With this build, this is my first step into custom PC. I've been a Mac user for quite a few years now, but the inability to upgrade is finally getting to me.
This beast is built to dual boot Mac OS X (for my daily use + graphic work) and Windows (for my gaming).
Specs are as follows:
i7-4770k + Gigabyte Z87X-D3H
Corsair H100i
ASUS GTX 770 Direct CUII OC 2GB
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) 1600MHz
Kingston SSDnow V300 120gb x 2
WD Red 2TB x 2
Corsair RM650
Corsair 750D
TP Link WDN-4800
Bitfenix Recon 2 Fan Controller
Asus Xonar DG Sound Card
Asus Black Internal Blu-Ray Drive (BC-12B1ST)
Before you start to bash on my choice of parts, allow me to explain.
i7-4770k + Gigabyte Z87X-D3H
I know I don't need 4770k for gaming, but it would help when I use the Adobe suite for work. As for the motherboard, I got a great value Gigabyte motherboard that suits me. On hindsight, I should have coughed up that extra $40 or so to get the Z87-UD3H though.
ASUS GTX 770 Direct CUII OC 2GB
The GTX 770 may not be the best bang for the buck, but I needed an Nvidia card for compatibility issues with hackintosh. The most stable and powerful GPU there is for a hackintosh would be the GTX 770, and I got the ASUS one because I really liked the backplate.
Kingston SSDnow V300 120gb
It was on sale on Amazon. I'm lucky I got the good batch.
WD Red 2TB
It was the most bang-for-the-buck when considering price/performance in my country.
Corsair RM650
No plans to SLI, 650w is more than enough. Good and reliable gold PSU which is fully modular.
Corsair 750D
I love this case. I got it right before the 450D came out. If I had seen the 450D I might have gone with that instead. But I don't regret getting the 750D at all.
TP Link WDN-4800
This PCI-e WLAN card is proven to work with hackintosh OOB without any issues at all.
Bitfenix Recon 2 Fan Controller
Beautiful, elegant, simple to set up, value for money.
Asus Xonar DG Sound Card
I know I don't need a sound card, but someone in my area was selling this for $10, so I was like ah screw it let's go for it.
Asus Black Internal Blu-Ray Drive (BC-12B1ST)
I got this at a decent price off Amazon so I'm not complaining.
Fan setup:
Front intake - 2 x Corsair AF140L
Bottom intake - 1 x CorsairAF120 High Performance
H100i - 2 x SP120L + 2 x SP120 High Performance on push/pull exhaust
Rear Exhaust - 1x Antec TwoCool 140 Blue LED
Photos:
Pre-build
Full View
Corsair H100i
You may notice the unconventional way of managing the 24pin and 6+2pins cables. I did this to prevent my GTX770 from sagging downwards but I don't think it's helping that much.
Alternate View!
I really love this backplate. These should come standard on all mid-high range GPUs.
Not too proud of this cable mess here.
All bling-ed up and ready to go!
Conclusion:
For my first build, I really love how the whole system came together and I think it looks beautiful. I'm also glad to report that I'm running OS X Mavericks pretty stable, only getting freezes when I make mistakes while tinkering around.
I've also been able to overclock this to 4.2GHz at 1.2v, getting about 29c to 31c on idle and around 68c on load. I'm not planning to go any higher at the moment as I have no time, and I'm not sure if Windows and Mac OS X would handle it the same.
If I ramp up my bottom intake fan, my GPU temps while gaming is only about 63c. If I keep the bottom intake fan at the bare minimum, I don't really see my GPU hitting 70c either, so that's pretty amazing to me.
Next up:
I'm waiting for my custom cable sleeves to arrive, so would post more pictures once I install it!
Would love to get everyone's comments on my first build!