Red vs. Blue

[Fluxmaven]

Howdy. 

 

So I thought it would be cool to do a couple of "throwback" builds with Intel + Nvidia vs. All AMD. I'm using the term throwback loosely since the hardware I am currently considering isn't all from the same year but most of it's at least a decade old. 

 

Parts Lists:

 

Red

 

CPU: AMD FX-9590

Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z

GPU: Radeon HD 7990

RAM: Either some black and red Adata XPG 2133 Cl10 or some EVGA 1866 CL9 that I know works

Storage: A pair of m.sata Samsung drives on a Vantec RAID card and an Intel 750 series PCIe drive

Case: Maingear Vybe Nero red

PSU: EVGA 850 P2

Cooling

• Maingear Apex distro
• EKWB Supremacy Edge Red/plexi (1/100 so fairly rare)
• EKWB FC7990 SE I'm actually not an EK fanboy, just hard to find 7990 blocks these days
• Bitspower Leviathan XF 240
• Barrowch Chameleon fish 240 Red/Acrylic
• Scythe Gentle Typhoons
• Noctua A12x15
• 14mm XSPC hardline fittings with clear PETG, 12/16 EK Quantum Torque with EPDM soft tubing. 

 

 

Blue

 

CPU: Intel i7 2700K

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5

GPU: a pair of GTX Titan Blacks

RAM: Blue G.Skill Ares 2133CL10

Storage: A pair of Samsung 850 Pro, pair of 860 Pro, and an Intel DC P4510 U.2 on PCIe adapter

Case: Lian Li V3000 Plus... Was going to use a Blue/White Maingear Shift I've had for a long time, but Microcenter just dropped the price on V3000's and I had to have one lol

PSU: EVGA 1000 G2

Cooling

• EK distro that was designed for an O11D that I got cheap open box
• Thermochill PA 120.4 that's coming out of retirement
• I've got a dirty old 420mm in the front for mock up but might just get another 480 to put up top and leave the front as intake.  Got a new Alphacool ST30 480mm up top
• Currently have a Swiftech Apogee II mounted on the board because I thought I was trying to stuff a loop in the Maingear Shift... May switch to a Heatkiller IV.
• Heatkiller blocks on both Titans
• Lian Li uni fans... Acquired a ton of these for cheap and have been looking for a way to use them up 
• Phanteks PH-F140HP II - Again, been wanting to use these up for a while. 
• 14mm XSPC hardline with frosted PMMA, 13/16 clear soft tube with Koolance QD3's

 

As for fittings and tubing... I haven't decided which system is getting what. They may both end up with a mixture of hard and soft tubing. I have a decent amount of frosted 14mm hard tube and some nice brass 16mm. I also have soft tubing in most common sizes. Mostly EPDM or clear. I'll likely use up some QD3's in the Intel system since there's so much room in that case. 

Edited February 24 by Fluxmaven
Changed some hardware

[Fluxmaven]

Most of the parts for this build are buried in the closet and it will likely be pretty slow progress, but I'll dump a few pics here for now. The V3000 was a recent purchase so It's still sitting out in the living room  

 

 

I was on a work trip in Atlanta and went into Microcenter to kill some time. This case wouldn't have fit in my Mustang or Miata lol

 

 

O11D Distro plate doesn't look too bad in there.

 

 

These 140mm Fans have 120mm mounting. So I mounted the fans to the plate with fan screws, then sat it on the radiator and attached the rad with short screws. 

 

 

Edited December 1, 2024 by Fluxmaven

[Fluxmaven]

Some older pics of stuff

 

 

The FX setup during some HWBot comp. I don't have any photos of the XPG RAM working on any systems, so I'm assuming it's a DOA ebay find, but I'll give it another try since it looks nice. 

 

That mint 7990 block... 

GTX 690... If any of Y'all have a block for this, slide in my DMs 

 

 

[SamsTechStuff]

That's an awesome idea! Cant wait to see progression pictures.

 

I'd love to do something similar at some point, there's definitely something cool about making old equipment shine. Reminds me of the Modstek treatment for older hardware (YouTube) 

[Sir Beregond]

That V3000 is gigantic. Looking forward to it!

[Fluxmaven]

Was originally thinking of vertical mounting but the 7990 is a long boi so it'll have to slip behind the distro.

Another space issue. Had to swap a slim fan in since the other hit the pump. I had two so I put one on the other side for push/pull.

How it sits currently. Will put the GPU block on next so I can start mocking up tubing ideas. 

[Fluxmaven]

Being snowed in, I had some free time to work on these rigs. Got the waterblock on the 7990 

 

 

Got all the Sata SSDs installed. Top two are the 850 Pros, the bottom two are actually 860 Pros because I found a pair of them cheaper than getting more of the 850s. Will probably RAID 0 both pairs. 

 

 

Went ahead and tossed the board in. I have been on the fence about keeping that Apogee Drive II on there but I figured it's era appropriate and YOLO triple pumps. The one on the distro is the super weak DDC 3.1 6W pump. I have a spare DIYINHK 10-18W upgrade PCB that I bought a couple of to repair a 3 hour old DDC 4.2 that suffered a tragic accident (RIP). If I'm bothering to solder in one of those PCBs I'd rather start with reviving the good pump though. AFAIK the Swiftech still has the original MCP35X but It still worked last I checked so I'm not going to open it up to find out lol. The 3rd pump is an Aquacomputer Aquastream XT USB. 

[Sir Beregond]

24 minutes ago, Fluxmaven said:

Being snowed in, I had some free time to work on these rigs. Got the waterblock on the 7990 

 

 

Got all the Sata SSDs installed. Top two are the 850 Pros, the bottom two are actually 860 Pros because I found a pair of them cheaper than getting more of the 850s. Will probably RAID 0 both pairs. 

 

 

Went ahead and tossed the board in. I have been on the fence about keeping that Apogee Drive II on there but I figured it's era appropriate and YOLO triple pumps. The one on the distro is the super weak DDC 3.1 6W pump. I have a spare DIYINHK 10-18W upgrade PCB that I bought a couple of to repair a 3 hour old DDC 4.2 that suffered a tragic accident (RIP). If I'm bothering to solder in one of those PCBs I'd rather start with reviving the good pump though. AFAIK the Swiftech still has the original MCP35X but It still worked last I checked so I'm not going to open it up to find out lol. The 3rd pump is an Aquacomputer Aquastream XT USB. 

Damn. My cables are just a mess. This is sexy.

[Fluxmaven]

11 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

Damn. My cables are just a mess. This is sexy.

It's easier to make it look decent when you don't need the build at all. My main rig always has the sloppiest cabling because I don't like having a lot of down time on a system I actually use.

 

The AMD rig could honestly be done in a weekend. The intel one needs some stuff. I'm thinking of ditching the 420 and getting another 480 rad for the roof of the case to fill it out a bit more. I also need to buy a block for the 2nd Titan Black. I actually do have another 480 with a pinhole leak on the end tank that I could solder, but I'd rather just buy one from the  stash. 

 

I might also try drilling and tapping the feet on the V3000+ to add some casters. This thing is heavy AF and I still haven't added half the stuff. 

[pio]

4 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

Being snowed in, I had some free time to work on these rigs. Got the waterblock on the 7990 

 

 

Got all the Sata SSDs installed. Top two are the 850 Pros, the bottom two are actually 860 Pros because I found a pair of them cheaper than getting more of the 850s. Will probably RAID 0 both pairs. 

 

 

Went ahead and tossed the board in. I have been on the fence about keeping that Apogee Drive II on there but I figured it's era appropriate and YOLO triple pumps. The one on the distro is the super weak DDC 3.1 6W pump. I have a spare DIYINHK 10-18W upgrade PCB that I bought a couple of to repair a 3 hour old DDC 4.2 that suffered a tragic accident (RIP). If I'm bothering to solder in one of those PCBs I'd rather start with reviving the good pump though. AFAIK the Swiftech still has the original MCP35X but It still worked last I checked so I'm not going to open it up to find out lol. The 3rd pump is an Aquacomputer Aquastream XT USB. 

That 7990 though.......  

[Fluxmaven]

Fresh block installed on the 2nd Titan Black.

 

 

Some old glamor shots of my other Titan Black from the last build it was in. Gold backplate isn't ideal for the blue and white theme, but I'm getting tired of spending money on this build I'm going to use for a couple hours then likely ignore in the corner for years lol. 

 

That said... If someone has a couple matching Titan backplates laying around... 

 

 

[Barefooter]

That is a beautiful water block!

[pio]

That reminds me, I have a 5870 block I've still gotta take pictures of for Sir B.  

Those Titans are looking real good though......  

[Fluxmaven]

Made some progress on this.The system will likely dual boot windows 10 and either 7 or XP for legacy benches so I wanted it to be easy to swap GPUs. So those got soft tubing with QD3s. The basement rad and pump will be soft tubing but the rest of the runs in the main chamber will be hard tubing. 

 

 

Some old school stuff hiding down low. The thermochill rad with an Aquastream Eheim pump on a shoggy sandwich.

 

[Fluxmaven]

The AMD rig is up and running. 

 

This case is not nearly as easy to work with as the gigantic Lian Li so it took some silly solutions to get everything together. Biggest hurdle was connecting the two radiators together. The ports on the top rad are below the ports on the front rad. I tried several different combos of offset fittings and adapters... Ended up just using a couple 90 degree 10/13mm Alphacool fittings with a little loop of EPDM to go into the back chamber of the case, around the front panel and into the front radiator. 

 

The fill port on the distro is also too close to the radiator to slip even a low profile 90 degree adapter into so filling the system is a bit tricky.

 

 

 

Ran just the rads with a filter for a few days which is why there is moisture in the distro. Got all the lines ran and pressure tested before filling her up with red Aquacomputer DP Ultra.

 

 

Old ass hardware in a new case means, a few extra front panel cables that aren't used. Case came with the fan/rgb hub built in which is convenient. Didn't go nuts perfecting the cable management, just wanted it good enough to not need to stand on the back panel to get it closed 

 

 

The first flash drive I grabbed from the pile ended up being a stripped down copy of windows 11... which oddly installed perfectly fine. I'll need to find my win7 boot drive at some point, but the system works for now.  Damn thing idles over 200w stock and a quick timespy run was low 600w draw. Once I get a decent overclock dialed in on the CPU and GPU, this thing is gonna be a real space heater... Which I expected lol 

[Barefooter]

Love this build!

[neurotix]

This is fantastic Flux, good job! Way beyond my skills.

 

However I wanted to mention briefly that back in 2012 I had a FX-8350 @ 5ghz on a Corsair H100i as well as a Sapphire Vapor X 7970. Eventually I also had two R9 290 Tri-X as well. So this is pretty nostalgic for me. I love the team red build. Nice work

[Fluxmaven]

Thanks guys. 

 

I also have a pair of 7970s with waterblocks but those are a lot less cool than a 7990. Back in 2012 I was still running an i7 870 with an EVGA 560 TI Classified. That year I helped my best friend build his first custom PC which was actually the 2700K and motherboard that I'm using for the team blue build. He gave them to me when I helped him build his next PC which was a Ryzen 2700X with dual 1080 Ti's. 

 

It's hilariously tiny, but I also have a Fury X with a waterblock that I need to bench and do something with. Back when it was relevant, I did what every smart person did and bought a 980 Ti instead 

Had it paired with a 4790K since AMD was still a joke on the CPU front at that time. Not exactly era appropriate, but maybe I'll pair the Fury X with a first gen Ryzen. Or better yet a first gen Threadripper. Granted something like a Vega Frontier would be a more appropriate pairing for a Threadripper... That involves me buying even more old crap though lol. 

 

Now that you guys can get a bit of a glimpse into my thought process, it's easier to understand how I end up with an entire room full of hardware that I haven't done anything with. 

 

[neurotix]

16 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

Had it paired with a 4790K since AMD was still a joke on the CPU front at that time. Not exactly era appropriate, but maybe I'll pair the Fury X with a first gen Ryzen. Or better yet a first gen Threadripper. Granted something like a Vega Frontier would be a more appropriate pairing for a Threadripper... That involves me buying even more old crap though lol. 

 

 

 

 

On this topic, yeah I had a FX-8350 and switched to a 4790k precisely because the FX-8350, even at 5GHz, was bottlenecking the two R9 290s I had. One card was fine, but with two:

 

Unigine Valley 1080p:

FX-8350 @ 5GHZ with two 290s - 95 fps

4790k stock with 290s at same clocks - 110 fps

4790k overclocked to 4.5GHz and memory tuned - 135 fps

 

Pretty huge difference. Not sure why I remember it. Some people will disagree on it, and it might only be synthetics, but I think the FX 100% bottlenecked those two cards.