Dragon_Orb
New member
Hopefully posting this in the right place 
Due to various circumstances I've needed to build a new computer, so here's the log of it :lol: This build will take place over a bit of time, pretty much as I need to save up for parts
I haven't given this system a name yet as I'll still need to rip half out it out and rebuilt it again.
Cutting to the chase, here are the specs for the starting build:
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770k
MoBo: ASUS Maximus V Formula
RAM: 32 GB RAM - 2 x G.Skill Trident X F3-2400C10D-16GTX 16GB ( 2x8GB ) DDR3 10-12-12-31
GFX: Inno3D GeForce GTX580 (1.5GB reference version)
PSU: Corsair AX860i Platinum Power Supply
HDD: 500GB Mechanical (OS/Programs) and 2TB Mechanical (Storage)
Case: NZXT Switch 810
CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro H80i
It's a bit of an eclectic mix of components but you can probably guess which ones have been recycled from my old system
I do have plans to upgrade and add in a custom water cooling loop but I'll go in to those down below. For now it's time for some pics of the system so far! (Apologies for the quality, I don't own a camera so just used my phone - Galaxy S II)
After some drama with the online retailer, the new parts finally arrive, YAY!
The starting point... echoooo...echoooo...echoo.... lots of empty space
Starting from the outside and working towards the internals, first change, the front fans
From this point on I didn't actually take any more photos, I just wanted a computer I could use! :lol:
The finished build, without side panel!
The eagle-eyed looking here will notice that it was bright and sun-shiny when I started, now curtain is closed and flash is in use :huh:
Also it may annoy some people that notice the label on the radiator, however that does disappear once the side is put on!
I'm including this next pic for the sake of completeness. It's the cable routing behind the MoBo tray. I didn't really put much effort in to this as it will be pulled apart again when the time comes to add in the custom water cooling loop so this is pure function with very little form
I was actually a bit surprised to find the fan hub on the back of the MoBo tray there. It came with the case. I didn't actually know it came with that, so bonus there perhaps. As you can see it's not seeing much use at the moment as most of the fans are plugged direct in to molex cables using adapters.
I didn't take any photos showing in to the back of the 5.25" drive area as I haven't installed anything in there at all - no optical drives or fan speed controller, etc. Likewise I didn't take any photos of the outside of the case as it's still entirely stock on that front.
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with one part of the case. You may notice in the picture with the side panel attached that it looks a bit blurry. Unfortunately that's not camera focus or flash - There's a massive imperfection in the acrylic. It's very large and sits directly above the CPU area. You can see that the fusion thermo is blurry, however the 'GeForce' on the graphics card is not. I was very let down by this, what's the point of a window that doesn't display well :mellow:
It's kind of hard to show in a photo but here's a couple of shots trying to highlight it:
Not really sure what to do about it but I'm thinking I'll contact NZXT customer support and if that doesn't get anywhere just see if I can source my own replacement window from somewhere
Finally in the picture stakes, I received these in the mail today (they're more traveled than I am!)
I've never done any sleeving before so this could be very interesting. Due to lack of experience I will probably leave this until the weekend so if I stuff something up I can hopefully fix it again rather than leaving me stuck without a computer
Moving right on! I'm planning to continue building/upgrading this system in 3 parts. Fair warning, I tend to ramble on a bit and divert off on to tangents at times but I do appreciate any opinions and advice for these section and I do usually research in to any alternatives that people suggest
I did try to shorten the wall of text but I think I actually made it longer :mellow:
Upgrade/Improvement 0.5:
This is pretty much just doing the sleeving providing I don't destroy the cables Will do some practice on the old Tt toughpower 875w from my previous system just in case :lol: A good excuse to take some more photos once it's done ^_^
Upgrade Part the first:
This part of the upgrade plan is to finish upgrading the hardware so that I can install the water cooling loop. The biggest hardware upgrade left is the graphics card. Originally I was planning to keep the GTX580 and I may still do that. Generally I don't play any real demanding games these days. Mostly my PC is used in a productivity setting. Yes, it's probably overkill.
Sometimes I may play some Starcraft II or the like and I'm thinking I need to finish my Assassin's Creed adventures with the latest couple of games in that series - just to give an idea of the mostly non-existant strain on my graphics card. No Metro 2033 or BF3 or Crysis or Farcry, etc. My monitor set up is currently 2x HP w1907 19" monitors @ 1440x900 (their native resolution). Upgrading to 3x 24" 1920x1080 is in the upgrade plans for part 3
This will probably require a graphics card upgrade to do though.
My first thought was to go for GTX670's in SLI. I hate the little buggers. I plan to water cool and honestly I can't stand how small they are. It just looks cheap. The EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB FTW seems the best buy for me as this uses a GTX680 PCB. It looks the part and from my research it can fit GTX680 reference water blocks. I can pick these up for $479 each.
The alternative I have on the table is two (SLI) MSI GeForce GTX 680 Twin Frozr III 2GB OC - OC3D Silver Award winner. From what I've been able to find out it seems to overclock alright and from what I've found on several forums and EK's cooling configurator GTX680 waterblocks will fit on it and until I can put the water cooling in the stock cooler is also pretty good. Also I can pick it up for $520 per card, only $40 per card more than the GTX670. Most of the 680's are more in the $600 region, so this seems to be a good buy.
Also in this upgrade I'll be buying an SSD - most likely the 256GB Samsung 840 Pro. This wins out over the Corsair Neutron GTX mostly for aesthetics
Final plans for this upgrade is a mechanical keyboard (working on a Logitech G510 atm). At this point in time I'll probably be going with the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate. Possibly a mouse as well, though the Logitech G700 is trooping along so far.
Upgrade Part the Second - This is the most fun part!:
To be honest this part is more exciting for me than it probably should be but I've never done any water cooling before
Once all the hardware is in place and my wallet has recovered I will be building the water cooling loop! I've actually got the plans for the loop mostly planned out in my head. I'm going to be aiming for a black/copper theme using mostly alphacool parts.
Upgrade Part the Third:
This is not an internal upgrade. The plan here is to replace my two 5-year old 19" monitors with three newer 24" monitors. This is the main reason that I'll need to upgrade my graphics cards really, to handle the triple display. At this point in time I would probably buy 3x ASUS PA248Q 24in IPS LED Widescreen Monitor. I can pick these up for $439 each.
I have done some research and probably the best and most recommended alternative to these I could find would be the Dell U2412 IPS. Unfortunately due to the ass-backwards nature of Australian retailers I can only get my hands on the Dell U2410W and even for that older monitor they're asking for $499, $60/ea more than the ASUS monitors.
Availability and prices may change between now and then though as it'll probably be a little while away yet and I just mentioned it really as it brings about the need to upgrade my graphics card to hand the 5760x1080 triple monitor setup - My GTX580 is the 1.5GB version.
TL;DR:
There's many more upgrades planned and there will be more photos during these upgrades
For everyone who read all this, thank you for sticking through with it! For those who really just wanted to see the pics then I hope you enjoyed ^_^ There will be more pics coming along as I move through the upgrade phases as well
Due to various circumstances I've needed to build a new computer, so here's the log of it :lol: This build will take place over a bit of time, pretty much as I need to save up for parts
I haven't given this system a name yet as I'll still need to rip half out it out and rebuilt it again.Cutting to the chase, here are the specs for the starting build:
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770k
MoBo: ASUS Maximus V Formula
RAM: 32 GB RAM - 2 x G.Skill Trident X F3-2400C10D-16GTX 16GB ( 2x8GB ) DDR3 10-12-12-31
GFX: Inno3D GeForce GTX580 (1.5GB reference version)
PSU: Corsair AX860i Platinum Power Supply
HDD: 500GB Mechanical (OS/Programs) and 2TB Mechanical (Storage)
Case: NZXT Switch 810
CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro H80i
It's a bit of an eclectic mix of components but you can probably guess which ones have been recycled from my old system
I do have plans to upgrade and add in a custom water cooling loop but I'll go in to those down below. For now it's time for some pics of the system so far! (Apologies for the quality, I don't own a camera so just used my phone - Galaxy S II)
After some drama with the online retailer, the new parts finally arrive, YAY!
The starting point... echoooo...echoooo...echoo.... lots of empty space
Starting from the outside and working towards the internals, first change, the front fans
From this point on I didn't actually take any more photos, I just wanted a computer I could use! :lol:
The finished build, without side panel!
The eagle-eyed looking here will notice that it was bright and sun-shiny when I started, now curtain is closed and flash is in use :huh:
Also it may annoy some people that notice the label on the radiator, however that does disappear once the side is put on!
I'm including this next pic for the sake of completeness. It's the cable routing behind the MoBo tray. I didn't really put much effort in to this as it will be pulled apart again when the time comes to add in the custom water cooling loop so this is pure function with very little form
I was actually a bit surprised to find the fan hub on the back of the MoBo tray there. It came with the case. I didn't actually know it came with that, so bonus there perhaps. As you can see it's not seeing much use at the moment as most of the fans are plugged direct in to molex cables using adapters.
I didn't take any photos showing in to the back of the 5.25" drive area as I haven't installed anything in there at all - no optical drives or fan speed controller, etc. Likewise I didn't take any photos of the outside of the case as it's still entirely stock on that front.
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with one part of the case. You may notice in the picture with the side panel attached that it looks a bit blurry. Unfortunately that's not camera focus or flash - There's a massive imperfection in the acrylic. It's very large and sits directly above the CPU area. You can see that the fusion thermo is blurry, however the 'GeForce' on the graphics card is not. I was very let down by this, what's the point of a window that doesn't display well :mellow:
It's kind of hard to show in a photo but here's a couple of shots trying to highlight it:
Not really sure what to do about it but I'm thinking I'll contact NZXT customer support and if that doesn't get anywhere just see if I can source my own replacement window from somewhere
Finally in the picture stakes, I received these in the mail today (they're more traveled than I am!)
I've never done any sleeving before so this could be very interesting. Due to lack of experience I will probably leave this until the weekend so if I stuff something up I can hopefully fix it again rather than leaving me stuck without a computer
Moving right on! I'm planning to continue building/upgrading this system in 3 parts. Fair warning, I tend to ramble on a bit and divert off on to tangents at times but I do appreciate any opinions and advice for these section and I do usually research in to any alternatives that people suggest
I did try to shorten the wall of text but I think I actually made it longer :mellow:Upgrade/Improvement 0.5:
This is pretty much just doing the sleeving providing I don't destroy the cables
Will do some practice on the old Tt toughpower 875w from my previous system just in case :lol: A good excuse to take some more photos once it's done ^_^Upgrade Part the first:
This part of the upgrade plan is to finish upgrading the hardware so that I can install the water cooling loop. The biggest hardware upgrade left is the graphics card. Originally I was planning to keep the GTX580 and I may still do that. Generally I don't play any real demanding games these days. Mostly my PC is used in a productivity setting. Yes, it's probably overkill.
Sometimes I may play some Starcraft II or the like and I'm thinking I need to finish my Assassin's Creed adventures with the latest couple of games in that series - just to give an idea of the mostly non-existant strain on my graphics card. No Metro 2033 or BF3 or Crysis or Farcry, etc. My monitor set up is currently 2x HP w1907 19" monitors @ 1440x900 (their native resolution). Upgrading to 3x 24" 1920x1080 is in the upgrade plans for part 3
This will probably require a graphics card upgrade to do though.My first thought was to go for GTX670's in SLI. I hate the little buggers. I plan to water cool and honestly I can't stand how small they are. It just looks cheap. The EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2GB FTW seems the best buy for me as this uses a GTX680 PCB. It looks the part and from my research it can fit GTX680 reference water blocks. I can pick these up for $479 each.
The alternative I have on the table is two (SLI) MSI GeForce GTX 680 Twin Frozr III 2GB OC - OC3D Silver Award winner. From what I've been able to find out it seems to overclock alright and from what I've found on several forums and EK's cooling configurator GTX680 waterblocks will fit on it and until I can put the water cooling in the stock cooler is also pretty good. Also I can pick it up for $520 per card, only $40 per card more than the GTX670. Most of the 680's are more in the $600 region, so this seems to be a good buy.
Also in this upgrade I'll be buying an SSD - most likely the 256GB Samsung 840 Pro. This wins out over the Corsair Neutron GTX mostly for aesthetics
Final plans for this upgrade is a mechanical keyboard (working on a Logitech G510 atm). At this point in time I'll probably be going with the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate. Possibly a mouse as well, though the Logitech G700 is trooping along so far.
Upgrade Part the Second - This is the most fun part!:
To be honest this part is more exciting for me than it probably should be but I've never done any water cooling before
Once all the hardware is in place and my wallet has recovered I will be building the water cooling loop! I've actually got the plans for the loop mostly planned out in my head. I'm going to be aiming for a black/copper theme using mostly alphacool parts.
- Fittings will be alphacool copper barbs - 1/2".
- Rads I'll be aiming for either Monsta or UT60, depending on space and whether I want to go just pull in the roof or push/pull for aesthetics. Front rad will be push/pull for airflow in to the case.
- The CPU block I'm not really sure on and would appreciate input. I'm considering the Alphacool NexXxoS XP³ Light - Acetal Edition and would use this as a base guideline for colour.
- GPU full cover blocks I'm planning to use the Alphacool NexXxoS NVXP Nvidia GTX680 in polished copper.
- Tubing will be masterkleer clear tubing - 7/16" to fit over the 1/2" barbs without clamps.
- Pump will be some iteration of the variable D5
- Pump top will be bitspower mod top v2 acrylic with the bitspower upgrade kit for the reservoir.
Upgrade Part the Third:
This is not an internal upgrade. The plan here is to replace my two 5-year old 19" monitors with three newer 24" monitors. This is the main reason that I'll need to upgrade my graphics cards really, to handle the triple display. At this point in time I would probably buy 3x ASUS PA248Q 24in IPS LED Widescreen Monitor. I can pick these up for $439 each.
I have done some research and probably the best and most recommended alternative to these I could find would be the Dell U2412 IPS. Unfortunately due to the ass-backwards nature of Australian retailers I can only get my hands on the Dell U2410W and even for that older monitor they're asking for $499, $60/ea more than the ASUS monitors.
Availability and prices may change between now and then though as it'll probably be a little while away yet and I just mentioned it really as it brings about the need to upgrade my graphics card to hand the 5760x1080 triple monitor setup - My GTX580 is the 1.5GB version.
TL;DR:
There's many more upgrades planned and there will be more photos during these upgrades
For everyone who read all this, thank you for sticking through with it! For those who really just wanted to see the pics then I hope you enjoyed ^_^ There will be more pics coming along as I move through the upgrade phases as well
Last edited:
