New Build - Updated w/ pics

Err · Post by **Err** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 1:54 pm

I finally decided to upgrade my aging Q6600 and GTX275.

MSI P67A-GD65 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

MSI N560GTX-Ti Hawk GeForce GTX 560 Ti

2 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM

NZXT LEXA S LEXS - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

I'll post pics and results once I get it built.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 6:29 pm

no SSD for OS?

Err · Post by **Err** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 6:57 pm

b-man1 wrote:no SSD for OS?

I may add an SSD later when the prices drop a bit more.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:42 pm

looks like a great rig either way. the prices of RAM these days are great too...love it!

Post by **TonyH** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:02 pm

That looks like a sweet rig, a good folding rig too. Probably an easy 20k+ ppd production. In case you're interested.

MAC · Post by **MAC** » Wed Sep 07, 2011 10:21 pm

Very nice!!

Err · Post by **Err** » Fri Sep 09, 2011 4:27 pm

I got my case yesterday. The rest of the stuff has been on a UPS truck since 6:45 am today. I even took a vacation day so I could be here to receive it. It's now 5:25 pm and I haven't see a hint of a UPS truck. I'm chatting with Newegg now.

Update:Finally got it at 10 till 6. They didn't even knock on the door or have me sign for it. I'm going to start avoiding UPS.

Err · Post by **Err** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 4:15 pm

I got this together without much fuss.

The motherboard is well laid out. The only change all manufacturers need to make is to locate the ram further away from the CPU. Many aftermarket heatsinks will interfere with some of the taller ram heatsinks. The CPU retention bracket is very sturdy.

As you can see, the Coolermaster H212 heatsink is massive compared with the stock Intel. Aside from the 1155 socket pin locations, this heatsink is virtually identical to those used on the Core2Duos.

The H212 mounting plate is very sturdy. It comes with a socket to tighten the nuts with a Philips screwdriver.

The heatsink screws to the mounting plate. It seemed to take a lot of paste to cover the base. This heatsink doesn't have a flat mounting plate. instead, the heatpipes make direct contact with the processor. It I hadn't purchased the low profile Corsair, I would've had to move the fan to the other side and set it up to pull. My friend has an identical processor and due to his ram heatsinks, set his up this way without any loss is cooling capacity. I'm getting 30 to 35 C at idle and 50 to 55 C under 90 to 100% load.

Much of the case instructions were in Engrish. I had to search the internet to figure out how to make the case fan control work. Overall, I'm pleased with the case. The grommets needed to be larger. My install would've been easier if I had a modular power supply. I ended up tucking many of the wired in the 3.5 bays and coiling the rest behind the power supply.

This was helpful. If I hadn't read the case instructions, I would've never figured out how to get the components in:

I thought this would make a good bumper sticker or t-shirt:

I had lots of wires to hide:

I managed to wedge everything in and get the sides on:

I may get an SSD later but I'm pleased with this build so far. I've tried TF2, Batman AA, Portal 2, and Dead Island on max setting, 16 x AA and AF. The only game that's really pushing the card is Dead Island. The twin fans are very loud when they get going.

While I like the motherboard, MSI need to do a better job on their bios interface. They use the graphical bios and the version that came on it was very clunky. You are supposed to be able to update it by using the Live Update feature available by booting to the driver disk. This failed to boot for me. I eventually got the bios setting correct for my ram and drives and installed Windows 7. Once that was installed, I was able to update the bios. The newest version is much less clunky. However, it wiped all of my settings.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 9:52 pm

Well if you get an SSD it will definately improve your Windows Experience Index...

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 2:51 pm

Always nice when everything goes together without too much of a hitch. Those RAM slots are pretty close to the socket. However, I believe too much distance makes things unstable from what I've read.

CaterpillarAssassin · Post by **CaterpillarAssassin** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 6:42 pm

I am not much for computer aesthetics anymore, but I must say that that case and MB are works of art.overall nice build!

one question though. With all those great components, why no i7 2600k?

Err · Post by **Err** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 7:29 pm

CaterpillarAssassin wrote:I am not much for computer aesthetics anymore, but I must say that that case and MB are works of art.overall nice build!

one question though. With all those great components, why no i7 2600k?

Thank You.

I couldn't see paying the $100 premium for it. I originally had it and a 570 in my cart but the I5 and 560Ti Hawk would get me where I wanted to be for $200 less. If the processor was only $50 more, I'd have jumped on it. So far, I'm happy with the I5.

CaterpillarAssassin · Post by **CaterpillarAssassin** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 7:25 am

Fair enough. I don't think you will have problems running any current game at max visuals with that anyways!

Wonder how fast that gfx card will fold?