New sleeper build

[NicolaZanarini]

Wow good idea yea never thought about that, I was just thinking of paying someone to fully deck it all out and make it all nice while keeping the same look on the outside, can't wait to see what you do with your HP case also

Glad to have given you an idea

I think that's all the modding I'll do it it (it'a  friends case and family will use it too, so have to keep it "low key" - but re-painting it and adding the white details came out well, and the front panel air intake came out looking good too

Can't wait to challenge myself with the cable management  

[You_are_a_cunt]

I have a InWin q2000 as my main case and would take it over almost any case now days except for the horrible airflow and drive mounts

Oh wow. Now THAT is a tower.

 

Redundant PSUs? Retarded amount of drive bays? WHERE DO I SIGN UP FOR ONE?!

 

If I ever decide to actually rebuild my storage server, I'm going to consider getting me one of those. Or just build one that looks just like it, but totally different (I hate top-mounted PSUs. They bother me to the point that I actually flip the case and the front panel)

[NicolaZanarini]

Some of the parts arrived, so posting the pics

GTX960 2GB Reference cooler



Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD


 

[NicolaZanarini]

Update -

I figured I could add some detail to the card to make it more... "unique"? - so here it is, hand painted

Result not as good as I hoped it would be, but still decent (in picture looks a lot dirtier than in real)

[iHardware Shelden]

Update -

I figured I could add some detail to the card to make it more... "unique"? - so here it is, hand painted

Result not as good as I hoped it would be, but still decent (in picture looks a lot dirtier than in real)

 

I need to do this with my reference 650ti and put 960 in bold

[NicolaZanarini]

I need to do this with my reference 650ti and put 960 in bold

Hahaha the "visual upgrade solution?"

Would you say it looks alright or not?

[iHardware Shelden]

Hahaha the "visual upgrade solution?"

Would you say it looks alright or not?

I like it cause you can tell it's custom and will fit a sleeper build perfectly

[NicolaZanarini]

I like it cause you can tell it's custom and will fit a sleeper build perfectly

Allright then

UPDATE -

Apparently the store I bought the parts from ran out of the AsRock H97M Anniversary - they should be sending a Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H instead;

Given the color scheme of the motherboard, I'm looking for 2 yellow SATA cables to use for the SSD and HDD, and will likely add some small yellow details inside the case too.

 

[NicolaZanarini]

Still waiting on the other parts, but meanwhile made some additional progress:

- Found an old fan in the spare parts box and decided to mount it in the case; I used expanded foam below and in the front to prevent vibration to the case and will use a speed reduction cable to keep the fan silent (it has no speed control). As you can see it's invisible from outside, yet there is space for air intake (not visible in the picture but I ran a test and all worked fine.
I know it's still dirty on that side, will clean before putting parts in.






- Since the new motherboard they are sending me has a black/gray/yellow color scheme, I figured I'd add some yellow details too; As you can see the SSD and HDD now have yellow lines under them and the fan blows air on top of them.

[iHardware Shelden]

Wow that is looking sick, I can't even tell it's an HP from the inside

[NicolaZanarini]

Wow that is looking sick, I can't even tell it's an HP from the inside

Haha, great! that's what I was goingfor

[NicolaZanarini]

UPDATE - Courier messed up and parts will be here only on Monday - meanwhile did some preliminary cable management - already used 18 zip ties but I think the result isn't bad.


Before



After


 

[NicolaZanarini]

Final Entry


So, the components got in today and I started building:

The only change from the original parts was the motherboard.





Detail of the motherboard - After turning it on I must say I disliked the BIOS - it looks very old style and clumsy - I much prefer the AsRock ones.





CPU as said is a core i5 4460 - great "little" CPU for the price; used it many times and was never disappointed





The Cooler is a Be Quiet Pure Rock - this is the first time I was using this cooler as well. Must say I liked both the design, the silence of the fan and the ease of assembly (much better than both Enermax and Thermaltake as far as I am concerned.





Nest let's go with cable management -  I always like to divide the wires I will need from the ones I don't need, especially in non-modular Power supplies such as this one.
So the first step was to hide the un-needed wires above the CD reader and plug in the CD reader, securing the wires inside with a zip tie.




Next I went on to pass the rest of the wires and add the motherboard, making sure not to leave extra wire length around.
Assembly was very easy despite having to put on the motherboard with the cooler already mounted - for the first time in a while the motherboard faceplate did not bother me, so that was a pleasant surprise.





Next I positioned the GPU, did the remaining wires and ran a power on test (I did do a few others before just to make sure). In the end mounted the front panel and the side ones.
With a room temperature of around 20 C the CPU on idle stays just above 26/27, haven't finished installing windows yet so will tell you the final results later if you want (let me know in comments).



Hope you guys enjoyed the build as much as I did.
 

[iHardware Shelden]

WOW ok just wow did not expect that part list, better than my main system for sure in almost every department I love the look of the side panel also! Great build and make sure to put that sucker to use

[NicolaZanarini]

the bios can be switched modes, at least on the Z97x ud3h it can be so it would make sense for you to be able to do it on this too. I think the key is F12 to switch bios modes

 

Uhm, allright, I'll look into it, thanks

 

WOW ok just wow did not expect that part list, better than my main system for sure in almost every department I love the look of the side panel also! Great build and make sure to put that sucker to use

Haha thank you it's a friends new PC - he changes them once every...never, so he wanted a decent machine that could last for a while

[iHardware Shelden]

Uhm, allright, I'll look into it, thanks

Haha thank you it's a friends new PC - he changes them once every...never, so he wanted a decent machine that could last for a while

Well looks like he has the best HP on the market hahaha hope he likes it

[NicolaZanarini]

Well looks like he has the best HP on the market hahaha hope he likes it

Hahaha, pretty much

And yeah, he's enthusiastic

[NicolaZanarini]

My friend sent mea picture with the results of prime95 with 20 C in the room after about 18 minutes - pretty damn good I'd say

Max temp just above 50 with fan on 900 some rpm on average

[iHardware Shelden]

Temperatures lookin good, again better than mine haha.... I need an overhaul D:

[NicolaZanarini]

Temperatures lookin good, again better than mine haha.... I need an overhaul D:

Hahaha really recommend that cooler - the first time I'm using it but far better than the Thermaltake Contac 39 and the EnermaxT40F!

[iHardware Shelden]

Hahaha really recommend that cooler - the first time I'm using it but far better than the Thermaltake Contac 39 and the EnermaxT40F!

Awesome I will keep that in mind, should fit in my case but worst comes to worst I always have my Hyper T4

[NicolaZanarini]

Awesome I will keep that in mind, should fit in my case but worst comes to worst I always have my Hyper T4

Yeah, that's a good one too this one isn't even that tall actually - 155mm

[NicolaZanarini]

not to be a bug-bear or anything, but avoid P95 on haswell CPU's, just not a great idea. CPU-Z's benchmarking stress test does a good job at heating things up for me

So far never had nay issues with it and gave pretty much the same temps as Intel burn in (a few degress lower, but in my experience that was the case with any CPU I tested

Btw, tried the BIOS thing, no BIOS choice

[Rienks]

Putting it out there this computer looks amazing and I have the same case that still hosts the original components minus a graphics card

[NicolaZanarini]

Putting it out there this computer looks amazing and I have the same case that still hosts the original components minus a graphics card

Thanks man! put a lot of effort into it

If you ever plan to re-use, once you take all the scrap-metal out of it, there is actually plenty of room left inside