Ultimate gaming PC

warpus said:
My roommate says I might as well just get a non-SSD HD for storage. I was going to look for SSD deals and get a 2nd SSD instead. I have external HDs totalling about 4.5TB, but you know how slow those can be..

What would you get?
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For storage of what?

Media: Speed is irrelevant other than for backup purposes, and for large amounts of storage your bottleneck is probably going to be the interface rather than the drive speed anyway. Get whatever is cheapest per GB. (USB 2.0 is painfully slow, if you have any of those left, I'd just chuck the enclosure and use them internally.)

OS, documents, programs: SSD, always.

Games: If you have enough games that storing them all on SSD is cost prohibitive, I'd probably do a 4TB WD Black drive with a dedicated 128GB SSD for caching.
 
I am unable or unwilling or just too lazy to say. I also have a lot of pictures from my travels, hikes, shed building experiences, etc. Just random stuff, you know?

I'll probably go with a regular drive, although it looks like a 4TB wd drive would cost me $280 or so. Half of that space will probably save me a lot of money and do me just fine, so I'll have to take a look around and see what's out there..

I considered a SSD just so I could have more games installed *shrug*. I usually only play a couple at the same time, but with a serious upgrade like this and a huge backlog of games I will be able to play at the highest settings who the hell knows what's going to happen. Beards might be grown. Anyway, I guess it doesn't really matter, I can just wait and see what my needs are after this gets built..

which looks like might be sooner rather then later actually!

When I returned home from work I found a package with the keyboard and power supply from ncix.com waiting for me, and a package with the cpu cooler from a seller on amazon.ca. I chose the cheapest shipping rates for everything, so I wasn't expecting anything so soon. This is kind of awesome and it also is making me feel like I'm going through the male version of pregnancy. Hopefully that doesn't mean that there are complications and/or pain during assembly.
 
I have a natural keyboard at work and I love it. Whenever I get home to use my older gaming keyboard or the one my roommate just lent one, things just.. don't feel right. So I figured I might as well have one at home too. It just feels right. We'll see how well it works for FPS games, I haven't played any in a while.
 
I picked up the case and cpu today at the local computer shop after work and when I got home the motherboard was waiting for me in a box too! So overall a very good day for household warpus.

I unpacked the case and have been going through it and it is SEXY.. I love it! Incredibly modular, lots of fancy features, very open, airflow is going to be amazing, seems that it's going to be easy to install everything.. The only downside is its size.. the box it came in was GIANT and almost didn't fit in the car. The case isn't really huge, but it does have extra space at the bottom and at the top for airflow so it is large.. It comes across as imposing. yet sleek and sexy. I am VERY happy with my purchase.

I watched a video of a guy going through all the case features and then an installation of a full system and analysis of airflow implications. He installed the power supply first and motherboard second. Elsewhere I've heard that installing the motherboard first is better? Any opinions?

The last thing I need now are the video card and ram, those are on the way.. sort of.. special order, was supposed to take 2-4 weeks about 1.5 weeks ago or so. I guess I kind of want it to arrive sooner rather than later now, I can easily install the motherboard, cpu, cpu cooler, and powersupply this weekend. With the case just standing behind me and all the other boxes too.. and seeing how easy it was to install everything and how slick everything is.. I just can't wait for that stuff to arrive
 
warpus said:
I watched a video of a guy going through all the case features and then an installation of a full system and analysis of airflow implications. He installed the power supply first and motherboard second. Elsewhere I've heard that installing the motherboard first is better? Any opinions?
Click to expand...
Usually install motherboards first, but not always. :mischief:

Think you should look at the motherboard, case and power supply to see how they fit together. If your power supply has spaghetti coming out the back for wiring, might be better to put the motherboard in first to avoid the entanglements. Have also seen builds where the power supply was obstructed by the motherboard and I had to take it out to install the power supply. :cry:
 
Yeah I guess I'll have to take a look. The power supply is fully modular, so there won't be any cables at all coming out of it until I attach them, but I guess putting in motherboard first does make a bit more sense. I think with this case it should work out either way, it's pretty big. I'm taking the hd bays out too except for one, and I can move it off to the side (modular case), giving me even more room in there.
 
Here's the whole happy family:



From the left: keyboard, motherboard, power supply, case, cpu cooler, power supply box. cpu can be seen up on the shelf on the left.

A closer look at the case:



It came with 2 200mm intake fans, 1 200mm exhaust fan, and 1 140mm exhaust fan. I've gone inside from both sides and everything is laid out very intelligently. The modular hd bays are awesome, the gunmetal steel colour is perfect, there are slick pull-out dust grills, ssd installation is toolless, optical drive installation the same I believe.. It seems like they've thought of everything.

I really like this case.
 
Looks real pretty, doesn't it! :drool:

Just think how cool it'll be to fire it up. :rockon:
 
Looks great, although I don't think a plate will rest very well on the top of that thing.

Isn't it fun? My wife thinks I am crazy for enjoying this kind of thing.
 
No, the plate thing is going to have to go. I am totally going to change up the way my office is set up after this rig is fully assembled. I'm planning to install a new floor in the room too, but that might have to wait.

Oh and my roommate tells me that a box is waiting for me at home! That should be the video card and ram!
 
The motherboard, power supply, ssd, and cpu are in. I put a thumbprint on the CPU, so I need to buy a cloth to clean that up with. My roommate has the proper kind of alcohol for the cleaning.

After the cleaning I'm applying my heatsink, popping in the ram, and video card, and we should be good to go!

I'm very happy with how easy it was to install everything in the case. All the cables run UNDER the motherboard too, which makes things look incredibly .. empty. The CPu cooler is also going to fit no probs, even though it is so huge - I realized last night that I can take one of the giant fans on it off.

Maybe I can finish this tonight, I just need to find that cloth thingy. non-lint. manual said a coffee filter might work too. Mind you the fingerprints are nOT in the centre of the chip where the cores are, so maybe i don't need to clean.. but I'd rather do that anyway
 
Zelig said:
Eh, yeah, even if the fingerprint was directly in the middle, it wouldn't matter, the IHS over the CPU is having orders of magnitude more effect than some finger oil anyway.

And you don't really need a lint-free cloth, I just use squares of TP for cleaning thermal paste off CPUs.
Click to expand...

I am using arctic silver thermal paste, and that's what the manual instructed me to do. I still might not because the centre is clean enough and I don't feel like screwing around with alcohol and cloths in a sensitive area like that. we'll see if the local computer shop even has lint free cloths like that, I'm about to find out.

illram said:
Why remove the 2nd fan? It will likely be quieter if you leave it on.
Click to expand...

There might not be enough clearance for the ram, which has Klingon-like heat spreaders. We'll see.
 
You can also use lens-cleaning paper/wipes, or the little square of cloth they give you when you buy a screen protector for your phone. In other words, a drug store should have thus stuff.

If it were me I'd remove the fingerprint. The lamps we use in theatrical lighting can burst if you fire it up and there's a fingerprint on it. The oils don't heat up at the same rate as the rest of the casings, and glass is weak like that.

I would do whatever Zelig and Illram advise, though.
 
So you're saying I should just go ahead and apply the thermal compound and attach the cpu cooler? I did manage to get an ipad screen cleaning cloth thing that would work if I need to clean the cpu.

The cpu cooler manual tells me to apply a line of the compound on the cpu metal plate, then put the cooler on it and "wiggle" it around. I don't like those instructions because they're sort of vague? What do you recommend?

It also says I can use an old credit card and "tint" the heatsink on the cpu cooler by applying some compound on it and using the credit card to smear it around. It says that this will help give me better temperatures earlier.. although I don't think I'll really need them? My roommate has never heard of 'tinting' either, I'm probably not doing it unless you recommend it.
 
CPUs can take a fair amount of abuse, I've resurrected ones with crushed pins and they work fine. Since my PC gets very dusty I tend to remove the CPU heat sink once every 2 months or so to clean it, I wouldn't bother with tinting but it's your investment. :)
 
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