Project: New Genesis - New GTX690 & 32GB of RAM!

[TheGreatSatan]

I've decided after several years of having my R2-M5 Astromech as my primary gaming machine that I would finally get rid of it. He's really a huge headache to work inside and I've been thinking how nice it would be if I could have a normal with easy access.

I'll be taking out the old parts and moving them to a new case. My origianl specs are:

Intel 2600K
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H
16GB DDR3
240GB Vertex 3
Zotac GTX 480 Amped!
1000 Watt PSU

Instead, I'll be using this Azza Genesis 9000. Except it will need to be modded for my purposes

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110687.jpg

First I need to take it apart and replace all of the fans

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110692.jpg

The motherboard tray comes out too

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110696.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110698.jpg

And now it's naked

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110705.jpg

Time for the repaint

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110706.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110708.jpg

I need to repaint all of the metal mesh too

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110716.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110717.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110719.jpg

And I put in the contrasting slot covers

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110724.jpg

Now to start dropping in new parts, starting with a more powerful 1275 watt 80 Platinum Power Supply

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110712.jpg

And a cool new touch screen fan controller

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110713.jpg

Don't forget an internal DVD drive (R2 didn't have one) and lots of cathodes

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110714.jpg

I'll be starting with the two new 200mm Red LED fans

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110715.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110723.jpg

Now to put in the new PSU

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110722.jpg

And started the reassembly

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110728.jpg

Now that the metal mesh is done drying

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110730.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110731.jpg

I can put it all together again

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110736.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110741.jpg

Next, I need to fix the top. How did Azza expect this case to breath with such tiny vents?

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110735.jpg

I'll be cutting it out and replacing the whole thing with more mesh that I got from MNPCTech

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110754.jpg

I quickly cut out the top fins and then used hot glue to affix the wiring into place

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110755.jpg

Once the mesh was cut to size I had to paint it to match

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110772.jpg

And now it's all in place

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110777.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110781.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110779.jpg

On to the cooling. I had a Corsair H60 water cooler in there at one time , but it started making noises so I removed it and used an air cooler instead.

This one is new

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110756.jpg

Except I really love high CFM Enermax Vegas fans

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110766.jpg

More to come

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110780.jpg

[CorsePerVita]

Nice work man! I would love to see a pic of it in the dark all lit up with the cathodes. Going to be awesome when it's 100% done.

[AmEv]

When you said "Genesis", I was thinking the console.....


Shoulda thought you meant a case name.






Looks good, as usual!

[TLHarrell]

Sweet mod. Simple and quick.

[d_stilgar]

What number is this? Is this 50 or are we past that now?

[Fuganater]

Nice mod. Too bad your not putting a custom loop in this. Its huge.

[ARTbyTROY]

The red mesh looks really good against the black.

[mDust]

Nice work! I'm a sucker for red and black combos. Give us another!

[TheGreatSatan]

What number is this? Is this 50 or are we past that now?

Yep, we're at 51 now

Time to cut out my window in the right panel

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110783.jpg

Like so...

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110784.jpg

And then add two 120mm Red LED Cooler Master Sickleflow fans to each panel. The right side will be intakes and the left will be the exhaust

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110785.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110788.jpg

We're nearing the time to put in the parts. I have a huge surprise coming too:banana:

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110791.jpg

[mDust]

OMG! TGS is giving me this build when it's done! That's the surprise!:D

Thanks TGS!



Can't blame a guy for trying, right?

[TheGreatSatan]

Part of it is that I have a new GTX 680 and 32GB of RAM to add to it.

[TheGreatSatan]

I added the plexi to the panel

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110794.jpg

And now it's time to gut my R2. I've already found him a new home in my basement

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110798.jpg

One upgrade I'm making is going up to 32GB of RAM. Will I ever actually need that much memory?

No, but it's cool to have.

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110796.jpg

The only drive in the system is my tried and true 240GB Vertex 3. I have no use for any other drives, especially not mechanical ones

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110801.jpg

I transferred over my motherboard, added the RAM and connected power supply and the waterblock

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110814.jpg

I still have to add the video card

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110818.jpg

[AmEv]

I must say, your room looks a lot cleaner than mine....

[TheGreatSatan]

Initially I bought a GTX 580 for this build

http://www.noticias3d.com/imagenes/noticias/201011/evga_GTX580sc_1.jpg

but after 10 days it had issues so I returned it and paid the difference for a GTX680 instead.

http://i406.photobucket.com/albums/pp143/TheGreatSatan/P1110751.jpg

Yesterday we got in a new card I just had to have it. I hadn't opened my 680 yet, so this morning I returned it for the GTX 690!!! :banana:

http://hardzone.es/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/eVGA-GTX-690.jpg

[mDust]

One upgrade I'm making is going up to 32GB of RAM. Will I ever actually need that much memory?

No, but it's cool to have.

The only drive in the system is my tried and true 240GB Vertex 3. I have no use for any other drives, especially not mechanical ones
*cough*24GB Ramdisk (http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk/)*cough*
It would cost $19 for the software, but you can make a 4GB ramdisk for free to test it out and see if you like it...which you will if you like 2-4GB/s transfer rates. We're talking games with no loading screens if it's a gaming rig...or just beast-performance if it's not. The only downside is that reboots take a painfully long time with large ramdisks. Hibernate is the name of the game.

EDIT: That card is sick!

[Stonerboy779]

Initially I bought a GTX 580 for this build

PIC

but after 10 days it had issues so I returned it and paid the difference for a GTX680 instead.

PIC

Yesterday we got in a new card I just had to have it. I hadn't opened my 680 yet, so this morning I returned it for the GTX 690!!! :banana:

Oh god haha what would you say to a customer if they came to you doing the same thing?


*cough*24GB Ramdisk (http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk/)*cough*
It would cost $19 for the software, but you can make a 4GB ramdisk for free to test it out and see if you like it...which you will if you like 2-4GB/s transfer rates. We're talking games with no loading screens if it's a gaming rig...or just beast-performance if it's not. The only downside is that reboots take a painfully long time with large ramdisks. Hibernate is the name of the game.

EDIT: That card is sick!

I ran a ramdisk on my laptop for a while because for whatever reason it was deemed that my pos laptop needed 8gb of RAM haha
Was fun in skyrim only getting black flashes as it went to start the loading screen as i change between interior and exterior cells instantly.

However when it meant my reboots went from 30seconds to 3mins i decided nah its not worth it haha however I am still waiting for a chance to do it again on a desktop that will remain primarily always on :)

[TheGreatSatan]

I always shut down when the system is not in use

[TheGreatSatan]

So, my video card has been the Zotac GTX 480 Amped! which has just been wonderful. It has easily handled everything I have thrown at it

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/gtx480.jpg

A month ago I got a great deal on a GTX580 so I jumped on it, but bought the warranty like I always do

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/gtx580.jpg

Then after just 10 days it started having issues where I would get green squares and then my drivers would crash.

So, I cashed in my warranty and bought the GTX680 instead

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110751.jpg

Three days went by and the GTX 690 came in and I knew I had to have it. The following morning I exchanged my GTX680 for the GTX690!!:eek:

This is the first time in all my ten years of building PC's that have I owned the best video card on the market while it was still the top card available

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110820.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110821.jpg

The updside-down "Geforce GTX" is a little annoying

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110822.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110823.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110827.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110830.jpg

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110835.jpg

My Windows score didn't change even with the 32GB of memory, but it is only DDR3-1333 and not insane 2133 or something

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110838.jpg

[AmEv]

Your graphics card score, though....

[TheGreatSatan]

Same as with my GTX480

[TheGreatSatan]

I realized that I only had about 60GB left on my current 240GB SSD, so I got a second 240GB SSD to compliment it

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110839.jpg

I also added two more red cathodes to the top of the case. That makes four cathodes and ten LED fans, ALL red! :banana:

http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110845.jpg

[OvRiDe]

The GEFORCE GTX is upside down.

[TheGreatSatan]

I'll be covering it up soon

Final specs are:

Intel 2600K @ 4.4GHz
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H
32GB DDR3
EVGA GTX 690
240GB Vertex 3
240GB SanDisk Extreme
1275 Watt Enermax Platinum PSU
Corsair H60
Modified Azza Genesis

[TheGreatSatan]

Completion pics:


http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110888.jpg
http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110885.jpg
http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110883.jpg
http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110882.jpg
http://www.pcmodhouse.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/p1110862.jpg

[mDust]

Covering it up, eh?:mad:
Nice job though!