Steve Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 I just bought one of these: - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 The build is complete, although everything didn't go to plan! I was going to use the graphics card from my old PC, but it's custom modded with a cooler and 2 80mm fans. It wouldn't fit into the case of the new PC because of that massive cooler I've fitted. Thankfully, Ivy Bridge CPUs have built in GPUs on the chip, so I popped down to Asda and bought a HDMI to DVI cable and it's working fine. I was going to pick up a new GPU when I had the cash spare anyway, so I'll use the onboard graphics until then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 These pics haven't come out too great, but here you go: - My first class cable management: - And the world of wires on the other side of the board: - Front: - Rear: - Plentiful connection options: - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 Oh and this was the GPU that didn't fit: - Looking at it out of the case, I'm surprised it fitted into my old PC case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 NERDINGTON Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted May 11, 2012 Share Posted May 11, 2012 if you're wanting to replace your 8800, a 6870 by Sapphire is a good option, really good value for money. I went from a Sapphire 8800 OC to this: http://www.ebuyer.com/322114-sapphire-hd-6870-oc-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-dual-mini-displayport-11179-17-21g bought it off ebuyer too. if you're bothered you can overclock to the same speeds as a 6990, risky business though. Or go crazy and get a 7970 if you've got a spare £400 odd. I'm into gaming so gimme a shout if you've got any questions re that area. What's your thoughts on SSD? I'm thinking of getting one but heard problems about deleting and defraggin, as in it wont do it. What did you think to UEFI? I'm not bowled over by it to be honest, not sure what i was expecting before i got it. PS. Just had a NERD-GASM... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 11, 2012 Author Share Posted May 11, 2012 Thanks mate. I've been looking at the new Asus GeForce 670 card, mainly cos of how quiet it is. I can definitely recommend an SSD. My PC boots up in about 12 seconds and shuts down in literally 1-2 seconds. Launching programs is much faster too. An SSD doesn't need to be defragged BTW. When data becomes fragmented on a mechanical drive, it increases wear on the drive and slows things down as the read head has to move around the platter(s) to piece together the fragmented data. As an SSD is not mechanical and the data is stored on flash memory, it doesn't matter how fragmented it gets - it's always read at the same speed. Windows 7 disables defrag on SSDs by default because it's totally pointless to do it and it only reduces the lifespan of your drive. I like UEFI, but yeah, once the computer is set up and running it's not something you ever need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 13, 2012 Author Share Posted May 13, 2012 I've done pretty well on eBay this weekend with the parts from my old machine. I got over £200 and considering the PC only cost me £500 about 5 years ago, that's not bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 People are mad on eBay sometimes, i sold a 2.0Ghz quadcore for £50 about six months ago on there. I thought he was a time waster so just said £50 excl. P&P to sell outside of eBay. He paypalled me the money minutes after, i thought 'what a daft cunt'. Spotted a nice SSD here: http://dealforu.co.uk/epages/eshop330172.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/eshop330172/Products/CSSD-F90GBGT-BK what do you think? Some other good deals on there too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 14, 2012 Author Share Posted May 14, 2012 I don't think that's a good deal TBH mate. That's the SSD I was going to get, but then I read that some people are having issues with it and it put me off. Try this one: - http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/solidstate/upto128gb/agt3-25sat3-120g.html Or check out the computer section of HotUKDeals, cos the price of SSDs has dropped quite a bit in the last few weeks and there's some good deals posted up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 ah sweet, thanks Steve. Novatech are usually pretty good to me as well. Didn't you fancy something like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-006-AN&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=2262 seen as though you wanted quietness and you've obviously spent a fair whack on that machine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 14, 2012 Author Share Posted May 14, 2012 The Noctua cooler I'm using is actually quieter than that (and under load it's considerably quieter), although the Antec offers marginally better cooling. The only problem with the Noctua is it's such a big beast. I had to remove the hard drive cage from my case (not an issue for me personally though as I would have done that anyway) to fit it in and there's only a gap of about 2mm between the side of the cooler and the back of the GPU in the 16X slot, so you need to use a backplate or insulate it in some other way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 I've got it overclocked to 4.5 GHz at the moment: - The temps are nearly 30 degrees off from the Tj Max, so that's a pretty good result on air in such a small case. I could push it further, but I think I'll leave it at that as it's a nice 1 GHz boost over stock and it's running stable after running Prime 95's blend test for several hours. (Now THAT is a nerdy post, James!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djlotus Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 I have a Cooler Master v8 on my i7 and one thing to consider is a filter on your intake fan. The condensor fins collect dust starting form the inside, so, depending on how long you use this machine, you could ruin your cooler within 2 years. Just something to consider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 Yeah, that's definitely good advice man. The case actually has 2 filters - 1 on the intake fan that pulls out either side for cleaning: - http://i.imgur.com/Yfba5.jpg ...and 1 on top that's magnetic: - http://i.imgur.com/mz3Aa.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djlotus Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 Nice! And they are washable. That makes me want that case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 I can highly recommend the case, especially if you're looking for something small that still has really good airflow/cooling. It has some nice features. There's an adjustable "platform" kind of thing that you can raise up and lock in place to support a big CPU cooler so it doesn't put strain on your MOBO. There's also a hard drive cage that can hold up to 5 hard drives (which is removable) and on top of it is a little rubber pad which will help support a long graphics card. It's just really well thought out. It has decent cut outs for cable management too, and spots where you can attach zip ties. Since I built this PC, occasionally I could hear a fast ticking noise coming from the case. It was bugging me, cos I thought my hard drive was dying, but it was intermittent and I kind of ignored it. It started happening again last night and it carried on going for about an hour so I popped the side of the case off and stopped each fan in turn. Thankfully, it turns out that it's the front fan that's causing the noise, so it's an easy fix. It had me worried for a minute, cos the hard drive is taken from an external drive (therefore it has no warranty) and it would have been £80 down the drain if that was dying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djnumnuts Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Yeah nice little uber case, i got the booner haf x case keep things nice and cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 ^^That's a solid case, but too big for my needs. I wanted a micro-ATX build in a small case that I could shove away under my DJ set up. I've just received an email to say that my new GPU has been posted, so once that arrives this machine will be complete. This is the one I went for in the end, an Asus 670 DirectCU II TOP: - It's more expensive than I'd have liked, but I did well selling my old PC parts on eBay and I'd budgeted £150 for a good internal sound card and I no longer need that, so I thought I'd go with a high end GPU that should last me a while! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djnumnuts Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 cunt ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 proper cunt with the Direct CU! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted May 28, 2012 Author Share Posted May 28, 2012 http://i.imgur.com/03cWs.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 That GPU ended up having to be returned. It's factory overclocked, but it wasn't stable at the stock speeds. I've Googled it and there's a ton of people with the same problem, so it seems it's a quality control issue/bad batch. I still haven't got a replacement either, because stocks are so low. I'm back on the integrated graphics for the time being. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djnumnuts Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Hahahahahaha . Odd thing they didnt realase a bios update with lower clock speeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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