Desert Storm (working code name)

[DLM_012]

I've posted my build log in another forum but this is what I've been working on and the date I started. I am nearing completion as we speak :D

Initial Post (December 13, 2012):

Well this next gen of consoles is looking more and more depressing for gaming based off of the rumors I've been reading. Sony and Microsoft seem to be more focused than ever on streaming content and replacing TV rather than games so I'll probably be buying consoles next gen late in the cycle and for exclusives only.Until then, I'm getting a master list of parts together and making a list of things I plan to buy to upgrade my computer further for gaming and for capturing games.

So first and foremost, I've been eyeballing 1440p monitors. I plan on it being a long-term investment so I don't mind spending a ton on it. This is where this beauty comes into play:

27" IPS 1440p monitor made by ASUS. It's about $700 but I've been eyeballing it for quite some time to wait for a deal.

The next problem is to drive games at that resolution and at a decent frame rate, I'll need a beast of a graphics card with a ton of memory. Right now, I'm looking at a 7970 w/3GB of memory but the 8000 series cards are rumored to be out Q2 of next year, so I'll hold out till then and see what the offerings are. Hopefully I have a budget in mind too by then.

Onto the next order of business... I've had some cable sleeving stuff lying around for some time that I've been meaning to install in my system:

(you can see my planning process for the cable sleeving I ordered right here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7PHA91EVc8&list=PL5AE56719712E85C3&index= 6 )

That will probably be the first thing I do before even doing any upgrades.

Now here's my baby:

Corsair 600T case

Phenom II X4 965 BE @ stock

Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ board

2 X 4GB of 1866Mhz DDR3 RAM (running at 1333Mhz because of stability issues yet to be resolved)

Corsair A70 CPU cooler

XFX 6850

128GB Samsung 830 series SSD (OS)

128GB Samsung 830 series SSD (video editing with H.264 compressed MP4 files from gameplay capture)

WD 1.5TB Caviar Green HDD (storage)

AverTV HD DVR capture card

Seasonic 650W fully modular PSU

My Corsair A70 makes the bulk of my noise in my system so I want to sell that. I feel that Phenoms are getting a bit dated so I'd like to sell mine now and get a Piledriver CPU, My 6850 won't be able to play games on a 1440p monitor at all so it's time to sell that too haha. Just a lot of selling going on right now! This is the parts list I've came up with so far (excluding the new monitor and GPU):

One of my main goals of this restoration is aesthetics. The 16GB of Corsair RAM matches my board and will give me more memory to work with and a nice look. The Coolermaster V8 looks freakin amazing (I have a windowed panel for my 600T) and cools better with less noise. +1 awesome points for Cooler Master lol. I wanted the latest FX chip out so I'll be buying a 8350. Green doesn't fit my case aesthetic that well so I'll be switching it up to white hence the Bitfenix fan. I'll do some custom sleeving on the black SATA cables when I finally order them. Lastly, I'm in need of some more thermal compound. Antec's stuff works really well and you get more for your dollar compared to Arctic Silver.

December 19, 2012 Update!

I ordered my parts earlier this week along with my monitor. It should all be here tomorrow by the end of the day according to the UPS tracking information. I started sleeving my cables yesterday too! I hope to have a video uploaded to youtube soon instead of tons of pics to have to upload and embed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=-Xyc0CyrT8g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=hVRfJVUCd2I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=iBGbh04i3GY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=uEGWzO_VRvw

January 18, 2013 Update!

Everything is coming along rather smoothly. I had to fight with a few molex cables today and destroyed some of them in the process after becoming impatient. Now onto my SATA cables which will probably be the biggest challenge to sleeve yet. :S

The build log is a bit disorganized but this is my first time making one. I promise it will be better next time around and include more pictures compared to videos :)

[MR TECH]

Nice color on the sleeving

[deblimp]

Very nice color coordination. You are doing what I should have done to my sabertooth x58 a couple years ago. People say that it isn't a good color scheme, but the only problem is that it is so different. If you are willing to adapt the rest of your system to match it it can really look great. I just don't have the patience to do a sleeving job like that lol

[DLM_012]

Nice color on the sleeving

Thanks :)

Very nice color coordination. You are doing what I should have done to my sabertooth x58 a couple years ago. People say that it isn't a good color scheme' date=' but the only problem is that it is so different. If you are willing to adapt the rest of your system to match it it can really look great. I just don't have the patience to do a sleeving job like that lol[/quote']Yeah any Sabertooth board can look extremely sexy if you put the right hardware together and sleeve everything. I was thinking about replacing my 600T with a Vengeance C70 in the olive color but decided against it. A C70 in that color would look like an eyesore on my desk. And thanks man, it was a really long process. I still need to sleeve one of my SATA power connectors. I honestly dread it because the first connector gave me such a fuss.

In the end, it's really meticulous but ultimately rewarding work to customize your PC to that degree.