OcUK Builds on Tour! - rjkoneill's Badass Holiday Project

rjk · 2 Oct 2012 at 13:56

Hi Guys

Recently went to visit my Dad in Houston TX.

He has been eyeing up a new system for flight sims for some time now and with the price/performance of today's mid-high end hardware, there is no better time to do this.

We decided to go for air cooling because despite the immense Texas heat, the system was not going to be running too hot. Overclocking was on the cards of course but a conservative overclock with a focus on silence was the end goal.

The system was based on an i7 3770k CPU with a solid high end/mid range configuration.

With triple screen gaming on the agenda, some graphics horsepower was required so a pair of GTX 670s were specified.

here is an OcUK basket with the full specification listed for reference:

YOUR BASKET
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2670-KR) £319.99 (£639.98)
1 x Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog Joystick £279.98
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £263.99
3 x Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £239.99 (£719.97)
1 x Silverstone Fortress FT02 USB3.0 Case - Black (SST-FT02B USB 3.0) £189.98
1 x Asus P8Z77-V PRO Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x Corsair Professional Series AX850 High Performance 850W Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (CMPSU-850AXUK) £154.99
1 x Razer Tiamat Elite 7.1 Surround Sound Analog Gaming Headset £151.58
2 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC256B/WW) £149.99 (£299.98)
1 x Creative Gigaworks T40 Series II 2.0 Speaker System (51MF1615AA003) £85.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £83.99
1 x CM Storm QuickFire Pro RED Switch Mechanical Keyboard (SGK-4010-GKCR1-UK) £79.99
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket LGA 2011/1155/1156/1366/775/AMD AM2/2+/AM3) £66.98
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ / ST1000DM005) £59.99
1 x Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-Express Sound Card £54.98
1 x Razer DeathAdder Respawn 3500 DPI Xtreme Precision Gaming Mouse - Retail £49.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £26.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £20.99
1 x Mionix SARGAS 360 Gaming Mouse Pad £10.99
1 x Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound (8g) £8.99
Total : £3,456.22 (includes shipping : £38.25).

I will let the pics do the rest of the talking

Dell U2412M Monitors... Three of those!!!

Newegg in the USA are winning with their packaging!

No Flight sim system would be complete without the most epic flight control system on the market :cool:

Motherboard, CPU cooler and memory
Asus P8Z77-VPro, Phanteks PH-TC14PE and 8GB of Corsair XMS3

A Pair of Samsung 256GB SSD 830. One for the OS and the other for Games and texture packs.

GTX 670 SLI. Multi Monitor goodness awaits!

Some outdoor beauty shots, given that the weather was nice

All set up after a soul destroying trip to IKEA to find a desk big enough for three 1900x1200 monitors

My Dad getting to grips with the Hotas Warthog

SeraphX · 2 Oct 2012 at 14:43

Epic build, looks awesome, and your photography skills are definitely coming along nicely

Uther · 2 Oct 2012 at 15:41

That looks like a great build!

rjk · 2 Oct 2012 at 16:45

SeraphX said:
Epic build, looks awesome, and your photography skills are definitely coming along nicely

a decent camera and my girlfriend being a professional photographer are helping

pgi947 · 2 Oct 2012 at 17:47

Looks brilliant!!

Imagine going on holiday to do your day job

RJC · 2 Oct 2012 at 17:50

Nice build, hope he enjoys it

rjk · 2 Oct 2012 at 23:48

pgi947 said:
Looks brilliant!!

Imagine going on holiday to do your day job

the proviso was that i got a go in his Porsche :cool:

TwsT · 3 Oct 2012 at 00:23

I swear my posts keep getting deleted xD stupid phone.

Excellent job Rich. I love that case!

V F · 3 Oct 2012 at 00:40

Most impressive! Especially the weather. I want it.

Love the wooden area around the pool.

Twirlywoos · 3 Oct 2012 at 01:10

Great build, are those Razer headsets any good?

JasonM · 3 Oct 2012 at 01:39

Rjkoneill, very nice build. Just curious why you used a retail i7 3770k over OEM? I have an OEM 3370 and it's a poor over clocker, it left me wondering if retails version may have been better.

WKN · 3 Oct 2012 at 01:41

Thats looks nice, I love the Phanteks Blue Heatsinks.

WKN · 3 Oct 2012 at 01:42

JasonM said:
Rjkoneill, very nice build. Just curious why you used a retail i7 3770k over OEM? I have an OEM 3370 and it's a poor over clocker, it left me wondering if retails version may have been better.

OEM = 1yr Warranty

Retail = 3yr Warranty

seabiscuit · 3 Oct 2012 at 08:58

Nice system RJKOneil, bet your dad's loving it. Interesting layout of the case though, but it looks great.

pgi947 · 3 Oct 2012 at 10:08

rjkoneill said:
the proviso was that i got a go in his Porsche

Not only am I now jealous of your job but now the fact you get free holidays to Texas to ride around in a porsche too.

Don't fancy picking me up a danger den case the next time you're over in the states?

rjk · 3 Oct 2012 at 10:17

majnu said:
Great build, are those Razer headsets any good?

take a look at my review here :cool:

JasonM said:
Rjkoneill, very nice build. Just curious why you used a retail i7 3770k over OEM? I have an OEM 3370 and it's a poor over clocker, it left me wondering if retails version may have been better.

i purchased the parts from Newegg in the states. they dont sell OEM over there.

pgi947 said:
Not only am I now jealous of your job but now the fact you get free holidays to Texas to ride around in a porsche too.

Don't fancy picking me up a danger den case the next time you're over in the states?

it wasnt entirely free, and there isn't much to do in Texas apart from eat and spend money.

i dont think i would get away with a danger den case in my hand luggage though

V F · 3 Oct 2012 at 18:09

rjkoneill said:
and there isn't much to do in Texas apart from eat and spend money.

Some people that live there always tell me their case builds up with red dust due to the sand... looks pretty immaculate there as if it was Florida? It must be great waking up everyday there to a wonderful blue gradient sky and shorts and t-shirt everyday.

Idleman · 4 Oct 2012 at 02:40

I like the way the mobo is positioned, with air flowing up between the cards. What sort of temps were you getting?

llamadal · 4 Oct 2012 at 10:24

Very nice build, looks awesome

rjk · 4 Oct 2012 at 11:24

V F said:
Some people that live there always tell me their case builds up with red dust due to the sand... looks pretty immaculate there as if it was Florida? It must be great waking up everyday there to a wonderful blue gradient sky and shorts and t-shirt everyday.

no dust, the rear of my dads house backs onto a golf course.

its dry, thats for sure but no sand. Houston isnt too bad but other parts of texas can be like that.

shorts on a daily basis is a good thing though. :cool: