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Hey all,
I've lurked here from time to time for years but for whatever reason never actually made an account until recently.
Anyway, I thought I'd share my latest PC build. I've built many PCs but this is probably my favorite one overall, and a somewhat technically tricky one given my self-imposed size limitations.
My previous desktop build was based around a Corsair 650D. Really nice case, but I wanted something smaller this go-around. For the first time I wanted a micro-ATX based machine as my main desktop. I historically would never have wanted to go that rouute with my main system because of the the limited options the smaller formfactor leaves you. But thankfully that has been rapidly changing lately, there are an increasing number of feature-rich mico-ATX boards out there, and with even high-performance CPUs running cooler than ever, SFF performance rigs are very possible these days.
I couldn't go the ITX route though because of one important thing I wanted: Lots of really fast storage. I've been wanting an SSD RAID for a while now, and with this build I finally pulled the trigger on it. This meant needing a RAID controller card, which meant at least two full-length PCIE slots and space for the drives, so going the ITX route wasn't an option.
After much searching I chose the Silverstone TJ08-E. I really like almost everything about this case, except for the super bright blue LEDs (I really like Silverstone cases but I've never liked those blue LEDs they love using).
This case had the small size I wanted while supporting full-size GPUs and a healthy number of internal 3.5" drives, along with a great 180mm intake fan that I'd definitely be needing to take advantage of.
Next I needed a PSU that would handle all the hardware I'd stuff into this little badboy. This is a little tricky because of the PSU depth limitation (see pic below). The maximum recommended PSU depth is 160mm to ensure clearance with the optical drive. I almost went with an external-only optical drive for this build to pull out in the rare occasion I use optical discs, but decided a Blu-ray writer may come in handy one day for archiving data (the Newegg promo at the time included free BD media w/ the purchase of the drive I got, that sold me on it).
Anyway, if anyone gets this case, definitely pay attention to this PSU specification if you intend to install an optical drive. If you don't include said drive you should be able to mount pretty much whatever you want.
Silverstone makes one of course, but I chose the Seasonic SS-660XP2 Platinum PSU. If they had a ~750W that was 160mm I would've chosen that one just for the extra overhead, but 660W is adequate, no SLI-setups here. +12V@55A is good stuff.
From there, the basics were the easy part:
3770K w/ CM Hyper 212+
Asus Maximus V Gene motherboard
32GB Corsair Dominator GT RAM (removal of the top heat sinks is required to comfortably re-seat the HDD cage back into place)
120mm Noctua NF-F12 PWM fan for rear exhaust
LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray burner
120GB Samsung 840 Pro (OS)
Windows 7 Pro x64
For the GPU, the GTX Titan just made the most sense for this build. I've always prefered powerful single cards to SLI solutions due to the simplicity of a single card and its inherently more consistent performance. On top of that the GTX 690 is hotter, which I'm sensitive of in this small case. It also uses a bit more power, an important distinction since I'm already cutting it a tad close w/ my PSU.
So the EVGA Superclocked GTX Titan was an easy choice for me.
Then things take a twist for the more exotic. The new Adaptec 7 series controller cards have UEFI, ensuring full compatability with new boards and long-term service. I've also owned previous Adaptec cards and have been happy with them, so I nabbed a 71605 controller (they were bought out a few years ago by PMC but I keep saying Adaptec). A 7805 would have been adequate but the 71605 provided me with more options for expansion (if I ever get rid of that optical drive) and possibilities if I re-purpose it later (FreeNAS server perhaps?).
Array 1:
This array is built for one thing: Speed. This is the home for Steam/other games, virtual machines, RAM disk backups, and any video being edited lives. If everything suddenly disappears forever on this array, it'll certainly be a nuissance, but not really that big of a deal.
For SSDs I went straight to the Samsung 840 Pro line. I personally don't buy into the TLC paranoia. I tend to think Samsung knows what they're doing and has no desire to create the next IBM Deathstar. In a perfect world we'd all love large cheap fast SLC drives but in reality that's not possible and MLC/TLC is fine for most anyone that performs proper back ups of things they care about. I like a lot of storage and all but very little of my data is TRULY important compared to the capacities I have available. That data is all encrypted and stored in multiple storage mediums and locations.
So I had zero qualms picking up 4 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSDs and creating a RAID 0 array out of those guys.
Array 2:
This is my D: data volume where Dropbox is installed, where I re-direct the My Downloads folder and My Documents (I actually re-direct My Documents to Dropbox), as well as the swap file, local copy of my music, ISOs, etc. I also keep a backup of some data from the RAID 0 SSD array here (and some data from both of these arrays also lives on my NAS).
To fulfill this role I chose 4 1TB WD Velociraptors and configured them into a RAID 5 array. I liked the idea of 15k SAS drives but as far as I know they're still only available in capacities up to 600GB, and are undoubtedly hotter.. Plus,I'm already getting my performance kick from the SSD array so these were a sensible medium.
Housing all those SSDs in this case was made easily possible by this sweet little drive cage:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994147
Powering them all with just two power connectors is quite handy too.
Add the Corsair Force GT I carried over from my last build and that's 10 drives stuffed in this little beast.
Here's te peripherals that round out the rest of my setup:
-3x Dell U3014 monitors
-Audioengine A5+ w/ D1 DAC
-Logitech G930 headset
-Razer Black Widow Ultimate BF3 edition (I like the orange much more than the blue on the regular edition)
-Logitech G9x on SteelSeries 4HD mouse pad. My mostest favorite mouse evar
-APC BR1500 UPS
Now for the pics!
The whole kit & caboodle (almost):
Silverstone case:
SIlverstone next to Corsair 650D:
Figured I'd try this stuff out, 4 Velociraptors can get noisy:
Asus Maximum V Gene w/ CPU & RAM installed:
VRs mounted in HDD cage and ready to go. The screw tray thingy at the bottom is a nice touch. The case also comes with a handy pad to stick to the top of that rectangular part of the drive cage at the top. This is for long video cards to rest against if it has no backplate. My 660 Ti never reach far enough to touch this, but the Titan does.
PSU & rear I/O shield installed:
Once you start pluggin in power cables the clearance is a little tight even with the recommended 160mm PSU depth. The optical drive is 165mm deep.
Titan!
Monitors! Replacements for my 3 HP zr24Ws
Desk:
Here's a quick look at the controller card's management tool (it's basically a local apache webserver, I vastly prefer the oldschool standalone app).
If you're actually still reading this, thanks for viewing! Time to give the 'ol scroll wheel a breather.
I've lurked here from time to time for years but for whatever reason never actually made an account until recently.
Anyway, I thought I'd share my latest PC build. I've built many PCs but this is probably my favorite one overall, and a somewhat technically tricky one given my self-imposed size limitations.
My previous desktop build was based around a Corsair 650D. Really nice case, but I wanted something smaller this go-around. For the first time I wanted a micro-ATX based machine as my main desktop. I historically would never have wanted to go that rouute with my main system because of the the limited options the smaller formfactor leaves you. But thankfully that has been rapidly changing lately, there are an increasing number of feature-rich mico-ATX boards out there, and with even high-performance CPUs running cooler than ever, SFF performance rigs are very possible these days.
I couldn't go the ITX route though because of one important thing I wanted: Lots of really fast storage. I've been wanting an SSD RAID for a while now, and with this build I finally pulled the trigger on it. This meant needing a RAID controller card, which meant at least two full-length PCIE slots and space for the drives, so going the ITX route wasn't an option.
After much searching I chose the Silverstone TJ08-E. I really like almost everything about this case, except for the super bright blue LEDs (I really like Silverstone cases but I've never liked those blue LEDs they love using).
This case had the small size I wanted while supporting full-size GPUs and a healthy number of internal 3.5" drives, along with a great 180mm intake fan that I'd definitely be needing to take advantage of.
Next I needed a PSU that would handle all the hardware I'd stuff into this little badboy. This is a little tricky because of the PSU depth limitation (see pic below). The maximum recommended PSU depth is 160mm to ensure clearance with the optical drive. I almost went with an external-only optical drive for this build to pull out in the rare occasion I use optical discs, but decided a Blu-ray writer may come in handy one day for archiving data (the Newegg promo at the time included free BD media w/ the purchase of the drive I got, that sold me on it).
Anyway, if anyone gets this case, definitely pay attention to this PSU specification if you intend to install an optical drive. If you don't include said drive you should be able to mount pretty much whatever you want.
Silverstone makes one of course, but I chose the Seasonic SS-660XP2 Platinum PSU. If they had a ~750W that was 160mm I would've chosen that one just for the extra overhead, but 660W is adequate, no SLI-setups here. +12V@55A is good stuff.
From there, the basics were the easy part:
3770K w/ CM Hyper 212+
Asus Maximus V Gene motherboard
32GB Corsair Dominator GT RAM (removal of the top heat sinks is required to comfortably re-seat the HDD cage back into place)
120mm Noctua NF-F12 PWM fan for rear exhaust
LG WH14NS40 Blu-ray burner
120GB Samsung 840 Pro (OS)
Windows 7 Pro x64
For the GPU, the GTX Titan just made the most sense for this build. I've always prefered powerful single cards to SLI solutions due to the simplicity of a single card and its inherently more consistent performance. On top of that the GTX 690 is hotter, which I'm sensitive of in this small case. It also uses a bit more power, an important distinction since I'm already cutting it a tad close w/ my PSU.
So the EVGA Superclocked GTX Titan was an easy choice for me.
Then things take a twist for the more exotic. The new Adaptec 7 series controller cards have UEFI, ensuring full compatability with new boards and long-term service. I've also owned previous Adaptec cards and have been happy with them, so I nabbed a 71605 controller (they were bought out a few years ago by PMC but I keep saying Adaptec). A 7805 would have been adequate but the 71605 provided me with more options for expansion (if I ever get rid of that optical drive) and possibilities if I re-purpose it later (FreeNAS server perhaps?).
Array 1:
This array is built for one thing: Speed. This is the home for Steam/other games, virtual machines, RAM disk backups, and any video being edited lives. If everything suddenly disappears forever on this array, it'll certainly be a nuissance, but not really that big of a deal.
For SSDs I went straight to the Samsung 840 Pro line. I personally don't buy into the TLC paranoia. I tend to think Samsung knows what they're doing and has no desire to create the next IBM Deathstar. In a perfect world we'd all love large cheap fast SLC drives but in reality that's not possible and MLC/TLC is fine for most anyone that performs proper back ups of things they care about. I like a lot of storage and all but very little of my data is TRULY important compared to the capacities I have available. That data is all encrypted and stored in multiple storage mediums and locations.
So I had zero qualms picking up 4 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSDs and creating a RAID 0 array out of those guys.
Array 2:
This is my D: data volume where Dropbox is installed, where I re-direct the My Downloads folder and My Documents (I actually re-direct My Documents to Dropbox), as well as the swap file, local copy of my music, ISOs, etc. I also keep a backup of some data from the RAID 0 SSD array here (and some data from both of these arrays also lives on my NAS).
To fulfill this role I chose 4 1TB WD Velociraptors and configured them into a RAID 5 array. I liked the idea of 15k SAS drives but as far as I know they're still only available in capacities up to 600GB, and are undoubtedly hotter.. Plus,I'm already getting my performance kick from the SSD array so these were a sensible medium.
Housing all those SSDs in this case was made easily possible by this sweet little drive cage:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994147
Powering them all with just two power connectors is quite handy too.
Add the Corsair Force GT I carried over from my last build and that's 10 drives stuffed in this little beast.
Here's te peripherals that round out the rest of my setup:
-3x Dell U3014 monitors
-Audioengine A5+ w/ D1 DAC
-Logitech G930 headset
-Razer Black Widow Ultimate BF3 edition (I like the orange much more than the blue on the regular edition)
-Logitech G9x on SteelSeries 4HD mouse pad. My mostest favorite mouse evar
-APC BR1500 UPS
Now for the pics!
The whole kit & caboodle (almost):
Silverstone case:
SIlverstone next to Corsair 650D:
Figured I'd try this stuff out, 4 Velociraptors can get noisy:
Asus Maximum V Gene w/ CPU & RAM installed:
VRs mounted in HDD cage and ready to go. The screw tray thingy at the bottom is a nice touch. The case also comes with a handy pad to stick to the top of that rectangular part of the drive cage at the top. This is for long video cards to rest against if it has no backplate. My 660 Ti never reach far enough to touch this, but the Titan does.
PSU & rear I/O shield installed:
Once you start pluggin in power cables the clearance is a little tight even with the recommended 160mm PSU depth. The optical drive is 165mm deep.
Titan!
Monitors! Replacements for my 3 HP zr24Ws
Desk:
Here's a quick look at the controller card's management tool (it's basically a local apache webserver, I vastly prefer the oldschool standalone app).
If you're actually still reading this, thanks for viewing! Time to give the 'ol scroll wheel a breather.
