After my Project Shrinkray, which didn't really go to plan (ended up killing my 5850 through heat), I decided to upscale back to a mid-tower. So, with that in mind, I decided that I wanted to watercool everything (eventually), so I needed a case that was still a mid-tower, but could support a triple rad, and maybe a single later on.
Project Shrinkray
After the death of my 5850, I returned it, and got a GTX470 instead, simply because they are meant to scale very well when overclocking, and of course, under water, the heat and noise 'issues' would disappear.
So, components list:
CPU: AMD 955BE carried over from previous build
MB: First change, I needed ATX, but would also like the possibility of SLI, or maybe a RevoDrive in the future, so therefore it had to be an nForce motherboard. So in steps my brother's 'old' Asus M4N82 Deluxe. I decided the loss of DDR3 wasn't that much of a bother, after reading an article on Tom's comparing various speeds of DDR2 vs DDR3, so long as I got 1066 capable DDR2 (or maybe even 1200)
RAM: The only DDR2 I had was some Dell OEM stuff (made by Samsung), so that's in there for now (4x1GB), though that will change of course.
GPU: Point Of View GeForce GTX470 - nice 3 year warranty, and fairly good price, and they're only in Holland, so nice and close for later RMA if necessary.
Sound Card: Asus Xonar D1 - you've got to have decent sound, even though Asus' onboard on this MB isn't too bad. (carried over from last build)
PSU: Chieftec 750W (carried over from last build)
Now then, a case. I was umming and ahhing, but couldn't find a case that I really wanted that wasn't either hideously expensive or massive (or both). I definitely didn't want anything from Antec or Coolermaster (though the Stacker and P183 did catch my attention), as I think most of their designs are a little, hmm, distasteful.
So, MM to the rescue. I found a nice Lian Li PC-A17 for less than £80, and the nine front bays would be just right for a whopping great rad in the front.
Then, the watercooling components.
I decided on a triple rad for starters, that would do the CPU and GPU, then I could add a second loop for the motherboard later with a 120x1. Again, I saw a beaten up Thermochill 120.3 in the MM for peanuts, and grabbed it. It could do with a lick of paint, but instead I sanded it down, and decided it looked quite good in black and silver, so left it.
After reading Bjorn3D's round up of GTX470 waterblocks (quite good timing really), I went for the EK block, as it seemed a good compromise between flow rate and cooling.
As for the pump, again, MM helped me out with an 18W Liang DDC with XSPC top (though it's bloody loud...)
CPU block: I wasn't overly fussed about forking out a small fortune on a Heatkiller, so I went with an Alphacool Nexxos HighFlow, matching the GPU block with the clear acrylic theme.
That'll do for now. Later I'll discuss the 'less set-in stone choices' before a final post with pics.
Cheers
Simon
Project Shrinkray
After the death of my 5850, I returned it, and got a GTX470 instead, simply because they are meant to scale very well when overclocking, and of course, under water, the heat and noise 'issues' would disappear.
So, components list:
CPU: AMD 955BE carried over from previous build
MB: First change, I needed ATX, but would also like the possibility of SLI, or maybe a RevoDrive in the future, so therefore it had to be an nForce motherboard. So in steps my brother's 'old' Asus M4N82 Deluxe. I decided the loss of DDR3 wasn't that much of a bother, after reading an article on Tom's comparing various speeds of DDR2 vs DDR3, so long as I got 1066 capable DDR2 (or maybe even 1200)
RAM: The only DDR2 I had was some Dell OEM stuff (made by Samsung), so that's in there for now (4x1GB), though that will change of course.
GPU: Point Of View GeForce GTX470 - nice 3 year warranty, and fairly good price, and they're only in Holland, so nice and close for later RMA if necessary.
Sound Card: Asus Xonar D1 - you've got to have decent sound, even though Asus' onboard on this MB isn't too bad. (carried over from last build)
PSU: Chieftec 750W (carried over from last build)
Now then, a case. I was umming and ahhing, but couldn't find a case that I really wanted that wasn't either hideously expensive or massive (or both). I definitely didn't want anything from Antec or Coolermaster (though the Stacker and P183 did catch my attention), as I think most of their designs are a little, hmm, distasteful.
So, MM to the rescue. I found a nice Lian Li PC-A17 for less than £80, and the nine front bays would be just right for a whopping great rad in the front.
Then, the watercooling components.
I decided on a triple rad for starters, that would do the CPU and GPU, then I could add a second loop for the motherboard later with a 120x1. Again, I saw a beaten up Thermochill 120.3 in the MM for peanuts, and grabbed it. It could do with a lick of paint, but instead I sanded it down, and decided it looked quite good in black and silver, so left it.
After reading Bjorn3D's round up of GTX470 waterblocks (quite good timing really), I went for the EK block, as it seemed a good compromise between flow rate and cooling.
As for the pump, again, MM helped me out with an 18W Liang DDC with XSPC top (though it's bloody loud...)
CPU block: I wasn't overly fussed about forking out a small fortune on a Heatkiller, so I went with an Alphacool Nexxos HighFlow, matching the GPU block with the clear acrylic theme.
That'll do for now. Later I'll discuss the 'less set-in stone choices' before a final post with pics.
Cheers
Simon
) So I've got an external drive enclosure (E-Sata) and a Samsung Blu-ray drive. I may add a normal slot-loading slimline drive as an 'every day drive' at some point though.
