My new rig

Terminator1612 · 21 Mar 2011 at 13:46

Hey guys,

Been a long time reader of these forums, and on so many occasions have read some really great bits of advice here, so I decided I'd say hi and post the specs of my new build. Ok, here goes....

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.40GHz

Cooler: Corsair Hydro H50-1 High-Performance CPU Watercooler

Motherboard: Asus Crosshair IV Formula AMD 890FX

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Graphics: MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 Twin FrozR II 2048MB

Sound: Asus Xonar Essence STX

Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D Full Tower Case

PSU: Corsair Professional Series Gold AX850 High Performance 850W

Hard Drives: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache (For O/S, programs and games)
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache (For documents, music and videos)

Optical drives: LG GH24NS50 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter
LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW

O/S: Windows 7 Ultimate (64-Bit)

Monitor: LG E2350V 23" Widescreen LED

Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Expert

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Respawn

I deliberately used all black cabling inside the case to keep with the style of the Corsair Obsidian. I then added 2 white cold cathodes to light up the components. All in all I think it creates a stylish looking system, and I'm well impressed with it. Delivers bags of performance, looks excellent, stays cool, and is relatively quiet too.

Later people,
Rob

Terminator1612 · 21 Mar 2011 at 14:02

Okay got a few pictures here guys. Apologies for the pic quality, but you can get a decent idea what the kit looks like from them.

Later,
Rob

Terminator1612 · 21 Mar 2011 at 15:03

pv123 said:
Looks good, but I would have waited for BD or gone for SB

Perhaps, but I'm rather impatient and couldn't resist the urge, haha. Besides, it easily handles anything I throw at it right now, and when the time comes to upgrade, the newer technologies will have reduced in price.

Terminator1612 · 21 Mar 2011 at 17:06

titan13131 said:
pics dont work for me =[ congrats on your new rig

Photos should now be fixed - fingers crossed!!!

Terminator1612 · 21 Mar 2011 at 17:28

Thanks guys. The Corsair Obsidian is a really amazing case. The photos don't do it justice - it really is huge! Plenty of room to work in, great cable management and even with a minimum number of fans it stays nice and cool. At some point i might replace the fans with something a bit quieter, although the stock ones aren't exactly what I'd call loud.

I have resisted any overclocking (for now!!!), as it performs really well as it is. Good to know I have the option of a bulldozer chip in the future though.

Terminator1612 · 21 Mar 2011 at 17:50

Hmmmm, now everyone has got me very curious to see what I can get out of this Phenom. Lol, might have to play around and see how far I can take it.

Terminator1612 · 21 Mar 2011 at 18:09

SouthEastBlue said:
Nice clean build, that case is very spacious.

Yeah, it is a very spacious case, with plenty of places to hide all those unsightly cables away. It's easily the best case I have personally owned, and I've had my fair share. Only problem I had during the build was getting the 8-Pin 12V ATX connector to reach - I had to use an extra extension cable (even though the 8-Pin cable on the PSU is already quite long). Other than that it was plain sailing really.

Terminator1612 · 21 Mar 2011 at 19:37

Predicament said:
love the case
however wouldn't have gone with an H50 or a soundcard

Rather use onboard sound and a Fenrir or Venom and saved £175

I've never been a big fan of using onboard sound personally, even though the sound via the Crosshair IV should be pretty reasonable. The Xonar Essence STX however is an amazing soundcard, and it appealed to me for 2 reasons in particular:

1) It has RCA outputs that I connect directly to my stereo Hi-Fi amplifier.

2) It has a fantastic sounding headphone amplifier, which sounds so great on both my Grado SR225i and Sennheiser HD595 headphones.

The sound via this card actually rivals, if not beats, my standalone Arcam rDac (on my particular setup anyway). The Xonar isn't for everyone though as it is mainly for 2 channel stereo setups. The virtual multi-channel modes the card offers, are in my opinion, merely gimmicks. They distort the sound too much for my liking. So basically for stereo users I fully recommend it, but for 5.1 or 7.1 systems there will be better options.

Terminator1612 · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:59

Managed to dig up a few more pictures I took during my build:

And here's a few of the components before I added them:

Terminator1612 · 10 Apr 2011 at 17:32

Cookeh said:
You know the graphics power cables? I wouldn't put them through the grommets you have, I would put them through the same gromets as the 24pin, or the grommet below.

Would look much neater

Yeah I totally agree with you on that one. Just need to grab a couple of extension cables for the PCI-E leads, as they aren't long enough to reach otherwise. They are a bit unsightly where they are now.

Terminator1612 · 10 Apr 2011 at 18:18

RJC said:
Nice setup, have no complaints with my 800d

Are the cables short on the PSU to put them behind the panel and through the gromit on the motherboard base, I use the Pc Power & Cooling PSU and the leads are long enough.

Yeah unfortunately the PCI-E leads on the Corsair Gold Professional PSU are just a little too short for routing round the back of the Obsidian case. Had to buy an extension cable for the EATX 12v lead too. It's a shame really considering all the other cables are quite long. Ah well, it's not a great problem - just need to grab a few extension cables so I can route them behind properly.

Terminator1612 · 11 Apr 2011 at 09:32

dunnyuk said:
looks pretty kick ass.
the twin frozr2 looks like something out of a power station with all them pipes lol.

Lol, you should see it up close. It's a mean looking card, and it weighs a bit too. Couldn't believe the size of it when I first unpacked it. But it does its job as far as cooling goes, and stays very quiet even when gaming.

Terminator1612 · 11 Apr 2011 at 11:00

Stoner81 said:
Awesome build m8 just wish I could make mine look the same (or similar) with my Antec 1200 case no matter what I do I end up with cables everywhere

Stoner81.

Thanks mate. To be honest it's more down to the Corsair case being so well designed for cable management, than it is to any actual skill on my part. My previous builds in other cases certainly never looked so neat, lol. Those rubber grommets on the Corsair are a blessing when it comes to routing cables, plus there is a decent sized void behind the motherboard section to tuck all those unsightly excess cables away.