Need Help with Rebuilding PC

orenger · August 12, 2016

Hello everyone.

I am an avid PC gamer and about a year ago I bought a custom built computer through Cyberpower PC. However I made the mistake of buying an fx-9590 with only a 120mm liquid cooling pc unit. In addition, I have two GTX 980 SC and 16 GB of 1600 MHz low profile ram. My case is also the Carbide Spec-03. After a month of my pc freezing randomly, I realized that my CPU was locking up due to the inadequate cooling. As a result, I went and bought an H100i cooler. During the installation however, I realized that the supposed 240mm fan mounts on the top of the case wouldn't actually fit the h100i. As a result of me being lazy and not knowing how to take apart my PC, I decided to just use the open mesh at the top of the case as makeshit screw holes to secure my H100i. As a result, my h100i is not actually screwed into the actual screw holes at the top of the case, but is instead secured by 6 screws (the h100i is supposed to have 8 screws secured to it) that go through the top case mesh. This has caused some tension in the case and the case is extremely tight (restricting air flow). In addition, there is a case fan whose MOBO connection I cannot find because I am too afraid to actually pull apart everything. Is there anyway I can safely mount my H100i gtx cooler inside of this case? If not, what case should I buy for the specific parts that I have? In addition, should I get a new cooler and which one? Also how should I go about taking apart the PC and putting it back together i.e. which components should I take out first and which should I put back in. Also I understand that buying the AMD fx-9590 was a mistake, but it was the only part that I thought I could skimp on price wise. Any suggestions are welcome!

antisleep · August 12, 2016

Take off the H100i first then the cables then motherboard. Don't forget to clean the leftover thermal compound on your cpu and cooler using isopropyl alcohol.
>How to apply thermal paste

You don't need a new cooler if there's nothing wrong with it, just replace the case.

Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.88 @ OutletPC)

^There are wide range of choices for thermal pastes I just picked the most popular.
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($97.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $104.86

The case goes as low as $75-80 constantly. Other recommendations: Enthoo Pro M/Enthoo Eclipse P400/NZXT S340.

With the Enthoo Eclipse and NZXT S340 you mount your radiator at the front.