Geoff

Hi Guys,

Geoff as a pc currently exists. The previous build log that I had was not that impressive. I am however embarking on a massive change to Geoff, so hopefully this build log will be better!
The main changes include a new case for starters, new cooling (involving water), better cable management, sleeved cables, and hopefully a much better and tighter colour scheme than what is currently displayed. It will still be involve blue though.

Case - Corsair 650D
Going for this because of the advantages in cable management offered over the Antec 300, the removable HDD bays, the HDD bays being rotated 90 degrees compared to in the Antec 300, the dual 140mm fan mounts at the top, not single 140mm. The front bezel looks fantastic IMHO, and the side panel is something I wanted to do with the Antec 300, but never got around to doing. The interior of the case is also painted black, so this should help with my interior colour scheme.

New Fans
Going for two Xigmatek XLF-1455's to replace the single 200mm fan at the top of the case. Main reasons for going for these fans were the colour of the fans themselves, and the LED's. I've seen many systems with these fans mounted at the top, so hopefully the bearings won't be an issue (not that they're that expensive if they start to fail).

Colour Scheme
The colour scheme is going to be blue and black. Partly to match the ASUS mobo blue, and also to match the 650D interior paint. The Zalman CNPS 9900 MAX CPU cooler I currently have installed has a blue LED fan, so this has also partly influenced the build colour scheme. Cable sleeving will adopt these colours (see below). The fans mentioned above and the NZXT LED Lighting kit I currently have should provide enough lighting to the interior of the case.

Cable Sleeving
To help the colour scheme along a bit, I will be ordering cable sleeving so that all my ugly cables can be viewed with pride. At the moment, the default black sleeving on an Antec Earthwatts 750W PSU doesn't cover the full length of the cable, and sleeves all the cables into one difficult to hide cable sausage. The new cable sleeving will hopefully make the cable easier to work with, and much better to look at. Cable sleeving will initially be done on the 24 Pin ATX, 4 Pin ATX and 6 Pin PCI-e cables. SATA cables will also hopefully be done at a later stage. The cables will be sleeved with black and blue sleeving, although the final pattern has not been decided yet.
The black interior of the case will help to disguise some of my current properly sleeved black molex connectors (needed for the NZXT lighting strip, and the current fans in the Antec 300, although the 650D fans are 3 pin (I think)).

Bluray
A bluray drive has already been purchased and is currently installed in the Antec 300, it works, and is a welcome addition to the pc!

Water Cooling
I will be getting into water cooling at some stage. Due to money (or rather, lack of it), an all-in-one kit will probably be purchased first. Sort of as an experiment to see how water cooling will benefit me, but also because I'd like to install my Kingston RAM fan, and my current Zalman CNPS 9900 MAX gets in the way as it’s so large!

Till next time.

Jdean123
Edited by jdean123 - 1/13/12 at 6:12pm

Update

So, today I passed my driving test. And as my present to myself, my Corsair 650D has been ordered. It should arrive on Thursday (at least, thats what dabs.com is currently saying). Thursday is one of two days a week I get of university, so its quite convenient for me.

In my first post, I mentioned this about fans:
I'm actually going for two Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro PK3's. The reviews I've read of these fans seemed pretty good, and they come with a 6 year warrantee (so I can't complain). These will be able to plug straight into my fan controller, so at night, I'll probably turn one of them off and have the other spinning at minimum speed.

I am still deciding on cable sleeving. I saw an interesting design with Blue, Black and White. I think it was under Lutro0's custom sleaving thread. The cable sleeving will probably be done towards the end of the build though. I got to look at the case with Geoff rebuilt first. Looking through the case window will be quite strange for a while! Anywa, I'm hoping that looking through the case window will give me some inspiration for the colours.

I'm looking forward to changing cases. Not least for the new cable management. Currently, what I have is okay, but not something I am pleased about! There is just nowhere for cables in an Antec 300. Its a lovely case other than that though. I've enjoyed using it for my first case. A nice size and good airflow.

Warning: Cable Management Gurus dont look here! (Click to show) Warning: Cable Management Gurus dont look here! (Click to show) Warning: Cable Management Gurus dont look here! (Click to show)
Anyway, my next update will probably be when the new case has arrived. I'm slowly cleaning the dust out of my Antec 300 ready for storage (and its eventual new job of housing my gf's rig). Being a student though, gaming always seems to get in my way! And watching films... and t.v... and avoiding assignments...

Jdean123

I've cancelled the case order with dabs.com after waiting over 18 hours for a security check to be done on my card (and I've used the card on purchases within those 18 hours, and they've gone straight through). So instead, I've ordered the case off Ebuyer. It was a bit more, but the payment has already gone through, and the case is ordered for Thursday (whereas with dabs.com, it was going to arrive around Thursday, but probably on Thursday)
Edited by jdean123 - 1/22/12 at 4:37pm

Hi,

An update with pictures today. The case arrived this morning, and I spent the majority of the day moving the hard drive cages around in the 650D, removing all my hardware from my Antec 300 and putting it into its new home.

First off, this case was a lot bigger than I was expecting. And a lot bigger than my Antec 300.




The height and width difference is obvious here!




In the above picture, both cases are level at the back. So this case is also a lot longer than my Antec 300 was! Infact, its sitting on the desk next to me as I write this, and I still can't get over how much bigger and more imposing it is!


Anyway, onwards with the case transfer.

First things first, get accustomed with the inside of the new case. This is the only picture I took showing the inside of the case in its default configuration.




Within minutes, I had done this to it:



I only have 2 hard drives at the moment, so I didn't need the other hard drive enclosures, and I figured that moving them along a bit would increase the airflow to the rest of the case by that massive front fan.


At this point, I have all my hard drives in their bays, both my DVD drive and Bluray drive are in, and the mass of brightly coloured cables has come from my fan controller. The eagled eyed among you might notice that I removed the top toolless 5.25 bay install method as with it, my fan controller wouldn't clip in properly. (You can't see the different methods of holding my 5.25 bay items in anyway when the side panel is on!).




PSU installed and cables pulled through to the back of the case. A bit of dust in the bottom. Some from the components I moved across (I cleaned them as best I could), and probably some because I was working on the floor... (not the best idea). I noticed that the default stand for the PSU is meant for a longer PSU... So its now moved further back to support my psu (in the picture, its not been moved).




Motherboard moved straight from the Antec 300 to the 650D. In the future, one of the things that needs to be done is to paint the I/O plate a matt black.




Two quick pictures of the graphics card installed. Again, the I/O plate ought to be painted matt black. A little dust, but thats clear now.





Two pictures of my first attempt at the cable management. It wouldn't say it was amazing, but it is not that bad.





This is a picture of the right hand side panel (as you look straight at the front of the case). All of my cables are behind there, including the fatest 24 pin I've ever come across. I've tried my best to have no wires crossing, and there is not really any bulge which is good (I've certainly seen pictures of a lot worse with the same case).


(The picture actually makes the bulge look bigger than it is!)


Anyway, enough pictures for today. My noiseblocker 140mm fans for the top of the case should arrive in the next few days. They been dispatched (from Germany), so hopefully not long to wait!

I'm not sure what temperature RAM should be at, but I stuck a temperature prob between the middle of the central 2 sticks and its currently read 38 degrees celcius... Warmest part of the pc!

I am also waiting to work out how to stick my NZXT LED strip around the case to provide some nice lighting. At the moment, its just dumped in a stretched heap at the bottom of the case!

Regards,

Jdean123

Update, my noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro 140mm PK3's have arrived. I've installed them in the top, and must say that they are very powerful. I'll post pictures when I get around to it.
They are a very nice quality fan, and I'm very pleased with them for the price I paid. They're hooked up to my fan controller atm.

In fact, my fan controller is hooked up to all the fans (1st time its ever been used with four fans!). I tend to leave the front 200mm fan on around half speed all the time. Firstly, depending on what I am doing depends on how many fans I turn on, and how fast I make them spin. Also, being the front fan, blowing air into the case, it creates positive air pressure when Geoff is idling. My current dust preventer on the top of the pc (where the two 140mm fan mounts are) is a piece of A4 paper. It fits the gap perfectly and prevents the dust when those fans are off. (I know I'm already creating a positive air pressure, but it helps at night when the pc is off).
The rear fan is turned off when the pc is on idle. When under a day-to-day load (a fair amount of tabs open in IE9, word, excel, msn, WLMail, iTunes, etc.), it also gets turned up to around half. This tends to even out the air flow. I can tell because the A4 paper on the top gets sucked down a bit more, but I can still feel a small amount of air coming out of the small creases around the edge of the sheet.
If I am gaming, then the rear fan tends to be turned to around 3/4 to full speed, and the top fans are turned on (after the paper is removed!) to around half each (990RPM).
I've never seen my RAM temps above 42 degrees celcius in this config, my CPU never goes above 46 degrees celcius, and my case temps always seem to be around 20.1 degrees celcius (according to the temp sensors on my fan controller). Although, I can't remember if they're tucked away with the wires or are actually in the main case. Its nearly 3am my time, so I'll check in the morning!

Anyway, pics soon.

Jdean123

Just ordered a Sapphire 7950 3GB FLEX OC edition GPU and a Corsair AX750 PSU.

It came to just under £400 and bundled with a free Sleeping Dogs game voucher. That was the best prices I could find, to the point where the GPU and PSU are coming from separate retailers.

I managed to find a buyer for my old Antec 300, Antec Earthwatts 750W, HD 5770, a disc drive and a spare kit of RAM I had lying around. (£225 in total, which I don't think is bad considering...). Basically it means that my upgrade will cost me around £175, give me a free game and clear out loads of my room! I had boxes of unused components everywhere and now I can finally get rid of them.

They should arrive this week, being a cash-strapped student who is working nights this summer, I opted for free delivery from both the retailers, so they should be here by Friday (hoping Thursday or before) as I am leaving for university for the weekend on Friday (around 5am). I'll install them into the case next weekend, and also make the computer for my friend using my older components.

I'm hoping my friend will bring his lovely SLR camera, so I ought to be able to post some very nice pictures of my rig. .