Have been getting some parts together for my 'upgrade' which is basically going to be a new White/Red/Black ROG build.
My old PC setup:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 SLACR
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Asus P5Q Deluxe (Intel P45)
OCZ Reaper 6GB 1066MHz RAM (2x2GB 2x1GB)
Enermax Pro 82+ 385W PSU
Sapphire 4870 1GB
Asus DRW-2014L1T
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB
'The Grand Plan':
My budget would not stretch to most of the current gen i7's and I didn't want to create an i5 bottleneck (thinking 2x 7950's CF) before I started, so I made the choice to build an 'old' Sandybridge setup and began to source (second hand and new) parts when I could.
Current build contains:
Asus ROG Maximus IV Extreme (bought on MM, new boxed)
Intel i7 2700K (bought on the bay)
Avexir Mpower Red series 8GB 1600mhtz (new)
White PC Power & Cooling 600w Silencer MK-III (from MM)
NZXT Kraken X60 AIO 280mm cooler (new)
Fractal Design Define R4 White case w/ Window (new)
Samsung 840 EVO 256GB (new)
Hardware used and swapped/replaced:
Corsair AX1200 modular PSU (MM bargain, a little on the large size & colour didn't fit into the White build)
Corsair H60 (bought on MM, temp use before X60)
Asus ROG Maximus IV Extreme-Z (bought on MM, not as stable as the non Z)
Intel I5 2500K (bought on MM for testing purposes)
Kingston HyperX 8GB 1333mhtz (MM for testing purposes, shame colour doesn't fit into my build as clock well!)
I'm going from a Full Tower Lian Li PC75, quite an old case I'd had unused for a few years until I build my current rig in it in 2008. It had originally been destined for watercooling but when I had a motherboard die on me it was a rushed build.
Now we all know a lot can happen in 5 years... For me I've gone from living on my own in a large old farm house with all the space in the world to a newish inner city small 2 bed with my girlfriend. Suffice to say I've downsized
- 2 PC's and a server (2 of them full tower and on 24/7) to a single full tower. My Lian li has had an easy life and not used anywhere near capacity, but it is also silver and doesn't fit into the 'theme' in its new home. I've always (and still do) loved the clean lines and professional understated look of this case. But needs must and I'm changing to a midi-tower in White.Which leads me to my first problem, the selection of White cases really restricts your choice. I really liked the look of the Corsair 350D:
So I thought about painting or getting it powdercoated.
Excuse the google search image but all I could find:
The 350D is a very popular case and it's not a cheap case to begin with, so combining +£30 (or more) to make it white really pushes it over my 'soft' ~£120 budget.
I also looked at the CM Silencio 550 and I'd always liked the internal layout of the NZXT Switch Series, but they are only available as Full Tower. So that lead me to look (and enquire) about the NZXT H320 (Pre-Order and ETA is Overdue). I decided the front would be too shiny for what I was looking for.
While discussing options on a thread Mei suggested the Fractal Design Define R4 and I'd then discovered a case I'd previously fallen in love with!
Ideally I want the Windowed version:
Due to lots of QC issues with Fractal cases OcUK don't stock them and I bought one elsewhere... I was worried I'd get a box of smashed aluminium and plastic turn up, thankfully I was wrong and it is ok! (and beautiful!)
Last edited:
