[Project]: SR-2 Build (No name yet)

4/2/2011 I carelessly dropped my 90 lb BLACKBIRD-002 about 1 ft to the floor, and the 3.3 lb graphics card snapped the poor PCI-E port on my 790i. I performed a last ditch PCI-Ectomy, but 790i's won't run without a graphics card in slot 1, so I have to replace it.
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000038.jpg

4/7/2011 I decided that I'd rather do a full upgrade, because the 790i has never liked playing nice with my G19 and X-Fi Titanium, and when I found a pair of used Xeon X5650s on ebay for a steal, I knew it was time to set my sights on an SR-2.

So without further ado, here's what I've collected so far:
2 Intel Xeon X5650s, gently used, "Intel Confidential" - $425 each
EVGA Classified SR-2 on the way, in the meantime, I have a scale printout of it, for reference.
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000039.jpg

Some parts leftover from my BLACKBIRD-002 Dedication Edition, which I'll gradually replace:
2 sticks of Corsair Dominator CM3X2G1600C8D4
ToPower PowerBird-1100, and a second set of cables
WD VelociRaptor 300gb 10k rpm
WD 500gb 7.2k RPM for storage

And finally, a pair of ASUS MARS GTX295s with Bitspower waterblocks. (I installed one of the waterblocks almost a year ago, just never got around to ordering the rest of the WC supplies.)
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000047.jpg


This time around, I'm gonna do it right, I'm just gonna have to do it in stages, as money trickles in.

More pictures forthcoming, as I get more stuff, and by request.

Build log also posted at:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=954141

Subscribed. Will you be folding?

I had WCG up and running back when I had both my GPUs in, but between putting the WB on the one gpu, and reinstalling my OS countless times. I haven't donated any comp time since.

I'm definitely going to put this new comp to good use.

Have you though of a case yet mine is slowing going together...

Love the 2 Asus Mars.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by =[PULSAR]=

Have you though of a case yet mine is slowing going together...

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I've been following Mick64's case since last year. He entered into the Phobya competition, alongside some other really incredible cases, but it doesn't look like any of them (including Mick64s) support HPTX.

I also really like LittleDevil's PC-V8

But I'm probably going to end up with a Xigmatek Elysium, when they release.

Until I make a decision, I'll just build it on top of some anti-static plastic.

Dont put your mobo on top of anti-static plastic just use cardboard/motherboard box.

:eek: I wouldnt put it on anti-static plastic (as in the type that mobo's come in) as its actually conductive... thats why its anti-static.

Good to know, thanks.

I finally took a good picture of my other GPU waterblock:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000054.jpg

And here it is.. Mmm

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000073.jpg


Now I just need to buy the rest of the cooling supplies and get it up and going, tabletop style.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JTF195

Good to know, thanks.

I finally took a good picture of my other GPU waterblock:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000054.jpg

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LOL @ that eve hypo. I can't believe nobody else liked it enough to comment on it. Well, I like it.

Agreed. I approve of the eve. Now all you need is more adam.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cityofglass88

Agreed. I approve of the eve. Now all you need is more adam.

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Oh, I think I've got that covered.
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000088.jpg

I'm trying to determine if I should go with 120mm or 140mm rads/fans

The TweakTown guy in the video said it supports 4x120s, but I did some comparative measurements with these pictures:

An HDD is about 10cm wide,
http://cdn5.tweaktown.com/news/1/8/18752_04.png
and a PSU is about 15cm wide
http://cdn5.tweaktown.com/news/1/8/18752_05.png

It looks like it'll hold a 3x140 rad.

Posting these a little late, as I just had a chance to upload them

I got my second waterblock installed:

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000108.jpg

My fittings and tubing were delivered:

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000122.jpg

and a nice pic of the cards ready for tubing:

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000125.jpg



My Koolance RP-450X2 Dual Bay Res, 2x Koolance D5s, 420 Rad/fans, and waterblocks should all arrive today, so more pictures in a bit.

Beautiful

I realized I didn't have anything to cut the tubing with, and I was having quite a bit of trouble with the fittings (my fingers still hurt), so I went out to my local Home Depot and picked up a nice tube cutter, some rubberized gloves, a pair of wrenches, and some 3-in-1 oil:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000130.jpg
The result: I was able to get my first tube in place!
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000131.jpg

And now finally, the rest of the equipment has arrived:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000135.jpg
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000136.jpg
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000138.jpg
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000139.jpg

It's progress time!

Woody time!

I got the motherboard ready, which involved cutting TIM pads into 25 freaking little squares and fumbling them onto the various chips:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000144.jpg

As I was screwing the block down, I had a couple really scary moments where a screw went into the standoff crooked and unscrewed the standoff into the PCB. Finally, after having to take the whole block back off to put standoffs back on - not once, but twice - I got the stupid thing on:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000150.jpg

On top of all that, I'm apparently missing one of the washers for the screws that hold the block on, so I'm going to have to contact Performance-PCs and see if I can get a replacement (unless I find it hiding somewhere)

So I've had this one done for a while:

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000155.jpg


But I hit another few snags. Once again, I seem to have misplaced a small part, this time it's a metal washer for one of the EK waterblocks.

After that, I found out that the 1/2"ID 3/4"OD fittings wouldn't fit properly on the RP-450X2 res, so I'm exchanging it for the newer revision, despite the fact that I don't like the look of it quite as much.

I got ahold of Performance-PCs, who forwarded my email to EK and Bitspower, and they should be able to replace the metal washer for the EK block, courtesy of Eddy at EK. Still waiting on an email back from Bitspower about the one I lost from their block.

On top of all that, I ran out of tubing, and dinged up a couple of the fittings pretty badly, even though I thought my crescent wrench was pretty well padded with that bandage tape.

I obviously need to buy a new one with a legit rubber coating. Any suggestions?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JTF195

After that, I found out that the 1/2"ID 3/4"OD fittings wouldn't fit properly on the RP-450X2 res, so I'm exchanging it for the newer revision, despite the fact that I don't like the look of it quite as much.

I got ahold of Performance-PCs, who forwarded my email to EK and Bitspower, and they should be able to replace the metal washer for the EK block, courtesy of Eddy at EK. Still waiting on an email back from Bitspower about the one I lost from their block.

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explain please...

how is the fitting not fitting inside the RP-452x?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NaeKuh

explain please...

how is the fitting not fitting inside the RP-452x?

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It's not the RP-452X2, it's the older model RP-450X2, which has the holes a little closer to each other.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JTF195

It's not the RP-452X2, it's the older model RP-450X2, which has the holes a little closer to each other.

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ahhh so the gap between the fittings is too tight..

:up:

if u bought it at koolance they take returns up to 30 days...

so u could swap out the newer one like u said.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NaeKuh

ahhh so the gap between the fittings is too tight..

:up:

if u bought it at koolance they take returns up to 30 days...

so u could swap out the newer one like u said.

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I got it at Performance-PCs, but they're gonna let me RMA it for the newer one ;)

hey JTF.....just a quick question...was getting the block on the board a pain in the anus? im using the same board but im not too sure whether to get the block for it or no....Ive tried WC'ing two separate boards before (not sr-2's) and ended up burning both of them....

Taking the stock cooler off was simple, but it was a pain in the ass to cut and align all the TIM pads for all the little chips on the board. And after I had the cooler on the board, I had a little bit of trouble getting the screws to go into the standoffs straight, but with a little concentration, I got it done, and overall it wasn't too bad.

I shipped the res back to P-PCs today, nothing really new other than that.


I also just wanna throw out the beacon that I'm looking for a Koolance PSU-1300ATX-12N: http://www.koolance.com/product_arch...product_id=665

Unfortunately, the PSU-1300ATX-12N has been discontinued since last year, so I have no idea where to even begin looking for one.


If anyone has one, or knows where I might be able to find one, I'd love to know.

Subbed.

Very jealous, have always wanted to do an SR-2 build :up:

Can't wait to see how it turns out.

-PB

So, I decided to plug everything in and do a really really short bootup without any active cooling - just long enough to check if it would POST and get into the BIOS. I'm pretty glad I did, because my graphics card failed. Luckily, I had a pretty good idea what I had done wrong. I figured I'd probably put the internal SLi bridges on backwards, the same mistake I made when I installed the first waterblock.
So I tore the damn thing back apart, and sure enough, I had the bridges plugged in to the wrong sides, and let me just say, getting the DVI ports into the slots on the PCI bracket, while simultaneously keeping the SLi bridges connected is SUCH a pain.
So I finally got everything back together, plugged it all in, booted up, loaded up the BIOS, and promptly shut down before the CPUs reached 60C


On another note, I've had all the fittings off for a couple days, and I cut out all the green o-rings that came with them, and I'm going to buy a bunch of red ones, just because.
But I'm debating the idea of buying a whole bunch of rotary angle fittings, and go with the "rigid lines" style, as opposed to the "curvy loops" style.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JTF195

So, I decided to plug everything in and do a really really short bootup without any active cooling - just long enough to check if it would POST and get into the BIOS. I'm pretty glad I did, because my graphics card failed. Luckily, I had a pretty good idea what I had done wrong. I figured I'd probably put the internal SLi bridges on backwards, the same mistake I made when I installed the first waterblock.
So I tore the damn thing back apart, and sure enough, I had the bridges plugged in to the wrong sides, and let me just say, getting the DVI ports into the slots on the PCI bracket, while simultaneously keeping the SLi bridges connected is SUCH a pain.
So I finally got everything back together, plugged it all in, booted up, loaded up the BIOS, and promptly shut down before the CPUs reached 60C


On another note, I've had all the fittings off for a couple days, and I cut out all the green o-rings that came with them, and I'm going to buy a bunch of red ones, just because.
But I'm debating the idea of buying a whole bunch of rotary angle fittings, and go with the "rigid lines" style, as opposed to the "curvy loops" style.

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I am looking forward to your results and thoughts, regarding the SR-2.

Great build!

So I got impatient and slapped together a really basic loop, just to get the rig up and running
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000178.jpg

Been overclocking all day, Trying to get to a 200 bclk.

What is your overall impression with the SR-2?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theseeker

What is your overall impression with the SR-2?

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It's pretty awesome so far.

I just wish the rest of the hardware was better ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JTF195

It's pretty awesome so far.

I just wish the rest of the hardware was better ;)

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Which hardware in particular?

I have the R3E with a 990x, and it looks good on air. However, I have only used it for about 45 minutes.

I am trying to convince myself to buy the SR-2 and then I get confused regarding the CPU's. The W3680's look great and the X5600's make my head swim. WTF, to do?:shrug:

Compare:

990X: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52585
W3690: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52586
X5690: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52576

The only difference between them, besides name and price, is the number of QPI links they have.

Unfortunately, that's the difference between the processor you can use in the SR-2, and the ones you can't.

You have to use a processor that has 2 QPI links, and there's a couple reasons for that.

In order to use two processors, they have to communicate with the QPI bus as usual, but they also have to communicate directly with each other. But even if you don't want to use two, (or you just don't want to lay out the money for the 5500/5600s) the orientation of the QPI links on the dual socket boards is reversed, and the first QPI link is actually the one that links the two processors together, so if you use a processor that one has one link, it can't even communicate with the board, rendering it useless.

The other major factor is that Xeons don't have unlocked multipliers, so all the overclocking is done with the bclk, and the higher end processors with bigger multipliers will OC a lot higher, because the bclk can only go so high (180-200 usually)

Hope that helps

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theseeker

Which hardware in particular?

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I only have two sticks of 1600MHz C8 dual channel RAM, I don't have an SSD, my graphics cards don't support DX11 (though they are otherwise quite powerful), and my PSU is only 1100w.

Even the CPUs could be better, though for the price, I'm not complaining.

I can't get 200 bclk stable, so I'm trying 190 right now. Running a 24 hour stability test on LinX. 2.5 hours in with no errors so far.

Yea its a bclk issue tried getting mine stable for WCG and 195ish was the sweet spot, cooling and voltages weren't an issue just max it would go on water. Think it was (22x196) I'll take 4.3Ghz on 12 physical cores :D

What were your voltages?

Its not up and running right now still waiting on enermax magmas I ordered a month ago, but I believe it was 1.375-1.4vcore and 1.325-1.3VTT on X5670s.

Ok, I might be able to lower some of my voltages then.

I was using this as a reference: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...-sr-2-review/4

Got my CPUs OC'd stable for 24 hours.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1788950

http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h...3990Stable.jpg

Got some new stuff, it's all starting to come together.

My new reservoir, the updated version that'll work with the 1/2" ID 3/4" OD fittings:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000218.jpg
24Gb of Corsair Dominator GT - 2000MHz (If I can break through the 200 bclk wall)
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000220.jpg
Some nice UV red Bitspower fan grills:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000222.jpg
RAM installed, looking sexy:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000224.jpg
Fans installed too, just for kicks, only until I get the EK waterblocks I'm gonna stick on them:
http://i544.photobucket.com/albums/h.../WP_000225.jpg

The build is really shaping up, but I keep letting more parts sneak into the equation. I have a 240Gb Vertex 3 Max IOPS Edition on the way

wow.. you just spent more on this build than i have made in my entire life..

/facepalm


so amazing. im quite speechless

That looks so sweet! Wish I could go SR-2, but this time around I will have to stick with a single chip. Keep posting updates, loving this build.