How to build your own iMac Pro [Successful Build/Extended Guide]

[dwhitla]

I already have the Corsair H115i. I hope it will be sufficient also for the I9-7980XE... What do you think? As you say.. with the monsters of the Skylake-X family, effective CPU Water Blocks are absolutely mandatory!

Well - not exactly mandatory for stock, although I would recommend an AIO even then. But if you are thinking of overclocking it then absolutely a requirement. Note that your board (and many other X299s) has a weakness in the early designs for VRM cooling. When you overclock Skylake-X you really need to pay attention to VRM temps. The Prime X299 Deluxe has an inadequate VRM heatsink for anything above stock. If you plan to overclock it you should probably consider a waterblock for the VRM too or wait for later X299 boards like the Rampage 6 which has a much improved VRM cooler.

 

[kgp]

@twithla, would you be so

If you have enabled XMP don't touch the timings - thats what it does for you. Basically either use it or go manual. I just noticed in your guide that you advised setting 3.2GHz on the DRAM in BIOS but didn't adjust anything else to support that - specifically your screenshot showed that XMP was disabled. Note that to use XMP on the Prime X299 you must first hardware enable it with the switch next to the LCD display next to PCI slot 6.

Yup I did. I still have to update my guide though.... It's outdated in this respect... Important that you notice it once more.

 

[dwhitla]

I already have the Corsair H115i. I hope it will be sufficient also for the I9-7980XE... What do you think? As you say.. with the monsters of the Skylake-X family, effective CPU Water Blocks are absolutely mandatory!

Your Corsair H115i is very similar to what I am using for stock CPU clocking (ThermalTake Water 2.0 Extreme reused from my socket 2011 board). Using it my 7900X runs at between 34 and 80 degrees in a 23 degree (celsius) room depending on whether it is idling or compiling. IIRC the stock 7980 has the same design TDP so I suspect you will want something with better heat dissipation if you are overclocking the 18 core.

 

[mgregrs]

Well - not exactly mandatory for stock, although I would recommend an AIO even then. But if you are thinking of overclocking it then absolutely a requirement. Note that your board (and many other X299s) has a weakness in the early designs for VRM cooling. When you overclock Skylake-X you really need to pay attention to VRM temps. The Prime X299 Deluxe has an inadequate VRM heatsink for anything above stock. If you plan to overclock it you should probably consider a waterblock for the VRM too or wait for later X299 boards like the Rampage 6 which has a much improved VRM cooler.

Your Corsair H115i is very similar to what I am using for stock CPU clocking (ThermalTake Water 2.0 Extreme reused from my socket 2011 board). Using it my 7900X runs at between 34 and 80 degrees in a 23 degree (celsius) room depending on whether it is idling or compiling. IIRC the stock 7980 has the same design TDP so I suspect you will want something with better heat dissipation if you are overclocking the 18 core.

H115i -is good for stock but not for OC .... with X299
because I used it before with 7700K OC 5Ghz and it was great

(modified of course! -because original fans are really sucks -try Noctua and you will see a difference)
and YES we haveto thinks about VRMs - for sleep without problems I added 1fan behind my motherboard with separed air circulation (Corsair AIR540 Case....)

 

[kgp]

Your Corsair H115i is very similar to what I am using for stock CPU clocking (ThermalTake Water 2.0 Extreme reused from my socket 2011 board). Using it my 7900X runs at between 34 and 80 degrees in a 23 degree (celsius) room depending on whether it is idling or compiling. IIRC the stock 7980 has the same design TDP so I suspect you will want something with better heat dissipation if you are overclocking the 18 core.

So which exact CPU and VRM water block do your recommend for the later overclocking of the I9-7980XE?

 

[mgregrs]

So which exact CPU and VRM water block do your recommend for the later overclocking of the I9-7980XE?

For example EK-Supremacy
Don't forget the X99 water blocks are compatible with X299

 

[dwhitla]

for sleep without problems I added 1fan behind my motherboard with spared air circulation

^^^ THIS. Seriously the VRM common to most X299 boards currently shipping IS A VERY REAL FIRE HAZARD if you overclock. People with overclocks of ~4.5GHz on the 7900X (about +36%) are measuring up to 120 degrees C on the back of the PCB and also on the 12V supply from the PSU.

Please ensure that you use TWO CPU power feeds (8+8, 8+6 or 8+4 depending on your board) on your X299 and stay away from X299 boards that only have a single CPU power header. I don't want to read about people burning their houses down.

 

[dwhitla]

So which exact CPU and VRM water block do your recommend for the later overclocking of the I9-7980XE?

EK. It will depend upon how much space you have in your case and what GPU(s) you plan to use.
I have one 1080Ti for graphics and two Titan Blacks for physics simulations so I need to evacuate a lot of heat (that is about a 900W heat load).
My Corsair Obsidian 900D allow enough room for a workable cooling solution when I eventually need more grunt and overclock.
EK have a configurator tool on their site.

 

[mgregrs]

I have 8+8 connected
and with actual mb was not so bad
Yes 104° - 1 time when I tried 4,7-4,8 Ghz OC
but then I back to 4,6 and it's totally OK

PS: Thats true - it's not cheap
I will buy next moths all blocks for 2x Vega 64 and new one for CPU
old one from X99 is too tired to use it again
and we need a lot of place... so it not cool when you have to pay
270-300euros or more only for your case
People try to find wholePC for 300euros

PS2: Today I will recommend and I will buy: Watercool Heatkiller IV Pro
for CPU... with a lot of tests it's a new champion

 

[kgp]

Alternatively you could use XMP which you have disabled in BIOS in your screen shot.
But with BIOS version 0503 I would not do that - it doesn't work - the BIOS for this board is terrible and contains many bugs. Better to search the Official ASUS X299 Mobo Support Thread over at overclockers.net and understand the issues so you can manually set timings and voltages if you are thinking of overclocking the ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe. I won't personally until a much better BIOS is released. Don't waste your time with 0702 - it introduced more issues than it fixed.

@kgp - the packaging for the TridentZ modules has a label affixed with the tested timings that resulted in stable performance at 3200Hz. You should use them as your primary timings. Sadly GSkill do not publish secondary timings - you have to figure those out on your own. Specifically the CAS latency and precharge times at 3200 will typically need to be higher than at 2133. I think your RAM uses 16 18 18 38 2T at 3200 IIRC.

I already updated my guide with respect to X.M.P. .... Once more thanks for the constructive reminder !

Not it reads:

After Updating System time and System Date, enable X.M.P for your DDR4 modules. Don't forget to enable the EZ XMP Switch previously to this step on your ASUS Mainboard! Subsequently switch form the easy to the advanced ASUS BIOS Setup mode by pressing F7.

As I said... I basically forgot to update and mention this basic requirement subsequently in my guide. The included picture was misleading without any bad intention and originated from a very early setup of my build. Thus the guide was indeed wrong and not complete at this place! One more many thanks for your constructive reminder!