Geforce 8800 ULTRA "RETRO" Build - SLI - QX9650 EXTREME-

This video is all about the legendary nvidia GTX 8800, in this case the ultra version.
I have build a system around this card with "mostly" time accurate parts ( 2007 )
it took me about 6 mounths to find the parts and build the system.
i hope you enjoy watching this video as much as i enjoy building the system.
part list:
2 * nvidia 8800 ultra ( in sli )
intel QX9650 extreme edition
asus strike extreme 2 ( 790i sli ultra )
corsair XMS3 DDR3 ( 9-9-9-24 )
zalman reserator XT
zalman Z11 plus
seasonic prime 1200w gold
Scythe Kama-meter
cooler master musketeer
Alphacool LCD-Display 240x128
Music used in this video:
Track 1:
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Produced By White Hot
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Track 2:
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DoctaToxic - Cruze Chill Trap Free Non-Copyrighted Music
• DoctaToxic - Cruze Chi...
find DoctaToxic here:
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SUPPORT OCTILARY
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[@PixelPipes]

10:07 Ah damn I *hate* when retro hardware becomes demonically possessed.

[@automatedinsanity]

Hellware

[@MoonOvIce]

I remember around this time, wanting to use the Cooler Master Cosmos S, 180 USD (in the US) back in the day! Amazing case, touch-sensitive power button and all. Would probably still have one now.

[@totalrandomtechnolog]

2006/2007 was an incredible leap over the previous top of the line hardware, Athlon X2's and GeForce 7950GX2! Nevermind the poor Pentium 4 extreme.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Indeed 😄

[@Rex-tt1vk]

"poor"?. I'm just finishing Pentium 4 2006 ultimate rig, 5,4ghz oc with 8800GTX and 1300mhz DDR2 ram. Used them ever since my first pc, they ain't that bad

[@totalrandomtechnolog]

@@Rex-tt1vk Poor in the sense that when compared to what came next. Even the slowest Core2Duo makes the best of the best Pentium 4 sweat. Imagine something like this today when compared to the best of the best that we have like Ryzens and 12Gens CPUs. Not going to happen it seems, unfortunately.

[@Rex-tt1vk]

@@totalrandomtechnolog Oh yeah then absolutely, even with 12th gen you don't see i3s beating last gen i9s. core 2 duos and especially quads are still somewhat relevant even today... pentiums are not That being said I see people shitting on Pentium 4s all the time, as product of their time reigning for over 6 years in many iterrations, some worse than others (I'm looking at you Prescott family). Northwoods were just plain good, same with Gallatins and later modeles like cedar mill are OC dreams really making sense above 4ghz and once you pass the 5ghz mark it's flying with core 2 lineup Tbh if you spend money on the 3ghz Pentium 4 in 2002 you were good till the Quads arrived in 2006

[@totalrandomtechnolog]

@@Rex-tt1vk I have a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz with. 7950 GTX and it's a pretty good machine for many games till 2006. Also a Pentium 4 1.7Ghz socket 423 with a GeForce 3ti 500 which I find amazing for every game till 2001 and even a few beyond.

[@Kynareth6]

It's interesting to see how the best possible hardware in a particular year looks like and how it performs. Costly, highest-end machines of 2007 were quite powerful already. Just in reality, most people had Pentium 4, GeForce 4 etc. Vista wasn't even that bad of a system, if you had a high-end PC. Thank you for this video!

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Your welcome, happy you enjoyed it 👍 like most people I could only dream to have a pc like this in 2007 😀

[@Kynareth6]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds You know ... in the future you could maybe add some productivity benchmarks. To see how older computers perform in other tasks than gaming. I'm especially interested in the highest-end machines from each year. Maybe try running Cinebench R15 or older and SPEC CPU 2006 or older.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

@@Kynareth6 that is a good idea 😀 thx !

[@bestopinion9257]

I had Athlon XP 2000+ and Radeon 9550 128 vram

[@polengocwb]

Beautiful retro config! My lovely "retro" config are a Asus Commando (P965) + Xeon X5450 4GHz + 2GB OCZ Reaper and 2GB Corsair XMS2 + 750Ti Zotac

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Very nice 👌

[@dktha]

I had QX6850@3.7 GHz +8GB DDR2 + 8800 ULTRA 3-way SLI + EVGA nF780i board. Good times...but cards were on air and reaching over 100c when running Crysis. Then, each of them died later on and needed to be fixed by self-baking them (run them without the cooler until they totally crash -> working again, no need to put in the oven :D). I still have two in the attic.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Nice 3 way sli, what power supply did you use?

[@MoonOvIce]

I remember being 18-19 in 2007 and trying to save up for a higher end gaming PC with a teenage job, but jobs didn't last very long, in particular the economic crisis of 2007-2008 killed my dreams because of less jobs, specially for inexperienced teenagers haha. Nowadays, I have an rtx 3080 at least!

[@bitrage.]

Beautiful build brother... I LOVE this Era in watercooling style...

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thanks!

[@SUCRA]

Congratz on the amazing system, build quality, video quality and content. I used to dream about those high end zalman WC! That sli is so sick, I bet if it isn't for lack of instructions it can run modern games

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thanks! Yeah the wc is cool but not practical at all, it's also on the limit of its cooling capacity.. I have 3 wc blocks but didn't want too risk the cards getting to hot 😉

[@harrypewpew901]

this was my dream pc as a kid

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

nice music

[@danthompsett2894]

sick setup sometimes i miss the past

[@cybercat1531]

I can see this must have taken you some time. Well done!

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thanks , and yes took me a long time ! but i enjoyed it :-)

[@gtastuntcrew302]

I'm collecting parts for an ultimate 2007 dream PC build myself!! 2007 was when I started really getting into computers for the first time so it's a very special time for me! I have 2 reference 8800 Ultra's and have a third I'm working on a deal with. Got a QX6800, EVGA 780i mobo, and a Cooler Master Stacker 830 to pair with the 3 way 8800 Ultra's so far! (:

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Nice man! Triple sli will be sick, just watch the temps 😉

[@gtastuntcrew302]

​@@RetroGPUsandBuilds I will make sure they have really good airflow (: I want to find the proper size thermal pad so I can re-paste them all (:

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

@@gtastuntcrew302 good luck 👍

[@TheCzar1]

I still have my AMD Athlon 64 3400+ on a ATI Radeon Xpress 200 motherboard build, 2gb ddr 400 mhz ram, windows xp pro sp3, x-fi xtrememusic sound card, and I had a EVGA 7600 GT KO and upgraded to the EVGA 8800 GT when it came out back then, but sadly my EVGA 8800 GT died years ago. Then my next build which was my NZXT Apollo blue looking alienware case lol had a EVGA 780i motherboard, intel core 2 quad q8400, 8gb ddr2 800 mhz ram and then I moved my x-fi soundcard, and EVGA 8800 gt from my previous computer I mentioned at the top over to this one. The main problem was with those 8800 GTs being single slot they got really hot and died eventually as I had it replaced 3 times back then, and all 3 died. I still have my last 8800 GT that died and both of these builds I mentioned still work today. Crazy to think, I was was 16 and a junior in high school during 06-07, and now I am 34, but what good memories of playing BattleField Vietnam, BattleField 2, and Day of Defeat Source, and many more other games all day lol!

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Those a some nice systems!

[@dr.hatred6713]

WOW nice build

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thank you 😁

[@TungKeSo112]

this was my pc back then but a single 8800 gtx..

[@EthanLeitch]

What an incredible build. It's amazing how you found certain parts like waterblocks and external reservoirs. Cards like the 8800 Ultra are so expensive now like 300+ USD. I just picked up an XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard on auction and a QX9650 to go with it. Still gotta figure out the GPU and the rest of it though.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thank you, yeah prices are getting of of hand 😒

[@SalveMonesvol]

Love it! Amazing performance for a 400 gflops GPU, clearly superior to both 7th gen consoles, Wii U, and I'll even dare say, a docked and overclocked switch. I'd love to see you build the ultimate windows 2000 PC, with parts up to 2003 (for compatibility reasons). A single core, single thread monster with 1gb of the fastest ddr1 dual channel ram you can get.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thx, I have a year 2003 ish build, but not compleet yeah.. It going to be very nice 😁

[@JoeGoesx]

Great video man. Well done

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thank you sir 😊

[@PabloB888]

No, this card (even in SLI) cant run crysis with maxed out settings. I had 8800Ultra and this GPU was VRAM limited at max settings in crysis and performance was cut in half at some point. It was however possible to run this game at dx9 with high / very high settings without problems.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Indeed, won't do in on max setting, but like you say if you turn down setting a bit it is playable and the sli scaling works pritty good in this game

[@candidosilva7755]

I had that xfx 780i board with a core 2 duo e6750 and my overclock was from 2.67 wich was the cpu stock clocks to 3.6GHz and it was stable. Wierd yours didnt did the job. My gpu was also a 8800 ultra. Back than it was a beast.

[@rgbretrohardware8619]

You got dual with single gpu mixed, I was like "What? Single gpu faster than SLi? Wait!" :D. Other than that all good, and nicely done. Nice montage!

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Hey, thanks. Are you talking about doom 3? Then yes, single was faster.. And it is not a mistake. you can see it by looking at the afterburner overlay and the gpu utilization , I had to force sli in the Nvidia controle panel.

[@rgbretrohardware8619]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds My bad then. Good info that is. I was like scratching my head. You must spent top dollar for this setup ;).

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

😁 Not sure how mutch I've spend.. Didn't keep track of it, just took a while to find all the parts..

[@psionski]

Wow what a beast

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thanks 😊

[@otterspace5692]

Cool build. I am also a big 790i fan and own a few different boards. When I researched this platform a lot of people have had issues with the block corroding even when using the correct metals and anti corrosion additives. Google 790i corrosion Laithan and see the overclock.net posts. Also keep an eye out for pvs34g2000llkn. That part number is for patriot sticks designed for the 790i platform specifically that can do 2000MHz no problems. Enjoy your retro rig.

[@metaleater9]

Here's something you REALLY need to know about the Reserator XT. First is that the low fluid level sensor causes the included Zalman coolant and possibly others to crystallize which causes a number of problems, It's probably the just dye so don't use a dyed anti-corrosive coolant. Second is that there is a programming oversight on the fan/pump seed control as when the coolant/air temperature drops below 18-20 degrees Celsius the unit turns the fan off and blares its alarms.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Hi, I am using a anti corrosion fluid, so far I didn't experiance any shutdown, temp are usually above 25c, thx for the heads-up 👍

[@metaleater9]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds I have also discovered that the included tubbing leaches grey plasticizer with the consistency of kneaded eraser, Zalman's coolant would then bind to that plasticizer and change it chemically.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

@@metaleater9 okay, good to know 👍 need to find myself some new tubing then, might use the unit on another project soon

[@AeroFix94]

Nice build and awesome parts. What thickness did you use on the thermal pads? My retro build has QX6850 EVGA 680i Board 8800 GTX SLI :)

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thanks! I used 0.5 mm from gelid

[@AeroFix94]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds Nice. I used 1mm but that was to thick. So i will order 0.5mm then. Thanks again :)

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

@@AeroFix94 no problem, what blocks will you install?

[@AeroFix94]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds no blocks. Just restoring my cards :) I don't like water :)

[@Koozwad]

@@AeroFix94 I heard 8800 Ultra with stock cooler used 1mm and 0.5mm. Is that true?

[@robertdutcher8081]

Amazing build sir. You earned a sub.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thanks Robert!

[@prezeskodaty4637]

motherboard asus p6x58D premium, intel core i7 980x processor, dual geforce 8800gtx sli graphics cards, windows xp this is a good pc for all computer games by 2030

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

🤣

[@prezeskodaty4637]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds economically developing countries in europe from 1975 to 2030, due to poverty and technological backwardness, they will use computers and laptops of older generations, even older 32-bit computer systems windows xp, windows 8.0, linux, unix because capitalists will design new generations from 2030 that is why an old computer or I recommend buying an old laptop

[@angushades2jz]

I didn't have this setup but a duel 8800GTX SLI with a E6300 OCed 3.2 on a customloop

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Nice man, you still have it running?

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

That set up is sufficient to use some of my mods. In fact other than minimums its probably overall slightly faster than a gtx 280 doing the research. In about a week or so ill be finishing up system requirements for my entire library including what my gtx 280 can playably run. 720P 30FPS being my minimum.

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

How raytracing scales with sli is a total mystery. I might entertain getting another gtx 280 with a sli certified board and dropping something retro CPU wise in there. Maybe a 6 core phenom. Always looking for data collection. I know my stuff looks very alpha state but thats not going to last once i can afford a rtx 3080 Ti and da vinci.

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

Stupid overkill build bro. Recycled my athlon 4200. Cut down chips usually turn me off. If im going to collect they have to be top shelf or who cares.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Really? I might give those mods a try

[@remasteredretropcgames3312]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds Id super appreciate it. Getting people to dip their toes in my ocean of forbidden frankenstein retro modernization has been difficult. Its because my front end what people see isnt the best showcase. People see a work in progress and long winded directions and click away. Ill have to automate them soon like a patch so its easy and make my channel not look like a incomplete mess. Unfortunately video editing is going to be the easy part. The reason im the only guy on youtube handing out scalable to multiple machine presets is because its legitimately an insane amount of work. If only I had more data.

[@ultragalacticgamer7195]

Ima make one someday just for fun

[@FlakerGamerButSecondary]

2007 gaming pc

[@BurkeSchneider]

For Prey, on the KZbin video, there appears to be a square artifact by the crosshair. Any ideas on the cause for that? On my Radeon 9700 Pro I don't have that. However, the 8800 Ultra would be a large upgrade.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

That is correct, I think I is related to sli, but not 100% sure. I'm working on a 7900gtx sli system and will see what happens.. I'll let you know if I find out😁

[@chrissvariousstuff5335]

Awesome build! What thickness did the thermal pads have on your 8800 ultra? I have an 8800 gtx and took it apart and the original TIM literally fell apart because it was old. Now I need some thermal pads, but don't really know what thickness.

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Thx ! O.5 thermal pads 😉

[@chrissvariousstuff5335]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds got it :D thanks for answering

[@same8825]

Amazing video!! Trying so hard to get myself on GPU Waterblocks and specifically 8800 ultras that are working, in general... One question though and an assumed answer is that is your CPU Alphacool Eisblock waterblock nickel or copper? It seems to be nickel but I want to be sure. Looking for an LGA 775 Copper waterblock and other like-metal components for a build myself. Cheers! Jackson

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Hey Jackson, thank you 😊 . It's is nickel plated copper block if I'm correct. Not so easy to find indeed working cards and waterblocks 😞

[@same8825]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds Thank you for your reply :) I'll find what I'm looking for, eventually. Do you have any concerns for mixing metals? Copper with Nickel?

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

@@same8825 yes. I found the zalman 8800 water blocks in the mean time. So I'll switch to those and probably air cool the chipset. And try to go full aluminum loop. And also replace the tubes. I hear the zalman tubes are kinda bad as well

[@same8825]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds So here's what I've gathered. Copper + Nickle can mix, but Aluminum cannot mix with either of those metals. I'm looking to do something similar to this project and I'm still rounding up some equipment. I wish I could find a 3rd waterblock!

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

@@same8825 what brand water blocks do you have now ? I think I have a spare ek block ( copper )

[@PaweCudzio]

Mate 3.8 ghz on extreme edition? Why? I OC on EVGA 780 q9550 to 4.05ghz on 1.5v. And this cards are so hot that when I see :D 60 C on two gpus in one case at almost 95% load i can't belive :D this was possible :D

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

I don't remember anymore 😄 I assume it was not stable at 4Ghz for benching

[@same8825]

I want a followup so bad

[@Kobenete]

I got more or less the same build. However on crysis in sli, in some areas I really see no improvement with sli. In fact sli runs around the same frame rate but choppier. In heavy fighting it constantly drops below 30. Did you have this experience too? Some areas do improve

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

It's been a while since I've played crisis, could also be a cpu bottleneck. Or just crisis being crisis 😁

[@Kobenete]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds I'm guessing it's just how it is haha. Probably cpu I guess. Was a crazy time! Can you imagine buying a monster 4090 rig and only getting a borderline playable experience today?

[@Kobenete]

@@RetroGPUsandBuilds Update! It was motion blur that was making my game run like shit. It's so much better after turning it off

[@prathameshlotake1318]

The cpu is still strong

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Yes indeed 😁

[@Wasmachineman]

QX9770 en een REX wanneer :^)?

[@RetroGPUsandBuilds]

Ondertussen heb ik een qx9770 . Ik zou het eens moeten testen 😃

[@harootpashayan]

the 780i nforce board is trash i owned that one it died on me lol the best board i had from that era was Asus Maximus