First Build*: Ghost

[MrAnthony]

First Build*: Ghost - Finished (For Now)!

Hello all, and welcome to my first* build! Great name, I know!

The Reason:
All things permitted, I'm leaving for university next September and shall be needing a computer to take with me. I spent some time trying to decide whether I wanted to get a laptop or a desktop, and in the end decided on a desktop as it will suit me better.

I plan to study Audio Production, and thus need a computer which will allow for me to work away from campus if need be. There are tonnes of Macs on site, so the majority of work I'll do there however it'd be nice to have the flexibility to work away from campus if need be. I originally planned to go X79, but since I plan for nearly all of the work to be done on site I see no need to spend all that money and have all that power anyway. Perhaps in the future, but there's bound to be something else available by then. Right now I just need a machine that will get me through the rest of the year before I leave, and still perform great once I've moved out.

I'm no gaming fanatic, most of my gaming has always been done on console. But it'd be nice to be able to play games on my PC if I ever make such a step. I've been really interesting in getting into Battlefield 3, but i can't help but think it's a waste of money getting it for console since it might not look and play as good. I do play games on my PC, but they're mostly simulations, rFactor, etc. and a fair bit of Minecraft so I'd like to be able to play them at a good quality too. I do plan on getting a decent GPU to allow for this, but for now I'll hold back to focus on the rest of the machine and make do with the integrated GPU for now.

The Build:
I've opted for an i5 3570K cooled by a H100i, paired with the MSI Z77 MPower motherboard. I went with the H100i as the Bitfenix Ghost allows for a radiator in the roof, and the H100i is cheaper and easier than a full custom loop, which for a beginner like me is a little daunting. In case you're wondering why not the i7 3770K, the reasons are practically the same as why not X79. I can't afford it, and don't really think I need it. If I'd had a little more money to play with, it could have been an option, but since I've gone for expensive parts in other areas I've wiped that idea out all together. Why must I be so awkward?

Really, I should be spending maybe half of what I am doing for parts that will do - But the way I see it, it's better to spend the money on the parts that I want now, rather than 1.5x as much on what I want in the future. I think that makes sense?

I plan for this system to be pretty quiet, simply because computers are loud, and I don't want to listen to it whirring up all the time. Especially since at times I'm likely to need to leave it running overnight, and whilst I'm living with people I doubt they want to hear to it either so a relatively quiet system is key, but at the same time I'm aiming for performance so looks like I'm sure to be walking a fine line between the two.

My basket is as follows:

Spoiler

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 660Ti Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99 - Purchased!
1 x MSI Z77 MPower Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £149.99 - Purchased!
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £99.98 - Purchased!
1 x OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G.20) £94.99 - Purchased!
1 x Avexir MPower Series 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AVD3U16001008G-2CM) £79.99 - Purchased!
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 630W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £79.99
1 x BitFenix Ghost Silent Tower Case - Black £74.99 - Purchased!
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £20.99 - Purchased!
1 x Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp - OEM £19.99
Total : £1,110.88 (includes shipping : FREE).

Parts are slowly arriving through the post, I should take delivery of all the purchased items by the end of the week ending January 6th, so hopefully I can get it built and booted once they've all arrived.

I've only the GPU, Storage HDD and Sound Card left to order but none of those parts are required to boot the machine, so it's back to saving and prioritising what needs to be ordered first.

Parts Gallery:

Components:

Bitfenix Ghost:

Intel i5 3570k:

MSI Big Bang Z77 MPower:

Corsair H100i:

Avexir MPower Series 16GB:

OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD - I've had this lying around for ages, and it'd be pointless to not use it especially considering how much it cost at the time:

Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter:

Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 530W PSU:

Peripherals:
For the peripherals, I'm not really too fussed about having tonnes of features on them. I just want them to work, and work well. If they put up with everyday use then they're perfect for me.

I'm yet to get a monitor, but I've got my eye on the recent IPS monitors from AOC but they're a little pricey. Hopefully I should have an increase in funds soon, so we'll see what happens.

Logitech K310 Washable Keyboard - I really like this keyboard. It's nice and quiet, has good amount of functions and I personally think it looks great:

Overclockers UK XXL MousePad:

Build Gallery:
I will start this when I've got all of my purchased items


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Please accept my apologies for the low quality photos, but I cannot work my brothers DSLR for the life of me and who knows where my digital camera is, so I just gave up and used my phone because I know how that works, ha! I'll search for my digital camera and retake the photos for you, so it'll at least look nice even if the machine doesn't. I'm somewhat dreading cable management!

Any who, thanks for looking! Wish me luck, and if I do anything daft please feel free to point it out

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* On work experience a few years back I took parts out of one case and put them in another.

 

[MrAnthony]

I know exactly what you mean. I could decide between the MPower, Maximus Gene or the Z77 Sabertooth.

All roughly similarly priced, all look great and have loads of features. In the end, I was swayed by the MPower.

 

[MrAnthony]

I'm awaiting my case and memory to be delivered tomorrow. Then next week my cd drive, h100i and PSU will be delivered.

Just waiting for a check to clear and I'll get them ordered. Don't see any reason I can't boot without the sound card, graphics card and storage drive

If I had the H100i now, I'd put everything in the case when it arrives but I don't want to start building it all just for it to get covered in dust and stuff so I'll wait until its ready to be built.

Should be built and running by next Friday, but we'll see.

I shall take photos of everything when they arrive and post them here

 

[MrAnthony]

That's what I planned to do!

I can use the power button on the motherboard to boot it right, rather than using a screwdriver and shorting pins?

 

[MrAnthony]

Lovely, thanks for the information

 

[MrAnthony]

Easy to wash away all those little accidents

MW

Ahhh!
















Like coffee spills.

 

[MrAnthony]

Okay, tea spills. I don't even like coffee

 

[MrAnthony]

Right, thanks to the great staff at OCUK getting my order upgraded to Saturday delivery, DPD brought me two more goodies this morning!

First off the case - Looks fantastic. It's much better in person than in the photos and videos online. Some people have said it feels a bit flimsy and cheap, but I've given it a once over had a play and see what's what and it feels a pretty sturdy piece of kit to me. Granted, this is my first build so I've nothing to compare it to except the cheap home PC I've been using for years now, and apart from a memory upgrade and a clean I've not needed to mess with the case.

I'm waiting on my H100i before I start filling the case up, so I'll get back to you on the quality and ease of use then. But for now, it's looking good to me!

Now for the memory - Matches the motherboard, and looks really nice. to be honest, I don't know why I'm caring about aesthetics so much for this build since you can't see into the case, but if in future I decide i want a window, at least it'll look nice then!

I don't know much about memory, but 2 8GB sticks for £66 seemed like too good of a deal to pass up. I'll let you know how it performs when it's built and booted.

Just waiting on my H100i, Asus DVD drive and a Be Quiet L8 530W that I picked up yesterday.

Dropped to the 530W version as I don't plan to SLI and reports suggest that 500W is more than enough for the spec above, so we're all good there.

Thought you lot might find this a little funny:

The build hasn't even started yet and I've already ran into a problem. My flipping mousepad is too big for my desk! But rather than get rid of the mousepad, I'm hoping to get a new desk as the one I have isn't level (It's like a bowl shape!) and my K310 rocks on it quite badly. So I'll get one with a little more depth I think. I didn't even think to measure it before I bought it, so I figured I'd at least test fit it when it arrived.

I've updated the original post with the pictures of the memory and the case. That's what I'll keep doing I think as it's easier to post all the pictures up there and let you know rather than posting them twice.

For the actual build, I think I'll post detailed versions, and more of an overview in the original post

Thanks for looking!

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

More stuff, hoorah!

The poor post lady though, it's absolutely lashing it down and she still knocked at my door with a smile on her face!

Nothing special, just my DVD drive but I know for a fact I can't do without one. I'll still be burning and ripping CD's for years to come because yes, I still buy CD's

Building will hopefully commence by the weekend, just two parts left to arrive now, my PSU which is in the post still and my H100i which is on preorder

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

The Build Begins!

Now that the new years celebrations are out of the way, I needed something to do to keep myself occupied. I'm going crazy not being able to get this thing built yet, but the post is holding me back, haha!

I thought I'd spend some time having a proper look around the case, and also show you lot as well. I also decided to get the SSD, optical drive and input/output shield mounted while I was at it.

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Here's where I intend to do the whole build. You've seen this desk before but I thought I'd show you again

When you open the case for the first time, this is what you're presented with. A bunch of cables and some plastic bags. As you can see, the inside of the case is very roomy, but I have a feeling it may not have the same feel once the motherboard is mounted in there. The holes for cable routing do have rubber grommets, however you're going to have to install them yourself which is actually quite frustrating. I understand it's easier for BitFenix to just package them and leave the user to it, but it would be nice for them to be installed already. I have a funny feeling once I start passing the larger cables from the PSU through them, they're going to be popping back out which may get annoying, but we'll see what happens.

I do like that the entire interior of the case is black though. It makes it look very smart and clean looking.

Inside the plastic bags you get a load of screws, a couple more standoffs for mATX motherboards, rubber grommets, little adhesive feet for the PSU (I assume?), a user guide (mine has two copies of the same page in it ) and you also get the HDD slides, which I have not pictured for some reason. There are enough slides to fill all of the available spaces if you keep the case in its current configuration. The wall for the SSD slides can be removed to allow for longer graphics cards, or moved along slightly to allow mounting of larger sized mechanical drives. However, there are not enough of the larger slides to have the whole tower in this configuration.

This is the inside of the side panel, and here you can see the silencing material BitFenix have used. The material is of a decent thickness and is rather smooth to the touch. However, quite malleable as it's very soft. Be warned as you could end up with a permanent imprint into the material.

I tried to get a closeup of the material, but my camera just wouldn't play ball. I think you can get a rough idea of what it's like though.

Looking at the actual motherboard tray there is a key imprinted into the metal. It simply shows you what the letters next to all of the standoffs mean. A nice feature to have, particularly if you're a first time builder. Also pictured here is the pin used to align the motherboard in the case correctly, also a nice thing to have.

Here is what the SSD/HDD slides look like. I have mounted my SSD in the case already, and doing so was very easy indeed. The plastic simply bends around the SSD and clips into place. I was worried about bending the plastic too far and snapping the slide itself, however the plastic is very thick and doesn't feel like it's going to break. I believe there is some form of vibration absorbing feature with these slides, however I could not spot anything in particular so I may be wrong there.

I've also mounted the optical drive, which was also very easy to do due to the tool less mechanism that the case has. I have however screwed the drive into place on both sides to make sure it's definitely secure, and help hold it in place when it's spinning up.

Here is the drive mounted in the case. If it matters at all, I very much like the way the drive looks in the case. The black pretty much matches, and it's nice and flush with the case, so it's all good

Finally, here are some pictures of the case itself. The lighting is a little bit iffy, so there are some funny reflections from the tables. The case isn't that shiny, it has much more of a matte finish to it. I very much like the aesthetics of this case, more so than the similarly priced offerings from Cooler Master, and Fractal Design. Corsair also have their silent case, but it's a little more expensive than the BitFenix, and in my opinion still doesn't look as nice.

That's it for now I'm afraid. Just thought I'd actually do what I can without the parts that I'm yet to receive

Cheers!

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

That is one Purdy case Mr...

Agree ^^^ really nice case.

Looking nice; great case ^_^

Thank you all, I'm glad you like it! Out of all the Bitfenix cases, it's certainly the best looking in my opinion. But, I like the simplistic things.

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Just a little update, I got my Be Quiet! PSU yesterday. The UPS man brought it to my door yesterday afternoon, which was a little unexpected since it wasn't supposed to be delivered until next week, so it's all good!

Just waiting on the H100i still, and I can finally crack on, wahay!

I've stuck a picture in the original post if you're interested!

- Anthony,

 

[MrAnthony]

subbed, been looking at this case myself, will be nice to watch it all go together.

Cheers! I hope you like what you see. I can't wait for it to be finished!

Wow! That mouse mat is some size!

Have you considered replacing the board that forms the top of your desk rather than replacing the whole desk?

The mousepad is pretty huge! To be honest, that was my first thought, but the rest of the desk really could do with be replaced too. It was a full desk, but when I moved into the room I'm in now, it didn't fit in between the stack of shelves and the wall opposite, so it had to be modified. It's about ready to collapse, so I think a new desk all together will be the better option!

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

Finally started the build!

Hey everyone!

Now, if you're like me then you've been dying to get this machine built. Well, I got my H100i this afternoon, and I got right on it!

I've added the boxed picture to the original post.

Sorry there aren't many photos. I was too busy swearing at the H100i to get around to taking many, but it's nothing you haven't seen before.

I should state now, that I don't have any photos of the completed build because there is no way I'm showing it to you in it's current state. I have a bit of an OCD about keeping things neat, so it's driving me crazy knowing I'm leaving it in it's current condition overnight. I can't even get the bloody side panel back on, not impressed! I have finished building it, but I'm doing ALL the cables again because I just wanted to get the thing booted into Windows before I called it a day and waddled off to band practice.

The pictures aren't great, but I hope you get the idea!

Here's the motherboard unboxed, and I think you'll agree it's a pretty damn good looking board. At the same time as the aesthetics I just love the feature set, and I just knew I'd have to treat myself to this motherboard.

Today I did my first EVER CPU install. My goodness, I was absolutely terrified I'd screw it up. All went well, and apart from cringing at the crunching sound it made when closing the bracket, I'm very happy I got it done right first time!

Here's the motherboard with the matching memory installed. Strangely, I was honestly expecting blue LED's. I'd heard that some have yellow, but it honestly doesn't make a difference since I can't see it when the side panel is closed anyway Looks pretty smart though, I think you'll agree!

Here's the H100i, the fans and the installed mounting bracket. I'll say now, that the H100i is THE MOST annoying thing I've ever had my hands on in my entire life. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but I was really hoping it wouldn't be so bloody fiddly and it just was. I could not get the bracket to fit first, then it kept falling out, then one I had the pump actually mounted i looked at all the washers and thought, "oh hang on". So I unscrewed the pump, put the washers on and then realised they were for the roof of the case! So, off it came again. So it took my three attempts to get it mounted, but it works so I don't care The funny thing is, I haven't even used the washers because of the way I've attached the radiator in the case anyway. So that could have been avoided, but oh well! These are the things idiots like me learn.

As for the fans, they seem pretty good so far. Not as loud as I was expecting, and they feel as though they're shifting plenty of air so it's all good!

And finally, minus the PSU here is my test build. It booted first time, however displayed a message on screen about the amount of memory being changed. So, of course I panicked. Then however I realised that when the board had its burn in test different memory would have been used. I simply hit the reset button and all was well! It's an absolute mess, and an absolute pain with the H100i mounted to it. Getting it in the case was worse because there was no way I was mounting the pump again. So I recruited the mother to help twist it and get it in the top of the case while I mounted the motherboard.

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That's all you're getting for today, because that's I'll I've got pictures of. I'll talk you through the rest of the build tomorrow when I have some pictures of the completed build to accompany the text.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed my almost failed attempt at a test build and look forward to the rest I have to show and talk about! But for now, it's back to work as I've stuff due for tomorrow. Then cable management, then another update tomorrow evening!

Cheers for looking, and if you've anything to comment on feel free to do so!

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

Wish I'd picked up one of those OCUK mats while they were at £5.99 recently. DOH!

Build seems to be coming along nicely - have you tested that the mobo etc work? I'd recommend that you do BEFORE you install it. It's a pig of a job testing a full rig in situe - well - it is when they don't work. Just make sure you fire it up with the basics to make sure it all posts ok

That is if you haven;t already...

Yep, that's why I built it out of the box first. No way was I going through the whole build to find a problem and have to take it all apart. Everything works well though, I'm all booted into windows and am just getting everything sorted and what-not so I can get to using the bloody thing!

Looking good there! Especially the motherboard and memory combination Good choice with the Asus DG. Great card for the money. Swapped out my X-Fi for the DG as I didn't like the bloated Creative drivers and it caused my PC to take 3-4 times as long to boot as it took ages at the Windows logo stage. Reckon you'll be hooked on PC gaming once you get the 660Ti

I had to have the matching memory, I just couldn't resist! Thanks for the heads up with the GPU and sound card, I'm looking forward to grabbing those bits later down the line!

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Right, here it is. All completed and booted! Sorry there aren't photos of the actual build. I was short on time as I had to get work done yesterday, and was away in the evening. So I'll try and talk you through it as best as I can, picking up on some things I encountered along the way, etc.

Firstly, here's my old cable management. Now, I said yesterday that it was driving me crazy it being in the state it was in. So once I'd finished up with teverything yesterday evening (and before Armageddon got to the really sad bit, please don't judge me!) I decided to sort the cables out and head off to bed. I just couldn't go to sleep knowing I'd left it in such a state, and I just didn't know when I'd get around to sorting it.

I think you'll agree, this is pretty bad. Wires crossed over, wrapped around each other, in the wrong place. Not good enough.

Now, here it is after I sorted it as best I could. The only thing I have to say about this is SATA power cables. If it weren't for the ones supplied with the PSU being just a little too short, and having the actual connectors upside down, for now I'd have only needed the one. But, since that was the case, I had to use two. Made the job a little harder, but I got it sorted in the end.

I have sort of cheated and tucked some of the cables away in the HDD area for now, as there isn't really anywhere to tie them to in that area. Perhaps when I get to add my HDD and GPU, I'll do it all over again but for now I'm happy with this. The side panel goes on, it doesn't bulge out and that's good enough for me.

Here's the inside of the case. It's a little dark so I hope you can see everything. The cables at the bottom are a little messy, as I can't for the life of me find where to connect the power LED on the adapter(s) provided, but I'll sort it don't worry.

You can see the fans for the H100i in the top, and if you look how close they are to the rear exhaust fan, you'll see why the radiator had to be mounted the opposite way I would have liked. There just isn't room for the tubing and both fans. It'd be even worse if I had to mount the radiator in the same area as the motherboard as the massive heatsinks on the MPower simply eat up all the room.

Another problem the heatsinks caused me was the screw heads under the board itself. As the Bitfenix Ghost has raised mounds for the motherboard to rest on eliminating the need for stand offs, there was one screw stopping the motherboard from sitting flat in the case. To sort this, I simply had to rejig things a little, make sure everything was fully lined up and then get it screwed in as even as I could. There is very minimal flex (if any actually) and since the motherboard is a little thicker than others, it should take it just fine. I've encountered no problems so far, so let's just hope it stays that way.

The radiator is held in place by the fans below, hence there being no screws in the top. It's perfectly secure don't worry. But the heatsinks on the motherboard didn't half make it difficult to get the fans screwed in! All is well though, and I didn't have to mount it inside the case so I've no complaints here! There is plenty of space in the room for the radiator, but as I mentioned above - Be cautious of which direction you have your tubing, because it's a really tight squeeze with all those fans in there!

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That's it for pictures I'm afraid. Like I said, I wish I could have photographed or filmed it step by step but there was just no time.

I'm yet to dive into overclocking and benchmarking, if I choose to do so. I dare say I'll overclock, but I'm not really into benchmarks to be honest. I can however confirm that at stock clocks the H100i is keeping the system at 27-32C when idle/light use. And since I've not been running any tests or using heavy applications I can't comment how it performs under load. However, that seems like a pretty good result to me, and do bear in mind the case does have sound absorbing material, and not all that much of a front intake (If it makes any difference that is).

I hope you've enjoyed my progress! I can honestly say apart from all the swearing, and catching myself on the case and what-not, it's been a very enjoyable experience that I hope I can repeat in the future.

Thanks a lot,

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

The cables look nice and tidy round the front which is the main thing. Invest in a pack of cable ties and it'll pay you dividends.

It looks a nice rig, especially with it being an alleged first build Enjoy using and playing with it!

I've got some don't worry. I've had another play with them, but I've not really made any difference. The main thing is they're nice and flat, out of the way and bulge the side panel which on such a bland case would stick out like a sore thumb. I'm leaving them along for now, but with the HDD and GPU I intend on adding they'll no doubt need a little more work.

Thank you for the compliment, I'm just glad it's finished for now!

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

I've been saving for a looooooong time! Finally got around to buying everything and I couldn't wait to get it all together.

Like you, I'm not normally all that patient with this sort of thing, but. Also like you, needed the money held me back!

 

[MrAnthony]

I did read through the manual before hand as I was unsure where to put them, but all 16GBs are recognised and I've encountered no issues thus far.

Would it be worth trying the other two slots?

 

[MrAnthony]

Nice build hope it goes well for you! Im scared about installing my CPU too :S

Exactly as R-evans said. Just like Lego. Providing you take your time, linje it up properly, and don't keep taking it out and putting it back everything should be fine

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Thank you all for such positive comments.

I have since swapped the memory into the other two slots and can honestly say I have noticed no difference. However, it has allowed a little more room for the pipes on the H100i as they're quite thick!

I have also added in an MSI NX8600GT that I've borrowed from a friend, however to be honest I don't think it's providing me with any benefits. It seems to perform identically to the HD4000 IGP in my i5. And, if anything, it's more of a hindrance as the VGA port on my TV is broken, meaning I can't use my machine as I am yet to get myself an actual monitor. I haven't been paid since before Christmas and every penny I'd saved since April went into building the machine. Oh the frustration!

On a lighter note, the system is running very well at stock clocks. Excellent boot time and programs run very smoothly indeed!

I'm yet to venture into the world of overclocking, however without being able to use the machine properly there's just no point right now. Once I'm off the living room floor, and at my desk I'll let you know how I get on!

Thanks again,

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

Well, in regards to my previous post, today has been a bit a wild one.

Not 10 minutes after posting, I came across a 20" LG monitor in my local area. Went to pick it up, it's in pretty much brand new condition, and now I'm all set up and actually using my machine, yay!

A couple of pictures for you lot!

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So here is all is. Arranged on my desk, booted and running perfectly! It did take me a few minutes to find the right screen resolution, but it's actually a really nice looking monitor. I'm handing the NX8600GT back to my friend soon as I just can't see any point having it in the machine, and I've got a HDMI-DVI cable on the way so I can just run the IGP until I get a decent graphics card later in the year. I'm loving the mousepad, they keyboard is taking a little getting used to, but it works great. And the mouse. Well...


What can I say? They sure don't build them like this anymore. It's an old Time mouse from the first ever PC we owned in this household. Goodness, that was a long time ago. Since I haven't been paid and can't actually get a decent mouse yet, I have no choice. And yes, it does have a ball. Haha. I shall be swiftly replacing it once some money comes in!


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Cheers everyone!

- Anthony.

 

[MrAnthony]

ahh the old ball type mouse. i loved them, used to take the weighted ball out and lob it at my little brother.

See, I still live with mine... Hehe

Giggled.

Great build

Thanks a lot!

---------------------------------

So, I had a quick go with the OC Genie feature last night. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I took a screenshot of the results for you guys

What do we think? Good, bad?

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Cheers!

- Anthony.