Messed up the topic title, should be AMD Dragon 
Welcome to my first build and build log! I've been lurking around these and other hardware forums for about a year now trying to learn as much as I can and I've finally got the money together to put together what I think will be a great rig!
Aims of Build
I want to build a powerful rig that I can use for gaming for at least a few years. I want it to be simple and tidy - but look really great too. I really love the build quality of the Lian-Li cases and the red/black theme of the Lian-Li AMD Dragon (aka the Armorsuit PC-P50R) suits my tastes perfectly.
Also since it's my first time doing this I wanted to have some good hardware to make the process of learning how to overclock my rig a bit easier and safer.
Components
First of all I'll start with a few pics of the case just to show it off a bit
The case as delivered with the components box next to it - felt really sorry for the delivery guys as they are HUGE!
Out of it's box, it is protected really well and I'll be saving the packaging for carting it about in the future
A few pictures showing off the case - the quality is mindblowing, the material looks and feels great
The rest of the components are as follow (you may notice they follow the black and red trend
):
Asus Maximus III Formula Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
Geil Black Dragon 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz)
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield)
OCZ Vertex Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Prolimatech Mega Shadow Performance CPU Cooler
OcUK Brushed Aluminium Blu-Ray ROM Slot Loading Drive - Black
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Here are a few photos of the bits and bobs:
Mandatory box shot
The very cool-looking motherboard
The Prolimatech Megashadow (looks very silver
)
Putting it all Together
Now this Lian-Li case is well known for it's tool-less design, and in some places it works great, but there are a couple problems.
First off I put in all my drives and sorted out the cabling a bit as preperation for the motherboard assembly. There are plenty of well-placed holes for you to tuck wires into to keep them out of site which is great! Putting in the ODDs literally took less than 2 minutes and didn't require a screwdriver - good stuff!
The case stripped down and ready for the ODDs
ODDs in and front-panel cables out of the way
The OCUK Blu-Ray drive looks fantastic with this case.. shame about the LG drive - I might ditch it later, I practically never burn DVDs!
Next up was the HDD. I'm using a 1TB HDD and a 30GB SSD for the Operating System and key applications. All that's going in just now as is the HDD. This was quick and easy and again I didn't need to use any tools - the HDD cage looks awesome!!
So next up was the power supply - I went with the corsair 650W because it's perfect for my requirements and the modular cabling means I will be able to get it all very tidy with ease. No screws this time either, just a lever mechanism in the case that keeps it very tight and the included cable management clip is cool too
Motherboard time now and first up was the Geil Memory. These are pretty speedy for a good price and they are also black with red LEDs on them... perfect!
Now for the Megahalems. I told a bit of a lie when I said that this was my first build - I slapped together a mATX machine in a couple hours before Christmas but I don't think that really counts... anyway, I had SO much trouble with the intel stock cooler that I really wasn't looking forward to this.
I had some trouble getting the spring loaded screws on because of the guides not being very obvious on the upper part of the mounting in regards what way around they should be for my socket size... got there in the end though!!
Welcome to my first build and build log! I've been lurking around these and other hardware forums for about a year now trying to learn as much as I can and I've finally got the money together to put together what I think will be a great rig!
Aims of Build
I want to build a powerful rig that I can use for gaming for at least a few years. I want it to be simple and tidy - but look really great too. I really love the build quality of the Lian-Li cases and the red/black theme of the Lian-Li AMD Dragon (aka the Armorsuit PC-P50R) suits my tastes perfectly.
Also since it's my first time doing this I wanted to have some good hardware to make the process of learning how to overclock my rig a bit easier and safer.
Components
First of all I'll start with a few pics of the case just to show it off a bit
The case as delivered with the components box next to it - felt really sorry for the delivery guys as they are HUGE!
Out of it's box, it is protected really well and I'll be saving the packaging for carting it about in the future
A few pictures showing off the case - the quality is mindblowing, the material looks and feels great
The rest of the components are as follow (you may notice they follow the black and red trend
):Asus Maximus III Formula Intel P55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard
Geil Black Dragon 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz)
Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield)
OCZ Vertex Series 30GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
Corsair HX 650W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Prolimatech Mega Shadow Performance CPU Cooler
OcUK Brushed Aluminium Blu-Ray ROM Slot Loading Drive - Black
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5850 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Here are a few photos of the bits and bobs:
Mandatory box shot
The very cool-looking motherboard
The Prolimatech Megashadow (looks very silver
)
Putting it all Together
Now this Lian-Li case is well known for it's tool-less design, and in some places it works great, but there are a couple problems.
First off I put in all my drives and sorted out the cabling a bit as preperation for the motherboard assembly. There are plenty of well-placed holes for you to tuck wires into to keep them out of site which is great! Putting in the ODDs literally took less than 2 minutes and didn't require a screwdriver - good stuff!
The case stripped down and ready for the ODDs
ODDs in and front-panel cables out of the way
The OCUK Blu-Ray drive looks fantastic with this case.. shame about the LG drive - I might ditch it later, I practically never burn DVDs!
Next up was the HDD. I'm using a 1TB HDD and a 30GB SSD for the Operating System and key applications. All that's going in just now as is the HDD. This was quick and easy and again I didn't need to use any tools - the HDD cage looks awesome!!
So next up was the power supply - I went with the corsair 650W because it's perfect for my requirements and the modular cabling means I will be able to get it all very tidy with ease. No screws this time either, just a lever mechanism in the case that keeps it very tight and the included cable management clip is cool too
Motherboard time now and first up was the Geil Memory. These are pretty speedy for a good price and they are also black with red LEDs on them... perfect!
Now for the Megahalems. I told a bit of a lie when I said that this was my first build - I slapped together a mATX machine in a couple hours before Christmas but I don't think that really counts... anyway, I had SO much trouble with the intel stock cooler that I really wasn't looking forward to this.
I had some trouble getting the spring loaded screws on because of the guides not being very obvious on the upper part of the mounting in regards what way around they should be for my socket size... got there in the end though!!
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