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[Build Log] Belial's Perfect Z87 Build!

23K views 101 replies 16 participants last post by  Belial 
#1 ·
This is a build log for my new build. I sold my sig rig for $1350 (with keyboard and mouse, no graphics card, all accessories - i7-3770k, ud5h, 4x2 PSC, sleeved paracord, led, custom window), and, given that I needed a better monitor, I pretty much had to make a totally new system from scratch, every single component (besides speakers and mousepad).

I'm modding the case, but basically it's just a great high-end system using the absolute best value parts possible (erring on the side of quality over bottom budget, though I think for my usage, it's very value focused since power consumption, overclockability, IMC performance, CPU performance, matter to what I do).

I do GPGPU work, I play a CPU intensive, dual-threaded game (Sc2), and stream H264 in HD@60fps while gaming (ie extremely cpu intensive, multi-threaded, RAM speed dependent). So extreme overclockability for 24/7, power efficiency and consumption, and aftermarket CPU and GPU cooling matter to me.

The Plan: Fit an H110 into a good value mid-range case, mod a window (easy, great looking mod), and sleeved paracord extensions and case cables (easy, great looking). I cut a window in the side panel (painters tape, jigsaw, then flat file)and used bestbyte u-channel and tapplastic cell cast acrylic, I drilled 140mm mounting holes in the front grill, and I will be using a 5 inch (127mm) hole saw to make holes in the front. Attach H60 to 7950 (using the AM3 mount or cable ties, we'll see).

I will be using Gray/White/Blue sleeving to match the Gray/Blue of the UD3H, and instead of a Blue LED like my Z77 UD3H build, I think I'm going to use a white LEDs. We'll see.
Components:
  • Intel i7-4770K $289.99@Microcenter
    Delidded using Vice Method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbqzGH9Uwbs
    Way better IPC than any other chip, Hyperthreading is a big performance boost in H264, especially with AVX2 (which is utilized by OBS)
  • Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H $124@Microcenter Combo on Special 3-Day Promotion
    I bought an Z87 Extreme4 originally, noticed the VRM is still low quality and that the price listed on Microcenter's website is before the $40 discount is applied (which is not how they listed their z77 boards. Like on Z77, way higher quality than the competition (Extreme4 or Z87-A), good low price, and Blue is cool (Red UD4H, I'm sorry, looks ugly)
  • G.Skill Ripjaws X 2400mhz CL11-13-13-31 1.65v 2x4GB=8GB $56@Newegg After 10% Off Coupon (listed at $64)
    This RAM is a new kit being sold, it's Double Sided Hynix CFR, which means it hits insane clock rates as Hynix does, but as double sided, it still has bank interleave. I've already played a bit and it does 2600 CL9, I'm hoping it's at least as good as PSC RAM. 2400mhz RAM the same price as the cheapest DDR3? No brainer. But better than PSC? Crossing my fingers that this modern RAM is better than something that came out 5 years ago...
  • Corsair H110 $109@Amazon
    I picked this because on most reviews, on the low overclocks they test, the H110 averages about 5C better than the H100i, while the Swiftech H220 averages only about 2-3C better. Basically, the difference between the H100i and H110 is half the difference of H110 and H220, and is a significant difference, while the H220 is not significantly better. On a high overclock, this spread will be larger, but basically, the H110 appears to be a league ahead of 240mm coolers, while in a similar league as XSPC kits or H220s (but way cheaper!). I think this is a good value, high level cooler. I did not go with NZXT since they have a terrible reputation for service/RMA, and recently waited over 6 months to get my rebate from them, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
  • Gigabyte 7950 $280@Amazon Used
    I specifically bought the older version Gigabyte 7950, as it and the Asus model are the only 7950s with Hynix RAM, Core voltage, Memory voltage, and VRM monitoring. The newer gigabytes are locked. I use mine for GPGPU work, where your memory overclock is more important than your core clock.
  • Samsung 830 128gb $80
    I bought a Samsung 840 for $80, swapped it in the other build I had for the 830 that cost me $80 a few months ago because it's a better drive. But I was originally planning to use the 840.
  • Rosewill Capstone 750w $69@Newegg Sale
    You heard right. I bought it immediately, and decided to deal with the trouble of returning my Rosewill Capstone 450w I just received for $59
  • Bitfenix Shinobi w/Window $33@Tigerdirect Sale
    Cheap, better case
  • Corsair H60 2013 $39@NCIX
    To put on the 7950, just a solid 120mm closed loop. A tad bit expensive, there are tons of closed loops for $20-30 on Ebay or sale, but to find a top of the line 120mm rad, brand new, for $39, is a great deal, and worth $5-15 over a some used h50 or 620.

    $1079.99

    Accessories:
  • Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra $20/Free
    My last tube gunked up half way through (the best way to explain it was when I used it, it must have had a 'cheesecloth' affect and so now the last half of it is just solid metal dust and no liquid, and it's all jammed up) and so CLU sent me a free tube... after I ordered it from a supplier in Germany via Ebay when CLU was $30+ from US suppliers. The best thermal paste, really this stuff is the best value you'll find in cooling. 10C+ temp gains for only $20, only other place you see that is maybe going from stock cooling to Hyper 212+.
  • Enzotech Mosfet Copper Heatsinks $16@Ebay
    Rip off, I rushed to purchase, I immediately regretted it. I need these to put on the VRM of the 7950 when I mod the h60 onto it. I'll barely cover the VRM, but you can buy like the Arctic Cooling GPU cooling set or like just a straight up 40 pieces of aluminum chipset heatsinks for like $5 on ebay (copper is not that much better, and copper isn't better when you can't cover places because you only have 10 small pieces instead of 40+ for 1/4th the price). Also, uglier.
  • Bifenix Recon Fan Controller $39@Microcenter
    Fan controller to turn every 2, 3, and 4 pin fan into a hardware controlled fan, a beautiful bezel and LCD screen, and 5 temp sensors? Fan controllers are awesome deals. Why buy a PWM fan when you can just use a fan controller that turns any cheap fan a controllable one?
  • 6 x 140mm Yate Loon High, Clear, Blue LED $54@Ebay
    4 of these are going onto my H110, not going to use those crappy medium speed stock corsair fans. The other 2 will be top exhaust (since I am not using an air cooler, 2 top exhaust is a good thing). I'm going to sell the 2xCorsair 140s for ~$30 on ebay to almost make back the cost of these 6, higher quality, cooler, yates.
  • Cell Cast Acrylic 14.5x15.5inch 1/8th inch thick sheet $21@Tapplastics
    Cell cast acrylic looks way better than the crappy plastic that every case window uses. Even the $100+ cases use that crappy plastic windows. It looks great in pictures, it looks great if you don't know better... but stock computer windows look like absolute garbage. Extruded Acrylic looks a lot better. Cell Cast looks like a million bucks.
    80x25mm Antec Fan
    Cannibalized from some 10 year old computer, going to use it on the VRM of the 7950 with some cable ties. Lubed with mineral oil, cleaned, good to go.

    $130
    $1209.99 Total


    HID
  • Dell U2312HM 23" IPS $149@Microcenter Open Box
    From what I understand, best monitor under $200. Asus appears to have quality control issues and ghosting and worse stand (but a good second choice), the glossy S2340L is a good second choice too. I don't even notice reflections but if I go on long lengths of looking at the computer... I just went with matte like everyone recommends, besides, S2340L appears to have a few issues sometimes.
  • CM Storm Quickfire Rapid Browns $79@Newegg
    I like Browns slightly more than Blues, but the Rapids have been by far my favorite board, and I've tried every board under $100. Such solid build quality, I had a Rapid Blues for a while. Cheap and Brown and high quality, not much to say here as there isn't even any Browns under $90 otherwise (and RK-9000 isn't nearly as solid, though still decent). I mean what matters is the switch really.
  • CM Storm Spawn $39@Newegg
    Claw grip mouse that competes with the Deathadder for good, sub-$50 mouse. I liked my Deathadder, but I'm a claw gripper so let's see which I like better. Wish it was blue instead of red though.
  • Steelseries Diablo3 Cloth Mousepad
    Still using it.
    Sanyo DP19640 18.5" LCD & Some super old super heavy beige monitor
    Still using. May sell one because I think you can only use 2 monitors with Haswell (no motherboard has 2xDisplayport slots...), but we'll see, and not sure which I'd throw out. I'd like to use 3 monitors, but I'm running all my monitors off the iGPU and running 7950 off a dummy plug for work. I might use it for SC2, but I'm hopeful that the Haswel iGPU is strong enough to run SC2 on medium 1080.

    $267
    $1476.99 Total


    So I want to see what the 6 yates looks like, i might buy a 2m white led strip, i might replace the led's with white, or i might just rely on these blue leds alone (it's 6x4=24 leds!).

    I'll shortly add pics, I just have a ton of components in my closet. I've been moving, busy, and waiting for a few parts to come in the mail before I assemble and OC. I'll post a few pics later!
 
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#5 ·
haha not terran, i just liked the reaper portrait (i picked it when i was random anyways). Zerg now, though haven't played in a bit.

Lots of responses quite quickly here, surprised. I'll add photos tommorow of just lots of things.

I plan to put a lazer LED with a pci-slot fan controller under the case (like when you see cars with lights under them). But not sure whether to go for blue or white. I also saw a cool thing on using an led strip in the u-channel molding for the window, dont think i'll do that but sounded really cool. First I want to see what the 6 yate loons in the case look like though.
 
#8 ·
cables came in (Gray/White/Electric Blue Paracord)





Special thanks to ensourced: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ensourced-Custom-Sleeved-Cables/351225731619723

Great paracord guy, super cheap. Last time I paracorded everything myself, but I went with custom this time since the price difference in a cpu, 2xPCI, and mobo when you sleeve it yourself and have him do it all, is $15 (~$25 vs $40 - and that's not considering the fact if you use multiple colors, it's more expensive for yourself while the same price custom, so for 3 colors frankly it literally cost me the exact same to get a custom job)

. Considering that sleeving just the motherboard extension alone takes all day and burnt fingers, I think it's definitely worth it (lutro0 is good too, but a lot more expensive). I really had to do it myself last time, in order to be confident enough to let someone else do it this time around, since I'm a do-it-yourself kind of guy. The guy did a really good job, he even 'rainbowed' them and trained them and gave me a few extra feet so I can do my case cables and stuff.

The blue is a little bit on the dark side for my Z87X-UD3H but unfortunately the next step lighter shade in paracord is Royal Blue (very unshiney and has a very gray, dull tint to it) or Colonial Blue (perfect for the Z77X-UD3H, which is why I used it last time, but way too light for Z87X-UD3H). The Z87X-UD3H's blue is actually darker than the Z77's version. Which is okay, I knew this going in since Ensourced had sent me samples, I'm confident the 3-color pattern and white in the cables will make the Electric Blue appear lighter than it really is.

Here's a really good picture showing how reflective the sinks on the Z87X-UD3H are, it's not just gray, and the shade of blue it is.
 
#10 ·
I have never been a big fan of more than two colours but I must say the mixture of the colours on the sleeving is perfect
thumb.gif


Cheers

Fen
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bad Fenny View Post

I have never been a big fan of more than two colours but I must say the mixture of the colours on the sleeving is perfect
thumb.gif


Cheers

Fen
I think 2 colors are ugly, I don't think I've ever really seen 2 color work (there's a few interesting combos like electric blue/electric green kinda 2-color mixes but i think they're kinda ugly, but that's the best i've really seen).

In general, I think 3 color is pretty ugly, there's only a few mixes I've seen work - Blue/Gray/White, and Green/Gray/White. There's a couple Blue/Gray/Whites I've seen floating around that look great, particularly some Bitfenix Prodigy mod where the guy had everything matching except some noctua fan he had to paint (i can't, for the life of me, find it again though, i know it's around here on OCN). There's a blue/black/white, where the guy used a lot of white, like black/blue/white/white with 2 x EVGA GPUs, I'm sure it's easy to find the pics of his build if you search, it looks good but too much white and the black is too strong.

I was going to go with just solid colonial blue again like I had done with my Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H in my last build, which looked awesome, but after some time I came to realize that the Z87X-UD3H's blue is actually a lot darker than the Z77X, not to mention that the way it's mostly reflective grays, a solid color cable scheme would look overwhelming while a multi-color scheme would either fail miserably, or look absolutely stunning.

I'm glad for your honestly, and I completely welcome any criticism anyone has. I must say, I think I've only seen a multi-color scheme look really good twice, as in way better than a solid scheme would've looked. That's the problem with multi-color, it might look good, but does it look better than if you had just gone with a solid color? I think the Gigabyte Z87 boards just really beg for multi-color schemes, where instead of solid Blue (or Red or Yellow for that matter), you go with Whites/Blacks/Grays using a color as an accent.

I'll post some pics up, I would have completed my build 99% today but then my drill battery died and I forgot to get a battery charger..... oooh, my god, how obnoxious. I can't install anything until I drill out the 140mm fan holes (which I don't even need to do really, there are already so many holes and such in the front grills, but to really make the build complete... gotta drill some oddly spaced ugly holes) since there's shaved metal everywhere from the hole saw.

I also ordered an NZXT white LED 1m. Decided to go 1m instead of 2m because indecisive omg i should have went with 2m... I still can't figure out if a blue LED under the case or a white LED would be better (would the blue look weird with the white light coming out the window? Would white look stupid coming under a computer case?).

I gotta take a pic of just every piece of tooling, gear, and equipment i have for this build. It would fill up an entire room, it's just nuts. I'll post pics later of my sleeve work on the case, front audio, and USB cables.
Quote:
Bro you should tell me if you use my pics
it is not ur pic it is my pic thx.
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belial View Post

I think 2 colors are ugly, I don't think I've ever really seen 2 color work (there's a few interesting combos like electric blue/electric green kinda 2-color mixes but i think they're kinda ugly, but that's the best i've really seen).

In general, I think 3 color is pretty ugly, there's only a few mixes I've seen work - Blue/Gray/White, and Green/Gray/White. There's a couple Blue/Gray/Whites I've seen floating around that look great, particularly some Bitfenix Prodigy mod where the guy had everything matching except some noctua fan he had to paint (i can't, for the life of me, find it again though, i know it's around here on OCN). There's a blue/black/white, where the guy used a lot of white, like black/blue/white/white with 2 x EVGA GPUs, I'm sure it's easy to find the pics of his build if you search, it looks good but too much white and the black is too strong.

I was going to go with just solid colonial blue again like I had done with my Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H in my last build, which looked awesome, but after some time I came to realize that the Z87X-UD3H's blue is actually a lot darker than the Z77X, not to mention that the way it's mostly reflective grays, a solid color cable scheme would look overwhelming while a multi-color scheme would either fail miserably, or look absolutely stunning.

I'm glad for your honestly, and I completely welcome any criticism anyone has. I must say, I think I've only seen a multi-color scheme look really good twice, as in way better than a solid scheme would've looked. That's the problem with multi-color, it might look good, but does it look better than if you had just gone with a solid color? I think the Gigabyte Z87 boards just really beg for multi-color schemes, where instead of solid Blue (or Red or Yellow for that matter), you go with Whites/Blacks/Grays using a color as an accent.

I'll post some pics up, I would have completed my build 99% today but then my drill battery died and I forgot to get a battery charger..... oooh, my god, how obnoxious. I can't install anything until I drill out the 140mm fan holes (which I don't even need to do really, there are already so many holes and such in the front grills, but to really make the build complete... gotta drill some oddly spaced ugly holes) since there's shaved metal everywhere from the hole saw.

I also ordered an NZXT white LED 1m. Decided to go 1m instead of 2m because indecisive omg i should have went with 2m... I still can't figure out if a blue LED under the case or a white LED would be better (would the blue look weird with the white light coming out the window? Would white look stupid coming under a computer case?).

I gotta take a pic of just every piece of tooling, gear, and equipment i have for this build. It would fill up an entire room, it's just nuts. I'll post pics later of my sleeve work on the case, front audio, and USB cables.
it is not ur pic it is my pic thx.
Hey Belial,

Sorry, I wasn't criticizing your color choice but actually complimenting it . . . sorry if the message came about wrong.

I tend to work in subdued military colours so I find more than two and it gets a bit too busy. I really liked your choice and it will suit the build nicely. Other multi colours I have seen are a bit overdone with too many contrasting colours whereas yours all contrast nicely and flow.
thumb.gif
That was my thought process in the reply.

Cheers

Fen
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Belial View Post

no, i didn't take your comment as a criticism at all, I was just welcoming anyone who had any criticism.
No problem . . . I just wanted to make sure I did not come off the wrong way. I decided to add a few extra colours to my cabling theme (subdued military that is) to see what it looks like . . . so far it is not bad, kind of makes certain cable stand out amongst a sea of khaki
biggrin.gif


Cheers

Fen
 
#17 ·
Here's the window work:

You need to put painters tape on EVERYTHING. this allows you to run over the steel without scratching it with the jigsaw, as well as hold it firm against the table.



I have to drive to MC, 3 hours away, again, to replace this monitor. Sucks:



There is a weird foil on the USB and audio lines on this case. It might sleeving a bit more difficult.



But not impossible. Painters tape wrapped around it, then sleeve as normal (keeping it on). The tape also adds structure to the sleeving.



The USB 2.0 cables use basically 4 lines on the bottom and top, so it's pretty easy to sleeve (as above). However, the front HD audio cable, uses 5 lines on top and 4 lines spread like 5 lines, so I needed to split the sleeving up into 2 parts for each top/bottom. Double the work vs USB 2.0, despite the same header, basically (ie if you tried to use just one cable for top and bottom, it'd look weird at the header because the sleeving would have to be stretched very wide, it already comes close to looking with with 4 cables on USB 2.0). I simply cut-off the pass-through for AC'97 since there's no use for that.



Even odder, there is a ground line that is wrapped in exposed, and then all of the lines are wrapped in blue foil. Again, painters tape to the rescue (i reworked the foil back on, but only around 2 cables, the one's that'd be it's own sleeve).



Pay-off:



All case cables, speaker sleeved (yea it's small, it was cannibalized and should fit, hidden, when I'm done), and the USB line from the Bitfenix Recon fan controller. The pass-through USB on the Recon is missing, because it makes zero sense for it to have been included in the first place. No cables had to be cut to remove it, you just take off the pins from the middle usb (as seen in picture) since it's on a different row (i think bitfenix says it's so you can use a single USB port with the same USB header as used by the fan controller, but who has a single USB input that ends with an internal *female* header?).

The USB 2.0 on the USB 3.0 should be hidden away, and the painters tape you see won't be visible. On the case cables I used it a few times to indicate what cable is which, when I was planning on wrapping them all with electrical tape (to cover up the end of cable) but you won't notice and I did a good job glueing the cables. That's what I did, I used modeler's glue to attach the paracord in place.



I'm renovating the house, dust is everywhere, this is to protect the parts. My computer case and monitor are not in there, and that closet is absolutely packed, boxes ALL the way up. It's insane. I'll post a picture before I assemble everything of just all the tools, accessories, and parts going into the build. It's nuts.



My window came in today. I have every accessory and part ready, except the NZXT 1m white led (which should arrive a day or two and can be easily installed without having to remove things) and the lazer LED I'll put under the case, and the 3mm or 5mm LED + Wax Paper that I'll replace the Bitfenix eagle on the front of the case with, because I'm not sure what colors to use. You heard me, I'm replacing the silver eagle with a blue or white led. Or maybe not at all, or maybe paint it, I'm not sure what to do but I want to do something.

Oh, I bought like a 1cm wide aluminum bar too. Since I removed my case's CD drive, there needs to be a way for the fan controller to mount. I originally was thinking glue, but I'm going to bend the aluminum bar, drill + screw it to the case, then drill + screw the fan controller using existing holes and screws!

I will assemble the build soon, since my drill battery died, I'm going to ask to borrow the contractor's drill tommorow to make the necessary holes...

Dog caught bird. Nursing it back to health so dog can catch bird again.

 
#19 ·
Bird is dead.

Last night, I used a thin aluminum metal stick (I'll add a pic later, it's like 1 inch wide, 1/8th inch thick), cut a small ~3 inch piece off. Bent it with pliers, drilled and attached to case, then added screw holes, so I could mount a 5.25" fan controller with no 5.25" bay (since I had removed it for aesthetics/fit h110).

It took a lot longer than I thought, but I'll be assembling the build now, tonight. The NZXT LED should be in tommorow or so, and based on how things look I'll proceed on the final step of adding an LED to the front eagle and under the case. I may also do the H60 mod later, so I can do a before/after comparison with the stock gigabyte 7950 heatsink.
 
#20 ·
I'm considering placing a small, SSD sized window on the other side panel. What do you guys think of that, where do you think I should put it.

Like just an SSD hole in the other side panel. Put trim around hole, put small piece of acrylic on it, then put ssd behind it with tape. Maybe tape the ssd to the window piece, then tape window piece to side panel, whatever, doesnt matter how I did it (i could straight up mod an ssd mount there even).

 
#22 ·
Going to hold off on the SSD window, I think it's better to just hide it. If it had some blue on it it'd be an easier choice, though black/silver of a samsung 830 does match a bit.

Here's a long series of pics guys. Not finished with the build, takes a lot of work to get all these wires right. I'll be running stock 7950 gigabyte first, before slapping on the h60 mod as a comparison too.

Adding the 140mm Fan Holes using 5" (127mm) Lenox Hole Saw and Lenox Arbor 2L, and a 15mm spacing MNPCtech radiator grill pattern.




This is the holes and the 5.25" aluminum clips:




Delid:


When I took out the CD bay, it made the motherboard panel loose, oddly. Added screw for stability. Note the rubber grommets for cable routing holes that I got from a 'source'.


Everything except the aluminum strip. All tools, HID, peripherals, etc:


All PC items and PC accessories


Build at the moment:


All of the USB, Audio, and Case cables are going from under the motherboard (through CPU punch-out). Next I'll be adding the top 2 140mm fans, power supply, and working on cable management.

I decided not to go with pantyhose for fan filters, and just use the front fan filter included with the case, for aesthetics. Normally with pantyhose you just wrap it around the fan, which looks fine on black fans, but it looks terrible on the clear fans I'm using. I will not be using the pictured 'Lady Fayr' pantyhose.
 
#23 ·
Window Taping:



Here's some preview pics! I'm going to install the software side of things for now, and then run the gigabyte 7950 at 1149mhz@1.149v 100% fan (would hit ~75/85 with panel off/on on the sapphire 7950 with same settings) to see which has a better aftermarket cooler. I also wanted to see to make sure everything worked as intended before tying up all the cables (which takes FOREVER and really sucks to undo every cable just to move over a single case cable, ive done it before, perfection is quite exhausting...), and to know where I wanted to hook up all the fans (2 fans will not be hooked up to the controller, i'm not sure which 2 and which motherboard headers I'll plug those 2 fans into) before tying up cables. Also, I wasn't sure if the fan controller can handle 2 fans per channel, or only 1. I'm pretty sure it can only handle 1x140mm per channel, but I'm running 2 which means my fan controller is very hot...

Obviously, cables will be way cleaned up, the h60 will actually be mounted to something, but this gives a general idea of how things look. I like how the lights look, I'm going to order a BLUE Lazer LED to put under the case. Not sure whether to go with 3xLED lazer or 5xLED though, will have to look around a bit. Not sure on replacing the front eagle with an LED either still.





 
#25 ·
CPU is in socket. As you can see from the fans and lights, system is on. w7 just finished installing, i havent' set anything up yet (it's literally at the screen when download finishes and it says like enter pc name).

CLU/CLU on die/ihs, ofc. I apply a thin coat on one die/ihs, and then what's remaining on the brush and using a bit of the extra that might be on the die/ihs, i cover the ihs underside/waterblock with a layer too (i've found that's better than only applying a coat on one side, as others seem to have found too).

I'm going to order a blue Lazer 3-LED light to put under the case, it seems 5 is super bright, might be a bit much.
 
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