My First Gaming Build :D

Leigno · 12 Dec 2012 at 15:50

Hi guys,

Ordered my PC today, great customer services from the guys at OCUK, just thought I'd give you a little teaser and keep you in suspense as to what I ordered. Fortunately only one product was out of stock which was a headset so looks like my household is going to have to put up with the sound FX until it is in stock and I will have to make do without team speak.

Cant wait to receive it all tomorrow and get building, hope it comes early.

I have never done this before so though I would do a step-by-step picture guide for you all to see and give me advice on what i should and should not of done for my next build, and really just as a "if I can do it, anyone can" example of building a gaming PC from scratch, and because a few people said they would like to see how it gets on.

Big thanks to everyone who has given me technical advice on my build as without he help from forum members I'd be scratching my head still and a big thank you to the old lady who crashed into me and gave me whiplash for funding this project.

And I shall update this thread when I un-box tomorrow and then again when its done.

P.S be prepared for questions on how to overclock as I'm clueless

Leigno · 13 Dec 2012 at 17:42

Right guys, took delivery at 09:30, was plugged in for first boot at 13:30.

The parts:
YOUR BASKET
1 x his hd 7970 iceq x² ghz edition 3072mb gddr5 pci-express graphics card (h797qmc3g2m) with free farcry3, hitman absolution, sleeping dogs & 20% off moh warfighter pc games £339.95
1 x intel core i5-3570k 3.40ghz (ivybridge) socket lga1155 processor (77w) - retail £179.99
1 x gigabyte z77x-ud3h intel z77 (socket 1155) ddr3 motherboard £129.98
1 x antec p280 super midi tower case - gun metal black £99.98
1 x samsung 128gb ssd 830 desktop series sata 6gb/s kit with norton ghost - (mz-7pc128d/eu) £83.99
1 x corsair vengeance low profile 16gb (2x8gb) ddr3 pc3-12800c10 1600mhz dual channel kit (cml16gx3m2a1600c10) £79.99
1 x microsoft windows 7 home premium sp1 64-bit - oem (gfc-02050) £79.99
1 x seasonic g series 550w '80 plus gold' modular power supply £76.99
1 x seagate barracuda 2tb 7200rpm sata 6gb/s 64mb cache - oem (st2000dm001) £74.99
1 x alpenföhn k2 mount doom cpu cooler (socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / am2 / am2+ / am3 / fm1 / fm2) £59.99
1 x logitech g400 3600dpi gaming mouse (910-002279) £23.99
1 x lg gh24ns95 24x dvd±rw sata rewriter (black) - oem £18.98
1 x ocuk black gaming keyboard (5105gu) £10.99
1 x ocuk professional cat6 rj45 5m network cable - grey (b6-505) £3.98
total : £1,278.79 (includes shipping : £12.50).

everything out the box and organised nicely:

Close up of components:

Case stripped down and Optical Drive installed:

Optical Drive rear shot:
http://s1357.beta.photobucket.com/user/Leigno/media/DSCN0437.jpg.html?sort=3&o=15

So easy to install, Antec case uses a screwless system, literally slides and clicks into place.

Next PSU slotted and screwed into place:

Close up of PSU:

SSD installed:

HD installed:

Case came with 6 out of the 9 MOBO standoffs pre-installed, nice touch:

MOBO unboxed, CPU seated and RAM installed:

Close up of CPU and RAM:

Ready for cooler to be fitted (decided to rotate mounting brackets due to airflow and clearance on GPU):

Cooler assembled and fitted:

Side shot, again I decide against positioning of outer fan and moved to opposite side:

MOBO mounted, and all 3 drives connected (SSD, HD, and optical drive):

Ancillaries getting wired in:

GPU fitted:

Final wiring:

All in all took me around 3 hours to get it all together, no problems, few niggles getting wires to go where I would have liked but did the best with the amount of room and lengths of wires I had, would like it to be a bit neater but hey ho at least its all in there.

Hardest part of the build was the CPU cooler as the instructions weren't the best but was still easy enough to follow if you cross reference the intel and amd fitment instructions I got there in the end.

First boot failed due to a faulty sata power lead connector to my HDD, changed this for a different connector on the same cable and booted fine, only other bad thing is that one of the fans on my cooler catches ever so slightly on the case of the fan and makes a noise but this is getting replaced for me

Hope you enjoy the pictures, I will update on performance when its up and running, currently installing windows updates

honosuseri · 13 Dec 2012 at 17:59

Love it and you are going to love Far cry 3!

hyper_active · 13 Dec 2012 at 18:04

Nice build you got there, I also struggled with my heatsink instructions.

Something Else · 13 Dec 2012 at 18:18

picture arent working for me, could just be me though

great part selection, enjoy it

Leigno · 13 Dec 2012 at 18:24

Think I've done well, just finishing of windows to how I want it, and then time to test its performance.. although the only thing I have to compare it to is my collection of Sega Megadrive games on this laptop and my xbox360

The heatsink instructions are a nightmare, dont know who approved them to retail.

Nor me either, if you right click should go straight to my photobucket page.

Uncle Petey · 13 Dec 2012 at 18:43

I know you've rotated the cooler since this pic, but there's no point in having the fan on the back next to the exhaust fan. Stick it on the front or just use the centre fan

It wouldn't interfere with gpu clearance in this position.
Airflow may actually be less effective with it rotated as you'll be pulling hot air from the gpu straight into the cooler. Shouldn't make too much difference, but worth considering.

Space Monkey · 13 Dec 2012 at 18:46

Jamsames said:
picture arent working for me, could just be me though

great part selection, enjoy it

Same here

Also, enjoy your new PC

Leigno · 13 Dec 2012 at 18:59

Uncle Petey said:
I know you've rotated the cooler since this pic, but there's no point in having the fan on the back next to the exhaust fan. Stick it on the front or just use the centre fan

Already done, the fan sits nicely over the ram until tomorrow morning when it will nicely sit in packaging on its way back to OC for exchange

Uncle Petey · 13 Dec 2012 at 19:03

Good man. Have fun with your new toys

Leigno · 13 Dec 2012 at 19:54

Space Monkey said:
Same here

Also, enjoy your new PC

ahh my bad with uploading the pic's, not the best when it comes to it, if you right click where they should be and open in a new window should link to my photo bucket page??

Something Else · 13 Dec 2012 at 23:26

Leigno said:
Already done, the fan sits nicely over the ram until tomorrow morning when it will nicely sit in packaging on its way back to OC for exchange

why you sending the K2 back?

Leigno · 14 Dec 2012 at 00:36

Jamsames said:
why you sending the K2 back?

I'm returning one of the fans as the fan blades catch the housing ever so slightly which makes it very noisey

it works as it should but is just a lot louder than it should be

Who ever I spoke to on the phone at OC said he's seen a couple of them like this now with the same problem, must be a bad batch off the production line i guess, its ever such a slight contact but it is there and is very very annoying hearing it. But other than that I cant fault the cooler at all, just been playin arma2 for the past couple of hours and my highest temperature is 39.. bare in mind though I have not overclocked my i5.... yet

So far been very happy with the machine, ARMA crashed out twice in my first 5 mins of it playing but ran flawlessly after that.

MrAnthony · 14 Dec 2012 at 20:34

Nice job, glad to see you finally got it all sorted and built

All the best pal!

olivier renault · 15 Dec 2012 at 12:30

Leigno said:
I'm returning one of the fans as the fan blades catch the housing ever so slightly which makes it very noisey it works as it should but is just a lot louder than it should be

Who ever I spoke to on the phone at OC said he's seen a couple of them like this now with the same problem, must be a bad batch off the production line i guess, its ever such a slight contact but it is there and is very very annoying hearing it. But other than that I cant fault the cooler at all, just been playin arma2 for the past couple of hours and my highest temperature is 39.. bare in mind though I have not overclocked my i5.... yet

So far been very happy with the machine, ARMA crashed out twice in my first 5 mins of it playing but ran flawlessly after that.

Very nice rig. There's always niggles when building a new computer form scratch, but glad you got it sorted.

Now the fun of running benchmarks : Unigine, ATTO, 3Dmark, prime95, intelburntest, memtest86+... with CPU-Z, HWMonitor, OCCT, MSI Afterburner monitoring progress. I do that every time to double check everything is ticking along.

but more importantly, games

If you want to give your rig a work out, metro is now free. Good atmosphere, if you like the depressed-post-apocalyptic-russian-lemming vibe (Fallout3, Stalker...).

http://www.facebook.com/MetroVideoGame?sk=app_395840630491782

And it's a pretty good game as well. I recommend doing that tweak though.

Look for '43110' in D:\games\Steam\userdata\...

and change fov from 45 to 60 in D:\games\Steam\userdata\1284795\43110\remote\user.cfg

1284795 is a random number.

Leigno · 31 Dec 2012 at 13:50

Thanks for the feed back and nice comments guys, it been up and running a few weeks now and its flawless, just need to scrape the barrel to pay for malware bytes as my free trial has expired :/

And also I removed the K2 fan and turned it over and gravity has made the noise stop.

Few upgrades for cooling in the pipeline after new year is done and dusted

nothing fancy just fill up the blank fan spaces in my case for now, and then I might consider overclocking

And since building mine a close friend is now after A similar sort of thing and asked me to build it for him so another log coming soon from me

Happy new year everyone.