Project - OMEN

PROJECT OMEN IS BACK AND BEING BUILT CURRENTLY!



YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI X79 Big Bang X Power 2 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £299.99
2 x MSI GeForce GTX 680 Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £259.99 (£519.98)
1 x Intel 3820 3.60GHz (Sandybridge-E) Socket LGA2011 Processor - OEM (CM8063301292805) £239.99
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX 860W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020044-UK) £169.99
1 x CM Storm Trooper Full Tower Gaming Windowed Case - Black £124.99
1 x Corsair Force GT 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CSSD-F120GBGT-BK) £105.98
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy Elite - Intel 2011 £80.99
2 x Watercool Heatkiller GPU-X³ GTX 680 LT £78.95 (£157.90)
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/8GX) £71.99
1 x Saitek Cyborg V7 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £53.99
1 x EK CoolStream Radiator XT 360 (120.3) £48.98
1 x XSPC EX240 120mm Radiator - Black £41.99
1 x EK-RES X3 150 Reservoir £39.98
1 x EK DCP 4.0 Pump (12v) £39.98
1 x Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T.3 3500 DPI Gaming Mouse £33.95
2 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise - Dual Pack (CO-9050006-WW) £25.99 (£51.98)
2 x Watercool Heatkiller GPU Backplate GTX 680 £22.8 (£45.60)
1 x Aqua Computer TwinConnect 5-Slot £15.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise - Single Pack (CO-9050005-WW) £13.99
2 x Mayhems X1 Blood Red Coolant £7.99 (£15.98)
1 x XSPC HighFlex Hose 7/16" ID, 5/8" OD, 15.9/11.1mm, 2m, Clear £5.99
1 x EK UNI Holder 50-70 - Black £3.98
2 x Akasa AK-FY320 3 Pin Fan cable splitter (AK-FY320) £1.99 (£3.98)
20 x XSPC G1/4" to 1/2" Barb Fitting (Chrome) £1.79 (£35.80)
1 x XSPC PSU Bridging Connector (24 Pin) £1.3
Total : £2,319.43 (includes shipping : £16.85).



The above is as close as I could get my parts on overclockers as some are not stocked here. The RAM I am using is different and so are the GPU's, I am using 2 EVGA SC Signature 680's Superclocked!

This project isn't going to be done within a few weeks and I will be building it up across the next few months. It's going to be custom, creative and based around a Gears of War theme hence the title. I'm an avid fan of the Gears of War series and saw it fitting to customise my PC in a GoW theme. For this the colour scheme will be strictly black and red, with a touch of white to come later in the project, I will making changes to the interior and exterior of my case including the use of custom design stenciling and a brand new power button 'explained later'. But as I said this won't be a quick and simple project, it may take a while as I don't want to splash all my funds away in the first month and get everything done, I find enjoyment in small installments here and there so this should be a fun project for me and anyone who follows, so stay tuned, especially you GoW fans!

I'll be breaking the project down, making use of several different steps to achieve my ultimate goal, as it stands the PC I am using at the moment is efficient for everything I need, however, I want more! I'll list the hardware below and shall add some images later on. I have already the system somewhat built and it shall slowly upgrade and evolve over the next few months, I'll be making a shift from AMD to Intel soon enough which should also be fun.

This isn't my finished hardware, this is my start point!

Currently I have built my gaming rig up as a budget yet powerful AMD rig which can run everything that's put at me today. However, with the new Piledriver chips not really performing as great I want to play it safe with Intel in the near future. But for now this is the hardware I have and the components I will be working with. As this is a custom design I will be working heavily with my case primarily and then making changes to the interior with new hardware and watercooling!

• Case: Cooler Master Strom Trooper [Black]
• Mobo: Asrock Extreme 3 970 [AMD]
• CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition 3.4Ghz
• GPU: AMD HIS ICEQ 6950 2GB
• RAM: Corsair Vegeance 8GB 1600mhz
• Heatsink: Zalman Ultra Low Profile [80mm]
• PSU: Corsair 860W Platinum Profession Modular [Project Addition]
• SSD: Corsair GT 120GB SSD [Project Addition]
• HDD: Western Digital 250GB Black Caviar

As you can see the hardware is quite basic and low budget however runs fine, I want to make this a more reasonable and enthusiasts build with some more decent hardware such as the PSU where I want a nice solid reliable one rather than a used old and untrustworthy one! I will be changing most of the hardware I am currently using keeping some parts along the way until I have the money to swap them out. The parts will be going into a side build for a backup PC or for my brother, however they will still be used as a gaming rig.



I will try to list all the parts I want to get in order as when I will be getting them, as It stands I have a budget for the first part of the build of £250 for my PSU, SSD, Windows 8, the HDD will come along when everything is installed and running as a storage drive. My current 250GB will be sufficient for now. But I want this build to be a nice speedy system, and with how I've been using Windows 8, with an SSD it's definitely going to be quick!

• PSU: Corsair Professional Series AX 860W [✓]
• SSD: Corsair GT 120GB SSD [✓]
• HDD: Western Digital 1TB Black Caviar
• OS: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade [✓]
• Mobo: EVGA Z68 FTW E-ATX Motherboard
• CPU: Intel 3570k 3.4Ghz
• Watercooling: XSPC RayStorm 750 RX240 WaterCooling Kit
• To Be continued...

Steps I am currently working, like a sort of on the go project log!

Click to see: Update #1 - Added a side window to my CM Storm Trooper + Interior Lighting
Click to see: Update #2 - Corsair GT 120Gb SSD ordered along with my power supply, should be here for Friday and fitted around Christmas!


Change the PINK cathode for some white NZXT LED lights, grab a 2TB Seagate HDD or 1TB Western Digital HDD and then work on my MOBO and Processor!

This finishes the beginning of my thread and project I will be adding images and detail about my next stages to my project. I hope you will follow along and see how this PC evolves. Sorry for the mass of text, pictures will be coming very soon! Just need to upload them and place them on here, and begin my project logo for the top. This should be a fun project!

Update #2 - Adding the PSU and SSD! Looks... Tidy!

Got my new power supply for Christmas and added an SSD into the system, made a few changes to what I had installed, removing the Cathode, SSD bay and my old HDD's. Everything looks pretty, and sorry for the average quality picture, only have a point and shoot camera to hand!



New Supply and SSD unwrapped and ready!









Tons of braided cables to play with!





The Red Beauty!





A nice mess to clean up! Out with everything...



In it's.. Naked form!



Tidied the fan cables underneath the HDD bays instead of out the bottom grommet, keeps them out of sight.





Power supply fitted and cabled routed round, keeping them clean, and also removed the SSD cage as that was annoying.









Added in the SSD - I hate Sata cables, made everything messy!!!!







And some half-decent cable management, I love cable tidies.









Window is a little dusty...









My all time favourite part of it all...



Finished the first part of my upgrade - Now to work on some nice white LED's and my new motherboard and processor next year

Update #1 - The first parcel delivery!

I have added my side window & cold cathode, the images make the light look red/orange however I assure you it's pink! Need to get it changed. Have a look for yourself!