It has been a long time since I have built my PC (like nearly 2 years), however it has changed so much from what it was on day 1, I to make a log of its evolution.

Originally I intended the PC to be a build it and forget about it thing, as there was no intention on spending more money on something that was already very capable at the time (dual 760's and an ivy bridge i7 for 1080p was real nice), however as time went by, my PC became partially a test bench for me to try out things, that I had never done before/ intended to do.

Coming from a gaming laptop, the ability to do anything I wanted to do, slowly made me spend more and more time on it trying to get to just the way I wanted it, and even though the path I chose to get there might not have been the most efficient (time, and money wise), it let me get exposure to what worked well, and what did not.

Thankfully though, after nearly 2 years, I think it is at a stage where I'm proud to call it my PC.

This is my Parvum 2.0 build. That took quite a while to plan. Quite a few Aussie $$ to pay for. And around 15hrs to put together.

This was my 1st real attempt at a custom water cooled PC. Designed & built by me

Parts include:

CPU                        Intel i5-4570 3.2ghz. Carried over from previous comp

GPU                        ASUS Direct CUII OC nVidia GTX 680 2gb

Board                     ROG Maximus VII Gene

Ram                       16gb Geil Evo Potenza Black 2400mhz

Power                     Seasonic G Series 650w 80 plus Gold

Network                  Intel 7260 Wireless AC / Bluetooth

SSD Drive              Intel 730 series SSD 256gb

Storage                  Seagate 3tb & WD 2tb

CPU Block              EK Supremacy EVO

GPU Block              EK FC770 GTX DCII Acetal/Nickel

Reservoir               EK X3 150mm

Pump                     Phobya DC12-260 PWM

Radiators               Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 & XT30 240mm

Fittings                   Alphacool 16/10 Compression Deep Black

Tubing                   PrimoChill Primoflex Advance LRT Clear 3/8 x 5/8

Fans                      4 x Noctua NF-F12 120mm 2000rpm PWM Industrial

Coolant                  EK Ekoolant Pastel Red

Cabling                  PCCG Sleeved Extension Kit Red

Filters                    DEMCi Flex Magnetic 240mm

Controller              Deepcool Fanhub 4 port PWM

ROG Gene board

Geil Evo Ram

Looking down on Board, Ram, CPU Block

Painted GPU Backplate

Phobya Pump

Noctua Fans, Pump & CPU Block

EK GPU Block

Radiators & Resevior

Hard Drives Mounted

Board Mounted

Headphone Jack I Mounted

Rad & Fans Mounted

Fan Controller. All 4 fans off the CPU Header

Power Supply

Graphics Card

Leak Testing for 24hrs

No Leaks   Pump blocks will be changed to black

Thats all the photos I have taken so far. Few small things to tidy up.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

This was my 1st go at a custom watercooled PC.

Have had on the All in One type coolers before.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Almost silent at idle with the fans running at 650 rpm.

Slight fan noise when playing say GTA V with temps for CPU at 52c & GPU at 49c

Fans are still less that 1000rpm. Could get cooler temps, but with more fan noise

Thanks for looking

So, I've never had a cube case before and have always overlooked them. That was until i stumbled upon the LTT unboxing of the Corsair A540 and it was an eye opener. After a lot of research and forum browsing i found the white version and just couldn't resist.

Most of my old build will be going in the case for now with a few things in the post and there is a lot more planned for the future.

Parts list

CPU: Intel i7 4790k

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 

Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1

GPU: EVGA Nvidia GeoForce 780 Ti Superclocked

RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance

Storage: 1TB Samsung EVO 840 SSD, 250GB Sandisk SSD and a 2TB Western Digital External HDD for files i rarely use

Case: Corsair AirFlow 540

Plans

Another 780 Ti

Another 1TB SSD

Custom water cooling

Kingston HyperX RAM (white)

White braided cables

Blue lighting

Quieter fans

First part to arrive is the BitFenix Recon White Edition which will be going in this weekend. Hopefully some of the other bits will be here tomorrow so i can start throwing it together.

Building my first PC. Just wanted to check and see if what I have planned to get is correct

i5 Quad-Core processor LGA 1150 

EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB 

ASRock B85 Anniversary LGA 1150 Intel B85 

Corsair VS450

Corsair VENGEANCE 4GBx2 

Western Digital 1TB HDD 

Asus DVD-RW

NZXT Guardian 921

If you have any tips that will not alter the price in too much a way, please let me know! 

I know, I know... I should really get off my a$$ and build a PC, but you know, Linus's videos are too good, I'm lazy as hell, and school really gets in the way...

Anyway, I've officially decided to go with an Intel i7-5820K and ASUS STRIX GTX 980 build. I'll hopefully be starting to buy parts pretty soon...

Here's the current parts list: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/MegaATVLover/saved/#view=tMc7YJ 

Just a quick picturedump of my current gaming rig that I never get time enough to game on...

I wanted to get the ultimate aircooled computer since I live in Sweden where cooling comes naturally three quarters of the year.

Pictures got crazy big. I apologize for that.

Hardware is as follows:

Case: Silverstone FT05
Motherboard: Sabertooth Z77

CPU: Intel 3770K

RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866Mhz 16gb

GPU: 2x Galax 980 HOF

SSD1: Intel 520 180gb

SSD2: Samsung 850 pro 1TB

PSU: EVGA G2 Supernova 750w

CPU cooler: Noctua NH-D15

This is my new Gaming PC; Fortis

This PC can play on High/Ultra settings in 4k/5k.

Let's start!

CPU:

Intel Core i7-5930k 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor

You're maybe asking why I did not choose the i7-5820K variant, that's because that only has 28 PCI Express lanes instead of the 40 on the i7-5930K. I want both cards to use 16 PCI Express slots.

Suggestions are not needed anymore the build if FINISHED, I can't take picture because I currently have an iPhone 3GS, because my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge fell

hi everyone

this is my build log of my Corsair 500R build

i chose 500R as my canvas because this case has lots of potential 

and as i have surfed the internet only a few (or i think no one) has

fully moded 500R before, so here i am fulfilling my second mod

(the first one was a fail, it was 300R  )

so this is my case i am converting this normal layout to 90 degrees layout

now im cuttung for the back plate where my 240 radiator will be mounted

I believe I fried my CPU with too much overvoltage. Oops.

So I'm looking to get a new CPU.

I had a i5 4690k, but I can spend more.

I am back with another build 

For those who know the Core 2 Extreme build which i did for only 40 bucks.

well the Gigybyte board which i replaced my MSI P31 with had a Q6600 installed ,but since i swapped it out with the QX6800, it didn't have a board to go with.

And then it dawn to me.

My ACRyan 3 mini is not playing some of the subbed animes because the subbers use a different subtitle format which is not accepted by the player, which mean i am watching anime minus the subs on my 46" TV not exactly nice

So this build is pretty much re-purpose the Q6600 to become the anime player machine

Initially the build was suppose to be inside a Silverstone ML04 slim casing,but when i went to look for the casing at Sim Lim Square, there wasn't one to be found, either they are out of stock or not available anymore.

Instead I have to settle for the CoolerMaster Elite 344, the second bummer is the slim CoolerMaster Gemini II M4 cooler was not available as well and instead i have to get the Xigmatek Apache III 

So this was the final build of the PC

On the mobo box test, everything was running well and stable, but the interesting part which surprised me was the BIOS OCed my Q6600 to 3GHz without me touching the settings 

It's FSB was bumped from 266 to 333MHz 

I took a second look at the BIOS readings and yes I wasn't blind, it was indeed 3GHz and will down clock to 2GHz at idle 

Installed the Kingston SSD and fired up the PC to install Windows 8.1 

I decided recently to do a new build. My goal was a budget i5 4670k build. Why this i5? Pretty simple, I got it for $50. My friend upgraded his cpu to a 4790k recently and didn't want his old i5 to go waste and didn't want to go through the hassle of selling to a stranger. He never overclocked it and it was watercooled for its life. How much did I spend in total? About 1100 now.....

Before I move forward with the story I will address the title. I went into my local microcenter with an entire list of parts picked out and it was going to be a glorious $400. So how did I end up at almost 3x that? Same way most of us do when we have credit cards... (and yes I can afford to spend it though I probably shouldn't have. Also broadwell is compatible (from what i read) with the 1150 socket so I figure I'll upgrade to an i7 at some point since I use my 2 gopros a lot.  Anyway this is my parts list.

CPU - i5 4670k

Like I already said my friend sold it to me really cheap.

Mother Board - GA-Z97N-WIFI Mitx

I originally picked out a budget $50 mitx board that I couldn't overclock and didn't have build in wifi. Although I plan to keep this wired to a router, my friend and I do LAN parties every once in a while so I decided that with the cost of the Wireless ac card and the fact that I wanted a mitx I decided the extra money was worth it (a common theme just wait for it).

Memory - 16gb EVGA 1600mhz 

I planned on doing 8 gb originally but the more I thought about it the more I realized I hover around that limit on my laptop all the time. So I spend the money to double the memory.

Graphics card - MSI overclocked 960 4gb

I was going to spend 120 on a 750ti. Why a 750ti? Because it is cheap and can run the games I play often at very reasonable framerates at medium to high. Remember I was planning a budget build. I ended up with a 960 because well for 40 more than the 750ti there was a decent amd card which would have been worth it.... Then for 40 more I could get a 960 which is (for 1080)  very worth it. Then at some point I realized i was spending 200 and went why not another 50 for 4gb and it pre overclocked with a double fan and extended heat sink. I figure this would last me at decent setting into the 1440p realm and someday I plan on getting a 980 anyway. I couldn't justify a 970 given the price bump and how little it would do for my current 1080 monitors.

Storage - Samsung Evo 250gb

Planned on a 120gb and ended up with a 250gb.... I was already overspending elsewhere and figured why not..... I have a 1tb WD blue somewhere but might get a 3tb one later.

Case - Coursair 380T

I picked a thermaltake Core V1 for 45 at first. When I started to think about the cpu I realized my friend water cooled it. How is this relevant? Because he didn't have the stock cooler. Since he didn't have the cooler I decided to buy a H100i gtx. A watercooler? Yes overkill. Why? because I wanted to overclock. Wait so how does this change the case? At this point again I was spending way more anyway I figured I would get a very pretty case that I have been wanting for a while now instead of the budget case that would have just worked. Plus the thermaltake couldn't support the dual 120mm radiator.

Cooler - Coursair H100 gtx

Just told the story above but ya its pretty... and expensive . Also I didn't buy any other fans because the case came with both a 140 intake and a 120 exhaust.

Powersupply - AX 760

This is a godsend for me. I originally purchased a cx550m for a decent gold rated one but my friend had this 760 left over from a build he did for a friend that took so long that he couldnt return the power supply that was coming close to not enough. (He build a $3000 system that the guy originally wanted a single card and then decided he wanted triple SLI) So ya I picked this up for 1/3 of the price which now that i think of it brings the cost of this project to 900ish after rebates.

The actual build process

The build is almost complete but its actually a very tight build. The more I look at it the more I realize my big fingers are going to hinder me. The biggest thing is that both the video card and the water cooler each take up an entire side leaving no access. The water cooler is going in first as the way I have turn the actual cooler part means it needs to extend beyond the other side panel. The problems is it that its right next to all of the cables need to be plugged into the bored. I have one big complaint about the case. The wires from the front panel aren't labeled + or - except for two individual leads. This means that when I get the cooler in they better be right. Over all it looks like its going to be an extremely tight fit.

Hello folks,

I asked some people in the forums about my build and it's finally over.

I would like to thank everyone who assisted me in choosing the components to make this a monster as is.

here are the pics.

My next phase will be to custom water cool the CPU with some very nice other touches. I am still learning about water cooling so I can't rush into that yet.

btw one of the pictures is before I replace the cables with green sleeves and I think I still need to do a better job at cable management.

What do you guys think?

Do you have any suggestions?

here is the list of my components.

MOTHERBOARD: Asus rampage extreme V.

GPU: 2x EVGA GTX TITAN X SLI mode.

CPU: Intel 5960x.

Cooler: Kraken X61 "I know it's suppose to light up it's just that I can't find anywhere to connect it without sacrificing one of my USB ports"

RAM: Dominator Platinuim DDR4 2666 MHz with Dominator upgrade kit.

SSD: Samsung 1TB evo 850

HDD: WD black 2TB

PSU: Corsair AX 1200i

Case: Corsair 760t "black edition"

Guys, tomorrow (18th of May) I will be building my PC once it gets delivered.

Pictures and everything.

The build will consist out of :

Fractal Define R5

RM1000

Asrock X99 Extreme6

I7 5820K

Nepton 240M

G.Skill 16GB DDR4-2400 (Red)

2x MSI GTX 980's based off reference design (rear exhaust)

Crucial M550 512GB SSD

ASUS ROG Swift and a 27" LG IPS monitor.

Some laptop HDD's

I'm excited guys.

Building my first PC. Just wanted to check and see if what I have planned to get is sufficient, I will be doing some gaming, nothing too serious, as well as minor video editing, and some photoshop work. My budget, I want to stick around $600, and was wondering what CPU would be the best for what I am planning to do, also am curious as to if the GeForce 750 would be sufficient? 

CPU - ?

GPU - GeForce 750Ti, or GeForce GTX 960

ASRock B85 Anniversary LGA 1150 Intel B85 

Corsair VS450

Corsair VENGEANCE 4GBx2 

Western Digital 1TB HDD 

Asus DVD-RW

NZXT Guardian 921

CPU:AMD FX 8320 (the build is on hold as it arrived broken awaiting a replacement) 

CPU cooler: Akasa Evo 33

MOBO: ASUS M5A78L-M USB 3

GPU: XFX R9 290 DD Edition 

HDD: 1 Tb sshd

CASE: Zalman z11 plus

RAM: 8 Gb crucial ballistic ram (2x4gb)

PSU: 750w Arctic blue+

All for around £600 (including a few internal adapters and a keyboard and mouse).

Good deal or not? (Edited no OC)

I'm glad to say I only spent around $450 for this build. It can handle pretty much any game on the market at high to ultra settings with no problems. Be sure to let me know if anyone has any tips or suggestions for improving this build or what I should do first. (PC Part Picker didn't have my exact power supply so I picked one that was close)

 - Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor

 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

 - Asus P8Z77-V LK ATX LGA1155 Motherboard

 - G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

 - Intel 160GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

 - MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card

 - Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case

 - Insignia 520W ATX Power Supply

 - Windows 7 Ultimate

 - Acer G246HLAbd 60Hz 24.0" Monitor

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YTQGMp

I figured now would be a great time to stop lurking and start posting on the forum here, as I am starting a new PC build for the next few weeks to come.

I am going off to University next year, and wish to have a no-compromise, small form factor, beast of a machine to bring with me to go to some LAN parties and also save on space while living is residence on campus. This is not my first PC build, so I do have some experience putting a system together, but building in the NCase M1 is going to be an exciting challenge for me to take on. I am currently selling my old system in order to subsidize the cost of this build, so I will be receiving parts in the next few days/weeks and will try to take photos as each part comes in. Some of the parts from my old build will carried over into the new one, such as the GPU, RAM, and HDD. Anyways, here is the build I have speced out:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3

Cooler: Noctua NH-D9L

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97N-Wifi

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB

SSD: Mushkin ECO2 120GB 

HDD: WD Green 2TB

GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 970 Strix

PSU: Silverstone 600W SFX

Future Upgrades:

GPU: Either a GTX 780ti or 980 with a reference cooler

GPU Cooler: Arctic Accelero Hybrid II 120

RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) - Not sure which brand yet, will decide when buying

Let me know what you guys think so far.

Hi, this will be my first post rig build at LinusTechTips Forum, and I'll try my best to show what is interesting about the build that I have here. 

But first, here is my case in its final form

As long as you guys have read, the Mentis is an SFF good looking case and pretty much good for anyone seek for (one of) the smallest form factor that you can get out there while not burn a hole in your pocket. I have seen some of the builds of the cases, most of them keep the case fully intact from the outside, or flip the back of case to invert the mobo, or some even drill hole on top of the case to help with the GPU, so what's the deal with this case? It has problem with airflow. It has one active 120mm fan hole on the back and 1 active exhaust for the PSU, passive side vent and...

WAIT? THAT'S IT? YOU TELL ME TO PUSH ALL THE HEAT FROM MY CPU AND GPU THROUGH MY PSU ?

REALLY?

I was not happy to realize that when I open the box 

(fyi, I have the DIYPC version, essentially the same stuff, just really ugly plastic feet and no windows)

But let me show the specs first:

CPU: Intel 4690K @4.4GHz - 1.210V stable
Cooler: Corsair H55 with Corgar 120mm Votex PWM

Mobo: ASUS Z97i Plus

RAM: Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8GB 1600MHz  

GPU: Sapphire R9 270 - 1025MHz core - 1450MHz RAM

PSU: Corsair CX500M 

Extra fans: Noctua NFA9x14 92mm x 14mm | Prolimatech PRO-USV14 140mm  x 14mm Ultra Sleek Vortex  (explain later)

WHAT HAPPENS?

So, install the CPU in, overclock it to 4.4GHz, smoothly,  not big deal, then I start to overclock my GPU a little bit, and guess what, 30 mins of trying Far Cry4

(I know, this set up is enough for high 1080p setting v-sync) 

the GPU itself gets as high as 85C and fan spins at 80%, which, to some people, it's ok, and yea, ok enough to make sunny side egg on the top panel lol

My wild guess was because of the design of the top panel,hot air keep circulating around the GPU (left diagram below) instead of flowing down. and it seems the PSU has to keep up too hard with the heat from the CPU (only choice as the default CPU fan set up has to be intake).

I decided to step up and spin up my Dremel 3000.

My quest will be to improve the airflow of the case,

decrease temp on all components if possible,

 and most of all, keep the case its original sleek looking. 

Here are 3 diagrams that I draw to check my airflow theory. 

Top left - Wild guess of the GPU airflow

Top right - theoretical airflow if top fan install. 

Bottom left - my final airflow after I put another 92mm fan on the bottom of the case

Bottom right - The do-no-try-at-home theory testing. I used my case 120mm included fan, hook to the extra fan controller and let it run on top of the GPU (worked) with help of 2 eraser pieces.....

After the theory crafting. What I did was:

1. Make a cardboard top panel, stick the stock 120mm fan on it (top left below)

2. Test

3. Not happy

4. Cut a 140mm fan hole on top of the case, stick the Prolimatech 140mm fan on it (bottom left below)

5. Test

6. Kinda happy

7. Make the 3rd diagram

8. Cut another 92mm fan hole on the bottom of the case, stick the Noctua 92mm on it (top right below)

9. Test

10. Profit

Here is the test result for anyone interested

Remember though, I tested the 1st-5th + 7th test at the same day, when it was kinda cold outside, about 15C

The 6th test was done on a hotter day when it was about 20C outside, at least +5C ambient temperature different.

I let the PC idle 15 mins after start-up, run Furmark and Furmark CPU Burner at the same time for next 15 mins

Then let the pc cool down for about 30 mins, which I was really lucky that the day I tested those tests, ambient temp

was really stable. 

I did included how I set up fans for the case as in the Revision details, they're there! : D

Bonus: The case itself is dead quiet idle and a bit airy underload. I'm extremely satisfied.

​the GPU fans also, never reach 45% speed opposed to 80% we get from the original set up.

Any why quiet? Simple, more fan, lower speed, also 3 of the fans I used are all the quiet ones la la.

So there you have it (I, duh), a really capable machine (you can swap 4790K with a 970 mini into this case easily) that in a tiny SFF case like this, everything's temp are under control, quiet and cool.
What else can I ask for? 
Well... a dustless room since now I have to cover both my intake fan with dust filter, and the top filter make it look so ugly..........

Oh, and I swap the original fugly feet with some feet I made from screws and Sugru to bring the levitating effect for the case and also improve the airflow

Photos: 

just a little show case of my keyboard and size comparison.

My little secret - Non-residual artist tape is best choice to stick fans without making screw holes : P