goatbloke46
New member
Ok so here goes with a little illustrated story about the evolution of my first 'proper' PC (and the evolution of myself as I learn dark techy ways) ... or more simply put .. my first rig build ... you might wanna grab a cuppa if you're interested as this could go on (and on and on) for a while ..
It starts with a bloke who for years and years enjoyed gaming on consoles and wouldn't have it any other way. Thats me
Yeah I also had a PC, but just a bog standard second hand ex-office pc off ebay for £60 .. just for surfing, social networking etc. Then something changed .. all of a sudden I found myself needing a better PC that could handle HD streaming (thanks to BBC for losing TV coverage of MotoGP!!!!). So I worked out a budget of around £250 for a low end PC that could do what I wanted and nothing more. I got some advice and bought a new ZooStorm PC from Ebuyer ...
It had an MSI mobo, AMD A8-5600K APU, 8GB of 1600MHz RAM, 230W PSU, 1TB WD HDD and thats about it ... simple and basic. I threw an 80mm noctua fan in the case for exhaust and also popped in 8GB of 2133MHz Mushkin Blackline RAM as I read that APUs respond really well to faster RAM.
So this setup was ample for a few weeks .. but the bug had bitten .. I had to tinker ... there was potential there. It played on my mind. The more I read about rigs and PC tech online the deeper I fell into it all. I had to explore the potential of what I'd bought!! The rig was sorely missing a GPU and for one of those it would need a better PSU .. so ...
In went a brand new Zalman 450W PSU and a lovely EVGA GTX750Ti SC 2GB I also upgraded the APU cooler for a Thermalright AXP100 Muscle and mounted a 120mm Noctua NF-F12 Focus Flow fan on to it (had to remount the earlier 80mm Noctua on the outside of the case!!). The rig was now running quite nicely and the GTX750Ti was a HUGE improvement on the radeon graphics integrated into the APU. I could game on this thing .. to a similar standard as my PS3 .. whoa ... I hadn't expected that! This was good In fact that little GTX750Ti was so good that it even overclocked to a massive 1407MHz boost with a little tinkering in PrecisionX!! What a cracking GPU!
So after a couple more weeks I felt the next thing that was needed was a proper case with some cable management options and some room for future mods and upgrades. I'd also researched SSDs and decided one of those would be a good upgrade. So I bought a 240GB Kingston SSD and a Corsair Carbide 300R case ....
Ahhh now we have room to improve and can keep things a touch tidier I ditched the 120mm Noctua from the AXP100 APU cooler and refitted the original 100mm fan that came with the cooler .. it was more efficient, the noctua blew too much around the heat sink rather than through it .. the 100mm fan was perfect And as for the SSD .. without doubt the single best upgrade you can buy for a PC. The difference in speed was phenomenal!! Everything just works so much better and smoother with an SSD Awesome stuff!
But ... I still wasn't happy. The addiction of PC tech had really really badly taken hold. I sold my PS3!! My beloved console gone!! Now I had to rely on my rig for my gaming fix ... I needed more power ... more money had to leave my wallet
In exchange I got these ...
Now we're getting serious
Asus ROG Z97 Maximus VII Ranger mobo .... Intel i5-4670K CPU ... Corsair H100i AIO cooler ....
What a difference that made eh? A serious improvement all around in looks and performance. The mobo is fantastic, the CPU is tbh average for a 4670K (OC to 4.3GHz and thats about as far as it wants to go.. but then I'm still learning the world of OCing so maybe able to tweak more out of it yet), the water cooler is superb..... I was then gaming at near as dammit PS3 standards but could do soo much more than a simple console. Job done .. gaming rig built ....... or was it .....
Seduction .. thats what I'm blaming it on ... bloody seductive, gorgeous, more powerful graphics cards. I kept sneaking little looks online .... quietly reading reviews .... dreaming about bigger and better things than a GTX750Ti ...
Then this happened ...
EVGA 850W Gold+ PSU with 10 year warranty
Inno3D GTX770 iChill HerculeZ Ultra X3 4GB (possibly the longest name for a graphics card ever!!!)
And I bought some Aerocool DeadSilence blue LED fans for the radiator too ...
Ahhh ha ha ha Now its getting really good Fast as a really fast thing in everyday use, multi tasks better than anything I've ever owned and games beautifully .. wipes the floor with PS4 I can get 1080p 60fps in pretty much any game at ultra settings no worries (only have a 1080p 60hz tv so going over 60fps is pointless). One happy chap sitting right here.
And now I think it's finished ... well .... it was ... until things got a bit warm with the sunny weather and what not. The Aerocools on the radiator whilst being very very quiet even at full whack simply dont move enough air with enough pressure for a rad in warm ambient room temperatures. So I got a pair of the brand new Noctua NF-F12 IndustrialPPC PWM fans .. put those on the rad and moved the Aerocools into the front of the case ...
And thats how my rig sits right now From basic and small beginnings to fairly decent and competent rig. I rebuilt the original ZooStorm rig, chucked a 320gb HDD in it and sold it on for £200. Hopefully it will inspire it's new owner (my nephew) to tinker and upgrade and get into the whole rig building thing.
So thats it. Full (current) final spec list for my rig is as follows ..
Corsair Carbide 300R case,
Intel i5-4670k CPU @ 4.3 GHz,
Asus ROG Z97 Maximus VII Ranger motherboard,
Corsair H100i Hydro cooler with Noctua NF-F12 IndustrialPPC PWM fans,
Inno3D GTX 770 IChill HerculeZ X3 Ultra 4GB graphics card,
8GB Mushkin Blackline 2133MHz RAM,
EVGA SuperNova G2 Gold+ 850W PSU,
Kingston V300 240GB SSD,
WD Blue 1TB HDD (with Sharkoon VibeFixer mount),
2 x Aerocool Dead Silence 120mm blue LED fans,
1 x Corsair standard case fan 120mm,
Generic DVD/CD RW drive,
Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit,
Edifier PrismaBT speaker set.
Displaying on a Samsung 32" 1080p 60hz LCD TV.
Whats it cost me as it stands now?? .. about £1300 roughly - give or take a few quid. With hindsight I'd do things differently but this was a path of experimentation and education .. I didn't know what I'd need and what the kit was truly capable of until I'd tried it and various combinations of set up. To me it seems a fair price to pay for everything I've learned and the rig I've ended up with
The next things I'm planning are more RAM and then possibly a custom water loop .. getting a block for that Inno3D GPU may be an issue though .. but then the new 8 series GPUs are out in October ... Hmmmmmmm ... lol
Thanks for reading through all that. Hope you found it interesting and or entertaining and I hope ya like my rig (if ya don't thats fair enough, everyone has different tastes) .. what do you guys rekon for a first effort?? .. considering that 4 months ago you could have written everything I knew about PCs and custom builds on the back of a first class stamp!
It starts with a bloke who for years and years enjoyed gaming on consoles and wouldn't have it any other way. Thats me
Yeah I also had a PC, but just a bog standard second hand ex-office pc off ebay for £60 .. just for surfing, social networking etc. Then something changed .. all of a sudden I found myself needing a better PC that could handle HD streaming (thanks to BBC for losing TV coverage of MotoGP!!!!). So I worked out a budget of around £250 for a low end PC that could do what I wanted and nothing more. I got some advice and bought a new ZooStorm PC from Ebuyer ...
It had an MSI mobo, AMD A8-5600K APU, 8GB of 1600MHz RAM, 230W PSU, 1TB WD HDD and thats about it ... simple and basic. I threw an 80mm noctua fan in the case for exhaust and also popped in 8GB of 2133MHz Mushkin Blackline RAM as I read that APUs respond really well to faster RAM.
So this setup was ample for a few weeks .. but the bug had bitten .. I had to tinker ... there was potential there. It played on my mind. The more I read about rigs and PC tech online the deeper I fell into it all. I had to explore the potential of what I'd bought!! The rig was sorely missing a GPU and for one of those it would need a better PSU .. so ...
In went a brand new Zalman 450W PSU and a lovely EVGA GTX750Ti SC 2GB
I also upgraded the APU cooler for a Thermalright AXP100 Muscle and mounted a 120mm Noctua NF-F12 Focus Flow fan on to it (had to remount the earlier 80mm Noctua on the outside of the case!!). The rig was now running quite nicely and the GTX750Ti was a HUGE improvement on the radeon graphics integrated into the APU. I could game on this thing .. to a similar standard as my PS3 .. whoa ... I hadn't expected that! This was good In fact that little GTX750Ti was so good that it even overclocked to a massive 1407MHz boost with a little tinkering in PrecisionX!! What a cracking GPU! So after a couple more weeks I felt the next thing that was needed was a proper case with some cable management options and some room for future mods and upgrades. I'd also researched SSDs and decided one of those would be a good upgrade. So I bought a 240GB Kingston SSD and a Corsair Carbide 300R case ....
Ahhh now we have room to improve and can keep things a touch tidier
I ditched the 120mm Noctua from the AXP100 APU cooler and refitted the original 100mm fan that came with the cooler .. it was more efficient, the noctua blew too much around the heat sink rather than through it .. the 100mm fan was perfect And as for the SSD .. without doubt the single best upgrade you can buy for a PC. The difference in speed was phenomenal!! Everything just works so much better and smoother with an SSD Awesome stuff!But ... I still wasn't happy. The addiction of PC tech had really really badly taken hold. I sold my PS3!! My beloved console gone!! Now I had to rely on my rig for my gaming fix ... I needed more power ... more money had to leave my wallet
In exchange I got these ...
Now we're getting serious
Asus ROG Z97 Maximus VII Ranger mobo .... Intel i5-4670K CPU ... Corsair H100i AIO cooler ....
What a difference that made eh? A serious improvement all around in looks and performance. The mobo is fantastic, the CPU is tbh average for a 4670K (OC to 4.3GHz and thats about as far as it wants to go.. but then I'm still learning the world of OCing so maybe able to tweak more out of it yet), the water cooler is superb..... I was then gaming at near as dammit PS3 standards
but could do soo much more than a simple console. Job done .. gaming rig built ....... or was it .....Seduction .. thats what I'm blaming it on ... bloody seductive, gorgeous, more powerful graphics cards. I kept sneaking little looks online .... quietly reading reviews .... dreaming about bigger and better things than a GTX750Ti ...
Then this happened ...
EVGA 850W Gold+ PSU with 10 year warranty
Inno3D GTX770 iChill HerculeZ Ultra X3 4GB (possibly the longest name for a graphics card ever!!!)
And I bought some Aerocool DeadSilence blue LED fans for the radiator too ...
Ahhh ha ha ha
Now its getting really good Fast as a really fast thing in everyday use, multi tasks better than anything I've ever owned and games beautifully .. wipes the floor with PS4 I can get 1080p 60fps in pretty much any game at ultra settings no worries (only have a 1080p 60hz tv so going over 60fps is pointless). One happy chap sitting right here.And now I think it's finished ... well .... it was ... until things got a bit warm with the sunny weather and what not. The Aerocools on the radiator whilst being very very quiet even at full whack simply dont move enough air with enough pressure for a rad in warm ambient room temperatures. So I got a pair of the brand new Noctua NF-F12 IndustrialPPC PWM fans .. put those on the rad and moved the Aerocools into the front of the case ...
And thats how my rig sits right now
From basic and small beginnings to fairly decent and competent rig. I rebuilt the original ZooStorm rig, chucked a 320gb HDD in it and sold it on for £200. Hopefully it will inspire it's new owner (my nephew) to tinker and upgrade and get into the whole rig building thing.So thats it. Full (current) final spec list for my rig is as follows ..
Corsair Carbide 300R case,
Intel i5-4670k CPU @ 4.3 GHz,
Asus ROG Z97 Maximus VII Ranger motherboard,
Corsair H100i Hydro cooler with Noctua NF-F12 IndustrialPPC PWM fans,
Inno3D GTX 770 IChill HerculeZ X3 Ultra 4GB graphics card,
8GB Mushkin Blackline 2133MHz RAM,
EVGA SuperNova G2 Gold+ 850W PSU,
Kingston V300 240GB SSD,
WD Blue 1TB HDD (with Sharkoon VibeFixer mount),
2 x Aerocool Dead Silence 120mm blue LED fans,
1 x Corsair standard case fan 120mm,
Generic DVD/CD RW drive,
Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit,
Edifier PrismaBT speaker set.
Displaying on a Samsung 32" 1080p 60hz LCD TV.
Whats it cost me as it stands now?? .. about £1300 roughly - give or take a few quid. With hindsight I'd do things differently but this was a path of experimentation and education .. I didn't know what I'd need and what the kit was truly capable of until I'd tried it and various combinations of set up. To me it seems a fair price to pay for everything I've learned and the rig I've ended up with
The next things I'm planning are more RAM and then possibly a custom water loop .. getting a block for that Inno3D GPU may be an issue though .. but then the new 8 series GPUs are out in October ... Hmmmmmmm ... lol
Thanks for reading through all that. Hope you found it interesting and or entertaining and I hope ya like my rig (if ya don't thats fair enough, everyone has different tastes) .. what do you guys rekon for a first effort?? .. considering that 4 months ago you could have written everything I knew about PCs and custom builds on the back of a first class stamp!
