After much saving, choosing, and stress in building, it is complete. Behold the Predator (as Kel so affectionately named it)
The contents
- MB: ASUS MOTHERBOARD P8Z68-V LX CORE I7/I5/I3 LGA1155
- CPU: Intel Core i7-2700K 3.5Ghz Unlocked LGA1155 CPU
- Liquid Cooling: Corsair Hydro H40 CPU Liquid Cooler*
- GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0
- HD: Seagate 1TB Serial ATA HD 7200/64MB/SATA-6G
- Optical: Lite ON 24X DVDRW SATA OEM
- PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular Gaming Power Suppy
- RAM: PNY XLR8 8GB DDR3 1600MHZ PC3-12800
- Case: NZXT G921RB Mid Tower Black/RED Computer Case
- Storage HD: The old 150GB hd from Mike's old pc, formatted and will be used to store out of use games, etc.
*after talking to Bleezy, I will probably upgrade this later, if we decide to OC.
Pics
(sorry they're blurry, it was late, I was exhausted and couldn't hold my phone still)
Full side view of my awesome cable management!
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Closer view of the motherboard and such.
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Cables? What cables?
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Side view of the case (the side panel makes an X and is transparent, but it's hard to tell.
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Opened Front Panel.
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Front View. For some reason, either the CPU sensor came broken, or I did something to it, because it says Error for the CPU heat sensor. I placed the System (general case temp sensor) by the CPU instead.
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My thoughts on the build:
When I built my pc, I complained that my motherboard only came with a one page map, and that's it as far as instructions went. With this one, it came with a freaking novel, but there was no clear cut map that explained what everything was. This motherboard definitely assumes you know what the fuck you are doing. As far as ease of getting it hooked up, it was a lot easier to access everything (nothing was hidden under other parts, like my motherboard was), so it made the build a lot easier than with mine. My only real complaint is the IO plate that came with the motherboard was super shitty. The cutouts were too large, and it had a lot of excess metal prongs that don't serve any purpose and just look stupid. I'll take a picture of this later, to show you just what I mean.
The PSU is almost completely modular (only the MB power, and 2 CPU power cables - one 8 pin 1 4? pin come attached), which is awesome, however, the cables are quite short (as you can see with the yellow cable in front that is the power for the CPU), so it meant (if I wanted to hide the cables all away) that I had to end up using most of the extensions anyways. If I was using a smaller case, or not going for hidden cables it would have done the job with a few less cables. Also, because the cables were shorter than I would like, I couldn't do some of the cable hiding I would have liked, but overall I am satisfied.
The only things I didn't like about the case were the white fans (one of which either does not have LED lighting, or the LEDs are broken) and the lack of cable space on the back side of the case (behind the motherboard panel). It was a super tight fit getting the cables to all hide back there effectively and get the damn thing closed. Also, either I broke the CPU heat sensor somehow, or it came non-functioning, which makes me sad, but doesn't really matter. It came with three fans, originally front - HD, side panel and back panel (I moved the back panel pan to the top to make a space for the cooling unit and set it up to blow out, as heat rises). A big pro for this case was that the cooling unit fit completely inside the edge, so it closes without an issue (my case, the cooling unit fits flush with the edge, and the side panel has a 'lip' that prevents it from closing 100% on the top. I had to jerry-rig a longer screw in to get it to close). The LEDs are red (I picked this color) which is a lot nicer than mine, as blue light keeps me awake at night, while Red, I find is easy to sleep through.
Special thanks to:
Shank, for (once again) getting me a great OS that runs perfectly (after I fuck with it to get the activation working properly!) Without your help and impeccable timing this would just be a box of spare parts that just looks pretty.
Daggart, for helping me figure out why I couldn't get it to power up originally (yay for plugging the case power buttons in vertically instead of horizontally?) and teaching me how to *not* fry my motherboard before I even install it (hey, don't put it on the non-static bag when you're working on it, it's only non-static on the inside!).
Bleezy, for answering all my stupid windows questions, and trying to get my windows up and running.
And last, but not least, Mike, for dealing with me being super bitchy and obsessed and moody for the last few days, being my support when I needed to vent, and forcing me to get a couple hours sleep so I didn't drop dead the next day. I love you, and I hope you enjoy your new computer.
