My upgrade.

[orcinhell]

Hi guys.

 

So I had been debating even posting this as the level of builds in the forum are insane, really great work. While I defiantly aspire to one day have a fully custom water loop and sli/crossfire, its not to be currently. Before stumbling across Linus on youtube (my CPU cooler broke and is what lead me to this point) and frequenting these great forums I had a pretty standard "gamer" rig. Rat nest of wires, loud obnoxious fans, a gaming case (Thermaltake Armor Revo Full-Tower Snow edition).

 

It was not long after reading posts on these forums I fell in love with the enthusiast side of the PC world and decided I needed to step up my game.

 

What I replaced.

 

GPU - Asus 970 Strix from Gigabyte 7970.

Case - Fractal Design R5 case from Thermaltake Armor Revo Full-Tower Snow edition

Cooling – Noctua NH-D15 from Antec KUHLER H20 (Forgot but single 120mm)

PSU – Coolmaster V450S from a Thermaltake tough power 875 watt (loud as hell).

Fans – x4 Noctua NF-A14 PPC 140mm from loud generic fans. I also had to replace the poo brown Noctua fans that come with the CPU.

HD/SSD – Crucial MX100 256 GB + Crucial BX100 500GB. The 500 might seem small but movies are kept on my nuc in my room, I don’t listen to music and only ever have a handful of games installed at a time as that is all I play, once I finish a game I tend to move on. from Single 60gb SSD and 1 TB hdd.

 

Future.

 

I currently have a 3770k with a Gigabyte z77x-ud3h MB. I plan to upgrade come skylake.

 

I really wish I took pictures of my old rig, it was dirty, dated (aesthetics) and needed some love, I have even gone out of my way to purchase a suitable air compressor to make sure my rig stays clean as possible, I do let it get dusty but clean it at least once every 2 weeks.

 

Pic’s… They are not the best, as I only had my phone handy and currently moving so the pc is downstairs. I still have a few jobs I want to do such as more cable management on the side but you will see what I mean… I am going to wait for the CPU/MB upgrade before I take care of that.

 

 

Room lights off.

 

 

 

 

Need to clean up some wires still, overhanging wires on the top right (the case has a plate for it), cleaner management at the bottom as well as sleeving the case wires. I plan to paint the white PCI covers too (black).

 

I really like the look of my PC now and with the fans running at 800 rpm its whisper quiet. The next upgrade of course will be skylake with a color matching mb.

 

When I decided I wanted to upgrade I came to the Linus forums for help, whether it was asking myself or finding a post that had already been answered... so for that I thank you. I know it probably is not up to the standard of some of these insane builds I see (and love) but wanted to share it nevertheless.

[Florb]

Very nice build, but why the air-CPU cooling instead of a more elegant solution like a H80i GT from Corsair?

[TheExtra404]

looking smexy man.

[Flight1sim]

Very nice build, but why the air-CPU cooling instead of a more elegant solution like a H80i GT from Corsair?

In many cases, air cooling is actually superior than liquid cooling in terms of performance and noise, or at least when considering the sub H100i level of water cooling

[DarkBlade2117]

Let me just say something, The only thing Skylake has is skylake has a very nice iGPU and supports DDR4, I truly doubt that the i5 skylake will out do a i5-4690k and that the i7 one will outdo a i7-4790k in terms of gaming ect ect.. I wouldn't personally wait for skylake, it's not worth the wait.

[Florb]

In many cases, air cooling is actually superior than liquid cooling in terms of performance and noise, or at least when considering the sub H100i level of water cooling

Perhaps considering airflow on the rad but Noctua fans could also be used to compensate for noise concerns

[orcinhell]

Very nice build, but why the air-CPU cooling instead of a more elegant solution like a H80i GT from Corsair?

 

Although I went cheap with the original all in one, considering the small difference in degrees I wanted to go with less moving parts i.e less failure points.

[Florb]

Although I went cheap with the original all in one, considering the small difference in degrees I wanted to go with less moving parts.

Ah I see

[Flight1sim]

Perhaps considering airflow on the rad but Noctua fans could also be used to compensate for noise concerns

the fan noise isn't the problem, in most cases it's the pump noise. 

[Fulgrim]

Very nice build, but why the air-CPU cooling instead of a more elegant solution like a H80i GT from Corsair?

"elegant solution like a H80i GT" 

 

I lol'd, then i felt nothing but disappointment at your comment. Single fan AIO's are awful unless you're doing a mini-itx build, or something in a very small form factor.

 

Also, the risk of an AIO cooler leaking, or the pump dying isn't worth it over air cooling imo. 

[Florb]

Give AIOs a chance mate, my H110i worked fine until I got a H110i GT, but I guess I've never used a single fan rad...