Project: Urgentfury

[Omega]

So I figure since I'm actually planning on doing some things to my case, I may as well take the time to make a thread on here.

There is no ultimate "end" plan here, this is simply a deposit box type thread for any and all modifications i make to my computer.

It's been largely unchanged since I purchased it, with the exception of cleaning up the cables a little bit, which I did all of about 45mins ago.

pics of that:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Ej1n9AiDnbA/TyPDDRJBYNI/AAAAAAAAAxA/rDAY4__D_e4/s720/IMG_20120128_004008.jpg
before

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-JPV00hgSjjk/TyPCT1SGvLI/AAAAAAAAAw4/jt4FQJ9MSjc/s720/IMG_20120128_012528.jpg

after.


i also just placed an order with Xoxide to pick up two new 120mm blue LED fans to replace the black rear fan and the burned out top, a blue SATA cable to replace the orange one, a silver round-style IDE cable to replace the ribbon, and a 12" LED light bar, because cold cathodes blow. Going to install the LED bar on a rocker switch so I can turn it off (or on) at night depending on what I want.

The only other plan/idea right now is to cut a custom window for it out of plexiglass and replace the left side mesh paneling with a window. I never really use the side-mount fans and I would love to be able to see in to my case again, like I could with my old CM Cavalier.

[Omega]

Well between trying to decide what CPU and GPU to buy, I figured to hell with it and just settled on buying a new system entirely.

Pretty much the only things staying are going to be the PSU, two of my hard drives and the case.

This is all tentative, but right now this is the specs of the system I'm looking to build:
Intel Core i5-2310 2.9GHz Quad Core
ASRock H61ICAFE ATX motherboard
Kingston HyperX 8GB (4x2GB) DDR3 1333 RAM
eVGA GeForce GTX550Ti
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 6.0GB/s 3.5" drive

thoughts? It's going to be replacing a C2D E4500 2.2GHz dual core, some MSI motherboard, eVGA 7800GT, 2gb of PNY RAM and an 80GB IDE drive.

[Neodymium]

Specs look good :) Look forward to seeing it...whatever you are building is gonna be better than the C2D :D

[Fuganater]

Looks like a good setup. How many Watts is your PSU?

[Omega]

Specs look good :) Look forward to seeing it...whatever you are building is gonna be better than the C2D :D

Yeah, seriously. I don't do a ton of gaming or anything but having a computer with technology from this decade would be nice. Plus I'm sure Win7 wouldn't mind running on a little more horsepower.



Looks like a good setup. How many Watts is your PSU?

850W, it's a really slick cooler master unit I got for christmas a few years back. The casing is like a dark black chrome kinda thing. It looks super rad, shame I don't have a case to show it off.

I was planning on getting a modular PSU but with a full ATX case there's plenty of spaces to hide my cables in so that's not really a big concern anymore.

[Neodymium]

Good luck, mate...:up:

[Omega]

A picture of the PSU in question, not the best pic but I assure you the psu looks awesome.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-iF0HG8U6DXU/TyRsqnSnzEI/AAAAAAAAAxM/TgQWDjApOnU/s720/IMG_20120128_134038.jpg



https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-pdYxEDdZ6pw/TyRuEWNfhQI/AAAAAAAAAxY/LK0g-Z6bqAU/s720/IMG_20120128_134218.jpg

aaand the other side of the case. all but two of the unused wires were able to be shoved between the PSU and the back of the case. It's not the most elegant solution but it works. The two that run around the back then towards the drives are my molex and SATA-power connections. as it is now, there's only one SATA power connector but when I get my new HD that'll change.

I'm also debating cutting out holes for the power connectors when I put in the new motherboard. On one hand, it would look a lot slicker from the front, but the back would look arguably worse and it's not like I have many cables showing in the first place.

[Neodymium]

But your side panel would be covering most of it anyway...if not you can use some foam and velcro to cover that stuff up :D then, when you open the side panel to show the backside, you just see - nothing...lol

[Fuganater]

I just wanted to be sure you had enough power since it came from an old system.

[Omega]

I just wanted to be sure you had enough power since it came from an old system.

yeah, it was way overkill when I got it but it's got plenty of capability to power the new system. it was certainly a top-end PSU when i picked it up.

[d_stilgar]

Man, the one thing I don't love about the Stacker 830 is the difficulty in hiding cables. It's so huge you would think it would be easy, but then you use up all the cable trying to get from one end of the case to the other.

I'll have pics of my computer up soon. Good to see you around again Omega. It's been a while.

[Omega]

Man, the one thing I don't love about the Stacker 830 is the difficulty in hiding cables. It's so huge you would think it would be easy, but then you use up all the cable trying to get from one end of the case to the other.

I'll have pics of my computer up soon. Good to see you around again Omega. It's been a while.

Yeah, the damned thing is _huge_.

what I may end up doing is seeing about getting/making extensions for the cables so I can make it a little neater.

Though having the space in the back to shove cables is nice, I certainly wouldn't be able to shove them so neatly in a mid-ATX tower.

[Omega]

superminiupdate, but I decided if/when I buy the new components, I'm not going to get the ASRock.

Decided I'm gonna keep with the color theme (and mobo manufacturer) and stick with an MSI:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130583


So I'm gonna go from an Intel Chip on an MSI Board with an eVGA graphics card to... an Intel Chip on an MSI Board with and eVGA graphics card.

At least I'm consistient, eh?

edit\\

also one of my current 120mm fans is failing so I went to a local PC store to go pick up a replacement -- a 120mm LED fan was $20! I'll just wait for my $8 fans to show up from Xoxide. ETA on that shipment is the 6th, hopefully it turns up early but if nothing else that'll probably be my next upgrade. Unless I make my way to the local acrylic shop... ;)

[Omega]

Couple of updates today.

Ordered an eVGA GTX 550 Ti.

Installed my two 120mm yate loon LED fans, the Logisys LED light bar and the rounded IDE cable.

Before:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/418819_10150646364164515_699184514_10938828_690519 062_n.jpg

light bar off:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/417119_10150646365064515_699184514_10938832_468744 626_n.jpg


and the light bar on:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/s720x720/166922_10150646365344515_699184514_10938834_201276 4937_n.jpg

it's actually really bright, which I'm happy with. Maybe I'll see about getting a lights-off pic with it where it sits now.

edit\\

as promised:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/427192_10150646431434515_699184514_10939036_890726 47_n.jpg

[Neodymium]

Lookin' good :up: how long before the evga card arrives?

[Omega]

Lookin' good :up: how long before the evga card arrives?

Wednesday.


Also, looking at the case, the drive bay latches are visible, as is a little portion of the top section of the case. This is, of course, completely unacceptable.

So now the plan is to either get some alu or plexi and make a few covers to help make it look cleaner, as well as more lighting! I'm thinking of going with yellow cabling to accent the blue (plus it's swedish colors!). But I really am liking the "mesh window" look so I'm going to leave the mesh on there.

[Aldersan]

What about possibly making holes in the motherboard tray near the edge of the motherboard, to help hide cabling? I'm not sure how much room you have behind your motherboard tray so I don't know if it's a viable option, but it would definitely help clean it up.

Other than that, it's looking great!

[Omega]

Got the GTX 550 Ti today, installed and running.

Very first impression: Damn, this thing is quiet! Compared to the dinky little fan on the 7800GT that spun at about a million rpm (and thus made a ton of noise), the (much larger) fan on the GTX 550 means it's quieter, and just feeling the airflow coming from it is improved too. So that's good.

Updated my Windows experience index, Graphics went from 5.9 to 7.0 and 3d graphics from 5.4 to 7.0. So that's a healthy jump in performance for not much cash. I'm pleased with that. I will of course proceed with practical testing with some Fallout: NV and Left 4 Dead 2.

Some pics:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-wDlbq9HapSA/TzMeIVpoAxI/AAAAAAAAAxk/gKVDXqGARIg/s720/IMG_20120208_165207.jpg
The old. 7800GT, you've been a good friend and a loyal companion, serving me with hundreds of hours of quality gaming entertainment. Even in your old age you even worked flawlessly, retaining the performance you were made with and continuing to function regardless of several times overheating due to a clogged heatsink and many hours of abuse. You'll be missed, but not forgotten.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-aeso4QViUKg/TzMfyul6Y0I/AAAAAAAAAxw/-cmo38dAcHk/s720/IMG_20120208_165525.jpg
And here you lie, on your death bed, next to your successor. May he offer as much pleasure and reliability as you have, 7800GT. May he wear the EVGA logo with pride, and deliver on promises of increased performance.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zrmRQDP0JJc/TzMgKKt5OpI/AAAAAAAAAx4/Ts5Hz0blSik/s720/IMG_20120208_165801.jpg
And here it is, the replacement for the legendary 7800GT, sitting in it's PCI-e slot ready and waiting to begin it's life of service.


Let's compare the specs:
7800GT:
445MHz GPU
20 Pixel pipelines
256mb GDDR3 @ 1070MHz

GTX 550 Ti:
951MHz GPU
192 processor cores
1gb GDDR5 @ 4356MHz

[Aldersan]

Okay, you got your new card, now it's time to make your case acceptable for such a nice card :D

[Omega]

Okay, you got your new card, now it's time to make your case acceptable for such a nice card :D

Trust me, this is the best looking of any card I've ever had.

The real work will happen after I get my new board and AM3+ CPU, that way i can lay out the cuts to the mobo tray with the actual board in place and make it super clean and specific for my mobo.

So right now the plan is:
upgrade mobo/cpu
do as much wire hiding as possible -- single connector IDE cable for the optical, retire my 80gb IDE HD and replace it with a 500gb SATA unit. This will make all 3 hard drives SATA.

One of my SATA drives has a weird-ass really wide connector on it for whatever reason. I've long since thrown out the documentation but I remember it urging having that specific SATA cable on it. Since I can't get the SATAs all color matched with normal cables this way, I'm going to dye the cable black and sleeve it with yellow. The remainder of the SATA cables will receive the same treatment, so that they look the same.

Part of the drive bays/latching mechanisms/etc are visible through the mesh so I want to make a cover/panel to put over that. The only issue with that is lighting -- it looks odd having a dark portion through the mesh, but there's no real space for lighting. I may just have to suck it up here and deal with it. I would like the cover to extend far enough to the rear of the case that it can be bent backwards and act as a sort of "cover" for the hard drives + their cables, so you don't see anything there. I would also set it up with a 120mm fan to aid airflow across the hard drives.

Right now what I'm battling with though is how to do the PCI-e wiring. The connector is basically in the physical center of the case and I don't want it to stick out or be like it is now, but the connector on the gfx card isn't really near a panel or something I could hide it under. What I'm probably going to do is run it behind the mobo tray like everything else and do my best to form the cabling near the card itself so that it doesn't stand out too much.

The real problem here is what am I gonna do while my desktop when it's down under the knife! Luckily, I may be getting my EEEpc up and running again soon so that'll help, but I'm not a big fan of using dinky little computers... if you couldn't tell from the full ATX tower + dual monitors ;)

[Aldersan]

Here, to solve your pci-e cable troubles! http://pcpartsandmore.ecrater.com/p/5737994/6-pin-to-pci-e-90-degree-right-angle

[Omega]

Almost two years from my last update...

Ran an AMD A10-5800K and a Biostar motherboard the past 6mo, was having issues with it so I switched over to the intel equivalent of my AMD mobo (Biostar, same series) and an i5-3570K.

After breaking the stock cooler fan on the 550 Ti, I decided to go Arctic and put a Twin Turbo Accelero II in there.

Also fitted a Freezer i30 on to the new CPU, to finish the whole Arctic cooling trend. They're both awesome coolers and I'm hugely pleased.

So, let's run down the current build:

Biostar T-Overclocker series Motherboard, Intel Z77 chipset
Intel Core i5-3570K (Unlocked) w/ Arctic Cooling Freezer i30
eVGA GTX 550 Ti w/ Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo Accelero II
8gb G.Skill DDR3 RAM, 4x2gb
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD, Barracuda 250GB HDD and some WD 160GB HDD
Cooler Master 850W PSU


Unfortunately I feel like the Stacker is getting a bit dated in terms of looks, and the GTX 550Ti is getting a bit dated in terms of performance. I've been looking at Radeon R9 270Xs, Gigabyte makes one that already has a really hardcore HSF combo on it which would be nice since I can't find another GPU cooler that's pretty much on par with the Accelero.

Also been looking at more straightforward cases -- The Stacker is nice but a bit too "pre-modded" for my tastes. I think it'd be nice to get a really plain, simple case and just do a straightforward, clean build. Good cable management, color coordination, etc.

Pics:
http://i.imgur.com/0D79Lxr.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WVPD9k2.jpg