Project Skynet

[Kennie]

 

Project Skynet is my first attempt to build a computer. What has gone into this build is first and foremost one year of research, in the form of reading reviews and learning about the relevant technology.

All parts have been changed over and over again and have only now been set to their final products. I am aware of the benefits and drawbacks, and this is what I am setting for.

 

The reason for the case, monitor and HDD to be listed separately is because I ordered them from a different store.

The reason for the project name is because I have no imagination what so ever and add that to some obscure political views and you have got a satiric name.

 

The total estimated price is 1530.90€.

 

The purpose of this build is image editing, 3D rendering as well as gaming. In addition it should remain highly usable for several years, thus the higher end components.

 

When I begin to receive the parts I will take further pictures, same with unboxing and installing everything. Benchmarks are a given as well.

 

I of course intend to overclock the rig (this is OCC, what do you expect?), but as for something else than a stock cooler, that will come later on. For the time being the stock cooler will have to do, so as long as I get it to 3GHz I guess I'm content.

 

The OS will be w7 and Ubuntu.

 

If anybody wonders, the GT-106 is just an extension cord. With 8 outlets. The Megaflow fan is of course the third fan for the HAF 922.

 

And the colour theme will be red-blue-black. Which you might have noticed. Shell has the red led fans, the components are mostly blue or black. Not really that intended, but a happy coincidence.

 

Cheers,

 

Kennieh

 

Update 1:

 

It's not a part of the actual build, but my chair arrived today. It's a birthday gift, and it is high-end enough to be posted here.

In other news, the rest of my build should arrive this week. They have got all parts now, so they only have to send it to me. I hope they will hurry.

 

This is the "packaging" it came in.

 

With the plastic removed, this is how it looks like. It is in transport position I believe.

 

Macro shot of the seat fabric. Quality stuff, eh.

 

Macro shot of the logo on the back of it. Sleek.

 

And lastly, a picture of the chair set up as it should be. Meaning I have a width of four fingers from the edge of the seat to the hollow of the knee, which also is 90 degrees, and so forth.

 

That's all for now, and no, I won't be overclocking it.

Hopefully I will get the actual build by Thursday or Friday so I won't have to keep you entertained with boring shots of a chair.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Kennie

[That_Canadian]

Alright, enough propaganda.

Get to it. You should enjoy the build.

 

Keep us updated.

Edited August 19, 2010 by That_Canadian

[Kennie]

Will do, Sir!

As soon as I get the stuff (I've ordered it all, only waiting for them to get and send me the goodies now, some things may take up to a week), I will update.

 

They have now got all the parts, only thing left for them is to send it all to me. Updated first post with photos of my brand new desk chair. 900€. Nice birthday gift eh, lads?

 

Update 2:

 

Whoo, first set of packages arrived today! Will hopefully get the rest tomorrow! Here's some unpacking pictures:

 

 

To the very right is my current computer. It is sad now that it's being replaced.

 

 

My new monitor. Samsung doesn't like colours. I hope the monitor itself does.

 

 

CM likes colours. And black. I think this thing can kill upon telepathic command.

 

 

The tiniest box contains this. Bubble wrap. Whee!

 

 

What is inside the bubble wrap are these things. Two 1TB Barracuda 7200.12 twins.

 

 

Macro shot of the barracuda's description.

 

 

In the second smallest box is this. DVDs, zip-ties, anti-static wrist wrap as well as a can of compressed air.

 

 

The monitor box, when opened, looks like this.

 

 

The monitor, flipped around and covered in plastic, looks like this.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Kennie

[Kennie]

 

Picture of the monitor without the plastic in all its might. You can see me in the bezel reflection. whoo, glossy!

 

 

Macro of the logo and menu "buttons".

 

 

Back of it. Thank you, Captain Obvious. I like the "rugged" style or what to call it.

 

 

This is, excluding the haf 922, my pile of stuff when opened. A nice collection of nerdgasm.

 

 

Moving onto the HAF 922, this is how it comes packaged. Add an overly coloured box around all this and you're ready to go.

 

 

Freed from its plastic enslavement, it looks like the box, only without the ..everything but the black, really. It's black. I like that.

 

 

Macro shot of the logo on the front bezel. I like it.

 

 

Another macro shot, this time of the logo on the top of the case. Cool.

 

 

A comparison shot of the HAF 922 and my old Antec SLK-2650-BQE. Quite the big brother, the HAF 922.

 

 

Macro of the top 200mm exhaust fan.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Kennie

[Kennie]

Damn, I have too many pictures for one post..

 

 

This was inside a brown box inside the case.

 

 

This is what was inside the plastic bag in the previous shot. Rail mounts for 5.25"->3.5" conversion for the upper bays, a lot of tiny screws, speaker, white zip ties and a lock.

 

 

This is the Flying Spaghetti Monster in his cable form.

 

 

Macro shot of the lock. It's quite tiny. Won't probably use it, but I mounted it anyway.

 

And lastly a picture of my cable management so far. Only cables are front panel and fan cables, so not too much to do there.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Kennie

[ebarone]

Thats hands down the WORST cable management I've ever seen in my whole life!!!!! Jokes of course, looks sweet so far! I want more info on the chair though... how do you like it, whats its brand, and how much was it?

[Kennie]

About the chair:

- It was purchased from a company named Martela, not sure what the "rh" stands for, it's the only logo it has got. Could be a daughter brand or something. The chair model is a Logic 400. (Link)

- It costed a little below 1000€, I'm not certain exactly what, since it was a birthday gift to me.

- It's awesome. That's the only word I can find for it. The multitude of options available to you for customising it to be exactly according to your needs, back height, leg length, the angle of the arm rests, angle of the seat itself, and of course the back, the head rest, and a lot more, makes it perfect on so many levels. It really feels that it's a high class chair. It is totally worth the price, although the price was really ridiculously high. I know some people say ergonomics is just a lot of crap, but from my former chair, which was a standard chair from some furniture store, I would say you can really feel the difference between a chair you just sit on, and a chair you sit correctly on.

The level of comfortability is so much higher it's just silly.

 

 

All in all, I like it, a lot.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Kennie

[Kennie]

Won't post pictures yet, because my build won't post, beep or anything. The power-led on the motherboard (and case) lights up, fans spin, harddrives and dvd drive makes sounds, but no monitor output. No beeps either.

 

I've been going over everything in the last 3 hours, so now I better post this here to receive external help.

 

I have both the 24-pin and 8-pin connectors connected to the motherboard, there are no excess motherboard screws/standoffs which could short it, I can't find anything visually wrong. I tried both RAM sticks separately, I tried both internal GPU and my Vapor-X, no difference. I had it all taken out, put on boxes and anti-static bags, PSU, Mobo, CPU, RAM, with only the necessary cables connected. No difference.

 

What am I forgetting? I've been using my anti-static wrist band, so I at least don't think it has been damaged by that.

 

Any help would be great, I don't think I'm going to sleep before I've solved this.. >_>

[GodlyManDude540]

Are you putting the RAM in the Correct slots? My Asus Rampage II wont boot if the RAM is in the secondary slots so maybe give that a try

[Kennie]

The ASUS manual specifies, that for one module of RAM only, it should be placed in the first slot, known as DIMM_A1. This is where my RAM is placed. When I had two sticks, I had it in A1 and B1, as specified in the manual.

 

Thanks though. :/

[Savan]

check the asus site to see if your cpu is supported by default in the bios. you may need to borrow a different cpu then flash the bios to one that supports the 6 core

[Kennie]

I'm not really sure how to find out what BIOS the motherboard currently has, but the earliest to support my X6 is 1301, released in 2010/04/16. It would be silly if a motherboard purchased half a year later wouldn't still have caught up with that version.

Shouldn't there be at least some visual output, even without a supported CPU? I get none. No beep, no visual output. My monitor doesn't know the build exists.