Project Node 804 - Ongoing Build

RogerMesenseless

RogerMesenseless

RogerMesenseless

Associate
Joined
2 Jul 2012
Posts
1,115
Location
Berkshire, UK
Hi,

I've not posted my build on here before so I just thought I'd show you how it is right now. This is an ongoing build and I'll update this thread as and when I do any upgrades or make any little changes! It's been in this form for about a month and I'm pretty happy with it right now, although I'm strongly considering a GPU upgrade or a 21:9 monitor.

Current Spec;

Intel i7 3770k @4.4Ghz (Cooled w/ Enermax 120x)
8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro (1600MHz)
MSI GTX 770 Lightning
Asus Maximus V Gene
Seasonic G550
Samsung 840 128GB Evo
Seagate 1Tb Drive
A slightly annoying assortment of Enermax and Fractal fans


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Peripherals;

Silly Membrane Keyboard - This definitely needs an upgrade
Logitech G500
Dell U2312HM
Philips Fidelio X1's
Fiio E10K Digital Analogue Converter

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G500 is getting a bit tired.

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Audio Upgrade:

A few months ago I decided I needed a bit more hight quality audio in my life so (after many, many hours of research and reading the X1 thread on here) I picked up some Philips X1's. I ran them with the onboard audio for a while before picking up a Fiio E10K DAC - this makes such a difference. The DAC made it sound like someone was holding a thick blanket over some hypothetical speakers beforehand (only way I can think of to explain the difference).

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Thanks guys.
 
Last edited:
So I finally caved and bought a GTX 980 ACX from the Members Market.

I've heard complaints of coil whine on the ACX cards but this one is fine. It's a bit louder than the 770 Lightning at load but much quieter at idle which is lovely. The 770 might be dissected in an attempt to fit a CPU tower heat sink onto it since I already voided the warranty (durr). The 980 is honestly a bit much at 1080 but I'd like to know I'm safe for any monitor upgrades. 21:9 is looking pretty tempting right about now...

So here we go. 980 time.

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Picked up an EVGA backplate to give some support to the card and (supposedly drop temps). But mainly because it looks cool :p

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I also got an NF-F12 and some MX-4 paste to drop CPU temps a little. Full load under Prime 95 small FFT (at stock speed for now) barely hits 60 degrees. Gaming load will be a bit less. I can honestly barely hear the NF-F12 at idle which is a very welcome improvement. (Maybe its drowned out by the ACX :D)

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Everything back in nice and tight. (I later took off the ugly brown pads as the Enermax cooler has some padding).

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All back where it should be and working perfectly.

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Thanks for reading!
 
Bluecube said:
I've got a Node 804 lying around empty and unused as yet. How did you find building the PC? It looks quite cramped to work in.
Click to expand...

Overall, its quite a spacious case considering its size really. There's plenty of fan mounting points in the front and top. The only thing that's cramped is the 8-Pin CPU connector as there's fan cables running through that area too. Cable management is a bit of a pain as there's hardly any places to tie down cables behind the motherboard tray and the HDD cages sit quite close to the back of the motherboard tray too. But if you've got one lying around then I'd say give it a go tbh! Overall it's a very nice little case :)
 
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