The Girlfriend's Rig/Impressions on the Seidon 120M

[Mgutierrez33]

In the interest of remaining a fully active member of this community, and given that my original rig took a crap on me (stupid 2600K... stupid...), I figured I would post my girlfriend's computer in the interim since I also maintain, upgrade, and tune it for her.

Name (of the rig, not the girlfriend x-P): (unknown)
Specs:
CoolerMaster CM 690II nVidia Edition
Rosewill HIVE series 750 W semi modular PSU (gotta touch up the bit of paint that got scraped off from my old Lian Li case)
Gigabyte 990FX UD3
AMD FX 8320 O.C. to 4.2 Ghz
16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 Mhz
Galaxy GTX 670 (reference, boosts to 1110 Mhz by itself O_O)
Seagate 500 GB storage
Seidon 120M AIO cpu cooler
all fans are OEM CoolerMaster units except one Lian Li 140mm in the roof

I apologize for photo quality. All I have is my phone camera and I definitely don't have ANY leftover cash to get a decent camera :-(.











Admittedly, the cabling bothers me in this case mainly due to the top cable slot being horribly exposed. I am also aware that the OEM cabling looks haggard as fook on this PSU; custom braiding will wait until she decides to upgrade her case (she wants something yellow next... glad she picked an EASY color... -_-) Sadly the one issue this case has is a lack of space behind the motherboard tray to effectively bundle cables together... but Nikki (THAT'S the girlfriend) loved this case, and whatever baby wants, baby gets! We COULD have gone with a dual rad for this sort of cooler, but I am getting to why we are fine with this one.

The CoolerMaster Seidon 120M was on sale at the local TigerDirect store, and it was damn near christmas time. I got this and the 8320 on the same day. Originally the intent was to leave everything at stock (it HAD to be better than her old 4100 -_-). When I got everything installed, I figured on toying with a modest overclock to see what this cooler could really do. Set it to the boost clock speeds of the 8350, got it stable at 1.36V, and this was the end result after 30 min of Prime95 (after clicking the thumbnail, click the image again to get the full size):



Ambient temp was 19.4 C at the time of testing. Honestly I was a bit shocked to see temps that good (albeit a bit on the inaccurate side... AMD and all). Installation was a BIT of a pain due to the lack of flex the tubing gives you, and given that there is only one way to tell that everything is screwed in the same way: while screwing everything in (a pain in itself since everything is spring-loaded), keep an eye on the backplate of your motherboard and check to see how far in each of the screws is going. Once they are all threaded and look to be even without wanting to jump threads you're good to go. This is also using the OEM thermal paste that comes with it (which you must apply yourself) and having not lapped the cold plate before installing. The pump itself is a bit noisy with the side panel off, but once it goes on I only hear the gentle rush of air... except for the OEM fan for the 120M... SOLID performer, but under full stress it can get a BIT chatterey, just not irritatingly so. For the price, if you're looking for solid, quiet cooling that keeps it's composure most of the time, shows well and has a unique look to it, I'd give this one a shot. Only things that detract are the noise of the fan under full bore and the spring-loaded screws (though that's also a good thing depending on how you look at it, so meh).

Future plans for this rig include two CoolerMaster green LED 140mm roof fans (non SickleFlow to match the rest of the lighting in the case), a Xonar Essence sound card, a 128 GB ssd (she is reluctant to do a full blown reformatting at the moment, and I can't say I blame her), and a second Galaxy GTX 670 when the time calls for it. The goal of this machine is to do some light usage of music editing software (wants to try her hand at making some dubstep/house/trance) and gaming at 1080P with near max to max settings. She uses a Naga Hex for her mouse, and since she has super tiny hands she has an old Enermax small form-factor keyboard with a black aluminum body.

So that's her rig. Upgraded with some of the parts from my old rig, does what she wants it to do the best possible way it can, looks the way she wants it to look, and ultimately that's what counts. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

 

[Gamepro105]

Ive not seen a rig in this case, it looks great!

 

[jamesriley94]

Ive not seen a rig in this case, it looks great!

Really? It's a very common case...

Looks good anyway! Nice and tidy.

Lucky with the 670 though, my Galaxy 670 EX OC couldn't even keep stable at 1090mhz. But considering how quiet the fans on mine were, I let that slide.

 

[Mgutierrez33]

Really? It's a very common case...

Looks good anyway! Nice and tidy.

Lucky with the 670 though, my Galaxy 670 EX OC couldn't even keep stable at 1090mhz. But considering how quiet the fans on mine were, I let that slide.

Thanks for the compliments! yeah I really did luck out with that card. I never noticed what it was doing until I got curious about it's operating temps and checked it out whilst running Metro 2033 with that card in my old rig. It was auto boosting itself to 1110.5 Mhz and capped out at 80 C. A bit hotter than I would have liked, but given that it NEVER got any hotter than that and kept relatively quiet despite having a reference-design blower fan I was VERY pleased. Even more so now that it can still be put to good use (wouldn't make sense to chuck it into my backup build since it's using her old FX 4100 x-P).

You'd be surprised how difficult this case was to find in Florida. I had to order it straight from the Cooler Master store, and when I went to go check on it the following week they had none in stock. No other retailer sells it near me, either. It would up being a very fitting Valentine's Day gift last year along with the motherboard and RAM x-)

 

[Mark3Max]

A very nice looking rig , tidy cables and a nice overclock.
Good Job.

 

[BPRSM]

Looks good, you could put some cable ties on the 2 PCI power connectors to make it a bit better

 

[Mgutierrez33]

Looks good, you could put some cable ties on the 2 PCI power connectors to make it a bit better

lol yeah I plan on taking care of that this weekend at some point. never got around to doing it before because just getting all the cables to plug in properly was a pain. Everything would up being EXACTLY the right length... if they had needed to travel any farther I would have been forced to buy some extenders, and frankly I didn't feel like waiting on those parts.

 

[Gamepro105]

Really? It's a very common case...

Looks good anyway! Nice and tidy.

Lucky with the 670 though, my Galaxy 670 EX OC couldn't even keep stable at 1090mhz. But considering how quiet the fans on mine were, I let that slide.

Yeh I've never ever seen one, i wanted that case for a while but i decided on the 600t. but i went to London at yo-yo tech and dident like it as much as the 600t so i guess i haven't looked really. but this looks great!

 

[Mgutierrez33]

Yeh I've never ever seen one, i wanted that case for a while but i decided on the 600t. but i went to London at yo-yo tech and dident like it as much as the 600t so i guess i haven't looked really. but this looks great!

If I had to pick all over again I honestly would have had a hard time making the choice. While this one offers immediately usable accommodations for twin 240 rads, it's cable routing behind the motherboard tray is pretty tight. Plenty of loops to use for zip ties to be sure, but not a lot of depth to work with, so if you route your cables JUST the wrong way, your panel will bulge out. The 600T, on the other hand, has AMPLE room for running cables by comparison. Even though the measurements aren't too terribly far off, the fact that the side panel naturally has a dome shape to it means you get just that little bit more to make all the difference. Plus the CM 690II doesn't come with grommets for the cable openings. Then the 600T, though it has the same kind of roof accommodations, lacks the room for an additional rad apart from a 200mm in the front without doing some case modding (which we ALL love to do x-P). Then there's the built-in fan speed controller in the 600T, though it's only particularly useful if you keep the case in it's stock form since it's only good for exactly four fans. Cost was a factor too, since I spent roughly 88 US dollars for a brand new 690II, and about 140 on the 600T. CURRENTLY, the money situation would make this one a no-brainer, but if funding were not an issue it would be a harder decision for me honestly.

 

[jamesriley94]

If I had to pick all over again I honestly would have had a hard time making the choice. While this one offers immediately usable accommodations for twin 240 rads, it's cable routing behind the motherboard tray is pretty tight. Plenty of loops to use for zip ties to be sure, but not a lot of depth to work with, so if you route your cables JUST the wrong way, your panel will bulge out. The 600T, on the other hand, has AMPLE room for running cables by comparison. Even though the measurements aren't too terribly far off, the fact that the side panel naturally has a dome shape to it means you get just that little bit more to make all the difference. Plus the CM 690II doesn't come with grommets for the cable openings. Then the 600T, though it has the same kind of roof accommodations, lacks the room for an additional rad apart from a 200mm in the front without doing some case modding (which we ALL love to do x-P). Then there's the built-in fan speed controller in the 600T, though it's only particularly useful if you keep the case in it's stock form since it's only good for exactly four fans. Cost was a factor too, since I spent roughly 88 US dollars for a brand new 690II, and about 140 on the 600T. CURRENTLY, the money situation would make this one a no-brainer, but if funding were not an issue it would be a harder decision for me honestly.

I disagree with that...pretty much entirely.

If you route your cables properly, you have no issues with the side panel. Also, if you tie up cables like the 24 pin too tight, then that'll make it thinner and taller, which obviously then will make it bulge. When I had mine, I used multiple cable ties to flatten the 24pin using the 2 different anchor points, and it was fine. It takes a little more planning to cable manage well, but when it's done, it's absolutely fine.
Also, the rubber grommets... Some versions of the case come with the grommets, others don't. Mine was the Lite version, and so it didn't. But a mate of mine got the advanced and his came with them. Obviously yours is the special edition nvidia one, which given the price, you'd have thought it would come with them, but obviously not.

Even if you don't manage your cables well, if you put your case on the side, with gravity to help with the door, as it's a hinged kind of design, it's easy to just push down and get it on.

The fan controller isn't any issues for me - as fan controllers shouldn't be used anyway.

Overall, given the case is like 3/4 years old now, it's still my favourite mid-tower case out there. Build quality is great, windowed side panels are available cheaply, HDD cages can be removed, everywhere is dust filtered... In the UK you can get the Lite version for under £60, whilst the 600T is £140. I'd always rather save that money to spend elsewhere.

 

[SnW]

Looks good, you could put some cable ties on the 2 PCI power connectors to make it a bit better

Normally i would agree but with that side panel he (gf) has, i don't see the point rather then airflow,
but that isn't bad either............

Lucky Girlfriend buddy

Ray........

 

[Mgutierrez33]

I disagree with that...pretty much entirely.

If you route your cables properly, you have no issues with the side panel. Also, if you tie up cables like the 24 pin too tight, then that'll make it thinner and taller, which obviously then will make it bulge. When I had mine, I used multiple cable ties to flatten the 24pin using the 2 different anchor points, and it was fine. It takes a little more planning to cable manage well, but when it's done, it's absolutely fine.
Also, the rubber grommets... Some versions of the case come with the grommets, others don't. Mine was the Lite version, and so it didn't. But a mate of mine got the advanced and his came with them. Obviously yours is the special edition nvidia one, which given the price, you'd have thought it would come with them, but obviously not.

Even if you don't manage your cables well, if you put your case on the side, with gravity to help with the door, as it's a hinged kind of design, it's easy to just push down and get it on.

The fan controller isn't any issues for me - as fan controllers shouldn't be used anyway.

Overall, given the case is like 3/4 years old now, it's still my favourite mid-tower case out there. Build quality is great, windowed side panels are available cheaply, HDD cages can be removed, everywhere is dust filtered... In the UK you can get the Lite version for under £60, whilst the 600T is £140. I'd always rather save that money to spend elsewhere.

^The wisdom... of a man. You are correct, of course. I DID manage to get all of the cables in the right place with this rig (obviously) and there's no buldge in the side panel, just awkward with this particular PSU given how the cables are bunched together. Fan controllers are vastly a matter of opinion I think. Voltage reducers typically do the job just fine, I agree, but for me personally I just like having that little bit of on the fly control at my disposal; It also depends on the noise levels of the fans selected, since if the right fans are in place there shouldn't really be a need for a controller to begin with I suppose x-). Yeah I just checked the pricing again on the cases stateside: for the non-nVidia edition that comes equipped with USB 3.0's it's 90 bucks, for the 600T it's roughly 130. 40$ us is almost 8 gigs of 1600Mhz ram, so yeah .

 

[Gamepro105]

If I had to pick all over again I honestly would have had a hard time making the choice. While this one offers immediately usable accommodations for twin 240 rads, it's cable routing behind the motherboard tray is pretty tight. Plenty of loops to use for zip ties to be sure, but not a lot of depth to work with, so if you route your cables JUST the wrong way, your panel will bulge out. The 600T, on the other hand, has AMPLE room for running cables by comparison. Even though the measurements aren't too terribly far off, the fact that the side panel naturally has a dome shape to it means you get just that little bit more to make all the difference. Plus the CM 690II doesn't come with grommets for the cable openings. Then the 600T, though it has the same kind of roof accommodations, lacks the room for an additional rad apart from a 200mm in the front without doing some case modding (which we ALL love to do x-P). Then there's the built-in fan speed controller in the 600T, though it's only particularly useful if you keep the case in it's stock form since it's only good for exactly four fans. Cost was a factor too, since I spent roughly 88 US dollars for a brand new 690II, and about 140 on the 600T. CURRENTLY, the money situation would make this one a no-brainer, but if funding were not an issue it would be a harder decision for me honestly.

Defiantly true i chose the 600t based on me getting my h100i and just wanting a large case that have a fan controller built and and i love the rubber grommets and all the little touches on the 600t even the mount that holds the psu its a beautiful case with plenty of room that's why i chose it and spent that little extra. also i now have an amd 7950 so kinda feel stupid if i didn't put a nvidia card inside!

 

[Mgutierrez33]

Just an update to this thread since I haven't done anything with it for a while: not really wanting to turn this into a build log since this is pretty much the last thing being done to the computer for a bit, but next week we'll be getting some BitFenix Alchemy Green braided cable extensions as well as some additional 140mm green nVidia Edition fans for the roof. I'll post pics once it gets installed. I also changed out the 80mm fan on the motherboard tray side panel for a SilenX iExtrema fan, as the CoolerMaster unit's bearing failed within two weeks and made the most noise in the chassis. With that iExtrema in place, the only thing that makes much of any noise now is the roof fans. Once the nVidia green LED fans go in the system should be extremely quiet and have a nice green glow to it.

 

[Mgutierrez33]

UPDATE:

This'll be the only update for this particular computer since after this it'll be a different chassis and WILL require a build log, but I got some BitFenix Alchemy cable extensions and some duplicate copies of the 140mm green LED fan that comes with the case to finally bring it to where she wanted it to be. I'd say, all things considered, the build looks properly good now

Again, apologies for the poor image quality. Now that the PC is done I'm kind of living paycheck to paycheck at the moment until debt gets paid off, so only camera phone for me.










And some images with the lights out

 

[alienware]

Nice. Huge fan of green and black here.

I'd absolutely love to build my fiancee a PC but she's just so into her laptop it would be a waste of money