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"Drogon" - my first real build

Right. I've been waiting a long, long time to do this build (and this build log). I've been saving up for it for almost the entirety of this summer - I started working the day after my last exam and finished working the Friday before I was due back to school. Prior to this build, I've been playing games on my dad's PS3, and a mid-2007 iMac (which plays CS:GO at 15fps on minimum settings). Anyway, enough pre-amble. On with the build log! (I would like to apologise in advance for potentially shoddy picture quality, I suck at taking photos :()

 

Specs

 
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£161.94 @ Aria PC) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H105 73.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£81.59 @ Aria PC) 
Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£99.56 @ Scan.co.uk) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£68.16 @ Scan.co.uk) 
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£147.24 @ Amazon UK) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Dual Classified ACX Video Card  (£400.73 @ Amazon UK) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  (£87.13 @ Scan.co.uk) 
Monitor: Dell U2414H 60Hz 23.8" Monitor  (£171.98 @ Aria PC) 
Other: Corsair M45 Mouse (£34.99)
Other: Corsair MM200E (£22.43)
Total: £1565.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-06 17:06 BST+0100
 
I wanted to go for some 1866MHz RAM, but neither of the places I was looking had any of the kind I wanted in stock at the time, so I went for 1600 instead.
I was also going to go for the standard ACX 780, but I had some room in my budget for a Classy, so why the hell not? I'll only be playing at 1080p 60Hz for the time being, so I have absolutely no need for the power of the 900 series cards, and I didn't really want to gamble on their price and availability, so I stuck to the 700 series.
Lastly, I was planning on using a CM Storm Quickfire TK, but again I had a little more room in my budget (and on my desk, since I bought a second one), so I went for my dream keyboard, the K70. Didn't bother waiting for the RGB version, I only want it to be red.
 
The Build
 
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Mah parts! Well, most of them. In my excitement, I forgot to include some of the stuff, and the case and monitor were simply too big to fit on here with everything else.
 
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Here's a shot, taken after the build was finished, of the graphics card box, simply because it's so sexy I can't not include it :D
 
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Time for the test boot! I kinda forgot to take pictures of the process up until now, but you all know how it goes, right?
 
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Ohhhh man this graphics card is s-e-x-y
 
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Hey, it works! That's always good...
 
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I am liking this case already, it's so big! Sure, it's no 900D but it's still pretty roomy.
 
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Motherboard, CPU and RAM are in. This is looking pretty good so far :D
 
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Fans are on the rad. This took a little while to get right because a) I'm a bit anal about where the cables are going B) I found it a little hard to visualise where the rad's going to end up without installing it. I chose to put the fans on the bottom in push, since I mainly want it to look nice, that's why I spent the extra on these fans.
 
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That's the SSD in. I am liking this SSD mount, but I realised (a little too late) that you have to put the SSD in label-down, because Crucial are weird. I think I might have damaged one of the screw holes slightly trying to put it in label-up, but oh well.
 
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And the power supply's in. Took less time to install than it did to think about how to install.
 
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This is the cable management pretty much finalised. I know I should trim off that cable tie, but I haven't gotten around to it yet :P
 
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Front fans are installed. I found the screws pretty tiring to get in, as unfit as I am, they were pretty damn stiff once you got past the first couple turns. The rubber mounts also got a bit twisted out of their proper places, but I don't think this is too much of an issue - the fans are pretty secure in there. I've taken out the two hard drive cages, since I have absolutely no need for one yet. I might get a hard drive once I get paid again, just so I have somewhere to dump crap. For now though, I'll be sticking to my SSD.
 
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Everything's set up on my desk, time to install Windows! I'll be using a pen drive with the ISO on that a friend lent me, plus a code from G2A (because screw paying £80 when I can pay £8 xD)
 
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Installing...
 
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It's done. Windows is installed, and it's all working nicely. My camera refuses to get on with the LEDs on the waterblock and graphics card, so this picture comes with extra blurriness. It's actually quite dark in there because the window is smoked, so I might get an LED strip later, I'll see how I feel.
 
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Here's a picture without the side panel, so you can actually see the red. 
 
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A shot of it all set up and running. Don't worry, I only use that old monitor on the left for chat windows and MSI Afterburner, or occasionally a browser window.
 
---
 
*sigh* And it's done... I finally have a (pretty badass, if I say so myself) gaming PC. I hope y'all didn't hate this thread as much as my last one :D

DROGON: Intel i5-4690K @ 3.5 GHz /// MSI Z97 Gaming 5 /// Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x4GB @ 1600MHz /// EVGA GTX 780 Classified /// Phanteks Enthoo Pro /// Crucial MX100 512GB SSD /// Corsair AX760i /// Corsair H105 /// Corsair Vengeance K70 /// Corsair M45 /// Dell Ultrasharp U2414H /// Build log: completed

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Good job, You wanna share that coke with me, Jacob?

 eGPU Setup: Macbook Pro 13" 16GB DDR3 RAM, 512GB SSD, i5 3210M, GTX 980 eGPU

New PC: i7-4790k, Corsair H100iGTX, ASrock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer, 24GB Ram, 850 EVO 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD, GTX 1080 Fractal Design R4, EVGA Supernova G2 650W

 

 

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Looks good, 1600Mhz is the sweetspot.

I cant see anything bad with it.

Go for it.

My Gaming PC

|| CPU: Intel i5 4690@4.3Ghz || GPU: Dual ASUS gtx 1080 Strix. || RAM: 16gb (4x4gb) Kingston HyperX Genesis 1600Mhz. || Motherboard: MSI Z97S Krait edition. || OS: Win10 Pro
________________________________________________________________

Trust me, Im an Engineer

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I'm jealous

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Yeah share Jacob. Seriously congrats, nice monitor and nice spec, feels great doesnt it building your own PC? Well worth the time and research, also remarkably easy. Saying that LTT forum makes it so much easier as does PC partpicker.

Makes me want to libger in PC world and say to their blissfully unaware customers that there paying over the odds.

Congrats again.

CPU: I5-4440 / MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87-DS3H / RAM: G.Skill ripjaws 2x4GB / Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 128gb SSD, 1TB WD HDD / PSU: Corsair CX500M / Case: Xigmatek Aquila / Monitor: Dell U2414H

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now tell me.... you already want to build another one dont you? i know as soon as mine was done i was hopeing someone would buy it so i could use the dough to do another

corsair 600t, msi z87-g45, intel 4770k, 16g patriot viper low-pro ram, asus direct cu2 780, crucial 256gig ssd, seagate baracuda 1tb,

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Looks Great!

Thanks!

 

Awesome!

Right back at you!

 

Good job, You wanna share that coke with me, Jacob?

Thank you :) As for the Coke, I'm not even going to be drinking it, my mum got it for me :D I think it's going to sit here on my desk for a while

 

Looks good, 1600Mhz is the sweetspot.

I cant see anything bad with it.

Go for it.

Yeah you have a point. I guess I also don't want to be stressing out the IMC too much, especially since I bought this CPU to overclock it. Thanks man :)

 

I'm jealous

Don't be, your build is pretty good! Mine is a little overkill to be honest.

 

Yeah share Jacob. Seriously congrats, nice monitor and nice spec, feels great doesnt it building your own PC? Well worth the time and research, also remarkably easy. Saying that LTT forum makes it so much easier as does PC partpicker.

Makes me want to libger in PC world and say to their blissfully unaware customers that there paying over the odds.

Congrats again.

Thank you too :D It does feel great, I've always wanted to build my own PC - I was quickly convinced against using boutique builders like Chillblast. This build list has been through so many iterations, it started out with a £750 budget and has evolved and grown as I got jobs and such. Good old PCPartPicker!

 

now tell me.... you already want to build another one dont you? i know as soon as mine was done i was hopeing someone would buy it so i could use the dough to do another

I really do, I find it so exciting. Luckily, my friends have all saved up for their own computers over the summer too, and they want me to build their machines for them :D

DROGON: Intel i5-4690K @ 3.5 GHz /// MSI Z97 Gaming 5 /// Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x4GB @ 1600MHz /// EVGA GTX 780 Classified /// Phanteks Enthoo Pro /// Crucial MX100 512GB SSD /// Corsair AX760i /// Corsair H105 /// Corsair Vengeance K70 /// Corsair M45 /// Dell Ultrasharp U2414H /// Build log: completed

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Nice rig dude =))))))))) (and some more!) ))))))))

Thanks :D No Noctuas though...

DROGON: Intel i5-4690K @ 3.5 GHz /// MSI Z97 Gaming 5 /// Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x4GB @ 1600MHz /// EVGA GTX 780 Classified /// Phanteks Enthoo Pro /// Crucial MX100 512GB SSD /// Corsair AX760i /// Corsair H105 /// Corsair Vengeance K70 /// Corsair M45 /// Dell Ultrasharp U2414H /// Build log: completed

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now tell me.... you already want to build another one dont you? i know as soon as mine was done i was hopeing someone would buy it so i could use the dough to do another

Yeah for sure, or upgrade or give it some bling to the one i have. Tempted to build one for a friend, but I'm on the fence as i had a relatively trouble fee build with mine, so i wonder will things go pear shaped if i do this. Would hate to say i can do it for "X" amount and it ends up costing "X" amount + 100.

On the another note i never considered selling my current one....... ponders...... thanks

CPU: I5-4440 / MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87-DS3H / RAM: G.Skill ripjaws 2x4GB / Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 128gb SSD, 1TB WD HDD / PSU: Corsair CX500M / Case: Xigmatek Aquila / Monitor: Dell U2414H

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Thank you too :D It does feel great, I've always wanted to build my own PC - I was quickly convinced against using boutique builders like Chillblast. This build list has been through so many iterations, it started out with a £750 budget and has evolved and grown as I got jobs and such. Good old PCPartPicker!

I had one from cyber power a few years ago, although it was good but i felt duped on some components when i got it, i also realized i payed a lot more far more than what it was worth. But to be fair it lasted 6 years with not one issue Also nice to see you stayed on budget, it will last you tho if you treat it good.

CPU: I5-4440 / MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87-DS3H / RAM: G.Skill ripjaws 2x4GB / Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 128gb SSD, 1TB WD HDD / PSU: Corsair CX500M / Case: Xigmatek Aquila / Monitor: Dell U2414H

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Yeah for sure, or upgrade or give it some bling to the one i have. Tempted to build one for a friend, but I'm on the fence as i had a relatively trouble fee build with mine, so i wonder will things go pear shaped if i do this. Would hate to say i can do it for "X" amount and it ends up costing "X" amount + 100.

On the another note i never considered selling my current one....... ponders...... thanks

yeah i have my sister wanting me to build her an htpc which im excited to try just hoping its not too brutal working in such a small case

corsair 600t, msi z87-g45, intel 4770k, 16g patriot viper low-pro ram, asus direct cu2 780, crucial 256gig ssd, seagate baracuda 1tb,

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Would hate to say i can do it for "X" amount and it ends up costing "X" amount + 100.

I feel you, man. I've been finding it kinda tricky to keep my friends' build lists in budget, especially since they're not certain exactly how much they'll have when the time comes.

DROGON: Intel i5-4690K @ 3.5 GHz /// MSI Z97 Gaming 5 /// Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x4GB @ 1600MHz /// EVGA GTX 780 Classified /// Phanteks Enthoo Pro /// Crucial MX100 512GB SSD /// Corsair AX760i /// Corsair H105 /// Corsair Vengeance K70 /// Corsair M45 /// Dell Ultrasharp U2414H /// Build log: completed

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You did remove the plastic covering the 780 shroud? :-)

 

Looks nice. i do like that case

I did remove it, I just waited until it was in the case so I didn't get it all fingerprinty. Maybe this was a mistake, but hey-ho. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that :D

 

I'm liking this case too. It was super easy to build in, and I don't think I could possibly fault it, especially considering the price.

DROGON: Intel i5-4690K @ 3.5 GHz /// MSI Z97 Gaming 5 /// Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x4GB @ 1600MHz /// EVGA GTX 780 Classified /// Phanteks Enthoo Pro /// Crucial MX100 512GB SSD /// Corsair AX760i /// Corsair H105 /// Corsair Vengeance K70 /// Corsair M45 /// Dell Ultrasharp U2414H /// Build log: completed

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