S340 Build

blu4 · March 19, 2015

Hey,

This is my first build log on the forum- not the last one though I got asked by one of my friends to build a PC for his 8 year old son who is turning 9 (21/3/2015). He sent me £500 via PayPal and I began looking for parts. This PC will be used only for light/medium gaming and general day to day tasks. It's not exactly exciting but I hope the birthday boy will be very happy!

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (Purchased For £66.00)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (Purchased For £39.19)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (Purchased For £51.14)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For £49.99)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £39.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (Adding that for free from my collection )
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (Purchased For £130.90)
Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For £64.66)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £51.96)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (I have a Volume Licence Windows 7 Ultimate from work)
Other: LED Lighting Strip (£6.14)
Total: £499.97

I have most of the parts waiting at home. I will post pictures soon The monitor and peripherals are not included since he has already got them. I saw the reviews of the S340 and I can't wait to start building in it!

20/3/2015 Update:

Before I put it together I did test to see if it POSTs- it did

I have to say- the S340 is an AMAZING case for the price. The outside metal is glossy poweder coated in white which looks spot on! The inside is matt black and it contrasts beautifully with the outside. The front panel is well designed and comes off very easily- the fit is also very good and makes a very tidy line with the rest of the case.

Probably the best things about it is the PSU shround- it just makes life so much easier for tidying the cables and for better airflow. Sadly the 3.5" drive mounts do not have any vibration pads.

The fan mounts are done very well. They are positioned high up providing very good airflow over the GPU and the VRMs. There is also a megnetic dust filter.

The power supply is an EVGA 600W 80+ Bronze. Not much to talk about it apart from the very nice finish and decent cable braiding.

The motherboard is a MSI 970A-G43. Inexpensive for features, looks decent and overclocks well. The only problem I found is the amount of fan headers.. 3 of them- two PWM and one 3 pin. USB 3.0 in the back are nice as well as the onboard header.

Now, for the crème de la crème- the GPU. I've picked a R9 270X Windforce from Gigabyte after watching Jayz video- runs very cool and quiet- looks sexy too. My only complaint is the winforce logo which faces down after you install the card. Can't waint to bench it.

CPU, RAM and storage were easy choices- Kingstom 120GB SSD, WD blue 500GB, Corsair value 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 and the FX-6300 (Will OC that to 4.5 GHz :>)

Initial fit looks good to me. I will finish up the system today evening (20/3/2015) and post the rest of the pictures- I'll also post some benchmarks Don't worry- the stock heatsink will be gone soon- replaced with the Seidon 120v.