New build for 2012

G

Greatone123

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 10, 2006
Messages
1,293
It's been about 2 ish years since I built the computer I have now, I figured I would look around and see what's out there see if anything really screamed buy me. The computer I'm using right now isn't holding me back any, there isn't anything that I want to do that I can't. I could probably downgrade and still be fine honestly, but you can't ever tell what's coming around the corner so I wasn't going to go that route lol.

5 to 10 years ago I always tried to find huge cases, go big or go home right? As years go on I get tired of moving said cases around (old Chieftech full tower so damn heavy) So I started looking at other options like Lian Li, make it out of aluminum so it's lighter!! That was expensive, so I finally gave in and started going smaller and smaller. Then it hit me again, I started looking at ways to keep going smaller and smaller and it was kind of fun. So this brings me to where we are right now.

I'm not totally ready to hit the mITX market just yet, so I tried to find a small mATX case that could accommodate my needs but still have a small foot print.

I know most won't really care for the hardware that I chose, I wanted more energy efficiency over horse power. Probably spent money on unneeded things where someone will be like instead of this you could of gotten that and spent the same and got 2x the power! yeah, not really interested. The gaming market has gotten kinda stale for me, I haven't bought a new release game since.... uhhh... I got Tropico 4... lol


Computer Uses:
I play Civilization 5, Minecraft, League of Legends. Next game I might get is Borderlands 2, I have 1 so that one would be the next new game I probably get.

I got a copy of Lightroom 3, Photoshop/Premier Elements 10 I'll play with. Got a new D7000 so I need to learn to use that and how to edit my photos better.

I'll dual-boot with a flavor of linux I haven't chose yet. I'll also be doing several Virtual Machines to play with other OSes.

At some point I want to get into basic programming like Java or something similiar.

Hardware Specs:
Silver-Stone PS07
Intel i5-3450S
MSI H77MA-G43
32GB Kingston HyperX 1600
256GB Crucial M4 SSD (Windows)
128GB Crucial M4 SSD (Linux)
SPI 500W Platinum PSU
Corsair SP120 Fans
Xigmatek Dark Knight

DSC_0035.jpg



DSC_0088.jpg


DSC_0083.jpg


DSC_0077.jpg


DSC_0080.jpg


DSC_0085.jpg


DSC_0081.jpg


DSC_0082.jpg


DSC_0086.jpg



I haven't gotten a whole lot done with it yet, between work/sleep/life I get to it when I can.

DSC_0097.jpg


DSC_0098.jpg


DSC_0104.jpg


DSC_0106.jpg


DSC_0108.jpg


Feel free to give opinions positive or negative, I know everyone has one, it obviously won't change anything since I have everything and made my choices. I won't get all bent out of shape over anything, This is my 2nd intel build ever. I use intel for my rack systems that just sit and do what they are told. AMD has always had a spot in my desktop and the systems I build for people. I prefer AMD, I'm not going to argue about why or try to prove my way is better, If the hardware does what you want why should it matter?

I will need some pointers on hiding wires, I do want to make the build as clean as possible, as many do, hence one of the reasons I'll be taking my time with it.

I know there isn't anything special about the build, I'm not doing anything crazy or new with it, but it's mine. :)
 
Last edited:
that cooler looks weird (in a bad way) does it work as expected?

500W platinum, sounds interesting, can we(I) have picsss?
 
Haven't finished the system yet so can't say how it works. Most say it works about the same as the CM 212 I think.

I've got more pics just gotta hook the camera back up. I'm about to do some more on it.
 
Last edited:
I'm using integrated right now just to get the PC running. I'm hoping I can find a mid-ranged AMD video card that's black and blue to match. my old one in the PC it's replaces is the classic B/Red.

Had an odd issue with the 2 SSDs

I told windows to install to the 256, but the system reserver showed up on the 128, was rather annoying had to redo the install to correct it.

So far everything is running smoothly, I need to find some software to monitor temps and find a way to see if the heatsink can keep up under load or not.
 
Why did you get the slower Crucial SSd's when there are faster and better ones out there? ( Intel 520 Series for example ).

Other than that....looks like a decent build.
 
I think the PCB on some gigabyte AMD cards is blue-ish.

Edit: Also check out MSI's 7750, 7770 GHz Edition, their base 7850 on newegg. Seems like the all have black fan shrouds with blue inserts. I forgot since your mobo is flipped the shroud will be facing up not down.
 
Last edited:
The only sacrifice you'd have to make to go down the mItx would be 16gb of ram instead of 32... It's not as far off as you thought ;)

I'll be building an itx system here shortly (like to revise/rebuild on a 6-9 month schedule) with similar goals in mind. Really just waiting on the 4GB twin frozr 680 to show up so I can shoehorn it into a modified sg05 :D

I was always a fan of the flipped mobos (as something different), your build looks nice!
 
The flipped mb is the reason I chose the case. It sits against a wall on my left so it makes it 10x easier to get in it as needed without rearranging.
 
Man, I just LOVE the look of your build. Blue & Black theme looks outstanding!

I would like to see the temps and sound levels in idle/load though.

Keep it up, great job so far ;)
 
What program should I use for temps? And to get a load on it?

If it wasn't for the HDD spin up on boot I wouldn't know the damn thing is running.
 
Well I was browsing around at video cards, and I noticed recently that Nvidia released a 660 ti. Seems like it's their mid range card.

I don't know a whole lot about Nvidia, I usually get AMD cards. I just feel like giving Nvidia a shot this time since I gave intel a shot.

The card I was looking at was this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127697

matches my color scheme heh.

It also comes with borderlands 2... which I was planning on getting also...


The thing I have to think about is power requirement. Would it be too much for my 500W? Even though it's Platinum?
 
I think it would be fine. People run 680s off 450w SFX PSU units.
 
Last edited:
Greatone123 said:
The thing I have to think about is power requirement. Would it be too much for my 500W? Even though it's Platinum?
Click to expand...

Platinum has nothing to do with it. That's just the electrical efficiency. Think like with a car: it might do 60 miles to the gallon, but not have a powerful engine.

Also the 500W rating is misleading, because it's rated for 500W total power, but not necessarily for each of the cables that you are going to plug into your components.

Don't worry, however, because the answer is available on your PSU itself:

DSC_0119.jpg


You need to look at the three 12 volt rails. According to the ATX spec +12V1 always goes to the motherboard and usually also the connector for your CPU. Then one of +12V2 and +12V3 should be identifiable as the PCI express power cable (the other is for drives and fans). It doesn't matter which is which because they are all 18 amps. So 18 amps on a 12V line is 18*12=216W available on the PCIe cable. Not to forget that the motherboard also donates 75W via the +12V1. Total possible is then about 290W. If you look at NVidia's website for the 660Ti you can see an entry Maximum Graphics Card Power (W) which says it uses 150W.

So it's plenty :)
 
sweet, so amps*volts = watts? I'll use that more often now


ok well looks like I might have found my next video card then.
 
looks pretty but doesnt make any sense. the fastest socket 1155 chip needs a heatsink and fan the size of a coaster to keep cool quietly. that heatsink would make sense if there were no fans at all. and those fans don't make sense either way.

even if you stuff that case with hot hard drives, that configuration still only needs one fan on the front and one on the back.

looks pretty though!
 
black and blue definitely looks good, although did you specifically chose your components for the colors? I don't know if I'd want to sacrifice choice of components just so I find a motherboard with blue heatsinks, RAM with blue heatsinks, etc lol
 
Actually no I didn't choose based on colors, I did prefer it, but it worked out that way. Motherboard was based on amount/placement of PCI Express 1x slots.

Fans actually come with red and white rings so those could be whichever, but I wanted to give the corsair fans a shot, since they are somewhat new to the market of fans.

Several ram companies have either black or blue heat sinks.

Heatsink was more for looks then the other stuff... it's a tower heatsink with heatpipes... not really a lot of difference on the bottom 1/2 of the price range.

As far as video card... as long as it's one of the major name brands I can pretty much find any design/color I want and it won't make a difference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top