[HighwayStar]

Hey guys this will be my first ever build log, first build alone, and second ever build! UPS just dropped off a nice reward after the all nighter I pulled to ace my final today

I'm WAY too tired to even think about assembly now. Besides I'm still missing components.

I kinda broke my build up into parts/stage since I'm still debating parts but I HAD to start ordering or I would never get anything. So far this is what I've acquired.

Parts list 1

Processor: Ivy Bridge 3570k

Power Supply: Corsair hx650 modular

Case: NZXT Tempest Elite 410

Ram: Corsair Vengeance 8gb

MoBo: AsRock Z77

I ordered everything from Newegg. Total price spent so far after rebates+promo+giftcard is $553.07 U.S. This includes shipping.

I don't think I did too bad.

What I have left to get Waiting on sales/promos at new egg to pop up.

GPU GTX 670 Ordered!
**5/24/12**

Cooling: Corsair H-100
**edit 5/10/12**

SSD: Probably going to go for a single 250gbish SSD since that would hold everything I need including games.
**edit 5/24/12 Crucial M4 128gb Ordered!

Sound Card: Asus Xonar

I don't have an awesome camera so sorry bout the pic quality.

 

[HighwayStar]

*Reserved*

 

[StormXLR]

Nice

Looking forward to seeing a finished build

Im jelly of your Ivy I5

i want one too and new red mobo

Also I was choosing between this chassis and few others, ended up getting Survivor for my new build though

Do tell how is the chassis, and take some more pics

 

[HighwayStar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by StormXLR

Nice

Looking forward to seeing a finished build

Im jelly of your Ivy I5

i want one too and new red mobo

Also I was choosing between this chassis and few others, ended up getting Survivor for my new build though

Do tell how is the chassis, and take some more pics

I love this case. I thought I'd regret it but the quality is very high for the price. My last case was NZXT Nemesis and boy that was a flashy case but it had no cable management. It was quite an old case though so I can't really compare it to this one. The only thing I don't like about this case is the hard drive bays. If they had used the sliding ones like on my old Nemesis it would have been perfect.

I need to update my parts list as my budget has changed

No longer will the Corsair H-100 be affordable for me right now so I'm looking at getting a Coolermaster Hyper 212 to hold me over.
Anyone know if that will be fine on Ivy Bridge?

It was either I get the H-100 and skip the SSD or get an air cooler and keep the SSD.

Here are some more pics as requested!

Did a little painting today since I had the day off. This is my first time doing any "mods". I think it came out OK for a newbie. I kinda want to contact NZXT and see if I can purchase these parts separately and try a different color :/

 

[HighwayStar]

Update: My aunt wanted to go to Best Buy today to get some I-phone accessories and she wanted me to drive her. I thought i'd check to see if they had any Hyper 212 cpu cooler but they only had some Best Buy store brand which I didn't trust. Anyway I happened to see a couple of H-100s sitting there looking at me.. and I caved and got one.. but at least I figure its better than buying the 212 since I would have replaced eventually so it would've been a waste!

Now I can at least start assembly!

 

[StormXLR]

Nice

H100 is way to go man

never liked air coolers, too big and not as good as water :|
Also liking the color guess you picked it to go with the PSU ?

 

[HighwayStar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by StormXLR

Nice

H100 is way to go man

never liked air coolers, too big and not as good as water :|
Also liking the color guess you picked it to go with the PSU ?

I'm So glad I got this cooler but It was a little challenge getting the backing plate lined up. At first I thought I had gotten something incompatible with my motherboard but then I saw that the mounting bolts slide!
I just got done installing everything and doing a test boot! I was really scared but everything booted up into set up!

As for the color I just sort of picked it at random. It somewhat clashes with the lights on the board though. I didn't know this board had them. I'll have more pics tomorrow

 

[king8654]

h100 works great! on the ram if doesnt reed as 1600, just load up xmp profile in bios.

might wanna get a 1-2tb 7200rpm for storage. i got bf3 and progs on the 128gb ssd, gonna put d3, but thats about it

nice build man looks great!

 

[Ankit07]

Go for EVGA GTX 670 @$400..

 

[HighwayStar]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I have quite a few old hdds around I can use for storage but I really don't use a lot of space

Looks like 670 would be a good fit for this build.

Here's what it looked like last night. The psu is in and wires everywhere but I'll work on that later tonight. I didn't know the board was gold

too late now lol

 

[StormXLR]

that h100 looks so darn sweet

btw it doesn't fit inside the chassis?

 

[HighwayStar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by StormXLR

that h100 looks so darn sweet

btw it doesn't fit inside the chassis?

It would have been a tight fit with the included fans and with all the fans I have available. Touches the heat spreaders on the Ram.

The way I have It set up now the fans pull air from inside the case up across the radiator. I then watched the corsair install video and they said that it might be better to have them pull fresh air from outside the case in. This made no sense to me as I figured the ambient case temp should be lower than the radiator but I could be wrong. There seems to be a million ways to set up airflow on these things. I'll have to try different set ups and monitor temps.

 

[linkdiablo]

The irony of water cooling .. it's just modular air cooling.

OT: Love your color scheme, keep it up!

 

[OverClocker55]

this build looks great

 

[HighwayStar]

Thanks guys

Small update. I installed the Power supply and did pretty much all of the cable management. Also It turns out the red LEDs that the mobo was showing was actually an error code

After figuring out code A6 which was SCSI detect I was able to get it to go away after trying various settings in the BIOS and making a partition on the hard drive .Apparently it didn't agree with windows XP being on there from a previous installation.

How's my cable management? I must get a sleeved extension for my 24pin power cable.. It's a bit of an eyesore in there.

Did a little dust filter mod too.

 

[evoll88]

Looks good,yeah once you got a sleeved extension for that cable it will look better:thumb:

 

[StormXLR]

For what you have you did quite decent cable management

, the black/white as rock mobo really doesnt fit the black/blue theme going on, and lack of ram sticks kinda leaves it hanging there.
did you decide on the gpu btw?

 

[HighwayStar]

Yeah it's a bit off. But with the side panel on in the dark you can barely tell. I think the flash on the phone really brings out the worst in the colors lol.

I need to decide on white or blue led strip too. I wanted white but I think blue might work better and hide the mobo color.
How about one of these?

http://tinyurl.com/chtrcj2

I'm still thinking gtx 670. I'm hoping to be finished by June 14/15th as thats when my buddy comes home from the military service and we are gonna play Terra. He supposedly has ordered a BEASTLY Alienware laptop! So good times ahead

 

[cpachris]

Diggin the blue painted items. Looks sharp.

 

[StormXLR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HighwayStar

Yeah it's a bit off. But with the side panel on in the dark you can barely tell. I think the flash on the phone really brings out the worst in the colors lol.
I need to decide on white or blue led strip too. I wanted white but I think blue might work better and hide the mobo color.
How about one of these?
http://tinyurl.com/chtrcj2
I'm still thinking gtx 670. I'm hoping to be finished by June 14/15th as thats when my buddy comes home from the military service and we are gonna play Terra. He supposedly has ordered a BEASTLY Alienware laptop! So good times ahead

Yeah nzxt makes good led strips also Bitfenix ones are great. make sure to check the length if you gonna order