[Ktulu]

The Avenger

______________________________
I have just destroyed and dismantled my NZXT. Rogue (Rebel Scum) and cannibalized it into my new rig The Avenger.
This Rogue Squadron killer will now serve as my flagship. Here is the build log of the last few days of it's creation.

Armaments:
Case - Antec 300
Case Cooling: 1x Antec Tircool 900RPM 140mm 3x Scythe S-Flex 1200RPM
Power Supply Unit: Corsair CMPSU-650TX
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe
Central Processing Unit: Athlon II X3 Unlocked to Phenom II X4
Central Processing Unit Cooling: H50 with 120mm x 38mm Panaflo Push/Pull 2750RPM
Memory: A-DATA 2x2GB PC3 12800
Graphic Processing Unit: EVGA GTX580
Primary Storage: OCZ Vertex 2 Solid State Disk
Secondary Storage: Samsung F3 1 Terabyte x3 RAID 5
RAID Card: PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller (PERC) 5/i

Field Report:
Fighting the Rogue was a year long campaign of attrition. Day after day the battle to open and close the case would occur every time the slightest change was made inside. Rogue campaign dubbed "The Lament Configuration" was aptly named for it was certain that even the simplest tasks would be postponed by needless sweat and curses.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Ktulu

11/23/10 - I must go through 4 tiny screws to open the case to touch anything inside. They are small and hard to account for. After all was finished 3 were lost. Burial detail was a luxury we couldn't afford. The lone survivor of the campaign was mangled and stripped.

12/30/10 - It takes 8 screws to access the motherboard. The thought of Removing a graphics card brings the men to agony. I don't know how much more I can take.

1/2/11 - We lost a screw inside the case today. It rattles incessantly, ever haunting us. It took 15 mintues to recover.

1/5/11 - Power Supply Screws are Stripped. I pushed it into the case trying to plug it. Only one screw remains. The case can no longer be moved without fear of collapse. It will never see another LAN Again.

I have resolved to destroy the Rogue at all costs. If sanity wishes to remain, the Rogue must go. I plan to scower it for resources, burn the land, then salt the earth and maybe sell it on Craigslist. God help the poor fool who buys it next.

 

[Ktulu]

Update 02/22/11 - Basically the day after I finished the case and installed windows I had surgery to take my appendix out. WEIRD... Anyway I have windows installed. The RAID set up is working great, but as I expected it is ill advised to play games on RAID5 (However Stalker CoP looks amazing on a GTX580.) I will have to get another drive to install games on. I am hoping another 60-80gig SSD, but we will see. The SSD I have windows installed on works great. It is snappy and responsive. I imaged it with Paraon Pro 2011 Freed edition so we will see how that goes later down the road.

I got my Ebay confirmation on the vinyl decal. We will see how that goes. Hopefully it will get here in a timely manner and will be what I expect it to be.

So next thing is to install Linux and FreeNAS, but I have some homework to do first so FreeNAS will have to wait.

As of now it is being pretty stubborn in the OC department. I have reset the CMOS and will try again later, but I haven't even been able to boot to windows once. I will reexamine this later today.

Update 02/19/11 - I have been dealing with tracking down an electrical short all this week but I finally found it. The case is done and I am initializing the RAID 5 array as we speak.

I ordered a white vinyl Imperial logo to put on the side. That should be cool and I plan to add some more Star Destroyer type decals on the case as we go.

I crossed a few thing off the list. Next step is to install Windows and Linux.

As you may have gathered, I was tired of using my NZXT. Rogue so I basically upgraded my motherboard and moved my gear into an Antec 300. Here is a Link to the Original Build

I started with a computer I made for my mom a few years back. She has a laptop now so I used her case to house my next build. I took everything out of the Antec 300 and then removed all of the parts I needed from the Rogue. It was painful to undo all of my cable management in the Rogue. I probably had at least 100 hours of cable management in that case over the 3 times I reorganized everything. The Antec 300 took about 10 hours to organize! That is another reason to defect to the Imperial Army

Case: Antec 300

Pros

• Rubber Feet
• Two stock fans with 3 speed fan controller
• Front Fan Filters
• Front door Fan mounting cages
• Nice Black Finish
• Solidly Built
• Easy to Work with
• 6 HDD cages, Up to 9 if you utilize the top expansion slots.
• All Aluminum

Cons

• The Front Audio jack was not long enough to reach the back of the case so I decided not to use it.
• My GTX 580 would not fit infront of a 3.5" hardrive so I had to rearrange all the HDDs to put the GPU in front of my 2.5" SSD. I plan to stick 7 HDDs i nthis case eventually for RAID 5 so that means I will not be able to SLI 2 extra long video card unless I want to comprise my RAID array.
• The front face of the case is plastic and scratches easily.
• The side panels bend easily.
• Most people would use the side vent to blow air on their graphics card, but a fan filter would be needed to prevent constant interior case clean up.
• The stock fans are only silent at the lowest speed settings.
• The top 140mm fan mount does not have 120mm mounting brackets.
• The interior is not black, but to be fair the case is very inexpensive and it was designed before black case interiors were common.

The build went really well and honestly, the only problem directly related to the hardware was the GTX 580 not fitting in front of 3.5HDDs. If I knew I was going to keep the case for a long time I would be worried, but I got my GPU and my HDDs in so it was all good.

______________________________

To Do List:

• Fix Fan Controller Issue
• Last Step Polishing (Clean Case, Case Badges, ect)
• Install Windows
• Calibrate RAID 5 Card
• Install Linux
• Work on Overclocking

Link To Album



Note: If you have any suggestions or a better way to upload the pictures PM me.

 

[Ktulu]

 

[RabbitGT]

in simple words what are the benefits of raid 5 ?

 

[Segovax]

Sub'd. Eager to see what you did man.

 

[Ktulu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RabbitGT;12376415
in simple words what are the benefits of raid 5 ?

In RAID 5 data is striped across a group of disk drives. Data is regenerated in the event of a drive failure automatically when you insert a new disk. It gives you higher performance than a single disk in certain aspects and also data redundancy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Segovax;12376629
Sub'd. Eager to see what you did man.

Thanks Dude - I took lots of pictures. I want to post the build, then the RAID setup, then overclocking. I'll have some pictures up later tonight.

 

[Senator]

Subbed. Always love seeing someone's new ideas in action.

 

[Sethy666]

Subbed for excellent action!

 

[Segovax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senator;12377303
Subbed. Always love seeing someone's new ideas in action.

4.2 @ 1.26v?! Gold!!

 

[Ktulu]

Thanks for all the subs guys. I added the pictures and a part of a review. Let me know what you think of the build, the thread theme and the formatting I am using for this thread.

 

[Sethy666]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ktulu;12379185
Thanks for all the subs guys. I added the pictures and a part of a review. Let me know what you think of the build, the thread theme and the formatting I am using for this thread.

Holy Wall of graphics Batman! My head just sploded

 

[Sethy666]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ktulu;12379185
Thanks for all the subs guys. I added the pictures and a part of a review. Let me know what you think of the build, the thread theme and the formatting I am using for this thread.

Nah... loving it!

Oops double post

 

[Segovax]

Looking good, nice cable management. Nice clean computer. I like the theme too.

 

[xd_1771]

Athlon II x3 unlocked to Phenom II x4 @ 4.2Ghz @ 1.26V.
Gold indeed

Hope you don't have any issues with that RAM, I know that a lot of AMD users usually get issues with A-Data 1600 CL9 kits.

 

[Ktulu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xd_1771 Athlon II x3 unlocked to Phenom II x4 @ 4.2Ghz @ 1.26V. Gold indeed Hope you don't have any issues with that RAM, I know that a lot of AMD users usually get issues with A-Data 1600 CL9 kits.

Ewwww, hmm thanks for the heads up. I had windows install up a few days ago. I finally fixed a problem with the fan controller, but now I can't get the BIOS to load. Awesome, I am calling it a night haha.

 

[xd_1771]

You just might want to watch the mobo there, 3+1 unheatsinked is definitely a killer on 125W overclocked processors (x3 unlocked + L3 = 125W) - however considering the low volts you're pretty good. You should at least add some mosfet heatsinks as otehrwise they're getting no cooling whatsoever and are nearly pushing max TDP.

 

[Ktulu]

So now I can't even get the things to POST. Mobo lights up, GPU fan spins, everything starts up, but there is no signal to the keyboard, mouse or monitor.

I had windows up yesterday, I hope i didn't break something loose when I was fixing the fans.

 

[Segovax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ktulu So now I can't even get the things to POST. Mobo lights up, GPU fan spins, everything starts up, but there is no signal to the keyboard, mouse or monitor. I had windows up yesterday, I hope i didn't break something loose when I was fixing the fans.

Sounds like a short. Double check your fans and wiring and stuff.

 

[xd_1771]

UH OH
Silent mosfet failure anyone?

I mean... hey.... it can happen

EDIT: Whoops... just realized the mobo is an M4A79T Deluxe with quality VRMs

Not that you should rule out the motherboard from troubleshooting..... shti happens

 

[Ktulu]

Any trouble shooting tips would be appreciated.