in-progress Ambitious Community Newbie builds a thing.

[DF_Revo]

Hello to everyone who finds this thread!

 

I'm pretty new to this part of the LTT community. I found the channel a few months ago and really enjoyed the presentation and content, and technically joined the forums three months ago, just to jump into a giveaway thing from Razer. I tend to keep closed and quiet personally, but after browsing around, this place seems incredibly friendly and helpful, and I'm hoping to come here as a resource for help, and offer my own advice and experience when and where I can.

 

With that said, here's what's going on in here:

 

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A bit about me and the current rig.

I feel like I'm at least in or above the "intermediate" skill range when it comes to building and working with computers. I've helped friends part out and put together their rigs, most recently a mini ITX build for my brother in a Fractal Design Node 202. I've been slowly picking and prodding my personal rig, one that I had dubbed "The Adequator". How adequate is the Adequator? Here are the main bits:

 

• i5-4670k (Stock 3.4GHz)
• Asus Z87k Motherboard
• 16BG DDR3
• Corsair Carbide 300R
• Asus GTX 660ti OC Asus Strix GTX 1070 OC

Runs off of a 120GB 850 EVO for boot and a 250 for gaming storage, along with a 1TB WD Blue for general storage.

There's a SoundBlaster Zx card in there that was bought long before I found the NCIX video telling me not to buy the thing.

I've got a stock cooler keeping a non-overclocked unlocked processor cool and tidy. (I'm still not personally confident enough yet in understanding everything I'd need to know about overclocking.)

I bought 4 LED Corsair fans to compliment the three others in the case to provide ample cooling around all of the components and "cable management". Many random LEDs = Super Gamer Extreme.

A few years ago I bent the top ventilation grill trying to wedge my old DVD drive onto the top 5.25" bay, eventually failed and installed it lower. Still salty about that.

All of this is plugged into a 24" 1080p monitor from Dell (S2316M)

 

It was always enough to game with, with Warframe and FFXIV being the most intense things I would have thrown at it. It handled it plenty well, with both games never struggling much with topped out settings. Then I picked up Battlefield 1 and Overwatch, and while the latter isn't too intense of a game to run, BF1 sure as heck is. I rushed and bought a 1070 a couple of weeks ago, and finally decided to do something that had been on my mind for a while. Build a big fun rig.

 

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The New Rig.

What's the objective? Well, its complicated. As with many things regarding money and computer products, it doesn't entirely make sense. Hopefully without getting too personal about my reasoning, I've decided to stop sitting on some money that was left behind with the passing of a family member and finally treat myself to something that I just purely want to do. That was the message that was left for us with the money, anyways. With my other siblings having gone on cruises and visiting Europe, I'm boring and just want to make a giant computer that will make me laugh and happy.  So here is where I'm at so far.

 

 - New parts -

• Case - Phanteks Enthoo Primo
• Motherboard - MSI Z170A Krait Gaming LGA 1151 Intel Z170
• RAM - 
  • Corsair Vengeance BLUE LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000)
  • Corsair Vengeance WHITE LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000)
• PSU - Corsair HX850i (Still in transit - Shipping)
• CPU Cooling - Corsair H100i V2 AiO
• SSD - Samsung 850 EVO 500GB (Gaming)

 - Re-used parts from previous rig -

• HDD -
  • Samsung 850 EVO 250GB (Boot)
  • WD Blue 1TB (Storage)
• GPU - Asus Strix GTX 1070 OC
• Cooling - A bunch of 140mm Corsair fans, blue and white.
• Miscellaneous -
  • SoundBlaster Zx PCIe Audio Card
  • Like some DVD drive from 2008

 

 

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Challenges.

 

Most notably missing from the list above is the CPU. I've held off on that almost entirely because of timing. Under normal circumstances, I would have just picked up a i7 6700k and called it a day. But Kaby Lake chips are so close, and I've already read first impressions about the upcoming 7700k, making me more sure about the decision to wait until the 7th gen chips launched. I want to get the 7700k, all that's keeping me at this point is an actual product launch, however long that takes.

 

Another issue that I think I might run into is the fact that I've never used an AiO cooler before. I know they are much simpler than custom loops, but I've actually never worked with one or installed one. The tubing is much more stiff that I thought it would be, and now I'm not so sure about where I'm going to need to place the radiator in this case. I know it'll have to be mounted above the motherboard, but I was eventually hoping for some advice about where exactly above it the radiator should go. (The Enthoo Primo has room for 4 120mm fans up top, and the H100i v2 has a 240mm rad.)

 

I've also never dealt with a fan controller before; my previous method involved an uncomfortable amount of 4-pin molex adapters and a mass of wires. The Enthroo Primo has a fan controller installed in it, and I'm fairly certain I understand what it wants me to do, but when I get to installing, I might have a few questions about where to plug things in.

 

I also plan on picking up a second Strix 1070, and I remember all the fun that is SLI back in the days of my first desktop which ran twin 8800 GTs. I've been looking around, and I don't think that Asus makes a HB SLI bridge that matches the Strix aesthetic, so I'll probably end up picking up one of the nVidia ones instead.

 

And, with anything in life, who knows what problems may arise during the building phase. Fun and adventure awaits!

 

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Goals.

 

I'm shooting for a mild blue/white color theme for the inside of the case, with the RGB on the GPU, AiO, Fans, and RAM showing most, if not all, of the theme. I looked into an LED strip, but saw what it would take to get it hooked up to the LED controller on the Primo and got sad.

 

This whole thing is going to be squeezing all of it's power into a wimpy 24" 1080p panel, and I may eventually decide to at least go to a larger 1440p down the road. I am really not picky about resolution, and I'm also the guy that disables AA because I don't care about the staircase effect much of the time, especially as the action moves around enough to blur the effect.

 

I'm well aware that there are plenty of parts of this rig are overkill for something that's primarily going to be used for gaming, but eh, I guess that's kind of the point, to a certain extent. I'm not doing it to be a braggart or anything like that, it's just something I've always wanted to do, and I'm fortunate enough to have the resources to actually do it.

 

What's left of the old rig is being strung back together and will eventually be given to a friend. I'd be putting back in the older GTX660ti, and he is buying hard drives and a new OS. It will be his first gaming computer, and he is pretty excited about it.

 

I'm really looking forward to putting this machine together, and would like to thank anyone in advance for any advice, suggestions, and opinions about how this progresses. This community looks great and I'm glad to be finally joining it.

Edited December 8, 2016 by DF_Revo
Edited for spelling, grammar, and formatting.

[MrPants_]

Sorry, didn't quite read and double posted because of some issue on my computer

Edited December 8, 2016 by MrAwesomepants

[MrPants_]

Sorry, didn't quite read and double posted for some issue on my computer

Edited December 8, 2016 by MrAwesomepants