Dice's PC that isn't screwed up yet!

[dice1998]

So uh.. I really was saving for another car as I hate the current one I have.


But some things happened and I realized other things and here I am! I caved and purchased pretty much a brand new PC.

I'll be using this thread to document my experiences and whatnot while going through this process of building my new PC. I just purchased it today and I'm hoping for a friday (or saturday delivery)!

This is what I purchased after many delegations with a certain "smoove" kind of guy (among other people) .


I hope you guys enjoy viewing this thread as I enjoy building the PC from scratch (something I haven't done in years! )

 

[dice1998]

Now, if no one minds the double posting, this one will be about my current PC build among other riff raff

I don't really have pics of me building my current PC (building is a way of putting it I guess) but it started life as a Gateway GM5632E and after a few months in my hands, I accidentally flashed an intel bios update instead of a gateway one and it didn't like this and decided that I won't post at all. (it had a grumpy face also.)

So alas, I had to Newegg a new g33 express motherboard (an Intel DG33TL) and rebuild the PC. From there, I upgraded to a 600w Ultra X4 fully modular PSU (which i'll be using in this new build), a Nvidia 9800 GTX+ by PNY (i call it something more Asian and racist ) and a new case (which i totally regret).


Skip to a few years later (a couple of weeks ago, actually) and I decided to clean and reorganize my case. I also decided that I should take pics while cleaning, rebuilding & reorganizing everything.

This is how the case looked (it's not upside down) before I even touched anything this cleanout. Yes, I know, I wasn't a big fan of cable management until very recently .

Skip to the disassembly, I decided to take pics of (almost) every part in my PC:

A Cooler Master 92mm CPU Fan.

Another 92mm case fan (i'm about 75% certain it's a cooler master fan).

3GB DDR2 RAM in total (2x 1GB, 2x 512MB and yes, they're samsung sticks).

2x 500GB Seagate HDD's (not in RAID).

The PNY 9800GTX+ in question.

Avermedia HD DVR video capture card.

Creative Sound Blaster (bought at walmart).

Ulra X4 PSU (dunno if you can see the info on the sticker).


There's also a LITE ON dvd-rw drive but I didn't bother documenting it (i'll also be using this in the new build)

Now that that's out of the way, i'll start posting the pics of me rebuilding the PC (which isn't much as I was more busy on making sure everything worked and lined up properly ).

There's the DG33TL and the LITE ON sitting there awaiting insertion ()
I decided to put the PSU in first which ended up not being that bad of an idea!

Skip ahead a little and I installed the HDD's and plugged them in (also plugged in the ribbon cable for the DVD Drive). I also reinstalled the CPU fan and case fan and plugged those in too.

I kind of decided to drop the DVD drive down one slot and also installed the RAM sticks. I also installed the video card and plugged that bad boy in.

Installed the capcard and sound blaster back in. As this angle's better, you should now be able to see why I moved the CD drive down a slot .

Some more plugging things in and whatnot and bam! a complete difference from what it was before. One thing I didn't mention earlier was I also plugged in the front headers and whatnot.



Now there is one thing I documented and it's that the case door has a 120mm ULTRA KAZE fan (thanks krazy glue!) that was a PITA to actually install..but it all worked out.



Now, with this PC will be sitting in my closet for now, but i'm sure i'll eventually come back to this bad boy and do something amazing with it.. (when? no idea but i'll eventually come back to it).


I think that covers everything for now

Oh and the CPU is a Core2Quad Q6600 B3 Stepping.

 

[HE1RO]

YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! To your new PC.
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! to your old PC XD

Edit: You tidied the old one up pretty good. 👍

 

[tlowr4]

Nice work.

The only thing I can pick on with your new build is the Case, Graphics card and SSD.

The NZXT 210 has had some bad reviews, and I saw one in a shop and kinda agreed. Note I never got to rip it apart and push bits and all that, just got to take off the side panel and have a look around. Mainly just far from good build quality. However, it's nothing too major, and I don't have any literal proof (unable to find the review in question). Just be wary that there might be a thing here and there where it mightn't be great. But if you like it, go for it.

The stock cooler on the Graphics card. Now I know the 6xx series runs cool as anything. However, the stock cooler on graphics cards is always going to run warmer and louder than something you could get from another company. My suggestion:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637
Only $10 more and although I don't praise or really suggest the ASUS DCII cooler (bit of an MSI Twin Frozr II/III/IIII fan), it'll still run much better than the stock cooler.

SSD: Only thing is that it's SATA II. But, I assume, that is for budget, so it's all good. Just saying that if you had a few more dollars (Say, $30 or something), you could get a SATA III SSD. Suggestion again:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226246
But, again, the chosen one will be more than enough for boot drive.


Just one question, are you going to use you old two drives as storage as well? Going for 2TB? If not why not just use the old ones and save the $100 on the WD black drive to go to the better SSD etc. Just a thought.

Like I said it's all up to you, just thought of that when I saw the list.

 

[dice1998]

Edit: You tidied the old one up pretty good. 👍

You have no idea how pissed off I was throughout the rebuild trying to wire tuck and whatnot

Nice work.

The only thing I can pick on with your new build is the Case, Graphics card and SSD.

The NZXT 210 has had some bad reviews, and I saw one in a shop and kinda agreed. Note I never got to rip it apart and push bits and all that, just got to take off the side panel and have a look around. Mainly just far from good build quality. However, it's nothing too major, and I don't have any literal proof (unable to find the review in question). Just be wary that there might be a thing here and there where it mightn't be great. But if you like it, go for it.

I read some bad reviews also and I personally I wanted to go with an MSI Case, but a certain "smoove" guy convinced me otherwise . Hopefully, i'll enjoy this case (i'll definitely will compared to this current case probably).

The stock cooler on the Graphics card. Now I know the 6xx series runs cool as anything. However, the stock cooler on graphics cards is always going to run warmer and louder than something you could get from another company. My suggestion:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637
Only $10 more and although I don't praise or really suggest the ASUS DCII cooler (bit of an MSI Twin Frozr II/III/IIII fan), it'll still run much better than the stock cooler.

I thought about getting an MSI Designed card but I kind of decided that i'll go with the reference(ish) design for a few reasons (that probably won't help convince you on this card vs some of the non-reference designs ) :

1. The cooler fan is stolen from the GTX 680 to help with cooling.
2. The PCB board is also full length to help with cooling.


Personally, I also don't like the designs that blow the hot air back into the case. I really can't tell you why but to me, it's just not something I dig. I also probably won't be overclocking this card as what it's clocked at is more then enough for me :3

SSD: Only thing is that it's SATA II. But, I assume, that is for budget, so it's all good. Just saying that if you had a few more dollars (Say, $30 or something), you could get a SATA III SSD. Suggestion again:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226246
But, again, the chosen one will be more than enough for boot drive.

Yeah, it was indeed a cost decision.
Actually, I didn't even realize it was SATA II until you said something!

Just one question, are you going to use you old two drives as storage as well? Going for 2TB? If not why not just use the old ones and save the $100 on the WD black drive to go to the better SSD etc. Just a thought.

I was planning on using one of them on top of the 1TB in RAID so it'd be 1.5TB. I'm not using both as they're about 5 years old and I'm just not taking that chance with HDD's.. it's a paranoid thing I guess. :

One of them (the one i'm not using) is already giving me the skip of death also

Like I said it's all up to you, just thought of that when I saw the list.

I don't like your feedback and you should go away!

Seriously though, I appreciate the feedback . When you wrote that up though, my products were already out of the warehouse so there wasn't no way for me to change the order without more wait time on top of the wait time I'm getting now.


Since i'm using this post, I might as well throw an update out and say that my items shipped from "joysey" and are due here...Tuesday!

I also might just throw up a livestream link and build it there (also going to take pics) but i'm not sure how many people would watch some fat chocolatey kid with hairy legs and glasses sweat his butt off and curse up a storm trying to get everything work

 

[dice1998]

So my package did indeed arrive Tuesday @ about 3:30 👍 .

Alas, I'm going to start this post from before the boxes arrived:

While eagerly awaiting these boxes to arrive (this happened the saturday before the packages arrived) I suddenly decided that it was time to replace my old NAS which had sadly died prematurely .

TL;DR Version: I felt like buying a new NAS.

So, I ventured over to my local Office Depot (where I purchased my old NAS from) and began to scour the place for one. I found some which were 2TB+ but were above my budget. I called someone over and asked if there were any 1TB NAS' that weren't Seagate. So after about 10-15 mins of asking different people, the guy remembered I could buy a router with a USB port and plug an external HDD in (which they did have in 1TB form). I was dumbfounded as I never knew such routers existed! So I purchased it and a Western Digital External HDD and it worked out the same price as a NAS would .

TL;DR Version: I went in for a NAS and came out with a Router an External HDD.

The Router.

The External HDD

The D Link Router comes with a USB Port on the back which I can plug my external HDD in. Using the "mydlink" cloud program thing, I can access, upload and download files from the external HDD like I could do with the NAS. There *are* some limitations to what I can do vs the NAS though. I can upload files, but I cannot upload multiple files at once. I'm also not a fan of DLink's GUI. There are other minor kinks but those are the two main issues I have.

TL;DR Version: This router is awesome. I like the external HDD too. It's not like a NAS but it's close enough. 👍

Those aren't buttons. They do light up when it's working/has an issue.

External HDD which is plugged into the router.

This setup helped me back up files that was on the outgoing desktop that I didn't want to redownload.




List of what was purchased (as seen in the first post).http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=19812452




Moving on to the main event: The Unboxing!

The Computer case

Everything else. The box looks like it's been through hell huh?

The front of the case

The rear of the case

Front ports and whatnot.

The inside of the case

Inside of that newegg box. Wait, what?

Newegg troll'd me

Core i5 3570k. It's not a Malaysia batch! This one's from Costa Rica!

G Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB RAM :3

The beast of a cooler which'll keep my 3570K cool as ice.

One SATA II SSD

Video Games.

2x 120mm NZXT Fans to go with the other fans in my NZXT case. These are situated up front to suck in air. Like a vaccum.

I have no idea what this is.

I was going to go ASUS but I decided otherwise.


Next up is the build pics.

 

[dice1998]

Continuing on!


The Build from hell (for me).

I started unboxing the motherboard before anything else

All in it's "nekkid" glory.

Monster cooler (Noctua NH-D14). I did have that protective plastic piece still attatched when i stood it like this.

The cooler all ready to perform it's duty.**

A comparison of a stock Intel fan vs the NH-D14. Not that much of a difference.

RAM sticks standing by.

Placing it into the case. **Note: that 140mm fan that you see was flipped so it draws air in instead of suck it out.


Break time for Chinese Food!..


..I returned 2 hours later.

The state of my mancave when I returned.

The SSD. I wasn't expecting it to be so light! I'm so used to mechanical HDD's.

EVGA Geforce GTX 670 FTW.

Installing the HDD's

The card is plugged in and is ready to go.

Creative Soundblaster card.

I don't know if you can see it but there's an AverTV HD DVR there

A Better angle of the CPU Cooler.**

Wire Hell!

I wired everything in and it was spewing out debug codes. I became scared until I read the supplied motherboard book XD

** I had heat issues the first time around and had to disassemble the whole computer to reposition and reseat the cooler. It is now facing the DVD Rom Drive. The 140mm fan is still sucking in air.

Fun note: The DVD Rom drive uses a serial port to function. The motherboard didn't have a place to insert said serial cable. During the chinese food run I had to go to wally's world and hunt down a SATA DVD Drive. I found one. for $45. I also spent $45 on chinese.


As of now, the PC is all plugged in and am getting much much cooler temps than from before.

It's a difference of 86c on stress tests to a constant 60c @ 4.3ghz. (Prime95).
It was at 4.5ghz but for some reason i'm not getting temps i'm happy with.

Huzzah!

 

[locoman88]

I remember when I got my gaming router. $280!

 

[HE1RO]

Looks good man! 👍

 

[Sharky.]

Any particular reason you went with a 30GB SSD instead of, say, a 64 or 128 unit?

 

[HE1RO]

Any particular reason you went with a 30GB SSD instead of, say, a 64 or 128 unit?

Cheaper is my guess, i may get a 16GB to have just as a boot drive. 7200rpm drives are fast enough for games imo, plus you can get 1+TB units from different brands at pretty good prices.

 

[sesselpupser]

So how is the NH-D14? I'm still trying to decide between one of them or a Corsair H80, after seeing what you said about heat issues and being unable to hit 4.5GHz (which is my admittedly arbitrary target) at a comfortable temperature (even though you've got the 3570K, I've got a 2500K which is apparently a little cooler when overclocked, or so I've heard), combined with the fact that I can't have a side fan with the NH-D14 in my case (Fractal R3) I'm thinking I might go with the H80 even though it's louder.

 

[nick09]

Looking good but one of the tiny thing that annoy me is the usb ports on the case. They are upside down!

 

[dice1998]

Looking good but one of the tiny thing that annoy me is the usb ports on the case. They are upside down!

It's not as annoying as it looks.

Any particular reason you went with a 30GB SSD instead of, say, a 64 or 128 unit?

Price mostly

So how is the NH-D14? I'm still trying to decide between one of them or a Corsair H80, after seeing what you said about heat issues and being unable to hit 4.5GHz (which is my admittedly arbitrary target) at a comfortable temperature (even though you've got the 3570K, I've got a 2500K which is apparently a little cooler when overclocked, or so I've heard), combined with the fact that I can't have a side fan with the NH-D14 in my case (Fractal R3) I'm thinking I might go with the H80 even though it's louder.

I wouldn't really blame the D14 for my heat issues yet as i'm blaming it on my lame as hell computer building skills and whatnot

I still think I can hit 4.5ghz and have pretty nice temps but i'll have to do work to get there.

 

[dice1998]

If you guys don't mind a bump:

Overclocking!

I've began to overclock my 3570k and such. I've been experimenting with some different overclocking methods and have been using AIDA64 to stress test. So far, i've found that for some reason, I cannot reach 4.5ghz due to two main (sometimes seperate, depending on my "experiments") reasons:

• Temperatures - Even if I do find a way to get a stable 4.5, the temps are in the high 80's to 90's. I don't like.
• Instability - When I use certain guides to try to lower my temps. Instability issues arises in the first hour or two of stress testing.

I've been using that chart as a base line (because I've been told and have researched that every i5 3570k is different) and going from there. What I've noticed is that I need more voltage to get a stable clock than what the chart says. For Example: 4.3ghz needs about 1.25v in order to be stable than the chart's 1.2.

Right now I've the only thing i've edited when it comes to voltage settings is the PLL which i've lowered to 1.65 instead of 1.8. I've also decided to increase the turbo boost multiplier to 43 (4.3ghz) instead of the clock multiplier for "everyday usage". After testing in AIDA64 for about 10 hours, everything came back normal so i'm happy.

If there's one thing i've noticed, it's that my clock frequency, as read on the GUI, is 4.4ghz instead of 4.5ghz. What I want to do now is try and get a stable 4.5ghz turbo boost.

If those who are overclock gods/masters/etc. can help me out heregive me pointers on finding a stable 4.5ghz, I'll be very thankful!

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

Start at a 45 multiplier.

Raise the voltage until you can boot into windows.

Leave PLL alone.

Run Prime 95 to stress.

Increase voltage until you are 15-20 minutes stable on custom.

Begin Prime blend tests and increase voltage until you are 6-8 hours stable.

Adjust offset.

Reboot and save.

If you don't have an aftermarket cooler that will keep you under 60-70 degrees at full load then I suggest you get one before overclocking.

 

[dice1998]

Read my parts list up top

I'll reset PLL to auto and then start using voltages from the chart above. thanks

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

Google for step by step tutorials searching specifically for your processor and MoBo. As I suggest to everyone, Overclock.net is the best place for tutorials/questions.

If you are planning to go 4.5ish or higher then I suggest going water cooling (Ivy Bridges run much hotter than Sandy due to the TIM between the processor and heat shield). If you're really daring open up the processor and replace the TIM.

If not shoot for 4.2ish and be contempt. Make sure you don't go over 90C.

 

[Sharky.]

I'm going to go for 4.5 on my 3570K today too, see you on the other side dice

 

[dice1998]

Found a stable setup for 4.5ghz @ turbo mode. After some experimenting with PLL on auto, vcore at about 1.25, and so on, I found the best combination:

4.5ghz Turbo mode @ 1.28v Vcore and 1.7v Pll with temps averaging at around the high 60C's to mid 70's with spikes of mid 80's.

I had to edit things in UEFI as well as EasyTune6 in order to make sure everything worked properly.

After 8 hours on AIDA64 there was no BsoD's or anything along those lines.

 

[dice1998]

I had some issues with my 670 where I had to RMA it to newegg only to realize they need the original box which I threw away so they mailed it back to me.

The package came in thursday night and I was on the phone with EVGA before I sent it out to them. After some experimenting, it worked! There is something wrong with my PCI-E 6 pin cable and I was forced to use a Molex to 6pin cable to get it up and running (which is what I should've done in the beginning!)

I threw down some benchmarks also and here are the results:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4216353

My i5, as previously posted, is OC'd to 4.5ghz on turbo boost and I gave the GTX 670 a light overclock:

Please note that my video card has a refrence design so it exhausts the hot air to to the rear (which I want since if I had one that exhausted air all around the case, my ambient temps inside would go up and effect my i5..I think )

 

[Sharky.]

Ha! Mine's faster

 

[dice1998]

I'm getting there..I think

I just discovered that I can push the memory clock way higher than what I have now, so i'm going to try that and post results.

 

[Sharky.]

My overclock is strange, the display driver crashes during Heaven at the settings you used (1680x1050 maxed) yet has zero issues whatsoever running the same test at 1920x1080

 

[dice1998]

It could be because 1680x1050 is my monitor's native resolution or something.. I dunno.

 

[dice1998]

Update!

I had some downtime today and it's been a month or so since the PC became functional do i wanted to do some cleaning..

My god the dust filters were clogged!

All clean


Oh and a bonus comparison pic:

**Edit**: One more pic..

 

[Pako]

You are miles ahead of your last computer. Nicely done! Wire management, wire management! Looks like you got most of them out of the cooling path though. Over all, are you pleased with it?

 

[dice1998]

Thanks Pako!

I'm extremely pleased with it! I'm still working on wire management but it's coming along nicely

 

[bevo]

Thanks Pako!

I'm extremely pleased with it! I'm still working on wire management but it's coming along nicely

I have no idea how people hide all their wires. Mine are everywhere because I'm afraid I'll break something forcing them out of the way. It stays cool though and I guess that's all that really matters. Nobody ever see's the inside of my PC. This was my first PC build though so maybe on my next one I'll try to figure out how to do it better.

 

[Pako]

I have no idea how people hide all their wires. Mine are everywhere because I'm afraid I'll break something forcing them out of the way. It stays cool though and I guess that's all that really matters. Nobody ever see's the inside of my PC. This was my first PC build though so maybe on my next one I'll try to figure out how to do it better.

The right case helps a lot in this. They are making them more and more cable friendly. The days of having to drill custom routing holes are just about over which is really nice. Zipties are, of course, your best friend. Forget about the aesthetics, if you have proper wire management, it will help with proper air flow. Function should always take priority in my mind. 👍

Thanks Pako!

I'm extremely pleased with it! I'm still working on wire management but it's coming along nicely

That's great! If you're happy that I would call it a very successful build!