My First Build :)

[oO Stevie Oo]

My First Build ***Hehehe***

Now then...


This was a ongoing build i've been doing recently
Think I went the long way round lol

But started with a base PC

Galaxy Case
GeForce ECS motherboard
AMD Athlon II 3.0ghz
2gb 800mhz DDR2

over the last couple of months i've been changing bits

Asus M2N-SLI board fitted
2x Asus 8800GTS 320mb in SLI
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+

I got board really quickly with this setup as you can imagine lol

So last overhaul before my new build starts

New Case in the form of an X-Clio huge case (2x 250mm fans, 1x 120mm fan and 1x 80mm) lol
Just fitted Asus M4A77 AM3 board and a high power 750W Quad Rail PSU
Another 2gb of DDR2
Ordered Amd Phenom II X4 955 BE 3.20ghz (still waiting for delivery :/)
Gainward 260 GTX 896mb Golden Sample (With HDMI)
Xclio memory heatsinks
Seagate 500gb Sata II 7200rpm
Samsung X22 DL DVD burner
lots of LEDs

I'm sure you've seen the X-Clio case before, but if you havent, to give you an idea just how big this case is, the front and side fans are 250mm

Few more things i'm sure I forgot and heres a couple of pics of how it stands at the moment (some pics with old board)

Cheers
(be gentle haha)

Old cards and new card

will add more recent pics as work progresses of the newer stuff

 

[G-Dubs]

best of luck with the build matey.

looking forward to seeing it.

If you need help you know where we all are

 

[ch3333z]

Correct me if I'm talking nonesense, but wouldn't it be better to pop each RAM stick into a different colour slot? On my board it provides me with dual channel = better performance. Then again my board is quite old so things may have changed...
Great build though! Nice to see something that doesn't involve another corsair case

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

lol cheers guys
Erm as for the ram I know my old motherboard (M2N-SLI) to run dual channel ram you place it in the same colour sockets, so I assumed this would be the same as their both Asus?

Comes up as dual channel during post though so I think its right

Just spent the last 4 hours painting the internals of this case as the light colour was doing my head in,
What I thought would be a simple job turned job turned out to be a right pain, but i'm happy with the overall results

Pics

Cheers

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

and i'm thinking about tinting the side window as I have some window tint in the garage,
Make it look solid when off then when you turn it on, you can see the insides

 

[ch3333z]

Yeh I've only got Asus boards too... maybe it's a chipset thing. But hey if it works!

Good job on the paint. Looks a lot better in black. Now just a matter of those cables...

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

haha I ran out of cable ties, going to B&Q in the mornin so will pick some up
I've got some white ones but am not puttin them in

 

[waynio]

Nice first mod Stevie, the insides look heaps better painted black, hiding cables in a case like this is a nightmare but your cable ties should help a fair bit .

 

[SupermotoMX]

that looks awesome, and i bet when its tinted it will be the setting off point for it

 

[FiveOfTwelve]

Its like a walk down memory lane

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Cheers guys
Cable ties are here so sorting cables later

 

[Freelanc3r]

Case looks 100% better with black interior get some pics of cable management on man

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Thanks

I just finished tinting the window,
Was a lot more complicated than I thought due to all the fastenings but got there in the end
Came out pretty good I think,

Not sure wether to use a slightly darker tint or not but dont want to take too much away from the lights so will leave as is for now lol

Cheers

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

oh and the marks on the carpet are just the water/soap solution i sprayed on the tint lol

 

[G-Dubs]

Tint looks good, things are coming along well. How's it going with the cabling? Hope you're planning to braid, there's nothing ruins a nice build such as this as much as bare unbraided cables. Trust me you'll love yourself for it. I know the cable management solutions with this case aren't great, but with a little imagination and a lot of planning (and probably a few cuts and lost skin) you can get it all out of the way. believe me i've done it on cases with much worse management than this and without the benefit of a modular supply.

Just to give you an idea of what you can do,

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Cheers

Yeah thats pretty tidy
Not sure how I can get that clean without extending cables though.
This case is huge lol

The cables on this PSU are aready heatshielded or do you mean pull that off and put more braiding on smaller amounts of cables?

I have tidied them up a little with cable ties already but cant really see due to the tint lol

 

[G-Dubs]

It's entirely down to you, I was just suggesting it might enhance the work you've done still further.

You do appear to have quite a distance to cover with some of your cables, so nice braided extensions would look good.

Are you able to hide cables round the back as it were and then bring them through holes in the mobo tray? It looks like you have the panel behind the mobo off in some of the pictures so this may be one way.

Another way is to braid all those thin wires; then where you can, loom them together, bringing them off at 90 degrees when they leave the loom. Again you might need to get some extra wire, some insulating tape, braid and heat shrink and extend them yourself.

I rarely ever put something into one of my cases without either having to make a wire longer or shorter.

I also made a small panel to fit over the area immediately adjacent to the PSU to hide the great vipers nest you always get there. I made mine out of Steel and painted it up, but you could just as easy use another material. perhaps some plastic with the tint on it to keep the same look???

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

yeah I can fit braiding myself with heatshrink at each end, rather than cutting into my PSU cables I might just tuck everything behind the motherboard plate and make extentions to components as and where I need them...

Dont wanna void the warrenty on this PSU as its my 3rd one lol

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Another thing,

I really like the idea of watercooling but can I get away with it with all the fans on this case? lol

or would new case be wise?

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Oh yeah!

New CPU

Its a different kind of animal now,

Amd AM3 125w Phenom II Quad Core 955 Black Edition @ 3.20Ghz

Unbielievably fast (compared to what i'm used to lol)

Cheers