Project log: First build for my self!

[Qitarah]

So, to start with this is nothing special in comparison to what a lot of you can accomplish! No water cooling, no bling and a old case, but I have waited quite a long time to build this (last PC was back in 2010, which I didn't even build!). I am upgrading from a i7 950, 6 gig of 1600 corsair ram, and a x58a-ud3r. A few parts are acting up now so its time to upgrade.

I have built PCs for my girlfriend, her family and for a few friends but not for myself. So this will be my first time building my very Own PC! I cant wait.


So to start with my components are:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-00-40G) £329.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Asus Maximus VII Hero Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £164.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
1 x NZXT H440 Mid Tower Case - Black £94.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £88.00
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £68.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/8-OC) £65.99
Total : £1,182.88 (includes shipping : ).




The SSD and tri-x 290 (Boooo! ruining color coordination!) I am reusing from my current build. I want to get some braided cables, some more corsair fans and a large SSD as well but for now I have ran out of money.

My case is (unfortunately) a Coolermaster HAF 922. It old, its dusty and its dirty I didn't want to originally replace it but meh spending this much what is another £100! As for future plans, as mentioned I want to fix the cosmetics a bit with braided cables and two corsair fan to replace the stock ones on the h100i!

Further down the road I will pick up another r9 290 and a 140 hz monitor.

*edit*

Sorry for the pretty bad photo quality, was building it at my parents house and had no decent camera to hand.

Here is a shot of all the parts:

 

[Qitarah]

will be plenty of pictures dont worry will update as I go a long, adding things and etc

 

[Qitarah]

Had enough of my CM HAF 922 so decided to shell out for a NZXT h440.

Should have all the components by mid week! Pictures and etc will follow.

 

[Qitarah]

That's gonna be a pretty nice rig you'll have there mate.
Have you considered going for the 'Asus Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II OC' rather than the Sapphire as it'd fit in with your motherboard/ram colour scheme better.

Unfortunately I bought the tri-x back in February. So will have a bit of a miss-match in color coordination but o well.

I was originally gonna hold out another year with my i7 950 but long story short. 1 ram stick going iffy and PSU getting old has caused quite some instability. So kinda was forced to upgrade now.

Got the motherboard, Ram and CPU today. Case has been ordered and will be here tomorrow (The case look amazing). PSU and h100i will be here on Thursday.

One small issue already, the CPU was in a crap state so that's gonna have to go back but Overclockers have a great turn around time on RMAs so should effect things too much.

O and as a small note the vii hero is quite heavy! Never had such a heavy motherboard!

 

[Qitarah]

Well a small update. My system is up and running, took the day off and assembled it all.

I will update with pictures tomorrow.


Had one small issue...H100i mounting went pair shape thanks to my cat trying to take a nose dive out the window just as i had the first thumb screw half way down, ended up with a reeeeeeeal bad application of paste so have ordered some new mx4 and cleaner (I had no back up paste! (Overclockers u forgot to send me my free sample!! QQ), bit of a pain in the ass, but at least its all up and running and working. As I said I'll update with pictures tomorrow!

I had no back up paste! (Overclockers u forgot to send me my free sample!! QQ).

p.s. I could respray yer, guess it would be easy enough

 

[Qitarah]

Here is some unwrapping!

Nzxt h440

Intel I7 4790k. After returning my original L3 week 31 which was in a bad state, I ended up with a quite recent L4.

Asus Maximums Hero VII and Kingstong - Overclockers Red&Black 2400 C11 8GB. I think this ram looks really great! Good job Overclockers

Motherboard closer up

 

[Qitarah]

Some more pictures!

PSU goes in! One small issue with this case is the access to the PSU is a bit limited.

Motherboard And CPU goes in.

CPU installation.

Soooo the h100i finally fitted. Although I'm having to repaste it when my MX-4 arrives.

******* cat that caused the issue with the h100i installation!

Nearly done now, all cables plugged in and SSD installed. Cable management is quite easy due to the "hidden" chamber. The only issue is getting the back closed up. Hardly any room due to the sound proof padding.

Graphics card goes in, and first boot. Such a shame its a tri-x and not an asus card, o well (was purchased earlier in the year).

And finally (excuse the finger prints, hadn't cleaned it at this point)

So yer that's me done really, except having to reapply thermal paste. I'll upload some better quality pictures of it all fired up (without fingerprints all over the case). The case looks great, easy to work with and loving it how it all turned out. Well worth the money.

Plans for the immediate future are:

Replace h100i stock fans for something a bit better.
Braided cables.
Another larger SSD.
144hz monitor.



Thanks for reading

 

[Qitarah]

Yer I've set up a custom curve similar to yours. My h100i fan's have an annoying wurring noise at certain rpms though. Especially around 800 rpm. Think I'll replace them since its quite an annoying sound.

As for painting the tri - it would be cool to do but yer guess it will void warranty. I'll look into it! And yer I know the tri-x is the best 290 (thats whybi got it back in feb) but still colour coordination is non existent! Although I still think overall it looks cracking.

Thanks for the complement although admitibly I have built 2 other full systems before. Just not for myself haha.

Either way I still plan on adding

Two replacement fans for the h100i
Two replacement fans for front intake (replaced one already)
Braided cables
144 hz monitor (ordering next week).

Second 290. Problem is the heat though. Not sure how I'll manage that.

Back last week I had issues with airflow but changing one of the default front fans to a higher airflow one helped a lot but not sure how I'll manage two 290 without full water cooling.

 

[Qitarah]

At 30c Ambient my tri-x goes up to 60-65c. 70c after hours and hours of use.

That's with its default fan profile. Which as you probably as you know is really relaxed.

 

[Qitarah]

thank you!