Old Heart, New Body - 1st Build

Madmonsta · February 3, 2015

Old System

Case: Thermaltake M9

Mobo: EP45-UD3

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8400 (stock cooler)

Ram 2x2GB DDR2

HDD; 512Gb (now replaced with 2x256GB SSD)

Drives: 2 x LG dvd

Fans 2x120mm blue led, molex connected (now replaced with 2 non led with 1 in PWM mobo header and 1 molex with 7V regulator)

Psu: 400W-ish (possibly case psu)

New system

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (no window)

Mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3 ATX

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8400

CPU Cooler: Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 3

Ram: 2x2GB DDR2

SDD; 2x256GB SSD)

Drives 1 x LG dvd

Intake Fans: 2 x Fractal Design GA-14 (case fans both on front connected to case fan regulator switch)

Exhaust Fan: 1 x Be Quiet Silent Wings 2 140mm PWM mobo connected

Psu: Corsair RM550

I've already installed the psu into case, and planned/managed cable run, flipped the door to open from left, and moved GP14 rear case fan to front, and installed Be Quiet fan in the back, unfortunately i couldn't connect the Silent Wings 2 fan to the fan control on the case because the connector is a small 3pin female plug and the Be Quiet fan is 4pin PWM.

(sorry about these 3 pics, taken on a crappy phone (i know, no excuse in this day and age lol)

Finally got my cpu cooler last Saturday morning, got it home and the jitters hit me. What if i do this and kill it :-(

So i logged on to WoW for a few hours Speedfan 4.50 had the GT630 (passive cooled) @ 67deg and the cpu @ 52deg at load

I finally turned off my old pc about 1am and started gutting it

Then placed the SSD's on the 2 sleds behind mobo plate

installed the dvd drive ( i really like the thumb screws for installing in the 5.25 bays)

@ 3am i started on the cpu cooler (attaching the mounting brackets)

after a good mornings sleep - the moment (more like couple of hrs) of truth

Being a 1st timer (read total noob), i installed the mobo, thinking i'd then attach the cooler......WRONG.

The Dark Rock Pro 3 is an ABSOLUTE HULKING BEAST of a cooler than takes up about a third of an ATX mobo.

total overkill for this system, but future ready. Never mind the fact that, aparently, you're supposed to do this outside of the case LOL

only issue i had was that i couldnt get the ATX 12v 8pin through the grommet top left of case and after installing cooler that corner of the mobo can't be reached ( going to open it up again and try removing the grommet and see if the cable will fit trough then. it currently runs across the back and diagonally to the psu and even though it's a non windowed case i know it's there and it's bugging me :-(

It's looking nice now

after last pic..... the moment of truth

IT'S ALIVE .... YAY ME

While it's still got the old heart and lungs, i have completely surpassed my objective of building a quiet pc, This is absolutely silent. At 1am if i turn an ear to the pc, lean in and strain the hearing i can barely hear the whisper of the 2 GP14 case fans in the front, then i turn the case fan control to the middle, and it's dead silent.

the cpu is now running over 12 deg cooler, and the gpu a cpl less too thanks to lower ambient temps inside the case.

I have soooo got the bug now, and am really looking forward to upgrading mobo, cpu, and ram (telling everyone to just give vouchers for particular pc store for b'day), so who knows - maybe this year

thanks to all the forum members for the posts i've read. lots of advice/tips/encouragement there.

thanks also to the techtubers for keeping us informed too.

COMING SOON - NEW HEART :-))))))

So .... it's been nearly 2 months and i've been saving hardcore. i'll be upgrading the heart of this pc in about 2-3 weeks :-)))

Here's what I'm putting in

CPU - INTEL 2011-V3 5820k

Motherboard - MSI X99S SLI PLUS
Ram - 4 x 4GB (16GB) Kingston Hyper-X Fury 2666Mhz

and the orange sata cable replaced by a sleeved black one.

A sexy beast indeed :-))) hopefully this will squeeze a little more juice out of my ASUS GT 630 gpu, and i'll upgrade the graphics later this year or early next

WATCH THIS SPACE :-)))))