Ivy Fortress

chriscubed · 9 May 2012 at 17:49

After asking for help in General Hardware, Storage and Graphics Cards, I've ordered, and now in possession of the parts and ready to show you the build log! Don't worry, it's only 8 photos. So far.

Opening the box - Exciting!

I believe this is the obligatory shot of all the boxes unpacked:

1, 2, miss a few - sorry got a bit carried away before the next shot - part assembled with PSU, mobo, CPU, RAM and HSF installed.

Right side - hard disk/SSD and *cough* cable management.

Fully installed from the left

The finished product!

View of the top

Testing - in BIOS screen - It's ALIVE!

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £184.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST3000DM001) £134.99
1 x Silverstone Fortress FT03 Tower Case - Titanium (SST-FT03T USB 3.0) £129.98
1 x Asrock Z77 Extreme4 M Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Samsung Green 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz 30nm Dual/Quad Channel Kit (MV-3V4G3D/US) £101.98
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £99.95
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £26.99
Total : £1,014.84 (includes shipping : £0.00).

chriscubed · 9 May 2012 at 17:53

The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed I'm missing a graphics card - that's arrived today so will update later.

Derek W · 9 May 2012 at 17:56

chriscubed said:
The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed I'm missing a graphics card - that's arrived today so will update later.

will it fit in there

chriscubed · 9 May 2012 at 18:15

Derek W said:
will it fit in there

Yes! Just put it in and fits like a glove

King Damager · 9 May 2012 at 23:49

Derek W said:
will it fit in there

You should take a look and see what Shayper fitted in his FT03..

kd

cobbly123 · 9 May 2012 at 23:55

chriscubed said:
Yes! Just put it in and fits like a glove

any new pics

chriscubed · 10 May 2012 at 08:39

King Damager said:
You should take a look and see what Shayper fitted in his FT03..

kd

I've just taken a look. Shows what this case is capable of - I know I'm not exactly pushing boundaries here!

cobbly123 said:
any new pics

Afraid I got a little carried away with actually using it last night and forgot to take the photos of it *in* the case...

So this is all you're getting until I get home from work! Sorry

arekgreenman888 · 10 May 2012 at 15:18

Looks good. Congrats on choosing 7850 very eco and good car. Now oc it to 1200mhz... blesses Arek

chriscubed · 11 May 2012 at 08:59

arekgreenman888 said:
Looks good. Congrats on choosing 7850 very eco and good car. Now oc it to 1200mhz... blesses Arek

Thanks, the forums gave me good advice. Overclocking will come later.

See, fits like a glove!

Can't see much of the card from the side of the case.. but then this case doesn't have any sort of window so not a big deal.

Joshct · 14 May 2012 at 08:47

Case personally isn't to my taste, but i can appreciate why you'd like it/ choose it.
Nice build log, enjoyed reading.

Scryus · 14 May 2012 at 13:39

Nice. A very different style case, glad it all works nicely

chriscubed · 14 May 2012 at 15:38

Joshct said:
Case personally isn't to my taste, but i can appreciate why you'd like it/ choose it.
Nice build log, enjoyed reading.

Thanks, I enjoyed building it!

What is it that you don't like about the case?

Scryus said:
Nice. A very different style case, glad it all works nicely

It's pretty unique! It's not all plain sailing as I couldn't fit one of the built in fans back in with my heatsink. I might see what I can do to modify it at some point but not a priority at the moment.

Joshct · 14 May 2012 at 22:27

chriscubed said:
Thanks, I enjoyed building it!

What is it that you don't like about the case?

Don't get me wrong theres nothing wrong with the case, it's actually quite good looking, just the overall format doesn't appeal to my i think.

It makes me think of a water cooler or a mini fridge, very much a box.

But it's certainly something unique, and don't let my thoughts dishearten you i'm not knocking it i just wouldn't pick it

chriscubed · 15 May 2012 at 08:51

Fair enough. It's not for everyone, but I think it's great to have case manufacturers offering different form factors as not everyone wants the same thing.

It's one of the very few cases that has a depth significantly shorter than a standard ATX case. Shuttles, mini towers and even some HTPC cases tend to be a lot shorter in height but still have roughly 40cm+ depth, where the FT03 comes in at only 28cm, and doesn't have cables sticking out the back. Not to mention that you can fit pretty much anything in a FT03!

This pc is going in my lounge and there just isn't a place to put a deep case. When I put it in it's permanent place I'll take a picture and it should make a bit more sense.

Joshct · 15 May 2012 at 09:04

I completely understand the logical choice for this in size constraining environments, and as i've looked at it more it's grown on me a bit more to be honest.

I'd probably pick that as a floor pc case, or rather any pc being on carpet. The no cables out the back is rather nice too...