Hi guys...
(edit: instant fail with the title. "with a pics" woooooops)
I've been asking a few questions over the past few weeks about components etc and I finally ordered the following spec on weds last week.
- 2 x MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game**
- Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
- Corsair Professional Series AX1200 High Performance 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-1200AXUK)
- Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
- Asrock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
- Silverstone Fortress 2 FT02B-W Windowed Gaming Case - Black (USB 3.0 version)
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-04649)
- Antec Kúhler H2O 920 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM2+/AM3+)
- Mushkin Blackline 8gb 1.35v
- NZXT front panel braided cables
In addition to the above I reused my existing LG BR drive, Samsung F1 and Asus Xonar DX soundcard.
After building the rig I didn't / don't like the way the optical drive looks in the case, so I plan on buying an external BRRW (USB 3.0) to stick on my desk to keep the inside looking pretty and to stop me having to reach down to the tower to put a disk in lol.
It all arrived on Friday and I spent a few hours building it up...
I took a few pics along the way, excuse the quality but my phone camera isn't brilliant...
Boxed Parts:
Mobo:
Graphics Cards:
CPU, RAM & SSD:
PSU & Cooler:
Empty Case:
Mobo, PSU and CPU cooler Installed:
The Graphics cards:
1 Graphics Card:
Full Build:
and
My thoughts...
Case:
-There isn't a whole lot of room behind the mobo tray for cables etc, I ended up giving in and laying the tower face down (so that mavity was on my side), arranging the cables by hand and stuffing the side panel on lol. It still looks nice and tidy from the side that matters
- The optical drive wont fit in the top drive bay as it is pretty mush flat against the pci bbracket part meaning no sata or power cables can be attached.
-Also I'm not a massive fan of the unbraided cables on the bottom fans, but I got over that pretty quickly.
CPU Cooler: The fans were on 100% whilst installing Windows and those fans are sooooo loooud on full speed. I could only adjust the fans through the ChillControl software.
Considering this was my first build I would say that it went quite well...
I haven't overclocked or anything yet, not had the time but it is certainly on the cards.
I also think my left usb port on the case is dodgy... When I plug in my external HDD into that port the light comes on but it doesn't appear in My Computer, I identified this problem a couple of mins ago so I will check the internal connections etc to make sure it isn't my error lol.
So that is my first build... Your thoughts?
Thanks for reading...
Adam
(edit: instant fail with the title. "with a pics" woooooops)
I've been asking a few questions over the past few weeks about components etc and I finally ordered the following spec on weds last week.
- 2 x MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **Supplied with FREE Batman: Arkham City PC game**
- Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
- Corsair Professional Series AX1200 High Performance 1200W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-1200AXUK)
- Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
- Asrock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
- Silverstone Fortress 2 FT02B-W Windowed Gaming Case - Black (USB 3.0 version)
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-04649)
- Antec Kúhler H2O 920 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM2+/AM2+/AM3+)
- Mushkin Blackline 8gb 1.35v
- NZXT front panel braided cables
In addition to the above I reused my existing LG BR drive, Samsung F1 and Asus Xonar DX soundcard.
After building the rig I didn't / don't like the way the optical drive looks in the case, so I plan on buying an external BRRW (USB 3.0) to stick on my desk to keep the inside looking pretty and to stop me having to reach down to the tower to put a disk in lol.
It all arrived on Friday and I spent a few hours building it up...
I took a few pics along the way, excuse the quality but my phone camera isn't brilliant...
Boxed Parts:
Mobo:
Graphics Cards:
CPU, RAM & SSD:
PSU & Cooler:
Empty Case:
Mobo, PSU and CPU cooler Installed:
The Graphics cards:
1 Graphics Card:
Full Build:
and
My thoughts...
Case:
-There isn't a whole lot of room behind the mobo tray for cables etc, I ended up giving in and laying the tower face down (so that mavity was on my side), arranging the cables by hand and stuffing the side panel on lol. It still looks nice and tidy from the side that matters
- The optical drive wont fit in the top drive bay as it is pretty mush flat against the pci bbracket part meaning no sata or power cables can be attached.
-Also I'm not a massive fan of the unbraided cables on the bottom fans, but I got over that pretty quickly.
CPU Cooler: The fans were on 100% whilst installing Windows and those fans are sooooo loooud on full speed. I could only adjust the fans through the ChillControl software.
Considering this was my first build I would say that it went quite well...
I haven't overclocked or anything yet, not had the time but it is certainly on the cards.
I also think my left usb port on the case is dodgy... When I plug in my external HDD into that port the light comes on but it doesn't appear in My Computer, I identified this problem a couple of mins ago so I will check the internal connections etc to make sure it isn't my error lol.
So that is my first build... Your thoughts?
Thanks for reading...
Adam
