i5 760 - GTX 460 SLI

[Slaymate]

A friend of mine came over today with a box full of Parts
i5 760
Asus P7P55D EVO LGA 1156
(2) EVGA GTX 460 768MB
(2x2GB) OCZ Special Ops Edition DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24
Cooler Master 750 watt
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB
Asus SATA 24X DVD Burner
Cooler Master HAF 932
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
TRUE 120 Lapped
LGA 1156 Retention Bracket
Antec 120mm Red LED 79cfm Fan

I started by installing the Thermalright Retention Bracket. Here's the Backplate, a little to much glare in this photo.

When I tighten down the left side of the bracket it was still lose. I tried to take a close-up of the bracket so you could see the amount of play, I'd say it's almost 3/8".

So I added a soft rubber washer to each post on the backplate to take up the slack. Hopefully it won't be to tight now.

I had to install the CPU before I attached the right side of the Retention Bracket because the Locking Arm is blocked by the Bracket. And you can see the hard plastic washers I'm using between the bracket and the motherboard.

Here's a Close-up of the CPU.

With the CPU and the Retention Bracket in Place I'm moving on to the case. I've installed the Stand-offs and the I/O Shield.

Next I've installed the Power Supply and separated the wires.

And a close-up.

Looking at the back we see more wires and I'm separating them and tying them up.

Here's another Close-up.

Next I've installed the Motherboard and all the connectors.

Here's a Close-up of the bottom connectors (usb, IEEE 1394a, front audio, front panel header).

And a Close-up of the top connectors (24-pin main power and 8-pin mobo).

With all the wires connected I attached the Heat Sink, Fan and the Memory. I should of took a picture of the thermal paste being applied, I forgot, sorry.

Then I plugged in the GTX 460's and the SLI Bridge Connector.

I forgot to take pictures of the Hard Drive and DVD Player but there's not really much to see anyways.

Here's a picture of everything installed with the Side Panel off.

And with the Side Panel attached.

That's all I did today. Tomorrow I'll power it up and install Windows 7, then the Real Fun will begin.

 

[Slaymate]

Well I installed Windows 7 without any problems. The motherboard has a severe lack of Memory Dividers/Ratio's so I had to increase the BCLK Frequency to 160 before the 1600 MHz option became available. The system powered up to 3.375 GHz with the Memory at 1600 MHz, the only voltage I changed was the DRAM Voltage which I set at 1.65 volts.

With Max. Core Temps of 51C-51C-50C-49C this cpu has plenty of overclocking headroom. So I skipped right up to 4 GHz, I set the BCLK to 200 and raised the CPU VCore to 1.3125 volts. I also had to reduce the Memory Ratio to keep the Memory at 1600 MHz. This was just to easy.

My temps are still Great at 64C-63C-61C-62C so I tried to run it at 4.2GHz but the Memory Controller is wanting 1.5+ volts (IMC Voltage). If this was my PC I would go ahead and push it farther but it's not so I won't. Let's see how a pair of GTX 460's run with the CPU at 4 GHz, time for a couple 3DMark Vantage runs.

With the cards at stock speeds GPU/675 MHz - Shaders/1350 MHz - Memory/1800 MHz (My Kill a Watt meter showed a max of 510 watts)
ORB - Compare

And with the cards overclocked to GPU/870 MHz - Shaders/1740 - Memory/2200 MHz (My Kill a Watt meter showed a max of 575 watts)
ORB - Compare

 

[Sean W.]

... i made a mess

case in point:

i5 > any AMD X4 ( and arguably X6 )

 

[Slaymate]

I was beginning to wonder if anyone was interested in this system and my results

 

[Yami]

That HAF looks so much better than mine. Probably cos my room is incredibly dark, I don't really get to see much of mine much.

 

[iPROTechman]

Looks like an amazing system, My friend has that haf case, but he painted his black on the interior , looks beast. He also had 4 x 120mm fans rather than your large one, not sure which is best

 

[Yami]

The 4x120mm fans will offer better airflow, but it will be a fair bit louder than one large fan as well. Personally I think the HAF has plenty airflow

 

[yzmxer608]

Good stuff Slay, are you going to keep the 3.3 OC to give to him? Or even the 4?

... i made a mess

case in point:

i5 > any AMD X4 ( and arguably X6 )

I would like to see an i5 vs thuban shootout, are there any good comparisons around?

 

[Slaymate]

I delivered it with everything set at stock speeds. That will allow me to give him a "Free Upgrade"/Speed Boost later down the road when he thinks he's falling behind

 

[yzmxer608]

Niiice , did you charge him at all or just do it as a favor?