Sandy Bridge Upgrade

[daantjuh44]

Hi everyone,

This will the buildlog of my long overdue upgrade, which is also my first ever build !

I started out with:

• Intel Q6600
  
• Stock cooler
  
• ASUS P5B
  
• Nvidia 8800 GTS
  
• Kingston valueram DDR2 2GB
  
• Unknown Case
  
• Unknown PSU
  

Which turned into:

• Intel Core i7 2600k
  
• Noctua NH-D14
  
• MSi P67A-GD65 B3 stepping
  
• Nvidia 8800 GTS
  
• Corsair Vengeance DDR3 CL8 8GB
  
• NZXT Phantom White
  
• Corsair AX750
  

A picture of the goodies:

This all started with the trickiest bit of the entire assembly, removing the heatsinks of the ram.

It had really sticky glue all over it so I had to spend a good hour and a half cleaning all the goo of the ram !

After that I placed the CPU in its socket and mounted the motherboard in my case

Now to install the trusty NH-D14:

Installed the brackets first.

Shortly after I found out I had mounted the brackets to have the cooler pointed upwards, which should of course be sidewards !

Now for some NT-H1

After that I attached the monstrous heatsink !

This is it for now I will post pictures of the rest of the build later !

 

[sheroo]

Cool! Are you going to remove the 2nd drive cage near the psu? Are you going to remove the 2 side fans, and place a single fan in the front instead? What drive(s) are you going to use, ssd I hope?

 

[daantjuh44]

I have removed the second hard drive cage and mounted one of the 120 mm side fans in the front. I also have a second 200 mm in the roof.

I will still have one side 120 mm fans because I want all of the led's on the fan controller to light up haha.

I have the NH-D14 attached to the fan controller too instead of the 200 mm side fan. I could attach one of the noctua fans to the side so I have all led's and remove the 120.

I only have a 1 Tb samsung drive at the moment. I really want to upgrade to a SSD but I´m running short on cash haha. That´s why I upgraded the most important bits first !

 

[sheroo]

I'm really becoming a fan of these white cases, I know TTL has a bit of thing going on with them as well hhmmm!

 

[daantjuh44]

Yeah I actually bought this case because of TTL's review !

I absolutely love this case, as the saying goes once you go white you never go back hahaha.

 

[sheroo]

Still happy with my red phantom, but I think my next case will be one of these. I actually change cases more often than components...

 

[Karlos_the_n00b]

Looking good. Keep the pics coming

 

[badtaylorx]

think youll bite the bullet and spring for a new gfx card???

 

[daantjuh44]

@badtaylorx : I have my eyes on the MSi GTX580 Lightning but I have other priorities first.

Here is a picture of the old card:

I did some cable management before I bought some NZXT individually sleeved cables but I wasn't all that happy with it. Here's how it was looking:

As you might have guessed I redid it !

Here is what I did with the Noctua fans:

I couldn't get it any tidier than this.

Here is a picture of the very nice sleeved cables!

This is how it looks from the front:

I love the fact that some of my friends were wondering if it would actually work because there are not a lot of cables visible.

And the all important back!

Not 100% happy but it will have to do.

I got a real shocker when I tried to turn my computer on after redoing the cables. It would boot up if I use the motherboard power switch but wouldn't turn on when using the buttons on my case.

I thought I cracked the cables for the buttons since the HDD led and Power led were working.

It turned out that I had connected the front panel connectors to a serial port connection haha !

 

[sheroo]

Like your white sata cables.

Its all about the details - nice...

 

[HeaT]

Looks very nice

Just need to upgrade that gfx card!

 

[daantjuh44]

I ordered the MSI N580GTX Lightning yesterday !

Guess what happened a few hours after that. My PSU broke down !

So today I will be receiving my new gfx card and I will be sending my PSU back haha !

 

[sheroo]

I ordered the MSI N580GTX Lightning yesterday !

Guess what happened a few hours after that. My PSU broke down !

So today I will be receiving my ne gfx cards and I will be sending my PSU back haha !

Woot that AX750? I thought they were meant to be ultra reliable...

 

[daantjuh44]

Yes thats one of the reasons I bought it !

 

[sheroo]

7 year warranty! Was happened to it? I'm interested because I've got the 850.

 

[daantjuh44]

My computer just turned off all of a sudden.

When I tried to turn it back on it switched off before it was even able to turn the fans.

When I put my ear against it it produced a high pitch sound that died down after a while.

 

[sg12004]

nice rig

 

[daantjuh44]

Thanks

Wish I could use it haha !

 

[AshleyColes]

Shame about the psu

 

[daantjuh44]

I received the replacement PSU today.

I opted for the slightly "bigger" AX850.

I also received my gfx card last week. It turned up with a small scrape on the cooler, so I emailed the company to make sure that wouldn't get me into trouble if I ever had to RMA the card.

They basically told me that they couldn't promise that so I had to RMA the graphics card too !

It's a shame really, couldn't wait to try it out.