Got my new system, not completely though!

I'd highly suggest returning the RAM if you can - Sandy Bridge does not mix will with 2 x 8GB - but otherwise that build should be good.

Definitely post some pictures when you get it all working.

Really? I would rather not send it back as it would take upwards of a week to get some new sticks. Do you have any links to confirm the issue?

Also if I don't receive the case today - I will try and breadboard it and make sure all the components work correctly.

I don't have any specific links but I've seen several threads on here that say that 2 x 8GB will not work with Sandy Bridge - it results in BSODs, BIOS issues, RAM errors, things of that nature.

Good news. I got it working. I will update this thread later on today....it took a good solid 6 hours to put everything in....and when I first turned it on -perfection. No errors, no problems, and got everything set correctly.

Installed Home premium - and booted to desktop - thats as far as I got as I started getting tired last night  

The 16GB of ram shows up perfectly in the BIOS as well as in windows  

So What I can confirm about my build:

2x 8 GB Mushkin Silverline is fine  

The XFX 7950 FITS IN MY Silverstona Grandia GD05 CASE! Wewt....However 1 minor problem - where the 2x 6pin power plugs into the GPU near the top of my case - it won't allow my top case to close properly. So I might have to dremel the top part of the case so I can get the case closed.

I was a little pissed to find out my Silverstone Grandia GD05 case has USB2.0 front ports. However looking back at the specifications I missed the GD05-USB3 version. However I believe I can find USB3.0 front ports to replace the USB2 ports with.  

Nice! I wasn't sure if a desktop case would fit a card that big or not.



Cool - I wasn't sure as I had heard that from multiple sources, but good to know.

Ok here they are, hopefully it all goes right...I haven't uploaded pics before and linked them via another website:

All the pieces to be placed inside the case





The inside of the Silverstone Grandia 05b case (my Seasonic X650 Gold inside the case for reference, bottom right):





Motherboard installed, Ram installed (in the red dual channel banks due to me not thinking ahead and installing the ram first instead of the Big Shuriken 2), XFX Radeon 7950 Core Edition sitting on my PSU for reference - before I installed it I wanted to see what the clearance would be like.

Had to take out the top left 120mm fan in this pic as it was blocking my motherboard's power input:





Tidying up my wires for my case, also took the PSU out as well for this:





Installed the XFX 7950 Core edition, also had to attach the SATA cables first as the GPU was blocking the SATA ports:





Everything installed inside the case. The Blu ray drive sits approximately 1/2" above my Big Shuriken 2. I had to use twist ties to keep my SATA and power cable from touching my Shuriken fan blade. On the bottom right where you only see 2 screws near the yellow grommets, that is where I mouted my Crucial M4 128GB SSD. The top right holds my HDD underneath - secured by rubber grommets:





Front of Silverstone Grandia 05b:





Back:




WEI information (for those that are curious):

Processor: 7.5

Memory 7.6

Graphics 7.9

Gaming Graphics 7.9

Primary drive 7.9

OCCT information:

Idle ~ 40C

I haven't done much stress testing yet, but I did a 1 hour OCCT test and after the hour went up the CPU's temps climbed to approx 65C across all cores. I noticed it seems to get hotter than what I want - but due to space constraints and the location of my Blu ray drive (as per my pics) - I don't think there is much more I can do, maybe get a slim 120mm drive to put in to help cool it off.

Nice setup, but as I've said in other thread, bigger case would definitely make things better.  

I have a similar build, but with a Sapphire 7870 GPU:

- Silverstone GD05 Case
- Corsair AX-750 PSU
- Asus Maximus V Gene MOBO
- Intel i7-2700K CPU OC'd to 4.2 GHz
- 16 GB Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3 1600MHz CL8 RAM
- Scythe Big Shuriken 2 CPU cooler
- Sapphire HD7870 GHz edition OC graphics card
- WD 1TB Velociraptor HDD for OS and WD 1T Caviar Black HDD for media/backup
- LiteOn IHBS112 12X Blu-Ray Player/Burner

It is super fast and super quiet and I'm not kidding on the quiet. I can barely hear it during gaming - even with my system muted!

CPU temps never exceed 62C. During gaming, GPU never exceeds 71C with GPU fans at 53%.

I decided to go with the WD Velociraptor for now and wait a bit for an SSD.

My Sapphire 7870, like your XFX 7950, fits fine. The only 'challenge' was connecting the two 6-pin power cables to the top of the graphics card. I had to carefully bend the wires at the connectors 90 degrees to get the lid on, but it does go on cleanly and safely.

I was wondering what sort of GPU temps you're getting with your 7950. And how quiet is it under load in the GD05?