First 'Real' Rig. Blue Snow

[EddWills95]

My first real-ish gaming rig.

Not had this for long at all, literally finished it, to the way i like it today
Really enjoyed building this one, and saving up for all the parts, still a long way to go though:
- Need a new graphics card, saving up for the 7870 Tahiti LE (not sure which vendor yet though)
- Looking at a better water-cooling solution, possibly a whole custom loop, still not entirely sure, but don't want to go overboard. Its only an Phenom

Components:
- Fractal Design Case Define R4 USB3 White with Window
- Asus M4A87TD EVO
- AMD Phenom ii X4 Black edition 965
- Cooled by a H60
- 8GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
- Corsair 600GS (loved the blue fan )
- OCZ 120GB Vertex Plus SSD
- 320GB Standard HDD (can't remember the make)
- Just threw this in there too, just incase - TP-Link Wireless-N150 PCIe card

- Asus HD 6670 (Really want to change this when i can)

So yeah thanks for checking this out

I'd love to hear your ideas on a possible name other than Blue Snow (my pathetic play on Purple Rain )

And if anyone's got any suggestions with regards to upgrade parts or anything like that i'd love to hear from you

Cheers
Edd

 

[pcjunkie429]

Looks good man. The only things I would do is 1. Try to bundle the cables coming out of the PSU together and push them up behind the mobo tray area a little more, and 2. Buy some blue (or white, but I think since the case is white that blue would look better) Bitfenix Alchemy extensions for the 24 pin, 6/8 pin PCIe (when you upgrade the GPU), and 8 pin EPS cables, if you have the room back behind the mobo tray to run them, that is. That would make it look cleaner, IMO. Not bad for having just finished it though.


On the name, what about Arctic Frost? (hence the white/blue color scheme)

Cheers :beerchug:.

 

[EddWills95]

Sounds like a great name

Yeah i love the PSU but the lack of modular-ness is a bit of a pain, cause there are a hell of a lot of cables coming out of there. I'll have a go today and sorting them out.

And the blue extensions sounds like a great idea. I'll def look into that. Blue ones will just make it look that much cleaner.

 

[JordRiach]

Nice build dude! Whats your average temps with the h60? looking into one for my i7

 

[EddWills95]

at idea its like 26. To work out under load i need to run a program to run for a while to give you a good idea, if you've got any free suggestions i can run it for a few hours tonight.
and i'll have the fans at med.

 

[JMMP]

Not bad!!!! Not bad at all!!!!!

 

[EddWills95]

cheers

 

[pcjunkie429]

at idea its like 26. To work out under load i need to run a program to run for a while to give you a good idea, if you've got any free suggestions i can run it for a few hours tonight.
and i'll have the fans at med.

The majority of people here use either Prime95 or OCCT for stress testing. I recommend OCCT, because it's more than just stress testing, it has a hardware monitor in it also.

You can download it here.

Cheers! :beerchug:

 

[alpenwasser]

Nice work mate. Same suggestions as above, plus one more: Running the tubes for the H60
above instead of below (so, rotating the H60 180 degrees). Don't know if that's possible though
with regards to spacial restrictions.

But yes, nice build!

 

[EddWills95]

I'll have a look at turning it up the other way, it might be a squeeze though

also with the OCCT i was running it for 30 mins (had gf over and just wanted to see what it was like) and from the graphs the temps didn't get over 26C i'll post the picture i'm looking at in a sec. but if anyones got any settings that i can leave to run overnight (or whatever's appropriate) to get an idea for temps?

 

[EddWills95]

This is what i'm looking at. no idea what the hell i've done wrong, if anything

This (which i've just done,with an OC CPU, just to try and raise the temps. and cause i was going to anyway) seems more like it.

Still i was somehow expecting it to get a bit higher than like 43C ...i'm a real beginner to overclocking though so who knows. i've been trying this evening with regards to that too, and i can't seem to get the voltages right . but i guess thats for another thread ..

 

[andrevautour]

I like the Fractal R4 a lot. nice looking system!

 

[Mgutierrez33]

Definitely a nice system (all things considered... *stares at video card for a sec*). LOVE the R4 chassis. If I read the above comment correctly, you are concerned that your temps are not as high as you think they should be?

 

[EddWills95]

hahah yes the video card needs to go asap ! well i don't know i just was looking at and one of the graphs didn't move at all from 26c, so i just got a bit confused ;p
i really want to look into overclocking more though. for my cpu to 3.9Ghz atm, probably done it all wrong but its pretty stable, but as soon as i push it more the pc seems to have a mental breakdown

 

[Tripp]

i really want to look into overclocking more though. for my cpu to 3.9Ghz atm, probably done it all wrong but its pretty stable, but as soon as i push it more the pc seems to have a mental breakdown

it may be your motherboard fella, i don't have an 8-2 power phase changer so i cant push past 3.9ghz just a thought

 

[EddWills95]

okay, that may well be it, i guess if i was hoping for some serious OCing then i should have gone with ROG MB or something

switched the H60 the otherway up, seems to be okay, managed to fit it all in okay

Anyone know if i would be able to change the LED in the front though, kinda bugging me that its red all of a sudden

 

[EddWills95]

Updates

Finally updated my crappy gpu, i did actually have a 5450 running in there as a temporary card as i sold off the 6670

Its now a powercolor 7870 Tahiti which seems to be running really well, after having restled with Windows 8 for a bit

(Had to do the refresh a few times as it kept stopping at 5% cause i clearly had a crappy install of windows sitting on my pc :/)

Anyways
So thats in there

and i found some cheap Corsair SP120's on ebay so snatched them up.

Become a bit addicted to looking for new things to go in this now i desperately need to get a job and not keep selling off all of my stuff

 

[EddWills95]

Updates

Hey guys

So i've updated the GPU finally to a Powercolor 7870 tahiti

i've also got a hold of some 120mm SP corsair fans which are now on my H60
(Wondering if my airflow is okay now, got the one in the top pulling air out and one in the bottom pulling air in)

Wondering whether it would be worth turning my PSU up the other way as its pulling air away from the Graphics card. and its going to be cold air its pulling away too as thats going to be at the bottom. Just an idea

Had an absolute nightmare with Windows 8 though. Had to refresh and then reinstall it twice now. So annoying. Seem to get the blue screen wayy to much.

Anyways just showing off my new GPU

Oh and also ! got to ask. need to try and find a way of controlling my fans. I can't seem to work out SpeedFan. :S

Cheers guys

(Can't upload photos for some reason)

 

[AverageNinja]

Nice! About the SP fans in top and bottom, SP fans are meant for tight spaces (coolers, radiators). Get Corsair AF fans for airflow and for controlling the fans, get a fancontroller
The Bitfenix Recon is nice

 

[EddWills95]

haha okay i was thinking more in the way of software. but i guess that could work too