Hey All,
Wanted to make my debut to the forum with a post about my current computer. It's only the second machine I ever built, and I wanted to do something simple yet clean and pleasing to look at. I don't have a lot of experience with building or customizing so I had to learn as I went to make this build how I wanted it. Anyways, without further blabbering, here's the progression of the build
The parts to my build are:
3570k @ 4.2ghz currently Corsair H100i cooler 8gb crucial ballistix memory (single stick for now)
Samsung 840 pro 128gb SSD (on backside of mobo tray)
WD Caviar black 500GB storage drive Corsair CX750M PSU Asrock Z77 Extreme4 mobo Gigabyte GTX 680 OC GPU 3x Noctua NF-F12
When I started building the computer I had no direction for it other than to do a good job of cable management. I took my time and tried to find places to tuck wires and even brought some of the front panel i/o wires through holes meant for zip ties.
At this point I didn't like the look of having the SSD in the front so I removed that little tray and decided to upgrade from air cooling to the H100i. I read online it was a pain in the butt to fit in the top without modification but I tried anyways. It fit, but it wasn't pretty and it didnt sit perfectly horizontal.
some of the cables were very close to the fans along the top and it took a long time to get them to tuck neatly.
A few days later I got to thinking that if I could fit 2-120mm fans in the front of the case, then maybe I could move the radiator there. It did fit, but the end cap on the bottom part kept the holes from lining up with the pre-drilled fan holes on the case. My solution was to drill out a rectangle on the bottom of the case so the end cap could sit below near the rubber feet of the case, and the fans and radiator would line up right.
I also noticed that the bottom drive cages would be in the way, so I drilled out the rivets on those to make room. I also had no use for an optical drive, so I removed the optical drive bays from the top and riveted the HDD cages up there instead. I flipped the orientation around so the drives can fit like they would in the bottom without cables showing at all. It really cleaned up the whole side of the case. Around this time I also picked up a sleeved 24 pin extension.
Then I decided to order a CM Storm Enforcer side panel as it has the same dimensions as the haf 912 but has a window.
Now that I had that moved to the front and added a window to the case I decided the interior needed paint. I went with a gloss black paint, and upgraded the fans in the case to NF-F12's all around. I also added two blue cold cathode lights which i'm not entirely sure i'm going to keep. I may go with white because I think it'll look better with the fans.
Anyways here is how it sits now:
My goal in the future is to do my own cables that are cut to the right length and sleeve them all with black and tan to tie the noctua fans in more. What does everyone think?!
