First Ever Build

Simon_89

Simon_89

Simon_89

Associate
Joined
30 May 2012
Posts
207
Location
Northallerton, N Yorks
Z-Machine - Corsair H80i Ordered

Hey guys,

Thought I'd put a build thread up seeing as it's my first ever build.

My proposed spec is as following:

1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £179.99
1 x MSI HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £83.99
1 x MSI Z77A-G43 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £77.38
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 700W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM / DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £61.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £59.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £40.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £35.99
1 x Zalman CNPS20LQ CPU Liquid Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1155/1156/1366/AMD FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2) £75.98

Total : £681.29

No doubt the finished product will differ from my original specification.

I was hoping to have more purchased but i looked at my finances and with a 2 week holiday to Florida coming up in August I couldn't realistically afford to jeopardise my spending money!

I started off with buying the Zalman Z9 case and essentially putting my old pc into the case until I could afford to purchase other components.

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Unfortunately the optical drive is white rather than black but this will be getting replaced.

I'm quite happy with the outcome so far, I feel confident I can put a system together now.

Will update as and when things turn up so expect a slowish start!
 
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Unfortunately the current psu cables are far too short and due to that it isn't possible to hide them.

Once new parts get fitted things will be tidied up
 
The drive is old and i mean OLD and will be getting upgraded as soon as the CPU and motherboard is purchased :)
 
Once again the spec has changed, hope to get all these bits ordered the first week in August :)

1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £189.95
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 550Ti 2048MB GDDR5 £139.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £65.99
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM / 16x DVD±RW £76.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT £89.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB SATA 6Gb/s £44.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel £44.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler £54.98
1 x NZXT Sentry 2 LCD Touch Screen Fan Controller £27.98

Total : £825.84 inc postage

What do people think?
 
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I read somewhere that for the money it was good. Thanks for showing me that site, handy to be able to compare 2 graphics cards rather than a long list!
 
 
I won't be buying any of this until the first week in august though, I'm sure the 6870 will be more than enough for the things I will be doing
 
Zalman Z9
Intel Core i5-3570k running @ 3.80Ghz
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 DDR3 Motherboard
Xigmatek Tauro Power Force 600W PSU
Samsung 22x Super WriteMaster
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD
Seagate 500GB SATA3 HDD
Crucial Ballistix 2 x 2GB 1600Mhz

6F79CA22-B075-4631-BFDE-A8AEDB12B777-4293-0000028B053CBF91.jpg


B08CA927-DEF7-4EE0-883E-316622000BAF-4293-0000028AF8615979.jpg


24506124-78C1-4F9F-B433-B9B622B18666-4293-0000028AE7F267F7.jpg


So nice to be using a proper machine again, a 1.6Ghz Atom notebook just doesn't cut it!
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G) £79.99
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £52.99
1 x Xigmatek Tauro 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLT2CP2G3D1608DT2TXOBCEU) (Orange & Blue Activity LEDs) **WORLD FIRST** £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £556.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Full spec so far, looking to upgrade the RAM in the new year
 
Not yet, the build was done on a budget. I will be adding one in the new year, up to now the IGP is just about coping with the stuff I do.
 
So 2012 is over and I've a PC which I can actually perform tasks on! I will be looking at taking the upgrades further in 2013.

These will include
  • Some basic watercooling, just a CPU block, 240mm rad and reservoir/pump.
  • A graphics card, something along the lines of a 7850? Allows me to crossfire if i buy another
  • Increase HDD size, maybe a larger SSD but primarily a couple of 1TB HDDs for movies and music
  • Definitely need a new monitor, I'm still using a Dell 1908FP from when I started work 4.5years ago!
  • Get a proper fan controller and some decent fans

I will get some fresh photo's up of it soon, I'd like to say it has come on a long way since my first post:)
 
Just finished ordering a Corsair H80i, hoping to get the CPU a bit cooler. With normal useage at 3.8Ghz it would hover around in the 50's and on full load would reach the 70's.

Hope to reach 4.3/4.4Ghz with this cooler :)
 

Zalman Build by Simon Blades, on Flickr


Zalman Build by Simon Blades, on Flickr


Zalman Build by Simon Blades, on Flickr


Zalman Build by Simon Blades, on Flickr


Zalman Build by Simon Blades, on Flickr


Zalman Build by Simon Blades, on Flickr


Zalman Build by Simon Blades, on Flickr

Apologies for the blurry photos, I can't get enough light at the moment to take some decent ones but these show enough of the build as it stands.

My biggest problem at the moment is that I've a bunch of HDD's and I'm struggling to connect them all up neatly within the Zalman case. I could also have a good go at doing some cable management within the case too, it's a mess due to a funny issue I had over the Xmas period where the system just wouldn't turn on and I just stripped it back to basic components and thankfully things started working again. I'm putting it down to Windows 10 as I have never experienced anything like that before upgrading; I'm back in Windows 7 now.

Any comments would be ace.

Thanks for looking!
 
I had forgotten about the build thread and have just been using it. I plan on upgrading a few bits and also building my fiancé a machine out of some of my old parts. This will be alongside saving for a mortgage!
 
I also narrowed down my issue of the system not booting correctly due to a damaged USB port on the front panel. Somehow one of the pins was bent and shorting out.
 
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