It has been nearly 5 years since I have built my first EVGA Classified build that inspired my love for "enthusiast computing". It wasn't long after my first E760 X58 Classy build (dubbed ARSENAL 1.0) that I hopped over onto the SR-2 for two years before returning to a E762 that I built my first water loop on. Since then I have built around 20 X58 systems, for others and myself and this is not including the dozens of LGA775 or the couple of X79s. from a lot of the systems I have built it was clear to me the X58 had a nice sweet spot. You had plenty of overclockable CPUs to choose from(which we may never see again from Intel), ample performance features for heavy gaming or heavy workstation loads, and the EVGA X58 Classified series just seemed to be in a class all on their own in that time in regards to quality and performance. The X58 has since been replaced in the enterprise/enthusiast market with higher performing chipsets and the adoption of new standards in USB, SATA, PCIe, and DDR4 to name a few but the X58 probably marks the end of an era where you could overclock the Xeon CPUs, now leaving enthusiasts locked to a standard three "overclockable" i7 SKUs per generation. In simplest terms since the end of the X58 chipset, overclocking is now a feature you pay for in a CPU. While I was rather late into the enthusiast community I was fortunate enough to experience and appreciate what the X58 and many of its enthusiast class predecessors offered to the enthusiast side of computing.
This project has been a goal of mine since I started my "minion" X58 rigs for folding. I wanted to build a multi-system machine that displayed the potential in gaming and workstation aspects of the X58, along with being a multi-tool platform for teaching and sharing my enthusiasm to others. The purpose behind this build was to create full time game servers for my gaming community of friends, but also have the potential to be used as part time gaming systems for those who do not have a capable system at our LANs as well as a tool to teach the principals behind overclocking to those who were unfamiliar. While these newer UEFI's are nice and convenient with simple click and clock settings there was nothing like getting the true understanding of the basics from starting at a Blue and white BIOS screen and tweaking settings while solving the boot issues through BSOD codes while fine tuning an overclock.
I started off by collecting all four SKU's of the EVGA X58 Classified boards, mainly from fellow forum members here. The rare E759 featuring the nf200, the standard E760, the notorious E762 featuring 4-way SLI, and the late E770 with the USB/SATA 3.0 update. I also took the time to collect the ECPs so each board had one which will be essential to the build in it's later stage. I also took the time to collect the popular EK full board blocks as each system will be water cooled through a parallel style system. To be honest the blocks were easy to collect, but the hardware for mounting them, not so much. In fact I had to wait a good while before finding an E762 board that actually had the air cooler on it. I am trying to keep both the water blocks and air coolers on hand as each shares an important aesthetic to the boards.
The collecting totaled me at three E760 boards, one E759, one E770, and two E762 boards. I went ahead and built two of the E760 boards into systems for my brothers and kept one, one sadly went up in a blase of sparks and smoke so it's now a wall hanger
. I am currently working on the "post or toast" stage where I will be testing the boards for the basics to ensure they are operational for the four that will be going into the build.
CPUs are going to be a careful selection as I want to have a diverse set of SKUs for the systems. The i7 920, and either an i7-970(which I have) or the i7-980X would be good ones to display the range in the consumer lineup but then it's choosing from the dozens of Xeons to give a good display of the CPU cross compatibility. I will probably start with a 5639 to show a low end Xeon hex core, and a 5580 or similar for a high end quad core to complement the i7's.
Some pics of some of the wares...
But I guess enough for the write up thus far. Lets move into some images of the build and it's progress over the weekend.
A couple weeks ago I started out making a trip to a thrift store with the wife and ran across a stripped down plexi terrarium. To me it screamed as the perfect part to base the case off of but still it would require a lot of work. So off came the top on the jeep to accommodate the 15" X 18" X 60" piece of plastic. I started off with taking some measurements to start cad work for the design and quickly realized there was not a single complementary dimension. This was bad news as the case frame will have to be meticulously built to adapt to the terrarium. I moved on from my cad design and started cutting the terrarium up... Because of a lack in selection of blades at my shop and a poor running jig saw I ran into some bad chipping even after taping the plexi off. I later figured out the right speed using a different jig saw that greatly reduced the chipping.
The chipping cause some cracks that weakened the corner making it split when I was cutting the radiator holes. I can't say how much I hate working with plexi.
But not to fear I had some aluminum angle laying around that I used to reinforce it back to , if not better than it was structurally.
I guess you get what you pay for...
Finally finished with the terrarium cutting for now. Now I am moving on to the case frame. The frame will be made out of rough plywood. I opted for structural integrity from ply wood over having a simple finish from using MDF. It's nothing that some bondo and a good finish sanding can't correct. It will just take some more time is all.
Now like I said, this terrarium turned out to not be consistent (some places almost a quarter inch!) on it's dimensions so I had to take extra time in trimming the side panels so they match the face of the terrarium but are square with the frame.
You know it's a serious computer case when it requires a 1" Snap-on Wrench to assemble.
Now with both side panels cut out I can start screwing the frame together. I will be using 5/8" all thread that will tie the terrarium to the frame as well as offer a way to suspend the motherboard tray in the center of the terrarium. This will minimize the required structural demand of the terrarium which is already greatly compromised from it being only 3/16" thick and having plenty of cut outs already. The only things the terrarium will be holding will be the two 560mm UT60 Alphacool radiators which will be no problem with some added aluminum angle to reinforce it.
After screwing the frame together around the terrarium it simply slides out leaving the frame intact.
I temporarily installed the casters so it was easily rolled around the shop.
After about 8 1/2 hours in the shop it was time to start winding down for the day. Final thought for this day's build time: It's not about how little you screw up, it's about how much you can cover up. This advice can be applied to gangsters with good lawyers, politicians with friends in high places, and craftsman with bondo.... 7lbs of it...
post edited by nikkocortez - 2015/03/15 17:04:03