Core i3 build in Antec NSK2480

[bubba]

Well needed a couple machines for my work, they wanted slimtops so I picked out the NSK2480 because it looked nice and had free shipping at the time.

Outside







Inside





The hard drive cage was a little funky, one side of the drive is accessible inside the case, the other is from the outside on the bottom. The other thing I noticed is that the cage is setup for thick drives. If you have newer'ish thin drive the isolator mounts will hold it, just looks weird with the extra space in the holder.


Since these will be setting on a desk of some folks that are always on the phone I didn't want the noisy stock fan humming away. So I picked out the Scythe Big Shuriken, its low profile, 140mm fan, and looked like it would do the job nicely.






Darn near as short as the stock Core i3 cooler


Uses the push pin style retainers, didn't think anything of it until I went to put the thing on. The pins are all under the fins.


With 6 of these to build I was annoyed.


Working on assembling the second one I grabbed an expansion slot cover I had laying on the table and used that to push the pins. Worked like a charm.



standard or low profile RAM is a must, no matter which way I turned the cooler it blocked a slot.


Finished


Now to get the OS and programs installed on one and start cloning the drives.

[DJ Tucker]

nice 6 to build well lets hope they don't give you to much trouble when cloning! by the way what is the system spec?

[skier]

sweet builds! think i need to pick up a case like that

[bubba]

With all the hardware being identical cloning is not hard and quiet easy, key part is the identical hardware.

The system is not a speed demon by no means but it will feel like a Ferrari to the guys getting it. Replacing some 5~6 year old Dell 2Ghz P4's and 2.2 Celeron's. Also being somewhat current, quality hardware I'm hoping to get 5 years out of them, if not more.

Intel Core i3-530
EVGA H55V 111-CD-E630-TR
Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) KVR1333D3N9K2/2G
Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB
SONY SATA DVD-ROM Drive DDU1681S-0B - OEM
Windows 7 Pro 32bit
Scythe Big Shuriken CPU cooler
Antec New Solution NSK2480 with Earth watts 380 PSU

$627.83 less shipping, depending on the model its anywhere from $50 to $100 better then anything I could find on Dells site and no taxes. That and Dell said that they couldn't ship until some time late next week. Hell the guys will be using these Monday. I built them in the same time it would take me to strip the bloat off and install our software on a Dell so my time is a wash. Took 2 working days to build them, that's with fielding my normal "hey ** is broke" calls I get. The cloning saved so much time.

[Sporg]

Nice little builds! I like the fans in those cases (at least the size of the fans). I'm working on a new build and almost picked up that Scythe cooler, but read enough to know that it wouldn't work with my G-Skill Ripjaws. Although I did read where someone got it to work by taking a couple of the "teeth" off.

[hnzw_rui]

The system is not a speed demon by no means but it will feel like a Ferrari to the guys getting it.

Not for gaming (depending on resolution, details and GPU set-up) and particularly CPU-intensive tasks. However, doing normal stuff - web browsing, etc, I highly doubt anyone will notice any difference between this build and a Phenom II X6 1090T or i7-980X. I've got both an i3-530 and a 1055T and I greatly prefer my i3-530 build. I'm using a P4 2.2GHz at work and the i3-530 is quite an upgrade from it. Heck, even a Celeron E3300 is already a noticeable upgrade from it. We still have Pentium II (233MHz) and III (450~500MHz) computers at work.

I'd be so happy if our IT department gets us anything close to those you're building.

[bubba]

LOL yeah no gaming, even took solitaire off. Email, word processing, order entry, web.

One of the main reasons for the upgrade is the java based browser that is used to access our MRP system on an iSeries. It kinda laggy on my E7500 but is quiet snappy on this i3-530. On the P4's it will lock the system up now and then. With these guys taking calls from customers for part orders that's not cool to have to wait for your PC to reboot. Basically this will take a 10 min phone call and turn it into a 3 to 5 minute call.