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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Cheers guys
Cable ties are here so sorting cables later

 

[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

 

[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

 

[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

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Oh yeah, I knew my games weren't runnin 'well' but compared to now it was a joke lol

Battlefield BC2 on absolute full spec, flawless now

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

cheers mate

that tints have settled now and look fine so think its dark enough

Looking for a new cooler now cos I cannot live with this stock one :/

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

well I had a lot of space infront of the PSU so I thought i'd try and fill it abit,
I had a cheap fan controller lying about so threw that in as my top and rear fans were @ 12v and annoying me with their noise

looks ok I think,
fans are quieter and ambients havent changed so sorted

Also fitted a lot more SMD's for a more even light cast

(I know, messy wires but I'm not intending on keeping this case. want an Antec 1200)

Cheers

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Just fitted my Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Rev. 2

Not really changed the idle temps as they were pretty low anyway (33-34c)

Load temps now only 51c @ 3.61HGz and it a lot quieter than the stock cooler and I have now fired up the case side fan without it interfering so happy

Cheers

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Cheers dude

I'm still playing with the idea of actually drilling holes in my prespex so I dont have to open the case to adjust it,
However I don't think I should as once its set to the right setting, It pretty much gets left alone,

dont know if its worth the drilling lol

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

Happy

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

So, the top of my Arctic Freezer was looking a bit bare so I made a little decal for it

Got to haven't ya though? lol

Cheers

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

cheers lol

Am re-doing it though as this was just a test one,
It takes ages to clear up all the nodes for a decent cutting image for the vinyl plotter and didn't wanna put the effort in if it was gonna look crap lol

Looks pretty good some gonna do a proper design

But by all means feel free to copy it

 

[oO Stevie Oo]

The decal is just personal preference (the whole Intel vs AMD thing)
I personally prefer AMD and will never own an Intel CPU
the 2 250mm fans are only spinning very slowly so I don't think that it has positive pressure
plus theres too many holes in the case so its no where near air tight