My First Custom PC

injun · Post by **injun** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:05 am

Here is my first try at building a custom PC. Nothing fancy but it will be fast! I will add stuff such as another ATI card to run crossfire and some more drives, maybe even a passive set up eventually.

It's a Lian Li PC-7B Plus Silent Warrior 140 case (from...http://www.performance-pcs.com). The case has three 140mm AeroCool Streamliners (54.7cfm) (front, side, top) and one 120mm AeroCool XtremeTurbine (89.39cfm) (rear). Also my Corsair power supply has a 120mm fan. So I should stay fairly cool.

Hardware that I installed...

Asus P5W DH Deluxe Mobo
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz 1066FSB 4MB Cache
Corsair XMS2 6400 2048MB (2x1GB) 4-4-4-12 TWIN2X2048-6400C4
ATI Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB
Western Digital Raptor 10,000RPM 150GB
Plextor PX-755SA DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW SATA
Corsair HX620W
Viewsonic 19in LCD VX922

For now I will be using the stock CPU cooler but I hope to change it at some point. Tuesday I should have my RAM and then I will fire it up.

bubba · Post by **bubba** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:54 am

nice looking case

injun · Post by **injun** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:31 am

bubba wrote:nice looking case

Thanks bubba. Yeah compared to my old HP it is like buying a new car and better than anything I could have found at computer store. I have been wanting a new PC for many years so I'm pretty excited. I hope to have it running this week.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:37 am

Great build and that's a heck of a first DIY PC! Congrats!

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 12:59 pm

thats a pretty damn nice looking case if i dont say so my self!!! Nice build!!

bigblockmatt · Post by **bigblockmatt** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:53 pm

good stuff!

dont forget to install the RAM...dont think it will work to well without that.

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 4:05 pm

Ha Ha, noob, you still have a floppy drive

lol, just messing, very nice first time build, that must have set you back some, but very nice rig!

Dan

(and yeah, the P5W DH DLX is very nice)

injun · Post by **injun** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 4:19 pm

bigblockmatt wrote:good stuff!

dont forget to install the RAM...dont think it will work to well without that.

Haha yeah definitely need DIMMs to get it to work.

Unfortunately the DIMMs that I wanted and ordered on Friday are now on backorder. So instead of waiting another week or more. I decided to downgrade to the next level of DIMMs [Corsair XMS2 6400 2048MB (2x1GB) 4-4-4-12 TWIN2X2048-6400C4]. These particular models are 3rd best from the list of XMS2 top performers. They are the best value versus performance but I probably won't be able to overclock them as far as I would have liked too. If I have the funds I may upgrade later on but for now at least I will be able to actually get started, hopefully by Thursday.

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone.

injun · Post by **injun** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 5:06 pm

DMB2000uk wrote:Ha Ha, noob, you still have a floppy drive

lol, just messing, very nice first time build, that must have set you back some, but very nice rig!

Dan

(and yeah, the P5W DH DLX is very nice)

Actually a Floppy is very important to have in the boot up sequence if all else fails. It is also valuable to work from for management and testing BIOS, RAM and Drives in conjunction with specialized software tools that can work from Floppy media. I absolutely wouldn't want a system without a Floppy drive.

As far as cost, you are right, it set me back a little bit over $3,000 USD just for the cost of the parts not including shipping. However in reality the cost isn't that bad when you look at how much some of the custom PC retailers are selling their pre built Extreme powered PC's for. Doing it myself saved me at least a thousand dollars or more over a pre configured box. Not bad at all really. I could have and almost decided for the smaller Core 2 CPU's. But I wanted to overclock without having a locked multiplier for better results as far as overall Mobo and related components efficiency to get to the same frequency. I can also overclock further with the X6800 than the rest but I would need some serious cooling to do so.

Other than the high cost of the X6800 Extreme processor this system would be a reasonable cost for most who are in the market for a high end new computer. You just have to be willing to take the time to do it. I shopped and bought all my parts online at the lowest prices I could find and in the end I think I got a good deal. It was fun to build it myself too. Good luck with your builds and have fun.

HONkUS · Post by **HONkUS** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:29 pm

Nice build! I dig the turbine fans those things are awesome.