My first high end build

[ianh83]

I've built a few middle of the road computers in the past but decided I wanted a high end computer after a break from computers and games for several years. I love my Thinkpad T420 but it just wasn't enough.

I bought all the parts in the month leading up to the haswell release, trying to find the best prices as it's a pretty expensive set up. It was a painful wait for the CPU and motherboard as I had most of the parts 2 weeks before they were released.





Here's the list

The case: Lian Li PC-P80N - I saw this on ebay brand new in a damaged box and had to bid. I was planning to spend around £100 on a case but ended up getting this for £120. I'm very happy! It has 3x 140mm intake fans built into the front door, 2x 140mm exhaust at the top and 1x 120mm exhaust at the back. The fan controller has one knob to control all 5 140mm fans.



CPU: Intel 4770K
Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE2
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H
RAM: 16GB Corsair VengeanceLP 1600
SSD: Samsung 256GB 840Pro
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX Titan
PSU: Corsair AX860




As you can see I've chosen to go quite minimalist and intentionally avoided moving parts. As I said I've made a few computers in the past and ran into my fair share of problems and failures. I was determined to avoid them as much as possible so went for the best power supply I could find and no optical/hdd. The only thing that moves in my case are the fans. The side panel is off in this photo, letting in sunlight.



The rest:

BenQ XL2411T: I'm happy with the monitor, though the first one had over 10 dead pixels. It went straight back to amazon. The replacement has none. I bought it mainly for 144Hz mode though I do use and enjoy 3D vision for a few select games.
Cherry Stream XT keyboard: Seems really nice so far. Wanted something better than a £5 keyboard but nothing too expensive. Nice laptop-like feel.
Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000: I bought this in 2006 and don't want to replace it. Ever.
Optical drive: Samsung SE208DB: I didn't want an internal drive as I wanted no moving parts so went for this as I knew I would hardly ever use it. No complaints.
XBox 360 controller: I sold my wireless controllers and all my 360 games as PC gaming is the way forward. (And I didn't want to buy the thing to allow the wireless 360 controllers to work).

The sound:

This get's it's own section as I love music and have been an audiophile for many years.

I don't use a soundcard, they're pointless, especially for a set up like this. I run an optical cable from the PC to a Firestone Audio Spitfire MkII DAC with dedicated power supply, this then connects to a NAD C350 Amp (for speakers) and passes that signal through to an Objective2 Headphone amp based on NwAvGuys designs and made by Epiphany Acoustics. This powers a pair of AKG K701 headphones. The NAD is a good quality integrated amp I've owned for at least 10 years and powers bookshelf speakers for music and general use. The headphones are always used for gaming.

This sound setup is mind blowing and I recommend anyone wanting more immersion and enjoyment from games to invest in an external DAC and amp and some good headphones; and personally I would avoid gaming brands for all of these things.

Microphone is a Samson Go mic, a cheap condenser mic and the cheapest I could find that's actually high quality enough for recording.

Over all I'm very happy with the build. The computer runs great with win8pro but I will be adding a second SSD at some point to run linux as that's what I run on my thinkpad. I was nervous about getting Windows 8 as I haven't tried it but it didn't make much sense to buy an old version of Windows. I've found the best way to deal with the home screen is to right click and remove every single icon on the home screen except for "desktop". Then when logging in I just hit enter twice after typing my password and don't even notice the home screen.

The boot up time is insane, I press the power button and by the time my monitor auto-turns on it's sitting at desktop waiting for my password, I never see any of the boot up sequence. Games obviously run very nicely, I know some parts of this build are overkill but I wanted to treat myself.

It also runs very cool. The temperature outside here in the UK this week has been always over 30 celsius. Ambient temperature in this room has been 30 at times. I haven't monitored it very closely but I've checked it most days and never seen the CPU hotter than about 38C under light use, and on a cooler day I've seen it at 26C under light use. It doesn't get much above 40 for general use. I've never seen the CPU get above 65C under any circumstances (modded, demanding games at ultra settings while running HWMonitor).

It also runs very quiet. With the fan controller turned all the way down it runs cool enough even on the hottest day while gaming. It's hard to tell it's on without LEDs lighting up.

I know it's not the best looking build but it's minimalist, no LEDs, no bling look is what I like.

Ian

[Samdb]

But fans are moving...

[Darell3]

Amazing nice.

[looney]

But fans are moving...

beat me to it :p

[ERSCreeper]

I would paint the inside. Come on Lian Li...

[Samdb]

I would paint the inside. Come on Lian Li...

That's only because every case is hand made.

[Samdb]

You can pre paint the panels, then assemble it by hand still

But that would take longer and increase the production costs.

[iAsuno]

yes the fans.... watercool it to satisfy the title further.

[ianh83]

optical drives and hard drives are the moving parts I was referring to ;)

 

I removed the "no moving parts" bit from the title to avoid misleading people!

[ianh83]

Regarding the inside being bare aluminium. I believe they make this case in a all black version. Of course it wasn't an option for me as even this version retails at £350 ($530) which is way over my budget. I just got lucky with ebay.

[BenD]

nobody is saying anything about it......

your sucking hot air from your gpu  to cool your cpu????

also... if i was you, slow the boot time down
if you ever need to get in your bios, it would be nice to actually have the time to press delete to get into your bios.


as for the rest, looks clean, the case does look nice.
i'm searching for audio parts myself, so if you could send me e pm, maybe you could help me out

[ianh83]

This was intentional. I would be interested in feedback about this as I believe this should be the best way of doing it but am no way going to remount it to test it. #1 Look at my temps. #2 Remember that the airflow of my case is different to most, there is only 1x 120mm exhaust at the back but 2x 140mm exhaust right above my cooler. Anyone else have a similar set up and tried both directions and compared?

[ianh83]

Happy to help with audio parts, rule number one: for DAC and amp, go for the objective designs by NwAvGuy. You will get something that competes with products 10x more expensive. (IMO)

 

I use the Firestone audio DAC as it was given to me and is a very good DAC, but if I was buying for myself I'd get the objectiveDAC (ODAC). Headphone amp is even more of a no brainer for me, the O2 amp is incredible.

 

Also, don't focus too much on headphones. When it comes to audio peoples priorities seem to be #1 headphones, #2 amp, #3 DAC, #4 source. Completely the wrong way around. Get the best source (flac files / lossless compression for music on pc), then update your DAC, then get a good amp and finally new headphones last.

[BenD]

i got the pc 363d , but since the soundcard that comes with (it's a little usb thingy) doesn't work together with my mobo (weird, but it's the only thing that's left that could be wrong)

and i did sounded a lot better with that little soundcard, so i'm guessing a real good audio boost up , would be amazing,  and i'm not planning on buying soundcards,
because first of all i'm not buying asus products nomore because my service issues with them
and second of all, there is no room for it :D

[BenD]

Happy to help with audio parts, rule number one: for DAC and amp, go for the objective designs by NwAvGuy. You will get something that competes with products 10x more expensive. (IMO)

 

I use the Firestone audio DAC as it was given to me and is a very good DAC, but if I was buying for myself I'd get the objectiveDAC (ODAC). Headphone amp is even more of a no brainer for me, the O2 amp is incredible.

 

Also, don't focus too much on headphones. When it comes to audio peoples priorities seem to be #1 headphones, #2 amp, #3 DAC, #4 source. Completely the wrong way around. Get the best source (flac files / lossless compression for music on pc), then update your DAC, then get a good amp and finally new headphones last.

so you would say: http://www.jdslabs.com/item.php?fetchitem=48

this thing ?

[ianh83]

Yep. That little thing will blow away amp/dac combinations costing thousands.

[ianh83]

They are available as separate amp and dac. The O2 amp is what you see in my picture under the monitor, to the right of it is the firestone dac. The firestone dac was £500 with the power supply at one point, now around £250 on it's own I think. the £100 ODAC beats it.

Do double check reviews of the manufacturer though as it's reference design is by NwAvGuy but various people make it and sell it. I have no idea about JDS. Mine is made by Epiphany Acoustics in the UK.

[Ferguson]

good I'm not the only one that uses a amp  :rolleyes:

[ianh83]

Can anyone give any feedback on the orientation of my cpu cooler? It seemed sensible to me to have it this way around and the temperatures seem great (although they probably would be either way). Does anyone have a similar set up and tried pointing it in both directions?

[failwheeldrive]

Nice build.  Lian Li makes a quality tower.  I would love to have one, but I'm not a fan of their interior layouts (poor wc potential) or the bare aluminum (makes color matching your components a bitch.)  Glad you're enjoying it!

[ianh83]

Thanks, I love the case. I understand you might want to avoid it if you want to water cool but I knew I would get amazing temps and have little interest in overclocking (I also intend to keep it closed so the bare aluminium is no problem for me) One of the reasons I got the case is it looks good but plain - my ideal case would be a mesh box with no features at all - completely minimalist.

 

I don't like the idea of stressing the components and decreasing the mtbf, from past experience it can be a huge hassle to even work out what's wrong when something does break a year or two down the line, so I bought the fastest and most reliable parts I could afford so I would have lots of power at stock speeds and hopefully no problems for however many years I want to use the components. Right now cpu, titan and case temps are all below 30 degrees C  :D

 

One thing this build has taught me about gaming is it's worth investing in making your games sound good, it's almost more important than graphics when it comes to immersion.

[Kiwiandapple]

PS: Get a new chair? Unless it really is comfy. 

[Nicktrance]

I can't say I'm a fan of how the internal looks, it's definitely all about function. The setup you have on the other hand looks extremely clean and nice.

[ianh83]

@Kiwiandapple the chair is more comfortable than it looks; very adjustable though not a great material. @Nicktrance I know this is blasphemy on this board but I don't care at all about internal looks as it stays closed.