Project Ravens' Nest

[J7SC_Orion]

...time to pick and choose the 1/2 x 3/4 fittings for both Ravens' Nest 'A' setups. Some of the fittings are not in the pic as they're currently on the test bench used for leak-testing

 

 

[J7SC_Orion]

The dual mobos on the front of Raven 'A' are cooled by a total of 42 Arctic P12 pwm pst rad fans (push-pull)...ever tried to wire up 42 fans ? 

  

 

 

[Bastiaan_NL]

That's a lot of cooling hardware! 

I've been working on the new system with 16 fans(RGB+PWM) on the front radiators alone, and that's not something I like to do. 42 is an even bigger pain in the ...

[J7SC_Orion]

On 15/10/2021 at 10:49, Bastiaan_NL said:

That's a lot of cooling hardware! 

I've been working on the new system with 16 fans(RGB+PWM) on the front radiators alone, and that's not something I like to do. 42 is an even bigger pain in the ...

 

..."42 is an even bigger pain in the ... " - yup, it most certainly is was  ! But I wired up all 42 of them (via fan hubs) in two banks, one for each system. Amazingly, they all work as intended  Daily setups are:

- 1340x60+ rads for the 5950x / 3090 Strix / 3x D5s

- 1200x60+ rads for the 3950x / 6900XT / 2x D5s

 

Main cooling tubes have Koolance QD4s, so I can change / add to either of the two banks of rads. Each bank's fans can be disconnected via just one SATA; and all the cooling for both mobos is mounted to my little mobile table /wheels.

 

 

  

 

[J7SC_Orion]

...and all the tubing for both systems from the mobile cooling table is complete as well now, up to the QD4 transitions into the case. Given the massive rad volumes of a combined of 2520x60+ and the 5x D5s, I will try to prefill the two loops as much as I can with Mayhems XL UV Blue and about 30% deionized water...otherwise bleeding air will be a long-term affair...

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

After test-fitting everything on Raven_A, teardown for cleaning, then final assembly starts.

 

...dual XSPC Ion reservoirs, backlit, glass facing the front...

 

  

 

...dual vertical GPU brackets for dual X570 mobos on the front; Koolance QD4s lower left...

 

 

   

Meanwhile, Raven_B (also 2x mobos, but different arrangement with one up front and one out back) is humming away, powering a big LG 55

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

More nitty-gritty stuff, such as easy-to-reach power / reset / HDD light / triple USB connectivity setup for the second mobo...

 

 

 

Also, with 'two sets' for everything in a complex build project, it's a good idea to label things 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

...almost there  ...will clean + update build log soon

 

  

  

 

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

Some new pics of 'Ravens Nest B'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sir Beregond]

Hadn't checked in in a while, but looking good!

[J7SC_Orion]

1 hour ago, Sir Beregond said:

Hadn't checked in in a while, but looking good!

 

Thanks !   ...After everything (ie loops, temps etc) checked out and has been running fine for a while now, I got next weekend reserved for final visual clean-up such as additional cable management and such..

[Bastiaan_NL]

Looking good!
And good to hear that everything is working like it should. Good luck with the visual clean-up, always a lot of fun to do  

[J7SC_Orion]

On 26/11/2021 at 09:12, Bastiaan_NL said:

Looking good!
And good to hear that everything is working like it should. Good luck with the visual clean-up, always a lot of fun to do  

 

...visual clean-up is the best part, not least as this is a work-and-play combo I sit across and look at when in my home office. That's also another reason I went with an overkill cooling setup - for all its performance, it is whisper-quiet. 

 

...got a gigglebit/s symmetric up/down upgrade yesterday, noting that I use both fixed IPs (dev- and back-up servers for work) and dynamic ones (for play), not to mention tv-over-internet.

 

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

Rhythm & Blues 

 

 

[J7SC_Orion]

Added some stocking stuffers - a.k.a. NVME drives - to both systems in Raven_A and transferred the respective Windows installs.

 

 

As these things can get 'toasty', I replaced the stock mobo pads for the M.2 covers with Thermalright 12.8 w/mk and added some MX5 on top of that...temps are great.

[J7SC_Orion]

...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by J7SC_Orion

[J7SC_Orion]

As mentioned, Raven_A and Raven_B are work-play combos in my home-office, in addition to some light-duty and back-up servers located here with fixed IPs. That setup became really important in the ongoing pandemic...  With that in mind, I am now at the limit what my routers and switches are rated for (btw wifi is turned off, everything via Cat7).

 

 

The actual building infrastructure can offer up to 10 Gbps with some additional equipment to be installed here, and 2.5Gbps with just a phone call...but while the two mobos in Raven_A have dual network ports (including 2.5 Gbps), I'll need to upgrade the  routers and switches which are all 1 Gbps. For now though, 1 Gbps up/down with low ping and jitter is decent enough. 

[J7SC_Orion]

Final touches on Raven_A / _B included new USB sticks (including Type-C) and a USB-Type C dongle that allow for various other connectivity, apart from USB, such as 1Gbps networking, HDMI 4K/60, SD and Micro SD etc. Such peripherals can make life a lot easier as they're usually the slowest file storage.

 

Here's an expanded table of the earlier PCIe 4.0 drives, this time with all the types of drives present in both Ravens' Nest builds / 4 mobos. FYI, the Verbatim Store'n'Go USB below is many years old and nearly full...but I still use it for smaller files. I'll add some 256 GB VR30 micro-SD speeds later, not least as it carries 5K photo and video files from the GoPro Hero10.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by J7SC_Orion

[Bastiaan_NL]

On 06/01/2022 at 06:39, J7SC_Orion said:

As these things can get 'toasty', I replaced the stock mobo pads for the M.2 covers with Thermalright 12.8 w/mk and added some MX5 on top of that...temps are great.

What is considered 'toasty'? And what are the temps now? Makes me think about my m.2 drives, I never checked those temps..

Those drive read/write speeds, that is crystaldiskmark right? Which settings did you use?

Spoiler

I see 7350MB/s read but only 1629MB/s write for some reason, did a few tests. Version 8.0.4 x64 admin, default, SEQ1M Q8T1, Test count 5, 1GiB, 134/943GiB used max 60°C (thermal taped under mobo cover behind GPU, slot 1), OS drive XPG Gammix S70.
Second drive: 980 Pro is 6228/4937, sounds a lot better...
I tried to find old screenshots from the S70 but no luck.

 

On 08/01/2022 at 17:13, J7SC_Orion said:

1 Gbps up/down with low ping and jitter is decent enough.

Jealous... I can't get more than 10% of that  

[J7SC_Orion]

9 hours ago, Bastiaan_NL said:

What is considered 'toasty'? And what are the temps now? Makes me think about my m.2 drives, I never checked those temps..

Those drive read/write speeds, that is crystaldiskmark right? Which settings did you use?

  Reveal hidden contents

I see 7350MB/s read but only 1629MB/s write for some reason, did a few tests. Version 8.0.4 x64 admin, default, SEQ1M Q8T1, Test count 5, 1GiB, 134/943GiB used max 60°C (thermal taped under mobo cover behind GPU, slot 1), OS drive XPG Gammix S70.
Second drive: 980 Pro is 6228/4937, sounds a lot better...
I tried to find old screenshots from the S70 but no luck.

 

Jealous... I can't get more than 10% of that  

 

..yup, CrystalDiskMark, 'default' settings.

 

On temps, M.2 SSDs run a lot cooler than M.2 NVMEs, especially the latest PCIe 4.0 NVMEs.  Interestingly, the CH8 X570 Dark Hero, which is fanless re. its X570 chipset and which has the WD SN850 2TB in the top M.2 slot is about 15 C cooler when stress tested than the Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB in the CH8 Hero Wifi that does have a chipset fan. Then again, the latter mobo has two separate Samsung 1TB drives while the Dark Hero only uses one M.2 slot for the 2TB WD.

 

...under load and after my mods, temps range from the high 30s C to the high 40s C - a lot better than 58 C before  

[Bastiaan_NL]

30 minutes ago, J7SC_Orion said:

...under load and after my mods, temps range from the high 30s C to the high 40s C - a lot better than 58 C before 

That's a big improvement! 

The 980 Pro runs at about 40°C in my system, though that one is the closest to the chipset fan and a bit further away from the 3080Ti heat. 

 

[J7SC_Orion]

..speaking of temps, that big w-cooling setup really helps with some of the benchies (never mind work+play apps) on CPU and GPU.

 

Below is a Unigine Superposition 4K run for the 3950X/6900XT half of Raven_A - 1.218v on the GPU and ~ 450 W custom vbios were good for up to 2860 MHz , while GPU and VRAM temps with 23 C ambient hovered in the low 40s C and Hotspot in the high 50s C  / low 60s C.

 

The 5950X/3090 Strix half can still score a lot higher than that in Superposition 4K, but the 6900XT combo is catching up fast - and 4K is not really its best side...

 

 

 

...may be that's why Homer carries the deed for the house around  

 

 

[J7SC_Orion]

As the Ravens' Nest builds are finally finished, it was time to give the GPUs a bit of a workout to see how they like their new  homes  nests.

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by J7SC_Orion

[iamjanco]

Saw that your experience seems pretty good thus far with the Phanteks block on the 3090 Strix OC and think I'm going to order their block/backplate bundle. Anything I should watch out for when mounting it?

 

I'll be making my own backplate out of 1/8" (0.125") copper plate and adding some additional cooling to it (combo of (e.g.) waterblock mounted directly to the rear memory chips & (e.g.) skived copper heatsink(s) added to the rest of that plate), so having the Phanteks backplate on hand will make laying out the artwork for the copper plate that much easier. 

 

I also thought about using Optimus, but it really isn't an option for me because of primarily (a) their obvious lack of customer service, and; (b) the apparent weeping/seeping issues some have been experiencing since Optimus moved from nickel plating to Cerakote. 

 

Anyway, TIA for whatever you can add.

[J7SC_Orion]

1 hour ago, iamjanco said:

Saw that your experience seems pretty good thus far with the Phanteks block on the 3090 Strix OC and think I'm going to order their block/backplate bundle. Anything I should watch out for when mounting it?

 

I'll be making my own backplate out of 1/8" (0.125") copper plate and adding some additional cooling to it (combo of (e.g.) waterblock mounted directly to the rear memory chips & (e.g.) skived copper heatsink(s) added to the rest of that plate), so having the Phanteks backplate on hand will make laying out the artwork for the copper plate that much easier. 

 

I also thought about using Optimus, but it really isn't an option for me because of primarily (a) their obvious lack of customer service, and; (b) the apparent weeping/seeping issues some have been experiencing since Optimus moved from nickel plating to Cerakote. 

 

Anyway, TIA for whatever you can add.

 

I started out with the EK Nickel-Acrylic block and backplate for the 3090 Strix, but those had multiple quality issues. The Phanteks has been extremely good so far re. quality as well as performance - it has a much larger micro-fin area over the die than the comparable EK and temps in the same loop are noticeably better.

 

Like many vertically mounted RTX3K blocks, they are prone to collect and trap a big air bubble 'at the top left' when viewed from the front.

 

I used the stock Strix backplate which is actually very good but modded it w/ Dremel and also added a big heat-sink that covers most of the entire back, along with plenty of TG Thermal Putty. VRAM temps per post above.