Built a new PC

[lewisner]

Lewisner's rig looks super purty, and I'm sure the water cooling unit will open the door for some serious overclocking and power computing.
Like John, I had budget issues when compiling my wish list. I settled on air cooling (via a huge Noctua NH14 w/twin 140mm fans) for my 3.99Ghz overcloclocked Intel i7 950 quad core processor.
After 2 years the rig runs just fine. rarely exceeding 52-54 degC at the processor.
I did think of future expansion also, powering the monster with a 1000 watt Corsair PS.
The case.........a sturdy Cooler Master HAF932, which offers plenty of space, 3 - 230 mm fans for air circulation front side and top. Also a 140mm fan at rear, mounted for the power supply.
I'm getting the feeling that my NVidia GTX 570 video card may be getting a bit dated, although I've had no issues to date. I can afford $500 for a newer one, maybe 6 months or a year from now; but $1k is definately outa' the question!
I put WIN7 Home on a 80 Gb Intel SSD. I bought a Intel 120 GB SSD and installed it over a year ago, which has only TS12 on it. Both SSD's are doing just fine, being both all in the green when I checked them last week.
Two months ago I installed a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD audio card to take a bit of load off the CPO and MOBO. Sounds great, especially with headphone. (I got cheep speekers!)
Regards and good luck with your new rigs, gents.

Thank you! :wave: Just uploaded a short video to Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56at21XAagY&list=UUt2-YCmrLjCvF2g-qke10Gg

 

[JCitron]

That is awesome!

Great job with the water cooling setup.

John

 

[lewisner]

That is awesome!

Great job with the water cooling setup.

John

Thanks! Although the watercooling is for the CPU only it was quite daunting since all the "guides" seem to assume you are going to do full blown WC of the CPU, GPU, RAM and motherboard immediately. Then there is the fact that in the UK there are less components available and the better ones are ferociously expensive so a wrong decision can cost you a lot of dosh.
However once I had settled on a final plan I did a bit of work installing it, went out for a couple of pints then finished it off!

 

[TrainHawk]

Everyone here has an amazing pc and i'm sat here on a laptop with these specs:

Intel Quad core i7 3.4ghz
Nvidia Geforce gtz 660m (2gb)
16gb ram
2x500gb hdd

Is this any good for a laptop?

 

[lewisner]

Everyone here has an amazing pc and i'm sat here on a laptop with these specs:

Intel Quad core i7 3.4ghz
Nvidia Geforce gtz 660m (2gb)
16gb ram
2x500gb hdd

Is this any good for a laptop?

Its a monster. Make and model number?

 

[fran1]

Everyone here has an amazing pc and i'm sat here on a laptop with these specs:

Intel Quad core i7 3.4ghz
Nvidia Geforce gtz 660m (2gb)
16gb ram
2x500gb hdd

Is this any good for a laptop?

I'd say it's a reasonable gaming laptop, certainly not the usual ones that folk try to run trainz on.

 

[fran1]

Its a monster. Make and model number?

Looks like a medion. Nope, they use 670 and 680m's.

 

[JCitron]

Everyone here has an amazing pc and i'm sat here on a laptop with these specs:

Intel Quad core i7 3.4ghz
Nvidia Geforce gtz 660m (2gb)
16gb ram
2x500gb hdd

Is this any good for a laptop?

Welcome to the forums!

This should run Trainz okay. In addition to my desktop PC, I have an Alienware M17x which runs Trainz just fine even for a slightly 'older' model with the ATI graphics card. This 660m should be fine for you. Remember though it's still a laptop and will get very, very hot. Get yourself a big cooler to put underneath it, and by all means never run it directly on your bed or couch, or worse directly on your lap. This will cause the machine to overheat and die quickly. Trainz does put a lot of stress on computers when you really get going in it, and laptops really don't have the heat dissipation that desktops have.


John

 

[lewisner]

Get yourself a big cooler to put underneath it

Like this http://www.coolermaster.in/product.php?product_id=6750

 

[steamboateng]

Yeah, TrainHawk, that seems to be a fairly decent gaming laptop. How does it handle TS12.
Lewisner, I watched your video........and I have one comment............
:udrool:....................showoff!

 

[lewisner]

Yeah, TrainHawk, that seems to be a fairly decent gaming laptop. How does it handle TS12.
Lewisner, I watched your video........and I have one comment............
:udrool:....................showoff!

No way. That's only the rig in my garage. I can't take a photo of my main rig till I get a wide angle lens. :hehe:

 

[lewisner]

Just added a couple of Bitfenix Spectre Pro 200mm fans to the top of my PC to help quell the inferno.


Bitfenix Spectre Pro Fans (1) 7.3.13 by pinzac55, on Flickr

 

[lewisner]

Latest upgrade is a Phobya Xtreme 200 radiator for the front of my case seen here just before going in


Phobya Radiator Assembly (3) 30.4.13 by pinzac55, on Flickr

And after a bleed , total retube and refill


Computer Rebuild 2.5.13 by pinzac55, on Flickr

 

[JCitron]

That's awesome, Lewis.

You won't need to put on the heat in the winter.

How's your Geforce 690 running? I've had great luck with the 680 so far.

John

 

[lewisner]

Thank you! I certainly will not put the heat on in the winter because I just got my leccy bill and it looked like a mathematical equation :'(

GTX 690 is running just fine and BTW they are coming down in price on Ebay - you can get a good used one for £450 now.

 

[lewisner]

All of my links no longer function because, like many Flickr users, I am appalled at what they have done to their site so I have moved to Ipernity http://www.ipernity.com/home/pinzac55
Here are 3 shots of my latest upgrade, an EK waterblock for my GTX 690 graphics card.


Computer GPU Watercooled (1) 11.7.13 par PinzaC55, on ipernity


Computer GPU Watercooled (2) 11.7.13 par PinzaC55, on ipernity


Computer GPU Watercooled (3) 11.7.13 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

 

[Gandalf0444]

 

[drchoi21]

man that ATX board is tiny in there:hehe:

 

[malikrthr]

Those computer builds are looking awesome. I just had some practice cleaning out 3 full tower cases. This weekend, I am going to work on cleaning out my own case with a can of dust destroyer.

 

[Gandalf0444]

man that ATX board is tiny in there:hehe:

Even an XLATX would look tiny:hehe: