so here is what I have decided to go with as processor, intel xeon e3 1241 v3 which costs me $220. It will be able to handle all my engineering softwares and programs. And I have a budget of $300 for my graphics card. My purpose is to game and some content creation for youtube. The program I am going to use is sony vegas pro 13 and lightworks. Should I wait for the new 300 series graphics card by amd as I wanna go towards the red team. If not what card would you guys recommend? Also I am going to use a dual monitor setup since I got a 20" monitor by hp for $20. 

Hello Folks, I'm fairly new to building computers and for my first time building my first 2 PCs I think I did damn well. "except for the fact that I did a lousy cable management the first time building it.

Most of my learnings came directly from Linustechtips or from Linus himself through youtube and small bits of others.

This is a preview of 2 computer PCs. The naming came strangely from a friend of mine when he saw my setup. I showed him my first computer and he refered to it as beautiful because the cable management was so neat and the LED of choice was purple. When he played with my 2nd computer he refered to it as a beast. Thus, derived the name The Beauty & The Beast. Bear in mind that the beast is still developing and I plan to apply water cooling on GPUs and CPU "havent done water cooling before but I read a lot about it" and I simply refuse to use hoses for piping because I think it looks ugly. I plan to go straight for hardpipe. But bear with me as I am still in the learning process.

Without furthur a due, I will place the pictures and then in a later post I will post the items you see in these pictures. There you go:

The Beauty:

CASE: corsair 760t
PSU: Corsair AX1200i
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME  
CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X overclocked to 4.0 Ghz stable
GPU: 2x EVGAGTX TITAN X - SLI mode
ROM: Samsung 850 EVO 1TB + WD black 2TB
RAM: Corsair DOMINATOR® Platinum Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 2666
CPU COOLER: NZXT X61 280mm
Extra:
green cable sleeving
Corsair Dominator Platinum Lightbar Kit
Silent corsair fans
NVIDIA SLI bridge 2 way spaced.

The Beast:still under development.

 CASE:  corsair 900D
 PSU:  Corsair AX1200i
 MOTHERBOARD:  Z97 GAMING 7
 CPU:  Intel Core i7-4790K overclocked to 4.4 Ghz stable
 GPU:  2x MSI GTX 980 GAMING 4G
 ROM : Sa msung 850 EVO 250 GB + WD black 2TB
RAM: 32 GB vengence DDR3 2666
CPU COOLER: Corsair crap
Extra:
Orange/Black cable sleeving
Orange fans

My Desk Setup:

items in the photos will be explained in a later post.

I would also love to have some opinions on how to improve my PC or my desk that would be lovely.

Hi! I´m glad you found your way here, welcome to this project!

I started this project way back in December of last year and I had a vision about how I wanted to create my own “ultimate case” and build a really cool system in it. I made a thread about it here on the forums and started working. The problem was that I underestimated how much work and time it takes to do something like this, and I didn´t have time at the moment. School and other things got in the way and my posts here became few and far between, so I decided to lay the project on ice until the summer. Now I have just had my last exam and I´m want to get this going again!

So what’s is all this about then? I´m going to run you through the idea for this project and also where we are right now!

As I wrote earlier the main point of this project is to realize my vision about my “ultimate case”. After many hours of thinking and also my experience during past builds I have decided what I think represents the perfect case for me right now, in my current situation in life. This will probably change in the future and I guess I´ll have to build new cases when the time comes.

Anyway, the case I’m working on right now is an m-ITX case made from scratch in Plexiglas. It has an inverted motherboard with the graphics card then being on top, visible through the transparent top panel. The right side panel also has a transparent window and the rest of the case is all white. It will feature a full size ATX power supply and up to 28cm GPU. Everything will be water cooled with a double 120mm (240) rad in the front and a single 120mm rad in the back. Most of the components are already bought and some modded to suite the color theme, I´ll write a list further down the post and also some pics!

I´m also thinking about making some videos about some of the steps in the process, like installing different water blocks, working with acrylic or just computer building in general. Please let me know what you think about that!

Here follows some short info about me. If you want to read more about the earlier process of the project, feel free to read through the old thread if you want. The link is here:

LINK TO OLD THREAD

About me: My name is Axel, a 20 years old guy studying Industrial Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm Sweden. I’ve been into computers since my dad bought our first computer about 10 years ago. A few years later when we decided to get a new machine, I did get a chance to disassemble the old one and in that moment I was caught. I have now built about 10 systems and have gathered all the experience, knowledge and inspiration I think I need for this project! You can find my last two builds here:

Specifications:

Intel i7 4770K (delidded)

MSI Z97I-ACK

XFX XTR 650W PSU

2x8GB Corsair DDR3 RAM

2x500GB Samsung 850 EVO

128GB ADATA M.2 SSD

GPU TBA

Cooling:

EK DDC pump

EK X-RES v3 res/pump top

Black Ice GTS 240 and 120 mm rads

Koolance 380i CPU block

EK Monarch RAM block

GPU block and fitting TBA

Some pictures:

So, I've been trying for a while now to get my loop set up.  Ran into a lot of problems, but today I made some progress so thought I'd share.
I'd say my loop is really simple, except for the fact that the res/pump combo is jammed up so close to the GPU and CPU that getting those bends in the tubing just right became a bitch. 
 
First thing I did was 3D printed mandrels / jigs similar to Monsoon's.  For now just 90 and 45 degrees.  Using those alone I couldn't get the tight bends needed for the Res to GPU, so I gave up a little, and posted asking if anyone local would help me out for a fee.  Really the main obstacle is my back.  I have severe back pain, such that I can't stand up for more than several minutes at a time.  Well, since I couldn't find anyone in my area, I decided to think about what I could do differently.  So, I decided since the run from Res to GPU is so short, I'll just create a mandrel in the exact shape.  
 
I measured as precisely as I could the distances in all 3 dimensions, and modeled this mold:
 

 

6 1/2 hours later, my printer  created this (took the pic after sanding and using it, so it looks a little abused. )

And finally, a bit of success:

The only problem is that I can't tell if it's pushing down on the GPU.  I actually thought I had sanded the tubing too much and that it would be short, but it's really solid, and looking at it, there may be some pressure being put on the card, so I MIGHT try to sand it down further.  Not sure I should mess with it, when it was such a mess trying to get it right.

Anyway, next step is Res to CPU.  That too has a really tight switch from horizontal to vertical, so I might just create another mold for just that transition.  

Thanks for looking.  If you have any advice, input, etc, would love to hear it.

Hey guys! 

So this is the best computer ive ever owned in all my life and i hope you can appricate it as much as i love it! 

Thanks!

My PC right now.... #ITXMasterRace

Didgy's Bitfenix Prodigy M mod

I built this case a while ago. Started in october and finished it in about three weeks. I was planning on building a new computer, and I decided to build a small one. However, I had a few criterias my computer would have to fill:

Support for:

• 240mm (2x120mm) radiator
• 2-way SLI or Crossfire
• Full-size graphics cards
• Full-size PSU
• Large window
• At least one 3,5" HDD
• At least one 2,5" SSD
• Preferably one 200mm fan or larger

I saw the not-so-new Bitfenix Prodigy M. I've long liked the exterior looks of the Prodigy, and this case filled many of my criterias. However, there were a few things that I disliked about this case:

• Motherbord was flipped upside-down
• Front-panel was placed on the side-panel
• Didn't support SLI while using 240mm radiator
• Airflow went from top to bottom (Rather than the opposite which is more preferable temperature-wise)

So, after carefully examining the case's outside and inside dimensions I bought the case and immediately started working on it. I'm not really planning on posting the not-so-many pictures I've taken while working on it unless some people would like some explanation as to how I did certain things. Anyway, here's a few pictures I took of the case a few months back. These are slightly outdated, although I have not done much since they were taken. I will list things done prior to the pictures, things done after and future plans below.

Specs:

• Bitfenix Prodigy M
• ASUS Maximus VII GENE
• Intel Core i5-4690K overclocked to 4.2Ghz at 1.09V
• Corsair H100i
• Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1866MHz
• 2 x ASUS GeForce GTX 970 STRIX
• Corsair AX850
• Western Digital Black 1TB
• Corsair Force GS 240GB
• Corsair Link Commander Mini
• Corsair Link LED Lighting Strips
• 2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM
• Noctua NF-A14 PWM
• 2 x Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX
• Bitfenix Spectre Pro 230mm

Pictures:

Things done prior to pictures:

• Flipped the motherboard-tray (And also the whole rear of the case)
• Moved front-panel from side-panel to the top of the case. Beside the radiator-fans
• Moved PSU onto front of the case. Used the PSU fan-mounts and screwed them together with the fronts fan mounts
• New windowed side-panel (Made by Bitfenix)
• Cut a piece out of old side-panel to fill gap where PSU used to be
• Used double-sided tape (Alot stacked on top of each other to make one thick piece) to place HDD and SSD on front-panel beneath PSU
• Placed small felt-pieces between GPUs to make better airflow for upper GPU and to stop upper GPU-fans from touching lower GPU.
• Bought some industrial 120mm fan grills from Ebay and painted them black with spraypaint.

Things done after pictures:

• Flipped rear fan orientations to provide for better airflow (All lower fans for intake, all upper fans for exhaust)
• 3D-printed a black plastic frame to place around top fans. Courtesy of my friend Orgitrax (Who has his own Prodigy M-ATX mod, but somehow isn't bothered to publish it)
• Placed the last screw in the radiator. (The screwthreads are gone in one screwhole. Placed a screw there now but it's only for looks. Doesn't hold the radiator in any way)

Future plans:

• Switch out felt-pieces for similiar ones in black rubber
• Switch out PSU for a Corsair AX860i
• Buy new individually sleeved white cables for that PSU
• Buy new 200mm fan from Noctua when released
• Buy a mPCIe-based M.2 SSD
• Buy new SLI-brigde. Possibly a nVidia or ASUS ROG one.
• Buy a Corsair Dominator Platinum Airflow module. (Because RAM-cooling is swag)
• Set up a custom watercooling with 3x120mm OR 2x120mm + 140mm radiators. Dual on top and one in the back. (This is not a priority at the time)
• I'm also tempted to mod room for a 2x140mm radiator on the top. This will most likely not fit if I'm doing the watercooling above.
• Buy 2 x Noctua NF-A6x25 PWM, better fan speeds control over my FLX ones. (The PWM wasn't released by the time I bought the FLXs)
• Cut out a square piece of the right side-panel to let the PSU exhaust out of the right side of the case. I'll fill the square piece with some black mesh.
• Find a new way to sleeve Front Panel Audio Connector. Already tried sleeving it with a heatshrink, but due to the size of connector compared to the cable, the heatshrink looks quite ugly when bending it the way I did in this mod.
• Possibly buy a new case to do the whole mod over again. The new Front Panel didn't turn out as pretty as I'd like. And there are a few things I'd like to have done differently.

As of now, the project is somewhat put on hold as I'm going into the army in two months. However, I might do many of the things above when I come back. Hopefully, some kickass new hardware is out by then so I can pretty much upgrade the whole computer. I'll probably take some new pictures of how the case looks as of today in the near future.

This is my first case mod ever. Actually my first attempt to cut steel ever. So if anything looks crappy, ugly or impractical, I'll use that as an excuse!

Thanks for checking out my case!

 - Didgy

PS: I'm new here!

Back in 2009 i bought a Lenovo M58 with 4GB RAM, GeForce 9500 GT and a Q9400, so not a shabby system, but by today's standards it's slow. I did some stuff to keep it alive, but with limited money it was limited. I changed the GPU two times and ended up with a GTX 960. Added 4GB of RAM and reached the limit. Changed the HDD when it died, added a SSD and got a nice PSU.

Here's some images of the old system.

Yeah, I know it's not the cleanest cuts for the cooler, but I forgot to measure what the max height was

 

So I wanted to go all in on the new system with color coordination and all that jazz. Still waiting for my LED's to arrive.

The new system sports:

16GB 1866MHz RAM

NZXT X61

i7-4790K at 4.6GHz

1TB WD Blue

256GB Adata SP900

GTX 960 STRIX

RM550 with custom sleeving

And some pictures:

 

Next update will be a bigger GPU

Hey guys, just finished my hardline loop yesterday, pc has been built for a year and a half now, but keep doing a few things here and there. 

some pics of pc and desk 

80% done, still need fan and led to setup properly.

The Temps are Valley Benchmark for 1 hour. 

My Part list, excluding Water Cooling components 

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/TZk9ZL

So i got the vacation, and had some time to work on my case.

This time done 4 things:

1. Lights

2. Sidewindows

3. Paint

Soooo ... lets bring it on

I didnt liked the side window of Z11 ... most the fact that it is tinted. so i started with cuting out some new forms

The plexiglass

Tools. Now i call this "poor mans mod", as i dont have any fansy tools. That saw is from soviet union times by the way

Firts cracks. But - who doesent do, doesen make mistakes

Painted all matte black. thoes orange drive covers as well. and holes already drilled in.

The finished look. I know that it have to many screews but its firs time i done something like this and im fine with looks

Now ligting ... had some green LEDs at home so i made use of them ...

Done. And i like it ...

So this is how it looks over all. Its nothing big and made realy from stuff what i had at home. but im realy satisfied with result. as i done that all

Next will be the new power swich and some coloring on graphic card cooler and CPU cooler, for the looks ...

Tnx for cheking out and write down ur ideas/likes/dislikes, as im always open for some other opinion

Hello, My name is Louis Lerner from Scotland. I am going to build a mini but mighty pc but I need to clarify a few last things.

First of all here is my line up;

CPU : Intel Core i7 4790k 1150 unlocked

Motherboard : Asus ROG Maximus VII Impact Mini Itx MoBo

CPU Cooler (Needs Clarifying) : Corsair H100 water cooler

RAM : 16 Gb Corsair Vengance Pro 2133 Mhz

PSU : Corsair Builder Series  CXM 600w Modular 80 Plus Bronze

Case : Corsair Obsidian 250D Mini-Itx Windowed Case

GPU : Asus R9 290X  http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HG7E6SM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3VCA88502XPM8

Plus Peripherals and Storage.

Total Price : £1238.16 Pounds stirling or $2373.54 Canadian Dollars

I am good with everything but the GPU and CPU Cooler sizes though I am Pretty sure that they will fit.

Please reply if you have any questions. 

I have the AMD fx 6300 processor and I was wonderinghow much ghz should I overclock it to for there to be less of a bottleneck. I have the Corsair CX600 psu but I think if I overclock it wont work with my power supply. Will my motherboard support the overclock as well? ( I have the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 motherboard).

Hey everyone my name is ClownFace1511,

I've been a member of the forum for some time now and a subscriber of LinusTechTips for a few years. Being 17 years old I'm still in school, in fact in my last year (Yr 12). Along with that I get to do a “Major Work” for my industrial tech Timber class. This “Major Work” can be anything we want, we must design it, then make it. Along with this we need to make an 80 page folio showing everything from steps of construction to drawings and tools used. We have about 8 months to create our project which is then marked by a group of judges who travel the state and mark the projects from each school. If you have a top scoring project it will be put on show at a major display event where all the public can go to, pretty crazy if you ask me. I'm hoping to get my project displayed there!

In 2014 I came Dux (First Place) in this subject with a mark of 96% I put a lot of effort into my projects and spend a lot of time designing and planning them (reflected by my great score).  Being my last year I decided to go big or go home, something that is different than a coffee table, a chair, etc. I decided to make this “Project: Ravage” a modded computer table.

You may be wondering why “Project: Ravage”? Well Ravage is to “cause severe and extensive damage to”, e.g my wallet and then benchmarks. I’m 100% sure none of the judges have seen this before so I'm hoping to blow their minds away. The project has changed so many times since last November when I started to plan it, come to think of it, the first design had 780ti’s in it, which has now been replaced by 980ti’s.

The top of this table will be made out of Tasmanian Oak with a oil matte finish. This timber is light and will contrast well with the dark stained legs. The Legs are made out of 70x70 pine. These legs will be stained a dark brown/black and then lacquered to a matte finish also.

For the box underneath I will be using Meranti. It’s like pine but without the knots. Its got a nice clean grain and looks like a premium timber but without the price tag. This box will be stained and lacquered to the same colour as the legs.

On the top of the table will be a sheet of glass. This glass will be laminated and toughened so it won't shatter or anything. I have always used tables with glass on the top and I like how they don't wear out or get damaged (as easily) like the timber would.

I never did Multimedia in school because it is on at the same time as timber, so i never got taught AutoCAD or any other fancy programs. I taught myself how to use sketchup. I designed this table from scratch over a time span of 2-3 months. The design changed a lot but it finally came to this.

CPU: Intel i7 5960X

Yes this is overkill, no im not getting a 6 core instead… I will be doing 3D work, video editing, streaming etc. Hoping to get a overclock of 4.3ghz+

Motherboard: Asus X99 Deluxe

Planning a White theme with a little bit of blue so this will fit in nicely, plus i like it

Graphics Cards: 2x Gigabyte G1 Gaming 980 Ti

I really like these cards and they seem to be awesome with the custom PCBs. Once watercooled and overclocked should run like beasts!

Power Supply: Corsair HX1000i or Dark Power Pro 11 1000w

Hopefully this should be enough. The modular psu will be good in minimising cabling. Hoping to get them custom sleeved, not sure what colour yet, maybe white, cyan.

Ram: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 32GB

Not sure what speed yet, probably the cheaper ones. Will also get the light bar upgrade kits.

Hardrives: Samsung 840 Evo 240gb, WD Black 4TB
Had these drives from previous build so I will be reusing them in the new one.

Fans: Noctua NF-12 Industrial

These fans will be at the front and back of the table to draw in and release air. Will run on low RPM so hopefully they will be quiet. (Planning to run at roughly 600-800rpm).

Monitors: ??

Planning on running 3 4k g-sync monitors. I will be gaming on the middle one only. Not sure what monitors to get yet, they will be decided towards the end of the build.

LEDs: ??

Will have RGB led inside the box to light things up

I managed to pick up a saphire 280x and 7970 Asus for my PC for $180 Australian (280x brand new here is $250) was a bargain, so i naturally crossfired them, These cards replaced my Saphire 7970 Duel x (single card). It was not an easy task fitting these monsters into my tiny cooler master tower with 3 Hard drives and a SSD but I managed it in the end.

Im now running CPU: I5 2500 k @ 4.2

                         Ram: 16 GB of hyper x DDR3 @ 1866

                         GPU: Saphire Duel X 280x Crossfired with Asus Direct CU 2 7970 both cards at 1020/1500

Hello LinusTechTips

I am 15 live in Holland and earn haved earned my setup by working at the local supermarket and delivering newspapers.

After being on this forum for several months and seeing all the nice PC builds and gaming setups I thought I'd share mine!

This was my very first setup roundabout 2 years. At the time I had a shitty PC and my desk was super cluttered.

This is roundabout a year ago I had purchased my new computer (Specs in Signature) and a new nice screen (Asus VN247H) and sadly had to remove my old main monitor (one of the left on the picture above) due to lack of desk space.

So this is my current setup we are in my moms boyfriend house for a month until the builders are done building our bathroom and renovating the garden in our new house so this setup is only going to be used for a month. Its empty but I'm not going to bother to look hang up posters for the short time I'm here also I just cant get the left monitor to touch with the middle one. Even when I put them straight next to each other the left one is just bent or something (Getting rid of it soon).

The cable management behind my latest setup (Its all just sticky taped to the back in the new house ill do it properly with tie wraps etc).

You probably looked at my setup and saw in my signature that I should have a K70 keyboard and 3x Asus VN247H. Those are my final desired specs so when I have the money to purchase those 3 products my setup will be complete!

Still to be purchased:

-Corsair K70 RGB keyboard.

-2 more Asus VN247H monitors.

-Some kind of CPU cooler (Probably the BeQuiet! Dark Rock Advanced C1).

-1TB WD Blue HDD.

-Audioengine A2+ speakers.

-The Zander Corner Desk (I already have it but waiting to move to my new house to build it.

-LED's 

Thanks for taking time to read through my post and looking at my setup. As soon as we move into our new house and my setup is ready ill make pictures and update this post!

Xenofen

For the last week I've been working on a Dell Precision T5500 to make it a server computer. Here are 3 videos I made following my progress.

Server specs
2 Intel Xeon X550 2.66Ghz Quad Core with hyper threading for a total of 16 cores. Max turbo up to 3.06
24 GB of DDR3 1330Mhz ECC Ram
2 1TB WD Blue 64Mb Cache hard drives set up in RAID1
1 500GB Black 64MB cache Hard drive
Nvidia Quadro FX 3800 1GB GDDR3 Ram