My PInk Gaming Rig. I don't have a name for it yet and I have complete pictures of the build from start to finish. I will show the final picture not sure if anyone wants to see the dirty details yet.

It has a custom paint job on the case, custom water loop and many goodies that are listed.   I am very Proud of my build. Well the hubby did most of the work i just get to show it off.

PC Specifications List
Hardware:
Mobo: Asus Sabertooth Z87
CPU: Intel I7 4770k Haswell Arcitecture
Ram: Gskill sniper series DDR3 16GSR CL9-10-9-28 1.5v
GPU: Nvidia 780ti Gigabyte Geforce Windforce3 3G DDR5 Ram
PCI-E 3.0 384Bit Revision 1.0 GV-N78T0C-3GD
PSU:Corsair Ax860i
Memory:
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB M2-7PD256
HDD: Western Digital Black Caviar 1.0TB
Western Digital Black Caviar 3.0TB
Cooling:
CPU: EK - Supremacy EVO - Full cover mobo - Nickle Plexi - Water Block
GPU: EK - FC780 GTX WF3 - Nickle Pexi - Water Block
EK - FC780 GTX WF3 - Back Plate - Black
Thermal Paste: IC Diamond 24 Carat
Reservoir: Alphacool single laing D5 - Dual 5.25 Bay Station
Radiatiors: Alphacool nexXxos ST30 Full Copper radiator 240mm
Alphacool nexXxos UT60 Full Copper Radiatior 240mm
Fittings: Alphacool 1/2" ID 3/4"OD - Chrome
Bitspower quick disconnect for draining
Tubing: Primochill Primoflex Advanced LRT tubing 1/2"ID 3/4"OD
Coolant: Mayhems Pastel Perfect Pink concentrate
Fans: Radiatiors: Corsair AF120 white LED quiet edition1500rpm 25.2dBA
Case: Corsair SP120 white LED 1550rpm 26.4dBA
Misc:
Case: Corsair Vengence C70 - White - Custom Paint Job
Lighting: 4" cold cathode tube (above res bay)
2x 12" Silverstone LED strip Lighting (1on top & 1 on bottom of case)

Before I start: YES, my PC is old. YES, the PSU is excessive. YES, the PC is slightly dusty. YES, the photo quality is bad. I'd like to apologize for these things before you begin.

After seven years of honorable service, my Antec Earthwatts 650w puked.

Here it is:

I've had a Corsair TX850W as a backup for a while now. It was finally it's time to shine

As always Corsair's packaging is glorious

Here it sits before anything's plugged in

With everything plugged in

And my zip tie work

And as an extra, today at an office we were cleaning out, I found an unopened mechanical ps2 keyboard (still in it's original box) and they were just throwing it away. I was using a cruddy lenovo keyboard anyways, so this was a steal. Mother threw the box away before the photo-shoot (thanks mom) but here's the keyboard itself

----NEW BUILD LOG COMING VERY SOON----

My entire system will be getting a complete overhaul to a haswell i5 soon. Will be getting a new tower completely (other than my near new PSU and my HDD)

Stay tuned for that build log and thanks for reading.

This upgrade was dawn out over roughly a year because of having to spend money on things like student accommodation and food. Originally it was going to have a 4930k with a Rampage IV Gene but thankfully X99 came around before I could afford them.

Original Rig:

i5 3570K

Corsair H40 Cooler

Corsair Carbide 400r (With modded side-panel window)

Asus P8Z77-VLX Motherboard

XFX Radeon 6870 (replaced with GTX 780 before photo in June 2014)

16GB Corsair basic RAM

Corsair CX600 PSU

2TB Segate Barracuda HDD

Christmas just gone I got a Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD and I was able to afford the motherboard, processor, RAM and PSU but not the case or a new CPU cooler so I put them into the 400r for the time being.

i7 5820k

Asus X99-S

16GB G-Skillz Ripjaw DDR4

Corsair RM750 PSU

By April I was able to afford the case and cooler but the H110i GT had been recalled so I had to wait another month before I could order them but finally it was finished with the addition of another 16GB of RAM and an AF120 in the toip which you can't see.

The build had it's fair share of problems, the case is well known for not being the best at cable managing so I had to fight with several of the cables to go where I wanted them. The hard drive had to go in the "wrong" way round because the mounting bracket had a piece of plastic that covered the connectors completely for some stupid reason. The fan spacing on the case and the H110i GT are 5mm off from each other so only half of the radiator is actually screwed in. 

Overall the build was a bit of a struggle but I am very happy with the finished result. I use it for gaming, 3D animation and video editing. Because I'm a student I am constantly moving my set-up between home and my accommodation so this is only a temporary picture but this time I had a new DX Racer Evo chair to come back too. 

What I am doing, a few years ago I challenged myself to not spend even a penny on my desktop computer till collage.

So Since I started this My computers specs have changed almost every week or so from that day on 2010 even up till now, I did have 2 times where my Specs remained consistent with solid computers.
 

Build 1 Specs

CPU: Pentuim HT (ether 3.0ghz or 4.0 ghz I will look later at the chip)
GPU: Geforce 6200

RAM: 4, 1gb ddr1 assorted ram cards

HDD: 2 random Hdd's (1 WD 250gb and 1 segate with 100gb)

PSU: Some shitty psu from the case I used (250W)

CASE: an old Dell Dimension case (will find the specifics later)

OS: Win XP Professional x64

Will take pics when i pull the thing out of storage.


Build 2 Specs (what I currently use)
CPU: i3 2100

GPU: use's Integrated graphics to drive my main display (1200x1600) and the Geforce 6200 acting as a adapter to drive my other smaller monotor
RAM: 5 Gb DDR3 assorted ram speeds and manufactures

HDD: 1 WD 500GB blue  and the Segate 100Gb from build 1

PSU: A 250W nameless psu ripped of a case I found
CASE an Lan Li Pc-62 ( http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-62/ )

OS: win 10 dev edition x64
 

Will post pics soon.


 

Both builds have had some major Getto rigging during the time I have used them, This is what I have done/did

Build 1
Makeshift rubberband Hdd Mount

Makeshift hole cutfor a front fan intake

Redone wireing

(alot more was done, will ad as i remember)

Build 2
(Original case was from some old crappy HP)

In the HP case 
So the first issue was transferring over from IDE to Sata so I scavenged a PSU with sata power from the side of the road.

2nd issue, Cooling: I took a old Lenovo Motherboard with the correct socket that the 2100 had and used its cooler.

Fans: I salvaged 2 good fans from my local dump and used those bolting them on with spare bolts I had and then splicing the fan wires to fit on the motherboard

knowticed a  dead-zone of airflow around the cpu socket causing high temps,

   Solution Used Duckttape, 2 screwdriver set cases, a diskdrive, a cd case, and more duck tape to do air flow corrections (will fine a pic ^.^ it was beautifully cringworthy)

Now that the computer was stable I installed windows 10 dev preview x64

Then the fans got too loud, so I made a Makeshift fan controller from an old electrical component kit (Will get a pic) and used alligator clips to connect it and then ducktaped the circuit together on my wall.... (I know it was a bad idea)

1 Week after the fan controller was installed: Ducktape on wall came loose circuit fell, sparks everywhere. so like any "sane person" I made another circut and attached it the same way XD (this one never failed again)

2 Weeks later, found a nice Lan Li Case

Stripped It of its motherboard and powersupply (both fryed) and all other components and installed my components 

The fans installed easly

Fans wired correctly this time

Then I needed MORE FANS! installed a fan from a old refrigerator and a large 120 on a bracket from my hdd cage made with 1 pci slot cover, 2 bolts 6 washers, 1 rubber gasket, and a wire to tie it in place to cool off my gpu.

The Floppy bay turned into a fan intake

Hope you like This I will be formatting this post, updating it, and adding pictures as I have time to do so.

I know it's not a PC, but whatever.

I bought the thing for $15 at a pawn shop yesterday and after confirming it works I ordered some things for it. Wireless controller and power supply. (I tested it using my battery pack.) I took it apart when I discovered a plastic film over the thermal pads.. (http://i.imgur.com/5IR5HKG.jpg here it is with half peeled off.) I fixed that issue and now I've got some ideas for it. I think I'll start by trying to solder in a USB SD card reader so I can load games onto one. (Including my favorite PS2 game which I still have, Test Drive Eve of Destruction.)

My goal is to have an awesome gaming/media hub that looks completely stock from the outside. Meaning no huge hole hacked into it as a "cooling mod" or USB HDD laying on top of it. I also would prefer not to have a ton of cables coming out of the back or front of the thing. I'll have the PS2 board for playing PS2 games and such, but then I'll have something else inside it for media and game streaming. Stuff like that. I have a Pi B which seems like it'd fit fine if I cut out the plastic that goes around the spinny part of the disk reader in the top cover. Then I'd have HDMI and USB extensions to the front/back of the console. Speaking of HDMI I'd like to get an HDMI converter for it and stuff it inside somehow. Thoughts?

My very first build I did about a year ago, working a part time job in hopes of getting into the PC gaming life. Has definitely changed quite a bit though. The original motherboard was an ASUS H81M-D Plus, as well as not having so many fans or LED's for that matter as well as relying on a single hard drive. I just decided to call it Project 3usi9 (Miusiku) since it's blue and has a Miku sticker on it, so, might as well have a name for it! :/ Main purpose of this? Gaming, graphics not being a concern (Though I end up playing on Ultra settings still with 60 fps ;D) Workstaiton that got me through school pretty efficiently, and something to make my room prettier. Safe to say my improvements haven't let me down. Now, onto specs.

Processor: Intel Core i5 4690

Motherboard: MSI G43-Z87 Gaming (Couldn't find a blue alternative ;-; )

Cooler: MASSCOOL 90mm Ball Bearing CPU Cooler

RAM: 2x4 Team Zeus Blue OC'd to 2400

HD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB  SSD: Crucial 250GB

GPU: ASUS GTX 750 PH-OC

Case: Enermax Ostrog

PSU: Cooler Master GXII 550

NIC: ASUS PCE-N15

FANS!!:

Enermax T.B Vegas Quad 120mm

Thermaltake 140mm x2 with antivibration corners

Enermax T.B.SILENCE 120MM Blue LED Twister

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120mm

APEVIA 120mm Multi-Color LED Crystal

There are many things I would still love to do, but as of now, this is my first build, my personal build. There will always be more to build, but this is my first. And this is why I wish to show it off. Any pointers on cable management would be killer. :L

DigitalHermit's

(not-so-hidden)

Hideout

Background

So, our house was in need of renovations in order to add capcity... Currently the house is a 55m² 2LDK with 1 toilet and bath... This little hovel houses 3 people currently, but needs to expand to make room for 2 more (and can fit up to 32 guests). Our solution? Add a room. This is less than a PC build log and more of a nerdcave/room build log since there will be very little modifications to my current gear...

The room is around 1.8288mx2.1336ft in size...

Oh... and my Sony 4kW Component System died (failed amplifiers), so I switched it out with my Kenwood 3.5kW Component system...

Pardon the crappy pictures... my A536 doesn't have the best camera...

The Materials

• 3x Galvanized Iron Tracks
• 6x Galvanized Iron Studs
• 4x 3.5mm thick marine plywood
• 1x standard PVC door
• 1x Sliding Window set
• [additional materials to be added upon need]

The Build

A dump, no? That thing on the right covered by cloth is a 1960's era (I think) Singer sewing machine that my dad restored...

The stuff on the floor on the left are the GI tracks and studs and the PVC door is visible on the right...

So first things first... We had to clear out...

Cat Barrier installed!!

CPU: AMD FX-8350 Black Edition 4.0 Ghz (4.2 Ghz Turbo)

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) SDRAM 16GB (4 x 4GB)

GPU: GeForce GTX 760 (Kepler) 4GB GDDR5

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX TX Series 650W

Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3

SSD 0: 128 GB

HDD 1: 1.0 TB

HDD 2: 2.0 TB

HDD 3: 2.0 TB

HDD 4: 2.0 TB

HDD 5: 3.0 TB

Audio: Asus Xonar D1

Optical Drive: LG Black Blu-Ray OEM Burnner WH14NS40

Mouse: Tt eSPORTS BLACK Laser Gaming Mouse 4000 dpi MO-BLK002DT

Keyboard: CMStorm Red Eddition

Headset Skull Candy Plyr-1 White

https://pcpartpicker.com/b/kq2RsY

Like if you like, or hate if you don't. Comment bellow if your feelings are more complicated than that.

Hey guys, I have finally managed to build a PC that I'm happy with. For the past few years I've been running my components in an old case from my first prebuilt pc, and they were suffocating due to lack of proper cooling. So after saving up a bit and using some of my 18th birthday money I decided to put together a proper system with proper cooling. So firstly the parts are:

CPU - Intel Core i5 4690k

I always wanted to overclock my CPU therefore I went with an unlocked i5. It has all the performance I need for a decent price. I wanted a 4790k but decided I don't really need it so in the end I went with the i5

Motherboard - ASUS Maximus VII Ranger

The only explanation I really have for choosing this motherboard over other billion Z97 ones out there is since I was like 12 I always wanted an ROG motherboard with high end features like a diagnostic LED and Start button. I don't really need some of those features but my 12 year old self called out to me and told me to get it. It also has all the features I need. 

CPU Cooler - be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3

It's extremely quiet, looks sexy and fits so why not. I was originally going to get a Corsair H110i GTX but after looking at other peoples builds i realied I really don't like the look of the tubing that comes with AIO watercoolers, it kinda just awkwardly bends over your RAM or just looks like it doesn't belong there. So for now I went with be quiet! until I save up enough for custom watercooling, which again I don't need but I would want to try it. 

GPU - Powercolor R9 290 PCS+

Got an open boxed deal on it from overclockers.co.uk few months ago for £180 so I had to get it. It's performance is more than sufficient for me for now and I will probably think about getting the GTX 980Ti when I upgrade to a higher resolution.

Case - Fractal Design Define R5

I like the simplistic look of this case and I've heard good opinions about it. I've also built a system for a friend in the R4 and found it easy to build in so I went with the windowed R5.

PSU - Corsair RM550

I took it from my previous system. I like the zero fan mode and the wattage is sufficient for me. If I need a higher wattage PSU I will probably still stick with the RM series. 

Storage - Kingston SSDnow 300 128GB, 2TB Seagate Barracuda, 1TB WD Green

The SSD is from my previous system and I got it on a sale somewhere for 30 quid. I'm happy with it for now but I probably will try to go with an M.2 SSD when I can afford one. 

1TB Barracuda is a 6 year old drive from my prebuilt system. It's still spinning so I keep my movies on it. 

I bought a new Barracuda for this system to keep my games and other files on it as my WD Green was full as well as it's ridiculously slow...

LEDS - NZXT White Sleeved LED Kit 2M

When I get paid this time I'm planning to go with a CableMod kit of sleeved Red/Black cables to replace this PSU's stiff and horrible cables.

PERIPHERALS

Mouse - Razer Deathadder Chroma

Keyboard - Corsair K70 RGB (Cherry MX Brown)

Bday present from my girlfriend. Prefer the Blue switches from my previous BlackWidow but overall I like the build quality of the K70, as well as the RBG backlight

Headphones - audio-technica M50x, Sennheiser IE80 for gaming and outdoor use as I find M50x's are not bassy enough for some games. 

Microphone - Samson C01U

After a little debate I decided to take off the Corsair Dominator Platinum Airflow fans. I'm not really overclocking my memory that hard so they aren't doing anything major other than looking pretty with different colours.

First pix is with the flash off. You can better see the Dominator Platinum memory.  I have the light bars and I managed to get some red acrylic bars instead of the blue/white they come with.  They don't POP red light it is more a subtle glow.

The second picture is with the flash on and it shows the real colour of the fluid, more of a royal blue which I'm liking.  Next week I think I'll try blood red.

FYI for those that asked the little item below the second video card is a USB hub controller.  It helps with my fan controllers and other goodies to provide perfect voltage to all USB devices.

I've got an ROG SLI Bridge in the mail coming too! No more ribbon! Tho i hope it fits next to that fitting.

Hey everyone!

This is my first on the forums!

Screen: Benq XL2430T 144hz

Speakers: Edifier C2XD ( Had them for a long time. They are all right )

Headphones: Sennheiser G4ME ZERO

Keyboard: Razer Blacwidow Chroma

Mouse: Razer Deathadder & G303 (play with it when i feel like it)

Mousepad: XPG1-L4

My PC SPECS (PS: Need to fix cables on my desk)

CPU: Intel 4770k

MOBO: Asus Maximus Formula VII z97

RAM: 16GB DDR3

GPU: GTX 980 x2 SLI (Gigabyte G1 Gaming) 

PSU: Corsair AX760i (custom sleeved cables: RED)

Storage: 2x : 120GB SSD HyperX kingston & 500GB SSD 840EVO  Samsung

Sound: Asus Essense STX Xonar (stereo)

Cooling: Corsair H100i

I tried to be clever with the title..

Well, this is a basic build log, but I feel like I'm going to enjoy it. My friend needed a new PC for about $450 ish, and although that's a decent amount of money, he's upgrading from a very crummy laptop, so I wanted to make this computer really stand out for him. He mostly renders and does editing and will need the computer for Maya, Blender, Autodesk, etc, combined with a bit of gaming on the side. With that being said, I went to look for Microcenter deals...and Lord did I find some awesome ones.

CPU/MOBO: 8320E + M5A97 R2.0 $109.99. First off, before you judge me for choosing AMD, the CPU + motherboard combo was only $109.99 before tax which is an absolute steal considering the 8320E is a 95W 8 core CPU. 

RAM: EVGA 8GB 1600Mhz RAM - $49.99. Usually I don't look for ram at Microcenter simply because it's 10 or so dollars more than Newegg or Amazon's ram, but this was fairly priced at 49.99, so why not?

GPU: ASUS R9 280X - $189.99. Since he plays Skyrim and possibly a bit of GTA V on the side, I went all out on a GPU that will fit the budget. I actually ordered this from @gpuShack and will be my first time using it, so I'll see how it goes.

HDD: 1 TB - $39.99. Again, 1TB is a good starting point and it's priced very well at $39.99

PSU: Rosewill 630-Watt Green Series 80+ Cert - $49.99. The PC will not use more than 320 or so watts on load, so this power supply is fine....I hope.

CASE: LEPA LPC306 - $34.99. Generally speaking, I go for more popular name brand computer cases, but this is an ATX mid tower with USB 3.0 and a super sexy sleek design while staying perfectly under the budget. Again, this a less used case, so I'm gonna see how well it works (I'm sure it will be fine).

CPU COOLER: Deepcool GAMMAXX 200 - Free. He already had this CPU cooler on him, so we might as well use it.

TOTAL: 474.94

CPU, RAM, MOBO Pics (will add more later):

Follow if you want more updates. Like I said, nothing too interesting...no SLI'ed Titans or Extreme i7s lol

I will update the build log with benchmarks when this is up and running.

So I'm half way through my build. Thus far:

1 Xeon E5-2695v3 (5% OC at 2.41Ghz to 3.49Ghz TB)

Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler

64GB DDR4 ECC (Crucial 4X16GB)

Asus Z10PE-D16 WS motherboard

EVGA GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0

Fractal Design Define XL R2 case 

Corsair AX1200i

1TB Samsung EVO Pro SSD

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

4 Noctua 140mm fans 

Das keyboard

Razor Chroma mouse

32" Samsung 1080p monitor

Notes:

1. First off the workstation Asus motherboard is an EEB sized board - similar in size to an E-ATX board but 2 of the retainer holes do not match up. The middle top and middle right side holes. All other holes align. I used regular mounting offsets with plastic tabs to keep it from shorting the board and maintaining board support. Don't know why it was so hard getting definitive information as to how the EEB board will align with E-ATX mount holes but there you have it. 

2. The Noctua NH-U12S keeps the Xeon between 5 to 20 degrees Celsius above ambient at idle and at full load respectively (never hit above 47 degree core temp at full load). Even in low 80's ambient it kept max temp at 47 at full load. 

3. Quick benchmarks:

  1. Geekbench 3 (32-bit trial mode) 3064 single / 35,329 multi-core

  2. Cinebench R15: 144 fps OpenGL (Single GTX 980) 2030 (CPU)

  3. 3DMark Firestrike: 13,275

  4. Linpack: 447Gflops

On order:

1. Second Xeon E5-2695v3

2. Additional 64GB DDR4 ECC memory

3. 3 more 1TB Samsung EVO Pro SSD for RAID 0 array

4. 2 WB 6TB Red HDD for RAID 1 backup array

5. Second GTX 980 for 2-way SLI

6. LG 34" curved ultrawide 1440p monitor

This isn't a gaming rig - yea I'll pay the occasional game but is mostly a financial modeling workstation with some minor content creation. I'll be swapping out the Asus Z10PE-D16 WS for the D8 model because the board design on the D16 doesn't allow for the use of one of the X16 PCIe slots because of the RAM placement for CPU 1. Hoping to throw in a couple Xeon Phi Knights Landing when they come out later this year. 

Welcome to my thread about my build, this thread will be used to represent my build and what it's going to look like.

Please be warned for now this will be used as a discussion of parts and me trying to improve the build, Of course any suggestions will be appreciated.

This is a mostly black build with white accents. Enjoy

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/YdtGYJ

Until a later date the PC build will not be complete, for now, please discuss and suggest, if you want to contribute to the build in any way, send me a personal message.

Part list:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor, AQUIRED - $300AUD

CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler, 

Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard, AQUIRED - $209AUD

RAM: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory, 

HDD: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive, AQUIRED - $109AUD

GPU: MSI MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card, 

Chassis: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case, 

PSU: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

Monitor: Undecided,

Keyboard: Undecided,

Mouse:: Undecided,(Razer Deathadder Chroma probably)

Mousepad: Undecided,

Headphones: SteelSeries Siberia V2 Full-size Gaming Headset White (Planning to upgrade), AQUIRED - $100AUD 

Subscribe to see it.

Why no graphics card? The reason there is no graphics card is because MSI hasn't released their white GPU in Australia yet for the GTX 970.

My 1st Custom build. Let me know what you guys think + any tips would be great

Lets start off with the parts:

CPU-i5 2300 (from friend for £35)

MB-Gigabyte ga-h61m-usb3h (h61 micro atx motherboard with PCI-E 3.0 and USB 3.0 support) 

Video card-GTX 560 (again, from same friend for £35)

Ram-Corsair 8gb 1333mhz 

PSU-evga 430w 80+...A tad dodgy as it's not even bronze rated but it's made by evga and reviews seems to be good for this psu

SSD-Sandisk 128gb 

HHD-seagate 750gb

Case-Zalman T4

Final cost of £202.86

Would have gotten a 750/750 ti but the 560 was only 1/3 of the price.

Final thoughts on build

needs cable management...it's just me being lazy...

still haven't decided...Server or lan machine or both...third world problems

Question, should the i5 2300 be running at 50 idle and 70ish under load with stock cooler?

Thanks for reading

P.s. I know that their GPUs were leagues better...especially that 290...but, but, my CPU... would completely destroy their core duos. This was originally going to be a server but since my friend had a 560 for that cheep, which meant that I could not resist the temptation.

Forgot to mention, I will post pictures later but not right now as I hate taking photos with my phone and my DSLR is charging.

Hello everyone!

I've been a PC enthusiast for around 3 years so it was time to build a proper rig !

So to expain the title here comes a little backstory.

I've been a PC enthusiast for around 3 years, but never really seemed to save up enough money for a beast enough rig. Now at last I had the opportunity to jump out and think "Heck, let's give it a chance".

Codenamed "Greyscale", This build is supposed to be a combination of great parts, at both aesthetically but also performance wise.

Some of you might go crazy about my spec selection, but as it was some of the components I thought fit well together. Enjoy!

June 4.

Recieved my first two parts of the build today!

Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 @ 2666 mhz & Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD.

June 7.

Unexpectedly as I was taking some B-Roll of my new RAM & SSD. I recieved two e-mails. My two next parts had arrived, let's start building a bit shall we?

Install RAM into Motherboard, and enjoy the view.

Time to Install the dust covers for all ports on the motherboard.

Unbox dat case.

Wait, why is the accessory box there?

Ouch.. The case had taken some shipping damage, luckily it wasn't that bad.

Time to install the motherboard

which means I have to take out the port covers for the back I/O ports cause they don't fit through the I/O plate

.. Fine I did it..  

Well it's installed now!

Let's do some light cable management..Well USB 3 cable says no.

Time to install my trusty old HDD, using the best HDD sleds I've ever used. Hands down Phanteks! 

There we go.

Now for the more exciting stuff, let's test out the lights on the case.

I hotwired an old PSU from a Pentium 4 build I had lying around.

And bam - there was light!

So far so good people! I hope you've enjoyed this so far! 

Hello everyone

So I moved some time ago, and needed a second PC for some web surfing light gaming and watching Netflix, and had some spare parts laying from upgrades done to my main rig through it's lifetime, so I decided to use those parts to build a new rig. But instead of just building a regular PC (as I often do), I decided to make it a little different and mod it (because why not).

So I'll start from the beginning, the case.

This was a case I bough some time ago with a socket 775 Celeron in it, and had it laying around empty. It was the prettiest (except the color) and smallest case I had, so I decided to use that.

So I decided to paint it, to make it look more modern and fit in better, as the white/beige color that it's born with. I took it apart, sanded it with some sandpaper and painted it with some glossy black spray-paint three times.

I was surprised with the result, it made most of the scratches invisible and made it look mostly like a new case. *picture of the case assembled to come*

Now to the fun part, the hardware

So I had all the components, except the motherboard, but I got a Asrock N68C-S UCC, that was mATX and am2+/am3 for cheap, that hopefully would work just fine for this project.

I had a AMD Athlon II X2 265 CPU that once occupied my main pc, but haven't been in use for some time, an Nvidia 8800GT with a badass Scythe cooler on it that I bough off a friend some time ago, some random DDR2 1GB sticks I had laying around, a Northq CPU cooler, an Samsung 320GB HDD, an IDE DVD burner and a crappy Intertech 750W PSU.
And then theres my OCZ Vertex Plus 60GB, this was my first SSD and I remember it being shitty expencive. And yes, it's the model that had a 50% failure rate, but mine's still running after years of continues use

My bed with all the hardware and some extra

So I know that the motherboard have a maximum CPU TDP of 95W, but I know that I want to overclock at some point, so I decided to install some heatsinks on the motherboard to make it capable of delivering a higher current without overheating. And even though the max TDP is 95W, you can make a 125W CPU run in this board (why I love Asrock).

So I found some heatsinks I had laying around, made them the right size and glued them on with some thermal adhesive.

Glued the heatsinks on the transistors on both the VRM to the CPU, the northbridge and a small one on some for the ram modules.

So after doing that, came the part where I was to power on the board, with all the nervosity of a shortage on one of the transistors as a result of glueing the heatsinks on, as I didn't have any proper silicone to cover the pins. And I won't be able to remove a heatsink without the transister comming with it...

Success, it boots! The project could now continue

So I mounted the enormous Northq cooler on it, mounted it in the cabinet and installed the rest of all the components. It looks a little tight, but it all fits quite well, the only problem being the very limited cable management options, but it worked out.

While painting I made some holes in the case to mount my SSD on the back, to save space and having cables everywhere, and it worked out pretty well.

After some waiting I finally got another northbrige cooler, that is a must if any overclocking is to be acheved on this board, so I got that mounted to. It's just some Cooler Master northbringe cooler that I got for around 8usd.
 

After building it and installing Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit I ran it a couple of hours with Prime95 to test stability.

The build is not done yet and it's actually a little while ago I build it, but haven't done anything since as I've been busy. There's actually a lot of upgrades on the way (which I of cause will post) and yet some overclocking to come.

There's some more pictures of the project on Imgur for those interested.

Sorry for English, it isn't my native language, but I hope you found the reading/project interesting, would love to hear your input