Build Log - Micro Machine (BLS's 2013 Personal Rig)

[The Envoy of the Beginning]

I am not sure of where it belongs, but whatever; It's time.

As some of you in Far from the Forest know, I have a personal computer that I built in late 2010 using individual hardware components that I bought. I planned on retiring it this year with the intent of going with Intel's Haswell platform, and now that it's out, I can start building my machine.

[spoiler=My Current Setup]

• Case: Fractal Design Define R3 White
• Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 650W
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3
• CPU: Intel Core i5-750 (overclocked to 3.6 GHz)
• Memory: 4GB (2 x 2GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3 RAM
• Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6850, also overclocked
• Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
• Optical Drive: LG Blu-Ray/DVD/CD writer
• Sound Card: HT Omega Striker 7.1
• OS: Windows 7 64-bit

My goal is to build a powerful computer into a smaller, MicroATX enclosure (hence the name "Micro Machine"). I don't see much of a reason to go with a standard one, since I don't use that much expansion card (just a video card and a sound card) and drives (just an SSD and maybe a internal HDD; I am using two external HDDs though). I also intend on going with custom water cooling since I intend on doing a fairly heavy overclock on my processor, although I won't start doing that right after I finish.

This rig will be used primarily for browsing the Serenes Forest Forums...er playing video games (including using emulators), recording gameplay footage, video editing, some photo editing, music making, etc.

Intended Specs for the 2013 Micro Machine
(Green: Acquired, Orange: Not yet acquired, Blue: Undecided/Not FInal)

• Case: Silverstone PS07 White
• Power Supply: Seasonic 660XP2 660W
• Motherboard: ASRock Z87M OC Formula
• CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K
• Memory: Kingston HyperX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 RAM
• SSD: Plextor PX-512M5Pro 512GB
• Video Card: MSI GTX 780
• Sound Card: Currently undecided, may not go with one, depending on onboard sound
• OS: Windows 7 64-bit (I don't feel comfortable going to Windows 8)

Watercooling list will come later.

For now, have some pictures of the case:

This was taken when I first got it four months ago:


A more recent image of the case:

Edited June 26, 2013 by BLS

[TheEnd]

I actually kinda want to make an ITX build one day... though that would involve sacrificing both money and performance. Micro ATX boards, on the other hand, are just as good as full ATX ones if you aren't going for a multiple video card setup.

>SSD: Plextor PX-512M5Pro 512GB

That'd cost a kidney around here ;_;

[Excellen Browning]

I'll be watching this for a bit. The one thing that stopped me from building a microATX system back in the day when I built mine was the possibility of a high end gfx card not fitting into the smaller case. Which ended up being a pretty good idea because the power connectors of my HD5850 ended up having yo go well into the hard drive bay of my ATX case.

Lets see how you fare with it.

Also, sound cards are generally useless in terms of sound quality if you don't have at least 5 times their price in listening equipment. Unless you need a standalone for the more obscure audio ports, that is.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Gyarados

[The Envoy of the Beginning]

I'll be watching this for a bit. The one thing that stopped me from building a microATX system back in the day when I built mine was the possibility of a high end gfx card not fitting into the smaller case. Which ended up being a pretty good idea because the power connectors of my HD5850 ended up having yo go well into the hard drive bay of my ATX case.

Lets see how you fare with it.

Also, sound cards are generally useless in terms of sound quality if you don't have at least 5 times their price in listening equipment. Unless you need a standalone for the more obscure audio ports, that is.

I should have no problems fitting a high-end video card inside my PS07 even if I didn't remove the HDD cages from my case. Also, I have been meaning to go with a much better audio setup, since I'm starting to hate my desktop speakers. But no opportunity yet :(

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Anyways, I had these since almost three days ago.

[spoiler=PSU pictures]PSU Box:

Equipment:

Modular Cables:

Seasonic 660XP2 PSU unit:

[spoiler=Kingston HyperX 16GB RAM Kit pictures]

[spoiler=Motherboard and included accessories]Board Box:

Accessories:

Asrock Z87M OC Formula Motherboard:

[spoiler=PSU installed into the case]

One of my dislikes about this case is that I had to remove both side panels and the top panel just to install the PSU into the case. I wished Silverstone used the same PSU mounting mechanism that some Lian-Li cases and the Bitfenix Prodigy uses.

[spoiler=Removable Motherboard Tray, Motherboard installed]

One feature that I like about the PS07. This allows me to install the CPU, CPU cooler, memory, and m-PCI-E devices onto my board. Which is what I did for the memory:

Now I am just waiting for the CPU and aftermarket cooler to come in from shipping, so I can install it. I won't install the tray back into the case until then.

[Excellen Browning]

As a general word of advice on audio, speakers/headphones and eventual amplifiers are much more important to sound quality than a sound card. Like I said, a good soundcard is only not a waste of money if you've got loads more spent on speakers/amplifiers or if you need audio ports that integrated soundcards don't offer.

I've personally got some nice old wharfedale passive speakers hooked to an old denon amp, with my computers audio out hooked to the amp. I spent about €120 on the setup and it beats any active speakers I've heard, except for some really expensive ones, that I've heard.

Anyway, if you go the way of the passive speakers and don't have at least $600 to waste on it, I recommend buying secondhand. Back in the day, audio equipment was built to last.

[The Envoy of the Beginning]

I am so horrendously late on this.

[spoiler=CPU Box]

I forgot to photograph the contents of the CPU and accessories, but it included a user manual, a case sticker, and a stock cooler that I...set aside...for This!

[spoiler=CPU Cooler and Accessories]

I am not fond of using Intel's stock coolers in my systems because they are inadequate for the stuff I do. And they look wimpy!

I got these two weeks ago. Now with them, guess what I did?

[spoiler=i5 4670k installed]

[spoiler=I still got this thermal interface material that I am going to use]

Installing the aftermarket cooler was a pain to do since I still had the motherboard tray installed, and I didn't want to take it out just to make installation easier (not to mention I had to put it back). Even with the cutout behind the tray, inserting the needed screws was difficult. But I pulled it off.

[spoiler=Installation complete! Also, motherboard tray is back in the case]

Yeah, I know. Working above carpet is not a good idea, but whatever. I managed to boot the system up into the UEFI successfully.

But I had a problem; at the time I photographed this, I had no way to connect to my monitor (the rear video ports were 2x HDMI and 1 Display Port, and my monitor had 1 Dual-Link DVI port and a VGA port), so I had to go out and buy an adapter. I am going to post some updated pictures later.

[TheEnd]

Removable motherboard tray? That's a pretty neat feature alright

I had no way to connect to my monitor (the rear video ports were 2x HDMI and 1 Display Port, and my monitor had 1 Dual-Link DVI port and a VGA port)

Video cards without a DVI port? What were they thinking

[The Envoy of the Beginning]

Video cards without a DVI port? What were they thinking

It's the rear ports on my motherboard for the integrated GPU. I still don't have a video card yet.