Coolermaster HAF XB // My first build!

[C1Rob]

Hi! This is my first topic here on the forums. Found linustechtips about a month ago i think. 

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About me

 

I'm 23, live in The Netherlands and am an (industrial) product designer (just finished college and got my degree).

I work as a project planner/ order manager/ engineer/... at a relatively small company producing stainless steel machines for the food industries.

 

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• 0: Old atari from my dad (first a gameconsole then computer)
• 1: Old Pre pentium pc
• 2: Pentium 4 machine
• 3: Emachines

    Athlon XP, Nvidia Geforce 3(later replaced by a Sapphire Radeon 9600 pro)

• 4: Acer M7300

    Phenom X4 910

    ATI 4850HD 2gb

    2x 750gb HDD (later added a 2tb hdd aswell)

    6gb ram (2x samsung 1gb, 2x hyundai 2gb...) 

 

The PSU broke and as i use it daily i needed a new one. I ended up with the corsair RM750 (which i love btw). I concluded my old psu took some more with it when it broke as my pc hasnt worked properly ever after. So this together with me finally having a job i decided it was time to retire the 4 year old machine and get a new one. I decided i wanted to build my own pc so started looking around and this is when i found the channel.

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Gaming

3D modelling (3dsmax, sketchup, Solidworks)

Photoshop

General usage( word processing, internet browsing, etc)

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Parts list

• Bought
  • CPU:  AMD FX-8350 Black Edition              
  • Motherboard:  MSI 990FXA-GD65                 
  • GPU: MSI R9 270X GAMING 2G BF4 LE      
  • Case: Cooler Master HAF XB + Window  (wanted the mesh top panel but it wasn't available with no indication of becoming available again  )
  • CPU cooler: Corsair Hydro H100i                  
  • RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2x8gb 9-9-9-24 1.5v)
  • SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 60GB  (will only be used for OS)
  • OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM    
• Current PC
  • PSU: Corsair RM750w                                  
  • HDD: 2TB seagate barracuda green and 2x 750gb WD Black                   
  • Mouse: CM Storm Spawn                            
  • Keyboard: Emachine                                  
  • Monitor: 24" Acer                                          

 

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BUILDLOG

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04-01 Intro/first parts arrive

 

So i ordered the parts and some came in yesterday evening.

 

Everything but the Mobo, CPU, and SSD has arrived. These should arrive on Tuesday (07-01)

 

Have a little problem with the case though as it seems to be a bit bent out of shape :\ You cant really see it when its together, but when i try to put on the left panel you can see the top right corner not connecting to the front. When i screw it in it comes back to normal though so i'm thinking of just leaving it be.

 

 

 

 

 

[Thecrazyswede]

Nice! will follow as i really like that case.

[AndyCapets]

Loving the RAM picture. Maybe simplify the name and presentation though ?

[C1Rob]

When i get some time today ill try and update the post a bit, use some of those nifty click and show things and stuff

 

Thanks for the compliments

 

The ram i chose cause it was the cheapest and looked somewhat good. Not to sure yet on the green pcb but we will see, i might get some "heat spreaders" 3d printed just for looks but that is for later concern

I was gonna take pictures that way of all of the components but im leaving them in the box till i get the rest of the parts and start building. We have 2 cats and the like to jump on things...

[YouRezz]

nice build.. waiting for the pic of it when put togeter

[C1Rob]

09-1 finally received the parts

So i finally received the remaining parts last night. I took some pictures with my canon but as i have no running computer at the moment i cant upload them yet. I did get some bad shots with my phone aswell so ill just upload those for now.

As i mentioned before i have no running computer at the moment so i was eager to start installation and as this was my first time building i took my time.

All that remains until testing and installing windows is installing the H100i and i need to see if i can cleannup some wires. I have to say, i was a bit dissapointed that most of my psu cables seem too short to cleanely stow them away...

[C1Rob]

09-1 / 10-1 / 11-1 Its running!

I installed the H100i. Got the stock cooler master fans as push between the frame and the front bezel, got the H100i on the inside of the frame, and the corsair fans that came with the kit as pull.

 

As i finally uploaded the pictures from the canon there are some pics from before my last post aswell. Excuse some of the crappy pictures, it was dark, it was late, i wanted to get as much done as possible :\

 

 

Getting the parts i need from the old acer (That HD4850 is really feeling sorry for itself... its been like that ever since i got the pc...)

 

Then the remaining parts arrived

 

 

Stock CPU coolers have really stepped up since the last time i bought a pc... This thing almost looks aftermarket!

 

I actually kind of like the look of this motherboard, it doesnt really look as brown as it actually is and the details are nice

 

R9 270x, looks nice, not to fond of the red but thats easy to change. I think it will become blue or yellow eventually.

 

Working on it

Love the corsair logo!

 

Done and installing windows! I actually thought the power and hdd LEDs would be blue, i really really hate this red

 

It booted up first time, installed windows 8.1 which surprisingly only took about 30 minutes max, installed the drivers and stuff and its working

 

Idle temps today, have played a couple of hours of bf4 right before this.

 

How its sitting right now on my homemade desk. 

We live in an apartment and dont really use our dining table alot, just when we have other people over for dinner. As there is not a lot of space we decided to use it as a desk. This got annoying after awhile cause I had to constantly clear the table when we needed it. So we build a small table that goes over the dining table and stays in place.

 

Plans are:

 

- Buy a usb 3.0 > usb 2.0 adapter so the front usb ports can be used

- Buy extra 120 mm fan for in the back and maybe upgrade the front ones

- Change the power and hdd led to blue

- Probably remove dvd drive...

- Add last HDD (either making my own bracket or getting a 5.25 > 3.5 converter)

- Clean up the cables, its somewhat clean now but not the best, the basement is a mess

 

- Think about what i want to do with the case, i have a couple of ideas right now but im not sure yet what to do

 

In the long run:

 

- Mod the case

- (?)Sleeve cables

- (?) Add LEDs to mobo area

- Get an extra MSI R9 270X 2GB

- Get an extra set of Crucial Ballistix sport 16gb ram

- Get a corsair K50 keyboard and paint the brushed alu to match the case

- Get a corsair M90/M95 mouse

- Modify the home made desk 

- Add a monitor or 2

 

Im really happy with it this far, Only thing i dislike is the fact programfiles etc cant be seperated from the OS installation disk in windows 8.1 :\

[TekLord]

Looks like you got a great start there.

[C1Rob]

Thank you! I think i'm gonna have to make some custom cables for the gpu and pci connector on the mobo as these are hard to get clean right now. Im gonna try and get some nice pictures in the light tomorrow

 

Btw how do you like those CM Jetflo fans? Im thinking of getting some for the front and maybe also do a mesh delete. Really liked the look of that on yours!