Introducing... My final chapter in the NERD SAGA?

[Wayne Geissinger]

Hi guys! So... This computer of mine has been a long time in the making. For the past 5 years, I have been dreaming up new ways to improve my computer. The first computer I ever had was a Dell 530s. It was a hand-me-down from my parents who had gotten sick and tired of Windows Vista. Link here!

https://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Dell-Inspiron-530S-Core-Duo-Desktop-Computer-Refurbished/4239750/product.html

SPECS:

Core 2 Duo at a WHOPPING two cores, two threads, 1.8 GHz.

4 gigs of DDR2

a 500 GB hard drive

Laughable internal graphics

 

So, as a 12 year old kid, I LOVED this thing. I could play minecraft at 30 FPS with all of the optifine settings turned down to the minimum. I was in LOVE. I even added ram, bumped up to 6 gigs and then threw in a cheap radeon HD 6450.

About two years later, a friend of mine called me. He had a CPU and GPU for sale for $50 a piece. So... Here comes build no. 2 for a total of $400.

 

SPECS:

Core i3 3220, two cores two threads at 3.3 GHz.

Radeon HD 6450 Sapphire Vapor-X edition with 1 gig GDDR3

4 gigs DDR3 (Later upgraded to 8 gigs)

Recycled HDD from previous PC

A DIYPC Solar-M1-R (Man this thing was sweet)

Some cheap red EVGA LEDs

 

This was my baby. I could play Skyrim! GTA IV! The whole nine yards. I loved it so much. I could max out my minecraft settings! (This is prior to a lot of large updates that hindered performance) My life was complete. I was "Done" with my computer, or so I thought.

 

Later on, I went to build a computer for my uncle. I built him a system with a quad-core xeon 3123 v3 and a 750ti inside for some VERY light editing. OOPS! I ordered two video cards! I guess he just had to give me the second card as payment. New video card! So that brought my FPS counter up. Now I was having CPU problems! I could play Far Cry 4, because my CPU had 4 threads, but she sure did cry under the pressure.

 

Then... I saw a discount at MicroCenter. I could get $50 off a bundle of a CPU and motherboard! So I began plotting. I decided on a white build with RGB lighting, for maximum color flexibility. I bought the 4690k and a Z97 KRAIT board from MSI. I took it home and slapped a .4 GHz overclock onto my CPU with the stock cooler. Thought I was pretty baller! I could play games... for now.

 

With my mismatched parts; green ram, white board, red case and lights, and blue stock cooler, I decided it was time for the ultimate change. This was a year ago. I went to micro center again... this time with $700. I went HAM!

I bought:

NZXT H400 (white)

8 GB Hyperx Fury (Black, they didn't have white)

Corsair H100i GTX (the RGB version)

a GTX 960 G1 Gaming (Black video card with 4 gigs VRAM)

Corsair 850m PSU

 

I took them home, and stayed up all night... and finished it. A year later, with a few more minor upgrades (boot SSD, RGB lights, 24-pin extension, etc.) My baby is done. Again. So... Here she is.

SPECS:

Corsair H440 (white)

Core i5 4690k @ 4.8 GHz

Corsair H100i GTX

Gigabyte Windforce GTX 960 G1 Gaming edition (4 GB)

MSI z97 KRAIT edition

Toshiba OCZ 250 GB SSD (TLC NAND is a mistake. Buy SLC drives, don't cheap out.)

Two generic HDD's, one 500 GB and one 1TB

Corsair 850 watt modular PSU

 

I love it. <3

White mist is its name.

Please give me any constructive criticism, comments on aesthetics, or comments on as to good/bad choices I made in the past or now. I'm excited to hear!

 

Edited November 4, 2016 by Wayne Geissinger

[Mi26]

Didn't know 4690K is compatible with Z170

[Wayne Geissinger]

3 minutes ago, Mi26 said:

Didn't know 4690K is compatible with Z170

Nice catch. Lol. Z97

[r3d3mpt10n]

Funny that you mention the inspiron. I recently made a Linux Potato with a inspiron 530, q6600, 8gb ddr2, 60gb ocz vertex 3 ssd, wd 500gb hdd, and gigabyte gt 710. 

 

 

Nice clock on your 4690k! Your rad looks like it needs a cleaning though. You should do something fun with all your empty pci-e slots

[Wayne Geissinger]

11 hours ago, r3d3mpt10n said:

Funny that you mention the inspiron. I recently made a Linux Potato with a inspiron 530, q6600, 8gb ddr2, 60gb ocz vertex 3 ssd, wd 500gb hdd, and gigabyte gt 710. 

 

 

Nice clock on your 4690k! Your rad looks like it needs a cleaning though. You should do something fun with all your empty pci-e slots

Funny you should mention the radiator. I cleaned it out today. The dust clouds FLEW! Your Inspiron potato sounds like a fun build... Is it for a specific purpose?