Building a computer...

Here are some pics so far of the building of THE BEAST!

Empty Socket on motherboard...



Chip Placed...



Chip Locked Down...



Attaching Heat Sink Bracket...



Applying Thermal Paste to CPU...



Heat Sink Attached...



This is called "Buiding to Post," just core elements attached to the motherboard outside the case to make sure the CPU, RAM slots, and Video Slot is working correctly...



And this is what you wanna see the first time you turn the power on...



This is what the NEW BIOS looks like now, you can use a mouse and keyboard with the "bios," now called UEFI...

Now to put the motherboard in the case, attach the hard drives, optical drive, route cables, and load Windows 7...

Love that heatsink!!!

I have built all of my computers in the past but since my operation in 2006 I have been coasting on what I had.

Time for a new one but I am so out of the loop on what is hot and in, I will have to start my research almost from scratch. I used to upgrade parts here and there but Im thinking nothing I have now will go to a new system, not even the case.

BTW, the computer I am posting on now is named "The Beast". Heh.

Keep us informed of the progress and a list of components would be nice.

max wrote:

Love that heatsink!!!

I have built all of my computers in the past but since my operation in 2006 I have been coasting on what I had.

Time for a new one but I am so out of the loop on what is hot and in, I will have to start my research almost from scratch. I used to upgrade parts here and there but Im thinking nothing I have now will go to a new system, not even the case.

BTW, the computer I am posting on now is named "The Beast". Heh.

Keep us informed of the progress and a list of components would be nice.

Thanks Max...

GREAT site for all things PC is Anandtech.com

PC Components...

Intel i5-2500K CPU (K stands for unlocked for overclocking)...
Asus P67 Sabertooth motherboard...
8Gb G. Skill dual channel RAM...
120GB Solid State Drive...
1 TB traditional HD...
Asus Optical drive...
Nvidia GTX 570 OC video card...
CoolerMaster full tower case...
CoolerMaster Heat sink and fan...
650w Modular Power Supply...

Damn Alan! That is HOT!!!!! I wonder how many queries I could run at one time!

It was a GREAT feeling to HIT the power and have it WORK!

the on button, can someone show me the on button? Thats about far as i go into the computer world! Nice Rig, can you say that?

cali kid wrote:

the on button, can someone show me the on button? Thats about far as i go into the computer world! Nice Rig, can you say that?

Yeah, that is better than saying NICE UNIT!

LMAO!

Very true but it does sound good!

cali kid wrote:

Very true but it does sound good!

You notice my pc and a HUGE HARD DRIVE and no floppy...LMAO!

Nice computer so far.....that heat sink is awesome! nice work, I usually buy one, then replace stuff to keep it current for a while, my home PC is over 4 years old.

Really hard to concentrate on work with this thing needed completing!!!

Anomaly wrote:

Thanks Max...

GREAT site for all things PC is Anandtech.com

PC Components...

Intel i5-2500K CPU (K stands for unlocked for overclocking)...
Asus P67 Sabertooth motherboard...
8Gb G. Skill dual channel RAM...
120GB Solid State Drive...
1 TB traditional HD...
Asus Optical drive...
Nvidia GTX 570 OC video card...
CoolerMaster full tower case...
CoolerMaster Heat sink and fan...
650w Modular Power Supply...

Ive been a member over at Anandtech.com since the dawn of time (or so it seems), 2000 AD.
Im thebestMAX there. I was pretty much part of the original crew. Dont think it was around too long before I joined. I still check there daily but mostly lurk in the off topic section. One of the very best computer sites on the 'Net.

Looks like a good combo of parts just going by the brand names.
I used to overclock everything but now I havent even jailbroken my phone.
Guess since I stopped most gaming it doesnt really matter much. I just want everything to work and play now.

max wrote:

Anomaly wrote:

Thanks Max...

GREAT site for all things PC is Anandtech.com

PC Components...

Intel i5-2500K CPU (K stands for unlocked for overclocking)...
Asus P67 Sabertooth motherboard...
8Gb G. Skill dual channel RAM...
120GB Solid State Drive...
1 TB traditional HD...
Asus Optical drive...
Nvidia GTX 570 OC video card...
CoolerMaster full tower case...
CoolerMaster Heat sink and fan...
650w Modular Power Supply...

Ive been a member over at Anandtech.com since the dawn of time (or so it seems), 2000 AD.
Im thebestMAX there. I was pretty much part of the original crew. Dont think it was around too long before I joined. I still check there daily but mostly lurk in the off topic section. One of the very best computer sites on the 'Net.

Looks like a good combo of parts just going by the brand names.
I used to overclock everything but now I havent even jailbroken my phone.
Guess since I stopped most gaming it doesnt really matter much. I just want everything to work and play now.

That is cool Max!

I'm anomaly1964 over there...

I still like watches but some of the FIRE of it has...lessened? I always said that if I ever had a Breitling I would be SET and now I have two...

With gaming, my son gets into it too and we are HOPING the new Star Wars MMO comes out in Spring like they are projecting...

It is fun to have more than just ONE hobby again...

great job alan, l dont have a clue about half of what im seeing or reading in this thread, but im glad you have yourself a second hobby again. i can tell you realy like this stuff. enjoy steve

Really INCREDIBLE stuff Alan ! ..I'm like Trevor, and Steve with this to tell the truth in
that I really don't know much about computers. Especially building them ! However this
creation of yours is unbelievable imho. Kind of like a Hot Rod of computers, and definitely
BEYOND cool !!! It's neat to see this other hobby of yours also by the way. In alot of ways
it seems similar to watches, or building a watch. You are doing something that you REALLY
enjoy, and creating something cool with your own hands. Looks like FUN, as well as
something to be very proud of TOO ! ..Enjoy !!!

Thanks for showing us these pictures, and keep us posted with this !

Thanks Tom!

Mother board in case now...

[quote="Anomaly"]Thanks Tom!

Mother board in case now...

Don't mention it Alan ! ..This is very cool see, AND learn about !!!
Keep up the good work. ..Looks GREAT !

Looks like it's gonna be truly bad ass! I agree, that heat sink is a beast!! MASSIVE fans too...gonna be like a hurricane blowing all that air!

cski wrote:

Looks like it's gonna be truly bad ass! I agree, that heat sink is a beast!! MASSIVE fans too...gonna be like a hurricane blowing all that air!

When I did the boot test you could not even hear the cpu fan or video card fan, they have gotten a lot better!

I'm jealous you get to build a new rig. Love that BIOS. Are you going to overclock the main proc and if so why? What about the GPU?

I just put together a server. Will post pics tomorrow.

Um... Is you monitor bejeweled?

GHEY!!!

That bad boy looks like it should be water-cooled!

that cool to see, I'd like to build my own someday

It's fun but a headache at the same time...

This is a new chipset from Intel and so all the motherboards are new as well...

Currently there are BIOS issues that ASUS is working on as we speak...

The BIOS is having issues recognizing multiple drives when one is SSD and one is traditional HDD...

So this is the wait, learn, adjust curve...FUN!

That has been going on since the first computer was built. (and long before with other things)

Second biggest problem - Lack of documentation.

max wrote:

That has been going on since the first computer was built. (and long before with other things)

Second biggest problem - Lack of documentation.

Yep, and if you wait for all the bugs to be worked out you will NEVER buy cause then the NEWEST will be out by the...LMAO!

Viscous Circle!

Here is a look at an HP we are re-purposing. Nothing special really. RAID 1 with two 36GB drives for the OS and RAID 5 for data on 4 72GB drives.

Note the space for a second proc. We'll turn this into a Sharepoint server for our regional department so we don't need much power.
4 GB RAM.

All in all a decent box. Sure wish it wasn't do damn big.

No fans?

YIKES!

So what are you going to be playing on this - Crysis? Far Cry?

what games will you be playing? WOW? God of War?

I'll leave WOW to my friends and co-workers. Got one friend with two level 80+ Paladins and one guy with a level 85 Deathknight. Don't ask how long it took 'em, it's insane.

And what I am currently playing? Infinity Blade on the iPad. Built by Epic using the Unreal 3 engine = very pretty.

waruilewi wrote:

So what are you going to be playing on this - Crysis? Far Cry?

I have tons of FPS to play...

MOSTLY waiting on Star Wars: The Old Republic to be released...

Alan that looks like one sweet machine your putting together. I just finished up upgrading my sons and my computers around Christmas. The is definitely the one other thing that I love doing. I just gave my son my 1 year old Core 2 Quad 3Ghz processor with my Asus P5KE Wifi motherboard and 4of my 8GB of Ram. Now my 16 year old has a screaming machine for his World of Warcraft. Lol

I upgraded my system to an EVGA X58 motherboard, i7 960 processor, 12GB OCZ Extreme memory and even decided to go with a new Blu-ray burner. I banished my nVidia 9800 GX2 1GB video card and replaced that with a new GDDR5 ATI Radeon 4870 1GB.

I was finished but I decided the other day that life would be simpler if I got rid one of my two DVD burners and add another Blu-ray player.

I think at that point I will be finished.

Budabear wrote:

Alan that looks like one sweet machine your putting together. I just finished up upgrading my sons and my computers around Christmas. The is definitely the one other thing that I love doing. I just gave my son my 1 year old Core 2 Quad 3Ghz processor with my Asus P5KE Wifi motherboard and 4of my 8GB of Ram. Now my 16 year old has a screaming machine for his World of Warcraft. Lol

I upgraded my system to an EVGA X58 motherboard, i7 960 processor, 12GB OCZ Extreme memory and even decided to go with a new Blu-ray burner. I banished my nVidia 9800 GX2 1GB video card and replaced that with a new GDDR5 ATI Radeon 4870 1GB.

I was finished but I decided the other day that life would be simpler if I got rid one of my two DVD burners and add another Blu-ray player.

I think at that point I will be finished.

NICE RIG Buda!

I'm an Nvidia fan boy so I went GTX 570!

Still working on getting the system to SEE the HDD...

At least it sees the SSD...

Anomaly wrote:

Budabear wrote:

Alan that looks like one sweet machine your putting together. I just finished up upgrading my sons and my computers around Christmas. The is definitely the one other thing that I love doing. I just gave my son my 1 year old Core 2 Quad 3Ghz processor with my Asus P5KE Wifi motherboard and 4of my 8GB of Ram. Now my 16 year old has a screaming machine for his World of Warcraft. Lol

I upgraded my system to an EVGA X58 motherboard, i7 960 processor, 12GB OCZ Extreme memory and even decided to go with a new Blu-ray burner. I banished my nVidia 9800 GX2 1GB video card and replaced that with a new GDDR5 ATI Radeon 4870 1GB.

I was finished but I decided the other day that life would be simpler if I got rid one of my two DVD burners and add another Blu-ray player.

I think at that point I will be finished.

NICE RIG Buda!

I'm an Nvidia fan boy so I went GTX 570!

Still working on getting the system to SEE the HDD...

At least it sees the SSD...

THANKS! It just keeps getting better. Lol

That's unusual for the HDD's to not be recognized. I normally prefer nVidia but I opted for changes this time around. I've used only ASUS boards for over 10 years and, besides every one of the boards having to go back for repair once or twice, I've run into too many occasions where ASUS had problems with nVidia cards. I decided with my last ASUS I would never touch them again. At the same time I started having problems with my 9800 GTX working with it's drivers so I figured I'd try ATI once again. The ATI is working perfectly but there is one thing I'm not liking about my dual monitors on this card, I can't specify which screen is the main board. Everything opens on the same screen all the time. With the nVidia I could specify which monitor I want to be the main one.

I'm definitely preferring the EVGA board over the ASUS.

Finally got the 1TB drive to show...

Had to format, partition, and name the partitions...