Heatsink bracket resting on base of motherboard heatpipe, enough to make contact with case baseboard beneath standoffs





Got the grinder out (no dremel ) took will power not to grind it all to smithereens


Another view





Now Beer

Got another 4870, I know I know, but decided to do the whole hardware thing at once since its eaten up the whole weekend anyway

Crossfire 4870, and there's no way a 3rd card could fit in there

Fitted PSU upside down again, even although I have an extension for the 8pin, its neater having the cables come out on that side - have tucked most unused away tied underneath between the panel and the frame

Had a shot of a modular PSU while troubleshooting yesterday and that is definitely a smarter way to do things, much less clutter

Had to move the bottom internal fan up to the middle

I have one 120mm fan on the heat sink and took off the extra heat pipe on the heat sink as it was getting in the way, it was supposed to be brown but looks salmon pink - groan

its the same GPU but sourced from different vendors so looks slightly different outside

pics to follow shortly - still a bit messy but at least its running

I just put the CF straps on for show, I am just using a single GPU now and reading up on ATI and drivers, CF

Everything ticketyboo though, and system is quite nippy

I plan to leave all stock for a while

GPUs throw some amount of heat out

There is a RAM cooler still to go on and I will work on fan control later - much later I'm beat

Some testing, all stock CPU and GPU, crossfire 8.7beta drivers

3D Mark Vantage
Main test results
3DMark Score P12708 3DMarks
CPU Score 11072
Graphics Score 13367

Added in the dominator ram cooler, fits great. Asus say to put the RAM in the yellow sockets for best overclocking, which I have placed but I haven't done any yet
Also took out the 3rd drive (IDE just for checking) so got rid of the ribbon cable, which cleans space up a bit







The rear slot blank plates are not true plates, have holes in them. The one between the cards is out, see in this picture. I think with the amount of heat spewing out of these cards I am going to blank off everything there. I want to avoid recirculating GPU exhaust air back into the case (although its flung out at a hell of a rate of knots)



Man these cards are awesome.

Dave P's build with 2X 4870x2 is going to be brilliant

processor will be dropping in a few days..

Not a gamer's build my ass...

great pics too. I love seeing shit like this!

Okay, busted
I have been reading reviews on the FPS they are getting with the 2 cards and I'm going to be sitting on my arse gaming more

Check out the scaling for mass effect, its almost the same FPS going from low to ultra high resolution

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon...-performance/4

Can you edit the title to say "4870 crossfire"

I'm skint and have 17" LCD, saving for 24" panels

I got the 9450 for $315 effectively and world in conflict game (They gave me $30 in gas cards to get the price down)

I'm trying to get my head into overclocking CPU before I dive in and fry something, there's great threads out there, and its "supposed" to easy with this bios, most settings can be left on auto. Its yet another example of something being easy when you know what your doing but daunting when you haven't a scooby doo

I'm leaving the hassles I had earlier in the thread in as its more reflective of an actual first build. I see some case owners have replaced the case fans with more of these "funky" salmon pink fans - maybe later on although the GPU fans are >>> louder when its cranked

Man there's a lot to learn with ATI, there are mods out to increase the fan idle RPM which cools them significantly and lots of threads on where the cards clock up to. I'm just going to leave the GPU alone for now and this week clock up the CPU to 3 something with a bit of luck

cheers

I used aluminum duct tape to mask off the unused slots and holes for water pipes at the rear of the case. Its very hot next to the GPUs and didnt want the exhaust air recirculated. The tape is the sort that tin bashers should use for ducting (the normal duct tape adhesive fails with hot air after a long time) - had some left over from a basement reno





I'm going to get another fan in there in the upper DVD drive bay area, and also replace the mid tower front one, where the top hard drive cage should be, with the same type as the CPU fan, and plug them into the motherboard and use the Asus fan control utility software to run them, but that will be later.

Included a photo of the case exterior, looks great with the side panels. Like the design of the front door with air intake channels all around.



Going to load up world in conflict, and play a bit before tackling overclock. I'll follow up later with difference in Vantage scores with CPU/GPU overclocks

Cheers for reading !

Never started the game, googled and read around overclocking

Found a good link here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messagev...&enterthread=y

This P5Q Deluxe board is very easy to work with. Just following a quick guide I simply set vcore 1.3 and ram at 2volts and increased the FSB, left everything else Auto. Quick and dirty. had 3.2 and then 3.4 before stopping for the night, not prime tested, just boot into Vista

I see people get 3.8 with this board/chip. I'll try for 3.6-3.8 and test it tomorrow

Time to add you to the list:

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread211364.html

This is ridiculously easy to overclock, I am simply setting Vcore to 1.275 (reduced to keep temps down, and Ram at 2volts, everything else on auto, FSB at 425). I have max temps flatlining at : core 1 @ 71deg C and rest in high 60s, running on Air only. I've tested prime for a couple of hours, will do a longer test and see if the Vcore volts is enough, by reducing down from 1.29something to 1.275 I dropped ~4-5degC

I see reading online forums others have the Q9450 at 3.5 and greater on "normal" setups by adjusting Northbridge. I'm doing the quick and easy way as its the level I'm at right now.
3.4 seems a safe long lasting 24/7 over clock, the multiplier drops to x6 for stepping down which is 2550

I plan to reinstall the CPU backplate cooler at the weekend to see if that drops temps further

Following tests done on Vista x64 SP1 with new official 87 Catalyst and both GPUs set at max clocks: 790/1100 There are ways to overclock more but erring on the safe side

I reran Vantage and also did 3dmark6 for comparison (although 3dmark6 is supposed to be more CPU based so it could break 20K if I set for 3.5 overclock, but it failed prime for me after a time with the "easy settings" and so is not really reflective of an accurate 24/7 system - here anyway)


Link to 3dmark6 breakdown: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=7564655

and stock everything 3dmark6: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=7552292



Vantage, screenshot plus GPU and CPU settings



Overclocked Vantage link: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=252281

and stock CPU/GPU Vantage: http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=252379


Cheers!