Post your Desktop I - Mess accepted

[SubzeroDiabolos]

Did you have to RMA one of their mobo?

[Kalmado]

Did you have to RMA one of their mobo?

I bought it brand new from Microcenter about a year ago. Dead dimm slott. Pretty sure the rear usb do not work either as I randomly could or couldn't use some. I hope they don't take forever shipping the new one. Who am I kidding, they will!

[Oreth]

Well finally got my home work office / gaming area all setup and finished.

** Will table break for sure as a panoramic shot is in there **

Got some great advice on my build from here so thanks again! Everything running very smooth.

Spoiler: show

List of the kit - http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/7m7nNG

[Omniyoji]

Nice setup Oreth. What's the thingy underneath your glasses case/headphones right of desktop, another laptop? Also if you want to hide your cables (keyboard) you could consider drilling holes. Up to you, nice either way.

[Oreth]

Thanks... Took me ages to finish everything. Good shout as the keyboard wire is the only thing that really bothers me as its too short to go up behind the monitor and around to the system.. Might drill a small hole so the keyboard is placed over it so u cant see it.. great idea!

That's a Zalaman Laptop Cooling pad. Got It got a XPS15z that I can play some games on when I travel. Really good and keeps it's extra cool

[Kalmado]

Bought a new case mainly because it was super cheap. I'm debating if I want to build a brand new gaming pc revolving around the case, use it for my secondary case, or use it for a build to sell. Right now my gaming pc is hooked up to our living room tv and to be frank it looks terrible sitting right next to the tv. I can't really hide it due to wiring. Our carpet is a beige. TV stand is black.

Current case: Thermaltake New Soprano Snow Edition

Spoiler: show

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QuiyBzNeL.jpg

New case: NZXT H440 Red edition

Spoiler: show

http://images.highspeedbackbone.net/...gl_9160997.jpghttp://images.highspeedbackbone.net/...gl_9160997.jpg

Secondary gaming pc parts (not final pricing):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($70.72 @ Amazon)
Storage: PNY Optima 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($73.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Momentus 5400.6 320GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.34 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card
Case: Thermaltake Commander G41 ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Directron)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $471.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-18 12:21 EST-0500

Current pc interior color scheme is blue and is an 1155 socket so I can't reuse the cpu with a mb I already have. I would love any suggestions and opinions on what to do with this new case!

[Krandor]

Don't think I've ever shown my desktop here. Had to recently get a new graphics card because my R290x shit the bed (but still under warranty so replaced it and sold the new in box one) and got a 970 instead.

[Boyiee]

Eek the EVGA version! Hope you don't have much coil whine, they can be hit or miss.

[tyven]

man your guys' computers are so much cleaner than mine. my SSD just hangs in the case, like its just hanging by whatever its plugged in to. and there are wires everywhere. its pretty chill in my case

[Boyiee]

Funny you mentioned that. Gotta replace my PSU soon (waiting for a sale on the gold 80+ evga supernovas) and I am dreading unplugging everything and redoing my cable management.

[Krandor]

Eek the EVGA version! Hope you don't have much coil whine, they can be hit or miss.

No coil whine thankfully. My 290x shit the bed the day before Dragon Age came out so I was in a bit of a rush to get a new card, and Asus and MSI was sold out everywhere. Default fan profile is a little loud, but nothing some tweaking couldn't fix.

My cables are a nightmare on the underside of the motherboard tray, but thankfully the HAF XB case hides that shit show.

[Adajer]

No coil whine thankfully. My 290x shit the bed the day before Dragon Age came out so I was in a bit of a rush to get a new card, and Asus and MSI was sold out everywhere. Default fan profile is a little loud, but nothing some tweaking couldn't fix.

My cables are a nightmare on the underside of the motherboard tray, but thankfully the HAF XB case hides that shit show.

lol, I was going to ask why so much 24pin and gpu power cables sticking out instead of behind mobo concealed.

I hate Eats Very Good Ass products. Shoulda went Gigabyte

[Boyiee]

My cables are a nightmare on the underside of the motherboard tray, but thankfully the HAF XB case hides that shit show.

My case has a barely 1 inch space between the frame and back panel under the mobo which is soundproofed. It slightly bows out because of how many cables are mashed in there. Pretty sure if you unscrew one of the two screws holding it on it'll burst out like the fist of an angry god. Can't wait to redo the whole thing..................

lol, I was going to ask why so much 24pin and gpu power cables sticking out instead of behind mobo concealed.

I hate Eats Very Good Ass products. Shoulda went Gigabyte

The Gigabyte G1 is absolutely amazing, but because I have a rotated case that blows air out of the top using positive pressure, I had to go with a blower style fan. Bestbuy started selling a reference 970 and it turns out the card is amazing. Low noise, low temps, looks awesome, no whine, and mine OC's really well. Very happy with it.

[Krandor]

I wish I had known about the reference 970s at Best Buy before I had bought my card, but I honestly have no complaints with the EVGA model outside of lack of a backplate.

[Omniyoji]

Kran, how much does that PC box weigh? Been thinking of making the switch to smaller to save weight since I move it about every once in a while and the space saving.

[Krandor]

It's about the same weight as your average mid tower, but it's super easy to carry since it has handles on the side.

[Krandor]

man your guys' computers are so much cleaner than mine. my SSD just hangs in the case, like its just hanging by whatever its plugged in to. and there are wires everywhere. its pretty chill in my case

Well here ya go, I was troubleshooting my computer because it was having issues and swapping out various components.

From this - (With the CPU cooler held in place by wrap ties)


To now -


Also, bonus for you Broven since I know you'd like my desktop

Spoiler: show

[RKenshin]

Finally pulled the trigger and built a dedicated PC for streaming content to other devices (TVs, mobile, chromecast, other PCs, etc), and just to have as a secondary PC if needed. Most of it works through Plex (<3), and I originally had all of it setup on my main PC, but I was annoyed with having to use its resources for all of the transcoding/processing and such. That and leaving my loud, power-hungry PC on all the time was also kind of annoying.

So I opted for something quiet and low-power I could leave on full-time and not have to worry about, but still handle all of the transcoding/streaming/seeding and such - couldn't be happier with the end result.

I originally priced it out to be about $450, but then I opted for an SSD boot drive, more space (even though I have a NAS), better fans, a nicer case, and a few other minor upgrades. Final list:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor ($125.99)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($44.99)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($7.87)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($105.25)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($78.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.00 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone GD07B (Black) HTPC Case ($133.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($57.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.75 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-R8 PWM 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan ($15.20 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-R8 PWM 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan ($15.20 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A ULN 120mm Fan ($17.84 @ OutletPC)
Other: Silverstone Tek 3.5-Inch to 2 X 2.5-Inch Hard Drive HDD SSD Bay Converter, Silver (SDP08) ($7.99)
Total: $764.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-14 09:24 EST-0500


Pictures!

Spoiler: show

The case was actually far bigger (and the build much smaller) than I originally thought it would be. I paid more in opting for a bigger HTPC case because I didn't want fans roaring and struggling to keep it cool through a tight space and/or terrible cable management/airflow, but in hindsight I probably would've been fine.

The removable drive cage was pretty nice/handy, though not much else for cable/case management otherwise. I made due.





I kinda like this door too.

And how it looks in the end (cable modem, NAS, and APC on top of it for now... need a new desk):




It's basically just plugged into power and ethernet, and I remote in if I need to do anything. Runs full-time with no problems, and otherwise takes care of itself.

Temperatures and noise levels are perfect. Stress tests for a few hours and the temperatures held ground at about 50'C, and the fans never went higher than 75% RPM - can't hear a thing unless I literally put my ear to the case. I can't even tell if it's running without checking the LED and/or side fans.

Power consumption is awesome too... at ~40-100W (? yet to see higher than ~50W) under load and <5W when idle.

I'm content.

[Krandor]

Despite issues with the fan controller fucking up a hard drive, I liked the case so much I stuck with it and just used a Fan Splitter (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) to power the extra fans. Nice and compact.

[DrClout]

It looks like a new age cooler with LEDs lol