sheroo's SB Build

[sheroo]

GPU

So for this new rig the first thing for me to do was decide on what graphics card I was going to run. I decided early on that I wanted to run 3 screens and had a little bit of money over the Summer and bought a Samsung P2450 (24" 1080p), which replaced my old Dell 21" CRT. I liked the monitor that much that I went out and bought another 2. So I currently have 3 screens, but my old 8800GTX can only run 2 of them.

According to this review on Eyefinity, the HD 5870 is pretty good at gaming on 3 monitors, so I decided to wait for its replacement and went with the HD 6950.

I bought as soon as it came out and managed to get it for £223 before alot of the prices went up. I already bought a Sapphire active display port adapter (£16.99), so decided to go with the Sapphire HD 6950, as it comes with a mini dp to dp adapter and an hdmi 1.4a cable as well.



I'm expecting some stuff from Scan tomorrow, so will update some more then.

[sheroo]

I've also come across this article which gives instructions on turning an HD 6950 into a HD 6970. So when everything is up and running I will be trying this out as well.

[adicool96]

Are u aware that it voids the warranty plus it may shorten the life of the gpu while making AMD very very angry ( tho it does have a 95 percent success) it also reduces the oc overhead.

[sheroo]

Originally Posted by adicool96

Are u aware that it voids the warranty plus it may shorten the life of the gpu while making AMD very very angry ( tho it does have a 95 percent success) it also reduces the oc overhead.

If I get good playable frames @ 5760 x 1080 then I probably won't bother, but I'll cross that bridge when everything else is up and running. Thanks for the heads up re the warranty, I hadn't really thought of that...

[sheroo]

Just a quick update, I got 2 boxes today. A big Ass one from Scan and a package from Specialtech.

[sheroo]

PSU

So I thought I'd go with something that will last me a few years. Single 12v rail and fully modular, as I am a bit of a cable management freak. There was no real contest it had to be the Corsair AX850 Gold certified with a 7 year warranty. I just hope that they have sorted out any coil whine issues! This PSU is meant to be really quiet according to spcr. The fan doesn't spin until above 20% load, so hopefully it'll do the trick. I would have bought the 750 but the 850 was only £13 more.

[sheroo]

HDD

I have obsessed ever since I heard about SSD's and always wanted to put them in RAID 0. But the price has always been too high. I have an Intel 80GB in my HTPC and it is just so snappy. I am upgrading from a WD Raptor 150, which is no slouch, but these Vertex 2's should absolutely fly. I have a WHS, so don't need big storage drives on my desktop. I know that Tom doesn't really rate these drives, but they seem to get good reviews, and with Garbage collection the lack of TRIM support in RAID 0 hopefully won't be an issue.

[sheroo]

Accessories

I think I may have gone a bit over the top with the cables... But a cable freak I am. I also bought some extra fans...

[sheroo]

Case

And now for the one you've all been waiting for...



I was getting a HAF, and then I saw Tom with this (so its his fault). Cable management is a breeze, more cooling options than you can shake a stick at, built in fan controller - lovely.

I have promised myself that I will not mod this case, I had to cut so many holes in the Antec 900 I had for the cables. I hear that NZXT are bringing out a window as well...

I'm not going to tell you what colour it is yet...

[adicool96]

Im thinking the case is red in colour? but dude putting an ssd in raid does not allow it to support TRIM and without that you will have to defrag the ssd regularly or its speed will go wayyyy down in a matter of few months just aheads up. Neways nice build looking forward to more pics decided on a mobo and chip in SB?