The Red Queen

[scaccima]

Looking good!!

[gdesmo]

Looks amazing so far ! Dominators X 8 is wicked, Azza cases were made for ROG boards !

[bungwirez]

That's one of the tidiest ghetto test benches I've ever seen.
Can't wait to see the Full Monty there Dave!

[dave.leblanc]

thanks guys! I'm happy with the build coming along but yet another snag has come up

it seems the Dominator Ram blocks aren't directly compatible with the platinum series of the dominator ram... Unlike the GT series the heat sinks are mounted quite differently and the removal of them doesn't create the mounting holes provided by the GT series....

I do intend on overclocking this ram and there is supposedly a lot of heat involved in running this much of this ram overclocked so intensely

my options at this point are:

A) return the platinum for the GT series which means dropping down to 1866mhz stock speed over 2133mhz platinum

B) return the dominator ram blocks and exchange for universal blocks which would involve completely tearing apart the ram and would be a shame (and there are still questions regarding LEDs mounted to the ram and proper compatibility with a universal kit

C) don't Water Cool the ram get a corsair Airflow Pro 2 and Airflow fans

or

D) build some sort of a bracket that mounts on the side screws of the dimms and creates a screw hole on top for mounting the ram block.



I'm leaning towards either C or D at this point

my problem with D is that the Ram block would be cooling the flat side of the platinum's full heat sink which adds approx. 15mm to the height of the ram blocks
Given the flat surface on the top of the heat sink I could still install the thermal pads and would have almost the exact same surface area coverage as the GT when mounted correctly
There may even be an added dissipation of heat bonus to maintaining the factory sink? thoughts?

C means I start mixing Air and Water and I really wanted this to be a water completely cooled Machine


even with the 15mm height disadvantage of option D if I thought for sure there was an advantage I'd bust out some aluminium and the dremel with 2 vertical screws to prevent wiggle if built correctly the top portion could meet the slope of the RAM for further stability then it's a matter of a small mounting hole for the dominitor block

another way around D would be to consider thermal Adhesive but that's a little permanent sounding and risky if it doesn't pan out

[bungwirez]

actually, you can keep your RAM block and get these...

http://www.dazmode.com/store/product...-kit-twin-set/
OR...
http://www.dazmode.com/store/product...rsal_kit_dual/

but you'll still have to pull off the heatshields on those Dominators.
and that can be tricky and nerve racking...
read my tutorial: http://www.dazmode.com/_forum/showth...-Block-Install

[dave.leblanc]

Something I noticed while performing my leak test (this is probably something most might be familiar with) but while operating the test with the pumps on 4 my tubing and radiator picked up a LOT of ambient heat for a loop that isn't cooling anything yet touching the hoses and the Rad they were very warm to the touch. I didn't have a temperature plug in the Rad so I can't speak to temperatures but dialing both pumps back to just over 2 is still creating a visible turbulance in the resevoir and has lowered the temperature of the tubing and rad to the point where they are cool to the touch again.

When I set up the loop for it's next leak test inside the case I'll have my temp probe installed and do some recording of my findings


the more I think about my previous post the more curious I am as to the feasibility of D I think while I'm counting down the final hours of my 24 hour leak test I'll fab up some brackets and see what sort of results I can get. I've got some real thin stuff to work with that I'm going to see what I can come up with...

I'm still curious if anyone has any thoughts on the sort of results the water block might have over the airflow given my suggested installation method.... gdesmo I'm looking in your direction hoping you have some thoughts?



worst case the Ram blocks are still sealed and I'll re-consider the AirFlow Pro

[bungwirez]

I know two things...

1) OC'ing ram is tricky as hell to get stable and doesn't really provide much real world benefits
2) Ram heat, OC'd or not is really not a heck of a lot to write home about anyhow.

so waterblocking RAM is typically for aesthetics... and looking at your Dominators, they're pretty sick looking.

[dave.leblanc]

actually, you can keep your RAM block and get these...

http://www.dazmode.com/store/product...-kit-twin-set/
OR...
http://www.dazmode.com/store/product...rsal_kit_dual/

but you'll still have to pull off the heatshields on those Dominators.
and that can be tricky and nerve racking...
read my tutorial: http://www.dazmode.com/_forum/showth...-Block-Install

thanks bungwirez that tutorial is pretty thorough

this was what I was talking about in B (sort of) but now I understand that the dominator block mounts to the universal adapter


nerve racking aside (and even putting aside your one potentially damaged by removal stick) the real problem/question I have with this is that the platinum ram specifically has LED mounted directly to the board and a concern was brought up on an overclocker forum asking this same question as to whether or not the universal blocks would seat properly given the LED not being flush...

this could be a very costly thing to learn the hard way that it won't work...


*EDIT

I read an update on the chap who tore apart his platinum...

Well Stop !! I just did what everyone is talking about with the EK water block for the Dominator. I have a 32gb Platnium kit which i ripped apart the heat spreaders and sinks. What a pain in the Ars. To top it off the EK heat spreaders are to short and almost half the ram chip shows. Im waiting to here back from EK to see if thats they way they fit. I just dont think so. So the stock heat spreaders are very nicely intsalled and would leave them on. I'M going to have to see if Corair with put the stock ones back on if they would ?

universal blocks are 100% out

[dave.leblanc]

I know two things...

1) OC'ing ram is tricky as hell to get stable and doesn't really provide much real world benefits
2) Ram heat, OC'd or not is really not a heck of a lot to write home about anyhow.

so waterblocking RAM is typically for aesthetics... and looking at your Dominators, they're pretty sick looking.

heh... this is a bit of what I've also been considering.. it's some pretty evil looking ram and the white LEDs built in should create a nice effect as well

as far as OCing the Ram goes Corsiar has a blog post where they detail quite thoroughly their process of successfully OCing these DIMMs near the limits recorded as possible with the RIVE board (according to an Asus demo ~2700mhz was a world record)

http://www.corsair.com/en/blog/domin...hz-overclocks/

they do however recommend getting air over the ram at speeds above 2400mhz

they pushed the 2133 to just over 2500mhz in their tests

[bungwirez]

can we convince you to leave those RAM unmodded... they just look so pretty

[dave.leblanc]

can we convince you to leave those RAM unmodded... they just look so pretty

I don't expect these brackets to do anything except keep me busy while the clock runs out on the leak test the thickness of material I'd have to run to make it between the blocks is nerve racking and something tells me a larger bracket that bridges the outside of the 4 DIMMs isn't a smart bet

at this point leaving the factory and settling for cooled Board, CPU and GPUs is the likely course of action

[dave.leblanc]

I took the ram and drew out a small sketch of the shape I'd need to cut out to create a box cap to extend the ram


got myself all mounted up with a nice bright light so I could follow the cutting bit


here's a side shot of the box just resting on the ram
you can see on the other side of this stick (and in the set facing from the other quad channel) the vertical screws that would in theory be used to mount this bracket


Here however we can see where the plan goes a little awry
even after taking into account that the inside corner is a little wide (I fixed it after this shot) the "pin" that slides between the ram is still thick enough to rub against the screws on the ram chip beside it




SO... Back the Ram blocks will go tomorrow and we'll see how this setup fairs as is...

if I really get into OCing the ram and find that I have issues... the look of these is quite interesting.. each supports 6 channels (each line of LEDs representing a channel) I'd run the 2 outside pairs of LED strips over each quad DIMM


the six center LEDs are color changing temperature "meters" and the remainder are activity LEDs dedicated to each channel or ram stick

This can further be controlled and connected to a controller unit that allows even more detailed software control over the whole system and even more advanced control over system fans than just about any other Fan controller I've seen.. the downside here is that there is no linux software support and I spend a large amount of my time (except gaming and even then... ) in Linux.. I've asked the question over on the corsair forum to find out if the software is merely an interface for programming the controller or if it acts as the actual brain of the operations

[gdesmo]

You may not like this, but I agree with Bung on this one. I would concentrate more on optimizing Primary and Secondary timings, there is more to be gained there rather than playing with water on those sweet Ram's. Make sure you have great air flow in the case and you won't have to worry about it. What ever you end up doing I'm sure it will be great !

[dave.leblanc]

You may not like this, but I agree with Bung on this one. I would concentrate more on optimizing Primary and Secondary timings, there is more to be gained there rather than playing with water on those sweet Ram's. Make sure you have great air flow in the case and you won't have to worry about it. What ever you end up doing I'm sure it will be great !

this is ultimately the conclusion I came to I wasn't satisfied at all with the mounts I fabricated (even considering they were a rough trial) and I'm certainly not tearing apart the beautiful ram

there are 2 120mm intake in the front and a 140mm exhaust, add to that I'll mount the biggest fan I can fit on the floor (probably a 140 once that beast of a PSU is in there) and the 6 120's pushing air out the top (through the rads) I *think* I'll have enough airflow to get started... the corsair fan cooler and temp monitor probes will be a last resort if I find myself at a point where I've created reasonable gains that just need better cooling

but as mentioned OCing ram doesn't always equate to a whole lot of real world improvement

[dave.leblanc]

More progress last night and today I've been at this non stop... definitely a lot of learning and a lot of re-thinking along the way

Dominator Platinum in full effect


Mother board prepped (test install)


custom fill port


leaving room for the server PSU