Contribute
Register

[Success] Geminii's HexaBeast | i7-3970X | ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | GTX 760

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jan 19, 2010
Messages
274
Motherboard
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
CPU
Core i7-3970X
Graphics
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 4Gb
Mac
  1. Mac mini
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
Geminii’s HexaBeast: i7-3970X 3.5Ghz | ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | GTX 760 4Gb

73515-thermaltake10gt.jpg

Components

Intel Core I7-3970X Extreme 3.5Ghz
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009V9BGIG/

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme LGA 2011
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0061XSBZ6/

Thermaltake Water 2.0 AiO Liquid Cooling
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007UIX1M4/

Thermaltake Toughpower Grand DPS 750W
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F0B7KZC/r

EVGA GeForce GTX 760 4Gb
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EIG47BK/

Samsung 840 Pro 512Gb SSD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NB8WTI/


Already Owned

Thermaltake Level 10 GT
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004K1ELF0/

Corsair Vengeance 16Gb DDR3 Ram Kit
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004E0ZKLQ/

3 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T3GRLY/

LG Blu-Ray Burner Rewriter
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007YWMCA8/

HP 2711 LED Monitor
http://www.amazon.com/HP-2711x-27-Inch-LED-Monitor/dp/B004G8QO8O/

Apple Wired Keyboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DLDTAE/

Logitech Performance MX Wireless Mouse
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002HWRJBM/

73516-inside1.jpg


Comments

In anticipation of the new Mac Pro for 2013 and the announced Final Cut Pro X update, I decided it was time to build the best video editing work station I could afford. I am primarily a video editor but I also do a lot of 3D artwork and After Effects work so I wanted to meet the specs of the upper tier Mac Pro being offered as closely as possible. I chose the 3970X 6 Core and the ASUS RIVE based on the price and recommendations from others in the community. * Attempted to overclock to 4.5Ghz. So far everything seems good.

A primary reason I chose the RIVE, was the amount of USB3 Ports, support for up to 4 GPUs, quad channel ram up to 64Gb and the dual eSata connections on the back. I have several eSata external drives so I wanted to ensure I could hook up at least 2 of them on the back and several motherboards seem to be phasing them out in favor of more USB 3 ports.

I chose the GeForce GTX 760 4Gb because it seems to be widely supported and compatible OotB. It also does have Crossfire/SLI, so I am hoping that when the Mac Pro is released a future update will provide full dual GPU compatibility.

74276-about2.jpg

Mavericks Install
  1. Updated BIOS to 4206
  2. Load Optimized Defaults
  3. Unibeast Installer with options: -v npci=0x2000 GraphicsEnabler=No
  4. Install Mavericks

MultiBeast Configuration for Mavericks
73514-mb6-01.jpg

Post Installation Solutions
  1. Bootup = Added <string>npci=0x2000</string> to org.chameleon.Boot.plist
  2. iCloud, AppStore, iMessage = Run Chameleon Wizard to fix Smbios and add FileNVRAM.dylib
  3. Fix CPU Reporting as “Unknown” = Add <key>SMcputype</key><string>1281</string> tp smbios.plist
  4. Fix for USB3 = Follow Shilohh’s guide for MacIASL DSDThttp://www.tonymacx86.com/dsdt/1144...ide-create-your-dsdt-5-min-using-maciasl.html

Not Working
  • USB3 ports on front of case = Technically both of these ports work at full speed, but they only work individually. If I disconnect a drive from port 1, I can not connect reconnect that drive on port 2 and vice versa.

Benchmarks
73946-geekbench3.jpg

73513-heavenbench.jpg


Special thanks to Shilohh for his awesome guide and wonderful support. Thanks to stefanhuberfilms for his assistance with fixing the CPU reporting issue. And last but not least, big thanks to trs96 for his hardware recommendations!

*** Recent Updates as of 11/17/2013
 
Last edited by a moderator:
(Sucess)Geminii's HexaBeast | i7-3970X | ASUS Rampage IV Extreme | GTX 760

:clap: Good job. You can safely and easily OC to 4.2 or 4.4 ghz. Your board and CPU were designed and manufactured for it. I get geekbench3 64bit scores of 24k at 4.5 and 22k at 4.2. This video should help you understand a bit more about the bios and OC:

[video]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kx2z07sFM2I[/video]

also watch part 2
 
Very nice! Awesome build!

What made you decide on the EVGA GTX760 4GB and not the GTX770 4GB (or even the GTX780 3GB factory over clocked)?

Please share! It would be MUCH appreciated!

thank you, and again AWESOME BUILD!
 
Very nice! Awesome build!

What made you decide on the EVGA GTX760 4GB and not the GTX770 4GB (or even the GTX780 3GB factory over clocked)?

Please share! It would be MUCH appreciated!

thank you, and again AWESOME BUILD!

At the time that I priced out things, the EVGA 760 seemed to be less expensive but equally capable. Also has SLI and Crossfire, so hopefully we will be able to take advantage of that in December and I will be able to double up. It was definitely a step up from my HD6870.
 
At the time that I priced out things, the EVGA 760 seemed to be less expensive but equally capable. Also has SLI and Crossfire, so hopefully we will be able to take advantage of that in December and I will be able to double up. It was definitely a step up from my HD6870.

Nice, that makes alot of sense. Ive been having a hard time reaching a decision on which GTX card to purchase, why I asked. I have very little experience editing video so far and (of course) want to buy the right card. Been reading and reading, but most reviews BY FAR are aimed at gaming, not many on editing video. But I have found a few articles and also ask questions here at TMx86 as well, an invaluable resource. I really miss the chat feature for that, having the opportunity to chat with a moderator about compatibility, the technical side of things, how things work etc was priceless.

thanks for sharing, I appreciate it. again, sweet build I hope mine comes out as nice as yours!
 
My other system (i7-860 CPU, Gigabyte mobo) had a pretty weak Geekbench score of like 7600 and I used everyday for several years as my only editing machine for After Effects and FCP 7. I guess I just got used to waiting for everything to render and just didn't let it bother me. When I needed to export large files I would just do that before bed or run errands and what not while it crunched.

I haven't had the chance to bench mark this system against my old one in terms of a real world work flow situation because this week has been just really crazy for me. But I actually logged the time for ingesting and transcoding 50Gb of 1080p footage in FCPx on my old machine. As soon as I have some time I am going to run that same footage on this new machine and see how fast that goes.

All things considered this system is pretty much the best I could build within my budget and so far I am happy.
 
My other system (i7-860 CPU, Gigabyte mobo) had a pretty weak Geekbench score of like 7600 and I used everyday for several years as my only editing machine for After Effects and FCP 7. I guess I just got used to waiting for everything to render and just didn't let it bother me. When I needed to export large files I would just do that before bed or run errands and what not while it crunched.

I haven't had the chance to bench mark this system against my old one in terms of a real world work flow situation because this week has been just really crazy for me. But I actually logged the time for ingesting and transcoding 50Gb of 1080p footage in FCPx on my old machine. As soon as I have some time I am going to run that same footage on this new machine and see how fast that goes.

All things considered this system is pretty much the best I could build within my budget and so far I am happy.

Nice, keep me posted!
 
:clap: Good job. You can safely and easily OC to 4.2 or 4.4 ghz. Your board and CPU were designed and manufactured for it. I get geekbench3 64bit scores of 24k at 4.5 and 22k at 4.2. This video should help you understand a bit more about the bios and OC:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kx2z07sFM2I

also watch part 2

Hey Shilohh,

So I tried once again to overclock. In BIOS I have it set that it shows up as 4500 but it doesn't display in the system as anything higher than 3.5Ghz. I ran a Geekbench and my score jumped up to 22463. I also used HWmonitor while running Geekbench to see the temps and nothing went above 77 degrees at any point. The idle ambient seems to be hovering at around 53 but during geekbench it jumped up to around 65 max.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
Hi Gemini!

Thanks for the info of your build!, im buying right now my build, I have choose the same processor and motherboard than you, I would ask you if it works perfect in mavericks? any crashes?

Thanks!! :D
 
Hi Gemini!

Thanks for the info of your build!, im buying right now my build, I have choose the same processor and motherboard than you, I would ask you if it works perfect in mavericks? any crashes?

Thanks!! :D

Hi Jenue,

So far I have not had one crash since replacing my SSD. System is really stable in Mavericks and everything seems to be working. Based on my Geekbench scores I assume that the overclock is working correctly as well. I haven't had a chance to run the machine through its paces with After Effects, FCP, or 3D apps yet. I also just got my additional 16Gb ram in the mail so I will be installing that tonight.

If you end up buying this same CPU and mobo, please let me know if any steps are missing from my original setup guide in this thread so I can append it.

Here is my latest GeekBench scores:

73946-geekbench3.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top