Associate
- Joined
- 20 May 2013
- Posts
- 9
- Location
- Leeds, Unite Kingdom
Hey guys!
So after speccing out my PC a few weeks back, finally all the parts arrived yesterday. A nice £2000 splurging spree with all the trimmings to keep my gaming habits happy!
So without further ado - just a little update;
Got home from work and literally sat and just stared at the boxes for a good 30 minutes as even though I'd build PC's before - it was all a little overwhelming
Dived straight into the case and got that all opened up and prepped - setup the motherboard for CPU insertion...and then the task got a little bit...irritating ¬_¬ and took more time than I'd actually expected.
So - the the H100i! Fantastic bit of kit. My radiator was a *tiny* bit busted up somehow - presumably from the production line and not from the transit of the item - busted up as in, some of the radiator fins were slightly bent out of shape. I can't see this causing much issue in the slightest and if I wanted to I could bend them reasonably straight, but I just left them for the moment.
So anyway. Prepped the CPU. cleaned it with the Arctic cleaning agent. Tinted. Removed the thermal paste from the cooler. Cleaned. Tinted. Prepped all the metal harness for the placement of the cooler...then the issues came. Got the thermal paste in place, made the connection between the CPU and cooling block....started tightening the nuts..."hmm that's funny...this one wont go on" I turned and turned...nothing. Checked the nut, nope all fine. Tried again with a little force - nothing. After closer inspection the issue was the pillar itself! it seems there is no "entrance" in the screw tract - so things couldn't actually go on it.
Had to take the cooler off in order to solve the issue ¬_¬. which inevitably took me back 2-3 steps as by the time we'd attempted to fix the problem , I felt the thermal paste had been out in the open too long. So had to go back through all the cleaning and application steps once more. Irritation. In the end the issue couldn't be solved conventionally - so it ended with us using a small nut that tightened - hopefully to the same effect, I don't see why it wouldn't be!
So after that fiasco - I started the fitting of the board and then comes more of an irritation. The board itself doesn't come with screws (last PC I made it did!) and the case itself came with several pack of screws but none of them distinctly labelled for the motherboard. Thankfully the pillars were all in the right place anyway, but in none of the manuals did it provide a code number for what screws should be used...so a lot of trial and error on that part.
No screws for the SSD's either and none seemed to fit correctly from the case selection, so I've had to leave them clamped in to the NZXT's side panel clamps which seem ridged enough.
After fitting everything in place that I could in one sitting and after all the delays, I called it a night. Just need to plug everything up, tidy the cables and forward march with installation later!
Mentally convinced it's broken due to the processor issues earlier...so I won't be happy until I have temperature checks and everything installed...
The Monster;
So after speccing out my PC a few weeks back, finally all the parts arrived yesterday. A nice £2000 splurging spree with all the trimmings to keep my gaming habits happy!
So without further ado - just a little update;
Got home from work and literally sat and just stared at the boxes for a good 30 minutes as even though I'd build PC's before - it was all a little overwhelming
Dived straight into the case and got that all opened up and prepped - setup the motherboard for CPU insertion...and then the task got a little bit...irritating ¬_¬ and took more time than I'd actually expected.
So - the the H100i! Fantastic bit of kit. My radiator was a *tiny* bit busted up somehow - presumably from the production line and not from the transit of the item - busted up as in, some of the radiator fins were slightly bent out of shape. I can't see this causing much issue in the slightest and if I wanted to I could bend them reasonably straight, but I just left them for the moment.
So anyway. Prepped the CPU. cleaned it with the Arctic cleaning agent. Tinted. Removed the thermal paste from the cooler. Cleaned. Tinted. Prepped all the metal harness for the placement of the cooler...then the issues came. Got the thermal paste in place, made the connection between the CPU and cooling block....started tightening the nuts..."hmm that's funny...this one wont go on" I turned and turned...nothing. Checked the nut, nope all fine. Tried again with a little force - nothing. After closer inspection the issue was the pillar itself! it seems there is no "entrance" in the screw tract - so things couldn't actually go on it.
Had to take the cooler off in order to solve the issue ¬_¬. which inevitably took me back 2-3 steps as by the time we'd attempted to fix the problem , I felt the thermal paste had been out in the open too long. So had to go back through all the cleaning and application steps once more. Irritation. In the end the issue couldn't be solved conventionally - so it ended with us using a small nut that tightened - hopefully to the same effect, I don't see why it wouldn't be!
So after that fiasco - I started the fitting of the board and then comes more of an irritation. The board itself doesn't come with screws (last PC I made it did!) and the case itself came with several pack of screws but none of them distinctly labelled for the motherboard. Thankfully the pillars were all in the right place anyway, but in none of the manuals did it provide a code number for what screws should be used...so a lot of trial and error on that part.
No screws for the SSD's either and none seemed to fit correctly from the case selection, so I've had to leave them clamped in to the NZXT's side panel clamps which seem ridged enough.
After fitting everything in place that I could in one sitting and after all the delays, I called it a night. Just need to plug everything up, tidy the cables and forward march with installation later!
Mentally convinced it's broken due to the processor issues earlier...so I won't be happy until I have temperature checks and everything installed...
The Monster;
Last edited:
and purple is rather soothing! So maybe a modification to be had in the future...
. After much toiling and fiddling, I got everything installed the only problem I was given was by the SATA power cables. You only get 3 you see - and again due to the length of them and the case - it was a little tight. Because the SSDs are designed for standard cases, and not the back panels of the phantom - the holsters themselves only support singular vertical power cables....the cables provided have multiple power sockets...and the connection points also face the wrong way - as in the cables press against the side panel, pushing the SSD out of it holster. So the fix here was to turn the SSD's around. Because there are 3-4 SATA power points on a single string - it also needed some twiddling - I might just put them where they should be to save faffing around ¬_¬. 
