Jump to content

Building my first computer - a Leo Platform


engstudent

Recommended Posts

Not sure if im going to need help yet, but this is where ill throw all my questions - just a thanks in advance and request for advice if any on my build

This website and forum are awsome - made doing my homework before ordering stuff a little easy.

 

So this is whats in the mail:

 

1 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

1 x Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

1 x Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme Universal CPU Cooler 120mm Magnetic Fluid Dynamic LED Fan and Fan Controller/Heatsink Rev.1 with TX-3 & 1156 Brackets

1 x COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

1 x 2 x G.SKILL Flare 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL7D-4GBFLS

1 x AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX

1 x ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

 

And this is what im salvaging from my old velocity micro:

DVD R/W drive

media card reader

7200rpm 500g hitachi HD

And these recent upgrades that turned out alright, just not good enough

EVGA nVidia 250 GTS

Ultra X4 modular 600 watt PSU

 

Obvious future upgrades are a better power supply and a crossfired array of GPUs but that's for later I've already exceeded my budget of the price of a 980X i7 by about $400

 

I wanted to buy a new PC but can't afford the price of buying one with everything I wanted so decided to order what I needed and have a shake at building it myself. Wish me luck. And sorry in advance if my n00b questions get annoying... Ill update this thread when my bag of goodies arrive. :D

Edited by engstudent

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Replies 47
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

UPDATE :: it wasn't actually shipped yet, it was still in newegg's processing phase.

So I was reading reviews of the black caviar western digital 6gps drive. And noticed 2 problems.

1 - It maybe no real upgrade except in memory capcity over my current hitachi 7200rpm with 500gs of space.

2 - Got the impression that somethings gone wrong with western digitals quality control process at least involving the new SATA III drives, with so many reviews noting bad drives needing to be sent back out for replacements.

 

So I cancelled the order. There didnt appear to be an easy way of removing a single item from within an order. And I noticed this issue after hours where I couldnt call customer service and have them delete the hardrive from the list if possible.

 

So heres whats being processed at newegg for shipping right now:

 

1 x AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX

1 x ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

1 x DISCOUNT FOR COMBO #470501

2 x G.SKILL Flare 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model F3-16000CL7D-4GBFLS

1 x COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKN1 Black Steel/ Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

1 x Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme Universal CPU Cooler 120mm Magnetic Fluid Dynamic LED Fan and Fan Controller/Heatsink Rev.1 with TX-3 & 1156 Brackets

&

1 x Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Edited by engstudent

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

I would think about it, but newegg just charged and will be packaging the order soon.

 

According to frosty tech here the frio maybe a degree or 2C better under load than the tuniq, but the frio is almost 20 decibels louder. Not sure I would mind but concidering the order is nearly on its way I think I'm going to stick with the Tuniq.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Newegg just shipped the HAFX case. This is my first experience with newegg but so far they're moving as expected. (:

 

Think I can look foward to building this thing next week.

UPDATE :: everything has shiped within 24hours :D

Edited by engstudent

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

yeah well the GTS 250 is next up for an upgrade - just didnt want to sacrifice on the foundations of a motherboard, CPU and ram. I think I can better over clock the GTS on my new board and it'll hold me until the price of the 5970 comes down.

 

Cant wait to start opening boxes. :D I'd be surprised if I recieve anything by friday though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ok as of 6am this morning everything is out for delivery - the only thing I got friday was the G.skill ram and the tuniq cpu cooler.

 

The 2 boxes came with 2 fans with blue lights, and of course the 4 sticks. I was curious about the fans so I plugged in the fans to my abit an-m2 motherboard and flipped the switch - they seem to work, cpu fan airflow seemed a little weak so Im going to plug it back in thru the fan controller and set it to its highest setting to see if it seems like itll do the job :D

 

But this is what it looked like on friday.

Curious about how the blue lights will look on a red and black motherboard... also wondering if I can use the second fan over the northbridge to keep it a little cooler. Plan on reseating the heatsink with AS5 even if it has good contact with the northbridge, I want this machine to perform and last.

Edited by engstudent

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Okay its done!

Huge amount of tweaking options to find a stable overclock. First thing I did was in BIOS to select the profile setting that gives you the 2000mhz overclock for the g.skill ram, worked like a charm - tried making it 1t but it was only stable in prime95's torture test for about 2 minutes :rofl:

 

okay after about a halfhour of prime 95's torture test Im pretty sure the temps under load had stabalized. They were 54C CPU 46C Northbridge 37 south 29 motherboard. At idle right now it 35C CPU 39NB 33SB 28MB.

 

This is without the Tuniq 120 CPU, had trouble seating it and poped a screw off in a bad place its pretty much a paper weight. Used the TX-3 to reseat the northbridge heatsink assembly and stock cooler to the processor.

 

ArcticSilver5 is on its way debating wether I should redue all of it. Also have a narrower Vapor 120 CPU cooler coming that should be less trouble getting on than the Tuniq extreme.

 

Some minor modifications - I took the great 120mm fan out of the now dead tuniq cooler and put it in the VGA cooler duct. And I used both g.skill turbulence II fans - one in its intended purpose, over the memory sticks, the other on the opposite side over the mosfet heatsink. With a little symetry the 4 blue led fans surounding the CPU look pretty cool. Now to remove the extra coolers to see if theyre actually making a difference or disrupting a better case airflow.

 

BTW I now free myself from the n00bs section, as I conceder myself slightly initiated :woo:

 

<----beware roaming n00b.

 

think im going to bump up the multiplier on the CPU a little and prime95 it again.

 

UPDATE: think the little fans on the other side of the stock CPU cooler do a good job of mixing the air and displacing more heat, the temperatures all lower at idle and load by a few degree with it blowing at the exhause of the cpu cooler and over the motherboard heatsink.

 

Now to do some more novice overclocking.

Update : 3.5Ghz is prime95 stable for 20 minutes so far, northbridge and CPU temperatures settled at one degree above 3.2Ghz.

 

Going to keep it at 3.2 until I redue the TIM with AS5 and the Zaward Vapor 120 cpu cooler comes in.

 

Think this is as far as I should go with the stock cooler. At load in just 6C from the red line of 62C for this processor. :biggrin:

Edited by engstudent

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...