So there is a project underway to have what I would call a (slightly) modded rig to replace the Original Orca. Shes been showing signs of old age and being tired for quite a while but sadly over the Christmas period the sheer volume of work that had to be done pushed her a little too far and blue screens and smart errors from the two SSD's in Raid0 started becoming a little too frequent. Thankfully I managed to get the stupid amount of work done for NDA but I knew deep down it was time to put plans in place to retire her.
I know people will be confused as to why I havnt upgraded for 4 years but tbh I didnt want to do anything to that rig and what she stood for plus because of the way the water cooling was fitted any changes meant a total strip down!
So I needed a new rig but I still wanted something that was me and I would find happy to invest the time into it to set it up and lets be quite frank about it - share with you guys.
So first thing to decide was a case. There are obviously a lot of possible choices and if Im 100% honest if Fractal had made a white Define C that would have been on my desk in a heartbeat. The big replacement for Orca is already in progress with a 570X so I could have used the 460X but WYP the news hound was lucky enough to have me send him him that before Christmas to help freshen up his desk.
To aid with the transition I decided on getting the 400C in white, its small and compact yet will still house the kit I had planned for it plus with it being white will help me adjust to not having the original work horse on my desk!
The boys at OCUK had one in stock and after crossing their palms with silver coins, sausage rolls and a huge tub of harribo starmix the case was on my doorstep the next day!
Hardware wise I had some ideas and actually did a Facebook live show to get the thoughts of you guys about what I should do. Main choice to be made was the motherboard and using kit I had here meant an X99 Deluxe II for its white accents or the Rampage Edition 10 for its lighting. In the end the DLX II was the overwhelming choice to house the 6950X based on the white accents. With this chosen the build could start and I finally had the excuse to get my custom Asetek OC3D Edition 360mm AIO out of the loft of dreams! Fans wise I only had one possible choice, I wanted to have a wide range of RPM for both performance and silence, white LED's and to have as little noise as possible. Could only have been the Corsair ML120's and ML140's.
OS drive choice was also pretty simple. I wanted a big drive with insane speeds and no raid issues down the line. Samsung 960 Pro 2TB it had to be!
Memory wise I decided on white and red Corsair LPX to tie in with the red braided hose on the OC3D AIO but this then had me wondering about the GPU. As I use this rig more than anything else I actually robbed the Racing Rig of its white and red 1080 Strix (Ill replace it with something soon)
So with the rig built I needed to spend over a day getting everything downloaded and set up so it felt right with minimal faffing once it actually hit my desk. Problem with this notion was it actually meant taking Orca off my desk. Im still not entirely sure how I feel about it all but Im trying my best to focus and keep moving forward. Ill get her stripped and cleaned ASAP, put some new hose and coolant in and get her on the pedestal thats waiting for her in the 'filming room'
Anyways.... I had to clear the desk :sad::sad::sad::sad:
With everything out of the way I had the opportunity to change my desk lights....
Now for the big stuff. If you cast your mind back I did some stuff with three PG279's a few months back. They were not here for that review, I just wanted to share them with you all. They were actually here because they were mine, but the problem was the huuuuge WCGF monitor stand I bought could hold 4 screens. So when theres no kill like overkill OCUK came to my rescue again with an extra PG279. No where had stock but OCUK managed to find a disti expecting some and... well basically they bought them all! More doughnuts and harribo were sent along with many many beer tokens and I had my forth 27" screen.... Wait what?
So with the full retard monitor set up Ill thank you if youve read all my waffle and leave you with some pics of the rig as she sits on my desk now. I can see a few tweeks I may do now but its set up and working so Im happy. Veryy Happy. Very F' Happy!
I know people will be confused as to why I havnt upgraded for 4 years but tbh I didnt want to do anything to that rig and what she stood for plus because of the way the water cooling was fitted any changes meant a total strip down!
So I needed a new rig but I still wanted something that was me and I would find happy to invest the time into it to set it up and lets be quite frank about it - share with you guys.
So first thing to decide was a case. There are obviously a lot of possible choices and if Im 100% honest if Fractal had made a white Define C that would have been on my desk in a heartbeat. The big replacement for Orca is already in progress with a 570X so I could have used the 460X but WYP the news hound was lucky enough to have me send him him that before Christmas to help freshen up his desk.
To aid with the transition I decided on getting the 400C in white, its small and compact yet will still house the kit I had planned for it plus with it being white will help me adjust to not having the original work horse on my desk!
The boys at OCUK had one in stock and after crossing their palms with silver coins, sausage rolls and a huge tub of harribo starmix the case was on my doorstep the next day!
Hardware wise I had some ideas and actually did a Facebook live show to get the thoughts of you guys about what I should do. Main choice to be made was the motherboard and using kit I had here meant an X99 Deluxe II for its white accents or the Rampage Edition 10 for its lighting. In the end the DLX II was the overwhelming choice to house the 6950X based on the white accents. With this chosen the build could start and I finally had the excuse to get my custom Asetek OC3D Edition 360mm AIO out of the loft of dreams! Fans wise I only had one possible choice, I wanted to have a wide range of RPM for both performance and silence, white LED's and to have as little noise as possible. Could only have been the Corsair ML120's and ML140's.
OS drive choice was also pretty simple. I wanted a big drive with insane speeds and no raid issues down the line. Samsung 960 Pro 2TB it had to be!
Memory wise I decided on white and red Corsair LPX to tie in with the red braided hose on the OC3D AIO but this then had me wondering about the GPU. As I use this rig more than anything else I actually robbed the Racing Rig of its white and red 1080 Strix (Ill replace it with something soon)
So with the rig built I needed to spend over a day getting everything downloaded and set up so it felt right with minimal faffing once it actually hit my desk. Problem with this notion was it actually meant taking Orca off my desk. Im still not entirely sure how I feel about it all but Im trying my best to focus and keep moving forward. Ill get her stripped and cleaned ASAP, put some new hose and coolant in and get her on the pedestal thats waiting for her in the 'filming room'
Anyways.... I had to clear the desk :sad::sad::sad::sad:
With everything out of the way I had the opportunity to change my desk lights....
Now for the big stuff. If you cast your mind back I did some stuff with three PG279's a few months back. They were not here for that review, I just wanted to share them with you all. They were actually here because they were mine, but the problem was the huuuuge WCGF monitor stand I bought could hold 4 screens. So when theres no kill like overkill OCUK came to my rescue again with an extra PG279. No where had stock but OCUK managed to find a disti expecting some and... well basically they bought them all! More doughnuts and harribo were sent along with many many beer tokens and I had my forth 27" screen.... Wait what?
So with the full retard monitor set up Ill thank you if youve read all my waffle and leave you with some pics of the rig as she sits on my desk now. I can see a few tweeks I may do now but its set up and working so Im happy. Veryy Happy. Very F' Happy!
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