[Build Log] The first PC I've built in three years - Big upgrade

[wafflehaus]

It's been a a bit over three years since I've upgraded my own personal rig and also really the last time I really built a PC for anyone.

 

My goal with this build was to put together a solid foundation that will last me 3-4 years at least, as well as take advantage of some nice-to-haves like M2 drives and a bit of a lightshow to fit in with my battlestation setup (The current PC is just boring.).

 

I'm actually investing a lot in bling at the cost of extra performance, For instance I decided the RTX 2070 Super was a nice sweet-spot for me in terms of price-to-performance and I didn't see any need in going any higher. 

• i7 9700k
• Corsair Crystal 680x Case
• MSI Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard
• 32GB DDR 3200 Corsair Vengeance RAM 
• Aorus RTX 2070 Super
• Samsung Evo 970 Pro NVME system drive
• Unicorn vomit

Plenty of firsts for me.: First M2 drive installation, first vertical GPU mount,... I did my homework on vertical mounting and realised that even though my case had a vertical mounting slot, considering the size of my card I would need better bracing and better airflow instead of having the card flush-up against the glass. Knowing this, I invested in one of the mounting kits people buy for more basic cases and installed that.

.

So, build day arrives... Time to chuck up a trestle-table in the lounge as a ghetto workbench and get to work...

 

 

System's not complete yet. It got to 4.00am last night and I decided to just shove the sea of wiring in the back chamber, close everything up and make sure it still posted.

 

Apologies for the unicorn-blood-fueled disco-inferno acid-trip nightmare, but I haven't had a chance to get Windows installed let-alone Mystic Light or iCue. I promise some much tamer and more tasteful glamour shots once I get everything fixed up and on the desk with peripherals.

 

 

I'll definitely be doing some cable clean-up too, in a couple weeks when I add some mass storage.

 

More updates forthcoming! Cheers  

 

 

[emosun]

nice , it's very "its era" as far as styling goes. I think you're right when you get the lighting software installed it'll tame down the lights.

[Oalei]

Well I don't like black with rainbow doesn't look nice, IMO. 

[wafflehaus]

5 minutes ago, Oalei said:

Well I don't like black with rainbow doesn't look nice, IMO. 

Don't worry it's not permanent., and neither do I. In-progress build I haven't got any software control of yet.,

[wafflehaus]

30 minutes ago, emosun said:

nice , it's very "its era" as far as styling goes. I think you're right when you get the lighting software installed it'll tame down the lights.

Cheers

[wafflehaus]

So here we are, PC on the desk! Lighting all synced, applications installing... Very happy with how this project has turned out. Now I get to come home to this after work:

 

 

I'll admit I went a little cray on the RGB, but it can be tamed... I think. The RGB power extensions might have been a little excessive. I just love it when the GPU spins and lights up once a game starts pushing some voltage through the card. Really feeling like I made the right decision with a vertical mount. 

 

The last thing I'm pleased turned out as a completely unintentional but happy accident was having enough Corsair lighting strips to replace the ghetto LED under-desk lighting I was previously using. Having them flick on with my PC in one go and be software controlled is really nice.

 

Interior shot:

 

 

Next plan of attack is an Occulus Rift S. I need my Beat Saber on PC.

 

[yuhao]

Vertical gpu They seem to cause conflicts, how can you solve this problem?

[kilcmd]

On 7/29/2019 at 8:24 PM, wafflehaus said:

So here we are, PC on the desk! Lighting all synced, applications installing... Very happy with how this project has turned out. Now I get to come home to this after work:

 

 

I'll admit I went a little cray on the RGB, but it can be tamed... I think. The RGB power extensions might have been a little excessive. I just love it when the GPU spins and lights up once a game starts pushing some voltage through the card. Really feeling like I made the right decision with a vertical mount. 

 

The last thing I'm pleased turned out as a completely unintentional but happy accident was having enough Corsair lighting strips to replace the ghetto LED under-desk lighting I was previously using. Having them flick on with my PC in one go and be software controlled is really nice.

 

Interior shot:

 

 

Next plan of attack is an Occulus Rift S. I need my Beat Saber on PC.

 

This came out looking very nice, good work mate. 

[yuhao]

Thanks for sharing, I also made it.

 

 

[TrainFan475]

Sweet!

[wafflehaus]

On 8/24/2019 at 6:44 PM, yuhao said:

Thanks for sharing, I also made it.

 

 

Very cool, nice layout!

[AnonVader]

Did you connect the fans to Motherboard for power or used Commander Pro? I building my build in this exact same case 680X 

[DoctorNick]

Nice build. I see that you got a new MB - nice choice, very nice 

[wafflehaus]

On 8/28/2019 at 4:56 PM, AnonVader said:

Did you connect the fans to Motherboard for power or used Commander Pro? I building my build in this exact same case 680X 

Used a Commander Pro

[wafflehaus]

On 8/28/2019 at 8:42 PM, DoctorNick said:

Nice build. I see that you got a new MB - nice choice, very nice 

Thanks

[wafflehaus]

Final steps of the full package complete!

Got my Oculus Rift S and hooked it up a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday I ported across the 8TB drive from my old PC as well as adding two new 10TB drives.

32GB of PC3200, i7 9700k, vertically-mounted RTX 2070 Super with good airflow, Corsair Crystal 680x case, RGB up the friggin' whazoo, Oculus Rift S and over 30 TB of storage space. My build is finally complete, everything I wanted on paper now part of the system. I'm incredibly pleased right now.

[wafflehaus]

Third screen. Oculus Rift. 30TB of spinning drives. God help me.

[wafflehaus]

Small change, but I've ditched the G810 and G403 as well as the Razer Goliathus Chroma mousemat. They didn't meet my exacting standards of being RGB-y enough. As such I've replaced them with some really nice Corsair gear: .K70 mk.2 keyboard, Ironclaw Wireless RGB mouse and MM800 Polarius RGB mousepad.

 

Really pleased with their performance, aesthetics and how nice it is to run it all through iCue. With the mousmat gone, I was also able to call my oncologist and have Razer Synapse removed.

 

Here's how everything looks when the PC is locked and the screens go to sleep:

 

 

The thing I like about my whole setup is that little RGB remote on the left-hand side is totally suplerfluous. I've still got an old RGB strip under the desk but the actual backlighitng strip I'm using now is a couple of daisy-chained Corsair ones run out of the case and controlled by a Lighting Node Pro. Everything springs to life when I hit the power switch. It's brilliant.

[wafflehaus]

So... Along with ditching the third screen and adding a new extended mousemat,  I might have gone a little crazy with the Philips Hue this weekend. 

Also, turns out you can have some fun with Hue Sync too 

 

[Dayglorange]

And I thought I had an overkill RGB system I gotta ask, how are you liking the Ironclaw so far? I just got one myself recently but I'm still torn between it and my wired Nightsword. All Corsair, all the way though!

[wafflehaus]

On 1/23/2020 at 12:20 PM, Dayglorange said:

And I thought I had an overkill RGB system I gotta ask, how are you liking the Ironclaw so far? I just got one myself recently but I'm still torn between it and my wired Nightsword. All Corsair, all the way though!

I love the Ironclaw. Fits really comfortably and I like the way to switch between DPI. I'm a fan

[wafflehaus]

So, erm... It got worse.