Hi there.
So I've had my system for nearly a year now. I've been loving playing all the latest games on Ultra and being able to churn though work and other multitasking with ease. My 1st computer that a friend built for me in 2008 (Core2Duo/9800gt/4gb ddr2 etc) certainly was fine for a while, but once the GPU starting making weird artifacts then not booting, I did the oven trick once, but realised my time was running out.
I had a great time teaching myself with YouTube and forums like this how to build my own rig for myself from scratch, and am quite proud of my baby.
But....
When I did it I had no concept of cable management, so although it ran quite smoothly, it looked liked a dog's breakfast internally. I also felt that the Raven 2 case could get much better temps (especially important down the track when I want to dip my toes into overclocking) I had to get in there and tidy this up.
Also, not being able to play really any new games since about 2010 had meant that I had a lot more catching up to do that I had originally thought, and 256gb was running out very quickly. It was time to double up and go RAID 0.
So my tax return arrived and it was time to tinker....
So altough this "project" is pretty measly compared to the crazy watecooling/modding etc shenanigans that more experienced users on here do, I was still pretty happy with how it turned out.
I'm pretty happy with this for now. I'll probably chuck another GPU in there for SLI once the "next gen" games start coming out.
Specs:
Rampage IV Formula
i7 3930K
16GB Corsiar Vengence LP
EVGA GTX 670 FTW
2 x Crucial M4 256GB RAID0
WD Green 2TB
NZXT Havik 140
Silverstone Strider 850W Gold Evolution
Silverstone RV02-E USB3
So I bought one of these,
and a pack of these.
This is how it looked originally.
And inside....Yuk!
Dust paradise
Avert your eyes...
And around the back....Yeah, I'm surprised I even got the side panel on.
So I had my one drive in this funky little spot here, which seemed like a good idea @ the time, but actually meant that I needed an extra power cord from the PSU just for this drive and the optical drive.
So I decided to remedy this by uncrewing the HotSwap drive bay addapter and use it for the optical drive and power it off the molex that I needed for the blue case LED.
Much better.
And around the back again. Here you can see my new drive arrangement, with all 3 running off the same power lead and looking very tidy.
Here you can see the molex situation a bit better.
And here too, you can see it bunched up and tied, then velcroed to the side, above the hard drive cage.
Taa Daa
So I've had my system for nearly a year now. I've been loving playing all the latest games on Ultra and being able to churn though work and other multitasking with ease. My 1st computer that a friend built for me in 2008 (Core2Duo/9800gt/4gb ddr2 etc) certainly was fine for a while, but once the GPU starting making weird artifacts then not booting, I did the oven trick once, but realised my time was running out.
I had a great time teaching myself with YouTube and forums like this how to build my own rig for myself from scratch, and am quite proud of my baby.
But....
When I did it I had no concept of cable management, so although it ran quite smoothly, it looked liked a dog's breakfast internally. I also felt that the Raven 2 case could get much better temps (especially important down the track when I want to dip my toes into overclocking) I had to get in there and tidy this up.
Also, not being able to play really any new games since about 2010 had meant that I had a lot more catching up to do that I had originally thought, and 256gb was running out very quickly. It was time to double up and go RAID 0.
So my tax return arrived and it was time to tinker....
So altough this "project" is pretty measly compared to the crazy watecooling/modding etc shenanigans that more experienced users on here do, I was still pretty happy with how it turned out.
I'm pretty happy with this for now. I'll probably chuck another GPU in there for SLI once the "next gen" games start coming out.
Specs:
Rampage IV Formula
i7 3930K
16GB Corsiar Vengence LP
EVGA GTX 670 FTW
2 x Crucial M4 256GB RAID0
WD Green 2TB
NZXT Havik 140
Silverstone Strider 850W Gold Evolution
Silverstone RV02-E USB3
So I bought one of these,
and a pack of these.
This is how it looked originally.
And inside....Yuk!
Dust paradise
Avert your eyes...
And around the back....Yeah, I'm surprised I even got the side panel on.
So I had my one drive in this funky little spot here, which seemed like a good idea @ the time, but actually meant that I needed an extra power cord from the PSU just for this drive and the optical drive.
So I decided to remedy this by uncrewing the HotSwap drive bay addapter and use it for the optical drive and power it off the molex that I needed for the blue case LED.
Much better.
And around the back again. Here you can see my new drive arrangement, with all 3 running off the same power lead and looking very tidy.
Here you can see the molex situation a bit better.
And here too, you can see it bunched up and tied, then velcroed to the side, above the hard drive cage.
Taa Daa
Last edited:
