First Build History + Pictures

[lithybaer]

So this is the first independent build that I've individually collected all the parts and assembled by myself without outside help.. seeing all these cool modded cases and water cooled systems makes me feel a little intimidated though.. Nevertheless, this system is special to me so I wanted to show it off. Before I do though, I'll preface this with some history on where the parts came from.

Before I built this rig I was gaming on an old Acer Aspire mATX desktop computer.. one of those bundled up crappy ones from futureshop. It had some low end quad core AM2 socket CPU and a Radeon 4650. After using that for about 4 years, my friend (who is VERY well off) said that he would donate his i5-2500k to which he doesn't use anymore if I decided to build a new rig. I accepted the CPU and put on my building pants. The Specs of the starting build were as follows:

i5-2500k CPU

MSI Interceptor Series Ravager Mid Tower Case

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard

8GB (2x4) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz RAM

WD Caviar Blue 500GB HDD

Seagate 150GB HDD

ASUS ENGTX460 768MB (This card was an upgrade to my previous desktop)

Cooler Master Hyper 212+ HSF

OCZ StealthXStream 600W Power Supply

Eventually along the way, I started upgrading parts here and there to update my PC to be even more modern. I threw in an OCZ Vertex 4 128GB for a boot/storage drive, replaced the GTX 460 with an XFX Radeon 5870 that a friend on facebook was selling for 100$, as well as threw in a an Asus Xonar DGX soundcard.

Current Specs:

i5-2500k CPU OCd to 4.4 GHz

MSI Interceptor Series Ravager Mid Tower Case

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard

8GB (2x4) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz RAM

WD Caviar Blue 500GB HDD

Seagate 150GB HDD

OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD

XFX ATi Radeon 5870 HD 1GB Graphics Card

ASUS Xonar DGX Sound Card

Cooler Master Hyper 212+ HSF

OCZ StealthXStream 600W Power Supply

I'm doing some planning to upgrade in the near future as well. Because my power supply is getting pretty old, I'm thinking of upgrading it to a 650~750 watt PSU with high efficiency rating (mine isn't even 80 Plus, lmao), and because the multi coloured wires look like crap. As well, because the Radeon card is red, it kind of clashes with the blue colour scheme of my system. While not entirely noticeable, it still bothers me. I'll most likely upgrade to either an MSi GTX 660 Ti Power Edition or MSi 7870 Hawk because of the performance increase + colour scheme. Lastly, I may just upgrade my case entirely.. I'm not too satisfied with the case I have right now. I've had many problems with it, including the front power on button just dying because of shoddy soldering. You'll see what I mean in a moment.

/walloftext

time for some pictures!

This is what I meant when I said that the on button was broken.. I can't turn it on with that anymore, so I soldered the two wires that connect together to turn it on to a door bell I bought from Canadian Tire. Everyone laughs at me, so I'm thinking about getting a Bitfenix Shinobi. :<

Included one of these cable management pictures for people who care.. it's pretty messy. :P

and finally, my full setup as of my latest upgrade.

Thanks for reading!

[RonaldJayQ]

Looks Awesome! You should try to peel of that green RoHS sticker on the power supply.

[J House]

looks pretty cool!