My First Build - The Red Hearted Giant

[Gaddafi]

Hey y'all!

So this log is a bit overdue. I actually completed this sometime back in October but I wanted to make sure it was running stable and smooth before I posted anything about it.

 

First, a bit of back-story:

 

I've been messing with computers since I was a kid, always adding RAM, swapping motherboards, CPUs, etc etc. But I never really had the cash laying around to build myself a proper gaming/work machine. This past summer while doing an internship in Houston I decided it was finally time to build a PC. So when business was slow I would just casually browse forums reading up on the latest components and hunting deals.

Throughout my three month work period I gathered a list of first choice and second choice components and started hunting. To save you all the boring selection process, here's what I ended up with that fit within my budget:

 

Intel Core i7-4790k

Gigabyte Z97x Gaming 7 

16 GB Crucial Ballistix Sport

512 GB Crucial MX100

1 TB WD Caviar Blue

Noctua NH-D14 Air Cooler

Rosewill Capstone 750W Gold Plus Semi Modular

LG DVD Drive thing of which I forgot the name

Corsair 730T Full Tower Case (this thing is HUGE)

 

You may or may not have noticed, but I'm missing a graphics card! Well, that's because I ran into an issue. I had ordered a Sapphire HD 7950 off TD for real cheap (with rebates and all) but it came damaged and clearly used, so I RMA'd and vowed to not use TD again. After that point I was just waiting around for a good deal on a card.

So I started sourcing all the parts, and ended up buying from both Newegg and Microcenter. While I was still in Houston I bought the CPU, Mobo, and RAM as a combo deal back when MicroCenter had the in-store only deal and had the rest of the parts ordered off Newegg and shipped to my sister in Boston (I study in Montreal). 

Anyway, here's some pictures before you all get tired and stop reading! These pictures include the build with the parts listed so far:

 

Here's a few pic of all the Newegg parts stacked in boxes:

 

 

 

 

 

And here's a picture of the boxes from MicroCenter!

 

 

 

 

Honestly the hardest part of all of this was the wait, and the anxiety during transport. I had to pack the MoBo, CPU, and RAM into my check-in Luggage on a flight from Houston to Montreal, drive them to Boston, pick up the parts from Boston and drive them all the way back to my parents house in Toronto to build.

 

Oh and then I drove the whole completed thing to Montreal.

Oh and in between building it at my parents house and taking it to Montreal I had to wait 2 months. The wait was KILLER.

 

ANYWAY, here's some more pictures. I have a LOT more but since they're mega quality I'll only post a few necessary ones.

Size comparison of my SSD, Size 11 feet and my case:

 

 

Unboxing the MoBo:

  

Mmm that crisp static wrap

 

 

 

Shiny

CPU seated in place (Skipped some pictures here of unboxing etc):

 

 

MoBo with the Noctua NH-D14 placed inside case (Skipped unboxing of Noctua and applying Arctic Silver 5 since I'm sure there are thousands of hi-res pics of that)

 

 

Unboxing and placing the Capstone PSU inside

 

 

 

Also seated the DVD Drive and the SSD:

 

 

All wired up!

 

 

 

Her first boot <3 (testing on the ground before closing her up and moving to the table)

 

 

Slightly cleaned up and purring on the table!!

 

 

 

ENHANCE!

 

MAGNIFY!

 

 

My pet emu sitting ontop enjoying the sound of a well-tuned machine

  

 

Okay so that's the first part! I'm posting this now and will continue to edit in future parts before I accidentally press back and lose everything Stay tuned!!

 

CONTINUING ON!

 

Sooooo I went back to school, sadly, after building my beauty and leaving it at home.

But that didn't stop me from ordering new parts! 

While sitting at school, avoiding doing work and going to classes, I thought of all the ways I could make my PC even better.

Obviously first thing was a graphics card... but we'll get to that! One thing that I really thought would be awesome was a fan controller. So I did some research and decided to get this beauty:

 

 

I'm a fan of physical controls and didn't like the idea of getting a touchscreen fan controller or something else digital, so I went with the most basic, bad ass controller I could. 

 

I also figured it was time to upgrade from my Logitech Laptop Mouse and get a nice proper gaming mouse. Picked up this cutie on sale

 

 

 

So that's my build! Hope I'm not forgetting anything

 

Oh and here's a few extra pictures...

 

 

... wait what's that!? Hold on, let's get the clutter out of there and clear up that pic

 

 

COULD IT BE!?

 

 

YES IT CAN!!

So it turns out that when I placed my order for the fan controller my dad went in and added a little something to the order for me since my birthday was coming up!

 

 

But then when I got back to Montreal I had another surprise...

 

 

My friends got me the EXACT same card for my birthday! What a coincidence

So of course, I went out and bought a Crossfire bridge... and then...

 

TA DAAAAAAAA 

 

 

 

And finally, a little action shot

 

 

Now THAT'S my build

 

Future plans?

- The monitor all the way to the left just went out, so I need to replace that.

 

- I want to clean up the wires when I get a chance and make it even prettier looking, maybe get some other red/black flare around my desk.

- I need to buy some new speakers, using these old Insignia ones I found laying around the office currently.

 

 

OVERCLOCKING!!! I need to read up on some good guides, but I want to aim for 4.8-5.0 on the CPU and idk what on the cards, any suggestions?

Here's an album dump if you guys want to see any of the other pictures I took and a PCpartpicker build list:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HkjKxr

 

http://imgur.com/a/F3P8t

[Decon]

images don't seem to be working...

[Aniallation]

pics are broken for me?

 

[Cats can use computers]

the pictures are broken for me ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

[SeanAngelo]

pictures are not showing

 

overall, looks like a good part list to me

[Gaddafi]

the pictures are broken for me ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

 

 

pics are broken for me?

 

 

 

images don't seem to be working...

 

 

pictures are not showing

 

overall, looks like a good part list to me

 

 

Awww man Maybe wait a little bit for them to load? The files are pretty hefty, about 3-4 MB per and they're hosted on Dropbox. They're showing on my computer. Anyone know how I can fix it??

[DildorTheDecent]

Copying pics from dropbox to  forum never really worked. 

[Gaddafi]

Copying pics from dropbox to  forum never really worked. 

 

Hmm, what's the preferred hosting service? I'll update all the links to that.

[KRImSIN]

Does a good build all images are broken.......

[Aniallation]

Hmm, what's the preferred hosting service? I'll update all the links to that.

http://imgur.com/

[Gaddafi]

EDIT: Pictures should be working!

[SeanAngelo]

Gahh I'm sorry guys!!

Here's a link to the album for now:

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/p08n4hb9tyytedm/AABMeHd6XyZgtZ2bwkrGRNdza

thats better! awesome build!

[Gaddafi]

thats better! awesome build!

 

Thank you! I don't have any pictures of the whole set-up as it is now but I'll take some when I go back to school in a couple weeks

[Gaddafi]

Sorry for the double post, but I just updated the images. They're all on imgur this time around, I hope it works!

[Johanmyst]

Looks rather nice. Not very special but nice and clean, neat. Shame of the colour of those Noctua fans, they are and always will be vile. 

[Gaddafi]

Looks rather nice. Not very special but nice and clean, neat. Shame of the colour of those Noctua fans, they are and always will be vile. 

 

Thank you! That's exactly what I was going for -- nothing too fancy just nice, clean, neat and powerful! 

And yeah, I thought about painting them but I read online that painting Noctua fans always decreases the performance no matter how careful you are so I'll deal with it haha

[clikzip]

Nice build, looks good.

[Johanmyst]

Thank you! That's exactly what I was going for -- nothing too fancy just nice, clean, neat and powerful! 

And yeah, I thought about painting them but I read online that painting Noctua fans always decreases the performance no matter how careful you are so I'll deal with it haha

 

Yeah I wouldn't pained them either, Noctua should have never released those fans in the doodoo colour-scheme they came in in the first bloody place. The grey ones they released are a slight bit better but regardless still revolting. 

[Gaddafi]

Yeah I wouldn't pained them either, Noctua should have never released those fans in the doodoo colour-scheme they came in in the first bloody place. The grey ones they released are a slight bit better but regardless still revolting.

They released gray ones!? I didn't know that... I would have gotten those if I had known haha.

[z3kron]

They released gray ones!? I didn't know that... I would have gotten those if I had known haha.

 

They're called Noctua REDUX.

I think they're budget minded product , Linus made a review about em.It has less features and I guess slightly lower performace (???) and also they lack the premium features such as water proofing (?) and as you can see in the picture the vibration and "noise" dampening rubber pieces on the mounts

 

But in my opinion this is still as premium as any other noctua product

 

[Johanmyst]

They're called Noctua REDUX.

I think they're budget minded product , Linus made a review about em.It has less features and I guess slightly lower performace (???) and also they lack the premium features such as water proofing (?) and as you can see in the picture the vibration and "noise" dampening rubber pieces on the mounts

 

But in my opinion this is still as premium as any other noctua product

 

 

Yeah those are the ones I meant. It's a shame about the lack of features compared to the original doodoo coloured ones, this should have been the main product line, the more elite ones and the excrement-looking ones should have obviously been the worse ones...

[Gaddafi]

They're called Noctua REDUX.

I think they're budget minded product , Linus made a review about em.It has less features and I guess slightly lower performace (???) and also they lack the premium features such as water proofing (?) and as you can see in the picture the vibration and "noise" dampening rubber pieces on the mounts

 

But in my opinion this is still as premium as any other noctua product

 

Ahh thanks for the picture! Those actually look really sweet, it sucks they aren't offered as top-line

 

Yeah those are the ones I meant. It's a shame about the lack of features compared to the original doodoo coloured ones, this should have been the main product line, the more elite ones and the excrement-looking ones should have obviously been the worse ones...

Hahaha you have a serious hate for the brown color of the originals! It's not THAT bad, though I agree it doesn't look nice.