Project Shift - Carbide to Switch

[joejoe69]

Project Shift

 

About the build

 

This is actually an upgraded build from Project Cobalt, which can be seen here:

 

http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=109513

 

Everything from the Corsair Carbide 500R was shifted over to the NZXT Switch 810 in gloss black. Had I waited a month before knowing the 900D was going to come out in CES, I would've not bought the Switch 810. However, I still have no regrets as this case is extremely well known and used for water cooling and it just does the job.

 

Changes

 

The PC specs remain exacty the same, but the new changes are:

- Corsair HX750

- XSPC EX420 at the roof

- XSPC EX240 now at the bottom

- Lamptron FC5 fan controller

- Bitspower Matte Black pump housing

- Bitspower dual/triple rotary and extension compression fittings

- Bitspower drainage system

- Mayhem's Pastel Blue Berry concentrate

- Custom individually sleeved cables

- White LED lighting to neutralize the color theme.

 

Build Video

 

 

The Process

 

Christmas 2012: The NZXT Switch 810 arrives

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/2012-12-20_13-07-48_665_zps269325dd.jpg

 

Unboxed and compared. The Switch 810 is roughly 4" taller, 3" longer, and 1" wider.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/2013-01-25_09-54-29_885.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/2013-01-25_09-56-07_350.jpg

 

Parts removed from the 500R.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/2013-01-25_13-10-55_715.jpg

 

Re-used parts needed to be flushed of their old fluids to use Mayhem's coolant. I used a Phobya DC12-260 pump to flush my components with a 50/50 mix of distilled water and 100% Isopropyl alcohol.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/2013-01-25_12-54-45_763.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/2013-01-25_11-57-41_472.jpg

 

Bitspower Matte Black pump mod installed to match all the fittings. It's sitting on a UNZ-2 120mm fan bracket for it's custom mounting. Also another Singularity Computers idea. Thanks Dan!!

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1171_zpsb935acdb.jpg

 

EX420 rad installed.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/Snapshot21-30-20131-57AM_zps84b35b3a.png

 

I'm a fan of Corsair Airflow Series fans.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1175_zps45d8e26f.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1284_zpsc9de8bab.jpg

 

The rad doesn't fit natively with the case as the Switch 810 has 20mm spacing for 140mm size fans. The only screws holding the rad up are the ones that the middle fan uses. The other two fans are secured with 3M Extreme Tape. They won't go anywhere.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/2013-01-31_11-32-19_391_zps2525155b.jpg

 

All tubed up and routed.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1208_zpsd40b2e12.jpg

 

The juice. Just add 750ml of distilled water to make a liter.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1222_zpsef164e19.jpg

 

Filled up and lit up.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1251_zps6a4cca24.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1259_zps07267226.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1258_zps963adb8d.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1257_zps20664bab.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1269_zps04587545.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1268_zps0f5982bc.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1253_zpse0c61cfd.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1254_zps608dc14e.jpg

 

Lamptron FC5 fan controller. 30W vs 20W of the Lamptron FC6 fan controller on Project Cobalt

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1301_zpsdee79b5b.jpg

 

Rear cable management, the only part I hate about PC builds.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1275_zps6e2b03f3.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1286_zpse0d5030d.jpg

 

All closed up and fully functional, but something about the stock window irritates me...

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1296_zps772051f6.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1295_zpsd3885006.jpg

 

It's okay, I always have a fix for ugly stuff. First, pull these tabs up and get rid of them with a Dremel.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1321_zpse9472a52.jpg

 

It's this ugly lip around the window that bleeds light all around and the clips are showing. Yuck!!

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1323_zps0132de10.jpg

 

Use the window as a template on your new acrylic or plexi.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1324_zpsd1c2f1a8.jpg

 

Trace it and cut inside the lines.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1325_zpsdaaa1b12.jpg

 

After 2 minutes with a jigsaw..

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1326_zps5fbe1f53.jpg

 

Done. Cut areas were smoothed and covered up with a sharpie.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1327_zps5ad40f51.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1328_zps6fb2c6b8.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1329_zpsc6d7ef14.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1332_zpsaa0c6d17.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1333_zps2eed4495.jpg

 

All better now.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1352_zpsf3a0a488.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1343_zpsaf4ac822.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1351_zpsaa2480b1.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/2013-01-31_10-28-52_570_zps3b47679d.jpg

 

I had to slap this on because Shift is indeed Powered by Corsair.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1344_zpsc435512e.jpg

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/IMG_1348_zps2fd20770.jpg

[stratosrally]

Smurfy and gorgeous...

 

You went and did it again!

[joejoe69]

Lol, thanks!!

 

I have lots of spare parts from this build. I might build one for the wife so she won't use mine. After all, this is my baby. All I need is a motherboard, CPU, and some RAM then she's on her own.

[HOODedAssault]

Can't take a little thing like a case swap n just swap it eh. Gotta turn it into a whole pile of stuff lol. Gorgeous but still stands out pretty strongly to me ur using that evga backplate. How bout this sucker. http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16405/ex-blc-1159/EK_GeForce_680_GTX_VGA_Liquid_Cooling_RAM_Backplate_-_Black_CSQ_EK-FC680_GTX_Backplate_-_Black_CSQ.html?tl=g30c311s1631#blank

B nice if bitapower made one.

[joejoe69]

Haha, I have already looked into it a while back:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_240_576&products_id=36170

 

I'll be building someone's rig and he'll offer cash and free old parts (for me to sell). Depending on how much everything will cost in the end, I'll most likely get another GPU and a pair of these bad boys.

[HOODedAssault]

Don't bother wait for next gen and stick with single GPU. I don't know what it is but huge driver issues with these things I sold my second one already because my minimum frame rate was the same in bf3 and I was only getting like 60-80% usage on each card. Even crysis 2 which is completely GPU bound was getting 80-99% usage all over the place. With my 7950s only on a 2500k I was getting usage pegged 99% on both cards unless I was in huge 64 player maps that became CPU bound. The 670s even do this erratic usage in small 24 player maps with am over clocked 3770k ! Not sure what it is but I have a feeling its the 256bit bus not being able to put through the data needed for 2 of these crazy fast chips. Even at higher resolution like 1440p or surround I've seen people on hard forum with the same issue so that tells me it can't be a CPU bottleneck.

[joejoe69]

Really? My GTX 670 is doing really good so far. Plays everything great maxed out, at 99%, with well over 60fps (Vsync turned off too, lol). I still haven't gotten to fudging with the BIOS because I felt there was never a need for it since it does its job very well. I was at 1275MHz (+300 MHz from base) at one point but it wasn't as great until I brought it down to 1215MHz, where I found its sweet spot to play everything smoothly while being stable and cool. I'll have find out myself when I do get another GTX 670.

[HOODedAssault]

Ya single GPU is 99% for me to but 2 use the vram of 1 GPU so I don't think it can handle 2 GPU or its a driver issue.

[joejoe69]

Did you flash the BIOS' on both 670's when you had them in SLI?

[AenonElec]

Very nice built there.

I have 2 Sli gtx 670, and I have no problem getting over 150 FPS easily.

The only issue I occured is, that I can't overclock much more my Gpu ( 1228Mhz each gpu to be stable when playing BF3 )

I'll need some help on that. Any help

 

 

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rgmeljul938y9wn/bf3_2012_09_10_02_27_25_550.jpg

[joejoe69]

Thanks. You're overclock is very good actually. I don't think there is a need for improvement unless you're going for bragging rights with high clock speeds. Last night, I achieved a 1320MHz core (+180) and 3366HMz (+360) memory overclock with no voltage adjustments yet. It was successful running synthetic benchmarks like Unigine Heaven 3.0 and KMark but again, the results were better at 1215MHz/3046MHz (+75 for both core and memory). For some odd reason, at 1320MHz, it can't even start a few games like Far Cry 3, BF3, and Batman Arkham City. If they do start however, they would crash in the middle of gaming. I wonder if it's because I didn't apply any voltages changes with my 1320MHz overclock. Anyone know when and how much voltage to add? I always see everyone topped out at 1.175V but I get that much without even touching it.

[HOODedAssault]

I got very high fps to. Point is the minimums are about the same as 1 card. Taking a clip from bf3 in closed quarters looking at basically nothing doesn't really prove a thing lol. Play a round in a 32+ player full server and take a screenshot of MSI afterburner GPU usage. I'd like to see to compare to mine.

[HOODedAssault]

Thanks. You're overclock is very good actually. I don't think there is a need for improvement unless you're going for bragging rights with high clock speeds. Last night, I achieved a 1320MHz core (+180) and 3366HMz (+360) memory overclock with no voltage adjustments yet. It was successful running synthetic benchmarks like Unigine Heaven 3.0 and KMark but again, the results were better at 1215MHz/3046MHz (+75 for both core and memory). For some odd reason, at 1320MHz, it can't even start a few games like Far Cry 3, BF3, and Batman Arkham City. If they do start however, they would crash in the middle of gaming. I wonder if it's because I didn't apply any voltages changes with my 1320MHz overclock. Anyone know when and how much voltage to add? I always see everyone topped out at 1.175V but I get that much without even touching it.

 

The voltage isn't adjustable on the gtx 670 or 680. The only way to adjust voltage is flash that 1.21v bios I sent you. The wind force also has a higher power limit than a reference card. Meaning 100% power on a wind force is probably about 120% on a reference card. Therefore the wind force will basically never throttle down the voltage and stay pegged at 1.175v all the time under load. You can watch this in gpu-z. The 1.21v bios stays at 1.21v all the time. The only program u will even have to adjust power limit for would be fur mark. Mine maxes out at 1290 core at 1.21v. Its a crap clocker. Mine also never hitsore than 90% power in any game even over clocked. I loop heaven for like an hour to test stability. It won't crash unless your way out but it will give pink or green artifacts. Also it has to b maxed out.

[AenonElec]

The voltage isn't adjustable on the gtx 670 or 680. The only way to adjust voltage is flash that 1.21v bios I sent you. The wind force also has a higher power limit than a reference card. Meaning 100% power on a wind force is probably about 120% on a reference card. Therefore the wind force will basically never throttle down the voltage and stay pegged at 1.175v all the time under load. You can watch this in gpu-z. The 1.21v bios stays at 1.21v all the time. The only program u will even have to adjust power limit for would be fur mark. Mine maxes out at 1290 core at 1.21v. Its a crap clocker. Mine also never hitsore than 90% power in any game even over clocked. I loop heaven for like an hour to test stability. It won't crash unless your way out but it will give pink or green artifacts. Also it has to b maxed out.

 

I got exactly the same thing. Never reach 90% power. By the way, are you using a single or 2 cards on sli?

About the Fps I'm still getting > 166 even on 32 or 64 players without any crash

[joejoe69]

The voltage isn't adjustable on the gtx 670 or 680. The only way to adjust voltage is flash that 1.21v bios I sent you. The wind force also has a higher power limit than a reference card. Meaning 100% power on a wind force is probably about 120% on a reference card. Therefore the wind force will basically never throttle down the voltage and stay pegged at 1.175v all the time under load. You can watch this in gpu-z. The 1.21v bios stays at 1.21v all the time. The only program u will even have to adjust power limit for would be fur mark. Mine maxes out at 1290 core at 1.21v. Its a crap clocker. Mine also never hitsore than 90% power in any game even over clocked. I loop heaven for like an hour to test stability. It won't crash unless your way out but it will give pink or green artifacts. Also it has to b maxed out.

 

 

 

I got exactly the same thing. Never reach 90% power. By the way, are you using a single or 2 cards on sli?

About the Fps I'm still getting > 166 even on 32 or 64 players without any crash

 

He's got the same card as I do, a Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce OC.

 

My power limit usually hits close to max percentage at 109-110% at this overclock of 1215MHz core and 3078MHz memory with any game or benchmark, not sure if it's bad or not. Voltages are still reported pegged at 1.175V. Here are some synthetic benchmarks with some numbers of my single GTX 670.

 

Furmark:

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/FurmarkMSIAfterburner_zps72760e04.png

 

Far Cry 3:

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/GPUSwiftech2_zps8a5100d2.png

 

Unigine Heaven 3.0 (Max settings) 3770K @ 4.7GHz, GTX 670 @ 1320MHz core/3366MHz memory overclock (worse):

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/UnigineHeavenMax48GHz_zpse7e517d0.png

 

Unigine Heaven 3.0 (Max settings) 3770K @ 4.7GHz, GTX 670 @ 1215MHz core/3078MHz memory overclock (better):

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/UnigineHeavenMax47GHz_zps00c12d9f.png

[HOODedAssault]

My whole point is minimums. Yes I've hit 180-200fps in spots to. But the minimums when things get hectic is in the 60s with 2 cards. With single card I see the same min fps but much less often. A max fps of 200 means nothing if your minimums are the same. That's what really matters.

 

Joe that weird. Try using that bios I sent u. I've never seen power usage like that even in heaven with 1.21v bios I never break 90-95% maybe with my absolute max over clock. And your card must not b stable and that why the score is lower. I score like 50 or 51 at 1290 core and +300 memory (not 100% I'll have to do a run for you later). 2 cards I scored like 95 so good scaling in benchmarks. But my old 7950s at 1175/1600 memory broke 100fps. And that was before never settle drivers. Never should of got rid of them. Also if at 1215mhz ur hitting 109% power limit than at 1320 you are probably surpassing that limit and throttling. I think you got a crap bios from gigabyte with se bugs just like I did. Mine throttle upward, by this is mean it wouldn't run at max boost unless I was between 60-70° and if below 60° is would drop clocks. This is the mainly reason I'm running modded bios as it fixed this issue.

[joejoe69]

I guess I understand it better now. I'll find time to do it and give an update. Thanks!!

[HOODedAssault]

power usage/temps

http://i46.tinypic.com/5p37s2.png

core/memory clocks

http://i48.tinypic.com/2rp5jxy.png

heaven score

http://i45.tinypic.com/1qptvr.jpg

 

heres 2 cards around 1220 if i remember and memory at +300. cant remember exactly and i sold my second card. they do scale quite well in some situations.

http://i45.tinypic.com/350mr5y.jpg

 

here is a run at 1280 core/+450 memory (3456), still max power usage was 89% in afterburner and max temp 62C

http://i46.tinypic.com/35atabk.jpg

did a quick vantage run at 1280/3456 and power usage actually peaked at 97%

http://i48.tinypic.com/2ns46k7.png

did a run at 1215/3078 and got 47.7fps score:1201. Pretty much even with you, but I'm using different drivers.

[joejoe69]

Your card is better than mine. :roll:

 

Here it is after the F4 flash. Don't mind the 200 max FPS on the counter as I was testing Far Cry 3 before the UE benchmark for crashing and artifacts. It seems that +75 at 1215MHz on the core is the only stable overclock I can get out of this card for all games and applications without any one of them crashing. I even went with +300 on the memory just like yours and it runs great. The micro-stuttering went away so that's a good sign of relief. Power limits are no longer maxed out over 100% as well. I can't break 50FPS in UE 3.0 unless I drop a setting down a notch. Overall, it's better than before. Thanks!!

 

Unigine Heaven 3.0 (Max settings) 3770K @ 4.7GHz, GTX 670 @ 1215MHz core/3305MHz memory overclock / F4 BIOS. Max temps at 46C:D:

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/GPUSwiftech3F4BIOS_zps69e987dc.png

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/UnigineHeavenMax47GHzF4-75-300_zps35bda6bc.png

 

Before with F2 BIOS.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/UnigineHeavenMax47GHz_zps00c12d9f.png

[joejoe69]

Not sure if this is cheating but I managed to break 50FPS maxed out with the help of Lucidlogix Virtu MVP on the same overclock on UE 3.0.

 

Unigine Heaven 3.0 (Max settings) 3770K @ 4.7GHz, GTX 670 @ 1215MHz core/3305MHz memory overclock / F4 BIOS / Virtu MVP

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/GPUSwiftech3F4BIOSMVP_zps00593ce0.png

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x237/joejoe69_album/UnigineHeavenMax47GHzF4-75-300-MVP_zps175aaefa.png

[HOODedAssault]

It is cheating a bit. Have u updated afterburner ?. Something is very weird with your card. Mine runs 1202core without touching anything with 1.21v bios. So at +75 id be at 1277 on the core. Very weird that your only boosting to 1215 at +75. Check your voltage in gpu-z and see if its actually pushing 1.21v. Us think with a higher voltage you could get higher clocks... Did u just update to f4 and not the modded bios ? That would explain the same core clock. Hope you saved your f2 bios. You'll need to flash back before flashing to modded f4 if you ever want to. I would, obviously lol.

[joejoe69]

Yeah I have the F4 BIOS now because I had F2 to start with. Am I doing something wrong? I thought that F1-F9 are compatible with each other as F10+ higher are, so that they wouldn't get mixed up.

 

Strangely, my voltages are still at 1.175V and not 1.21V.

 

But yeah, my original BIOS is saved just in case...

[HOODedAssault]

Did you use the modded bios I pm you a while back or did you use the update from gigabyte. If its the update from gigabyte its just a more stable bios with the same 1.175v. Is this the bios your using. This is same one I sent u earlier but I didnt give you the direct link. I'd flash back to f2 than to this bios. I've flashed mine back and fourth about 5 times trying to figure out that throttling with low temps thing I was talking about earlier so don't worry about something getting f'd up. Just dont have 50 programs running while your doing it :p:

 

http://ultrashare.net/hosting/fl/313af64253/GB670_VMOD_BP-200-250

 

Just got 52.6fps at 1290/3600 not bad.

[joejoe69]

I just did the Gigabyte F4 bios. I don't understand how the kgb modded BIOS works as far as installing it. I can't get it to work past my cmd screen. I've looked elsewhere on how to install it but they're all pretty vague. PM me instructions if you can. I'm curious about how much this card can do.

[HOODedAssault]

I just did the Gigabyte F4 bios. I don't understand how the kgb modded BIOS works as far as installing it. I can't get it to work past my cmd screen. I've looked elsewhere on how to install it but they're all pretty vague. PM me instructions if you can. I'm curious about how much this card can do.

 

Very weird. All I did was flash back to f11 than flash forward to f12 modded bios using @bios. Thats it thats all. I'm not sure why its not working for you. Maybe its because yours is an kgb modded and mine is from the other guy :sigh!:. Your best bet is lookup a guide how to use nvflash and flash from a usb key. Sketchy the first time you do it. I did it with 2 brand new galaxy gc 470s before and got 850 core out of them :biggrin: then returned them hahaha. OK go to http://www.overclock.net/t/1289489/gtx-600-series-unlocked-voltage-bios-downloads-and-tools scroll down the flash guide with kgb and expand it... gives you a pretty simple guide.