 |
Mar 8, 2008 - 01:00 AM |
|
 |
Computer building, Part 2! (Warning, lotsa PIX!) |
|
|
I got a lot of goodies in the mail! Took UPS long enough, bastards. 
First things first though. I got to get rid of those crappy tricool fans on the antec 900 with these slipstream fans:
I also sleeved the cables with that green nylon. I went ahead and sleeved as much loose cable as I could. It's also UV reactive like the mainboard, so it will glow green. Yay I guess.
Shitty picture, but any of you with an X-FI should know what that cable is. It's that ugly huge ribbon cable that connects the card to the front bay. I've always hated how it looked in my old case so I sleeved that one instantly. I just made a few cuts on the cable to separate some chunks of wire and rounded up that fugly cable. ;D
Here's the mainboard I went with. A DFI Lanparty LT-X38. I would of gone with a P35 chipset but the P35 version was out of stock and I was worried I wouldnt be able to upgrade down the road. Although Im not sure how long the X38 chipset will last either, with a newer one right around the corner for intel's newer cpus.
This was actually a scary install. That's a Zalman CNPS 9700. It's pretty big, sure not as big as TRU 120, but it's tons bigger than my last heat sink. I was so afraid id break it or the mainboard, or that I would crush the processor since it was a tight fit. Barely enough room with the northbridge heatsink there.
I'm also still debating whether or not I am going to put a fan on the north bridge heatsink or not. We'll have to see later on.
Time for the video card. I went with a 8800GT. The main reason for getting the GT instead of the new GTS was because of my budget. It should still perform well enough, and if not I can always try to OC it a little. Down the line I hope to take advantage of EVGA's step up program. That is if Nvidia stops rehashing their cards and actually comes out with a card that isn't just an older card with a new name. (hint: 9xxx series)
Next up was the harddrive and optical drive. I'm wondering if I made a mistake with my HD choice. It's certainly fast, faster than my last harddrive. But WD released their new 300+GB per platter drives right after I got it.. I've heard the newer platters offer a lot better performance than normal 250GB platters.
Installing the UV cathodes. I didn't like all the extra cables they added so I sleeved them as much as possible and a few curse words later I managed to guide them behind the power supply. As you can see int he pic, I had to strip the wires to fit them through. Not really a big deal and makes it cleaner anyway.
Here it is all installed
The backside. Some of those cables were a real pain in the ass to sort. The PSU has way too many cables.
First POST! 
Final specs:
Antec Nine Hundred
DFI Lanparty LT-X38
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
ZALMAN CNPS9700 NT
G.SKILL 2 x 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 1066
EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT
PC POWER and COOLING Silencer 750 Quad
Western Digital 7500AAKS 750GB
Samsung SH-S203N DVD Burner
Creative X-FI Platinum
To be continued.. D:
|
|
|
|
|
