Getting a new computer. Need advice.

[MrRubix]

These pics were kinda taken as I went along, so there were all sorts of changes made here and there (mainly because I had no idea what I was doing, as I am a hardware newbie).

The 24-inch ASUS flatscreen plus a fleeting glimpse at my front toes


The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P Motherboard just chillin on a beachtowel, enjoying its last moment that it had to itself before the inevitable gangbanging by all the other parts of the system.


12 total GB of DDR3 1600 OCZ Gold RAM. That'll last for a while.


The Antec 1200 case, empty except for a fitted Corsair 850W Power Supply Unit. This is where I just kinda stared at it for an hour, not really sure where to begin.


After throwing in a few things, I took more pics... this is a pic of the video card and the dual 1 TB hard drives. 2 TB of room gives you a lot of room for... media.


Some optional fan holding thing that came with the case. Notice what's in it. That's my response to optional fan holders.


The upper bay with the optical drive. It burns/reads/writes DVD's and CD's, and that's about it. I figured having BluRay capabilities wasn't really worth it yet.


The i7 920 CPU... little does he know he's about to get a faceful of heatsink


Behold! My absurdly massive, overcompensating behemoth of a heatsink: The Prolimatech Megahalem


Another view of the heatsink. The thermal compound used was Arctic Silver 5.


There was another optional fan holder on the side of the case... so I got a fan for it.


The heatsink needed lovin too


Back end of the wireless card. Looks kinda gangly.


Okay, so the case fans are four-pin Molexes...


WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, the optional fans are all three-pin!? FUUUUUUUU-


**** wasn't going to work unless I figured out what the hell to do with all these.


After I finished wiring... I couldn't help but notice how messy the PSU cables were. It looked like a bomb went off in a pile of snakes and sent guts out all over the place.


Meanwhile, the top half of the case looked like it was growing veins and was about to become sentient.


Finished! I fixed most of the messy wiring by putting everything I didn't need behind the motherboard plate... looked a lot cleaner.


Front side of the case in the dark


Side view. Fan totals: Three frontal intake fans, one central intake fan to help cool the GFX card, a side intake fan to help cool the PSU and GFX card, the fan in the PSU to cool itself, the fan in the GFX card to cool itself, a fan on the heatsink, two exhaust fans in the back, plus...


...a huge 200mm fan on the very top of the system. This sucker is massive and looks like a jet turbine.


With a little bit of light, we can see that things look a lot cleaner now.


I couldn't really make the PSU cabling look much better -- all I really did was feed unused cables up through the back, kept the used PCI-E's in front, and ran both of the Molex chains up the back and had them poke in only when needed. SATA cables suck, BTW.


The tower, screen, and laptop in the same shot. Sooo many things glowing all at once. Now that this system is built, I can finally use it to play a good game of Minesweeper or Solitaire.



SYSTEM SPECS:
Antec 1200 Full Tower Case
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P Motherboard
Intel i7 920 Processor with D0-Stepping
Prolimatech Megahalem heatsink
Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound
12 GB DDR3 OCZ Gold RAM
Two 1 TB 7200 RPM Hard Drives
EVGA GeForce GTX 295 1792 MB Video Card
LG DVD/CD R/RW Drive with LightScribe Support
Corsair 850W Power Supply Unit
Edimax Wireless Adapter (802.11b/g/n)
ASUS 24" HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor
Windows Vista 64-Bit Version (with free upgrade to Windows 7)
A ****load of fans
Extra sound blasting provided by my Logitech Z-2300, which I had purchased at the start of summer

The computer has been named "Optimus," as well :P

[Zageron]

Hey! That's my computer, except better parts of each thing. xD

Nice system man, enjoy it and get ready to have to upgrade in less than 3 years.

[Brycexx]

that is one beast of a heatsink

[Ice wolf]

That's just ridiculous. lol Except for maybe the monitor. What is it's resolution and ppi? Large monitors usually have horrible ppi numbers and thus look really blurry. Compare: 15 in. laptop screen with a 1920x1200 resolution and a 24 in. monitor screen with a 1920x1200 resolution. It's why I'll only buy laptops.

[iluswirl]

Can't call it optimus unless that keyboard is the optimus keyboard..

Cause THIS would make it optimus.

[A2P]

A $1600+ keyboard...no thanks

[MrRubix]

It's not blurry at all -- at 1920x1080 it looks amazing

[fido123]

Originally Posted by Ice wolf

That's just ridiculous. lol Except for maybe the monitor. What is it's resolution and ppi? Large monitors usually have horrible ppi numbers and thus look really blurry. Compare: 15 in. laptop screen with a 1920x1200 resolution and a 24 in. monitor screen with a 1920x1200 resolution. It's why I'll only buy laptops.

Or you can just buy a good monitor? Laptops are twice as much as Desktops and you can't upgrade them.

[Phynx]

Meh, I'm waiting for Windows 7 to actually be released. At that time then I'll redesign myself a new computer. Parts will inevitably be better then anyway so yeah XD

[leonid]

*spills a cup of coffee over Optimus*

[Ice wolf]

Originally Posted by fido123

Or you can just buy a good monitor? Laptops are twice as much as Desktops and you can't upgrade them.

I actually prefer laptops overall, but can you make any suggestions for monitors?

[MrRubix]

:[

[rqm]

i mean nice build, lots of money but simply pouring in cash takes the fun out of building a computer.

[MrRubix]

Yeah, putting it together was actually a lot of fun -- much better than having it premade. Figured it was something I needed to learn sometime.

[PsYcHoZeRoSk8eR]

That looks pretty tight. I really want to update my computer, but I don't have any money to spend/waste on something like that.a

[fido123]

Originally Posted by Ice wolf

I actually prefer laptops overall, but can you make any suggestions for monitors?

I have a 22" Widescreen Benq that's doing pretty good. Sony also makes some pretty good stuff. I understand wanting a laptop though if you're not one to sit at desk. I just have a ****ty laptop for word processing at college.

[justaguy]

congrats on making a lot of unnecessary purchases

[MrRubix]

I've learned SO much about hardware and chip architecture and overclocking in the past few weeks... this **** is insane. I managed to get a killer overclock with the following settings (took hours to get with LOTS of extensive reboot testing. Finding those voltages is a bitch):

Clock Ratio 20x
Turbo Boost enabled
Hyperthreading disabled
C1E disabled
QPI Link Speed x36
Uncore QPI Link Speed x36
Uncore Frequency x16
Backclock Frequency: 200
Performance Enhance: Turbo
System Memory Multiplier: 6.0

RAM timings on 6/6/6/18 command rate 2

Load Line Calibration: Enabled
VCore: 1.325
QPI/VTT: 1.335
IOH Core: 1.22
DRAM: 1.640
All advanced voltage settings on Auto except VCore, VTT, IOH, and DRAM voltage


4.2 Ghz achieved, 50C idle, 70C load

I'm currently running Prime95 to keep all four cores at 70C 100% load for about 10, 12 hours or so. If it doesn't crash, it's stable like fuc.

[Patashu]

with my new found computerpowers I will finally AAA free space

you'll see, tass, you'lll seeee

[MrRubix]

I am now trying to overclock my GTX 295 video card... mwauawuahahahahah