Look at my NEW rig! And thanks to everyone who helped me build it.

[wirelessfender]

Well after months of researching and learning what to choose I finally made some decisions and build myself a new computer. I would like to thank everyone who posted constructive comments on my threads and most importantly I'd like to thank cnumartyr for he helped me out a considerable amount in learning how to overclock, and what hardware to use.

So here are the specs on my new rig and some pictures.

Asus P5K-E motherboard,
Intel Core 2 Quad 6600@3.6GHz, (Thermalright 120-Ultra Extreme)
ATI Radeon HD3870@860/2700, (Thermaltake Duorb gpu cooler)
4 Gigabytes Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 1066,
Creative Audigy 2 ZS,
Western Digital 500 Gigabyte,
Thermaltake Toughpower 700watt,
Antec 900 (7x120mm + 200mm fans),
Merc Stealth Gaming Keyboard,
Logitech Mx518 mouse,
Samsung 226BW 22inch,
Windows XP Pro

After holiday sales and shopping around for the best deals I believe all this came out to a total of $2,000.

On a side note, I originally started out with a Asus Maximus Formula x38 Motherboard. It was defective and what I thought to be overly expensive so I decided to use what cnumartyr has because its cheaper and overclocks like a dream. I also Had a Thermaltake V1 cpu cooler witch proved inefficient at cooling my cpu after 3.2Ghz. I sold it to a friend and got the Thermalright 120-Ultra Extreme witch cost the same but performs much better. I now have my Cpu clocked to 3.6ghz and It has never gone above 60c.

Now for the Kick ass pics!

I would like to note that with the combination of aftermarket cpu coolers and the fan controller I use I can effectively switch off every fan in my case when running my computer idle. The 200mm fan on the top of the Antec Nine Hundred provides sufficient exhaust flow for this. The cpu does reach a core temp of 40c idle, but that’s not bad at all for completely silent computing! However, when stress testing or Gameing or running Folding at home I like to turn some fans on

Notice the push pull fan arrangement to pull cool air from outside the case.

I used the Antec fans that came with the case in a push pull setup on the CPU cooler and replaced the Front fans with Thermaltake 120mm red fans.

The Sunbeam Rheobus Fan Speed Controller Is by far the Best fan controller EVER. The Leds are a bit bright for me but I will fix that on my own. Get yours here: http://www.petrastechshop.com/surhfanspcob.html

The Antec Nine Hundred has precut holes for cable routing. Making for a nice Clean look(inside the case).

Overclocking was fantastic with the Asus P5k-e and a Intel Q6600. I managed to get a very stable 3.6ghz out of it using a vcore of 1.325v at FSB 400x9. After 12 hours of stress testing with Prime 95 My temps never went above 58c! All thanks to the Thermalright 120-Ultra. Get Yours Here!: http://www.petrastechshop.com/thulhecpucos.html
Someday when I’m really bored or something I'll try and get it to 3.8Ghz

And this is my little brother, He likes to stare at the LED's




So thanks again to everyone who helped me out with this build. And If you are like me and have questions about building a computer or Overclocking, Cnumartyr is your guy!

Peace

 

[rgeist554]

Looks great! I do have one tiny suggestions.... move the lava lamp away from the computer. :s If you have an intake there (or your CPU cooler is pulling air in through that slot - it's going to be warm air, which may raise your temps. *edit* After looking at your cooler - it looks like you are venting straight from front to back - so the lava lamp shouldn't be a problem... unless it explodes! :O


Nice touch with the red LED's on the Antec.

 

[Silverion77]

Es muy bright and colorful!!!! I want a similar cooling setup in mine

Quick Question
1) On the front intake, how did you get two extra ones at the end (2 in very front and then two in back of cage). Where did you put the HDD that blocks one of them?

2) With the Thermalright 120, does it block the side fan?

3) What red fans did you use? (Are they transparent?)

 

[spaztic7]

It looks like a great setup.... but I am not one for the multi colors... I think this would look much better with all red led fans so it matches the lava lamp.

 

[rgeist554]

2) With the Thermalright 120, does it block the side fan?

I don't think he has one attached as it really isn't needed.

3) What red fans did you use? (Are they transparent?)

He posted that he had 120mm Thermaltake Red's, it's kinda hard to see in the middle of all the pictures though.

It looks like a great setup.... but I am not one for the multi colors... I think this would look much better with all red led fans so it matches the lava lamp.

I kinda agree with you. I'm going all blue my self... just waiting for my Razer Lachesis (blue) to match my Antec 900.

 

[wirelessfender]

The fans are transparent witch I don’t like so much, but with the way the case conceals them It turns out looking pretty good. As for the multi colors, they have some significance. Blue for Intel, Red for ATI. Some people might not like it, But I do =P. And I Modified the floppy drive conversion bay to house my Hard drive to make room for the extra fan. The only problem with this is if you want more than 1 hard drive you'll have to do without the extra fan witch I will probably end up doing at some point.

Also, I removed the clear plastic on the side window. A fan will not fit there with the thermalright 120 ultra. However It would fit it if you had the cooler mounted horizontal and it exhausted upwards out of the top of the case, witch you can do with the Antec Nine Hundred. Ive also herd that if you want to side fan, you can saw the corner off the housing of the fan and it will fit. I just didnt really care to.

 

[wirelessfender]

What do you guys think of my 3dMark06 score?

 

[cnumartyr]

Great setup man! Glad you finally got it all finished up!

 

[diehard]

Wirelessfender, if possible, can you please post your BIOS setting? I am getting the same motherboard Asus P5K-E for my new build and would like to see your bios setting. Thank you!

 

[eric54]

The 900 has precut holes now? Nice rig, I may rebuy one of these new 900's with the holes, as i cut my own and it is a tough fit to get the back side panel on.

 

[Silverion77]

Blue for Intel, Red for ATI. Some people might not like it, But I do =P. And I Modified the floppy drive conversion bay to house my Hard drive to make room for the extra fan.

The 900 has precut holes now


Too bad you couldn't replace the VGA Coolers LEDs to red

Also, eric, there are precut holes if you want to call them that
Theres one where the PSU goes that really holds it down, but I use as a hole.
Also there are two along the Hard Drive bays. They are pretty useless because you have to get to the holes but I have my fans threaded through them

Edit: Does anyone know of good Blue LED fans that are preferably black like the ones that come installed in the case? I want to use them as fans where the harddrives go like where wirelessfender has them?

Also, wirelessfender, how did you "mod" the bay for the Hard Drive?

 

[amddiesel]

I give ya two thums up homey..!! Sexy looking! NOW GO ENJOY IT AND OWN!

 

[easymoney9]

Awesome! Excellent o/c's on cpu and video card! Great 3dmark results!

 

[wirelessfender]

Silverion7 7, I took the plastic floppy drive thing and mounted the hard drive onto it. you can only use 2 screws though so make them tight. Then you have to set the black plastic floppy/hard drive mount back an inch or so to can fit the little cover on the front of the case. Doing this offsets the screw holes to secure it. So I drilled new little holes where they needed to be and used little pointy screws with force to secure it. You have to be careful because plastic is soft and you don’t want to screw it too tight. Hope that helps

 

[wirelessfender]

Another note on the precut holes, It was still pretty hard to fit the side door back on, you have to use allot of force. But as you can see by the picture it really does tidy the inside up. Just take a look at all that and imagine it all INSIDE.

 

[wirelessfender]

Wirelessfender, if possible, can you please post your BIOS setting? I am getting the same motherboard Asus P5K-E for my new build and would like to see your bios setting. Thank you!

Here Ya go. Hope this is what you need. Keep in mind, Your voltage settings may varry.

 

[nukemaster]

looks good.....

 

[DrMaV]

nice rig ... nice 3d score with the HD.

 

[Bartyfartslast]

Looks great. Gotta get a new lava lamp now though to match the colours.

 

[spaztic7]

The fans are transparent witch I don’t like so much, but with the way the case conceals them It turns out looking pretty good. As for the multi colors, they have some significance. Blue for Intel, Red for ATI. Some people might not like it, But I do =P. And I Modified the floppy drive conversion bay to house my Hard drive to make room for the extra fan. The only problem with this is if you want more than 1 hard drive you'll have to do without the extra fan witch I will probably end up doing at some point.

Also, I removed the clear plastic on the side window. A fan will not fit there with the thermalright 120 ultra. However It would fit it if you had the cooler mounted horizontal and it exhausted upwards out of the top of the case, witch you can do with the Antec Nine Hundred. Ive also herd that if you want to side fan, you can saw the corner off the housing of the fan and it will fit. I just didnt really care to.

Now that you explain why you used the different colors... it makes sense. I think it is a stellar looking case and you did a great job with the wire management. Looks beautiful inside and I love that heat sink (I have one too in the push pull form you do. You don’t really get any benefit from that until you stop running whatever task is utilizing it. I did research on this and to see if more powerful fans (scythe fans (60 cfm) vs Antech 120cfm fan) and found that they were the same in temp but running dual fans cools faster. It dose not run cooler, but after running a process that heats up the heat sink, it drops the temperature faster. I can get my Q6600 B3 to idle in the mid 30's. I do not know if this is good or not, for me it is not, i want mid 20's.

Wow... that was a rant. I am now looking at getting a 900 because of your case. I like the BTX like form factor part. Also, Your score is great!

 

[wirelessfender]

What you say makes sense about 2 fans cooling faster. I didnt see temps decrese, but what I did notice is after stress testing all the cores with Prime95 for hours at a time, It would return to idle temp in like 5 seconds.

Also, My Idle temps are mid 30's with the fan on 50% and upper 30's with the fan at 100%. But this is at 3.6Ghz so its great considering I seen stock Q6600's with the stock heatsink idle that hot. Right now I am considering lapping both the heatsink and CPU if I ever go for 3.8Ghz.

 

[spaztic7]

Yeah that makes sense as well for you to get worse performance with faster fans. You start to slow down the one that is pushing the air out of the heatsink because the one that is pushing the air through the heatsink slows down the fan blades or disrupts the air flow. Also, if you have case fans that vent out of the case right behind the heatsink fan with the fans turned all the way up, you slow those down and actually cause the case to very slowly heat up because it can not move the warm air out.

You time for it to return to idle temp is spot on. With one fan, it takes about 7-20 seconds or so, depending on what fan you use and cfm (this also depends on the ambient temp). Big difference huh?

I guess you have a G0 stepping q6600. If I overclock mine at all, it jumps to an idle speed of high 30 (about 37-39) to low 40 (40-41); depending on my OC. I have been running at stock speed for some time because the speed increase is not noticeable, or I can achieve the same speed increase by OC'ing my RAM.

 

[Shadow703793]

Nice rig . I might be getting the same Fan Speed Controller. Exactly how fine can you control the fan RPM? (ie +/-100, 50, etc)

 

[Silverion77]

Hey wireless:

Where did you get the second adapter for the fan on the back of the hard drive cage?

 

[quantumsheep]

Go for 4ghz! You can do it!