[BUILD LOG] Frost Giant - A Switch 810 Watercooling build

Q6600 @ 3.0 GHz
4GB XMS2 RAM
2x GTX 260's
EVGA 680i SLI (yes, that old)

Ivy Bridge (cant decide i5 or i7 yet)
I'm between MB's - looking for an Asus Max. V Extreme, but heard a rumor it wasn't a planned product???
16GB Vengeance Low Profile RAM
DT 5Noz Water Block
GTX580 Classified Hydro Copper
Koolance PMP-450S with 24V controller
14x Monsoon Compression Fittings
FrozenQ Reservoir (White/Blood Red)
X-Fi Fatal1ty Sound Card
128GB Samsung SSD
Black Ice SR1 360mm Radiator
GTX 140mm Radiator
Black Ice Pro 120mm Radiator

Full details in my signature

I am no expert at all of this. I do know a lot about computers, and I am fascinated with the components and hardware that goes into making them work. I had always had an urge to upgrade systems, but never thought about building my own. The first computer I remember was a dell "gaming" computer, with 512mb of ram and an AGP graphics card. This was where my computer bug first bit me. I was probably 12, maybe 13 at this point, and I convinced my dad (slowly coming to be good with computers under my teaching) to buy another 512mb of ram. Upgrading the ram in this PC was my first experience with being INSIDE a computer. Soon after, I upgraded to an ATI AGP-based graphics card (the MB in that PC didn't have PCI-e at that point, it was JUST coming to market).

Obviously, since computers and tech moves so fast, that PC was outdated in about a year. So, I dealt with a computer that froze every time I double-clicked in an RTS game for a few years. *side note: that same PC JUST died last year on my parents * Ok, so it was freshman year in high school, and I was in a computer aided design class. Every one of the teacher's computers was custom built, and back then, were monsters. About a quarter way through the year, one of the other kids in class (a senior at that point) brought in parts for a PC, and the teacher helped him build it, in front of all of us. I was HOOKED 100% at that point. So, with my birthday coming up, I managed to convince my parents to let me build my very own computer, using the good old "educational" excuse (even though it was ). And so I started shopping online for my components. My teacher was just as excited as I was, because he'd never worked with a quad-core before. So, with all of my components purchased, I brought it all into class to begin work on my new hobby. A hobby which churned out the very same computer (except w/ 8800gt not 260's) that I am now replacing.

Unfortunately, not everything went as planned. My class period was the last one of the day, and as the days went on, I found out my teacher was building the computer WITH a kid from another class period. As you may expect, I was furious. I put my hard earned money into this build, and literally all I did was put in the RAM and 8800gt. The computer was finished, and I still had no clue how to mount a motherboard, or plug in the headers and power cables, etc. So the next year, I took a computer repair/tech. support class, where they taught us to build computers. So I finally learned to build a PC from scratch.

From there, I kept researching, and kept learning, and eventually upgraded to a HAF932, megahalem cooler, and the 260 SLI setup. Four and a half years later (aka right now) I'm 19, about to finish my first year at college, and will be going home to finish up this *hopefully* epic build. It took me a LONG time to get here and learn all I needed to about water cooling and building computers, but I did manage to get this far. I just want to thank everyone on these forums and on EVGA's forums for helping me over these years, and teaching me almost all I needed to know to build a computer.

I hope that all of these builds and these priceless resources on this site and countless others can inspire those who don't believe they have the knowhow to build their own computer to just go for it. That's what I did, and I couldn't be happier. I even get to "re-do" (*downgrade*) the old PC for my dad's office, which is awesome since I've been trying to convince one of them to let me build them a computer

It's even helped me in college. My roommate next year and I want to try and start up a fun little "business" where we help people upgrade/build/repair their computers on campus, for those that want great PC's and not a laptop.

SO, once again, thanks for reading through this story, and thanks for looking through my build log (another thing I've never done and am learning to do ). I really appreciate everything you all have said and helped with as I go along.

Some detailed shots of some components: