[Finished] "Carbonation" First [serious] build ::: Orange Prodigy ::: Tons of pictures!

[orangefurball]

Hello all,

 

***please see my later posts for more photos of the progress! Here is a link to the finished build! Thanks!***

This is my first build log, I'm relatively new to the forum, but not new to computers or LinusTechTips. That being said, if I'm doing something wrong with this please let me know. I haven't read many logs on here, but the ones I have seen blow this out of the water. But I figured I would post anyway.


The specs aren't very powerful;

An i5-2310 CPU (Sandy Bridge)
An AsRock H61-MV motherboard
A HIS Radeon HD 7870 GHz GPU
8 GB RAM (2 x 4 GB 1600MHz)
120GB Boot SSD (Windows 8.1)
64GB Linux SSD (Linux Mint)
1TB Windows Storage

All of that wrapped up in a lightly modded Bitfenix Prodigy.

The power supply I'm using is sort of embarrassing. The power supply and CPU are two components that I have carried over from my first build, the Orange Furball V1. There's no log for that and thankfully no pictures, but they have worked well and do what I ask. So I can't justify spending the money on them. Plus I don't have it to spend.

Anyway, its a Corsair CX-500 500W power supply. It was cheap and I do plan on replacing it when I have the money and time to sleeve it. Speaking of sleeving I did do a custom single wire sleeve job on this. It was my first attempt. This build is sort of a culmination of firsts all leading to system that does what I want without making me lose the clothes on my back. The sleeving isn't that good, but it looks decent. One thing I can't figure out is how everyone always gets the 24 pin cables to appear so straight. Mine are a jumbled mess.

I did cut windows into both side panels, the IO side is smaller than the GPU side because of the power button placement. I didn't have access to any power tools for this so I used a bit of elbow grease and a hacksaw. The cuts aren't that straight but they came out good and I'm happy with it for a first attempt. The plexiglass I picked up at a local hardware store for $8. Be careful when cutting it. I got some shards stuck in my thumb. I should have worn safety gloves.

I do have some supplies coming in the mail for the next phase of the V4 build. Until then here are some pictures of what I got done so far. I stripped the whole thing down and reassembled today, redoing all my cable management and such. I was in the zone and forgot to take pictures while doing it, so I'm sorry about that. I'll try to take some during phase two.



Some final things to say, there are 4 fans. All taken from other systems. They are all 120mm. Yes that is a stock Intel cooler. Like I said I don't want to pour money where it isn't necessary. And the 2310 can't even be overclocked so the stock cooler gets the job done for now. I do plan on replacing the motherboard eventually. My old Gigabyte mATX board died so I had to replace it on the cheap. I want to stress that in this build costs were cut and unnecessary things were not bought. I did unfortunately buy the 7870 right before the new AMD cards came out and paid the full retail price. Some of it looks messy, but hopefully it'll all come together.

Now I'm pretty bad at making names (hence the V4 and not a fancy name), so if you guys have any suggestions please tell me. EDIT: A name has come to me.. "Orange Furball: Carbonation". You might say "well that makes no sense" but in time you'll see... In time you'll see.. Also be honest, if no one is interested I won't post updates. But hopefully after the rest of the supplies come into the mail it will start looking better. Thanks everyone!

[Unhelpful]

I would grab some cougar fans to go with the color but nice sleeveing and looks nice

[ZiggyManSaad]

Nice sleeving. Makes me want to get mine done.

[orangefurball]

I would grab some cougar fans to go with the color but nice sleeveing and looks nice

Thanks!

I have been looking at cougar fans, but I didn't know if they were good or not. Ideally I would have a 240 in the front and three 120s for the rest, but they don't make a 240. Only 120 and 140 I think. I'll have to look into it more though.

[Unhelpful]

Thanks!

I have been looking at cougar fans, but I didn't know if they were good or not. Ideally I would have a 240 in the front and three 120s for the rest, but they don't make a 240. Only 120 and 140 I think. I'll have to look into it more though.

They arent the world's most amazing fan realistically, but they arent bad. They arent that quiet and dont cool incredibly well, kind of average in both regards, if memory serves.

[orangefurball]

Nice sleeving. Makes me want to get mine done.

It does take time but its pretty fun and looks unique in the end.

Not sure if you've started or done it before, but a crimping tool is a must. I tried doing it with pliers are first, got the whole thing done, and while putting the system together the entire 24 pin connector with all the ATX pins came off all the wires.

I want to say that again, use a crimping tool lol

[orangefurball]

They arent the world's most amazing fan realistically, but they arent bad. They arent that quiet and dont cool incredibly well, kind of average in both regards, if memory serves.

I can guarantee they work better than my Xigmatech and Bitfenix orphans though. Plus they'll look awesome

[Unhelpful]

I can guarantee they work better than my Xigmatech and Bitfenix orphans though. Plus they'll look awesome

Yeah they probably perform better.

[hiyayhi]

Specs are not great but GOD does it look good!

 

(I built a system with an i5 2320 and i hate it )

[orangefurball]

Specs are not great but GOD does it look good!

(I built a system with an i5 2320 and i hate it )

This goes to show you that you don't need top of the line components to look good! Thanks!

[orangefurball]

Little update today, I had about an hour to work on it and after brainstorming I came with an idea to create a sort of air duct. As you can see I use a passive cooler, it's sort of a stopgap until I can get a small water cooling setup done. Maybe some day, that's just a whole other project.

So the duct draws fresh air in from the front and pushes it directly at the fins of the cooler. It should work in theory, but even if it doesn't its not like it'll be any worse than before I put the duct in. It looks rudimentary now, and I was originally just using the card board to make a template, but its not a structural piece and it'll work fine.

Now the other piece of cardboard is a sort of shroud keeping all the ugly bits of wires of such out of the way. It lays on top of the hard drive cage and I cut holes to let the wires for the two SSDs through. It works great. A lot better than I thought. I will probably keep it cardboard as well, you'll see what's going to happen in a few days.

So that's all for today. A lot of test fitting and such. I may try to straighten out the windows but I might leave them as is. It doesn't look too bad.

Edit: Made the start of a backplate. I would like to cover up as much of that ugly blue PCB as I can

[ZiggyManSaad]

It does take time but its pretty fun and looks unique in the end.

Not sure if you've started or done it before, but a crimping tool is a must. I tried doing it with pliers are first, got the whole thing done, and while putting the system together the entire 24 pin connector with all the ATX pins came off all the wires.

I want to say that again, use a crimping tool lol

I shall listen to your advice. I won't be starting mine until after the holidays. I'm thinking of going with blue to match the rest of my system. 

[orangefurball]

I shall listen to your advice. I won't be starting mine until after the holidays. I'm thinking of going with blue to match the rest of my system.

Awesome! Im not sure what your budget was, but I just went with the generic sleeving from FrozenCPU.com, I also got the $25 molex pin crimper and the pre cut (lazy man's) heatshrink. It worked good for a first try and wasn't too expensive so it wasn't much of a waste if things go south (like they did with the 24pin adapter)

Good luck!

[bob345]

looking good so far. That sleeving turned out great

[Unhelpful]

Me gusta.

[orangefurball]

looking good so far. That sleeving turned out great

Me gusta.

Thank you guys!

[hiyayhi]

looks sweet dude

[orangefurball]

looks sweet dude

thanks!

[Jumper118]

nice build but why do you have all of your fans as in take?

[orangefurball]

nice build but why do you have all of your fans as in take?

I figured I needed as much airflow on that passive cool. Should I switch some? I know the front is definitely gonna stay intake. Maybe I should make the rear one an exhaust at least

[nkucz]

I figured I needed as much airflow on that passive cool. Should I switch some? I know the front is definitely gonna stay intake. Maybe I should make the rear one an exhaust at least

Definitely make some exhaust

[orangefurball]

Definitely make some exhaust

Ok I will, thanks!

[orangefurball]

Another idea came to me today, this time it was a way to display the name of the build. So here it was. I had some full page shipping labels, kicked the print quality up to extreme and made this in Gimp (yes that's just an old XP desktop)

Printed, attached to the cardboard I made yesterday, and here we have it.

The color of the orange matches the sleeving much better in person. Total cost was less than $2 (I'm guessing probably much less)! Any backplate would cost way more haha

Edit: for those who are wondering where the name comes from, here is my desk. That's the only hint until the weekend when I will make progress with the new supplies

This is my cat sitting under my desk in the dark

[orangefurball]

No more ugly mismatched motherboard! All the white and blue connectors will be covered. The Intel sticker will also be replaced by a custom one.

Old:

New:

And finally an inside shot of the video card (plugged in this time)

Testing the build

Everything seems good, there's a piece of tape from the duct messing with the one fan, easy fix though!

Lights!

Hopefully it'll all be done this weekend, USPS permitting

To be honest, I wasn't going to put this much work into it! I like where its going though.

[orangefurball]

I feel bad updating the thread so much, but progress just keeps getting made. Can't stop progress I guess.

Anyway, I decided that ugly blue pcb on the graphics card could be no more. Gone under a very thin layer of Plasti Dip

Also got some replacements for the branding on the fans