My First Ever 'From Scratch' Build!

[BrightSpark101]

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I haven't updated yet! been very busy lately what with work and being ill . But I have indeed finished my build! I will post some more pics up tonight. Stay tuned...

 

[BrightSpark101]

Nice looking cans them! Do they perform as well as they look?
Any more progress on the build BS?

Hey man,

Yeah they do actually! They sound great nice bass response and no problems with distortion at high volumes, unlike my Tritton headset . They have a really nice feel to them and are very well made, only criticism I would make is that there isn't a in-line mic volume control and the mic cannot be detached. Other than that though they are awesome! Well worth £95.

 

[BrightSpark101]

so sorry not repplyed bright spark been on a course for work yeah i got that mobo and i started a thread like this but had no time to update lately and on hols tmoz so as soon as i get back will be cracking on with my build,do that vid show you how to correctly overclock ? and what you overclocking to ? i want it to be fast but not damage the CPU or shorten its life span just a nice speed that the CPU can handle,

i ordered BF3 for my PS3 before i started my build and payed a deposit not sure weather to see if i can change to pc as my new system should be able to handle it

looking good aswel mate

Hey Dean,

Don't worry about the late reply! Where about's are you going on holiday?

Yeah the video shows you which settings you need to overclock to 4.7Ghz but the same settings work to 4.0Ghz which I have set mine to at the moment going to push to 4.3-4.5Ghz tonight hopefully, but that's a whole other update!

Yeah I had it pre-ordered on Xbox but I was able to change to PC. I was going to get it off of steam but EA opened the Origin store so now all EA stuff is on there! Some how Dice managed to get BF3 to run on pretty low system specs so your beast will have no problems!

 

[BrightSpark101]

*UPDATE*

Hey Everyone!

We'll finally I managed to finish off my build, take some pictures and quickly run them through photoshop for ya! It's great knowing that everything is running smoothly and nothing went wrong with the build. I can't say enough good things about the Shinobi, i5 2500K and the MSI GTX560Ti Twin Frozr II very impressed with all of them. The case is great! It has brilliant air flow and looks awesome imo. The 2500K overclocks so easily, its no wonder the K series are so popular! And where do I start with the Twin Frozr II... it's an absolute animal! I have it overclocked to the following:

1050Mhz Core Clock
2010Mhz Shader Clock
1000Mhz Memory Clock

I have benchmarked this thing to hell and back and regardless of what I throw at it the card refuses to go above 63C!!! INCREDIBLE! I can't recommend this card enough I love it.

Anyway pictures are what you guys want and that is what you shall have:

You know it's going to be a good day when you get this in the morning!

Dam right it is!

OUCH!

It lives, it lives!

We'll there you have it! My first build, over all I think it went very well and I'm delighted with the results! I would also like to thank everyone on the OCUK Forum for all their wicked comments and help that you guys have provided it means a lot and is very appreciated! I will try and post another update tomorrow about my overclocking adventures and I'll post some shots of graphic benchmarks and stuff! But for now I'm off to play Empire: Total War! Or should I decide on my next build specs?

 

[BrightSpark101]

Wow, that is one nice build! I hope to get the funds to do one myself some day, and I'd be chuffed if I could do it half as tidy as that! Enjoy

Hey Ryan,

Thanks a lot! It took me a long time to save up enough money to build this beast, I'm only a apprentice and so I don't get paid much. I'm sure one day you'll be able to build your own PC too!

 

[BrightSpark101]

Looking great mate! Glad to see it's all complete and it's running well!

What do you have the i5 clocked to?

Ordered my extension cables last night, after recommendation from yourself. Shall start my project log after a meeting

Hey man thanks! It was such a good feeling when I fired it up for the first time and it all worked. I have it at 4.0Ghz atm but I will push it further than that, hopefully to 4.5Ghz.

Great I look forward to seeing your build come together! Post a link on here when you start it.

 

[BrightSpark101]

Congratulations.I think your pictures prove that all your efforts with researching on methods and parts has certainly paid dividends. You have made a very nice job of it - it looks great. She should serve you well - look after it.

Mark

Hey Mark,

Thanks for your comment, really appreciate it! I'm really chuffed with how it turned out in the end. I think my sleeving could use a little more practise but other than that I'm very happy with how it turned out. Now I've just gotta keep it dust free!

 

[BrightSpark101]

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[BrightSpark101]

I think you did a great job on the sleeving - fancy doing a psu for me????

Mark

Thanks, I'm not sure I'm ready to start tearing someone else's psu apart! If you buy extension cables and do it that way though I would certainly be up for it!

 

[BrightSpark101]

Do you have any quick links to tutorials you bookmarked to help your build? Am always looking to read more into everything!

Hey Ryan,

I read the how to guide on here about building your system and also a article on Bit-Tech website. I also watch loads of Linustechtips on Youtube and read anything I find about computers and new hardware. Until about 8 months ago I knew very little about hardware and building computers. Here are some handy links:

Newegg TV: How To Build A Computer Part 1
LINK

Newegg TV: How To Build A Computer Part 2
LINK

Newegg TV: How To Build A Computer Part 3
LINK

Linus Tech Tips Youtube Channel:
LINK

 

[BrightSpark101]

Can't say I blame you really, but with extension cables you don't get the full monty sleeve job !!!!! Lol

Mark

No I know, its a shame really as that is the only downside I can see. I'm sure its not that hard to take a PSU apart but I would want to try on some old one that no one cared about first! lol. Luckily in my case you can't really see the cables when they come out of the PSU as they are covered by the sleeved PCI power cables! Winning!

 

[BrightSpark101]

BrightSpark, it will be so much easier to braid a Modular PSU as you have individual cables instead of all of them bungled in one (as I'm sure you are aware).

I may do my Corsair Modular PSU sometime! Extension cables due to arrive today, need to decide on braid now!

Any more plans with this?

Yeah my OCZ PSU is only partly modular so you still have the 24-pin ATX, 8-pin CPU power cables hardwired into the unit, which is annoying. I think the really high end OCZ and Corsair units come in the fully modular flavour. Which Corsair PSU have you got?

Have you got a colour scheme in mind? If not I would use the motherboard and graphics card colours as inspiration for your braid.

 

[BrightSpark101]

Ah I forgot about the part modular bits. Pity really!
I remember now that my Corsair HX 750w is not fully modular, like you said it has the ATX and CPU power cables hardwired!
It looks like that only the top end Corsair AXxxx series PSU's are fully modular! Hmm that's food for thought...

Re: Colour;
I love blue more or less any shade of it within reason... My motherboard is blue with grey heatsink and the GPU is black/red (5850).
I'm loving the B-MAGIC and Aquamarine Blue colours! I'm thinking that with maybe a little bit of White or Titanium Grey thrown in for a little contrast.

I may just order some bits and bobs and see what I can come up with?...

Yeah fully modular design is usually only for the cream of the crop! I think Antec might make a middle range fully modular PSU but I'm not a 100% on that.

Yeah the Aquamarine blue looks insanely cool! I really want to use the orange, white and black braid they have on MDPC-X. Then again I want to play around with all the colours on there! lol . If you plan on sleeving all the wires and cables inside your case I would advise you to get quite a bit of sleeve and heatshrink. I got through 20 metres of red sleeve and 150 pieces of the pre cut heatshrink!!!

 

[BrightSpark101]

The build looks sweet

Hey Ricky, Thanks a lot!

 

[BrightSpark101]

Morning people!

I've been Tinkering around with my i5 overclock this weekend, I managed to get it to 4.5Ghz last night (which isn't very difficult). Then ran Prime95 for 15 hours and 46 minutes which I think is a reasonable stress test time. So far everything looks stable and temps arn't too high, 60C was the highest temp recorded by HW Monitor. The only thing I'm not sure about is the core voltage for the CPU, does anyone know if 1.320 Volts is too much for this clock speed?

Anyway here are some results from Prime95/HW Monitor/CPU-Z.

 

[BrightSpark101]

Hi Mark,

Yeah I thought that 14 hours would be sufficient, I would have run Prime95 for longer but I wanted to play Total War too badly lol. It's good to hear my voltage isn't too high, that is the thing I was most worried about. I'm quite happy with 60C as my highest temperature, that is just using the stock thermal compound that came with the A50 CPU HS. I may buy some Artic Silver thermal compound and see if it makes any difference. Or go the other way and get a closed circuit water block for it, something along the lines of the Corsair H80 or something .

 

[BrightSpark101]

Hi Mark thanks for the advice I'll check it out!

 

[BrightSpark101]

Bit late of a reply but thanks for the links! Bookmarked them all. I've actually bought a new modular PSU recently (should arrive tomorrow) so I can maybe get my case in a state close to like yours! Unfortunately I have an Antec 900 which are notoriously bad for cable management so I'll just have to see how I get on

Hey Ryan,

Your welcome, linus tech tips isn't really going to help you build a PC but its good to watch videos about the latest and greatest bits of hardware. Good luck with cable management (you'll need it), the case I have wasn't too bad although it was missing some tie down points in what I felt where pretty vital locations but there you go! Post some pics when your done so I can oggle over your work

 

[BrightSpark101]

Hey Everyone,

We'll I've been putting my new PC through its paces this week, I've made a machinima video from bits of Empire: Total war I captured using FRAPS. I then edited it all together in Sony Vegas (I can't afford Premiere Pro or Avid) and converted it to HD 1080p AVI format before uploading it to Youtube. I think my 4.5Ghz overclock definetly helped with encoding the video and converting and the 560Ti sure helped keep the frame rates high during recording in FRAPS. Over all I'm pleased with the results and should have another video finished by tonight!

But for now here is the video:

The Battle - Empire: Total War Machinimahttp://youtu.be/KwTm_bOVMP4http://youtu.be/KwTm_bOVMP4

 

[BrightSpark101]

Looks very smooth mate. Good to see the 560Ti does the job very well. I'm trying to get to grip with Prem Pro at the moment!

I see you play Dirt 3... May i invite you to the Dirt 3 Time Trail (in sig).

PS: How did you find OC'ing your 2500k?

Hey Rhys thanks man, the Ti is a beast I love it! Premiere Pro is a good editing program much better than it use to be. I use to use it when I was a video editor because my boss hated Apple so wouldn't buy Final Cut lol. You should have a go with Adobe After Effects as well that's a very powerful piece of software.

You sure can invite me although I only have Dirt3 on the Xbox! that was before my PC days!

Yeah OC the 2500K is a breeze. Really easy and quick too, as long as you have a after market CPU cooler you shouldn't have any problems getting it to 4.5Ghz.