First Build - "Achievement"

[EulersK]

History and Namesake

I started working at a computer repair shop when I began college to help pay for the ungodly expenses. Before then, I had simply dipped my toe in computer repair. Before that job, the most I had ever done was replace an HDD. By the time I graduated, I was the shop manager, and I would (of course) work on the majority of computers to some extent. Directly after college, I began to freelance my computer work to supplement my terrible income. My jobs ranged from simple printer setups for the elderly to building full systems for rich kids on their birthday. The theme was always the same - I was in direct contact with often top of the line machines, meanwhile all I had was a stock gaming rig from Gateway that I got as a graduation gift in high school. About a year ago, however, I finally landed a great job thanks to my degree and even got my employer to pay for furthering my education... along with a signing bonus. Overnight, I had a very good chunk of money sitting in the bank, and I only had one thing on my mind. My Achievement Build began rolling.

 

Specifications and Choices

I knew that I had neither the funds nor the desire for a custom water loop, although I despise the look of air coolers in such a small case. Thus, the AiO cooler was a must. Silence was also a necessity, and with the help of several users on this very forum, I've finally finished silencing this build. I literally put the finishing touches on tweaking fan curves today, and it's finally where it needs to be. The motherboard was a no brainer due to color. RAM was chosen based on the ability to paint them, so the Corsair Dominator series with the added light bars was added. While better SSD's are out there, I wanted a custom touch, so I went with the Kingston Hyper X drives. 

 

NZXT S340 White

Asus Sabertooth z97 Mark S

Intel i7-4790K

EVGA GTX 980

EVGA 850W Gold PSU

Corsair Dominator 4x4GB

EVGA Hybrid Cooler

NZXT Kraken X61

Kingston Hyper X (2x120GB, RAID 0)

 

Customization

• The Corsair Dominator sticks were either painted stark white or left silver with the stock white bar which I recolored orange to match the build.
• Both Kingston SSD's were painted white, with the black spikes retained (this was done four times due to bleeding issues with the spray paint).
• The EVGA backplate for the GPU was painted, as was the shroud that came with the hybrid cooler
• A carbon fiber vinyl film was added to the top, as the black ruined the build (idea stolen from Enderman on this forum!)
• An RGB LED strip was added to the top, allowing me to control the color with the included remote
• Note: All painting was done using Plastidip

 

Pictures

And now for the reason people actually lurk on these subforums!

 

Here is the neutral version. The RGB light strip emits a white light, although the camera makes it look blue, so it is turned off in this picture.

 

The following pictures show why I chose a white build. I like to change things up, and the light strip allowed me to do that. The flash on my camera washed out the colors, although the flash is required to focus... so, I apologize for the blurriness:

 

And now for a closeup...

 

Simplicity...

 

And, finally, my point of view. A Logitech Atlas G410 keyboard, Logitech G600 mouse, and Razer Tartarus accompany my gaming. Still need to upgrade the monitor, but that's for another time.

 

 

And there we have it! Input is more than welcome. As I said, this is my first build. I'm extremely happy with it, although I'm more than willing to hear suggestions. Thanks for the help, and thanks for checking this out!

 

[Starelementpoke]

6 minutes ago, EulersK said:

-Snip-

Wish I had a job. Assuming you did this/had this planned out pre nano so 980's fine. Like the color scheme. Assuming the psu is the G2 850 watt, so that's good. But Beats man?

(I kid, still good build)

[Pcinacan]

You smart, you very smart spent money to make your pc look good (unlike me ;/)

[Sean_A91]

This looks amazing, I'm kinda jealous. How did you go about picking out parts?
I think next time i build a pc, i'll build it around a GPU, since the styles are so nuts and varied.

Also, Is that custom lighting or did you purchase it? I'd love to get that for my case, Link please?

[EulersK]

Yeah, Beats, I know lol But hey, it matches! I literally picked them up on Craigslist for a few bucks. They're actually great for gaming because of their ridiculous amount of bass. Makes the 'splosions sound oh so good.

 

As for the lights, here they are:

Logisys Multi-Colored LED Strip with Remote Control

http://www.frys.com/product/7931760?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I think it's great that you can daisy chain them together if you want more lights. Had I not found those, yeah, I would have made them custom. As for picking the parts, I honestly kind of cheated and used https://pcpartpicker.com/ lmao Took the guess work out. I started with the case and worked from there.

 

And yeah, I said in the original post that I stole the carbon fiber idea from Enderman. He actually helped me silence this darn thing, and I saw an S340 build in his signature.

[Sean_A91]

If you want a good headset that you can wear for a few hours and match your set, Check out Siberia Steelseries, I have v2's and love em, I think each version has a different sound to them so you'll want to research into that to find the one you want.

Also thanks for the link, I think this is just what my case needed to give it some more life. I have a huuuuge window, and its all dark in there.

And dude, everyone uses pcpartpicker, its silly not to. I wouldn't expect anyone to keep up with all the constant new parts.
I'm just amazed at how many similar pieces you found and how well they all match a single style.
For my pc I chose performance first but I was always looking for the same colors.... but I stopped at colors really, so in comparison my rig is just boring to this beast, yours is like, I almost wanna say modern art.

[IgnorantBastrd]

I don't think I could ever do a completely white build like this just because I feel like I would get it super dirty but man that looks good.  Love the small touches on the RAM and SSDs and that EVGA cooler for the gpu looks insane.  Slow clap to you my friend.

[EulersK]

Wow, thanks, really! The feedback really means a lot. I poured a lot into this, so it's great to hear this isn't a case of a parent thinking their child is beautiful.

 

@Sean_A91

I am going to own those headphones after my taxes get back, good god. These Beats give me a headache after 5+ hours, they hurt the cartilage of my ears after awhile.

Also, if you're interested, take a look at what the build looked like before:

 

I decided that the orange was just too gaudy, but I made a happy little discovery. If you paint your components with fluorescent paint (which that orange was), they actually change color depending on what wavelength (i.e. color) of light hits it. I wish I would have taken more pictures. The green light made the GPU and RAM turn blue, red light made them turn almost black, blue light made them greenish, and so on. It looked wild when I had the cycle-color effect going on the light strip. Not really what I was going for, but definitely take a look at that for an interesting touch. It's really hard to imagine what it looks like without having actually seen it, but I highly recommend checking it out.

[Sean_A91]

I'm wearing my siberia steel series right now, they are pretty comfortable but i can only wear them for about 6 or so hours, but this is way better than my Turtle Beach Z300's, which last an hour or two tops.

My current favorite headset is my logitech G930's, which I can wear like, ALL day, no joke, comfiest headset I've ever had, they are around ear, the only headset that has actually fit my big-arse ears, and VERY quiet. Sadly I've had issues with them because of the wireless, signal cutting out and stuff, they are second hand though so I can't comment on them properly.

But there IS a wired version without all the fancy stuff like macros and what not on it. I will be buying this or maybe a newer wired version in the future.

Logitech seems to be slowly but surely taking over my desktop  I have so many peripherals from them.

[EulersK]

Logitech is, by far, my favorite brand for peripherals. The only thing I own that isn't by them is my Razer Tartarus, and the only reason I didn't go with the Logitech keypad is because it is massive. The entire point of me getting the keypad was to remove a clunky keyboard, and given that I already have 12 keys on my right thumb alone, I just didn't need more keys.

[Sean_A91]

haha, I like my massive keyboard, I have a roccat ryos mk pro with cherry brown switches, it has this huge tray on it that makes it so comfortable to type, and I can type anywhere thanks to it, in bed, etc.

[Blaxow]

looks beautiful man ! congrats !