Project BlueZilla by AVAdirect

Jason_Wall said:
Are you planning to go pick it up yourself? I wouldn't trust a shipping company with that rig. I can guestimate about how much you're paying for that beast, and you couldn't convince me to put it in the hands of any of the carriers.

If it's unavoidable, I would do overnight shipping just to minimize the chance that some boob is going to drop it from about two or three feet off the ground.

Perhaps something to consider, coming from a guy who sees all sorts of shipping abuse to machines. :)
Click to expand...

There's no way I'd let UPS, Fedex, et al touch this beast. For extreme rigs like this AVA insists on shipping it on a pallet by truck. I've waited this long for the build to be done, I can wait a bit longer for careful and secure shipping.
 
Good to know that all parties involved are aware of the risks of the big carriers. Best of luck, and keep us updated.
 
Jason_Wall said:
Good to know that all parties involved are aware of the risks of the big carriers. Best of luck, and keep us updated.
Click to expand...

Seriously, it looked like my box had been slammed down on a sharp corner of a kitchen table or something. Exterior box and interior box punctured but no damage to the machine. I have to upload my pix at some point - on my wife's camera.

And I even went down to the depot to keep my rig from bouncing around on the truck for the day. I can only imagine the condition it would have been in.
 
Judging by some of the horror stories I've read about mishandled deliveries, you'd think these guys stop at Blendtec for an episode of "will it blend" before delivering the goods to you.:p
I'll keep y'all posted. (fingers and toes crossed)
 
Rob Black said:
What kind of monitor will you be using with it? a 15" CRT lol
Click to expand...

Nah, the monitor's built right in to the front panel....
143474163-L.jpg


:D

Seriously, I'm currently using a dual monitor setup with a gateway 21" as my primary, but I'm shopping for some pixel real estate now. Looking with envy at Samsungs new 26" LCD's
 
Your system is SWEET! What is that on top of the case? I cant wait to see what mine is looking like!
 
Can you specify what particular fans weren't moving enough air? Scythe makes quite a number of them, and I've been looking at the Ixtrema series lately.
 
gimp90 said:
Your system is SWEET! What is that on top of the case? I cant wait to see what mine is looking like!
Click to expand...

The thing on top of the case is is the Raptor X drive that's been removed temporarily. It's sitting in an X-swing hard disk decoupler (dampens vibration).
 
Nicepants42 said:
Can you specify what particular fans weren't moving enough air? Scythe makes quite a number of them, and I've been looking at the Ixtrema series lately.
Click to expand...

We orignially had Scythe S-Flex 1200's in the system. The Thermaltakes are the A2018 and very from 1300 -2800 RPM- Louder, but cooler. Always a compromise, eh.
 
stevo.k said:
We orignially had Scythe S-Flex 1200's in the system. The Thermaltakes are the A2018 and very from 1300 -2800 RPM- Louder, but cooler. Always a compromise, eh.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, you may be interested in the Ixtremas. I'd be very interested to know if they can handle the load in this situation since like I said I'm thinking of using them.
 
It's supposed to ship Monday. Been a bad week, they replaced the RAM and then the other vid card as well.
It's been a bit frustrating that it's taken so long, but on the other hand, I'm glad they've been so thorough testing it. So I'd rather wait and let them deal with the failed components rather than having to sort it out myself and lose time (and maybe data).
 
Wait a minute, so far they've had to replace the motherboard, one 8800GTX, and now they've replaced 4gb of OCZ FlexXLC and the second 8800GTX? What's left?

I don't mean to be a downer here, but I'm starting to think that maybe something other than the components is the problem. I might let them load test it for a few more days before sending it out. I find it hard to believe that an entire system's worth of components just happened to 'fail' during this build.
 
Uh huh, makes me wonder too.:confused:
It was only one stick of RAM and the 8800GTX's were from a bad batch, they replaced the second one without it actually failing.
 
could you clarify how your loop(s) are set up and how the fill port / Y / T adapters are used?
 
Looks great.
Curious.....are the components failing under loads or do they just go poof when someone pushes the on button????

I want to see what STALKER looks like on that beast.:D
 
stormshadow said:
could you clarify how your loop(s) are set up and how the fill port / Y / T adapters are used?
Click to expand...

The fillport drops to a Y with one leg going to each of the res's for the two loops.

The main loop goes: RES->PUMP->RAD->CPU->GPU1->GPU2->NB->RES

The secondary loop runs: RES->PUMP->RAD->RAM->MOSFETS->SB->RES

Hope that covers it for ya.

As to the failures, apparently they happen several hours into a test, not right away. As I mentioned earlier, I'm glad this shit is happening on their bench, not on my desk. Misha won't send this out until they're confident that it's stable. He says it's running at 3.66 .
 
Well, I did receive it, unfortunately it was damaged in shipping and it had to go back to Ava. The motherboard and two vid cards were damaged in transit so I had to ship it back to them for repairs.:mad:
It's taken far longer than I anticipated and they were only able to overclock to 3.0 Ghz in the end citing stability issues with the motherbard and memory combo. If I had to do it all over again, I'd do something different.
 
since they started the build there has been a new bios for the striker, which made a big diffference for me.
may i suggest you ask them to try it? maybe for a further OC.
your ram and vid cards should also OC plenty on water.
 
:confused: They shipped it with all the latest revisions and drivers for the components....
 
the bios came out in the last few weeks i believe.
use atitool, on water 8800gtx's sould goto near ultra speeds.
 
I warned you about that shipping, bro. Sorry to hear about that.
 
Jason_Wall said:
I warned you about that shipping, bro. Sorry to hear about that.
Click to expand...

When I order my rig from AVA Direct it will no doubt be overnight whether its 1,000 or 6,000 no way would I want it to bounce around. I just hope it arrives in good shape. I feel for the guy bummer hopefully he will get it in good shape next time that is a sweet machine.
 
Sorry to here about the troubles :(

It's still a beautiful machine, I'd be proud to own it!
 
yes that is definitely a nice system. i am fixing to order a new system myself in july and your topic here is making me look at AVA direct. if anyone has seen my digital storm topic, you know what im talking about. your specs are pretty much spot on with mine...top of the line everything.
 
thats such a shame, all this extra time waiting for it is loosing you so much money as components crash in price :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top