XPS 730x - "Stick a Fork in Her" Build

System Owner: eduncan911
3DMark Fire Strike: 19,703
3DMark 11: 0
Community Score: 17
3DMark Vantage:
3DMark 06: 0
SuperPi 32M:

ELIGIBLE

System Details

Component Type Brand Product

Motherboard ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition

CPU Intel 4930k

Frequency: 4.7 GHz FSB / QPI: 160 MHz Multiplier: 30 x Stepping: Default
VCore: 1.4 v VTT Voltage: Default PLL Voltage: Default

RAM Mushkin 4x 4GB 2133 Mhz DDR3

Frequency: 2133 MHz Timing: Default Voltage: 1.65 v

Graphics Card EVGA 2x Titan (bios + LLC, custom cooling)

GPU Frequency: 1226 MHz Shader Frequency: Default Memory Frequency: 7208 MHz SLI: Yes

Case

Dell

XPS 730X Brushed Aluminum w/X-Panel

Cooling

Dell (Custom)

TEC / H2C Hybrid, heavily modified for 450W

Power Supply

EVGA

SuperNOVA G2 1300W

Monitor

Planar

SA2311W 120 Hz 3D Vision

Monitor

Planar

SA2311W 120 Hz 3D Vision

Monitor

Planar

SA2311W 120 Hz 3D Vision

Solid State Drive

Mushkin

240 GB SATA 6 Gbps

Notes

Still listed in the Top 50 2-way SLI systems in the world (I originally was #14).

This was machine #4 I built in my quest has been trying to get my Tri-Monitor gameplay nice and smooth. Previous systems were:

X79 PCIe 2.0 w/3-way EVGA 670 4GB SCs (2012)
X58 PCIe 2.0 w/3-way EVGA 580 3GB HCs (2010)
X58 PCIe 2.0 w/2-way EVGA 470s (2008)

With my other systems failing tri-monitor gameplay (horrible micro-stutter), this build was a "once and for all" final build that had to work or I was getting out of gaming for good.

System Theory

It was now known that Nvidia does a "bandwidth test" upon installing Geforce drivers on X79 platforms with Ivy Bridge-E CPUs, to enable PCIe 3.0 or not.

I have now figured out that 3-way SLI is flawed by Nvidia: micro-stutter is the norm. When I yanked a GPU from one of my previous systems, I got smooth micro-stutter-free gameplay! Except, they didn't have the horsepower for 120 Hz / 120 FPS gameplay at 6000x1080.

Customizations:

I run at a 160 Mhz BCLK.

The EVGA Titans run Skyn3t's custom BIOS + LLC Mod to remove the boost clock.

I also have highly modified the stock reference cooler by adding my own thermal paste, thermal padding, additional heat sinks and such. Lastly, to get the memory timings that high (7,200 Mhz!), I used modified EVGA backplate with 200% more thermal padding, paste and additional heat sinks.

Results:

All Asus Rampage IV boards (Formula, Extreme, Black Edition) all passed Nvidia's PCIe 3.0 benchmarks and enabled PCIe 3.0!

Also, running two Titans seems to keep the FPS up in the 100s, perfect for the 120 Hz monitors.

Conclusion:

After 6 years, $10,000+, I am finally happy and set with this system as my primary system. Though, after some PhysX testing I did in the forums, I could use an GTX 770 for a PhysX card as I do play a number of games with it.

So, "Stick a fork in her, she's done."

Comments

Posted By Date Text

notfordman
07/24/2015
10:25 AM

Pretty cool build, you picked an interesting platform case wise. Great pics too. +1 4 u :)

Zuhl3156
06/13/2015
05:43 AM

Nice, +1

eduncan911
04/15/2015
01:57 PM

Finally finished my TEC/H2C Hybrid setup. 21C idle, 49C max load. :)

j2345912
03/24/2015
10:16 PM

Beautiful system man! +1 impressive scores!

GarnetandBlack
10/13/2014
06:44 AM

Great score man! +1

zophar
09/28/2014
08:51 AM

+1 Love seeing the old XPS cases reused.

LazySoft
09/20/2014
11:46 PM

Wow, that was nice looking build.

Donta1979
07/21/2014
07:52 AM

Very nice, I have the old XPS case took a ton of modding to change it over to ATX let alone into an XL ATX case=). Your case I was never able to track one down though.

eduncan911
06/20/2014
03:36 PM

@mpoffo: Awesome, 730x! Yeah, I tried tri-GTX 780s and had the same stuttering. I think it's the 120 Hz. I also build a previous rig on my xps 730x original mobo you may want take a sneak peak at: http://www.modsrigs.com/detail.aspx?BuildID=26285 None the less, 2x SLI is perfect.

mpoffo
06/17/2014
11:31 AM

+1 for a fellow XPS 730x owner. Mine is still going strong after my replacement of the H2C. My newer system is 3-way GTX 780 SLI at 5960 x 1080. Not seeing any stuttering issues with my 60 hz monitors though. Glad you found your sweet spot. :)

Total Comments 11

XPS 730x - "Stick a Fork in Her" Build

System Details

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