamewar here but thats just how i feel.Anyways good luck for your father and im gonna watch how this build goes.

[MomijiTMO]

Yeah I hear you but promoting a brand isn't against the rules despite how fricken irratating it may be to every person alive. Fanboys are a part of comp tech and no one seems to care about Intel and nVidia fanboys which are much more rampant than MM fanboys.



Great looking case and I can't wait for this beast to be completed.

[BNDMOD]

My godddd... i need to see this project... so suscribed!!!

[AtlasShrugged]

Been working on the machine this weekend. Some of you may have seen another thread I started to show my Tri-SLI GTX280 cards.

For my own reasons I wanted to have access to my PCI slots. I rooted around pretty thoroughly on the internet but couldn't find out beyond a shadow of a doubt if any of the available GTX280 water blocks would truly make the card single-slot skinny and allow access to the adjacent PCI slots. I went with the DD water blocks because they seemed to have the best odds of having that be true... and it is. If you want the details and more photos read this thread (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=196174).

I will add one photo that shows the DD block edge-on. Pretty amazing I think:

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/5216/1001807gz1.jpg

And another that shows my AS5 thermal paste application. I installed the WB and removed it once to check the coverage. This pattern was near-perfect so I stuck with it on all three.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9756/1001809qx1.jpg

How well it cools I don't know yet, but it can't be worse than air. Folks all over the internet are complaining about how hot the GTX260 and GTX280 get.

So ok, I'm a newbie to all of this and I've been reading the last few weeks. Learning a lot here, I sure am glad that XS was here or I never would have had the courage to do this. One of the things I learned was that I should flush my radiators. So I flushed them with scalding hot water for a few minutes and then filled a sink with hot water and let them soak for two hours. Once again experience wins:

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/4782/1001811lx4.jpg

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/581/1001813la6.jpg

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time this evening soldering my fans into 3-fan groups like Big_Daddy demonstrates below.

Yes it looks neat but holy wow how tedious it is. In the future I'm going to send mine to Big_Daddy with a twenty-dollar bill and let him do it.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2076/2474550076_4d328f1ccd_o.jpg

Here's another shot of the Tri-SLI configuration. Tonight I'm wiring the pumps and getting my ducks in a row. With luck I'll be getting wet tomorrow.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/6091/1001822gl4.jpg

Until the morrow.

Atlas

[AtlasShrugged]

Started cutting tubing.

Couldn't find any rule of thumb on whether warm water should enter the top or bottom of the rad. With relatively small temperature deltas I couldn't imagine that it would matter a whole lot so I went with what routed best: warm entering the bottom.

Opinions welcome.

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/21/1001838oz5.jpg

Atlas

[WhiteFireDragon]

it wont matter. based on your cooling hardware, it's more than sufficient so water temps should be almost the same anywhere in the loop. you wont see any performance gains in reversing any tubings

[AtlasShrugged]

Ok, took it all out and built the GPU loop up on the table top:

I poured some distilled water in the reservoir and to my surprise water started running through the hoses... I don't know why I wasn't ready for that but never having done this I was surprised.

Added a bit more water and bled it manually and then turned the pump on. Again I was surprised. Water started flowing through my loop and naturally there was a lot of bubbles in it. I just stood there watching the water rush around my approximately $2,500.00 in video cards and water blocks and just kept laughing and saying to myself over and over "What the f*ck am I doing?"

I can see why this is addictive.

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/7835/1001851dl3.jpg

Atlas

[SeanB]

" I just stood there watching the water rush around my approximately $2,500.00 in video cards and water blocks and just kept laughing and saying to myself over and over "What the f*ck am I doing?"

I can see why this is addictive.

Atlas "

Haha, i think thats what i did the first time too :)

[Mick64]

:welcome:

Yet another monster PC! :clap:

I'm soooo jealous..:rolleyes:

[MomijiTMO]

Added a bit more water and bled it manually and then turned the pump on. Again I was surprised. Water started flowing through my loop and naturally there was a lot of bubbles in it. I just stood there watching the water rush around my approximately $2,500.00 in video cards and water blocks and just kept laughing and saying to myself over and over "What the f*ck am I doing?"
I think you like water Atlas. How about some more :up:

[capreppy]

Sub'd

[AtlasShrugged]

The short update is that I installed the electricity and powered Atlas up last night. At first I was quite pleased, Vista 64 booted right up and temps looked great. :up: I went into Everest and was watching the temps which were all below 45*C except for the NB/SB which I have not water cooled yet.

Everest reported my QX9770 CPU cores were idling around at 41,38,35,42*C and both of my GTX280 video cards were idling around 40*C. Oh wait a minute... both of my video cards? I have three... uh oh. :eek:

Device manager shows three video cards but one is reporting "Error code 43" and has an exclamation point on it. Not good. Did some research on error code 43 and man is it vague, but it seems to have to do with multiple video cards in a system that require different drivers. Some people resolve it by reinstalling drivers or OS. So I'm thinking ok, perhaps I've changed the order of the cards and messed up the IRQ's or something. So I play around in BIOS a bit, no joy.

Eventually I installed XP Pro SP2 on the machine. Still no third card but the error code that XP is throwing is different. Error Code 10 (device failed to start). Yuck. Did some research on that and it's surprisingly common also, but was unable to resolve it.

Well the middle video card is the one with the issue, so nVidia still would let me to into two-way SLI. I put the cards in SLI mode and ran RTHDRIBL (http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/)for a few minutes to see how my GPUs did under load. Max temp under load was 49*C, so I downloaded ATITOOL and ran its 3D mode and was able to just barely hit 51*C with it. Temp in both Everest and EVGA's Precision utility was both flipping back and forth between 50 and 51*C.

So temps look terrific but I have a troublemaker.

By that time it was quite late so I had to hit the sack, I guess tonight I'll take it out of the machine, unmount the water block and see if the card recovers... If not I'm down one GTX280. :(

Atlas

[AtlasShrugged]

Ok, so I took my three GTX280 cards out of the machine and disassembled the loop. Learned the potential value of having a drain plug.

From my debugging session last night I was 75% sure that the dead video card was the middle one of the three. I took that card and stuck a couple of fatboy barbs on it and put it back in the vid loop solo. It looked so lonely. :(

Crappy iPhone photo:

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/7113/img0138vi5.jpg

I fired the machine up on this video card and it spewed trash all over my monitor; it was definitely the one having problems.

Took the water block off and cleaned the AS5 off of everything and walked the card over my our microscope station (as I said, I'm fortunate that I'm in the electronics business) and took a long hard look at all the components on the board. I couldn't find any mechanical damage at all.

I took the bare card into my office and plugged it into my desktop computer. I figured if I flipped my computer on and saw garbage without the water block mounted that I would probably have damaged some of the balls under one or more of the RAM chips. I figured the problem to be RAM for two reasons:


The card was giving me a green light and Everest had been able to report its temps, which meant that the main processor was likely to be fully functional
When you see colorful garbage all over your monitor it tends to be RAM


So I flipped on my desktop and what do you know I saw POST text! It got to Vista kicking into graphics mode before I turned it off. Yeah it had gotten pretty hot with no cooling even for 30 seconds...

Ok so it looked like it may have recovered... So I took it back to the bench and put the water block back on it... gingerly and not so tight this time. Put it back into the machine, hooked it back into the vid loop and powered it up.

YES! The card seems to have fully recovered. :up:

Even with bubbles in the loop that card is barely hitting 55*C running RTHDRIBL:

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/1323/img0139zh0.jpg

Now to put the two other cards back into loops and see what we get...

Wish me luck! :p:

Atlas

[WhiteFireDragon]

alright then, GL! weird how it just came back to life. hope this doesn't affect the long term reliability of it doing it again...

[AtlasShrugged]

Yep I have the same worry of course, but a card with the possibility of dying in the future is better than a dead card. ;)

Atlas

[mpower1001]

Jeez!!! That is some serious GPU power you got there. I wonder what kind of FPS your gonna get running crysis.

[AtlasShrugged]

I've never played Crysis, I suppose I could download and test it though.

[Marvin_The_Martian]

I really like your build, and think it might deserves a post in the xs fah section even if you don't fold for us. It's nice to share experiences and and you seem to have enough, personal professional and extreme :toast:

[AtlasShrugged]

Tonight's update is the first one actually performed on Atlas Folder.

I'm calling the machine "done for now". Things I lack and will certainly do in the next few days and weeks are:


NB/SB on water
Fan/Pump Controller and Monitor
5.25" drive blanks
Two additional fans on the back of the machine


Tonight I did a clean install of Vista SP1 and cable management. In the photos below you might noticed that the fan cables aren't that neat... That's because I anticipate putting a fan controller in and I wanted to leave them as long as possible and not solder them together until I do that.

Thanks again for the support that I've received here on XS, I'll definitely do my best to contribute here when I can.

Here's a screenshot of my idle temps:

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/654/atlastempsyn5.jpg

GPU3 runs hotter than the others, and the difference is larger under load. Also on my todo list is to disassemble that card and see if it's a TIM issue.

And Atlas Folder himself:

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7831/1001884zg9.jpg

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/7425/1001889yo5.jpg

It's really not a terribly elaborate build, but for my first time it was enough. Now that I have a lot more knowledge and more tools on hand adding NB/SB and maybe MOSFETs really doesn't scare me at all any more.

Atlas

[Dangals]

Looks great!! Fantastic job you have done with the tri-sli and the MM case:up:

[disruptfam]

i'am currently have the same problem you had with your gfx... but mine isn't coming back to life lol...

very nice build very clean

oh btw i see you have a 2707 i got mine the other day and i love it :)

[AtlasShrugged]

Atlas folded overnight with my new GPU overclock and my QX9770 running stable at 4.2GHz. I have not tried to push my processor harder yet, it's running the SMP version of F@H with temperatures between 45*C and 49*C on all cores so I'm very happy with that. Still have GPU3 getting quite hot, right now it's at 84*C while the other two GPUs are at 53*C and 54*C under F@H load. Definitely need to pop that card out and have a look this weekend.

Below is a screenshot of FahMon displaying my three GPUs and my SMP all running on this one machine. You can see a total PPD of 24399.95 currently... There's probably a bit of room left, I'd like to be topping 25k PPD on this single machine. :up:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9267/fahmoncp4.jpg

[jimwah]

Amazing build & a huge contribution to the FAH project Atlas - 20k+ out of one box is the stuff folders dream of :D

[AtlasShrugged]

Latest update:

26,164 PPD

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1797/ppd1ms5.jpg

Atlas

[Marvin_The_Martian]

Hey are you going to buy me a new keyboard?

I destroyed this one by drewling on it so much :wtf: