My First Rig - 350D, VI Gene, 4770K, 780

So I built my first gaming rig, I'm used to servers but gaming systems are a whole new world.

The specs are;

Corsair 350D black windowed mATX case
Corsair AX860i PSU
Asus Maximus VI Gene mATX mobo
Intel i7-4770K
Corsair 4 x 4GB 1866 red memory
Corsair H100i with 2 x SP120 performance series PWM fans
3 x Corsair SP120 quiet series PWM fans
EVGA GTX 780 with stock cooler
Samsung 840 512GB SSD
Corsair red power and signal cabling packs
a little sliver of red cellophane (we'll get to that)

So I was waiting for the mobo due to Asus being slow but it came on the 14th June and I got started on it around 2pm, the whole build including all software install, updates and testing was about 9 hours.

The case is great, my hands aren't the smallest but I didn't struggle at all (did catch my hand on one of the console pins though - ouch). The PSU went in a treat, I'd considered putting in some small rubberised pads in case there was a vibration but there wasn't space underneath anyway.

Mobo went in fine, there's a handy locating pin on the case that makes it very easy to do while the case is stood up - the little console pin block they ship with it helps a lot as you can fit those fiddly pins outside the box then just slip the lot onto the proper pins in one go.

The modular disk bays on the case were a dream, I have just one single SSD so I removed all the 3.5 and all but one of the 2.5 bays to help with air flow. I replaced the stock grey 120mm fan at the rear with one of the red-ringed quiet series fans and replaced the stock 140mm single fan at the front with two of the same fans. I'm not sure it says on their site but the case can take two 140mm fans at the front - although I'm not sure Corsair do the same red ringed quiet series in that size. This is probably the only thing I would have done differently.

The H100i was pretty easy, I swapped the stock grey fans for two of the performance series 120mm fans (they're the closest red-ringed fans spec-wise to the stocks). I found the pump back plate to be loose but I think that's how it's supposed to be and the pump itself fitted fine and is doing its job. I also attached the Corsair link cables from both the H100i and AX860i and the software looks very good on initial inspection.

The cabling went pretty well, could've done with say another 5mm or so on the rear cabling area as my power cable isn't exactly as I'd have wanted, that said it's also a bit too long for any mATX box but then it'll have been designed for much larger mobos. The quality of these extra cables is amazing, beautifully braided and really give the box a nice look. Used a red SATA cable too btw.

I chose not to install an optical drive, I got a Samsung USB powered one instead and for what I need it for (i.e. the OS installation) I'm more than happy to have it in a draw rather than installed - I tried a regular SATA attached DVD drive but it looked awful at the front.

Used Windows 8 x64 on it by the way, I wasn't sure which way to go but I'm happy enough with it so far and will be happier still when 8.1 comes out.

So here's some pics, hopefully they're clear enough, let me know if not or if you have any other queries. I'm very happy with the rig as it is now, need to do some fan tweaking but I think I'll play from games first

Looks nice! Almost like one of the Corsair show models

Not too sure on the GPU 'mod' though and your PSU is upside down

Feronix said:

Looks nice! Almost like one of the Corsair show models

Not too sure on the GPU 'mod' though and your PSU is upside down

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That was the look I was going for to be honest - it's just so darn black'n'red'ey!

As for the red cellophane, the green of the GPU just really stood out badly - I had to do something - oh and the case has a PSU vent at the bottom (with a filter) so I'd assumed it would blow out that way - in fact it does, I've tested it - so I wasn't aware it was wrong, why would I have it blow into the case not out? Also that's how Corsair did their own one.

Thanks for the comments though.

Chopper3 said:

That was the look I was going for to be honest - it's just so darn black'n'red'ey!

As for the red cellophane, the green of the GPU just really stood out badly - I had to do something - oh and the case has a PSU vent at the bottom (with a filter) so I'd assumed it would blow out that way - in fact it does, I've tested it - so I wasn't aware it was wrong, why would I have it blow into the case not out? Also that's how Corsair did their own one.

Thanks for the comments though.

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that's just how people on oc3d do it. fan up for the better looks

I do like that you made it red! Just not too sure on the red see through part around the actual logo.

De PSU being upside down was a joke, here at OC3D most people like to mount it fan way up as it looks better than the sticker imo. Btw, the fan doesn't blow air out, but it pulls air into the PSU and then pushes it out the back of your case.

Feronix said:

I do like that you made it red! Just not too sure on the red see through part around the actual logo.

De PSU being upside down was a joke, here at OC3D most people like to mount it fan way up as it looks better than the sticker imo. Btw, the fan doesn't blow air out, but it pulls air into the PSU and then pushes it out the back of your case.

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Thanks for the info, I'll post a night-time photo when it stops being so bloody sunny

I'm finding the whole way gaming PCs deal with fans needlessly over-complex to be honest - I deal with servers for a job and they're designed to be tunnels - air comes in at the front, passes over everything and comes out at the back - noisy but it works, there seems to be a lot of different opinions for gaming rigs.
That said the fan on this PSU doesn't come on at all until it hits 30% and I don't think it has yet - maybe if I SLI.

Oh and here's an 'at night' picture to show off the lighting.

That's better!

Honestly dude, if you find a way to hide those Sata data and power cables it would almost look perfect

Feronix said:

That's better!

Honestly dude, if you find a way to hide those Sata data and power cables it would almost look perfect

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I could've hidden the SATA power cable, easily, but I liked it that way - obviously it wouldn't been borderline impossible to make the power cables disappear - other than to have used the stock black ones of course - but I wanted to make the red cabling stand out.

I'm most pleased with just how silent the whole thing is though, it's quieter than my PVR so far.

Looks brilliant mate

Looks fantastic

It would look better if the SATA cables were hidden

yassarikhan786 said:

Looks fantastic

It would look better if the SATA cables were hidden

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I originally had it hidden but with me removing the 3.5" cage that entire bottom right quarter was just black and dull.

Good work man =) Nice rig =)

thumbs up!

Cheers
holly

Cool rig dude, if this is your first pc you've built yourself Im quiet impressed with the work you did on it. Looks like you've taken yourself the time to look for the right components and made a great gaming computer ! Super clean

Looks good. I'd like to see one of those Geforce up close to see how hard it would be to mod it. For the price of them they should do RGB LED lighting so one could set the color they want.

I love to see build in CORSAIR case always
You cross from Obsidian 650D???

I will stay on him until finish upgrade with Haswell Extreme.
Than maybe I invest in little more SM5 or SM8.
But I stay on 650D until finish everything.
CORSAIR made quality case and they stay in good condition and after 5 years if you avoid scratching and rest. I keep my like little baby.
Obsidian 350D will make big success on PC market, I feel that, and I have good prediction for that type of case in CORSAIR design. PC market need that.

berthez said:

Cool rig dude, if this is your first pc you've built yourself Im quiet impressed with the work you did on it. Looks like you've taken yourself the time to look for the right components and made a great gaming computer ! Super clean

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Thanks for the encouraging comments. I've been dealing with servers for >20 years and I'm a mac person throughout my home but about a year or so ago I bought an Alienware X51 for PC gaming and got bitten by the bug. I upgraded that to within an inch of its life but it was always going to be compromised, so I started planning a much more upgradable system, but I wanted it to be small'ish. So when Corsair brought out the 350D I knew it was for me, I'd put an EVGA 660 ti in the X51 and had no reason to avoid them, then when Asus posted that picture of their pre-made-up 350D I had something of a template to follow.

Anyway thanks.

FredEx said:

Looks good. I'd like to see one of those Geforce up close to see how hard it would be to mod it. For the price of them they should do RGB LED lighting so one could set the color they want.

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It's literally a very small piece of red cellophane with some tiny clear-glue points in the corners and middle holding it in place. My son's very accurate at cutting things like that so he did it. At night it really looks great, especially with the H100i pump light above it.

Thanks for the comments.

Very nice!

I like it more than my rig! mainly because it's a smaller case and everything looks closer together. Also because of the PSU, those cables look better than my paracord ones. I do plan on getting a 860i and another GPU to x-fire so maybe that will improve mine.

Again, very nice! Stunning ^_^

theDTP said:

Very nice!

I like it more than my rig! mainly because it's a smaller case and everything looks closer together. Also because of the PSU, those cables look better than my paracord ones. I do plan on getting a 860i and another GPU to x-fire so maybe that will improve mine.

Again, very nice! Stunning ^_^

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Thank you very much indeed, I have to say I really do like the look of Radeon's in SLI - but I'm NVidia's bitch it appears