SKULL's New Build Project

[SKULLCRUSHER]

As some of you know I decided to go ahead and build a new rig. I thought I would post some photos of the components and progress so you can all have a good chuckle.

Thanks to everyone for their input when I was asking questions and opinions on various parts I wanted to incorporate. I'm sure their will be more then a few who disagree with the components I have chosen, but I have some excellent guarantees in place that what I will be putting together will be very solid.

Here's the first few components I purchased from TigerDirect for having the best price on these products - who actually had stock.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00261.jpg

[Mike-KT]

*drools*

Looking seckie there Ger, keep up the hardware pr0n

Is there more coming in the mail?

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Yea, my Intel E6600 is "in transit" with UPS from TigerDirect. The rest will be bought over the next few weeks.

[Zimba]

very nice, how much?

[SKULLCRUSHER]

The MB was 305, the Vid Card was 430, RAM 250 and Fan 40... so far. E6600 was 299.

[gOOCH]

the fan makes me cry but the rest is sexy

[ORION]

crying during sex is always fun...

[aftersh0ck]

very nice, how much?

Was I the only one who laughed at this possibly unintentional Borat quote?

[RANDOM H3RO]

Yeah you were shock.....

*Shakes fist at Gerry.* Damn you and your new hardware!

[WiseGuy]

i was actually thinking about this when i woke up, "dam ger is gonna have a sexy computer"

[gOOCH]

sexy case for sexy pc?
http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2966&p=2

[Zimba]

i went with this beast ;)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=16405&vpn=TX1050B&manufacture=ANTEC

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Your both close - mine is gonna be this :

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15900

[WiseGuy]

lol sexy case, the guy doing the review reminds me of u gerry, watch the bloopers at the end....
**Auto-merged Double Post**
lol my case: http://www.apevia.com/product.php?pid=150
its kinda oldsauce now, i bought it like 2-3 years ago and it cost me $80 back then... still sexy though, just checked the price, theyre $60.... what a steal... seoriusly


also, have you got a power supply? this one is SEXY, but wouldnt fit ur case cause its meant to be mounted at the top... it would work but then ur LCD readout on the back of the psu would be upside down :P

[SKULLCRUSHER]

omg, I hadn't watched that far Wise, that was funny shit man.

That's a sweet case also Wise. I was gonna go with the Thermaltake TruePower 750Watt PS.

http://www.pricegrabber.ca/rating_getprodrev.php/masterid=21445744/form_keyword=//

[Crayola]

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3010720&CatId=2535

[gOOCH]

the case i want
http://www.lian-li.com/product/product06.php?pr_index=8&cl_index=1&sc_index=1&ss_index=2&type=b

[WiseGuy]

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3010720&CatId=2535
who in their right mind would pay $400 for a powersupply?


the case i want
http://www.lian-li.com/product/product06.php?pr_index=8&cl_index=1&sc_index=1&ss_index=2&type=b
lol a case on wheels?

[SKULLCRUSHER]

LOL, that was the case I had picked out previously Gooch, then I changed my mind.

And yea, I agree with Wise - $ 400 bucks is nuts. Mine is 200 and I think that's nuts.

[Zimba]

my case has 2 slots for fans on the side, one has a mount for a 92mm the other below 80mm, remove the mount and strapped a 120mm on there and it RAISED my temps around 5 degrees because i think it was impeding with the air flow from the front....some of the fans/slots they have on these cases make no sense

[silence]

i have the same case as u wise except i put a blue face plate on mine. my dad copied my gaming pc except changed his video card for an all in wonder and put a jet black face plate on that same case.

[RANDOM H3RO]

My case is off white.......My dream case......wait....wtf.....a case is a case.....

You people are nuts, money on hardware = good idea......retarded ammounts of money on a case that will likely get pwned by someone or something = bad idea.

Though YES I do understand (Slots, organization, space yaddy yaddy yaddy) But does it really need flashing lights? Mirror'd surfaces? All that crap?

I'm talking to the wrong group I think......*Pats his off white panel missing case*

[silence]

LOL random there is more to it than that. people get cases they like so they can enjoy how their tower looks, yes the placement of components IN the tower is nice but when it comes to flashier cases it is more to do with the fact that people just want something nice to look at... dont get me wrong. 7 of the 9 computers i own are econo-towers (or laptops), only my gaming pc and my dad's copy-cat have a "special" tower

[SKULLCRUSHER]

I would have to say that the true enthusiast cares about all aspects of his PC build, not just the internal hardware. Gamers are also known for having some "bling" on their PC to make it show better then the rest. I'm guessing these add-on's for special effects and flashy cases were designed with the LAN goers in mind.

Besides, I've owned enough boring beige cases in my life, and having one that people go " Holy Fuck Batman, WTF is that " gives me a warm feeling all over.

[silence]

lol like i said... people buy flashy cases for the looks, not because they need too. if u buy it for the novelty it will quickly get boring and u wont like it any more. u have to buy it because you like it and WANT your tower to look like that for as long as it shale live

[WiseGuy]

i have the same case as u wise except i put a blue face plate on mine.

i modded mine ;)

[Cleavage Monkey]

Is the fancy case similar to fancy cars....making up for something else ?

[WiseGuy]

Is the fancy case similar to fancy cars....making up for something else ?

:(

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Yes, I have a very small penis, so I buy a huge tower with expensive flashy lights. Thats also why I drive an SUV.

[Cleavage Monkey]

Haha...the truth comes out. Well I am jealous of all you guys as you all have very nice PCs and I have a so-so 5 year old beige monster. Someday I will be rolling in money and be able to get a new one.

[silence]

Haha...the truth comes out. Well I am jealous of all you guys as you all have very nice PCs and I have a so-so 5 year old beige monster. Someday I will be rolling in money and be able to get a new one.

u dont need to be rolling in money to buy a new pc... just need 1-2 thousand dollars depending on what ur looking to build... basically the price of a decent 42-50" tv..

[Zimba]

My case is off white.......My dream case......wait....wtf.....a case is a case.....

You people are nuts, money on hardware = good idea......retarded ammounts of money on a case that will likely get pwned by someone or something = bad idea.

Though YES I do understand (Slots, organization, space yaddy yaddy yaddy) But does it really need flashing lights? Mirror'd surfaces? All that crap?

I'm talking to the wrong group I think......*Pats his off white panel missing case*

only reason i bought mine was because it came with a 500w

[Cleavage Monkey]

u dont need to be rolling in money to buy a new pc... just need 1-2 thousand dollars depending on what ur looking to build... basically the price of a decent 42-50" tv..

I have a mortgage and a line of credit debt...1-2 thousand dollars does not exist for me. So technically you have to be rolling in dough to get one. I will eventually get a new one...next years bonus will be my saving grace.

[chris]

Gerry is building a sick rig! I'm sure if he bough it from Voodoo or Alienware it would be at least double the price.

God bless tigerdirect.ca and their e6600 conroe for 299.99. I just wish they had flat rate shipping like canadacomputers.

[jefftheworld]

Is the fancy case similar to fancy cars....making up for something else ?

Men already have penises, women don't. So shouldn't women compensate for what they don't have?

[Cleavage Monkey]

Nah...we have boobs...that should be enough :)

[Calamity Gundam]

UPS shipping blows chunks too, eh Chris?

Anything shipped from USA = Brokerage fee's+customs fee's = angry buyer.

[ORION]

+ 2 months @ customs

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Mine cleared Customs in 2 days, looks like you got PWNT!

[WiseGuy]

boobs

[ORION]

was the e66 shipped from the US?

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Yup, got it today. Pretty good service for me.

[chris]

Mine arrived today as well. I'm really enjoying 150 fps

[ORION]

wtf, R U sure? cause I ordered a CPU over eBay a while back and it got held up in customs for nearly 2 months

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Checked the box. Mine came in from Illinois. Have to say based on where it came from the shipping was awesome.

[DeathSniper]

Shipping is pretty random. I've had packages from UK and Hong Kong get to me within 3 days (and no these weren't sent "express" or EMS, etc...), whereas Xpresspost from someone in Vancouver took the full 10 days to get to me. Customs is also a crapshoot - sometimes things will get dutied and delayed, othertimes they wouldn't care less.

[SKULLCRUSHER]

You should have seen the box they sent my CPU in. I'm surprised there wasn't an entire Mexican family smuggled in that box. Thankfully the processor was at the bottom of the box under all the packaging.

[aftersh0ck]

I'm surprised there wasn't an entire Mexican family smuggled in that box.

Sounds like something Phil would say. I actually took a double take at the user name to make sure it wasn't him.

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Yea, he told me to say that because he knew you would read it and he anticipated your response. Damn that Phil is one smart cookie.

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Alrighty... I made the mistake of going to Canada Computers today after work... not a good idea. Window shopping = drool and credit card to be produced.

Here is the next pieces to the new build:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/Picture203.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/Picture205.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/Picture204.jpg

Just need the Sound Card, Hard Drive, Floppy & DVDRW and we are ready to rock !

[The Killing Joke]

I look at that case, and imagine it saying, "BY YOUR COMMAND" :))

[gOOCH]

dont bother with the heatsink, just keep the stock one

[SKULLCRUSHER]

No dude, that puppy is going on - the cpu didnt come with a stock one cause I bought it without.

[pig]

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=61635

my case, nothing fancy. Its got some fans, it does the job. If i had a fancy one i wouldnt be albe to concentrate, id look at it all day.

>.<

thats a nice case though gerry, im jealous i need a black one.

My case is always so cold too, So no need for 50 fans.

Antec 900 ger?

and for a cheaper good keyboard guys if u need one,
i suggest
http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/eclipseii.htm

but im lolling at
http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/cupro.htm

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Yes sir, Antec 900. I love it - looks awesome and should perform well - good reviews too.

[pig]

good luck with the build.

let US know how it ends!

[ORION]

but im lolling at
http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/cupro.htm
If I didn't have a nearly 2 page autoexec.cfg I would seriously consider using that. The shaping seems very ergonomic, it's back lit and takes up a lot less space then a full size keyboard, only problem is their's no room for buy binds, skin toggles, chat binds, cross-hair colour toggles, rcon binds, exec binds and winamp controls.

[AgentOrange]

Nice setup ur building there Ger, the amount of fans on that case and the size of em is fricken swweeet... ur gonna be cleaning that bad boy weekly with the amount of dust that thing will suck in

[SKULLCRUSHER]

My wife figures it can double as a vacuum... im not so sure I want to come home and see her with that thing on wheels rolling it over the carpet.. :-(

[gOOCH]

i put swiffer strips in front of my intakes, but i have a door which hides it

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Good idea there Chris. My existing Thermaltake case came with filters that can be simply cleaned off - a great idea that still hasn't caught on with all the manufacturers.

[pig]

are you serious gooch?
does it work?

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Worked on my PC build this weekend and got some components into the case. I have to say though, I was a little dissappointed with some parts of it.

First off, I wanted to ensure I got the cabling just perfect - that didnt happen. This was partially due to the Antec 900 case with having a bottom mount Power Supply. The one 8-pin power cable from the PS to the Motherboard is stretched across the top of the video card and pretty much runs diagonally across the case to get where it needs to go. Some of the other case cables to the MB were also a little shorter then I would have liked.

I'm assuming I can buy some after-market cable or something to replace the 8-pin power cable to gain about 12 inches to run it around the outside of the MB ? But I will have to check.

Anyway, here is a few more pics for those who might be following along:

Thats one big PS
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00275.jpg

Installed !!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00276.jpg

The MB Next
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00277.jpg

Gonna have to get some longer cables to clean this sheit up !!
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00278.jpg

Video Card and Heatsink Installed
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00279.jpg

[Crayola]

lol i thought you said you didnt want to put anything together till you had all the parts

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Thanks to Orion for coming up with a better way to run my power cable from the PS to the MB at opposite ends to each other. I thought for sure that puppy wasn't gonna reach, but Orion was correct - and now it looks way better. Ive tied stuff off temporarily for positioning, but here is the pretty much finished rig:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00284.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00282.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00281.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/Counterstrikeone/DSC00280.jpg

[ORION]

I'd hit it :)

[SKULLCRUSHER]

I almost did tonight. The power button on the case is pushed in and wont spring back out. There doesnt seem to be any power going to the MB either. So, either the PS is fucked or a cable from the PS to the MB is screwed. At this point I have no idea. Cant fix the button either because the top of the PC has to come off to get to it, and 2 of the plastic clips that hold it down are not reachable.

Signed;

PISSED

[ORION]

1. we have the same burner, 2. There's usually some way to get that top cover off.. hmm. It'd suck it'd be funny if you had hte same problem my brother hard where his switch broke and we went thru 2 PSU's figuring out it was the switch. It's hard for me to get a good sense of where the critical clips would be from the pics, but it's very rare that they leave no way of getting it apart.

[The Killing Joke]

Hmm - I was gonna say "Skully's still gonna get pwnt at the LAN", but now I can say, "Comp = 1, Skully = 0... PWNT!!!" ;)

J/K - good luck, buddy!

[SKULLCRUSHER]

I am very hands on - in case you hadn't noticed from the reno pics on my space. I can rewire an entire house and install a new electrical service. There isnt too many tools that I cant use - and with good results.

Therefore, when I say the clips are not reachable, trust me, they arent. The front cage prevents access to the two front clips.
As for the same issue your brother had Andrew... I thought of that so I shorted out the two pins on the MB for the case switch. Nothin !

I also did a few other tests. Thermaltake recommended putting a paper clip into the 24 pin connector to join the green lead with any of the black and plug the PS in and turn it on. When I did this the fan on the PS turned on, so I assume the PS works. I also put my multimeter onto the 24 pin connector and the black leads were carrying 3 volts, which I believe is normal.

When I put the PS in the case and wired it up, i shorted out the power switch pins and turned the PS on.... there was no lights to speak of on the MB, and the case fans didnt come on either. I can only assume at this point that I got a bogus MB.

Spoke to Tiger Direct - they said within 30 days you can bring it in with the receipt and all the packaging and they will test it. If its pooched they will give me another on the spot. So, some time tomorrow I will be off to TigerDirect to test the MB.

Someone please wish me luck because I am now wishing I just ordered one pre-built.

[ORION]

/luck :) and never order one pre-built, you get jewed in so many ways, you'd pay way more for way less machine over all, GJ and HF once its up and running tomorrow :)

[SKULLCRUSHER]

An optimist, I like that.

[DeathSniper]

Good luck with it Skull. And I'm all for building your own - you get the satisfaction of building it and knowing you put time and effort into it, you can spend and arrange everything just the way you want it, and most of all...you learn things ;)

[Cleavage Monkey]

I have no patience...building a computer is not something for me. But good job to anyone who can build one successfully.

[SKULLCRUSHER]

This is my fourth build in like 12 years, but this one is by far the worst in terms of things working properly.

[syndrome]

yeah it's pretty awesome once you finish building and you fire it up for the first time. i've actually built and rebuilt mine like 4 -5 times, with different parts. 2 diff mobos 2 diff cpus 2 diff cases.

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Wow, what a day I had today..... there is three hours and 37 dollars I will never recoup !

I took my built rig to TigerDirect and met with TJ, the Tech guy who assisted me in getting the parts I wanted originally. I was forced to pay 37 dollars for them to do a diagnostic test, which was a waste because I knew it was either the PS or MB.
Anyway, turns out the PS had current, but not on all pins.

I bought the PS and case at Canada Computers so off I went to see them with my rig. I met with some dumb fat fuck behind the tech counter and a slim Asian gentleman who lacked any expression whatsoever; lets just refer to him as concrete face shall we.

The fat fuck proceeded to speak to me as if he was Gods gift to the computer industry and was sarcastic to the point where I was ready to clear the counter and bash his face into the 32" LCD behind the desk.

After nearly an hour debating with this asswipe I finally got them to agree to take back the PS and case. I exchanged the case for the same model, with the exception that the switch actually worked on this one. They had no more 750watt Thermaltake PS units - which was fine with me, so exchanged for a SilverStone Strider 750watt PS.

This evening I spent almost the entire evening rebuilding my pc from the ground up. I'm happy to say that now when I hit the power button, the system actually posts. K, now I'm happy.

Sorry for the rant. I am thinking about taking a photo of the idiot at CC and posting it here as a warning to stand clear of this knob.

Cheers

[manofphat]

hahah at least it works now man. What's your ETA on when you're gonna start to pwn with it?

[SKULLCRUSHER]

I'm hoping to load software tomorrow, but I may need some assistance as I want to use my old hard drive as a slave to get the shit off of it.

Im better with building then software shit.

[Wesley Crusher]

Suggestion:

Before installing Windows, connect ONLY the drive you want Windows installed on.
After that's done, plug in your old hard drives and retrieve data.

Why?

If you don't, Windows might not call the drive you're installing to C:\
It looks at the other drives connected and remembers what they were called in your previous Windows installation.

[SKULLCRUSHER]

10-4, Thanks Brian ... that's the kind of info I was looking for.

[SKULLCRUSHER]

Well, so far so good guys. My new system is operational and just requires a few more software installs and the addition of my hard drive from my old PC when the time comes.

I have to say that my rig turned out super cool and rox my socks off. I played for a few minutes yesterday and was getting 168 fps on a map that normally is tuff to deal with, so I'm happy with that.

Final build components:

EVGA nForce 6801 SLI Motherboard
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640 Mb Video Card
Intel Pentium E6600 Core 2 Duo, 2.40GHz, 4MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB Conroe
Thermaltake Silent 775D Heatsink
Corsair RAM 2 GB DDR2 Twin2X 800 MHz PC6400
Seagate 250GB SATA Hard Drive 16MB Cache
SilverStone Strider 750 watt Power Supply
Antec 900 Case
LG DVD RW with LightScribe
Sony 7-1 Card Reader with Floppy

Really happy now that I am done with the build. Case looks sweet and although this is a Mid Tower Case, the cable is fairly neat and tidy with great airflow.

A quick thanks to everyone who helped me with this build. That is the great thing about being part of a community, there are so many knowledgeable people who are willing to lend a hand.

Thanks Guys.

[The Killing Joke]

You're not allowed to bring that behemoth to the LAN. ;)

[pig]

yay!

grats gerry, looks sickkk