A rig for my lady, that she doesn't want....

[ALXAndy]

My wonderful lady and I celebrated our first anniversary about a month ago. We've had the most wonderful year and things are getting more and more exciting as the days pass. We just secured our first flat..

 

Any way, any true geek wants to build his lady a PC. Sadly my lady loves her laptop too much to want a desktop, and she's made it clear.. "I don't want a fucking desktop" comes to mind... So I begrudgingly laid off and didn't push it. However over the past couple of months she's been raking the Steam sales and buying all sorts of games she likes the look of (mostly medieval) and her laptop doesn't cut it. The final straw was Anna or something. She loves the look of the game but it's a slideshow on her laptop; something needed to be done.

 

I had some bad luck recently with a bad cable blowing up my PC. I was pretty certain it was the motherboard but couldn't be sure. I have since been testing hardware and it seems it was the motherboard for sure, but I've yet to test the PSU. I have a feeling it could be OK, so I need a bit of luck there.

 

Any way I will spec it up later but I figured we could play a game of Carnival. Usually at a Carnival you get some fat ass and the "Guess my weight" thing. They draw a winner at the end. I've made some of this really easy to guess, but there are several key parts missing.. Whoever comes the closest gets, erm, I dunno, nothing really but hey, it's all in good fun.

 

So instead of guess my weight, let's play a game of "Guess my hardware".

 

Note - the GPU, cooler, motherboard and memory are missing (the board is going back for replacement, the GPU is ordered as is the ram and cooler but won't be here until this week coming up.

 

 

 

So come on then, let's have some fun

[TheSLSAMG]

An ALX Alienware case and a Killer 2100 NIC, along with an AMD FX 8350.

[ALXAndy]

An ALX Alienware case and a Killer 2100 NIC, along with an AMD FX 8350.

 

Yup !. I should do a list of hardware but not mention the names really. I'm pretty crap at competitions as you probably noticed

 

Edit. There's two mech drives going in also, the SSD she's getting (lucky her) is in the pic

[TheSLSAMG]

Yup !. I should do a list of hardware but not mention the names really. I'm pretty crap at competitions as you probably noticed

The funny thing is, I didn't look at your sig, where all of the parts lie

[qwertywarrior]

is..... is that an Alienware case ??

 

edit

got ninjad

[ALXAndy]

The funny thing is, I didn't look at your sig, where all of the parts lie

 

Oh fuck. Well that sort of ruins it then. /sulks. Bollocks and bugger I was supposed to update that to my new rig !

 

Ah well, so it's guess the GPU cooler and ram then. Those are not in my sig.

[Ryan Leech]

Why not this case?

[ericlee30]

Why not this case?

At one point i was actually looking at that case for my daughter, but it is a very cheap and flimsy case other then the build quality of the Case it is perfect for a women. It's just sad that more companies don't make cases that are more attractive to women, it would make the PC community grow even larger if they did.

[ALXAndy]

If I built her a PC in that she would kick my ass so hard I would vomit my testicles.

[ericlee30]

If I built her a PC in that she would kick my ass so hard I would vomit my testicles.

LOL, I now the feeling, my wife likes the more aggressive looks of some cases, like the Coolermaster HAF series for an example.I just wish that, companies would be more rounded to both sexes.

[Titanicium]

At one point i was actually looking at that case for my daughter, but it is a very cheap and flimsy case other then the build quality of the Case it is perfect for a women. It's just sad that more companies don't make cases that are more attractive to women, it would make the PC community grow even larger if they did.

 

Corsair makes custom painted 600Ts if you want one They can make a pink one if you would like one

 

Just like this one: 

[brownninja97]

I like that alienware case, its quite cool.

[ALXAndy]

I like that alienware case, its quite cool.

 

My lady had her eye on it from the moment I got it haha.

[ALXAndy]

Quick update ! with ram prices being insane at the moment I was beginning to stress. Thankfully a mate came through and sold me a 2133mhz 4gb kit of Geil Extreme. It'll do for now..

 

I was going to use a pair of Radeon HD 4890s in my lady's rig, but, she bought me a Radeon Hd 7990 for my 40th Birthday so I gratefully handed over the 670s. The 7990 should arrive soon.

 

I will post a full spec list later, but, to make it hers completely I ordered a acrylic window for her to replace the orange one. This is it here, it's new and neons...

 

 

I now need to order some white LED strips. More to come !

[ALXAndy]

Pink window modded and fitted.

 

 

And now all of the hardware is packed ready for our house move.

[ALXAndy]

Quick thanks list...

 

Craig - we owe this one to you mate.

Gary - for the cheaps cooler.

 

So I started off by unpacking some parts. We've just moved into our new flat.

 

 

And got out the motherboard.

 

 

And the CPU

 

 

Nekkid !

 

 

Kewlar !

 

 

 

Shiny.

 

 

In goes the CPU

 

 

Time for some TIM. I wanted something cheap. I was poking around the OCUK classifieds and saw some one selling some Cool labs Liquid Pro for £5 delivered. I was a bit worried about it given it sort of sets and ruins the warranty, but this rig is for my lady so will be staying as is.

 

 

One small blob, one big step for cooling.

 

 

And after a lot of trying to spread it with a Q tip...

 

 

The megabitch squashed my head ! the bitch !

 

 

Thanks for the memories.

 

 

In she goes.

 

 

And on with the fan.

 

 

The door bell goes, a gift from my lady..

 

 

The SSD.

 

 

The exhaust.

 

 

35 hernia causing kilos of case. I tested the power supply a couple of days back and it seems to be OK. Phew.

 

 

Time to remove the mask.

 

 

Bit more..

 

 

And done.

 

 

It's rocking the new plexi window I put in. It's UV reactive neon pink.

 

 

Duct fans.

 

 

IO

 

 

Uh O.

 

 

Interlude.. Basically the front panel header was not wired correctly for the board. This caused me a two hour pause and tons of stress. Basically the header is critical to the running of the case. If it's not wired correctly not only can you not turn the PC on, but nothing works as the HD LED is wired to the control board. In the end I had to get the manual for my old Asrock board, draw out a plan, figure out the colours (they're like an OEM car stereo, all weird and nonsensical) and then break them out and shrink wrap them before fitting them individually..

 

Back on with the build...

 

 

GPUs.

 

 

And done..

 

 

It..Is...Alive...

 

 

And time for some fun

 

 

Sadly the Ninja isn't good enough to LinX at 4.4ghz, though the board was fine with it. In the end I settled for the obligatory 4.2ghz and temps remained in check

 

I did benchmark it but I can't get to the scores right now.. Will add them later. What I did finally get was 30 mins alone with my rig and managed to fit the GPU.

[ztmj96]

Nice! It's looks badass with the pink!

 

HAHA back to your first post, I haven't heard of "slideshow on her laptop" before! Hilarious!

[alpenwasser]

Three things:

• That doll... creepy as hell!
• Looks to be a pretty massive piece of a CPU cooler, neat!
• I now feel a sudden urge to do a pink-ish build... dammit! :lol:

[ALXAndy]

Nice! It's looks badass with the pink!

 

HAHA back to your first post, I haven't heard of "slideshow on her laptop" before! Hilarious!

 

She's got an Asus G73 ROG laptop now thing is lovely but man, it's hooj ...

 

Thanks AW ! yeah the doll isn't something I would want in my bedroom, it kinda gives me the creeps sometimes but man, it's cool It's my 1 of 500 living dead doll hahaha.

 

I got the cooler on the cheap too but it's not as good as it looks sadly. 

 

All I have left to do now is basically to fit a black light cathode to make that pink sing

[Analog]

Damn man, that rig is so sweet! That enormous Alienware case... I guess size does really matter .  

[ForsakenLive]

That doll scared the crap out of me

[That Norwegian Guy]

 her laptop doesn't cut it. The final straw was Anna

 

Oh yes, mother of all unoptimized games, made with Unity and using double sided meshes and high poly mountains 50km away in the distance. Nicely done, by the way!

[TeKNiQue]

Okay, let me get this straight. Your "lady" can get a gaming PC just like that, when she doesn't even want a "fucking desktop"? And I gotta save up for years and sell shit to get one? I've been waiting for sooooooo long now, and I still gotta wait until christmas. This sucks.

[TheProfosist]

I have that MB. Also where the hell did you find a killer 2100 their no longer made. I ask because well mine doesnt work properly anytime the pc goes into an idle state it doesnt let it come out.

[ALXAndy]

I have that MB. Also where the hell did you find a killer 2100 their no longer made. I ask because well mine doesnt work properly anytime the pc goes into an idle state it doesnt let it come out.

 

I got the 2100 from a second hand classifieds forum for £20. I really like the firewall.

 

Sadly it doesn't fit in my lady's rig, and my Crosshair V Formula Z won't detect it as there seems to be an issue with the bios I'm running. I also can't disable the Intel one the CHV has.

 

I think Asus boards have issues with the Killer tbh. I had no issues whatsoever using an Asrock board with it.

 

Guys - thanks for all the comments ! it's also going to be used to push 3d into our new TV that we got uber cheaps.