[Build Log] Treaded Holes - CaseLabs Merlin ST10 w/c build - Z77X-UP7 - Page 4

yah yah yah ! that's what I'm saying, that first step is a bit large, and what with those 2 puny 480 rads I bought for the Azza in a drunken sailor moment, obviously aint gonna cut it. I'm definitely going to end up with 1 monsta 480 up top, maybe a 240 at bottom, lets not kid ourselves - the st10 is a big case, but its designed to fit 2 480 p/p rad setups top AND bottom - I'd much prefer in a Caselabs case to do it your way, but like you say, that's not gonna fit in a ped.

And with new stuff graphics & cpu due out this first half year or less, it doesn't make much sense to build now with current choices. I finally read up on the 2011 and SB-E debacle that everyone else seems to have gotten around by just accepting the facts about current hardware actually not using but a little of the big lanes of PCI-E 3.0 capability. So there's a few percent difference in performance drop when using less than PCI-E 3.0 at 16x - so there's a few boards that may or may not work at 3.0 level when you run a fix - you would still have a fancy board with quad ram channels - a bit of a showy board, that can handle the current 6 core divas.

Still, I'd rather have a board that is certified PCI-E 3.0 to go along with a cpu that is also the same - which today, means a Z77 board - I don't want to have anything to do with an apparent EOL board like the 2011 or Z79 - even tho they are listed as being forward compatible with the IB-E chips .... and the new Haswell boards with the 1150 socket are too far in the future, as are the Nvidia 7xx cards - there's too much up in the air.

Makes it a bit difficult to pick a dance partner when there are so many choices in the near future not near enough. Looks like a Z77 and an i7-3770k is the way to go. Now.

You mean your 3770k's stepping ? Yah, I haven't delved into that stuff. I have a 2600k that's aircooled, runs 4.0 at 1.38v with low 30's idle/high50's under load. I never did get around to messing with the 3770k in the Azza.

Rads ? xspc ax480 - bot that coz the sr-1 480 was giving me a devil of a time in the azza. One of those blunderheaded moves - I never tried positioning it with the ports at the front end - complete noob.

Anyways, I want to put a 80mm tall rad into this st10, so I ordered up such a thing today. Should be here in 2 days, so I can see if it gives the desired HEFT for looks. I've also ordered up a buncha Cougar orange 3 pin fans - I'm committed now ! and just ordered up some Masterkleer UV orange tubing, which tells me I'm going off to Neverland with an orange themed build. Drat ! what goes with orange ? I know that you'll have a helluva time rhyming to orange

Still haven't decided on a board - and I have been "shopping" - wears me out. I'm leaning to the Maximus V Formula .... coz its new, its the premium Asus or ROG level - that I've never tried.

This guy has such a board, he's been changing it out quite a bit lately, and in a M8 case with a pedestal. Takes nice pix too.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1132180/official-xspc-raystorm-club/450#post_18945498

WoW ! I missed this post. Thanks for the heads up. I was searching for ideas on mobos, just goes to show you that you can miss the obvious ! The GA-Z77's orange matches the Cougar orange, and it looks like MDPC orange is spot on. +rep to ya Mandrix

Back in the 32 bit day, it was Gigabyte for me. I started out with barebones builds from newegg - buy a hard drive and you were done ! for a fraction of a build's cost. That and I found an MSI board that was handy and reliable and had built-in nic cards - new thing in its day. Always an AMD cpu back then. But ever since the 64 bit hardware has come in, I've had a few problems with mobos and psus that I had not had in the older days. So this gives me hope - that first hooking up and test running is so critical these days. Last year, well last of 2011, I came across one of those new mobos with bent pins - fortunately it was before Newegg started denying any RMA on bent pins - but it was an Asrock z68 board - and I swear ! bent socket pins ! as I opened it ! I've never seen such a thing, supposedly new, with socket plate intact, and it has bent pins. WTH !!!

So this day and age, I buy my mobos from Amazon - altho I've bought 3 or 4 mobos from Newegg since late 2011, and got lucky, I guess. There's something not right in the Newegg warehouse these days. I see too many complaints of bent pins on new - supposedly unopened - mobos - it happened to me, so I know it can happen to you !

Yah, but the worst part of it - obviously - is sending those mobos out as "new" to another customer - and then denying the RMA - basically, telling the customer that he's a liar and a wanna-be thief.

I can imagine that its a hard situation - people return a product that they've messed up, citing another reason, or in my case, the actual reason - and apparently, whatever happens to these "pre-damaged" mobos, doesn't get corrected. I mean, how does a mobo get bent pins and yet is brand new ? Somebody OWN IT ! whether its Newegg that doesn't inspect the socket, or the mobo gets returned to the "factory" and then it doesn't get inspected .... I don't know where the mobos go when you RMA them - where they end up, eventually, but it shouldn't be sold again, as if it were new. To my mind, that's a class action suit waiting to happen.

/rant