2013 Rig Overhaul Complete!

[CalVic]

So, It's been nearly 5 years. The time has come to faithfully replace my trusty Striker II Extreme and Q9450. It had served me well.

Back in 2008 I built a monster of a machine:

Q9450
Striker II Extreme
2x 9800 GX2s
4GB Corsair 1333Mhz
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200watt.

Over the years I've been replacing certain bits, The 9800GX2s died, got replaced with 285s, Last year I upgraded to a 560Ti 448 Edition. Along with 8GB of gSkill 1600Mhz. I had also planned to go the i5 2500K route back in 2011 (See signature). But things got held up and I just kind of dropped off!

Thus the only bits left from that built was the motherboard and CPU, and that day came today.

So I decided on a AMD FX 8350 with an Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 Motherboard. (Please, Don't bitch about how Intel are better, I'm fully aware and educated on the benchmarks)

The performance has certainly improved in areas of multitasking, as with ARMA3 Alpha's performance has improved tremendously.

The only issue right now is that I misjudged how much these chips like to pump out heat, so I've had to run stock and down volt! However, H100i ordered

Anyhow, Here's a few pics of the process.

Old system:

Prepped ready for install:

All ready to go Also installed GPU Support bracket:

 

[Mgutierrez33]

Let me just make it known: seeing any comment from me means NEVER judging based on the purchase of AMD or Intel: both serve their purpose, and even though AMD isn't as competitive with Intel at present I currently have TWO AMD rigs in my household, and am working on getting money together for an Intel one as well. Both do what I need them to do, and if this does what YOU need it to do, then the cost to operate vs up front cost is offset for the lifespan of the product in your rig, so cheers!

Secondly, love the parts selection and the chassis! You gonna see about putting in a full acrylic window int he side to show off all of that lovely hardware (and the water cooling once that goes in ;-])? I miss my 448 cores card sometimes... but I digress... man that card sags a LOT in your old rig, good thing you got that brace now, huh? What kind of undervolt did you manage with your 8350?

 

[AverageNinja]

@Mgutierrez33: Kudos to you!
You should never judge someones purchases. If he/she is happy, it's good.
Also: Sexy rig mate!

 

[Cru]

why the 1200w psu though?
also, it's upside down

 

[CalVic]

Thanks chaps!

I wasn't having a dig at anyone person of course, just that a lot of places on the net have bitching matches when someone either asks or has AMD!

To be honest, at stock speeds it certainly pulls better in ARMA 3 and WoW. That in itself I guess has paid for itself. I did have times where I wondered if I would see a true difference from a Q9450 and this chip and safe to say yes I have.

The voltage I've gotten it down too is 1.225v. The last core failed after 6 hours so I bumped it upto 1.250 and things are looking good. Idle temps are 27c to 30c (Depends on Ambient of course) but in Prime 95 it reaches around 48 to 50c. So roughly exactly the same as my overclocked Q9450 pulled. Which was at 3.6Ghz with the same 1.25v

The water cooling kit I'll be getting is a H100i, I've already ordered it so should be here soon, I am to try and get 5Ghz if I can Need to do a bit of studying as this mobo has lot of options towards power control and phasing.

I have thought about the full acrylic window, or the interchangeable one from Coolermaster with another HAF Series case. but I don't know. I like the side fan providing another intake, and I don't know whether I'd like it to show all the dust! I really need to clean it out better then I did the other day.

I also swapped out the bright white cathode, for what I thought was red but was green, But this time I hid it at the back so it isn't as bright but adds a nice glow to it.

I'll get more pics when The H100i arrives and is installed!

My next part to upgrade is either the RAM or Graphics card.

 

[CalVic]

why the 1200w psu though?
also, it's upside down

I had thought about if it was upside down though, Since the bottom of the case has a filter for the PSU Fan, so that's the way I mounted it!

1200watt seems overkill, But I had a lot of plans back when I first built this machine, (Hell I was going to get 1500). And I guess I don't have to worry about more power hungry hardware. (I was running 2x 9800GX2s at one time).

 

[Signex]

I liked how you placed the TUF sticker on the window.

I totally loved that case when i had it, i had 2 GTX295s running in it.

But i'm now all into white cases.

 

[CalVic]

I liked how you placed the TUF sticker on the window.

I totally loved that case when i had it, i had 2 GTX295s running in it.

But i'm now all into white cases.

Thanks,

I was thinking about putting the TUF Sticker at the side of the fan running up, but looked better where it's at

I must say that I do like white cases myself but my HAF X isn't that old and currently it does the job! Perhaps when I have some spare cash

 

[Liarma]

why the 1200w psu though?
also, it's upside down

Did you even read the original post? He was running Quad-SLI at one point. Sheesh.

And is no such thing as "upside down". It's personal preference. Some people like the fan facing up, some like it facing down.