Cases for Portability

[neverknowu]

Hello,
I'm looking for a case for work that's a bit more portable in design/size than my current case (HAF X Cooler Master). I need something that can hold 2x gtx 690s, possibly getting a Red Rocket. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[lookerup]

Hello,
I'm looking for a case for work that's a bit more portable in design/size than my current case (HAF X Cooler Master). I need something that can hold 2x gtx 690s, possibly getting a Red Rocket. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you!

Are you looking for a case that has a handle for portability ?

something like this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119260

 

[AustinS]

What kind of motherboard are you using? ATX? EATX? XL-ATX? And are you looking for a small form factor or a more moderate size? And your budget? Or just keep it as low as needed?

 

[AustinS]

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119266&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=)
This is the best I could think of without much knowledge of your other specs. It will fit anything, but if you are not running E or XL-ATX than I can think of numerous portable cases.

If you have any questions or inquiries, feel free to pm or reply, I will make sure to answer to the best of my abilities.

Austin

 

[AustinS]

You could also go for a Cooler Master HAF XB. It is a more square design and would be easier to carry than the traditional case. Although the Scout 2 that I previously mentioned has a handle, allowing for very easy movement.

Austin

 

[neverknowu]

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119266&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=)
This is the best I could think of without much knowledge of your other specs. It will fit anything, but if you are not running E or XL-ATX than I can think of numerous portable cases.

If you have any questions or inquiries, feel free to pm or reply, I will make sure to answer to the best of my abilities.

Austin

Thanks for your response. Like I said before, it's for work. Right now the case I have is kinda big; I'd feel ridiculous bringing it to a client's space. However, I'm running Davinci Resolve, a program that needs some heavy GPU power. I thought with the HAF 932 I could fit in 3 large sized gpus. I guess I still could, but I have another card in there for SDI connections. If I had a Thunderbolt port out of my MoBo, that could work for me instead of having to get an SDI card.

So it's all kind of a loaded question, and I'm starting my research out little by little.

I did see the HAF XB, it looks pretty good. It seems like it would handle the Asus P9x79 board that I have right now, along with a few larger sized GFX cards. It seems like the Asus P8Z77 is getting bad reviews though on Newegg, and I think here on Tom's? But this is an entirely different thread than the one I'm on.

I also would like to know what case would hold the large sized gfx cards in their socket well. Like the small BitFenix ones have straps on them. Seems like a good idea, no?

 

[neverknowu]

Hello,
I'm looking for a case for work that's a bit more portable in design/size than my current case (HAF X Cooler Master). I need something that can hold 2x gtx 690s, possibly getting a Red Rocket. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you!

Are you looking for a case that has a handle for portability ?

something like this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119260

Thanks for the suggestion, although this seems like it's not much smaller than my HAF 932, no?

 

[neverknowu]

What kind of motherboard are you using? ATX? EATX? XL-ATX? And are you looking for a small form factor or a more moderate size? And your budget? Or just keep it as low as needed?

It's for work, so budget isn't an issue, I'm researching so I get the right tool for the job.

 

[AustinS]

Ok, so I think I get the jist of it. You are also looking for a new motherboard too then? Because you will need a board that supports two way sli for the 690s and a third pcie connection for the "red rocket. If you do need a new motherboard for this, then an ATX board will get the job done. And as for the case. Because it is an ATX board, then you can get a smaller case, like a Corsair Obsidian 550D. Or I highly suggest a Fractal Design Define R4. It is smaller, very clean looking and has outstanding build quality.

Just a little note, putting straps on qpus or using a brace for them, is absolutely unnecessary as any card out there is easily supported by the pci rear brackets and the slot. Those braces and straps are simply marketing material. Almost every case out there, as long as it supports the motherboard that you would put in it, will support as many cards and as big as they get to the extent of the motherboards pcie capacity.

If you do need a new motherboard for the third gpu, then you will need to find out what cpu you have, because the two boards you listed, use different sockets, one is 1155, and the other is the Sandy Bridge-E socket 2011. If you can find your cpu, and need a new board I can suggest one for you. But first check too see if your board will support the third card. If it does, then it will have a pcie x16 slot directly underneath your second 690.

 

[neverknowu]

Thanks again for your reply Austin.

The cases that you listed seem like they would work best. They aren't too much smaller than my HAF, correct? But I guess with needing 2 gpus that this is the smallest size available? I thought the HAF Lan was built for an ATX board? But are there other issues, like the PSU etc. that needs room?

I currently use the P9x79 with the 2011 socket. I read somewhere that the newer Ivy chips will eventually be 2011 as well? (please excuse my ignorance, this is all learning to me). I'm leaning towards upgrading to the Gigabyte z77x though because it has Thunderbolt. That has 3x pci x16 slots. What I haven't been able to figure out though, in my research what does it mean when the specs of the board say x16, x8, x4 for the 3 x16 pci's? Does that mean still that it could run 2 to 3 gpu's at their full speed? If you know of a link somewhere online in which I can learn more about this, I would appreciate it.

 

[AustinS]

The Fractal case that I suggested is 5" shorter than your HAF X, and the HAF XB (you named it as the HAF LAN) would work too. Neither would have any problems with the psu, there are a few different standards, and both cases should easily fit any psu you have (but to be on the safe side, tell me what psu you use, and I will just make sure, as well as make sure that you would have enough power for the Red Rocket as well).

Secondly, Ivy Bridge refers to the generation of processor, and you do not have Ivy Bridge, you are using Sandy Bridge-E (note the E, it means enthusiast and it is a much faster and also a larger cpu socket. It uses 2011 and Ivy Bridge, the non mainstream chips use 1155). When you are looking at motherboards, I want you to look in the name of the boards, it should say X79 somewhere, or it will not be compatible with your cpu. Motherboards have a chip on them (kind of like a mini cpu) that will control a few things like usb, etc. as well as control the cpu) and socket 2011/Sandy Bridge-E uses a chip called X79, the Ivy Bridge uses a chip called Z77. So if a motherboard says Z77, it is not compatible.

I do not wish to confuse you, but this does need a bit of clearing up. The successor to Sandy Bridge-E will be called Ivy Bridge-E and will also use 2011 and X79 just like Sandy Bridge-E, that is where you got the idea that the "upcoming" Ivy Bridge cpus would use 2011.

When they say a board uses x16 x8 x4, they are referring to the amount of pcie lanes being used by each slot when there is a gpu in all three. Every cpu has what are called pcie lanes, these are simply lanes from the motherboard to the cpu, and different generations of cpus have different amounts of lanes. The Ivy Bridge cpus have 16 lanes, and there are different kinds of slots on a motherboard. The big slots are x16, so they take 16 lanes, but when you have two slots populated, the cpu can only give 8 lanes to each slot. Then when you put a third in, the cpu would give 8 lanes, 8 lanes, and 4 lanes (the extra 4 lanes are from the southbridge chip). Please! do not worry about this though, this is the simplest explanation to try and put it out of your head. Because you have a Sandy Bridge-E cpu, you have 40 lanes and DO Not have to worry about any of this. It is no problem to you. An extra little tidbit, the upcoming Ivy Bridge-E (note the E) will have 80 lanes! This kind of stuff will confuse you, I promise, if you do want to learn more, wait a bit until you have more of a base knowledge of how stuff works as this is quite advanced and I gave you a very simple breakdown.

Your current motherboard will be able to handle the third gpu, the red rocket, by the way. It does have the three x16 slots that you require, (one will run at x8, which is half the bandwidth of x16, but no gpu at this point, not even the red rocket would saturate that amount of bandwidth so there is still no need to worry).

And on a personal note, I have been sitting here wondering why you would need so much processing power, and then also a red rocket. What do you do for work that requires that much horsepower?!

I really hope this helped, sorry for the long answer, but there was a lot to address

Austin

 

[neverknowu]

Good question, as to what I do! I'm a colorist, I work with HD video and color correct that footage. My software of choice is Davinci Resolve. If you are super curious, they have prelisted 'certified' components here:

Resolve Configuration

The very basic corrections need one gpu for the gui and another for the processing. The 690 is great, as you could have 2 of these cards and because there are 2 cpus in each, you could have 1 for the gui and 3 for the processing. Anyway, to get back to your question, I need these HD and 2k videos to run at full playback speed and resolution in real time as I make the corrections to the video.

Right now I have a quadro 600 and a gtx 680. I'd like to have a little more horsepower though. The RedRocket would set me apart, but that is a very very expensive (overly priced imo) piece of hardware. It's a bummer too that I can't export Apple Pro Res video from a PC, but that's something else entirely. I would have stayed with Apple, but the power you can get out of a PC exceeds that of a Mac, and the price is very different indeed.

Also, I wanted to mention, that in different builds of the Davinci Resolve models they have dual socket processors, which I don't know anything about those types of mobos. What I hear from the techs at Blackmagic that make Resolve though is that the processor isn't the main thing, it's the GPUs. Some systems even have the Cubix addon, which starts getting way more expensive than I think reasonable, but then that's when I start charging for it.

The specs call for a MicroSupercomputer, but I believe that this is something I can figure out how to build myself. I've already built one system. A lot of how this program works feels very similar to how gaming systems work.

By the way, the chip I have on this system is the i7 3820 3.60 GHz, with 16GB ram (ripjaws I think?).

Have you seen the Sniper mobos that gigabyte makes? They work with the x16 in each slot. But you are telling me that wouldn't matter, as long as the CPU can handle the certain number of lanes, correct?

I think a lot of what I just wrote is all over the place, but also in its own way paints a picture of all the things I'm thinking about in how to create color and be great at my job. (I really like the Fractal cases, by the way, thanks for that. They look very work/pro).

 

[AustinS]

That is quite an awesome job, I have to say. So you are going to buy two 690s and possibly a red rocket for the build. I suggest staying with the cpu you have, it is very strong and will work extremely well, and yes, you do not need to worry about the pcie lanes or any x16 ratings.

The reason why the Gigabyte board that you were looking at says it supports x16 in each slot is because it has a special chip that costs about $100 bucks to consumer called a PLX splitter. This simply adds pcie lanes so that there is more bandwidth per lane. Do not worry about this though, it is mostly marketing propaganda for people who do not fully understand the speeds of each lane.

One more suggestion is to increase the amount of ram you have. Currently you said that you have 16gb of G Skill ripjaws memory, and if you wanted to upgrade to 32, which I do suggest doing, as 16gb would become a bottleneck with that amount of processing power on both the cpu and gpu spectrums that Davinci Resolve might saturate the full 16gb and have to throttle down. To find out specifically what memory you use to buy more, you can just pull out a module and look at the model number, google it and order the same kit off of newegg, or any other e-tailer. Simple stuff, but can greatly increase performance if you are indeed being bottlenecked.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask away, I will gladly answer to the best of my abilities. And when you get to it, have fun building your system, and know that you are one of very few to ever have that much pc power,
Austin

 

[neverknowu]

Thank you; I really do enjoy what I do, and it took a lot of work to get to where I am now.

And thanks again for all your help. Yes, I will stick with my current Mobo. 2 gtx 690s are rather pricey, and getting more ram too.

Question though; if I get one gtx690 for now (another another a few months from now), can the gtx 680 that I have run with the GTX 690 as well? I'm under the impression that you need mirrored gpus, but I don't know for sure.

 

[AustinS]

No, you cannot run them in sli, technically they are the same gpu, they both use Nvidia's Kepler based GK104 processor, and the 690 is the same as two 680s in sli, but on the same pcb. It is too bad that they cannot run in tandem, but, that is just the way it goes I guess.

Thanks for the opportunity to help you out with your new computer, it was actually quite a pleasure. I'd love to keep in touch possibly and help you out in the future if you ever need it. If you think that I deserve a best answer, that would be great as I did do a lot of work, and I do hope that you are satisfied with my answers.

Austin