Building The Beast (Repost)

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setishock

Wizard of Wires
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( I had the original thread removed as it wasn't getting a good responce. I reformatted it and here it is. )

CASE
I had wanted to build a desk system since I lost my last one to a bit of incredable bad luck. But all that's behind me.
Now somewhat secure in a new home and job I have the financial resources to carry out my plan, to build a beast.

I have used Antec in the past and have been satified with the quality of the cases. They are made with two objectives in mind, ROOMY and quiet.
This case is the P280. At a little over $100.00usd this beauty is a steal.

This series of pics are not the best I've taken and shared with you, but good enough to get a look.

Fresh out of the box.
Front end.
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Fans, and switchs, and ports, oh my.
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Inside the belly of the beast.
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Points of interest.
The filtered air intake for the power supply.
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And vibration dampening hard drive mounts.
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And finally the back end.
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Next installment is the mother board. Stay tuned.
 
I have to say I've never been a fan of paying a lot for cases however that does look very nice.

I've always thought yes space is important for easy of setting up and air flow but i'm not sure any other features bother me? I mean "build quality" I bought a £35 case from Ebuyer about 6 years ago which came with a 550Watt PSU and both the case and PSU are still going fine today.

P.S I didn't comment on the last thread but I did follow it, I am interested in seeing other peoples builds take place.
Keep the pics coming!
 
Only from the minds of the engineers at Intel would this creation be realized.
This is the INtel DZ77GA-70K mother board and the Intel i5 3570K CPU chip. The K designation means it's unlocked.
So if you get a wild hair you can overclock it. Neither item was inexpensive. The board and CPU chip with stock cooler weighs in at $229.00 usb each.
But both the mother board and CPU come feature rich so the bang for the buck ratio is very good.
Intel® Desktop Board DZ77GA-70K / DZ77GAL-70K
Now the 25 cent tour. Fasten your seatbelts. Here we go.

Still in the box.
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This side view shows the SATA connectors and the mother board main power connector. The blue and gray connectors are SATA 3 while the black are SATA 2.
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This side has the connections to hook up the outside world goodies. USB, keyboard/mouse, esata, network, audio and HDMI video.
Those curious about why two of the USB ports are yellow, those are high current for charging your smaller toys.
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Top view. Fan headers, ram slots, and the AUX power connector. You don't supply power to that connection and the board doesn't power up.
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Bottom view. Audio, USB (which come 2.0, 3.0, and high current), power/reset/LEDs, among others.
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Overhead view.
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Points of interest.

On the board power and reset
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Post code readout.
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Now is this a chipset or what?
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Intel® Z77 Express Chipset

And here's the baby that's the brains of the outfit.
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Next installment will cover putting it all together. Check back.
 
I'm confused as to why you are reposting all this in installments even though we all know it's already finished. The other thread that you had closed contained these same photos and was of the finished product. I don't get it? :confused:
 
Because no one bothers to do threads like this any more. Yeah it's done but I'm adding a few more pics and rethinking the text part.
It's mainly to show how simple it can be to build a system from scratch. It was fun putting it together and I wanted to share that. I had the other removed because it wasn't getting much attention. That lead to digging in to my pics of the build and rethinking the text. There's going to be some extra pics I took that will be posted up.

As for installments I'm just a little busy with my job. On top of that I have been having some health issues and have to go get tested for diabetes tomorrow and that's been weighing on my mind quite a bit.
 
Fair enough. Hope things work out at the testing or at the very least they can get it under control for you.
 
Thanks. Moving right along...

So let's take a look at getting the cpu chip in place and attaching the heat sink.
There have been complaints I've been reading of bent pins on the socket causing the cpu mother board connection not to work.
As you saw in the last set of pics the cpu was still the carrier. It stayed there until I got ready to put it in the socket.
Also the socket protective cover was left in place until the last second. Let's take a look at the heat sink next.

Stock heat sink with fan built on to it.
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You notice how the fins appear to be like tunning forks? That design gives more cooling surface area in a compact space.
The mounting system consists of split pins that go through the motherboard. Then have a sliding pin pushed through them to lock it in place. More on that later on.

The top side of the heat sink.
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The fan is a custom job for Intel by Sunon. They make some the best computer related fans on the market.
The cpu fan header was just out of reach the way the wiring came configured out of the box. More on that later also.

Here the cpu chip is in the socket with the holder down and locked.
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In the front left corner on the cpu circuit board is a small yellow arrow. There's a matching one in the corner of the socket.
To align the chip to the socket is simple. Line up the arrows and close the lid. Pull down the latching arm and lock it in.

Now to get the heat sink set in and locked down. "Sempai, why do you have the mother board sitting on two boxes?"
Well grasshopper I'm glad you asked. Here's the explanation. Remember the pins on the heat sink in the first pic in this set?
When the pins are pushed through with the board propped up like that, they will go through the board unencumbered.
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This rather blurry shot shows the mounting holes where the heat sink pins will go through. Line them up and set the heat sink down.
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My personal trick for the next step is to turn the locking pins flat side toward the heat sink. When ready put thumbs on two on opposite sides and press down.
You'll hear a slight click meaning they're locked in. Do the same to the other two. Now was that easy or what?
If you don't hear the click that's ok. Pick the board up and check if the lock pins went all the way in.

Like this
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Plug in the fan cable to the cpu fan header and you're done with this part.
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On mine the fan cable didn't reach in the stock wiring configuration. If the same happens to you, just take a small flat screw driver and slide it in the clip where the wires are. Turn it oh so slightly and slip the wires out.
I ran mine around the right side and back in the clip then plugged it in. Even going that way it barely reached.

Now how many of you picked up I didn't put any thermal paste on the cpu? The stock heat sink comes prepasted and in the last two Intel builds seems to work rather well.


Pop in the ram cards.
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With all types of ram cards, they only go in one way. In the socket is a guide pin. On the ram card itself is a guide notch. Notch goes over the pin and press down till the locking tabs come up.
When the card appears seated do one last check. Look at the notch on the ends of the card and make sure the locking clips are in as far as it will go. A little push on the clips doesn't hurt just to be sure.
Ok the logic behind making sure they are locked down. They get warm to hot, hot, hot. If not locked down they will walk out of the socket.

Ok I'm going to take a break here and attack that mountain of paper work piling up on my desk. Got to keep the bosses happy.
Keep checking back.
 
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