Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Feb 2012
- Posts
- 4,409
just a small log on what has changed on my pc.
i built it back in april this year and i loved it but it had some things that bugged me, mainly to do with how it looked
Original build thread
in that last pic is how it was before i started making the final changes.
i had it like this until last month, i had been on the forums browsing the many projects and i wanted my build to resemble some of the epic looking rigs ive seen, i also wanted a smaller case and a better motherboard which would allow crossfire at decent levels should i want to.
so i purchased a Asus maximus V gene. lovely looking motherboard that went well with the colour scheme i wanted.
after much thinking and asking advice i bought a fractal design arc mini
i also bought another 8gb of kingston ram to total 16gbs and a seasonic 850w gold psu from ocuk. another aim of this build was total silence, a lot of people go to the water cooled route but i prefer the simplicity of air cooling and how its almost maintenance free. the ocz 650w i had in my old build was the loudest part of my system, it wasnt loud but you could hear it over everything. the seasonic solves this as it only runs the fan when its too hot, also its modular.
the use of akasa apaches made the biggest difference along with the motherboards ability to control all fans including 3pin.
anyway onto the building.
i didnt get any pics of my rebuild from the coolermaster to the fractal so i started with this
i re used my ssd, hdd, cpu, gpu, ram and optical drive
with the spare parts from my old build i got my brother to spend £200 at ocuks shop and he bought himself a new hdd a g620, sapphire 7770 and some patriot 1600mhz ram and i buil this for him
so the original plan was to just remove the old heatsink and add the new one and add in the wires. i thought it would be quick and simple. unfortunatly the fractal arc mini has a flaw in its cutout tray that basically renders the cutout pointless.
you cannot remove the backplate without removing the entire motherboard.....
so onto the strip down
might of used too much tim last time haha
almost there!
one cleaned up i5
comparison in size between the a50 and megahalems, the mega is taller and also wider, which almost causes issues with the gpu pcb!
Attaching the Megahalems 1155/1156
firt you need this rivet screws and you place them in the slot you need (1155 for me) and then you use the small rubber washers to hold them in place like so
then put it through the back of the mobo so the studs sit proud of the motherboard
you then need these double threaded thumb screws, the short threaded end goes into the rivet screws attached to the backplate which a slightly proud of the motherboard.
you then tighten them up by hand only
you then fit these aluminium bars across the double threaded thumb screws, the way you place these will depend on how you want to mount the heatsink.
once they are installed you screw them down with the other part of the thumb screws
small amount of Arctic Silver 5 this time
now you put this shiny thing ontop. it will slide around on the tim though so you have to be careful.
you then slide another peice of aluminium which has 2 little "nipples"
that sit in recesses on the top of the heatsink, then using the 2 screws with springs on you screw the heatsink in place.
and the akasa apache black 140mm fans mounted with the gpu (7850 2GB) this pic makes the cooler seem massive!
on to the cables!
not many pics of this bit but it was a pain in the backside. despite the psu being modular and the fractal having decent space behind the tray, the addition of braided cables at 30cm long each pushed it. but i just about managed it.
front panel stuff is now much tidier
before adding the braided cables.
behind the motherboard tray is pure chaos!
but upfront it looks good i think.
i used 2x 140mm akasa apaches on the megahalems and bitfenix alchemy braided cables.
i built it back in april this year and i loved it but it had some things that bugged me, mainly to do with how it looked
Original build thread
in that last pic is how it was before i started making the final changes.
i had it like this until last month, i had been on the forums browsing the many projects and i wanted my build to resemble some of the epic looking rigs ive seen, i also wanted a smaller case and a better motherboard which would allow crossfire at decent levels should i want to.
so i purchased a Asus maximus V gene. lovely looking motherboard that went well with the colour scheme i wanted.
after much thinking and asking advice i bought a fractal design arc mini
i also bought another 8gb of kingston ram to total 16gbs and a seasonic 850w gold psu from ocuk. another aim of this build was total silence, a lot of people go to the water cooled route but i prefer the simplicity of air cooling and how its almost maintenance free. the ocz 650w i had in my old build was the loudest part of my system, it wasnt loud but you could hear it over everything. the seasonic solves this as it only runs the fan when its too hot, also its modular.
the use of akasa apaches made the biggest difference along with the motherboards ability to control all fans including 3pin.
anyway onto the building.
i didnt get any pics of my rebuild from the coolermaster to the fractal so i started with this
i re used my ssd, hdd, cpu, gpu, ram and optical drive
with the spare parts from my old build i got my brother to spend £200 at ocuks shop and he bought himself a new hdd a g620, sapphire 7770 and some patriot 1600mhz ram and i buil this for him
so the original plan was to just remove the old heatsink and add the new one and add in the wires. i thought it would be quick and simple. unfortunatly the fractal arc mini has a flaw in its cutout tray that basically renders the cutout pointless.
you cannot remove the backplate without removing the entire motherboard.....
so onto the strip down
might of used too much tim last time haha
almost there!
one cleaned up i5
comparison in size between the a50 and megahalems, the mega is taller and also wider, which almost causes issues with the gpu pcb!
Attaching the Megahalems 1155/1156
firt you need this rivet screws and you place them in the slot you need (1155 for me) and then you use the small rubber washers to hold them in place like so
then put it through the back of the mobo so the studs sit proud of the motherboard
you then need these double threaded thumb screws, the short threaded end goes into the rivet screws attached to the backplate which a slightly proud of the motherboard.
you then tighten them up by hand only
you then fit these aluminium bars across the double threaded thumb screws, the way you place these will depend on how you want to mount the heatsink.
once they are installed you screw them down with the other part of the thumb screws
small amount of Arctic Silver 5 this time
now you put this shiny thing ontop. it will slide around on the tim though so you have to be careful.
you then slide another peice of aluminium which has 2 little "nipples"
that sit in recesses on the top of the heatsink, then using the 2 screws with springs on you screw the heatsink in place.
and the akasa apache black 140mm fans mounted with the gpu (7850 2GB) this pic makes the cooler seem massive!
on to the cables!
not many pics of this bit but it was a pain in the backside. despite the psu being modular and the fractal having decent space behind the tray, the addition of braided cables at 30cm long each pushed it. but i just about managed it.
front panel stuff is now much tidier
before adding the braided cables.
behind the motherboard tray is pure chaos!
but upfront it looks good i think.
i used 2x 140mm akasa apaches on the megahalems and bitfenix alchemy braided cables.
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