Tom's Hardware Member System Gallery

[Onus]

Yeah, socialassassin, very neatly done. That mobo sure looks clean in there.

 

[Maygentria]

My darling.

 

[mlcaouette]

Nice looking builds socialassassin, stickg1, and maygentria. All very clean!

To stickg1 and socialassassin: did Seasonic change the wiring that comes with the x-series PSU's? Both of mine came with all black wires, one being platinum series and the other being a gold series one.

 

[coastie65]

Maygentria - Nice looking rig. Awful lot of CPU cooling. Looks like that may be a Noctua Cooler.

 

[socialassassin]

Nice looking builds socialassassin, stickg1, and maygentria. All very clean!

To stickg1 and socialassassin: did Seasonic change the wiring that comes with the x-series PSU's? Both of mine came with all black wires, one being platinum series and the other being a gold series one.

They may have, I bought the power supply 2 years ago. Actually those yellow heat shrinks are the one part of my build that bothers me! I looked all over for a sleeved kit for Seasonic PSUs, but to no avail.

 

[coastie65]

Need to go back and do a bit more on the wire management:

 

[socialassassin]

That's a strange design for a heat sink, it ensures you cant do push/pull!

 

[mlcaouette]

"They may have, I bought the power supply 2 years ago. Actually those yellow heat shrinks are the one part of my build that bothers me! I looked all over for a sleeved kit for Seasonic PSUs, but to no avail." -socialassassin

Sorry about the quote, I was having some issues getting it to only quote the message I wanted it to.

This place sells some Sleeved Seasonic wires, I've never bought anything from them so I can't speak as to whether or not they are a reputable seller. http://www.moddiy.com/brands/Seasonic.html

The other options are: either sleeve the wires yourself or maybe try emailing Seasonic to see if they might sell you one of the all black wire kits.

 

[nukemaster]

Image Link

My darling.

Nice looking rig. Awful lot of CPU cooling. Looks like that may be a Noctua Cooler.

Sure is
NH-D14

 

[Zynch]

really? i thought it was the phanteks PHTC14PE

 

[swarzee]

OK so i completed the upgrades that i mentioned a page or two ago and here is the end results...











Camera is just the one on my phone so photo's arn't the best. Full specs below...

I7 3770K oc'd 4.5ghz (1.27v)
Corsair H100i with Corsair SP120 High Performance fans
Antec 1100 case
Corsair TX850 PSU
x2 EVGA GTX680's running in SLI (Both clocked at 1228mhz boost clock)
Asus Z77 Sabertooth mobo
Corsair Vengeance 1600 DDR3 (1.5v) 16gb
Asus Xonar DSX soundcard
NZXT Fan controller
x2 2TB WD Caviar Green HDD's
x1 3TB WD Caviar Green HDD
x1 500gb WD Caviar Green HDD
x1 1TB WD Caviar Black HDD
x1 256gb Samsung 840 Pro SSD
Bitfenix white sleeved cables
Bitfenix Alchamy white 600mm LED strip
Samsung Blu-Ray Combo drive
Razor Death Adder 3.5g Mouse
Razor Blackwidow Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard
Acer 27inch 60hz 3D monitor (crappy built in 3D)
Logitech 5.1 surround speakers
Gamecom 780 USB headset
x4 Blue LED Aerocool Shark 120mm fans

Thats about it i think lol... This Elevenhundred is pretty much maxed out now. I have the H100i running half push\pull and half push as i could not achieve the last fan mount because of SATA cables and USB 3.0 header cable. Probably could do it with a bit of modding, but i'll save that for a bit of fun down the track along with resleeving PSU calbes and cables from fan controller.

 

[Uther39]

Built my wife a new MEDIA/GAMING PC for the lounge so she can use her nvidia shield.
Few more things to do to it yet, like installing UV lights and rubber bungs for the extra holes on top, all in post.

And the Following Components...

Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s
EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155)
Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge)
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
XSPC RayStorm GPU XSPC RayStorm GPU
XSPC RayStorm CPU WaterBlock (Intel) XSPC RayStorm CPU WaterBlock (Intel)
XSPC Memory WaterBlock + Side Plate Set XSPC Memory WaterBlock + Side Plate Set
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 140 Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 140
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 120 Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 120
BitFenix Spectre PWM 140mm Fan Blue LED - Black BitFenix Spectre PWM 140mm Fan Blue LED - Black
450W Silverstone SST-ST45SF-G, Strider PSU, SFX, Modular, 80 PLUS Gold

 

[Lorias]

Well my build is finally completed. I've been lurking here for a while, and I also posted a few threads. Originally I was going to go for an i3 build. My budget was $500. I was given a few parts (PSU and case), so I was able to upgrade to this system. I only went $30 over budget, so I am pretty happy! This pc will be used for gaming and maybe some light music and video production. Here are the specs:
CPU: Intel i5-4670k 3.4ghz
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
MOBO: MSI Z87-G41
RAM: 8gb (2x4gb) Kingston HyperX 1600 ddr3
PSU: An older (like 2010) 680 watt that works great and has worked for like 2 years without any problems.
GPU: SAPPHIRE 7870 OC edition with 2 gb ddr5
Case: Nothing special, just an older ATX case. It will work until I can upgrade.
HDD: re-using my 250gb drive. I am going to upgrade to a 256gb solid state when I have the money. This is going to be pretty much a gaming only computer, so I don't need a lot of room.
I currently do not have a cd drive. I might get one eventually, but I'm not sure. I borrowed a friend's when I installed windows, and I can't really think of any other use for it since I use steam to download games.
Here are some pics:








It doesn't really look all that snazzy, but I am hoping it will run pretty well. I have the fans set up so that cold air is sucked in through the front of the case and then the warm air is pushed out the back by the cpu cooler and another fan.

I overclocked my i5 to 4.2 ghz (using bios) and ran a 10 minute stress test. The core temperature never exceeded 70 degrees. I am planning to leave it on 4.2 unless any problems pop up. I can't imagine any reason to overclock it further. Let me know what you think. I'll try and get some better pics tomorrow if anyone wants to see them (pictures during the night are kinda a pain).

 

[Onus]

What brand and model is that "680W" PSU?

 

[towhog66]

Lorias - right, re tower/case. it holds every thing right? im not to crazy or go crazy on cases.... cooling matters most 4 me... i had a Antec 300 for yrs was very happy with it... 60$ towers work just fine.....

 

[nukemaster]

What brand and model is that "680W" PSU?

I was thinking similar. I used to see some "TurboGamer" and "Aptiva" units that looked just like that and did NOT deliver the rated wattage(but they did just shut down so that was a good thing ).

The 2 caps(if that is the AC voltage doubler) makes it look like an older unit as well.

Kind of like this unit. 550 watt sticker rating but only 300 of it for the 12 volt rail. common in older units less of the system used the 12 volt rail back in the day.
http://www.xoxide.com/logisys-550w-pcix-clear.html

This is not meant to offend the owner of such a system. Just something to keep an eye on.

 

[tiny voices]

Agreed. Would swap that unit out ASAP.

 

[Onus]

Yeah, when I saw that the first thing that came to mind was "Apevia." If it is that one, or one like it, it is a PSU-shaped object, basically a firecracker with an uncertain fuse.

 

[Lorias]

Thanks for the warnings. I'll switch my prioirity to a new PSU first. I was really surprised at how well the Haswell chip has overclocked. Everywhere I've read says they run really hot. Overclocked at 4.2 it still idles at 34 and only runs up to 70 after a 45 minute stress test. I'm going to benchmark everything and see how it is doing. Any other suggestions for further upgrades?

 

[nukemaster]

Yeah, when I saw that the first thing that came to mind was "Apevia." If it is that one, or one like it, it is a PSU-shaped object, basically a firecracker with an uncertain fuse.

Yeah it was that

I was at a lan party some years back and someone won an Antec 120mm fan and plugged it into one of those and the system instantly shut down(it was like 550watt rated or something like that). It would not boot up until it was removed. I tested it(to ensure it was not the fans fault) on my Antec 380 watt power supply and the fan was fine(I had 2 like it in my case[Sonata] already).

Thanks for the warnings. I'll switch my prioirity to a new PSU first. I was really surprised at how well the Haswell chip has overclocked. Everywhere I've read says they run really hot. Overclocked at 4.2 it still idles at 34 and only runs up to 70 after a 45 minute stress test. I'm going to benchmark everything and see how it is doing. Any other suggestions for further upgrades?

All cpus are different. Many users report swapping the thermal past from the cpu to the ihs fixes all heat issues. This would mean if Intel has refined the way they deal with installing the heat spreaders(better application of paste), maybe this will be a short term issue(heat) for Haswell chips.

 

[MrRline]

Here's a picture of my new setup.

Case- Thermaltake Chaser Mk-1
CPU Intel I-7 4770k
Motherboard- Asus Z87-A
Ram- Crucial Ballistix Elite 4x2gb(8 total) will be upgrading at the end of the month
GPU- EVGA GTX 770
CPU Cooler - Corsair H100i
PSU- Corsair AX760
SSD- Samsung 840 120 GB
HDD- Seagate Barricuda 7200 RPM 1TB, Western Digital 7200 rpm 1TB drive
Optical Drive- Asus 8mb cache Blu Ray read/write drive
Case Lighting- NZXT Hue

 

[swarzee]

Wow there is some real quality builds in this thread and its great to see individual preferences shown considering the epic choice of hardware these days. I think it would be great to have more specific threads that cover say mini itx, media\htpc builds, budget builds, mid range builds and enthusiast builds just to break it up a bit and make it easier to peruse. Just an idea i thought i would throw out there. Would also be good to throw in some benchmark scores with your build pics so ppl can compare hardware\configs etc..

 

[socialassassin]

Good ideas.
I put some of my benchmark scores with my build here.

 

[towhog66]

MrRline - how is the 16gs work better then the 8? or cant tel?

 

[MrRline]

Haven't got the ram yet, ended up spending that money on a car battery this afternoon, looks like later in the month maybe. For the time being though this ballistix isn't working too bad. I'm doing everything I could before and having 0 issues. I dont' even think i'm making a dent at this thing for what im doing right now.