SWDescent
New member
Tax time came and went and after getting my return I decided to upgrade my aging Core 2 Duo System I was running with a dismal Geforce 9800GTX+OC (yes that was the full model number). But my wife was interested in getting into PC gaming since we both played a lot of Xbox 360/PS3 games co-op together, and I have to say we both Enjoyed Borderlands 1/2 on 360, but haven't touched it since we got them for PC 
So I got all the necessary parts to upgrade my system, and we got a case and monitor along with any minor parts we needed to transplant the Core2 over into a new setup for her.
Here's the parts list:
Both computers have an Asus VH238H 23" LCD Monitor (which look amazing!)
My new system consists of:
Corsair HX850 Modular PSU
Intel 3770 (I haven't overclocked since my duron 750, so didn't need the 3770k) with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus installed, dropped load temp from 90C to 50C max!
MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard
Mushkin 2x4GB DDR3 2400
MSI Radon 7870Ghz OC Edition
WD 1TB SATA 6 Drive and Asus Sata DVD-RW Drive
The case is the special part, this is the 4th revision of this tower because I've modified every panel (first off I converted it to BTX, which doesn't really help much temperature wise, but looks a lot cooler and did help with air flow a little bit). But the biggest thing was cutting the acrylic, Originally every fan hole on this case was 80mm with built in wind noise inducing grilles, I cut them all out to completely open 120mm fan openings and placed filters on them to keep the inside clean. My Next step is to switch over to liquid cooling and replace the side panel so there are no side fans and have either a 2x120mm rad or 3x120mm rad across the top of the case.
My wife's computer is a little less powerful but will be receiving the upgrade steps my desktop received when we get the funding.
It consists of:
PC Powe & Cooling 750Watt silencer PSU
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16ghz with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (Again amazing temperature difference)
MSI P7N-SLI Platinum
Mushkin 2x4gb and 2x2gb Sticks of DDR2
MSI Geforce 9800GTX+OC Edition (Yes that's the entire name :/)
WD 640GB SATA3 (Main) and WD 320GB SATA3 (Backup Files) with Asus DVD-RW
Again her's is just in it's first starting stages, much like mine was a few years ago, but we already have plans for replacing the 120mm case fans in it with led green case fans and upgrading the GPU first, but then I'd like to at least get an i5 in there if not an i7 to match mine
But no matter what it's been an amazing experiece and this was my wife's first ever computer build and I encourage people to dive into this sort of stuff, it's amazing with a little bit of reading what any normal person is capable of doing with a computer. Plus it's pretty sweet having my wife sitting next to me playing computer games along with me
First Version(Athlon 64 3000+ Red Themed):
2nd Version(Athlon 64 FX-53 Red, BTX Modded):
3rd Version(Core2 Duo 3.16Ghz Green, BTX):
And 4th Version(Most Recent Setup):
And then here's my Wive's Desktop/Setup Next to mine, so much more fun Playing games with the person next to you and couldn't be more lucky to have a wife that enjoys the same things as I do
I Plan on doing upgrades as I go along, and I'll keep updating this as I do, the next step is to get my own blank pieces of acrylic and expand/rearrange everything into places that make more sense, since I would like to eventually have either a 3x140 or 4x140 radiator setup across the top and just a front/back fan setup, no side ones.
So I got all the necessary parts to upgrade my system, and we got a case and monitor along with any minor parts we needed to transplant the Core2 over into a new setup for her. Here's the parts list:
Both computers have an Asus VH238H 23" LCD Monitor (which look amazing!)
My new system consists of:
Corsair HX850 Modular PSU
Intel 3770 (I haven't overclocked since my duron 750, so didn't need the 3770k) with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus installed, dropped load temp from 90C to 50C max!
MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard
Mushkin 2x4GB DDR3 2400
MSI Radon 7870Ghz OC Edition
WD 1TB SATA 6 Drive and Asus Sata DVD-RW Drive
The case is the special part, this is the 4th revision of this tower because I've modified every panel (first off I converted it to BTX, which doesn't really help much temperature wise, but looks a lot cooler and did help with air flow a little bit). But the biggest thing was cutting the acrylic, Originally every fan hole on this case was 80mm with built in wind noise inducing grilles, I cut them all out to completely open 120mm fan openings and placed filters on them to keep the inside clean. My Next step is to switch over to liquid cooling and replace the side panel so there are no side fans and have either a 2x120mm rad or 3x120mm rad across the top of the case.
My wife's computer is a little less powerful but will be receiving the upgrade steps my desktop received when we get the funding.
It consists of:
PC Powe & Cooling 750Watt silencer PSU
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3.16ghz with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (Again amazing temperature difference)
MSI P7N-SLI Platinum
Mushkin 2x4gb and 2x2gb Sticks of DDR2
MSI Geforce 9800GTX+OC Edition (Yes that's the entire name :/)
WD 640GB SATA3 (Main) and WD 320GB SATA3 (Backup Files) with Asus DVD-RW
Again her's is just in it's first starting stages, much like mine was a few years ago, but we already have plans for replacing the 120mm case fans in it with led green case fans and upgrading the GPU first, but then I'd like to at least get an i5 in there if not an i7 to match mine
But no matter what it's been an amazing experiece and this was my wife's first ever computer build and I encourage people to dive into this sort of stuff, it's amazing with a little bit of reading what any normal person is capable of doing with a computer. Plus it's pretty sweet having my wife sitting next to me playing computer games along with me
First Version(Athlon 64 3000+ Red Themed):
2nd Version(Athlon 64 FX-53 Red, BTX Modded):
3rd Version(Core2 Duo 3.16Ghz Green, BTX):
And 4th Version(Most Recent Setup):
And then here's my Wive's Desktop/Setup Next to mine, so much more fun Playing games with the person next to you and couldn't be more lucky to have a wife that enjoys the same things as I do
I Plan on doing upgrades as I go along, and I'll keep updating this as I do, the next step is to get my own blank pieces of acrylic and expand/rearrange everything into places that make more sense, since I would like to eventually have either a 3x140 or 4x140 radiator setup across the top and just a front/back fan setup, no side ones.
