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Built A new PC

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
74,459
44,740
If you recall, I had posted some questions/advice on building out a new computer rig a while ago. Well I finally took the plunge and it was a fun experience.

Being a tad impulsive I was not planning on doing it so soon, but I was at my local Microcenter and they had everything I needed. I probably could have saved a little money on a few things from shopping at newegg, but I couldn't beat the price of the i7-930 at microcenter - only 200 dollars.

The bottom line is I came in just around the 900 dollar mark. I have windows 7 doing a burning in and finished loading my work stuff on windows.

Tonight I'll be loading fedora on the beast and getting that baby configured.

  • Case:......Antec Three Hundred
  • PSU:.......EarthWatts 650 Watt ATX 12V Power Supply
  • CPU:.......Intel Core i7-930
  • MB:........ASUS P6T
  • Ram........OCZ 6GB DDR3-1600 CL8 Memory Kit
  • Video:.....ASUS EAH5670
  • HD:........WD Caviar Black 500gb
  • Optical:...LG Lightscribe burner

While I use/maintain windows desktops and servers at work, its funny to see what the differences are between the macs and PCs. You have to handle apple credit for providing a polished product, that works well and looks nice.

Still, its nice to have this under my belt, its been quite a long time since I did this, heck the last time I built a new computer was back in the 486 days :eek:
 
Looks decent. I've built dozens of similar rigs although they had better GPUs usually but 5670 is a nice a card, not the biggest gaming monster but does its job. You could have saves a hundred or two by choosing cheaper parts (650W PSU is a bit overkill) but in the end, it doesn't really matter.

Congrats! :cool:
 
That's the difficult part. Striking a balance of getting good quality parts and not over paying.

After reading the reviews of the antec PSU on jonnyguru, and microcenter had it for a good price, I couldn't pass up. I paid 90 bucks for it, and I think by going with a cheaper unit, I may be giving up some quality. I opted for 650 just so if I wanted a more powerful GPU and/or add more drives, I'll have power to spare, plus its 80 plus certified.

I'm not really into gaming, so I got a graphics card that was decent enough, but not overly expensive.

What precipitated this was I got the case at newegg for around 20 bucks (msrp 70) after rebates.
 
maflynn said:
That's the difficult part. Striking a balance of getting good quality parts and not over paying.

After reading the reviews of the antec PSU on jonnyguru, and microcenter had it for a good price, I couldn't pass up. I paid 90 bucks for it, and I think by going with a cheaper unit, I may be giving up some quality. I opted for 650 just so if I wanted a more powerful GPU and/or add more drives, I'll have power to spare, plus its 80 plus certified.

I'm not really into gaming, so I got a graphics card that was decent enough, but not overly expensive.

What precipitated this was I got the case at newegg for around 20 bucks (msrp 70) after rebates.
Click to expand...

Mm, it's pretty hard to choose components if you don't know much about them and even if you do, there are million models and hundred manufacturers and all seem decent and good. In the end, most of them are good and do their job.

I build them for living so maybe I've just done too much comparing and seeking for the best price/quality ratio :p As I said, that looks good. Reliable brands and good models
 
Yep, this was my first one in what 20 years :eek:

I was initially overwhelmed by the volume and selection of components. I needed to narrow my list to a few manufacturers based on my research. For instance, seasonic and antec (a couple of others as well). Seasonic was clearly over kill, at least the SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W was and double the price of the earthwatts. It was 80 plus gold certified and a modular PSU to boot but in the end, the antec PSU was a better fit for my needs :)
 
maflynn said:
I was initially overwhelmed by the volume and selection of components. I needed to narrow my list to a few manufacturers based on my research. For instance, seasonic and antec (a couple of others as well). Seasonic was clearly over kill, at least the SeaSonic X650 Gold 650W was and double the price of the earthwatts. It was 80 plus gold certified and a modular PSU to boot but in the end, the antec PSU was a better fit for my needs :)
Click to expand...

Antec doesn't actually make the PSUs, they just case them ;) EarthWatts series uses Seasonic and Delta PSUs which are both great.
 
Yep, I saw that on the johnnyguru site. The 650 is a delta PSU. :D
 
Hellhammer said:
Antec doesn't actually make the PSUs, they just case them ;) EarthWatts series uses Seasonic and Delta PSUs which are both great.
Click to expand...

some times knowing little bits of info like that are really helpful. 6 years ago when I built my last desk top I knew about NEC for my optical drives. NEC is the manufacture for LG, Sony and some of the other big names that just re-brand those drives.

You cut out the middle man and buy directly from the supplier. Saves a few bucks
 
Rodimus Prime said:
some times knowing little bits of info like that are really helpful. 6 years ago when I built my last desk top I knew about NEC for my optical drives. NEC is the manufacture for LG, Sony and some of the other big names that just re-brand those drives.

You cut out the middle man and buy directly from the supplier. Saves a few bucks
Click to expand...

But then you lose LG crapware :(:D It's surprising when you search and find that in the end, they all come from the same factory line even though the "brand" is different :cool:
 
Hellhammer said:
But then you lose LG crapware :(:D It's surprising when you search and find that in the end, they all come from the same factory line even though the "brand" is different :cool:
Click to expand...

Ah the other joy of building your own computer... No crap ware to have to spend weeks trying to find and remove.
 
I have to say that the new computer is a bit louder then what I'm used too. Heck, my wife even said the same thing.

The Antec three hundred has two 120mm fans that you can adjust the speed too. I have those on low, and I added a third fan in front of the hard drive, another 120mm and between the three its quite noticeable.

I'll probably turn off the fan that's on the top of the case and monitor the temps to ensure that things don't get overly warm.

I'm used to a MacBook Pro laptop that is much much quieter. If that's the only complaint, then I can live with that. The fans are doing their job, as the over all temps are in the 30-40s (Celsius) which I'm pretty pleased with, heck my MBP can top out at 80c (but averages 40-50 under normal load).
 
maflynn said:
I have to say that the new computer is a bit louder then what I'm used too. Heck, my wife even said the same thing.

The Antec three hundred has two 120mm fans that you can adjust the speed too. I have those on low, and I added a third fan in front of the hard drive, another 120mm and between the three its quite noticeable.

I'll probably turn off the fan that's on the top of the case and monitor the temps to ensure that things don't get overly warm.

I'm used to a MacBook Pro laptop that is much much quieter. If that's the only complaint, then I can live with that. The fans are doing their job, as the over all temps are in the 30-40s (Celsius) which I'm pretty pleased with, heck my MBP can top out at 80c (but averages 40-50 under normal load).
Click to expand...

Can you hear what fan is causing the noise? I've found out that GPU fans are sometimes pretty noisy. If you can narrow it to one fan, you can use software to slow it down if it's CPU or GPU. Case fans are pretty silent usually
 
Now that you mentioned it, its probably the GPU fan since when I had the case open re-routing wires and stuff last night, I had the fans on they were near silent.

Are GPU fans replaceable? I'll probably be hitting my local microcenter this weekend and I'll probably pick up a quieter solution if one is available
 
maflynn said:
Now that you mentioned it, its probably the GPU fan since when I had the case open re-routing wires and stuff last night, I had the fans on they were near silent.

Are GPU fans replaceable? I'll probably be hitting my local microcenter this weekend and I'll probably pick up a quieter solution if one is available
Click to expand...

Yeah, GPU fan can be replaced. ATI 5670 could possibly work with passive cooling. Try modifying the fan speeds with ATI tool (CCC, communication center whatever it is) first. My parents' PC was loud first but then modified some fan speeds and it's dead silent, ATI 4670 caused most of the noise in this case.
 
maflynn said:
  • Case:......Antec Three Hundred
  • PSU:.......EarthWatts 650 Watt ATX 12V Power Supply
  • CPU:.......Intel Core i7-930
  • MB:........ASUS P6T
  • Ram........OCZ 6GB DDR3-1600 CL8 Memory Kit
  • Video:.....ASUS EAH5670
  • HD:........WD Caviar Black 500gb
  • Optical:...LG Lightscribe burner
Click to expand...

None of this makes any sense to me :confused:
 
Hellhammer said:
Yeah, GPU fan can be replaced. ATI 5670 could possibly work with passive cooling. Try modifying the fan speeds with ATI tool (CCC, communication center whatever it is) first. My parents' PC was loud first but then modified some fan speeds and it's dead silent, ATI 4670 caused most of the noise in this case.
Click to expand...
Good idea, I'll play with the software to adjust the fan speed and/or go with the passive cooling approach

xi mezmerize ix said:
None of this makes any sense to me :confused:
Click to expand...
How so? What I had displayed is the components that make up a pc,i.e., the case is a model 300 case from antec, the motherboard is made by ASUS and its the model P6T. Basically its all of the guts that I needed to assemble a new desktop computer.
 
nice build! Will it be for gaming?

here's one I did back in december. I forgot to take a picture of the complete setup before I sold it. Looking to make a new project:

Loop 1:

- Swiftech Apogee XT
- EK Waterblocks EK-FB EVGA X58 Classified - Nickel Acetal
- HW Labs Black Ice GT Stealth 360 X-Flow Radiator
- Swiftech MCP655 w Spead Controller Pump
- XSPC 5.25 Bay Single Bay Reservoir
- BittsPower Matte Black 7/16 5/8 od Compression Fittings
- Bittspower Matte Black G1/4 Rotary Fittings 45 Degree
- PrimoFlex 7/16 White Tubing
- Petra's Tech Shop PT NuKe
- Distilled Water
- 3x High Speed Yate loons 88CFM

Loop 2:

- EK 5870 Acetal GPU Block
- XSPC 5.25 Bay Reservoir
- Swiftech MCP655 Pump
- Swiftech MCR220 Quiet Power
- Bitspower Matte Black 7/16 5/8 od Compression Fittings
- Bitspower Matte Black G1/4 Rottary Fittings 45 Degree
- PrimoFlex 7/16 Tubing
- PT NUKE
- Distilled Water
- 2x Medium Speed Yate Loons


2n1t7rc.jpg
 
jav6454 said:
That looks like an Corsair 800 D case
Click to expand...

yes it is. initially I was going for the silverstone tj07. But decided to go with the 800d, that thing was a monster. But my next build will include the tj07 and will most likely be a murdermod build.
 
phas3 said:
nice build! Will it be for gaming?
Click to expand...
No, I really don't play too many games. Mostly for work related stuff, and running VMware. I support servers and such, so running windows either natively or via vmware makes sense.

Plus since I had not done this in around 20 years, I was getting an itch to get my geek-on again.

here's one I did back in december. I forgot to take a picture of the complete setup before I sold it. Looking to make a new project:
Click to expand...
Nice setup, a little more involved then what I did, but looks really nice.
 
Hellhammer said:
Can you hear what fan is causing the noise? I've found out that GPU fans are sometimes pretty noisy. If you can narrow it to one fan, you can use software to slow it down if it's CPU or GPU. Case fans are pretty silent usually
Click to expand...

Its not the stock case fans, nor the GPU fan, but the extra one I put in, in the front. I got an el-cheapo cooler-master 120mm fan, and once I disconnected that puppy, the noise level decreased significantly.

Since I'm heading to microcenter this weekend, I'll look for a better quality quieter fan in its place.

While the GPU fan is probably the loudest one in the case, aside from the now disconnected cooler-master, Its not terribly loud. I'll probably live with that, for now, though I do forsee going with something quieter in the near future.
 
maflynn said:
Its not the stock case fans, nor the GPU fan, but the extra one I put in, in the front. I got an el-cheapo cooler-master 120mm fan, and once I disconnected that puppy, the noise level decreased significantly.

Since I'm heading to microcenter this weekend, I'll look for a better quality quieter fan in its place.

While the GPU fan is probably the loudest one in the case, aside from the now disconnected cooler-master, Its not terribly loud. I'll probably live with that, for now, though I do forsee going with something quieter in the near future.
Click to expand...

Good :cool: Case fans aren't that expensive, around ~15$ for a good one. I recommend Noctua for all cooling stuff, they make very high quality and efficient thus silent coolers. Unfortunately, they don't make GPU cooler as far as I know but take a look at Zalman and Thermalright for GPU cooling (they have good other coolers as well).
 
I've used Zalman in the past, so I'm comfortable with them, but I'll definitely look at Noctua as well.

Thanks
Mike
 
I wanted to update this thread as I made one change in attempting to turn this into a hackintosh.

First, while windows 7 is a huge improvement over vista and xp, I do miss OSX. Doing my initial research I was informed that with the exception of the GPU, my setup was compatible with OSX. So without further ado, I returned the ATI HD5670 to microcenter and picked up a GTX260 at newegg (for same price so it was a wash and I got a faster card.).

With that said, turning my Core i7 into a hackintosh has been a nightmare, nothing to worked and based on various threads over at insanelymac, it seems the P6T motherboard is not as compatible as I was led to believe. I did stumble upon a thread that gets snow leopard on a p6t motherboard but it seems so overly long and complex, including installing Leopard and the SL. It just wasn't worth it, as I do have a mac mini for my children that I can use.

Eventually what I did get working, was loading OSX into vmware, and performance is pretty good. In many ways exceeding the performance of my MacBook Pro. I now have the best of both worlds, a nice windows 7 setup for work, and an OSX environment for my home stuff :D
 
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