First build log - thoughts and advice welcome

Gambisk · 31 May 2013 at 14:55

Fractal Arc R2 Build

I've had my current set-up now for about 6 months, when I originally spec'd it I wanted nothing more than a windows terminal to remote work from, which would replace my decrepit laptop that I had been using. Fast forward a few months of having a half decent computer and I find myself gaming on it a lot more and so I find myself in need of some upgrades.

My spec as it currently stand is:

Intel I3 3240 3.4Ghz
HKC 22inch monitor
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H INTEL Z77
Seagate Baracuda 500GB 7200RPM
Corsair XNS3 8GB DDR3 1333MHZ
AMD HD6450 2048MB
NoName Mid tower

What is currently in the post on its way to me is the following:

Fractal Design Arc Midi R2
Fractal Design Integra R2 650W
MSI GTX 650Ti Black knight

What I'm still on the lookout for:
Used I5 or I7 to replace the current I3
Possible water cooling solution for the above.

Once the parts start to arrive I'll add some pics and begin to build her up in its new home. I realize that this is pretty low budget/spec compared to some of the machines on here, but hey I'm not made of money

deFiniLoGy · 31 May 2013 at 15:14

I think before you went on to water cooling, you might want to get yourself a nice SSD for ur OS, and then a better PSU preferably modular.

That would make ur cable management a whole lot easier when you want to go on for a WC loop.

snitcher · 31 May 2013 at 15:26

what os will you use? i have win8 and find it not great for gaming. it lags mid game.

deFiniLoGy · 31 May 2013 at 15:30

snitcher said:
what os will you use? i have win8 and find it not great for gaming. it lags mid game.

Really?
Have you updated the drivers of your display card?
Coz I used W8 Pro and it is great so far :confused:

Gambisk · 31 May 2013 at 15:36

I've currently got win 8 pro as my OS. I'd love an SSD but not sure how to go about it without having to reinstall windows and all my games. Is it possible to move just the windows install to the SSD and leave my games intact on my current HD? If not I'd rather not bother as its a pain to download them all again.

At the minute the system starts in about 10 seconds so its not really that slow so I don't know if the extra expense/hassle would be worth it yet.

deFiniLoGy · 31 May 2013 at 15:41

Gambisk said:
I've currently got win 8 pro as my OS. I'd love an SSD but not sure how to go about it without having to reinstall windows and all my games. Is it possible to move just the windows install to the SSD and leave my games intact on my current HD? If not I'd rather not bother as its a pain to download them all again.

At the minute the system starts in about 10 seconds so its not really that slow so I don't know if the extra expense/hassle would be worth it yet.

You can leave the games in ur old HDD while installing the OS into ur SSD.

Gambisk · 31 May 2013 at 17:05

deFiniLoGy said:
You can leave the games in ur old HDD while installing the OS into ur SSD.

That's true, but would the registry not need to be updated then or will steam pick up the game files if I point it at the correct HDD and update the directory acordingly?

deFiniLoGy · 31 May 2013 at 17:49

Gambisk said:
That's true, but would the registry not need to be updated then or will steam pick up the game files if I point it at the correct HDD and update the directory acordingly?

No, I don't know why, but I had the same situation and I simply install the OS onto another SSD, create some shortcuts from the game folders and then play with ease

Gambisk · 3 Jun 2013 at 09:43

Bit of an update I was able to score a i5 3570K over the weekend on a well known auction site for a mere £70 which has please me no end. A quick question regarding the cooling of this CPU.

Will I see much benefit of running a bigger air cooler such as a Prolimatechones instead of the stock cooler? I'm asking as the water cooling wont be bought until September at the earliest so want the best solution in the mean time. I can probably pop about £40-50 on a good air cooler now if it will give me a noticeable performance boost over the stock intel one.

What air cooler would you recommend, I would prefer quiet over ultimate ice cool?
Will a massive cooler like the one I linked put any undue stress on the mobo?

Gambisk · 3 Jun 2013 at 19:45

So the first of my upgrade parts arrived today

And in my haste I couldn't wait to try it out so I quickly put it in my old case where it just fits and no more

A tight fit, sorry about the quality the proper camera need charged.

As you can see my current case is terrible with zero cable management or room, but my new case and PSU shipped today so I should have it soon and I'll have some good pics in the next update.

As for the new card there is a big difference in quality of the on board Intel HD2500 I had been using so I'm very pleased with its performance within my budget.

Gambisk · 6 Jun 2013 at 09:25

Look what was waiting in the office for me this morning.

Gambisk · 7 Jun 2013 at 10:16

So got home last night at unboxed my new arrivals first up the Integra PSU

Don't know where I'm going to hide this bundle of wires yet

I then got the Arc Midi R2 Case out of its box.

I was a little concerend that it wasn't going to be much bigger that my existing case but there was no need to worry this thing is almost twice the size.

Terrible shot of the front panel

Loads of room on the inside

Back panel

Sitting beside my 4x10 bass amp for a size comparison

I then got the PSU fitted and the majority of the wires tucked away behind the motherboard tray. There are lots of cable tie points for cable management but I'm going to wait until I have ran all the cables where I need before I break out the cable ties. For now I have just stuffed them all into one of the 5 inch bays.

Removed the top HD rack as I'll not be using it and it frees up the air flow from the single front fan. I put the front fan in the top position, which sits just above the remaining HD rack as I think this will give the best airflow. There is room for another 140 fan at the front but for now I plan to leave it empty, when I get a water cooling setup in a few months I plan to have a 240 rad at the top of the case and I will take the current fan from the top and put it at the front.