Another Computer Build Thread

[harner]

I know there's a handful of computer nerds on here. Thought you might appreciate this computer. Been collecting parts since August. A buddy of mine works part time at a retail store that Intel runs discounts for. He hooked me up with the CPU, everything else is from NewEgg. Since I've been sinking money into my car(s), I tend to have mini projects on the side that I buy parts for here and there.

Current PC - built between 2008-2009 and upgraded along the way
Thermaltake case (I don't remember specifics)
MSI mobo (upgraded in 2014)
Rosewill PSU (upgraded in 2014)
i7-950 @ 3.07Ghz (upgraded in 2014)
Noctua dual fan/heatsink
12GB RAM (8 currently)
660Ti
240GB SSD OS drive (upgraded 2014)
1TB RAID 1 (2x drives)

New PC - built between August 2014 and January 2015
Case - Fractal Designs R2 MIDI Black
ASUS Z97A mobo
Corsair 750w fully modular PSU
i7-4790k @ 4Ghz
Corsair H105 (2x 240mm fans+rad) liquid cooled
32GB Ballistix 8GBx4
Gigabyte GTX 970 4GB
2x Kingston SSD 240GB RAID 0

3152031519315183151731516

Final thoughts lol:
- The case is very nice, but I just got done building a budget PC for my nephew and it was an AZZA $15 after MIR. While this case allows for thicker cables in the cable management area, the AZZA had more places to attach zip ties. Kind of bummed about that.
- I was all hot and bothered about pulling every cable apart and sleeving them. Ran out of interest quickly. If I ever get bored, I still might.
- Since I keep all my stuff on the RAID 1 on the old setup, I need to find a new home for all that. I have a NAS, but may end up turning the old machine into a virtual server and building a fileserver VM.
- The Fractal fans are supposedly junk. I read reviews on them after buying 2 more, of course. The lower fan next to the PSU isn't fastened down at the moment due to the power supply case being too big and the holes do not align for a screw.
- Radiator fans are a definitely TIGHT as you can see by the plastic lol.
- The USB 3.0 cable is very bulky and goofy. Ended up snapping the plastic connector in the motherboard and bending most of the pins while I was tightening up the cables in the back of the case. Straightened the pins and everything, but what a PITA.
- Still rocking my Planar PX2710MW. I added a 19" Dell LCD as well. I really want that curved LG monitor but am waiting until the prices drop.
- I went from a $100 Razer Lycosa keyboard to a $20 AZIO keyboard (3-color). I bought one for my parents because it has large character backlit keys. Fell in love, bought one for work and pleasure. Bought one for family friends too haha. Best keyboard I've used in a long time and can't beat the price.
- Also bought the parents a Razer E-3lue optical wireless "gaming" mouse that lights up blue. My Logitech MX1100 started snagging up on me, so I bought one for myself to try out. Great $20 upgrade so far.
- Still need to fire up the new build, set up the RAID array, and install Windows. I just had my install where I wanted it on the old build, so I may just do a universal clone via Acronis and then install the drivers.

[Fastbird]

I'm a big fan of Fractal Design cases. I have a Node 304 for my HTPC, and I'm REALLY leaning towards picking up a Node 804 to start my next build (planned X99 build, with a VERY expensive 8 core processor, lol. Mainly because I want to utilize DDR4 and have growing room on the HDD interfaces).

Sleeving all the cables SUCKS. Did it to a couple of extension cables in my current computer, got bored with it quickly.

[Fastbird]

@harner (http://ltxtech.com/forums/member.php?u=654) you still rocking this? Looks what I'm knee deep in now. Plans changed a little from what I stayed above, mainly processor, but I'll be starting assembly later this week.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qpPJLk

Considering this is replacing a 2010 built computer, I hope it's another solid 5 years strong setup.

[harner]

Fastbird - yes, still using this computer. All I really do on it anymore are bills, occasional photo/video editing, and Minecraft. Haha, yes I play MC.

My only regret is I didn't go with a 2011 board/cpu. The cheap mouse I referred to in my original mouse was replaced by a Logitech G700s. The cheapo is now used for my work laptop. Still rocking the cheap keyboard. I highly recommend it.

The parts look good. The site says some parts are incompatible but you know how that goes. I thought your old computer had a ton of SSD's in it? Strange to see you go back to the 7200's. Hard to beat the price per GB on those, though.

[SS RRR]

Love how small motherboards are these days.

[Fastbird]

harner -- The 7200's are for backup. The main hard drive is my pre-ordered Samsung 950 Pro NVMe M.2 512gb module. The motherboard has a full bandwidth PCIe 3.0x4 slot below the first PCIe main slot. It'll hide under the GPU.

The incompatibilities are a PCPartPicker screw up or technicality. The Corsair H110i GTX is a 280mm rad which PCPP says won't fit in the Node 804. However, there's a few builds with one in there, that fits per Fractal Design, roof panel, right side only. Other is that I chose a 5.25 Blu Ray writer, but there's only room for a slot load in the case. PCPP wouldn't let me designate external enclosure hence the custom part at the bottom. Using a external box for an internal writer as they always perform better than the straight external drives, even over USB 3.0.

My current computer HAD a ton of SSD's. About 2 years ago now the motherboard failed and took out most of the SSD's. Got a warranty replacement from Asus but it's never been the same, and the SATA setup on the board is borked, so I'm only running two Sata II SSD's in RAID 0. I'm relegating this computer to home school duties (though with the cheapness of the Xeon X58 processors now I'm REALLY considering tossing in a couple new SSD's and a hex core for under $150 to play with on it).

The only reason I'm building this right now is because I just noticed a BUNCH of files I backed up from my old phone, gone. I lost a TON of my kids pics and videos from my backup RAID in the current computer and I refuse to lose more stuff. The RAID isn't functioning right because neither drive showed the info, and it either dropped them on transfer or they got deleted somehow. Either way I'm taking no chances with about 50 GB of photography stuff on there.

[harner]

@harner (http://ltxtech.com/forums/member.php?u=654) -- The 7200's are for backup. The main hard drive is my pre-ordered Samsung 950 Pro NVMe M.2 512gb module. The motherboard has a full bandwidth PCIe 3.0x4 slot below the first PCIe main slot. It'll hide under the GPU.

The incompatibilities are a PCPartPicker screw up or technicality. The Corsair H110i GTX is a 280mm rad which PCPP says won't fit in the Node 804. However, there's a few builds with one in there, that fits per Fractal Design, roof panel, right side only. Other is that I chose a 5.25 Blu Ray writer, but there's only room for a slot load in the case. PCPP wouldn't let me designate external enclosure hence the custom part at the bottom. Using a external box for an internal writer as they always perform better than the straight external drives, even over USB 3.0.

My current computer HAD a ton of SSD's. About 2 years ago now the motherboard failed and took out most of the SSD's. Got a warranty replacement from Asus but it's never been the same, and the SATA setup on the board is borked, so I'm only running two Sata II SSD's in RAID 0. I'm relegating this computer to home school duties (though with the cheapness of the Xeon X58 processors now I'm REALLY considering tossing in a couple new SSD's and a hex core for under $150 to play with on it).

The only reason I'm building this right now is because I just noticed a BUNCH of files I backed up from my old phone, gone. I lost a TON of my kids pics and videos from my backup RAID in the current computer and I refuse to lose more stuff. The RAID isn't functioning right because neither drive showed the info, and it either dropped them on transfer or they got deleted somehow. Either way I'm taking no chances with about 50 GB of photography stuff on there.

Damn, sorry to hear about the data loss. I'm a big fan of redundancy and never used RAID 0 on anything until I built this computer. I keep all of my data on a pair of 1TB drives on my old computer. I also run FreeFileSync (automated) once a week and it backs up all that data to a NAS. Better safe than sorry. I try not to keep anything of importance on the computer.

PCPP is funny like that. It also barked due to my case and the Corsair rad setup, but I found pics of people making it work. x58 chips are still incredible and now cheap. Mine is still running strong in the old setup.

[Fastbird]

I was surprised and dismayed at the data loss considering it was a mirrored RAID1 setup. The RAID 0 was merely my boot drive.

I'm really considering a NAS or even a small server for backup and accessibility throughout my network once I'm done with this new computer. I'm going to have 3 PC's now, 4 if you include the HTPC.

On my LG G4

[Fastbird]

Haha....so...ummm.......found my missing stuff from my old phone. Rather than put it in the "phone backups" folder on my backup drives, I tossed it in the "Android" folder under phone backups.

Oh well, commence with the new build anyway. lol

[Fastbird]

Well, have everything but the m.2 ssd. Release got pushed back to Nov 1 so I won't have in hand until Nov 4 according to amazon. Only other things I need to figure out (interior fans in addition to what the case comes with, interior lighting, custom sleeved cables) will be done as the pc gets built. It'll be up and running before it's 100% complete.

[harner]

Haha, nice on the data recovery. That is a sweet SSD. I've been thinking about pulling my PC apart and sleeving everything. Such a PITA to do.

We should compare benchmarks!

[Fastbird]

Haha, nice on the data recovery. That is a sweet SSD. I've been thinking about pulling my PC apart and sleeving everything. Such a PITA to do.

We should compare benchmarks!

Ha! You'd smoke me. It's been SO long since I overclocked anything, and I can only hope to get the 5820K up to 4.4 or 4.5 stable.

[harner]

Ha! You'd smoke me. It's been SO long since I overclocked anything, and I can only hope to get the 5820K up to 4.4 or 4.5 stable.

Surprisingly, I don't benchmark anything. I never had a need to. Not worth the risk vs. reward IMO. Although, it's much easier to OC nowadays than it was in the past.

What OS will you be running?

[Fastbird]

Windows 10 will be the final. Have to install win7, upgrade to 10, then wipe and clean install 10 after the install gets initially coded to my motherboard since you don't get a key. Hence the upgrade first.

On my LG G4

[Fastbird]

Pron:

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i177/Fastbird93/Computer%20Stuff/Bad%20Little%20Box%202015/1030152036_zpslfgefukj.jpg (http://s72.photobucket.com/user/Fastbird93/media/Computer%20Stuff/Bad%20Little%20Box%202015/1030152036_zpslfgefukj.jpg.html)