Steveocee's re-casing project

[Steveocee]

Hi all,
Hope you go steady on me, this is my first build log of anything to do with computers. More used to doing car build projects than PC's.

So the project is to re-case and lightly modify my current build which I threw together having 0 knowledge of this kind of thing, just bought the bits and went forwards.

Specs as they are and noted to be;
Phenom II X4 840 (swapping to a 960T on recase)
Antec Kuhler 620 (fitting with 960T)
Asus M4A87TD-USB3
16Gb XMS3 DDR3@ 1333
Antec True Power 650w power supply
Crucial M4 128GB as boot drive
WD Velociraptor 80gb as "game" drive
2 * Spinpoint 1TB as my media drives (not raided as I dont understand it, just 2 of them for more space)
Casecom cheap case (Bitfenix Merc Alpha case with all 8 fan slots full on swap)
Asus HD 6770 Graphics card (really want to upgrade but not sure what to yet)
Asus Wireless N card
Asus Xonar DG sound card
Corsair Sp2200 gameing speakers
Samsung BX2235 1080p monitor

So a bit of a mis match of parts really but hopefully they will pull together and do me good,I will be doing a bit of web browsing, mostly music work, a bit of photoshop work and some light gaming (BF3, Diablo 2 and 3)

Let my little experience begin............

 

[Steveocee]

First session, taking case apart for some tinkering,. Really impressed with the build quality of the case.

(Check out the iRobot Roomba in the background, one of the coolest toys ever!)

 

[Steveocee]

I want the build to be fairly quiet, 8 fans and quiet I can't see being too quiet so pulling in some of my car audio products and a bit of a scout on the internet I bought a fan controller (8 channel of course)

Before

After

I realise some of you will look on in shock and horror at dynamat and I know it holds heat in, but it will silent off the case really well and with 8 fans, I think I will be safe.

 

[Steveocee]

Fan controller fitted and the crucial M4 is in now, 8 channels, 2 zones of 4 so I can have normal use set and heavy use zone for extra cooling power

I like this pic.....

For ventilation I've also got my hands on some nice black nickel coated Kensington aero slots to help with ventilation and cooling for the GFX card.

 

[Steveocee]

I love simple cases like these, they just beg to be modded .

As for GPU upgrade post your budget and you'll get some advice .

Oh and I wouldn't have thought the sound proofing would make a big difference when there's a huge grill in the side of the case, unless you cover that aswell.

Anyway is looking good .

I'm hoping for something to run BF3 a little more comfortably, I'm used to PS3 on 37" TV so graphics on BF3 with settings on high on my 22" seems to be perfect to me, but I'd really like to push on up towards the ultra settings, my rough idea is around £200 and a card with 2gb of vram. Maybe a 560Ti? but I'm heavily swaying towards an AMD card as they seem to be better bang for bucks.

The sound deadening helped immensely on my damn awful casecom case, it used to be very loud but after deadening its silent now with 3 fans running full whack all the time. With the fan controller i can knock those side fans down a little so hopefully noise wont be too loud.

 

[Steveocee]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-042-HS
That is tempting at that, yes my monitor is 1080p max res
I'll shortlist that bad boy as well then, fingers crossed I sell my stuff on ebay to pay for it then.

 

[Steveocee]

Does the sound proofing really make that much difference? Noticed any changes in motherboard temps with it?

System isn't built yet and I won't have a none sound proofed case to compare it to.
I know my old case was awful until I matted it and now it's silent, and solid.
Cost me hardly anything so it's worth it in my eyes, I will have pretty good airflow so it shouldn't affect temps to much (he hopes)

 

[Steveocee]

Been busy swapping the cases tonight, so far so good, all went smoothly, got some progress pics taken and I've just booted it, perfect first time, even activated core 5 & 6 for me even though I switched core unlocked off!

I'm very happy with it so far, 6 core processor for £93 running happily at the moment at 3.0ghz but the kuhler is begging me to clock that baby up lol

 

[Steveocee]

Pictures
Not as many as i'd have liked to take but its something I suppose

Top fans, shame 1 had to come out though as the rad got in the way, trying to find a slim one to go in though.

Side fans

From the front

Drives mounted

PSU in

Mobo going in

Cooler in

Aeroslots to hopefully help with GFX cooling

My only issue is the cable management, It's been a nightmare and I don't know how I can tidy it up Far too many cables for my liking.

Hopefully a new desk next month...