Gaming Machine (pics)

[kdfresh09]

hello all. so i have been wanting to do this for some time, but never got around to doing it. since i have my computer apart for cleaning, i thought i would take some photos of the hardware i have, and post them up, then as i progress through assembly, ill take more photos and post them as i was putting it back together until its done. i know this is probably similar to the "how to build a pc" thread, but i just wanted to put my machine out there and share it with the rest of the computerforum community.

so here is a pic of all the hardware spread out on my table...

A close up of each part, which starts with the pair of PNY GTX 470's that i use in sli:

The asus m4n98td evo motherboard:

Here is the ssd drives ill be using in a raid 0. they are intel x-25 v 40 gig drives that i had taken apert cause i dont have the enclosure for 1 of them so ill need to figure out how to get them both mounted. by the way the ssd thread on here was exceptional:

and the 2 x 1 TB HDD (hitachi) in raid 0. i know not the best drives, but for 40 for both...:

Here is some cheapo ram. its 8 gigs by hynix running at 1333Mhz. id like to get some 1600Mgz, but i dont know if it will justify the cost. the heat spreaders are aftermarket form newegg, and i only ordered 2 since i had not planned on runnung 4 chips:

Here is the PSU ill be using. Corsair GS800. reviews state that this PSU was rated at just over 1000w when under load and stress tested. so far its been great:

and here is the AMD Phenom II x 6 1090t:

and the Corsair A-70 Cooler. this im debatable about. 52c under 100% load with 1.475 v core and 4.040Ghz overcock. what do ya all think? temps good or could they be better?

So i figured, im going to want to know what my temps are without the use of on screen programs. something that was mounted right on my tower. so i opted for one of the aero cool lcd/card readers:

now all though this does a great job of monitoring temps through probes, i needed something that would display the cpu and graphics cards temps on a lcd screen, but according to sensors, not probes, so i opted for the nmedia pc lcd:

i didnt order the right one though cause i dont have any way of mounting this. ill have to figure something out when the time comes.

my wireless n pci-e x1 card:

my 120mm fans and blue cathode tube. the top black fans are for the A-70, whill the 2 clear ones will be front intake, the blue one for top exhaust, one black one for rear exhaust, and one black one for bottom intake:

and my case. its made by hec, but is essentialy the same case as the rosewell destroyer. great case i think and for $25, who cares:

nice little mount for the top fans which are enclosed in their own compartment, but im not sure if ill use it as it may restrict the exhaust flow. we'll have to see::

and clips in like this:

its got 2 hdd cages which will hold up to 6 hdd and mounts for the 2 front fans:

i went ahead and did some case modding, well i just cut the side panel and fit a piece of plexiglass there for an optional clear side panel, or i can switch it up and use the mesh see through side panel:

and finaly my HP LCD 25in 1080p monitor, i love this thing:

now im sure there will be tons of wires so we'll see how this works out. i hope it looks nice and tight. ill post more pics as i go through assembly. any comments are more than welcome.

 

[Dystopia]

Holy shit, dude.

 

[kdfresh09]

is anybody intrested? if not no biggy. im getting ready to post an update of the progress. by the way, im doing this for my girl, since this is her account and computer. (i just like to call it mine when i can). i told her to do it, but she dont have the patience i suppose. anyways, any questions or comments are more than welcome.

 

[lightmans]

I cant see the pics..

 

[kdfresh09]

yeah im uploading pics right now. theyll be up in a few mins

 

[lightmans]

Ohhh, looking forward to seeing them

 

[kdfresh09]

alright. so i figured i would start out with the fans on the hdd cages and mounting the drives in the cage

then i had to figure out what to do with the ssd drives since i only had 1 enclosure and the other one was just sitting out neked. so i simply just took a thin peice of cardboard and put it on top of the ssd that had the enclosure

then i sat the exposed ssd on top of that and screwed it into the botom of the enclosure, fastening both drives as 1

Next, i mounted the ssd unit into the 2nd hdd cage with 2 thumb screws on 1 side. it is very secure and should not pose an issue

now that i have gotton the drives situated, i want to focus on the temprature probes and where to fasten them. i figured since the nmedia pc lcd display will give me readings on the cpu and both gpu's, that i will want to also see the temp of the air comming out of the PSU, as well as temps for my ram and on the heating pipes running on the NB and voltage things

after that i decided it would be a good time to mount the corsair A-70 and its fans. i then installed one rear case fan, and the motherboard

that heat sink is pretty massive, but its not loud when ran on low

as you can see here, i ran the front panel usb ribbon as well as the power, reset ect ect wires under and behind the motherboard, making things really nice and clean looking so far. hopefully i am able to keep a well routed sytem here

now i have mounted the bottom intake fan and PSU. I ran the 8 pin cpu connector back behind the psu itself and then up along the back of the motherboard to the connector. im hoping this will keep it clean while not causing any problems

i was also able to route all the usb headers down and pretty much out of sight keeping up the clean look so far. i have mounted the ssd and hdd cages, as well as added in the blue cathode box while tucking away as many wires as possible

and now i go ahead and stretch out those long octopus arms on the PSU and take a look at the cable management ahead of me...(sigh)..and thats not all the wires yet, though most of them are

next ill be installing the rest, which consist of the graphics cards, earo-cool card reder\temp read outs, nmedia pc lcd display (think i need to get the drumel out again), top 2 fans, the cathode tube, then get them wired under control. let me know what you think so far. thanks for looking

 

[Russ88765]

Very nice... Wish it was mine.

 

[danthrax]

It's always enjoyable to see pics of people's builds. Thanks for posting!

 

[kdfresh09]

alrighty, so to wrap things up, i went ahead and installed the card reader/temprature screen. them wires arnt so bad once you get them to where they belong

i also installed the blue cathode tube

next up, i installed the top 2 x 120mm blue led fans, and routed the wires out of site the bast i could. i decided not to use the top clip, as it restrices air flow

now for that nmedia lcd display. since i didnt order the one that comes in its own mount for the 5.25 bay, i had to improvise a little

heres a quick shot of my wiring job for behind the motherboard

now all i have left to do is mount the 2 graphics cards, the wireless adaptor, and put on all the side paneling and front bezel

temp display folded in

here is a pic with the temp display folded out

and here it is up and running

as you can see, the 2 dispays are showing me the temps of both gpu's, cpu, and the ram. push a button and it will switch to the NB, and PSU

well thats it. thanks for looking and commenting

 

[linkin]

All very nice! But mount the cooler the other way. It is possible, I've seen it done with every single AM2/2+/3 cooler

 

[kdfresh09]

there is no way to rotate the cooler. trust me ive tried many different ways, its not happening unless i get a adapter to convert the am3 mount to an intel format and use the intel brackets the A-70 came with. other than that, im pretty sure all amd set ups are like this. i have yet to see a standard where amd uses horizontal mounting. besides this set up seems to work great, since heat rises and its shooting the air right into the top 120mm exaust fans

 

[Benny Boy]

:good: Thanks for your time posting this up. We could use a few more like this.

 

[linkin]

there is no way to rotate the cooler. trust me ive tried many different ways, its not happening unless i get a adapter to convert the am3 mount to an intel format and use the intel brackets the A-70 came with. other than that, im pretty sure all amd set ups are like this. i have yet to see a standard where amd uses horizontal mounting. besides this set up seems to work great, since heat rises and its shooting the air right into the top 120mm exaust fans

Hmm. Appears you're right. The A70 can only be mounted that way. It's silly.

 

[kdfresh09]

yeah i agree that we could use a few more around here as far as people doing breakdowns of their rig. i have a htpc that i was thinking about doing as well, since it too needs to be cleaned. that one is actualy mine. im using the nmediapc 6000b case hooked up to my 40 1080p lcd tv. its a server with 5 TB of storage to share with the laptops and other computers. anyone intrested in seeing that.

 

[Perkomate]

those pics of the wiring behind the motherboard have given me ideas. next time i take my mobo out, ill try make it look as good as yours. Good thread though, nice build

 

[Spesh]

yeah i agree that we could use a few more around here as far as people doing breakdowns of their rig. i have a htpc that i was thinking about doing as well, since it too needs to be cleaned. that one is actualy mine. im using the nmediapc 6000b case hooked up to my 40 1080p lcd tv. its a server with 5 TB of storage to share with the laptops and other computers. anyone intrested in seeing that.

I need to break mine down soon to replace my mobo with the B3 revision and to add a second waterloop for my CPU. I'll post some step by step pics during the process.

 

[kdfresh09]

spesh you should deffinatly do that. it would be a real treat to see it. and boy, let me tell ya, i love my system and i know its a great powerhouse, but honostly, you put a damper on my outlook when i saw your gear. i think im going to have to invest in a corsair case, simply for the phenominal cable management that it has to offer. ill tell my girl thats theres no point in having thousands of dollars in hardware, only to be put into a $35 case. thats kind of crazy i suppose.

 

[Spesh]

spesh you should deffinatly do that. it would be a real treat to see it. and boy, let me tell ya, i love my system and i know its a great powerhouse, but honostly, you put a damper on my outlook when i saw your gear. i think im going to have to invest in a corsair case, simply for the phenominal cable management that it has to offer. ill tell my girl thats theres no point in having thousands of dollars in hardware, only to be put into a $35 case. thats kind of crazy i suppose.

The 800D is the best case I have ever owned. The cable management is something else. The only downside is the size. It pretty much dwarfs my 30" monitor. Also, one thing I would say is that it is really designed for heavy watercooling. Corsair have left loads of space for you to mod the case and add radiators. Might be worth looking at the 650D if the size is too much.

I was also planning to put a dual waterloop on my CPU and chipset during the process of installing the new mobo, so there should be quite a lot of hardware porn. Just waiting for Gigabyte to get their act together.

It will be a shame to see those lovely black and gold heatsinks go though.

 

[Hsv_Man]

Man that looks awesome (especially at night) nice hardware you have there aswell and especially for the front panel temp reader. :good: