Brother in law Build Log!

salvage-this

salvage-this

Active Member
Hi CF! :D

I have two builds for my brother in law that I am working on over the next few days. Figure I might as well post the build here.



1st PC is a general workstation for general use and really light photo editing.

15 4960k
8gb DDR3
Gigabyte B85M-D3H
CX430m
MX100 256gb
Seagate 2tb
Fractal Design Core 1000

I got a combo discount at Microcenter that gave me the 4960k for less than the 4960s that I was planning on getting. Didn't make any sense, but I am not going to argue.



At $35 the Fractal Design Core 1000 is a decent entry level case. It doesn't have much in terms of features, but it didn't do anything that I would consider to be a major flaw. At least when you compare it to other cases in this price range. We were looking for a smaller foot print under the desk. I wanted to go mATX to give it a bit of room to breathe as well as a slightly shorter case than I would have been able to find with a standard ATX setup.



The case comes with a 120mm fan pre installed behind the non removable fan filter in the front of the case. It reminds me of the Antec 302. Just in a lower price bracket.

Two things I really like about the case.
1. It has removable thumb screws for both side panels and the removable HDD mounts.
2. The HDD mounts have rubber mount points for a little bit of vibration reduction.

If you had a 2.5"/3.5" conversion tray for the 5.25" bay you could remove the drive mounts completely and have extra room for long GPUs. Not that I would recommend it with the current airflow in the system, but it would be possible.

First issue that I came across was when I was trying to cable by HDD and SSD off of the same SATA run. Turns out the length between the SATA adapters is too short. I needed to use all of the SATA cable runs that I had for both of the drives, and add the molex cable run to the PSU with a molex to SATA adapter for the ODD. Not super impressed but it works fine.



I got everything wired up and started to look for ways to manage the cables. Practically nothing jumps out. I really can only feed the PSU cables through a hole in the bottom of the 5.25" bay and tie them to the HDD tray.

*Tip* I braided the HDD LED, PLED, PWR SW, etc... cables together to make them easier to manage. Works pretty well.







Powered, Successful First POST. Installed Windows 8.1 x64. Letting it update overnight.

That is it for today. We'll probably build the HTPC tomorrow or Thursday. I'll post back when I have more.
 
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Looks awesome. Very clean looking for a small budget case.

I wish more people would do logs like these. They're pretty cool to look over and see what different stuff people put in their system. A lot of us are used to working on the same machine all the time (our own) and maybe a handful of others.
 
I personally love the Core 1000. If you don't use an ODD, you can actually make great cable management.
I'm curious as to why you didn't opt for a Z97 board, since you could get the K version. Always nice to have the option to OC :) Price/combo deal/never going to OC at all anyway?
 
I'm facing the same struggle as you, my Corsair 200R has a huge lack of cable management space.

Thank god I have a modular PSU now, because before and even now, where normally most cases have 2 large holes on the bottom to route cables from the PSU, mine has one. The holes on the side for ATX connectors and PCI connectors are placed weird as well.

The top hole to route your CPU power is blocked by the mobo, only have is available. I had to remove my mobo, and then route the cable and connect it
 
Darren said:
Looks awesome. Very clean looking for a small budget case.

I wish more people would do logs like these. They're pretty cool to look over and see what different stuff people put in their system. A lot of us are used to working on the same machine all the time (our own) and maybe a handful of others.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Same here. It's nice to be able to see what issues came up when building. Hope this helps someone out in the future.

Jiniix said:
I personally love the Core 1000. If you don't use an ODD, you can actually make great cable management.
Click to expand...


Yeah I can see that working if you remove the ODD. Keep more of the cables that are unnecessary completely out of the way. I think my biggest issue was I needed all of my SATA power cables connected to the 430m. If I could have done both of the drives off of one run that would have helped the clutter a bit.

I really do like the core 1000. For the price it is a decent case. It just depends on what features you want and what you can live without. That is pretty much how the ~$30 case market goes.

Jiniix said:
I'm curious as to why you didn't opt for a Z97 board, since you could get the K version. Always nice to have the option to OC :) Price/combo deal/never going to OC at all anyway?
Click to expand...

Exactly. He will never touch the OC settings and It was cheaper for me to get the 4960k with a non OC board than it was for me to get a 4960s with the same board. Might as well get the upgrade for less.

ninjabubbles3 said:
I'm facing the same struggle as you, my Corsair 200R has a huge lack of cable management space.

Thank god I have a modular PSU now, because before and even now, where normally most cases have 2 large holes on the bottom to route cables from the PSU, mine has one. The holes on the side for ATX connectors and PCI connectors are placed weird as well.

The top hole to route your CPU power is blocked by the mobo, only have is available. I had to remove my mobo, and then route the cable and connect it
Click to expand...

Yikes. Looking at the 200R I see a few options. You probably have space in the bottom two 5.25" bays and in the bottom HDD bay. You might be able to bundle up a few cables and store them there if that will not block too much air flow. It also looks like you have a bit of room behind the back panel. Try laying cables that you do not need and can't remove flat on the back of the motherboard tray and tape them down. It might also help to completely remove all of the cables and try organizing them into smaller groups to be managed later. Then take those groups and tie them down to the right places with zip ties.
 
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I don't have extra cables, but I will try taping them to the back and zip tying them. There are a total of two cable management loops on the back. Ouch
 
Having cable management space is probably one of the best things about my Phantom, and my PSU isn't even modular. (old pic)

399779_3006580738954_1597310604_n.jpg


Back isn't as pretty. :P

577865_2610612039984_2122305273_n.jpg
 
Wow, I'm looking forward to getting an NZXT case, either an H440 or a Define R5

I really like the small hole for front panel connectors.

One case with awesome cable management is the Corsair 600T, so many grommets
 
Their cases are top notch. The entire thing just oozes quality. The only real grip I had was myself being stupid. I decided to clean the window with Windex and a cloth when I got it and the plastic was so soft it got scratched to hell by the cloth itself. So the entire thing is covered in thin scratches. Plus a few bigger ones I've added from dropping a few things on my computer. :P
 
Nice build Darren!

I have the cable management grommets as well on my 800D. The back of my case is filled with cables, but the front is reasonably clean.
 
I had a ring like that which I really liked. I accidentally flung it into a compactor.

On topic, The PCs look good. The fractal case seem like a good option for a smaller case.
 
Thanks!

I get the feeling that my Wife would have a few choice words with me if I lost my ring. at least it wouldn't be too expensive if I needed to replace it.
 
salvage-this said:
Nice build Darren!

I have the cable management grommets as well on my 800D. The back of my case is filled with cables, but the front is reasonably clean.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Didn't meant to hijack the thread at all.

Actually that's one other thing that annoys me, is the rubber grommets on my Phantom kinda suck. A lot. The blackness gets all over your hands and they're pretty easy to accidentally pull out of place when doing all your cables. Not a big problem since it's not too difficult to slip them back in to place once your cables are sorted, but still something I noticed.
 
No problem at all. I would rather have a discussion that is useful for others rather than just a showcase of what we built this week.
 
Ive put together a build for my dad with the Corsair 350D, a beautiful little micro atx case. Great cable management, and grommets too. Kinda pricey tho, at 80 bucks
 
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