Black Tortoise Computer Appears in 2012

Jan 16, 2012

Why would a grown man name his newest pet computer Black Tortoise? There’s mystery in that and perhaps a story worth telling. In the meantime check out the wikipedia page concerning Black_Tortoise which is sometimes called the Black Warrior of the North. The Black Tortoise (xuanwu) is the sign for the northern quarter of the sky. The follwoing image on the grounds of the Beijing Ancient Observator is copied from the wikimedia.org website.

Black Tortoise is one of the Four Symbols are four mythological creatures in the Chinese constellations. They are:

• Azure Dragon of the East
• Vermilion Bird of the South
• White Tiger of the West
• Black Tortoise of the North

Each one of them represents a direction and a season of the year, and each has its own individual characteristics and origins. They have been portrayed in many historical Chinese and Korean myths and fiction, and also appear in many modern Japanese comic books and animation. The origin of those 4 symbols are from China.

All of these mysteries will unfold and be told. All in due time. But first we must dive down into the details of actually selecting those computer parts to be assembled into the black tortoise computer.

SELECTING COMPUTER PARTS

This document configures my 2012 dream machine based around the AMD 8 core FX-8150 processor.

AMD FX-8150 PROCESSOR

Processor Model	FX-8150
CPU Base	3.6GHz
CPU Turbo Core	3.9GHz
CPU Max Turbo	4.2GHz
TDP	125W
Cores	8
L2 Cache	8MB
L3 Cache	8MB
Max DDR3	1866
PKG	AM3+
NB	2.2GHz

Black tortoise needs a fair bit of CPU horsepower. I chose AMD. The obvious alternative is Intel. I wanted AMD because I have a fondness for their lower hardware prices and openness to overclocking. I found the following review to be helpful. http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150-processor-review/. For a demonstration of extreme overclocking, just for fun I watched the following techno music backed video “AMD FX-8150 @ 7.0GHz (LN2 overclocking & benchmarking)”, featuring cooling by liquid nitrogen.

AMD FX-8150 CPU

Having decided upon the AMD FX-8150 CPU I searched YouTube for a closeup video and found "AMD Bulldozer FX 8150 8-Core CPU Processor Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips".

COOLER MASTER HAF X CASE

First stop was the case. I chose a COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case as featured at the coolermaster.com website. I found the video “Cooler Master HAF-X Video Review” worth a complete watch.

CORSAIR CPU COOLER

Next I needed a high quality CPU cooling solution and initially selected "Hydro Series™ H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler" which includes a double-thick radiator and two 120mm fans,hydro series water cooling cpu cooler.

Then I decided I’d better do some performance reviews before deciding. I read "Corsair Hydro Series: H60, H80 and H100 Reviewed"

THE WINNER: "Hydro Series™ H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler" Featuring a full 240mm radiator (20 fins per inch) and two 120mm fans (high static pressure), the Corsair Hydro Series H100 extreme performance liquid CPU cooler includes a proprietary connector for Corsair’s Link Commander. (NOTE that there are only enough screws to mount two fans to the radiator. If you want to mount two additional fans you need eight more 6-32 x ~1 1/8" screws.) This introduces an extensive range of customizable features to systems as demonstrated hydro series h100 extreme performance liquid cpu cooler. This unit is reviewed at Corsair H100 CPU Cooler Review

Product available from Newegg

See also: Corsair Link Commander: http://www.corsair.com/corsair-link/corsair-link-kits.html

Excellent video: "Unboxing & First Looks: Corsair H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler"

ASUS MOTHERBOARD

ASUS SABERTOOTH MOTHERBOARD

I originally chose the Sabertooth board because of its long warranty and its being constructed of military grade components.

ASUS CROSSHAIR MOTHERBOARD

I settled on the ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS. ASUS has released two motherboards based on the new AMD 990FX chipset, the Crosshair V Formula and the Sabertooth 990FX. Both have similar specifications and feature four PCI Express x16 slots, but the Crosshair V Formula comes with better audio, two additional USB 3.0 ports, a better networking chip, and more overclocking options. The ASUS Crosshair V Formula has four memory sockets allowing up to 32 GB with this motherboard if you use four 8 GB modules. "ASUS Crosshair V Formula Motherboard" hardwaresecrets.com ASUS Crosshair V Formula Motherboard

JJ from ASUS unboxes the new AMD AM3+ Bulldozer ready ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard. Find out why the Crosshair V Formula from the ASUS Republic of Gamers is the perfect formula for AMD in "ASUS Crosshair V Formula Motherboard Hands-on Review"

The ROG connect feature is an interesting feature. In future videos the ROG interface will allow me to overclock black tortoise and produce a high quality video of the results. ROG Connect for the ASUS Crosshair V Formula Motherboard

MOTHERBOARD DDR3 MEMORY

The ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard Memory supports four DDR3-DIMM sockets (up to DDR3-2133, 32 GB maximum). It uses DIMM sockets one and two as the first channel, and three and four as the second channel.

The memory sticks I chose is:

• $160 for 16GB of CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R

The following articles provide an awesome explanation of the issues related to memory.

"Everything You Need to Know About the Dual-, Triple-, and Quad-Channel Memory Architectures" http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/133

"Understanding RAM Timings" http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Understanding-RAM-Timings/26

"Memory Overclocking" http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Memory-Overclocking/152

POWER SUPPLY

After researching the power supply question I decided that a good power supply could be moved from machine to machine and would last for many years.

• CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200
  (CMPSU-1200AX) 1200W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Certified 80
  PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
• $287 CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200 (CMPSU-1200AX) 1200W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Certified 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
• $250 XFX ProSeries P1-1000-BELX 1000W ATX12V V2.2 & ESP12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
• Watch the following video “XFX 1000W Pro Series 80PLUS Platinum Power Supply Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips”

VIDEO CARD

Owing to the need for a video card that supports four (4) monitors the following cards are under consideration.

• $700 EAH6990/3DI4S/4GD5 ASUS HD 6990 dual-GPU DX11 graphics card
• $290 ASUS EAH6950 DCII/2DI4S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card supports four displayport adapters which can easily be adapted to the monitors’ HDMI inputs.
• $16 adapted using StarTech DisplayPort to HDMI Video Adapter Converter DP2HDMI2 DisplayPort to HDMI Interface

SOLID STATE DISK (SSD)

Two solid state drives (SSD) configured in RAID-0 provide maximum performance for Black Tortoise.

• $190 (x2) Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F120GBGT-BK 2.5″ 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
• $375 (x2) Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F240GBGT-BK 2.5″ 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

HARD DISK

Various hard disk options are available.

• $250 (x4 RAID-5) Western Digital Caviar Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

BLU-RAY BURNER

Black Tortoise needs an optical media drive to be able to read and write Blu-ray, DVD, and CD discs.

• $90 ASUS Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS

ACCESSORIES

There are several computer parts necessary to complete the Black Tortoise build.

• Computer case screws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_case_screws
• Hardware for 25mm wide fan housings are — 6-32 x 1-1/4" Black Oxide Pan Head Phillips Machine Screw at fastenal.com
  and at microfasteners.com
  and many other locations searchable on the Internet.
• The case needs a second top fan COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200mm Red LED Case Fan.
• When is comes to 120MM fans see
  Noctua NF-F12 fan
• and the newest Noctua NF-P12 — The NF-P12 has been specifically developed for applications such as CPU coolers that demand superior pressure and airflow performance. Thanks to psychoacoustic optimizations like the Vortex-Control Notches, the new SCD drive system and Noctua’s premium-grade SSO-Bearing, the NF-P12 achieves exceptional quietness and long-term stability.
• Concerning 4-pin PWN (Pulse Width Modulation), there existsa 4-pin Y-cable which allows you to connect two 4 pin PWM fans to a single header

BOUGHT COMPUTER PARTS

• $190 COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
• $120 CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
• $270 AMD FX-8150 Zambezi 3.6GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8150FRGUBOX
• $160 CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R
• $230 ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard with 3-Way SLI/CrossFireX Support and UEFI BIOS
• $250 XFX ProSeries P1-1000-BELX 1000W ATX12V V2.2 & ESP12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS PLATINUM Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply