My First Build ever - UPDATE

[scaryjam823]

While I've had nearly a decade experience with pc's, from hardware to software, I've never actually been able to build my own computer. Though it's always been a dream, its always been out of my means to do so.... Until now. I had three things in mind with this build I want power, I want to be able to do nearly anything and I want it to last a long time so I didn't skimp. I done research and figured this out myself and this is what I ordered and how I have it set up.

 

Cooler Master HAF X Case

Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H

Seasonic SS-750KM3 power supply

Core I7 4770k

Cooler MAster 212 plus cpu cooler

EVGA GTX 780 with acx cooler

G.Skill Ripjaws 16gb DDR3 1600

Crucial M500 120 gb SSD (for boot drive) (I know its not the fastest but Im new to ssds so its light years faster than what I'm use to and I didnt have the budget for an evo)

Western digital wd se wd 2000f9yz 2tb 7200 rpm 64mb cache 6.0G/bs

Rosewill RCR-IC002 74 in 1 Media reader

3.25" to 5.25" adapter for media card reader

2x Lg Blu Ray burner WH16MS40

Tp-Link dual band wireless card

Windows 7 home premium

Logitech g510s (been using a laptop keyboard and I didn't know this one didnt have regular switches before I ordered it or I wouldve got something else)

Razer Deathadder 2013

Acer G236HLBbd 23" widescreen monitor

 

I replaced all the 3 200mm fans with cooler master red led fans and the 140mm in the rear with a xigmatek 140mm red led fan. I put a NZXT 2m red led light strip on the inside on the case. I have all 5 fans hooked up to a nzxt sentry 5.25" fan controller. I also added a spare 2.5" 1tb drive I had laying around inside the case for a little over 3tb storage.

 

I keep a 320gb hdd in the hotswap drive bay that I have acronis to do a system image to everyday and I make a weekly external backup.

 

I have the 4770k overclocked to 4.5ghz and it doesnt get above 60c under load with the current 212 plus, I'm very happy with that. I have the gtx 780 core voltage to +45mV. 106%power limit, +75Mhz core clock and memory clock to +250Mhz and its completely stable.

 

My future plans are to get another gtx 780 and go sli. Order a larger power supply because 750w just isnt enough for sli like I figured once I added all I did. Going to get a H100i to water cool the cpu and a kraken g10, h80 to water cool the gpu(s)

 

Pictures here.

 

I'm pretty satisfied with everything but I'm anxious to get the final parts and have it 100% completed with how I have it pictured in my head. Thank you guys for reading, hope you enjoyed.

 

UPDATE:

After using the computer for a while I thought I would make an update with some (minor) changes and my experience with it and include more recent pictures. I have since Got my h100i and wow is this thing awesome. It looks so much sleeker than a big heat sink, keeps my cpu super cool. I decided to stick with the stock fans and instead of going push/pull just go with push and let my top 200mm fans pull. Based on the minor cooling increase to cost ratio I decided this would be fine. I have since took the air duct off the side panel, as soon as I did to my surprise my gpu got a 4 degree celsius decrease. Went from 85 degrees max to 80 degrees. I also added the gpu support bracket with the 80mm fan for additional airflow as well as the other bracket (forgot the name) adding a 120mm red sickle flow fan to cool the graphics card even more. With the 80mm and the 120mm added as well as the removed air duct from the side panel I went from a max of 85 degrees celsius to an amazing 65 degrees celsius! Ambient case temps are around 20 degrees celsius. With the hyper 212 I was getting 75c max real world temps, 100c max in intel burn test (started to throttle then.) With the h100i I get 65c max real world temps and 80c max with intel burn test overclocked the same 4.7ghz.

 

The h100i cables were super short, they barely reached to the bottom of my motherboard to connect the usb header. Another 1/4" and it would've been way too short. Unfortunately the sata power connector was too short as well. My nearest sata connection was closest to my ram, so instead of adding another sata power cable I just ran the cable ontop of the ram. Not the prettiest but it works, I decided against adding another cable because I already have a ton back there to deal with (see below.)

 

I have the top two 200mm fans, the side 230mm, the front 200mm, the rear 140mm, the 80mm and the 120 sickle flow all connected to my fan controller. I only had 5 channels to use so two of these channels control two fans, instead of one. I keep all the fans on 40% (lowest setting) and it is surprisingly quiet considering how many fans there are. Even at 100% my gpu fan at 75% overpowers them all.

 

My build is mostly complete, the only thing lacking is a second 780, which should be coming in a couple months when I get the money saved and the triple monitors I want to get. The only thing I would've changed about this build is my color scheme. At the time of ordering I wasn't aware so many red builds exsisted. Don't get me wrong I love the look of it and picture don't do it justice. But in retrospect I wish I would've went with a green scheme. Mainly because my razer mouse is green and can't be changed. So my keyboard is green as well to match the mouse. Would've liked the pc to match the keyboard and mouse but I didn't know all this before hand. If I ever get money to blow I will probably replace all the fans, the led strip to green. If I do I'll have to change the ram color as well, which will be costly. But If I got the money to blow why not. I would've also liked to have got a 780ti in sli instead of the 780's but it was out of my price range. Mainly would've liked to do that for 1440p gaming. But since I didn't I'll stick with 1080p for now.

 

Overall I am very happy with the build, it struggles on very few games. Nearly everything I have thrown at it can be maxed out at 1080p. I would say it is worth the two years I spent planning and saving for it. It has taught me a lot more than I expected, even with me already knowing so much and has sparked an even greater passion for me.

 

Showing the sickle flow

I had so many cables it isnt easy keeping it clean. Nearly 30 cables, that was the best I could do after 3 tries.

My setup with my new ikea desk. homemade 4.1 surround, homemade sub box. I will upgrade to a better sound system soon (but this doesn't sound too bad considering how cheap everything with it is).  

 

I still want to tint the side panel because I think it would make it look a lot better. Ignore the dust I know I need to clean it out again and excuse the subpar pictures. Iphone 5 camera ftl lol

[Kick]

Sexy beast you've got there, nice job! How do you like that touchscreen fan controller? I've been thinking of getting one myself.

[scaryjam823]

I don't dislike the touchscreen portion. What I really dislike about it is I have to set each fan independantly and I can't monitor and average tempurate for the inside of the case. My remeby for the latter was just bunch the probes up and put them all in one spot and just checking one fan sensor. Having the 5 sensors all around the case was ugly anyways, I just tucked them down by my hard drives and zip tied them. Changing the indiviudal speeds isn't a huge deal to me because I'm not constantly changing them anyways.

 

I got the touchscreen more for flashy looks than functionality, If I didn't care about it being "flashy" I would get something like the NZXT SEN-MIX2. But I can live with it how it is, those problems aren't deal breakers for me.

 

Thank you for the compliment.

 

The wire management on the back side isn't the greatest. But I have upwards of 30 cables so it's not exactly easy to wire it clean, thats my only gripe but it's not a big deal.

 

Oh I do have one problem with this fan controller. It doesn't always seem to run the fans at the same speed like it says it is. I'm not sure if the molex just can't pull 5 fans and the screen or what it is. Having them 60%+ manually seems to run fine but when on auto its weird. But my ambient temps are like 17c at 40% fan speed in my case so thats not a deal breaker for me either.

[Xerhik]

Looks good!

[legend8887]

I don't dislike the touchscreen portion. What I really dislike about it is I have to set each fan independantly and I can't monitor and average tempurate for the inside of the case. My remeby for the latter was just bunch the probes up and put them all in one spot and just checking one fan sensor. Having the 5 sensors all around the case was ugly anyways, I just tucked them down by my hard drives and zip tied them. Changing the indiviudal speeds isn't a huge deal to me because I'm not constantly changing them anyways.

 

I got the touchscreen more for flashy looks than functionality, If I didn't care about it being "flashy" I would get something like the NZXT SEN-MIX2. But I can live with it how it is, those problems aren't deal breakers for me.

 

Thank you for the compliment.

 

The wire management on the back side isn't the greatest. But I have upwards of 30 cables so it's not exactly easy to wire it clean, thats my only gripe but it's not a big deal.

 

Oh I do have one problem with this fan controller. It doesn't always seem to run the fans at the same speed like it says it is. I'm not sure if the molex just can't pull 5 fans and the screen or what it is. Having them 60%+ manually seems to run fine but when on auto its weird. But my ambient temps are like 17c in my case so thats not a deal breaker for me either.

 

While I've had nearly a decade experience with pc's, from hardware to software, I've never actually been able to build my own computer. Though it's always been a dream, its always been out of my means to do so.... Until now. I had three things in mind with this build I want power, I want to be able to do nearly anything and I want it to last a long time so I didn't skimp. I done research and figured this out myself and this is what I ordered and how I have it set up.

 

Cooler Master HAF X Case

Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H

Seasonic SS-750KM3 power supply

Core I7 4770k

Cooler MAster 212 plus cpu cooler

EVGA GTX 780 with acx cooler

G.Skill Ripjaws 16gb DDR3 1600

Crucial M500 120 gb SSD (for boot drive) (I know its not the fastest but Im new to ssds so its light years faster than what I'm use to and I didnt have the budget for an evo)

Western digital wd se wd 2000f9yz 2tb 7200 rpm 64mb cache 6.0G/bs

Rosewill RCR-IC002 74 in 1 Media reader

3.25" to 5.25" adapter for media card reader

2x Lg Blu Ray burner WH16MS40

Tp-Link dual band wireless card

Windows 7 home premium

Logitech g510s (been using a laptop keyboard and I didn't know this one didnt have regular switches before I ordered it or I wouldve got something else)

Razer Deathadder 2013

Acer G236HLBbd 23" widescreen monitor

 

I replaced all the 3 200mm fans with cooler master red led fans and the 140mm in the rear with a xigmatek 140mm red led fan. I put a NZXT 2m red led light strip on the inside on the case. I have all 5 fans hooked up to a nzxt sentry 5.25" fan controller. I also added a spare 2.5" 1tb drive I had laying around inside the case for a little over 3tb storage.

 

I keep a 320gb hdd in the hotswap drive bay that I have acronis to do a system image to everyday and I make a weekly external backup.

 

I have the 4770k overclocked to 4.5ghz and it doesnt get above 60c under load with the current 212 plus, I'm very happy with that. I have the gtx 780 core voltage to +45mV. 106%power limit, +75Mhz core clock and memory clock to +250Mhz and its completely stable.

 

My future plans are to get another gtx 780 and go sli. Order a larger power supply because 750w just isnt enough for sli like I figured once I added all I did. Going to get a H100i to water cool the cpu and a kraken g10, h80 to water cool the gpu(s)

 

Pictures here.

 

I'm pretty satisfied with everything but I'm anxious to get the final parts and have it 100% completed with how I have it pictured in my head. Thank you guys for reading, hope you enjoyed.

Excellent CPU choice. That's the most you'll need.

[scaryjam823]

That's what I assumed too, my goal was to have it as future proof as possible. After I get the SLIs done, then the only things I can imagine having to upgrade one day besides hard drive, possible ram is the graphics card. Minimal costs in the future.  I figured 4.5ghz quad core is more than enough for many years to come and when I get it water cooled I will be trying to clock it higher and see what I can achieve.

[brob]

Nice.

 

I noted in your comments some thoughts about using the G10 with an H80. I don't believe that that cooler is on the compatible list. I also wondered if you've checked the spacing of gpu with a bulky AIO pump attached to it?

 

I noted the 212 EVO is mounted "horizontally". Was the spacing with the gpu too tight to mount it "vertically"?

[scaryjam823]

Nice.

 

I noted in your comments some thoughts about using the G10 with an H80. I don't believe that that cooler is on the compatible list. I also wondered if you've checked the spacing of gpu with a bulky AIO pump attached to it?

 

I noted the 212 EVO is mounted "horizontally". Was the spacing with the gpu too tight to mount it "vertically"?

 

 

I havent done too indept research on the kraken yet, I just know from one of linus's videos he held up or used a h80 with the kraken, my assumption was it would work. I know that the h100i and the kraken will fit in my case fine, adding a second kraken I'm not sure about. I just haven't done much research into it just yet because it just got added to my future list of things to do. However before I go through with purchasing the parts I will be assuring they are compatible 

 

In regards to the cooler I mounted it the way I did based on a couple things. My air flow in my case is an intake on the front, exhaust the rear, intake on the side for the graphics and exhaust out of the top. I figured if I mounted the cooler the other way it might interfere some with my case's air flow direction. I also assumed it would help pull heat off the back of the graphics card, possibly helping cool it ever slightly. So I mounted the fan on the cooler to pull heat from the graphics, up towards to top two case fans and follow that direction.

 

When setting up the airflow I just kept with the natural design cooler master illustrated in one of their images. It seems to work fine the way it is though I haven't done any testing with other configurations. I could have had plenty of room to mount it veritcally, I just decided to go with the top fans airflow instead of the front and rear.

[scaryjam823]

Just updated the post with a story behind the recent changes, my experience so far and new pictures.