Crossfired ATI HD4870s

I have been planning to do this for ages, the catch is that its main use will be for me for my main hobby, stock trading, which is driving 2D displays only, so its not quite the bleeding edge build but the enthusiast in me got higher specs than what I need, its a mid range and I had a $1700cdn budget. Looking for a 2year life, but you know how that goes.

Prime need:

-fast Quad CPU
-2 hard drives
-GPU with 2 DVI ports capable of driving 2x24" LCDs (eventually, skint now ), and
-room for a wee Xfire upgrade project in the winter when matched GPU prices inevitably tumble
-fast ethernet
-some degree of overclocking potential - will run everything stock until I learn, haven't got a scoobydoo right now, but its another project to play around with
-quiet running

Canadians get worse deals than states, been monitoring and now just grabbed whats on sale at Ncix. Everything is RMAable in case of a whoops order

All prices are actual effective sale/rebated

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Quad Core Processor LGA775 2.66Ghz 12MB $321 effective
Thermalright IFX-14 $69.99
Noctua NF-S12-1200 120MM Ultra Quiet Cooling Fan $18.99


Mushkin XP PC2-8000 Redline 4GB 2X2GB $80.00

LG G-H20NS15 Black DVD+RW DVD Writer $25.98

Samsung Spinpoint F1 Series HD753LJ 750GB SATA2 7200RPM 8.9MS 32MB 3.5IN Hard Drive 2off $109.98 $219.96

ASUS P5Q Deluxe ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 3PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN eSATA 1394 Motherboard 1 $199.98

Was going to plump for the bargain price Pro, but the Delux was on sale for not much more and has dual gigabyte connections + better sound (basically same board though)

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad 750W $120


HIS Radeon HD 4870 750MHZ 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out Video Card 1 $280

(there are superclocked GPUs coming out next week for $300&something but the 4870 is already way over what I require, jumped on the sale deal, and I reckon a 2nd card for Xfire will be under $200 in a few months)


Antec P182 ATX Black Mid Tower Case 1 $137.10


I have LCDs etc to make do with


Hopefully be making a mess this weekend

Cheers!

Woohoo NCIX, boxes @ FedEx offa da plane

tomorrow night should be a mix of confusion and fun and swear words

Thanks Buck, I followed your build and will no doubt be looking at the pics tonight when I am in a cable tangle



thanks!

great tip, i'm unpacking now

Well had lots of fun but no happy ending as of yet.

Had to set the PSU right way up so that the 8pin connector could make it - it does barely, going to have to get an extension, its top left on the motherboard

The CPU cooler is a mammoth beast, looks like a cylinder head. Enjoyed that bit. Case is good, scrapped nuckles and few swears about should have got an 1200 but its good design. The 4870 doesn't intrude on the upper drive bay.

Bloody thing won't fire up though. I stripped it down and rechecked, but get power lights on and then burst of power to case fans and GPU and then nada, reset button no good, need a hard shut down

Reading around forums there is a lot of either P5 new failures out of the box and/or bios issues not recognising CPU. Calling it a day and will research & phone to troubleshoot

If its an RMA due to failure then I'll ditch Asus out of spite and get something else

I thought it was only me that had bad memory, but got pointed in the direction of some corsair - going to get that and try later today

Itching to play

Got lots of free graft from ncix, some games, handy flashlight in the gpu, advantage etc

looks like the motherboard was toast out of the box, as I got the same shit with the new ram and with a different PSU

I'll probably get another brand motherboard at local store, thinking it over tonight - rma old ram/motherboard and check old psu with new motherboard

disappointing but ah well shit happens, not an asus fan right now

She's alive!

feel like a bipolar manic depressive, Ecstatic now

The offending article

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

Some pictures

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