Dear all.
Hi my name is Min and I would like some advice from the experts out there due to my lack of experience.
Being the ignorant person I am I have been an avid user of Apple Macs for a long time.
The interest in gaming has hit me quite late, and only recently. Hence after much research my eyes have opened to a whole new world out there and I am now a late joiner in the PC building community.
Having spent quite a lot of time in the last few months reading reviews, article, delving in the sea of knowledge on forums such as this one and watching hours of video, I have finally pulled the trigger and built my first PC rig. Yay!
I have taken advice from various sources and carefully thought out what I want and how I want my system set up and looking and picked out parts instead of rushing out in my excitement to buy parts without giving thoughts to how I want my finished build to look like.
Currently I have finished building a fully working rig, but with everything running in stock just the way the parts came. Nothing has been over clocked or modified as of yet.
My rig so far:
Case: NZXT Switch 810 Matte Black
CPU: Intel i5 3570k
Mobo: Asus Maximus V formula
GPU: Asus GTX 670 DCII (Non top version, possibly adding another card in SLI in the future)
RAM: 16gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz in red (4 x 4gb)
PSU: Corsair AX850
SSD: Intel 520 series 120gb (I have my o/s and games on this one)
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB (For storage of photos, music etc)
DVD: LG GH24NS90.AUAR50B 24x Super Multi Internal DVD Rewriter
O/S: Microsoft Windows 8
Keyboard: Steelseries 6Gv2
Mouse: Steelseries Sensei
So far I have the Rig all built up and working running all stock settings.
Also currently I only have the stock fans set up but just re-jigged the position a little bit.
I have removed the bottom hard drive cage and the bottom bracket.
I have one stock fan on the top at the back of the case on exhaust, one at the back of the case moved as far up as possible on exhaust, one at the front of the case on the top fan fitting and one at the bottom next to the PSU.
Now that I have a working rig my next project is to get all the water-cooling and aesthetic side of the case modified and complete. Once I have a rig which can handle the pressure thrown at it, I plan to start delving into over clocking the CPU and GPU and possibly adding a second GPU to run in SLI.
Okay here is where my questions begin.
I have 4 topics of question:
1. Motherboard power connection
2. Aesthetics
3. Water-cooling
4. Fan set-up and airflow
1. Motherboard power connection
Starting with a very simple question, how to connect power to the Mobo.
From what I can see the Mobo comes with 4 power connections.
1x 24-pin eATX Power connector
1x 8-pin eATX Power connector
1x 4-pin eATX Power connector
1x 4-pin molex EZ_Plug
Currently I have the 24-pin and the 8-pin plugged in and everything seems to be running fine, but what is the other 2 connectors for? Should I plug these in too?
2. Aesthetics
As you guys can see with the Maximus V Formula Mobo, the Asus GPU and the red ram sticks my PC is predominantly all black inside with red accents.
This is the colour scheme I want to stick with, black with red highlights to catch the eye.
I don’t want to go too overboard on the RED RED RED colour scheme and have a washed out look inside though and I want to be careful of overusing the red colour.
As you already know the NZXT Switch 810 case has a massive window on the side which is what I wanted and love, but this also means I need to take that much more care with how it looks inside.
I have a design idea in my head that I have been sketching out. However, having not built a rig before I’m just a little concerned what might seem like a good idea on paper might not actually look good once implemented so I wanted to pick your brains and experience.
My train of thought is istead of going down the typical LED fan route, I plan to get fans that are more focused around performance and silent operation than just choosing ones because they come with LEDs on them.
Also I feel sticking with the red colour scheme and illuminating the inside of the case with red lights will actually give me a washout affect and ruin the image I’m going for.
So I plan to illuminate the case with white light and provide the red accents.
The red accents I plan on using are:
The red from the Mobo
The red Ram chips
Water-cooling pipes running red water
Red braided power cables for the Mobo and the GPU.
What do you guys think?
Now I found a photo of someone else’s build which is actually more or less the impact and colour scheme I wanted to have.
This is almost my ideal finished look.
Also I am considering having red light accents similar to the photo in the link above.
The mesh running along the bottom of the case, and having a red glow at the front of the case coming from the little triangular mesh at the bottom. If I were to do this, how do I do it?
Would this look weird and would it be better to keep the front of the case looking stealth black having no lights coming from it? Also I’m concerned about light leaking from the air vents down the side of the front fan cover and from the top of the case from the air vents, would this look weird? I’m worried that it would look really odd and ruin the external aesthetics of my build.
Another big concern I have is that when I look at a lot of the photos of other people’s build with LED’s illuminating the inside of the case, there seems to show a very sporadic light with flares and partial patchy bright zones like this one
How do I avoid this and have it looking more like the white NZXT case above and hence what is the best way to illuminate the case from the inside?
Final question on aesthetics is my GPU being heavy and only held up at the front at the expansion slot and in the middle with the PCI slot, the rear end of it is sagging down slightly. But if I see other people’s build even with bigger cards it’s perfectly perpendicular. How do you keep the cards supported like this?
3. Water-cooling
There are water-cooling channels on the ASUS Maximus V Formula Mobo that runs around the CPU block. So I plan to make use of this and have the CPU, Mobo and GPU set up in the watercooling loop.
From researching online it would seem that the loop order I need is Pump -> Reservoir -> Radiator -> CPU -> Mobo fin thingy -> GPU -> Back to pump.
The thing that is difficult for me to get my head around and understand is what size radiator is required for the amount of items on the loop.
So currently I have the CPU, Mobo, GPU I want in the loop plus maybe an extra GPU in the future.
Would a single 240 or 280 60mm radiator up top running a push pull config be enough for this or do I need to either try to squeeze in a 360 radiator up top or instead possibly get a second radiator on the bottom?
Also linked to the Aesthetic side of things, for the water running inside the watercooling loop, I would like to have it looking very much Ferrari red (instead of a pinkish light red colour).
Does this mean I just need to add more die into the water and use a clear tube, or do I need to use a red colored tube?
4. Fan set-up and airflow
Finally, as I mentioned all the way on the top, currently I only have the stock fans set up but just re-jigged the position a little bit.
I have removed the bottom hard drive cage and the bottom bracket.
I have one stock fan on the top at the back of the case on exhaust, one at the back of the case moved as far up as possible on exhaust, one at the front of the case on the top fan fitting and one at the bottom next to the PSU.
This is what I’m planning to do:
Run a radiator 240 or 280 up at the top right at the back in a push pull config if space allows for it. Add another fan at the top towards the front of the case just exhausting.
Have the fan at the rear of the case exhausting.
Have the 2 fans at the front and 2 fans at the bottom of the case.
Have 1 fan on the top HDD cage pitched towards the GPU and CPU for better airflow direction.
Like this
Now I know that this might be overkill, but then again this is as much as a hobby then just trying to push maximum benchmarking performance.
That gives me a total of 11 fans if I run push pull, and 9 fans if I don’t run push pull on the radiator.
How do you control so many fans?
Am I better off plugging them straight into a molex and into the PSU and running full power all the time?
I have looked at fan controllers online but all of them seem to only support 4 or 5 fans. How do I get this number of fans on there?
Also is this a good airflow configuration in regards to positive / negative airpressure?
Thank you so much everyone for your patience and support.
Min x
Hi my name is Min and I would like some advice from the experts out there due to my lack of experience.
Being the ignorant person I am I have been an avid user of Apple Macs for a long time.
The interest in gaming has hit me quite late, and only recently. Hence after much research my eyes have opened to a whole new world out there and I am now a late joiner in the PC building community.
Having spent quite a lot of time in the last few months reading reviews, article, delving in the sea of knowledge on forums such as this one and watching hours of video, I have finally pulled the trigger and built my first PC rig. Yay!
I have taken advice from various sources and carefully thought out what I want and how I want my system set up and looking and picked out parts instead of rushing out in my excitement to buy parts without giving thoughts to how I want my finished build to look like.
Currently I have finished building a fully working rig, but with everything running in stock just the way the parts came. Nothing has been over clocked or modified as of yet.
My rig so far:
Case: NZXT Switch 810 Matte Black
CPU: Intel i5 3570k
Mobo: Asus Maximus V formula
GPU: Asus GTX 670 DCII (Non top version, possibly adding another card in SLI in the future)
RAM: 16gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz in red (4 x 4gb)
PSU: Corsair AX850
SSD: Intel 520 series 120gb (I have my o/s and games on this one)
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB (For storage of photos, music etc)
DVD: LG GH24NS90.AUAR50B 24x Super Multi Internal DVD Rewriter
O/S: Microsoft Windows 8
Keyboard: Steelseries 6Gv2
Mouse: Steelseries Sensei
So far I have the Rig all built up and working running all stock settings.
Also currently I only have the stock fans set up but just re-jigged the position a little bit.
I have removed the bottom hard drive cage and the bottom bracket.
I have one stock fan on the top at the back of the case on exhaust, one at the back of the case moved as far up as possible on exhaust, one at the front of the case on the top fan fitting and one at the bottom next to the PSU.
Now that I have a working rig my next project is to get all the water-cooling and aesthetic side of the case modified and complete. Once I have a rig which can handle the pressure thrown at it, I plan to start delving into over clocking the CPU and GPU and possibly adding a second GPU to run in SLI.
Okay here is where my questions begin.
I have 4 topics of question:
1. Motherboard power connection
2. Aesthetics
3. Water-cooling
4. Fan set-up and airflow
1. Motherboard power connection
Starting with a very simple question, how to connect power to the Mobo.
From what I can see the Mobo comes with 4 power connections.
1x 24-pin eATX Power connector
1x 8-pin eATX Power connector
1x 4-pin eATX Power connector
1x 4-pin molex EZ_Plug
Currently I have the 24-pin and the 8-pin plugged in and everything seems to be running fine, but what is the other 2 connectors for? Should I plug these in too?
2. Aesthetics
As you guys can see with the Maximus V Formula Mobo, the Asus GPU and the red ram sticks my PC is predominantly all black inside with red accents.
This is the colour scheme I want to stick with, black with red highlights to catch the eye.
I don’t want to go too overboard on the RED RED RED colour scheme and have a washed out look inside though and I want to be careful of overusing the red colour.
As you already know the NZXT Switch 810 case has a massive window on the side which is what I wanted and love, but this also means I need to take that much more care with how it looks inside.
I have a design idea in my head that I have been sketching out. However, having not built a rig before I’m just a little concerned what might seem like a good idea on paper might not actually look good once implemented so I wanted to pick your brains and experience.
My train of thought is istead of going down the typical LED fan route, I plan to get fans that are more focused around performance and silent operation than just choosing ones because they come with LEDs on them.
Also I feel sticking with the red colour scheme and illuminating the inside of the case with red lights will actually give me a washout affect and ruin the image I’m going for.
So I plan to illuminate the case with white light and provide the red accents.
The red accents I plan on using are:
The red from the Mobo
The red Ram chips
Water-cooling pipes running red water
Red braided power cables for the Mobo and the GPU.
What do you guys think?
Now I found a photo of someone else’s build which is actually more or less the impact and colour scheme I wanted to have.
This is almost my ideal finished look.
Also I am considering having red light accents similar to the photo in the link above.
The mesh running along the bottom of the case, and having a red glow at the front of the case coming from the little triangular mesh at the bottom. If I were to do this, how do I do it?
Would this look weird and would it be better to keep the front of the case looking stealth black having no lights coming from it? Also I’m concerned about light leaking from the air vents down the side of the front fan cover and from the top of the case from the air vents, would this look weird? I’m worried that it would look really odd and ruin the external aesthetics of my build.
Another big concern I have is that when I look at a lot of the photos of other people’s build with LED’s illuminating the inside of the case, there seems to show a very sporadic light with flares and partial patchy bright zones like this one
How do I avoid this and have it looking more like the white NZXT case above and hence what is the best way to illuminate the case from the inside?
Final question on aesthetics is my GPU being heavy and only held up at the front at the expansion slot and in the middle with the PCI slot, the rear end of it is sagging down slightly. But if I see other people’s build even with bigger cards it’s perfectly perpendicular. How do you keep the cards supported like this?
3. Water-cooling
There are water-cooling channels on the ASUS Maximus V Formula Mobo that runs around the CPU block. So I plan to make use of this and have the CPU, Mobo and GPU set up in the watercooling loop.
From researching online it would seem that the loop order I need is Pump -> Reservoir -> Radiator -> CPU -> Mobo fin thingy -> GPU -> Back to pump.
The thing that is difficult for me to get my head around and understand is what size radiator is required for the amount of items on the loop.
So currently I have the CPU, Mobo, GPU I want in the loop plus maybe an extra GPU in the future.
Would a single 240 or 280 60mm radiator up top running a push pull config be enough for this or do I need to either try to squeeze in a 360 radiator up top or instead possibly get a second radiator on the bottom?
Also linked to the Aesthetic side of things, for the water running inside the watercooling loop, I would like to have it looking very much Ferrari red (instead of a pinkish light red colour).
Does this mean I just need to add more die into the water and use a clear tube, or do I need to use a red colored tube?
4. Fan set-up and airflow
Finally, as I mentioned all the way on the top, currently I only have the stock fans set up but just re-jigged the position a little bit.
I have removed the bottom hard drive cage and the bottom bracket.
I have one stock fan on the top at the back of the case on exhaust, one at the back of the case moved as far up as possible on exhaust, one at the front of the case on the top fan fitting and one at the bottom next to the PSU.
This is what I’m planning to do:
Run a radiator 240 or 280 up at the top right at the back in a push pull config if space allows for it. Add another fan at the top towards the front of the case just exhausting.
Have the fan at the rear of the case exhausting.
Have the 2 fans at the front and 2 fans at the bottom of the case.
Have 1 fan on the top HDD cage pitched towards the GPU and CPU for better airflow direction.
Like this
Now I know that this might be overkill, but then again this is as much as a hobby then just trying to push maximum benchmarking performance.
That gives me a total of 11 fans if I run push pull, and 9 fans if I don’t run push pull on the radiator.
How do you control so many fans?
Am I better off plugging them straight into a molex and into the PSU and running full power all the time?
I have looked at fan controllers online but all of them seem to only support 4 or 5 fans. How do I get this number of fans on there?
Also is this a good airflow configuration in regards to positive / negative airpressure?
Thank you so much everyone for your patience and support.
Min x
You can even fit a 420 up there. But you have to make sure the rad is flat on one side. Because these aplhacool rads have plugs on the top and bottom and are thicker so they wont fit (bit hard to explain :S).
