FRO's New and first ever self constructed rig

So, I've upgraded from my Dell XPS 420 finally, it's taken 3 years. But it was a lovely rig for an amateur gamer. But I'm looking for something new, something I can control, something I can overclock.

My old rig was a lovely little Q6600 G0 stepping but restricted to 2.4Ghz it's whole life due to Dell's restrictive bios settings (Watch out MM, a new (old) processor coming soon!). It originally came with a 3870 x2 and 4GB Kingston RAM. Unfortunately come January 2011 two 1GB RAM cards died and so did the 3870x2. Upgraded to a 5770 and and whacked in two x 1GB Geil RAM and upgraded to a modxstream 600W for good measure and I was away again. But by then, the bug had caught me.

Now, I've recycled my modxstream, surgically removed my DVD/RW drive and the 700GB HDD and have started fresh. To this mix I've reinforced with an i5 2500k, MSI P67A-GD65, 2 x 2GB XMS3, Corsair H50, 6950 Twin FrozR III, a fresh install of 64-bit win7 and a lovely little dash of some MX-4. All neatly placed inside a new Zalman Z9 Plus.

First then, here's the new parts:




all naked


And the old rig having been mugged for all its worth


shiny new mobo


Now everyone has said how tough it can be to pull down on the lever. I was absolutely bricking it. Literally felt like something was going to snap pulling down on that and the nerves kicked in and my palms went all sweaty. It was fine though!



Mobo installed in the case along with the PSU and DVD/RW we can just see in the top right


Took the zalman fan out and put the H50 Radiator in its place with two fans for a push pull. Used one antec tri-cool for the pull on slow setting and initially also used a second for the push, but put the cosair back in later as the cable is braided and I wanted it looking as tidy as possible. Not to mention I also had to loosen the mobo up to squeeze the 8-pin motherboard power lead for the CPU in the top right through the gap at the top. Definite point for the future, run your power cables to their rough destination first.


Pre-applied thermal paste! Yuck!


Akasa and MX-4 to the rescue!


Got it all of as best I could


Installed the right way up! Often see people only managing to get it on the side?!


The cable management looks hectic, but it's actually more organised that you think. Organised chaos in other words.


My new baby


All installed




Finito!


And here's my current stats, want to give a go at overclocking to 4.4/4.5Ghz soonish and need to correct that RAM so its at 1600Mhz and timings 9-9-9-24

Nice build mate but might want to strap a few of them cables with a few cable ties.

Awesome, how you liking the Z9? Also you may want to update your sig

Very nice work How are the two fans in the side panel, do they make much noise? Also what are your load temps like?

Not ran prime95 yet, these are my current CPU temps though.



They seem to run into the low 40's when I'm downloading heavily or running anti-virus. Not sure how serious that is though.

I'll run prime95 now for half how or so and let you know in a bit what that gives back for now.

Also, it's fairly rackety, but I've got rubber pins to minimise the noise and to be honest its not much louder than my old XPS and this has got like 6 fans compared to the 3 I used to have.

Loving the case generally though

Cool, see how it goes then I found the mounting of the fans made no difference, it's purely the noise of the pair going over the mesh! That old dell heatsink was dusty, tut tut

Not too sure what I'm looking for if I'm honest, as far as I know its just a stability test, but this is what i got for an hour under prime95



highest temp was 53 celcius, which seems a little high to me but I don't know what to compare that too. Also curious as to how that will compare to the temps once I OC to about 4.5Ghz.

EDIT:

Temps have returned to normal very promptly as well which is promising.

Temps arent too bad, I get around 45-50c on load with an Antec Kuhler 620.

The rig looks good though, good job mate.

What's yours overclocked to Dirty-Blade? This is still on stock so you know, little paranoid about temps, but can't be too sure at the moment.

You might want to turn your hard drive up the right way, it's upside down ! Not that it matters, just looks odd thats all.

Mines not overclocked yet mate, everything is on stock. Dont worry too much about those temps, you might be looking at 4.4GHZ at around 65C load.

Temps are fine, tbh you'll rarely see those temps under normal use anyway. Even on GTA IV which is always 80%+ CPU usage I don't see my max temps. Also, as mentioned your hard drive is upside down You can also move it to the top slot to increase airflow slightly, my drive stays at about 28C so it gets plenty of air in the top slot. Just a little bit more cable management round the back and it's looking good

Nice build! I'm pretty much building the same thing when I gather the money

Help with my case

Very nice build, I'm actually doing the exact same one, with the CPU cooler and case.

Hi, I also sent this in an email.

I notice you have installed two fans to side panel, I have the same case and have the fan that comes supplied attached to the side panel and im just wondering if you have a dust filter on them and if not if you have any problems with dust, I am guessing they are blowing cool air onto the graphics card.

Hey buddy! Got your email but I'll reply here so all can see.

I've got no dust filters on them I'm afraid but I have contemplated getting some. I've also heard that you can put ladies stockings material over them - but I think i'd probably just buy purpose made filters.

As for the dust, it's pretty minimal to be honest. I think I used to get more in my old Dell XPS and that only had 2 intake fans!

On this i've got the 2 attached to my H50 on push/pull blowing out of the rig, one in the rood of the case blowing out, the one at the front and the one underneath (the latter which I put in recently) both have dust filters on them but I cleaned them after about 3 weeks use and there was barely anything on them anyway. As for the two on the side, they really cant be putting much dust into the case but there is a bit. When I open it up and have a look inside there is a thin layer visible, but nothing ridiculous that I consider to be a problem.

Hope this helps

Awesome build!

When I do my build in January I will maybe go with the Z9 Plus, looks a decent case.

Cheers buddy, it's changed a little thought!

Now got a Z68 board, another HDD and 8GB of Corsair Vengeance ram instead! Once I get some braided cables in there I'll post an update pic maybe

Ah nice, and great

Right time for a little update!

There's been a few changes to my rig as follows:

• Switched 4GB XMS3 for 8GB Vengeance
• Replaced P67A-GD65 with a Z68A-GD65
• Have finally added in a 60GB SSD for games & win7
• Have taken out the push/pull on my H50, the temperature difference on my CPU had been pretty negligible.
• Also replaced my CD drive with a newer LG one (one of the things I THOUGHT as wrong with my rig which led to various upgrades)
• Also have an addition 500GB Seagate Barracuda added in on top of my 750GB Hitachi
• Still need to do some cable braiding!