Project: White Lightning

DJfern94 · April 30, 2015

So my university deadlines have been and past and I have finally been able to upgrade my PC. This PC has been an evolution through the past few years, starting as an AMD FX 6350 based system, moving onto the 8350 and has now evolved into the i7 5820K. I will be adding more photos soon!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($362.95 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.89 @ OutletPC)

Thermal Compound: Innovation Cooling Diamond "7 Carat" 1.5g Thermal Paste ($7.89 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: Asus X99-S ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard

Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($191.98 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($69.00 @ B&H)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($71.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Superclocked ACX Video Card (2-Way SLI) (£400.00)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair RM 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($169.98 @ OutletPC)

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ OutletPC)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($134.89 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 37.9 CFM 120mm Fans ($27.99 @ Amazon)

Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition 62.7 CFM 120mm Fan ($16.98 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm Fan ($21.69 @ OutletPC)

Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140mm Fan ($23.89 @ Amazon)

Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor ($147.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Stealth Edition Wired Gaming Keyboard ($99.99 @ Amazon)

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder 2013 Wired Optical Mouse ($49.99 @ Amazon)

Total: $2032.41

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-30 11:24 EDT-0400

CPU: This cpu is just an absolute workhorse, it just demolishes anything I throw at it. I was able to overclock it to 4.3GHz, I could probably push it further but I would rather keep a cooler system than aim for those higher clock speeds.

CPU Cooler: This H100i has now been used in my past three builds and it is still holding up! I use it with with IC-Diamond 7 and the SP120 Fans. I do think about moving to an air cooled system, so if the pump ever goes I think I will move to a BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 3... but we will see if that day every comes

Motherboard: Not quite as feature laden as it's bigger brother the Deluxe, but it is still more than enough. I love Asus' mobos for their fan control utilities and great software, the bios is easy to navigate as well. Asus have always seem to be good with supporting their hardware for a long time, so I am confident this board will last me.

Memory: It's DDR4 Ram... it looks nice...It works

Storage: This is probably the area in the build in which you can see that this build has evolved from something completely different. The Crucial MX100 holds up well, and was my main OS drive, however since upgrading to X99 this drive has retired to just house GTA V. The 850 Evo is an awesome drive, it is really pretty so if you're a H440 owner then get this drive and show it off! it has been rock solid so far. My Barracuda is around three years old now and shows no sign of slowing down, I trust this drive and they're a pretty good price now! Finally my WD Blue is used just for video/audio recording, it is a little bit louder than the Barracuda, but yet again, a solid drive... My next plan for this storage area is to add two 4TB HGST drives in raid 1 as backup.

Video Card: I picked up the EVGA GTX 780 SC ACX in my upgrade last year for £400, the gpu had not only an asthetic that I found pleasing, but performed well, and came with a free game. It wasn't until around Feburary this year I decided to add the second card which I got off Ebay, second hand, for £200. The SLI performance of these cards is fantastic, however I would like a bit more VRAM, GTA V really pushes these cards in VRAM usage, but in every other respect these cards are great. I have been toying with the idea of selling the two, and saving up some money for a Titan X, but only time will tell if I do that.

Case: The Define R4 was a solid choice, I love the case's design an the amount of hard drive space it has. The optical drive bay was a must for me as well! If I was buying the case now though, I would opt for the Define R5... for those removable SSD brackets.

Power Supply: It was overkill when I first bought it, powering an FX 6350 and HD 7790, however it has grown into it's role of being a stable supply of good clean power, and I could not be happier with it. The fan rarely spins up, and when it does it is near silent. I have added some CableMod C Series custom braided cables to the PSU to make it beautiful!

Optical Drive: It was cheap and it works <3

Fans: I stripped the case and the H100i of their stock fans and added, 1 AF140 exhaust, 3 SP120 (One intake on bottom, two for H100i) and 2 Noctua NF-A14 PWM as intake. The Noctuas are hidden away to hide their uglyness, but their performance is unrivalled. All of the Corsair fans perform well and look fantastic!

Keyboard: This was picked up for cheap in the Razer sale earlier this year, I am not a huge fan of the Razer Orange switches, however it does feel nicer than my old deathstalker.

Mouse: Pretty much a staple in most gaming builds, it works fine, however I find my hands are probably a little bit too big for it and when using it during long sessions I do get a bit of cramp. I may find myself swapping this out for either a Corsair M65 RGB or Logitech MX Master.

Future Plans:

1. Add White LED lighting

2. Add EVGA SLI Bridge / Sell GPUs to buy Titan X or 980TI

3. Maybe upgrade optical drive to a Blu-Ray drive.

4.Might Add a firewire PCI card for an audio interface.

Laputacake · April 30, 2015

I like it but then i also dont like it because its now mine [emoji14]

terere93 · April 30, 2015

try using cable ties for the gpu power cables!

DJfern94 · April 30, 2015

try using cable ties for the gpu power cables!

The cables to have cable ties on them, however they are wired in an extremely strange way with wires crossing over each other, I am going to get hold of some wire combs to try and solve the issue

terere93 · April 30, 2015

The cables to have cable ties on them, however they are wired in an extremely strange way with wires crossing over each other, I am going to get hold of some wire combs to try and solve the issue

with that i think i would like much better! OCD guy over here :blink:

AddonCustoms · April 30, 2015

Very Nice, I would love a X99 system, I am still stuck with AMD 8350 (planning to upgrade to i7 4790k) If you ever feel like swapping computers let me know lol

If you are looking for LEDs send me a PM.