Anyone into building their own PC's?

[rowlers]

Another strange thing occurred last night, the blue led ring around the power button decided to illuminate. I'd completely forgotten that there was a light there - it must be months since its last been illuminated!
I feel a new PC coming soon...

 

[Count of Undolpho]

Wahoo Lee the PC builder! we want pics!

 

[Count of Undolpho]

I'll start you off - Loop testing

So much room!

Stage 1 Complete
Taken on the phone so a bit shonky

 

[rowlers]

I can't get excited about building a PC - I've built more than I care to remember (It used to be my job 15~ years ago!).
And it will be something small, prob Mini-ITX:

• Intel Pentium G3250
• Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport Memory
• AsRock H81M-ITX
• CIT MTX-005B

Spec so far, using the current HDD/SDD that I already have - maybe add an Ext optical drive if I find I need one...

 

[Count of Undolpho]

Should be a nice little PC. I really like the tiddlers for ordinary home type users. I built a very similar one for my mum a while back - she loves how small it is.
My record (which still stands) was 15 in a 9 to 5 day. Built, configured, tested and boxed to go out. The drives were imaged which saved time. They weren't really the sort of PC's to inspire satisfaction, AMD K6-2's and such like. They were awful things, the customer had knocked us down to the bare minimum but they wanted 70 to 80 a week so ...

 

[Dr Terror]

Very nice!,and as you say,so much room!.My case is quite small,and it has a good bit of sound proofing,so shoving everthing is was a pig of a job!.Thing is,as it is my main PC,and 2 feet away from my head,in my bedroom,it had to look decent,and be quiet,whilst being overclockable.
It was built mainly for encoding video,but also be a top old school emulator,and good gaming PC.It can emulate everything smoothly,up to,and including the Nintendo Wii,and PS2.It also runs most modern PC games at max,and thats without overclocking.

 

[Dr Terror]

I'll start you off - Loop testing

So much room!

Stage 1 Complete
Taken on the phone so a bit shonky

What CPU and Graphics card are you going to put in that?.

 

[Count of Undolpho]

It's my last build not a new one, I got bitten on the whole Socket 2011 thing, so I put in a 4820K with a view to upgrading when I managed to sell the kids. Unfortunately we're now on to the 3rd gen for socket 2011 so the cpu's for the first itteration haven't got any cheaper - the bastards. It over clocks quite reasonably but I only bother if I'm doing something really intensive. I've had it nice and stable @4.4 but usually only go to 4.
The GPU is my old 5770 again to upgrade when I've saved up enough or when Star Citizen get's released which ever comes first.

 

[Count of Undolpho]

Fortunately mine sits on the landing so it's chocka with fans n stuff! The building/fiddling about room is stupendous the only pain is trying to route all the cables round the back. The joy of not struggling to get my lumpy great hands in alongside the hardware is worth the Stormtrooper looks!

Airflow is lovely - I could have got away with air cooling on the CPU but again it was put together with the idea of upgrading. The loop should cope with the GPU and maybe bits of the Motherboard as well. Hopefully the fans can be disconnected and noise levels reduced further at that point.

 

[Dr Terror]

It's my last build not a new one, I got bitten on the whole Socket 2011 thing, so I put in a 4820K with a view to upgrading when I managed to sell the kids. Unfortunately we're now on to the 3rd gen for socket 2011 so the cpu's for the first itteration haven't got any cheaper - the bastards. It over clocks quite reasonably but I only bother if I'm doing something really intensive. I've had it nice and stable @4.4 but usually only go to 4.
The GPU is my old 5770 again to upgrade when I've saved up enough or when Star Citizen get's released which ever comes first.

Ahhh!,I went for the 1150 socket,as it was cheaper,but I could still shove a 4770k in.
Strange thing is,it overclocks to 4.1 without even warming up,about 38-42C under normal circumstances,but if I attempt any more,using MSI's Command Centre,BSOD!....
I have never figured out why,my ram is Corsair Vengeance Pro 1886,so that is overclockable,my GC is a MSI 770 twin Frozer,and that is overclockable too,my MB is the MSI Z87 GD65 gaming,so that should be OK,so why on earth stable and cool at 4.1,BSOD at 4.2????.
BTW,if I use the MSI OC button on the MB,it sits at 4.0,which isnt that great,seeing as the 4770k has 3.9 at boost!.

 

[Dr Terror]

I need to sort the air flow out on mine,I have 4 going in,5 going out,but it sucks dust in through every orifice!,The four fans on the water cooler are all sucking through the case,out,maybe I should change them to sucking air in,but like I said above,I have no heat issues.

 

[Count of Undolpho]

What voltage?

 

[Count of Undolpho]

Air flow is a sod! I always do the Fan test. Take the side off and disable the fans then put an ordinary household desktop fan next to it blowing in check the temps, if it cools better than your system your airflow is messed up. Try disconnecting all but one input fan and see how that goes too many going in causes all sorts of eddies n stuff, swirls and backs up rather than expels. I have a 12(14?) at the front and a 22 over the Mobo/GPU all the rest draw out. Two 22's in the top drawing through the Rad and a 14 at the top of the back panel. The PSU draws from and expels outside the case. I've disconnected two 12 to 14 fans going in and temps improved both times, partly due to replacing 2HDDs with SSDs but!

 

[Dr Terror]

I have to admit,I cannot remember!,I used the MSI Command Centre,which according to the blurb,turns up everything automatically.
TBH,I didnt press no further than the BSOD,as I cannot afford to replace the parts LOL!.
I recon the MSI app maybe to blame,but I have VERY little OC'ing experiance,and I am happy with a totally stable 4.1...
I would like to know what it can do,without killing though...LOL!.

 

[Dr Terror]

Right according to my (poor) memory,I have 2 AP120's (they are all Corsair Silent AP 120's,I know,I should have got some AF 120's,but the AP's were on offer!) in the front,sucking air in,one in the bottom sucking in,the XFX (SeaSonic) black edition,modular PSU (750-850w),which has an option to only turn the PSU fan on when needed (that is on),4 pumping air from the case,out through the watercooler (Corsair H100),and one more in the back,pushing air out...So that would be 3-4 pushing air in,and 5 sucking air out...

 

[Count of Undolpho]

I'm not fond of the auto overclockers I tend to set a voltage and then see how far I can go on it. Max revs for minimum power.

Do the Rad fans push out through the top of the case? I'm a fan of having them pull air through the radiator and then out of the case but that's just me rather than empirical evidence. Bottom fans (ooer) can be a sod for pulling in dust especially on carpet.