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MSI Big Bang Xpower II Watercooling Loop

H 3 L L S M A N

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This is my new commputer build for LGA 2011 X79 "some" may consider the graphics out of date so to speak but I think these will handle 60+ frames at all games on there highest settings @1920x1200 till the 600 series from nividia comes out (Want to go Nivida for PhysX). List of all the parts for this build is below. Let me know what you think about it, this is my first build moving from console to PC. NOTE: The monitor is only on the Mod Mat v2 because it is not in use, when all my parts come in that space on the Mat is for the commputer components only (Will not be getting a case). Have another 4' of desk to the left for workspace and keyboard ect.

GPU: Dual Asus EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 cards in CrossfireX
Moniter: Dell 24" Ultra Sharp U2410 IPS Widescreen Flat Panel Moniter
Power Supply: Enermax MaxRevo 1350W Power Supply
CPU: Core i7 3930K
Motherboard: MSI Big Bang Xpower II
RAM: Changed from G.Skill 16Gb 2400Mhz 9Cas 4x4Gb sticks kit (Black) to G.Skill 32Gb 1866Mhz 9Cas 8x4Gb Sticks kit (Red) after seeing that the 2400Mhz speed cannot be utilized by programs. Benchmarks and select programs (Like Firefox) will be installed into either a 16Gb or 22Gb RAM drive using RAMdisk software by dataram. This allows the partition to act as a physical drive without data being dumped and lost on reboot or shut-down.
HDD/SSD: Corsair GT 120Gb SSD + 3 TB Storage
Water Cooling: Alot of parts to list but will be using the Swiftech Limited Edition Apogee HD 24k Gold Plated Waterblock, Watercool MO-RA3 9x140 Pro Rad, With Bitspower Matte black rotary fittings, and Bitspower 400 Black Ice in-line Res, PMP-450S Pump with Bitspower Matte Black Mod Kit with Mod Top v2, PrimoFlex Pro LRT Black Tubing 1/2in. ID X 3/4in OD, 1.3 Gallons distilled water with Benzalkonium Chloride for Biocide. An Aqua Euro USA Max Chill Inline 1/10 horsepower water chiller with 1/2 OD barbs will be added to the loop shortly. And a 30" Air King 9175 1/3 HP Industrial Grade Oscillating Pedestal Fan will be blowing on low directly over the Motherboard and Graphics cards at an angle.


The computer will be sitting on an 8Ft table with a Anti-static Mod Mat v2 affixed to the table, 4Ft for the computer and 4Ft for workspace and keyboard.


 
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H 3 L L S M A N

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Processor Intel® Core™ i7-3930K
Motherboard MSI® Big Bang Xpower ||
Cooling Custom Liquid Cooling
Memory G.Skill® Ripjaws Z Series 1866Mhz 9-11-10-28 32Gb Quad Kit
Video Card(s) ASUS® EAH6950 DCII 2Gb CrossfireX
Storage Corsair® Force GT 120Gb
Display(s) Dell® UltraSharp U2410
Case ModRight® Mod Matt v2
Power Supply Enermax® MAXREVO 1350
Software Windows 7 64Bit/ Soon Windows 8 64Bit
Update

This is a very small update, I just got my RMA return back for my Corsair Voyager 3.0 16 GB flash drive (They sent me the smaller version looks better), and my Biocide in. Extracted the Windows 7 disc and moved it to the flash drive for my install platform for my OS. As soon as the retail version of 8 is out and another BIOS update rolls on out I will be wiping my SSD drive and installing it.

Since it has taken so long for the MSI Big Bang Xpower II to come out I have decided to focus on the audio of this build a little bit earlier. I had previously owned a set of Sennheiser HD 650's but ended up returning them for the Beyer Dynamic DT 990 Premium 600 OHM Headphone. I will be taking some pictures when they arrive here.

As far as the sound card goes I have heard about the new ROG Xonar Phoebus but I do not find the specs all too impressive. I will most likely be going with the ASUS PCI-Express x1 Sound Card XONAR ESSENCE STX because of the 600Ohm capability and the 124 SNR, 6.5mm output, plus all the other various features.

Also my processor will be a C2 stepping model and the estimated ship date provided to me is late February to early March, :eek: nothing I can do though just have to wait. Hopefully MSI's new flagship motherboard will be coming out shortly; I am really looking forward to it.

MSI Big Bang Xpower II [Sat/Feb/11th/2012]

Just saw it on Newegg.com today, they have it in stock and my order should be here shortly.
 
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H 3 L L S M A N

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Beyer Dynamic DT 990 Premium 600 OHM



These are my new headphones the Beyer Dynamic DT 990 Premium 600 OHM version, will be paring these up with the Onkyo HT-S6300 7.1 surround sound system which will be feed by my 6950's through the HDMI output.

Technical Specifications (Headphones)
Transmission Type: Wired
Impedance: 600 ohms
Frequency Response: 5 Hz - 35,000 Hz
Sound Pressure Level: 96 dB
Construction: Circumaural (over-the-ear)
Cable & Plug: Straight connecting cable with mini-jack plug (3.5 mm) & 1/4" adapter (6.35 mm)
Net Weight: 290 g

Product Features (7.1 Surround Sound)
7.1-channel home theater system with receiver, subwoofer, center channel speaker, and six satellite speakers
1200 watts of total power (130W x 7 channels plus 290W subwoofer)
Four 1080p capable HDMI inputs (V1.4a) supporting 3D video and Audio Return Channel
1080p scaling via Faroudja DCDi Cinema
WRAT technology and discrete amp construction for cleaner sound
4 DSP Modes for Gaming: Rock, Sports, Action, and RPG
Audyssey
Front-Panel Audio Input for Portable Devices
Music Optimizer for Compressed Digital Music Files
Universal Port for Single-Cable Connection of UP-A1
Net weight 72 Pounds
 

Yo_Wattup

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First build hey? You'd wanna be veeeery careful with such an expensive build. :roll: And are you just gonna be using a single 1900x1200 monitor? I dont see the need to upgrade to 600 series gpus at that reso, with those cards... wait till next gen after that. :)
 
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you should probably get a headphone amp and hook it up to the receiver.
 

H 3 L L S M A N

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Video Card(s) ASUS® EAH6950 DCII 2Gb CrossfireX
Storage Corsair® Force GT 120Gb
Display(s) Dell® UltraSharp U2410
Case ModRight® Mod Matt v2
Power Supply Enermax® MAXREVO 1350
Software Windows 7 64Bit/ Soon Windows 8 64Bit
First build hey? You'd wanna be veeeery careful with such an expensive build. :roll: And are you just gonna be using a single 1900x1200 monitor? I dont see the need to upgrade to 600 series gpus at that reso, with those cards... wait till next gen after that. :)

Believe me when I say this, I have watched so many videos about PC's and water cooling I could build it in my sleep. Not one problem happened when installing this insane CPU loop, it has been tested for days. But overclocking is another story but will practice and get help here when the time comes.

As to the cards I want 60+ frames at all times and to be honest I do not know what these will give me at 1920x1200 they will be overclocked to the max though. I may skip a generation or not I will most likely wait till the launch of the new generation of consoles when graphics take a leap forward for a bit until they are held back down by consoles once more.

My motherboard is coming this Thursday!

Plus if what they say is true and 4k or 8k SHDTV sets are coming this year then I will be going that route and not have a PC type monitor. It would be amazing to game at 8K res on a 60+ panel. But at that point textures would be distorted until devs make very high rez texture packs.
 
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Yo_Wattup

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Power Supply Corsair TX 750W ||| generic 400W
Software Win 7 Ultimate + Win 8 consumer preview||| Win 7 Pro
Benchmark Scores Never drops below 60fps Battlefield 3 everything on max, fov 90. :D
Believe me when I say this, I have watched so many videos about PC's and water cooling I could build it in my sleep. Not one problem happened when installing this insane CPU loop, it has been tested for days. But overclocking is another story but will practice and get help here when the time comes.

As to the cards I want 60+ frames at all times and to be honest I do not know what these will give me at 1920x1200 they will be overclocked to the max though. I may skip a generation or not I will most likely wait till the launch of the new generation of consoles when graphics take a leap forward for a bit until they are held back down by consoles once more.

My motherboard is coming this Thursday!

Plus if what they say is true and 4k or 8k SHDTV sets are coming this year then I will be going that route and not have a PC type monitor. It would be amazing to game at 8K res on a 60+ panel. But at that point textures would be distorted until devs make very high rez texture packs.

I think with higher resolutions you just get a wider field of view, so textures shouldn't be distorted, you just see more stuff on screen and the same size textures are just smaller...

I will be quite surprised if 2x 6950s don't play everything at over 60 fps, but you have to keep in mind, that there are stupid games like Crysis 2 in DX11 mode, that arent optimized AT ALL, that will eat cards for breakfast and not look that much better than if you run it with the settings down a bit. I couldn't notice a difference between DX10 Crysis 2 or DX11, but it halved my frames. But if you're a numbers guy (and most LGA2011 guys are) then go with what you like. (No offence intended) :toast:
 

H 3 L L S M A N

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I think with higher resolutions you just get a wider field of view, so textures shouldn't be distorted, you just see more stuff on screen and the same size textures are just smaller...

I will be quite surprised if 2x 6950s don't play everything at over 60 fps, but you have to keep in mind, that there are stupid games like Crysis 2 in DX11 mode, that arent optimized AT ALL, that will eat cards for breakfast and not look that much better than if you run it with the settings down a bit. I couldn't notice a difference between DX10 Crysis 2 or DX11, but it halved my frames. But if you're a numbers guy (and most LGA2011 guys are) then go with what you like. (No offence intended) :toast:

X79 would be the logical choice for a newcomer, the X79 should have a very long life span in tech years. But come next enthusiast chip set I will upgrade everything, will sell this SB-E Q4 and get an IB-E CPU I usually get a very good return selling on Amazon sometimes more than the purchase price, will wait as see as to how the graphics hold up to what I want, (I do not care how high the number can get above 60 just as long as it does not dip below it).
 
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Nice build! As long as i get 30 - 35 fps steady i'm happy, my eye can't distinguish anything above that anyways :eek: I notice thing's getting a bit choppy if/when it dip's below 30fps

How are you liking those can's so far?
 
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All that radiator for the cpu? Hope your benching that thing or it just seems like a waste
 

H 3 L L S M A N

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Nice build! As long as i get 30 - 35 fps steady i'm happy, my eye can't distinguish anything above that anyways :eek: I notice thing's getting a bit choppy if/when it dip's below 30fps

How are you liking those can's so far?

I think these two cards overclocked should be plenty good for amazing performance in any game this year.

As for the headphone since I am currently on a laptop with a pentium 4 and a slow HDD and the worst on-board audio I have 0 ability to power these cans I cannot review them at this point in time. The only thing I can say is how light and comfortable they are. They are going to be reserved for night time play when I cant run the Onkyo system full tilt.

When I use this new computer it will be night and day to try to compare them.

As this build completes and I get all of my components in I will review all the stuff.

All that radiator for the cpu? Hope your benching that thing or it just seems like a waste

It is going to be overclocked to max (I am hoping to hit 5Ghz with mem at 2500Mhz cas10 or 9-11-10-28 or what ever is stable at that point) this set-up would allow for a little over 5Ghz if I ran the memory at a slower speed, amazingly there is 1.0something gallons of distilled water flowing through that loop. And you may laugh when you see the fan for the rad come in, it is either going to be the Air King 9175 1/3 HP Industrial Grade Oscillating Pedestal Fan or the Airfoxx 30" Industrial Grade Pedestal Fan.

The Airfoxx is putting out (According to spec) 9600CFM at MAX and weighs 60 pounds while the Air King 9175 puts out 8780CFM and weighs in at 82.6 pounds. I do not know which one I will go with but which ever one I will make a video of it on the highest setting. Each one has a low, med, and high setting, I will not mind the noise but I am guessing high will not be tolerable for gaming, but we will see.
 
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Pretty sure I have seen higher then 5 on less rad. Video could be interesting though.
 

H 3 L L S M A N

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Same here but I will not know till I have everything set-up plus since I can easily chill my room down to 10°Celsius or 50°Fahrenheit by cracking the window temps and over clocks should be even better.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Nice build...

I am hoping to hit 5Ghz with mem at 2500Mhz..

....but good luck with that. 5Ghz isnt a 24/7 clockspeed under most water, especially with that memory (which is useless to clock remotely that high in the first place).

Prove me wrong and let me see a STABLE 5Ghz and 2400+ memory though. In the meantime I will be cleaning my foot off just in case I have to put it in my mouth. :)
 

H 3 L L S M A N

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Nice build...



....but good luck with that. 5Ghz isnt a 24/7 clockspeed under most water, especially with that memory (which is useless to clock remotely that high in the first place).

Prove me wrong and let me see a STABLE 5Ghz and 2400+ memory though. In the meantime I will be cleaning my foot off just in case I have to put it in my mouth. :)

Ya I do not know what I get is there any benchmarks with the C2 stepping models yet? but what I consider stable other may not, my stability test will use AIDA64 and Unigine Heaven running together plus others like some Futuremark software and Cinebench.

If you have alot of experience with overclocking the x79 chipset and SB-E I would really appreciate the help when the time comes.

And on a side note is running the RAM at that speed pointless in your own personal opinion or is there a valid reason why that should not be done. I was also considering selling this 16Gb 2400Mhz kit and going for the 32Gb 2133Mhz kit and using the intel catching feature for games so they are even faster than SSD performance. Which way would yield better performance.
 
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I think these two cards overclocked should be plenty good for amazing performance in any game this year.

As for the headphone since I am currently on a laptop with a pentium 4 and a slow HDD and the worst on-board audio I have 0 ability to power these cans I cannot review them at this point in time. The only thing I can say is how light and comfortable they are. They are going to be reserved for night time play when I cant run the Onkyo system full tilt.

When I use this new computer it will be night and day to try to compare them.

As this build completes and I get all of my components in I will review all the stuff.

Ya i think you should be more than OK for a while there with that rig :pimp: Can you not plug 'em into your AVR and run some media through them to get an idea at least or even get them broken in? I wasn't looking for a review persay just some thought's is all, i've been eying some Grado's but too much $$$ ATM. I'm budgeting for other thing's that i really want so a set of can's is not on the top of my list, i want to get my rifle setup for the upcoming hunting season ;) With optic's i'll prolly be around $3k :cry:

Those fan's you mentioned for the RAD are going to be a waste, trust me. With watercooling you can never, i repeat never, get below ambient. Unless you run a chiller of course. I would get some PC specific fan's that are geared for RAD use as opposed to case use, you'll have excellent result's with that RAD ;) Who make's the pump you're considering?
 

Yo_Wattup

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Video Card(s) 2x HIS HD6950 2GB Crossfire, 6970 clocks ||| HD6550D
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Power Supply Corsair TX 750W ||| generic 400W
Software Win 7 Ultimate + Win 8 consumer preview||| Win 7 Pro
Benchmark Scores Never drops below 60fps Battlefield 3 everything on max, fov 90. :D
5ghz and 2400mhz? I really do wish you the best of luck with that, but that'll be nigh on impossible...

I would be happy with 1866mhz and 5ghz, its been proven time and again that anything over that speed (memory) is not worthwhile, especially since it limits your cpu overclock 9 times out of 10. And even if you do get 5ghz/2400mhz, why not lower the mem speed to get say, a 5.2ghz overclock? (for example).

Good luck though. :toast:
 

H 3 L L S M A N

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Software Windows 7 64Bit/ Soon Windows 8 64Bit
Ya i think you should be more than OK for a while there with that rig :pimp: Can you not plug 'em into your AVR and run some media through them to get an idea at least or even get them broken in? I wasn't looking for a review persay just some thought's is all, i've been eying some Grado's but too much $$$ ATM. I'm budgeting for other thing's that i really want so a set of can's is not on the top of my list, i want to get my rifle setup for the upcoming hunting season ;) With optic's i'll prolly be around $3k :cry:

Those fan's you mentioned for the RAD are going to be a waste, trust me. With watercooling you can never, i repeat never, get below ambient. Unless you run a chiller of course. I would get some PC specific fan's that are geared for RAD use as opposed to case use, you'll have excellent result's with that RAD ;) Who make's the pump you're considering?

The pump is already installed on the table under the Res with a Bitspower G 1/4 to G 1/4 Rotary extender, and also everything on that list is purchased there is nothing else left to consider.

I know that you cannot get below ambient but being able to stay at ambient is the key and I have always wanted a crazy fan like that. I will have one of those fan as the push and on the other side may fill it up with some nice looking 140mm LED regular (Maybe Enermax T.B Vegas Trio) fans for the pull.

Now as for the headphones I will try to make this short and try to limit the audiophile words I hate them too. Have done alot of research and the HD 650's are the best all around headphone, these DT 990 600 Ohm have the best bass and "fun" loud sound that some may find exaggerated. AKG's are usually Treble heavy and lacking bass (based on review) as for the Grado's.

Bottom line audio comes down to what you like pick a thing like bass treble or a mix and then look for a set that the reviews confirm that it will suite you. Because lets face it would cannot buy all of these cans and try out each one till you find the perfect set. I would suggest to stay away from anything listed a neutral or designed for recording artists it will be very accurate sound but will most likely be boring to listen too (It will not make you jump).
 

H 3 L L S M A N

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5ghz and 2400mhz? I really do wish you the best of luck with that, but that'll be nigh on impossible...

I would be happy with 1866mhz and 5ghz, its been proven time and again that anything over that speed (memory) is not worthwhile, especially since it limits your cpu overclock 9 times out of 10. And even if you do get 5ghz/2400mhz, why not lower the mem speed to get say, a 5.2ghz overclock? (for example).

Good luck though. :toast:

I was originally set on getting 5ghz/2500mhz but that may change if there is no benefit of the ram that high, I need some proof, I will do some tests myself here in a few days.

The kit I have is designed to run at 2400Mhz cas9 with XPM enabled, but if overclocking higher and having the memory lower is better then I will sell this kit and run the 32Gb kit at 2133 or 1866 and use the extra to load a game/programs in. I will just have to wait and see.
 
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de.das.dude

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System Name Monke | Work Thinkpad| Old Monke
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Motherboard ASRock B550 Extreme4 | ? | Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling 240mm Rad | Not needed | hyper 212 EVO
Memory 2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB | 16 GB DDR4 3600 | 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s) Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB | Vega 8 | Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) | some samsung SSD
Display(s) Dell 2723DS | Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS | Dell 2240L
Case Ant Esports Tempered case | Thinkpad | Antec
Audio Device(s) Logitech Z333 | Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply Corsair RM750e | not needed | Corsair GS 600
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Ya I do not know what I get is there any benchmarks with the C2 stepping models yet? but what I consider stable other may not, my stability test will use AIDA64 and Unigine Heaven running together plus others like some Futuremark software and Cinebench.

If you have alot of experience with overclocking the x79 chipset and SB-E I would really appreciate the help when the time comes.

And on a side note is running the RAM at that speed pointless in your own personal opinion or is there a valid reason why that should not be done. I was also considering selling this 16Gb 2400Mhz kit and going for the 32Gb 2133Mhz kit and using the intel catching feature for games so they are even faster than SSD performance. Which way would yield better performance.
The C2 stepping will not be any different performance wise.

Most people use Prime95 (or IBT) to test the CPU and looping Heaven (Hwbot version, DX11) or 3DMark vantage or 3DMark11 (Furmark is a terrible test. But those will suffice. Cinebench is hard on the CPU, no idea about AIDA. The reason people use Prime95 as there are specific tests which test different parts of the system. For example, Small FFT is mostly CPU, while Blend tests RAM and CPU. If Cinebench bombs, one would have no clue why. So that is why most people stick to actual stress tests vs applications on the CPU side.

I do have a lot of experience with it, which is why I say 5Ghz is not a 24/7 overclock on ambient cooling (water or not).

The ram speed being pointless is not an opinion, its a fact that there is very little if anything at all to gain across most applications and games. Some do respond to higher memory frequencies though. Unless you are using the rare application that does respond to those frequencies, save your money with a DDR3 1600Mhz CL8 kit. Also, with that much memory (16/32GB), you will need to pump a TON of Vtt volts to get that kit even close to those memory speeds... which some CPUs IMC's may not be able to do in the first place.

The Intel caching feature does not make SSD's faster. It makes HDD's faster by caching the most frequently used data.

+1 to getting appropriate fans for the radiator. The problem is going to be with your block not being able to whisk away that much heat. Just grab a bunch of Delta's and put them on a fan controller.
 
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H 3 L L S M A N

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Case ModRight® Mod Matt v2
Power Supply Enermax® MAXREVO 1350
Software Windows 7 64Bit/ Soon Windows 8 64Bit
The C2 stepping will not be any different performance wise.

Most people use Prime95 (or IBT) to test the CPU and looping Heaven (Hwbot version, DX11) or 3DMark vantage or 3DMark11 (Furmark is a terrible test. But those will suffice. Cinebench is hard on the CPU, no idea about AIDA. The reason people use Prime95 as there are specific tests which test different parts of the system. For example, Small FFT is mostly CPU, while Blend tests RAM and CPU. If Cinebench bombs, one would have no clue why. So that is why most people stick to actual stress tests vs applications on the CPU side.

I do have a lot of experience with it, which is why I say 5Ghz is not a 24/7 overclock on ambient cooling (water or not).

The ram speed being pointless is not an opinion, its a fact that there is very little if anything at all to gain across most applications and games. Some do respond to higher memory frequencies though. Unless you are using the rare application that does respond to those frequencies, save your money with a DDR3 1600Mhz CL8 kit. Also, with that much memory (16/32GB), you will need to pump a TON of Vtt volts to get that kit even close to those memory speeds... which some CPUs IMC's may not be able to do in the first place.

The Intel caching feature does not make SSD's faster. It makes HDD's faster by caching the most frequently used data.

+1 to getting appropriate fans for the radiator. The problem is going to be with your block not being able to whisk away that much heat. Just grab a bunch of Delta's and put them on a fan controller.

Sorry I talking RAM drives using RAMDisk, this is the 32Gb kit I am looking at now The GeIL EVO CORSA Series 32GB (8 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) or the G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (8 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) 1.65

And I will send you a PM when I get this all setup if you are able to help me get the best overclock.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Im not at this site a lot (normally just sell stuff here), so other resources should be able to help you...Like this LINK. There are several members that would help you out here on that endeavor as well.

NOt sure why you are set on fast memory... you are just wasting money...ramdisk or not. ;)
 

H 3 L L S M A N

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Processor Intel® Core™ i7-3930K
Motherboard MSI® Big Bang Xpower ||
Cooling Custom Liquid Cooling
Memory G.Skill® Ripjaws Z Series 1866Mhz 9-11-10-28 32Gb Quad Kit
Video Card(s) ASUS® EAH6950 DCII 2Gb CrossfireX
Storage Corsair® Force GT 120Gb
Display(s) Dell® UltraSharp U2410
Case ModRight® Mod Matt v2
Power Supply Enermax® MAXREVO 1350
Software Windows 7 64Bit/ Soon Windows 8 64Bit
Im not at this site a lot (normally just sell stuff here), so other resources should be able to help you...Like this LINK. There are several members that would help you out here on that endeavor as well.

NOt sure why you are set on fast memory... you are just wasting money...ramdisk or not. ;)

What free forum has the most experianced overclocking community, and is that your gear in your avatar looks insane.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
That is not my gear, no.. I have only used 2 DI/LN2 pots, not 12... :p

This forum is fine. Just use that link I provided and ask some questions here.
 
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