my computer mods (in progress)

[m0de]

I just recently put some more money into my current computer that I think will turn out to be a pretty cool project once all the parts arrive (in like 3 days). Heres a look at my current setup before the parts I just purchased are installed:

this video was taken in november of last year..

case: COOLER MASTER Elite 430
motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s
processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz
ram: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
videocard: ASUS GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) x2 (only one installed at the moment)
harddrive: Seagate Barracuda XT ST33000651AS 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
psu: Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W
other: AeroCool Touch 2000 Controller (fan speed controller)

after trying to overclock my system using stock air cooling was a fail although not surprising.. I decided to get an aftermarket heatsink fan in an attempt to lower my cpu temps. I opted to get the ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler after doing some research, but the thing just didnt cut it. it looked really cool installed as seen below:



so with some extra money saved up I decided to fix my cooling issue. after help from fellow FFR user el_rayford who is a boss when it comes to hardware questions, I set my eyes on this beast:

CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler - $114.99
"Featuring a full 240mm radiator and two 120mm fans, the Corsair Hydro Series H100 extreme performance liquid CPU cooler is designed to deliver cooling performance that meets the needs of even the most demanding enthusiast."



I have absolutely no experience with watercooling, but the h100 is great for people like me getting my hands wet so to say with watercooling. This setup is maintenance free.. meaning I never have to add/change water. The pump is incorporated into the cpu block. With my current case, it would be a real tight fit. Thats when I decided bigger is better and purchased this to go along with the new cooling unit:

Antec DF-85 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower - $129.99



youtube video of a quick overview of the case to see just how awesome it it:

and to make sure it showcases nice I also picked up the NZXT Premium Sleeved LED Kit (white). Its basically a flat strip of white LED lights that im going to mount around the window of my case. although the majority of my case fans/LED lights on the fans of this new case are red.. I think that getting the red LED lights would be overkill, and that white would showcase the internal components better. newegg prices the 2m set at $26.99. heres some pictures to get an idea:





once I move my hardware into the new case, I plan on putting together some spare parts into the old case and making it a file server.

tl;dr im a nerd. by wednesday/thursday I plan to make some videos/pics of me assembling this beast.

[AlexDest]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

mmmm shiny *wets lips*

pretty sick stuff, can't wait to see it when it's finished 8)

[Oni-Paranoia]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

Pic dump during the setup process, please and thank you.

I have a thing with seeing hardware slowly come together, just looks so damn awesome.

[m0de]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

Pic dump during the setup process, please and thank you.

I have a thing with seeing hardware slowly come together, just looks so damn awesome.

:] plan on doing pic/video dumps. lots of pics, and maybe some unboxing of the new hardware as well as videos of assembly and finished product. really excited to see the end result~

edit just added up the newegg invoices: $2259.58

[MaxGhost]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

Intense. I wish I had $$ to build my desktop. I just have a very nice empty used case from a friend. I plan to fill it up with an AMD CPU/GPU setup once I have money.

[m0de]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

soooo everything here! not finished with the install yet but here is some pics there will be more to come tomorrow when i setup all the wire management:

yayyyy boxes:


shot of the lights prior to unboxxing (these will go around the window of my case as seen below)



installing the LED wire strip that will make the insides pretty:



i also ordered the h70 JUST in case that the h100 wouldnt be able to be mounted to me case. holy **** was it hard to get the h100 mounted. had to do some thinking to get the h100 mounted. pics later to show some mods to my case in order to fit the h100.. i will be returning the h70.



the extra fan i needed for the window:



the h100 that was a mother****er to install:



so this is the problem i had with mounting the new cooler (corsair h100) the case had holes that looked like they would be fine with mounting this cooler to it.. turns out i ran out of space as the cooler had + a half an inch or so above and below the regular fan holes. i had to drill new holes into my fans to fit this:





heres a size comparison of a mid tower case, to a full size case:





and finally a successful boot:



i will be working on this some more tomorrow with videos and pics of the setup. i have alot of wire management to do its not even funny.

[darkshark]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

You should be building servers instead of pcs, you can get sooooooo much more performance out of them, and still use them as a regular computer too.

I will say that is sexy as fuc though.

[m0de]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

testing some overclocking to see what i can push it to.. from 3.2 - 4ghz with it running cool at idle:



now i have to finish getting the wires looking pretty. ill post some pics of the progress as i get it done.

[TheNoSoMan]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

Do you have the costs for each individual part?

[m0de]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

Do you have the costs for each individual part?

ill look through all my invoices later and post the prices. just finished the build and its pretty sweet lookin! heres some new pics:

first thing i did today was hook up the led lights to the window:


then i had to deal with this giant cluster**** of wires:





heres a look at the radiator in a push/pull setup. 4x 120mm fans bringing air from the outside, into the case:







heres my shitty attempt at drilling new holes to fit the radiator in a case it doesnt support:





a look of the front of the case with the 3x 120mm fans opened up:





running all the wiring through the back of the case:



i ended up zip tieing everything together nicely but didnt take a pic:



all wired up clean and ready to go!:

theres also a video uploading right now that ill post once its done uploading. hope this is interesting to you guys :]

[Izzy]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

Have any old parts you don't want anymore?

btw, computer is looking good... Just expensive.

[m0de]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

Have any old parts you don't want anymore?

btw, computer is looking good... Just expensive.

not really anything to sell at the moment.. unless you want a corsair h70 water cooling system.

[m0de]

Re: my computer mods (in progress)

bumping with a vid now that im home from work:

edit: just now i heated up a hotpocket and it was too hot to eat right now so i opened up one of the front 120mm fan bays and set my hotpocket inside my case and closed the fan so it would cool my hotpocket. winning.