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After a nightmare, I finally have Haswell!

theaterinterior

By theaterinterior
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theaterinterior Newbie

theaterinterior

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IMGUR Link for pictures, in case you find that easier. This build has been a long time coming. It started off as a 3770K build, but an unfortunate incident with a less than reliable power supply left those parts bricked. I learned my lesson and did the second iteration properly. Here she is!

 

M9iNO12.jpg

 

All the boxes lined up. I don't know why but this seems to be a mandatory thing in some places, so here it is. 

 

40RNMXQ.jpg

 

Olive, our cat, decided to help out with the photos. Cats and boxes.

 

rtzr8dR.jpg

 

Finally, the good stuff! RAM is pretty, but overpriced. I got a great deal though, and seeing as I'm liquid cooling in the (near) future, it won't get in the way.

 

fW7Cz53.jpg

 

JwKMS6r.jpg

 

I was so happy with this cable management when I built the thing. I really think that was because I was so excited to get going and didn't want to spend any more time on it. Looking back on it, I don't think it's anything more than passable. I'm planning to go back and sleeve them individually and do a proper job of it at some point though.

 

lCHt1Wu.jpg

 

 

We're moving in a few weeks, so this is the bare minimum. Scratched up mouse, not sure where that keyboard even came from... My Studio Monitors are missing as is a monitor to actually push the 7970. That will come soon. Headphones are Beyerdynamic DT990's. Absolutely gorgeous when properly driven. But at the moment I'm running off of a FiiO E7 or something similar.

The Eleven Rack is an amazing amp simulator. I tried the POD and it was amazingly versatile, but not very realistic. I have less options here, but they're better. I get a killer Dream Theater-esque tone out of this thing.

 

The 24" monitor is fine for the time being, but things will get really interesting when I finally get the 30", hopefully by the end of this year or the beginning of next. I'm thinking of picking up a 1440p 27"er for the time being. Kogan (a cheap electronics place in Australia) has a super cheap one that I'm interested in.

 

Final changes will be a full liquid cooling custom loop in a few months and a decent sized SSD, as well as a few more independent hdds for some redundancy. Also, some fishing line to pull up that sagging GPU until I (if I can find one) get a waterblock on it. 7970 might become a 8970 or be traded for a reference 7970 so that I can get a waterblock for it. Might even become a GTX 780 depending on the prospects of the 8xxx series.

 

If you can see anything I can improve with what I have available (better cabling or anything) please let me know! I'm looking to improve it in any way.

 

 
CPU:  Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (Purchased For $389.00) 
 
Motherboard:  Asus Z87-PRO ATX  LGA1150 Motherboard  (Purchased For $265.00) 
 
Memory:  Corsair Dominator Platinum 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (Purchased For $62.00) 
 
 
Video Card:  Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card  (Purchased For $405.00) 
 
Case:  NZXT Phantom (Black) ATX Full Tower Case  (Purchased For $259.00) 
 
 
Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 8 Professional (OEM) (64-bit)  (Purchased For $75.00) 
 
Mouse:  Logitech G9x Wired Laser Mouse  (Purchased For $0.00) 
 
Total: $1569.00

 

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-20 20:57 EST+1000)
Edited by theaterinterior

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sword_fish Newbie

sword_fish

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nice neat rig you got there.

If you can see anything I can improve with what I have available (better cabling or anything) please let me know! I'm looking to improve it in any way.

 

 

i'm not a fan with sleeved cables, just to have a nice 'tucked' cables and it would be awesome just like the way you did it.

okay...i dont wanna sound like a critic here but here are some 'refinements' i would do;

 

re-route those USB, power, HDD LED headers just above that grommet where you route it.

move the 24pin(if there's enough slack) to that grommet where the rest of your power cables go through for a much cleaner look. then pull back more of the slacks behind the mobo tray and everything would be even more perfect :cheers:

Edited by sword_fish

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theaterinterior Newbie

theaterinterior

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nice neat rig you got there.

If you can see anything I can improve with what I have available (better cabling or anything) please let me know! I'm looking to improve it in any way.

 

 

i'm not a fan with sleeved cables, just to have a nice 'tucked' cables and it would be awesome just like the way you did it.

okay...i dont wanna sound like a critic here but here are some 'refinements' i would do;

 

re-route those USB, power, HDD LED headers just above that grommet where you route it.

move the 24pin(if there's enough slack) to that grommet where the rest of your power cables go through for a much cleaner look. then pull back more of the slacks behind the mobo tray and everything would be even more perfect :cheers:

 

I have no idea how they got where they are. Why would I route them through like that? I confuse myself sometimes. I'll definitely follow up on that! The 24 pin doesn't fit in the lower grommet unfortunately. 

 

Thanks for the tips! Don't worry about sounding like a critic! You did just what I asked for and you were super constructive while at it!

 

EDIT: I moved the USB headers to the proper position, the HDD LED etc. were already in the correct grommets. I attempted to re-route the 24-pin and the 8-pins for the gpu, but neither would fit.

 

I added in another 1tb hdd too!

 

Looks pretty good there! Nice choice of parts.

 

Thank you kindly!

 

Nice job, I like that case,.. how is the Intel cooler doing with stock temps and what TP did you use.

 

I used the stock thermal paste and honestly temps aren't great... But they don't go any higher when gaming or doing anything cpu intensive, so I guess it's doing alright.

 

Looks good, nice job of assembly. :thumbsup:

 

Thank you very much! I got completely confused with the fan controller cables and thought they were meant to attach to the motherboard! I felt like an absolute fool when it clicked.

 

Sweet! Been looking at that 11 rack. Probably be a better choice than dropping the change for a mesa mark5. Fav band is Dreak Theater so would like one.

 

It depends where you are and what volumes you can play at... The feel of the 11rack is second to one thing only. The real thing. It's not bad or far off. In Australia though, the Mark V is about 8 grand more expensive. It sounds better, but not that much better. To add to that, I get the same great tones at a low volume. I would be willing to bet that the Eleven Rack sounds better than the Mark 5 at bedroom levels until you get to small gig levels. On top of that, I can record (at any hour of the day) without micing up a cab and I get a bunch of great effects to go with it (The reverb and delay is second to none!) Also, it comes with Pro Tools for free, and that would usually be the price of the Eleven Rack AGAIN on top of it.

 

A few limitations, the delay and reverb does not 'spill over,' so if you change to a patch with less or no delay/reverb it cuts off abruptly. There is no Mesa Cab emulation, only a few Marshall 4x12 cabs, and only one is usable for metal tones. Also, John Petrucci uses two mics on each of his cabs: a Sure SM57 and a Sennheiser MD421. Both of these microphones are well emulated inside the eleven rack, but only one can be used at a time. To perfectly nail John Petruccis tones one would need to either A: Use to Eleven Racks (this is the only option if playing live) or, B: Use Pro Tools to record a dry track and run it through two different patches one after the other using the different microphones.

 

Honestly, I just settle for the sound with the SM57, it sounds great. For recording, I'll go the whole nine yards and record each track twice (two sets of those for each left and right channel too, that's 8 tracks!) But for jamming or playing live, no ones going to be able to tell that you're just using one mic.

Edited by theaterinterior

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potatochobit Newbie

potatochobit

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the good news is, with windows 8 pro, you can downgrade to windows 7 for free!

 

actually, it's not that bad with the start8 button, i can deal with it...

 

edit:

did you spend all that money and are using the stock CPU heatsink?

lmfao....

Edited by potatochobit

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theaterinterior Newbie

theaterinterior

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Posted (edited)

the good news is, with windows 8 pro, you can downgrade to windows 7 for free!

 

actually, it's not that bad with the start8 button, i can deal with it...

 

edit:

did you spend all that money and are using the stock CPU heatsink?

lmfao....

Did you even read my post? I clearly said that I'm going to be liquid cooling in a few months why bother getting a heatsink when its going to be redundant in a few months? 'Lmfao'

 

And I chose windows 8 for a reason. I already own Windows 7, I don't want to downgrade.

 

IS the case actually flat black or is it just the angle? If it is thats bad ass!

It's flat/matte black, I absolutely love it, thank you! Edited by theaterinterior

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