Crossfired ATI HD4870s - Page 2

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

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

Airflow

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

Overclocked CPU and GPU scores

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!

thanks Steve/Buck, and edited my sig.

Its taken a lot of time to get things setup but I'm there now and can chill out. I thought the CPU overclock would be a lot harder than it was.

Only minor tinkering left to do now, very happy with the performance of the system.

Oh and for anyone contemplating crossfire, the new X2 cards should be more cost effective unless ATI drop the 4870 price at the X2 launch in August

For me, I needed to have 4 DVI ports for future use and the X2 card has 2

Fans & Heat

This is a work log so bear with me as I'm learning as I go along.

The ATI GPUs have daft stock fan logic, they run low RPM and waaaay hot at idle - like 80s deg C

Here is a thread where the original poster found a way to set them up manually, slightly more background noise but less toasty toes - much more efficient. You can either toggle the ATI catalyst control back to automatic prior to gaming or load up a high state RPM profile which keeps a constant high RPM. Unfortunately Auto ramp up from custom RPM doesn't work for me.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=265745&page=4

Here is another good ATI thread on HOP:

http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=87

I've ordered some fans to replace the P182 case fans and add an additional intake "breeze". I find the case fans on high are too much, hoping for a dB reduction

In that vein, I've also been testing a lower voltage on the CPU for the same 3400 overclock. 1.26 was fine, now testing 1.25volts. I am also going to put back on the CPU backplate heatpipe cooler when my fans arrive

I ordered these for intake in confined space behind the front air filters:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...facture=Noctua

(supposed to be higher pressure to suck the air in through grills)

and these for case fan exhaust replacement

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...facture=Noctua

This is what I have on the heatsink so going to switcheroo with the other design as that supposed to be better for heatsink mount application.

The crossfire cards and PSU combo ment I couldn't put the lower chamber fan in the mid point of the case like its designed to. I read silentpc.com and saw that its possible to squeeze a 20mm fan in front of the lower hard drive cage, but they were none in stock, and I saw users have moved the cage back a little to accommodate regular 120x25mm fans, so that's what I plan to do.
I'm going to try and get an extra fan in the top front 5 1/4" drive bay area - I only have one simple DVD writer there so have room. Going to have to rig up some form of dust bunny filter. That airflow will come right across the CPU heat pipe and CPU cooler to exhaust fans. Mid front fan will go straight to crossfire GPUs and lower front fan will cool hardrives, PSU and feed air into motherboard area. That's the plan anyway. Hopefully it doesnt sound like a hurricane.

Have some fan headers to play with on the motherboard, there is some Asus fan control software here and going to play with that to see if it works. Had a quick look only.

Any builders got recommendation for other fan software control for desktops?

The funky colour is growing on me and the one I have already on the heat sink is basically silent, which is why I stuck with the brand - I read web reviews to check up on them, kind of pricey but quiet.

(still haven't played a single game )

Bah, back up in volts to keep 3.4 stable

Some good links:

Q9450 overclocking (Xtreme)

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...182602&page=36

P182 case modding

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums...ic.php?t=44067

Crossfire in X38/X48/P35/P45, systems compared

X48 a little better than P45 but not much in it, avoid P35

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=761&p=0

testing 3.6 using this thread as guide:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...182602&page=36

So far so good

fingers crossed,

there's a small temp spread across the core, but I'm going to add the CPU backplate cooler, and right now there is a fan direct on one fin only, i'll redo the thermal paste a bit better, think its too thick