Long dark tunnel.

[alienware]

OK so I figured now was a good time to start. Mostly because this is getting confusing and my head is spinning

So, already on order is.

Which should be here today. Then this obs.

Which I am praying arrives. Mum lost her CC right after I gave it back to her and this hasn't been taken for yet. We did instruct the company to let everything before today go through but I hope they don't mess it up.

Then there was this, which has apparently shipped yet doesn't show up on the CC charges yet.

Then of course this which I had to order to get the bios flashed, but I have a nice black IDE cable so if I can route it close to invisible Ill leave it in.

And then this for the top of the case (top one is plain black no LEDs and will go in the front)

And this, which has been charged for and shipped along with the case.

And then this.

Yes yes, I know I am going to get slagged off. However, the Corsair TX650 was £68. The Falal1ty is modular, 750w and has more rails and a bigger combined rail ampage and was £67. Aria are doing a one day special, 5 year warranty.

I didn't foresee having to buy a new PSU but looking over the Survivor I don't have a choice. The one I have now (specced the same as the falal1ty watt for watt rail for rail amp for amp) has a 92mm back loaded fan. The survivor is designed to use a 120mm bottom loading fan and has no air flow for the PSU. So I was worried about overheating.

 

[Mr Muggles]

wow! so you're overhauling your whole rig

You going to sell your old parts on ebay or something?

 

[SnW]

I can't believe you bought that PSU

find the case also a bit meh just my personal opinion mate

 

[killablade]

I like it and am so jealous haha

Don't like the PSU and mobo though

 

[lappy74]

What is the price of that mobo ?

Why not go with Coolermaster Mega Flow RED LED fan to fit the whole theme of the case?

But yeah I would recommend that fan I have one at the momment on my side panel and may buy another two

Loving the Heatsinks on the RAM aswell. I got G.skill Ripjaws but they sent me the blue version

I like the whole red thing you're going for. But then again I love red!

 

[alienware]

I can't believe you bought that PSU

find the case also a bit meh just my personal opinion mate

Nah that's fine dude. The case physically is a bit meh. Cooling isn't ground breaking and it's pretty basic. It's the look tho. Curves.. I can't do straight lines..

The PSU? well, yes. I'm aware that they're not the best on the earth but they're not tragic either. I spent a long time reading reviews, checking ripples, checking voltage stability and they're not bad. They're not a Seasonic or anything else but technically they're pretty decent. I know Corsairs are probably better but try to remember I didn't even want to buy a PSU nor budgetted for one. And, due to the Survivor being a tight affair inside I wanted modular. For the same spec, ampage and so on out of a Corsair you are looking at well over double the price. I paid £70 all in delivered (HUGE thanks to Aria for the deal on shipping they gave me when I phoned) but tbh I'm not about to run masses of hardware on there any way. One CPU, two hdds, a dvd and a 470.

The warranty could be a bit of a problem as I know the OCZ situ, but if it works (and I am due some luck

) then alls the good really.

As for the mobo? same deal. I'm not made of money and I live on very little. This means sacrifices have to be made (also note I have only ordered 3gb ram). It's a bloody good overclocker (I would imagine that 4800mhz out of a 950 is decent yes?) and it's a bit quirky. But, it was pretty much that or nothing.

I mean if I could I would be awaiting a 980x, UD9, triple 580s and so on but to me that's all a bit of a dream. Up until a week ago I considered myself very privelidged to have a P2 940 with a Noctua on

I just hope and pray that I haven't overlooked anything else and that I don't find I'm missing something because if I do or have it'll all have to sit in boxes until at least the end of January.

What is the price of that mobo ?

Why not go with Coolermaster Mega Flow RED LED fan to fit the whole theme of the case?

But yeah I would recommend that fan I have one at the momment on my side panel and may buy another two

Loving the Heatsinks on the RAM aswell. I got G.skill Ripjaws but they sent me the blue version

I like the whole red thing you're going for. But then again I love red!

Mobo was £100 delivered. So yeah, as I explained it was at least £50 less than any other 1366 board I could find and offers twice the feature set of a micro board costing more (MSI, £110, brown like poo).

The fan was £8. In red it was £20. Obs old stock? don't know. Again it wasn't something I took into consideration nor budgetted for. So sadly things have to give. I will no doubt snip the leds and not use them.

I looked at ripjaws (drool) but they won't go under the NH-D14. TBH I wouldn't even own a NH-D14 unless I had won it. I went skint for months when I got the Phenom 2 and had no plans to replace it any time soon.

That's why I have called this long dark tunnel lol. It could go on for a while if I come to find I have overlooked anything else. The well is literally dry and cracked up after buying that PSU.

wow! so you're overhauling your whole rig

You going to sell your old parts on ebay or something?

As of now no.Firstly it could be a couple of months before this one is finished and secondly due to me having to get another PSU and having a spare Noctua and GT 240 I can leave it complete. Due to it being in an Alienware chassis I can get more for it as a complete unit than breaking it into spares so if I do decide to shift it it'll go down like that. I will have to keep it for a couple of months any way to make sure my new rig is stable. If I lose one I have no means to RMA or anything else.. Been there, seen it, done it. It sucks terrible ammounts of backside.

 

[lappy74]

Alright, I get it now

Yeah the ripjaws have quite large heatsinks, thank god im going with a waterblock after Christmas I wouldn't be able to get another two sticks in there with my A70.

Yeah may aswell snip those leds. Red and Blue just dont go imo. Just like my Ripjaws and Crosshair IV Formula *Cries!*

 

[alienware]

Board came. I didn't realise the Sonar XFI was basically a rehoused Creative Labs XFI. Now we know who assembles Creative's cards

They must have struck up a deal with them

USB3 is a waste of time for me as I don't have anything USB3. TBH? I don't have any USB2 devices either. My webcam is 8 years old (but awesome, Intel one) and so on. If I need SATA3 I will simply get a Highpoint Rocket for £30 at a later date. So £100 is beginning to look like a bargain, especially when you consider there is a mod for this board (move a single resistor to another bank) that allows for the most ridiculous Bclks and PCIE clocks I have ever seen from an X58 board. People have had an I7 920 to over 5.5ghz on this board

And of course the lovely case

It is now officially Christmas every day for me

Everything has shipped and slowly arriving and the PSU comes by City Link later today. It's like a daydream. I've never built a computer this nice and haven't built one with all new parts like this since 1999 lol.

 

[Mr Muggles]

Canny

I wonder what Tom's personal PC rig consists of? It must change by the month with all the money he has!!

 

[alienware]

PSU got.

Fan looked kinda big, fan is big. Go go power rangers reports 140mm.

I also did a lot of research last night and came to find this is the only PSU OCZ make that isn't made by OCZ. It's made by Highpower USA and burns out at a very impressive 960w draw.

 

[lappy74]

Nicee, im looking forward to seeing everything installed

 

[alienware]

That makes two of us

I ordered some TIM today. Arctic Ceramique or some crap. Was only £3 delivered for 3.5gms.

I *think* that's everything.

Ed. Also put a load on the PSU and tested it. Works fine. Thought it better to do that now and risk a couple of old IDE drives than come to find it shorts on the board and kills that or worse.

 

[alienware]

So when I opened today's advent calender door I got this

 

[lappy74]

Damn, I wish I had your advent calender.

But congratz, how soon until we see it all ?

 

[killablade]

Hurry up already! I want to see it finished!

 

[tinytomlogan]

Canny

I wonder what Tom's personal PC rig consists of? It must change by the month with all the money he has!!

LMFAO where do you lot think all the money comes from

Check my youtube channel my rig specs are posted there.

 

[bertdasquirt]

All looks well.. i was having a look at the fatality psu but decided that i only need 650W or so... hence ive been looking at the antec true power new 650w

 

[alienware]

Well I'm not going to advise any one get a OCZ PSU but at least the Falal1ty is not made by them. It also costs the same as that Antec and is fully modular with more wattage. Rail ampage was either 4x18 or 4x19. £70 delivered. Edit though. TAKE NOTE. THE ONLY FATAL1TY NOT MADE BY THEM IS THE 750W. IT IS MADE BY HIGHPOWER USA.

I have a hospital appointment next Friday so even if every thing does come I'd rather not touch it before then. I get stressed and ratty before hospital so wouldn't want to ruin the fun. I did fit the CM fan into it today and the PSU (cos the fan needs to come out to get the 8 pin through the right place) and it took longer than I wanted it to. It is an INCREDIBLY fiddly case to work with. Getting the side panels off removes your nails and the screws for the top are black, in a black case, in very hard places. So I needed a torch and had to perform some kind of upside down gymnastic move in order to get the new fan in.

As for money? last count up showed about £490. For -

Intel I7 950.

Foxconn Bloodrage GTI X58 board.

3GB G.Skill triple channel 1600.

OCZ PSU.

Pioneer DVDRW.

200mm CM megaflow.

120mm Xilence fan.

Arctic Ceramique 3.5gms.

And anything else I may have forgotten. Either way I sold my spare Alienware for £475. So it's not really cost me anything

 

[SiN]

Well I'm not going to advise any one get a OCZ PSU but at least the Falal1ty is not made by them. It also costs the same as that Antec and is fully modular with more wattage. Rail ampage was either 4x18 or 4x19. £70 delivered. Edit though. TAKE NOTE. THE ONLY FATAL1TY NOT MADE BY THEM IS THE 750W. IT IS MADE BY HIGHPOWER USA.

I have a hospital appointment next Friday so even if every thing does come I'd rather not touch it before then. I get stressed and ratty before hospital so wouldn't want to ruin the fun. I did fit the CM fan into it today and the PSU (cos the fan needs to come out to get the 8 pin through the right place) and it took longer than I wanted it to. It is an INCREDIBLY fiddly case to work with. Getting the side panels off removes your nails and the screws for the top are black, in a black case, in very hard places. So I needed a torch and had to perform some kind of upside down gymnastic move in order to get the new fan in.

As for money? last count up showed about £490. For -

Intel I7 950.

Foxconn Bloodrage GTI X58 board.

3GB G.Skill triple channel 1600.

OCZ PSU.

Pioneer DVDRW.

200mm CM megaflow.

120mm Xilence fan.

Arctic Ceramique 3.5gms.

And anything else I may have forgotten. Either way I sold my spare Alienware for £475. So it's not really cost me anything

You aren't going to opt for 6 GB? I find my 4 GB kit even needs 4 GB more to settle me for a while.

Also, it's nice to see a BloodRage, they used to be all over the place back in the day, they are great boards.

 

[alienware]

I use X86 Windows and being a stickler for the rules I don't want to use a stolen/hacked/unlicensed Windows.

I know that in normal circumstances a serial will work with either but my serial is part of a license from a company and is limited to X86 only. Long story but I work freelance for this company sometimes and they wanted me to be completely genuine. I was happily using Vista up until that point

Reason being that anything I provide for him must work on X86 and be mainstream

Thus, there's little to no point in buying ram I simply can't use and tbh? don't need. I have 4gb in here and before that I had 3gb (2x1 2x512) and I've never ran short of ram