Computer Refresh

[snpr1992]

So although aging gracefully, I decided it was time to upgrade my hardware.  I started out with a 4820K on an x79 Classified motherboard with 2 760s in SLI.  Last year I purchased a 1080Ti prior to the start of the mining craze for less than $500 USD thanks to Massdrop and a bit of a mix-up with cards.  Some of you may have seen the build that spawned out of the 2 free graphics cards I provided for my wife's build.

 

In short, my wife told me I had to get a smaller case.  Unfortunately the x79 classified from EVGA is an XL-ATX motherboard.  Very few cases seem to fit that XL-ATX form factor and even fewer that were smaller than my goliath NZXT Phantom 630.  So I took to eBay.  My thought was the first motherboard of a decent platform that came up at a decent price I would go with that whether that be Ryzen, Kaby lake or Coffee lake.  So comes the build.

 

Motherboard: The most important and pivotal piece.  I found an ASUS Prime Z270 A E-ATK board.  The experience I had with building with the prime X370 for Wifey's build made me pick another ASUS board and for $90 it was a steal and came with a low end intel CPU with cooler.

 

Next most important part was what CPU to put in the case.  As I'm sure you can guess the only one that would efficiently accompany my new platform would of course be the i7-7700K.  I pulled for another eBay seller and picked up a silicon lottery i7 for less than retail.  I have been able to easily get to 5 Ghz stable with no hiccups and temps in the 60s on water.

 

CPU cooling: I went with Cooler Master's masterliquid ML240L in RGB of course to keep my 7700k nice and cool especially when overclocking.

 

Ram is unfortunately an unavoidably expensive piece of the puzzle.  However, I found G.Skill had a relatively new cheaper option on the field in the form of the Aegis.  I grabbed up 16 GB for $154 and went to town.  I might mention the kit was even 3000 Mhz speed!

 

Video Card:  I of course re-used my 1080Ti from my old build and it has yet to show any weakness or be beaten by a new card.  It is the Gigabyte 1080Ti Turbo, which at some point I plan to either do a hybrid mod or water cool as reference designs of course run hot.

 

The power supply I re-used from my old build as the EVGA Supernova is a fantastic power supply and at 1000W it can handle any system or cards I might put in the case.

 

Storage: I had to go NVME as only the best could accompany my 1080Ti and 7700k.   The WD Black 500GB seemed within my budget and has outstanding reviews with great read/write speeds and durability.  I left my old 240GB system SSD as a scratch disk or for fast loading for important games I might have.  Finally, my trusty 3 TB Toshiba hard drive followed into the new build keeping my Steam library close at hand.

 

Fans: I picked a cooler master RGB fan to match the radiator for the rear exhaust and 3 fractal design silent series white and black to tie to my theme for the filtered bottom intakes.

 

Finally, the wifey decreed case change.  I searched and searched attempting to find the best case with a small form factor and value that would provide a good enclosure for the high end hardware that I chose.  I leaned for NZXT's H700 or H400.  However, I spotted the InWin case I ended up choosing.  The unique pattern on the side of the case in hexagons for airflow out the side, top mounted power supply shroud and small form factor led me to make the purchase.

 

However, thats where the good news ended.  I received the case threw the standoffs in and went to stick the motherboard in and low and behold the case was only to hold an ATX form factor.  However, the case had the stand-offs to fit E-ATX and the case was just millimeters large enough to slot the board without hitting anything so I figured I would give it a try.  Things were super tight in getting the fans that I picked and the front IO hooked up and together, but with fans hiding cables, I had just enough slack and room to get everything cleaned up and inside the case.  It seemed the troubles were over and the white and black build came together nicely.

 

The last piece, which I installed this morning were the inclusion of sleeved cables from @CableMod to polish off the look.  Let me know what you think of the refresh.
Part Picker list

[Jurrunio]

Buying 7700k is just sad when 8700k is the new king. The rest looks good though

[CableMod]

@snpr1992 great looking build! Thank you for your support!

[TekRed]

I have the In Win 303c and it was also rated for only an ATX form factor, my x399 is E-ATX and it fits nicely as well. I was lucky enough to have In Win sponsor my build so I can't complain too much lol. Good looking build 

 

[brighteyes890]

17 hours ago, TekRed said:

I have the In Win 303c and it was also rated for only an ATX form factor, my x399 is E-ATX and it fits nicely as well. I was lucky enough to have In Win sponsor my build so I can't complain too much lol. Good looking build 

 

Keep in mind that that board isn't actually "E-ATX" but rather a hybrid between ATX and E-ATX. Many motherboard manufacturers are calling their boards E-ATX when they are actually smaller than the 305mm x 330mm. It's just something to watch out for when picking up E-ATX boards, as common usage of the term differs across many companies  

That being said, it looks like the actual E-ATX would fit in your case too!