First Time Build C70 Green

[oOSlushyOo]

This was my first ever PC build. I ran into several hiccups along the way, but ultimately got the machine up and running. I will post pictures of the completed project later on as it is still a bit of a WIP.

 

Corsair Items:

> C70 OD Green Vengeance Case

> 8GBx2 (16GB) Vengeance DDR3 @ 1866 MHz (Black)

> H100i Cooler w/ Noctua NF-F12's

> 760i PSU (really considering some grey,black sleeved cables)

> 2x SP120 intake fans (going for positive static pressure)

 

Other Items:

> Intel i7 4770K

> Asus Z87-Deluxe Motherboard

> 2x EVGA 760's OC edition in 2-way SLI

> Samsung 840 EVO 250GB

> Western Digital 2TB Performance Drive

> 3x Noctua NF-F12's as intakes and exhaust (replaced factory ones)

 

Mobo Issues:

Originally ordered an Asus Z87-Sabertooth to fit the color scheme, but had to RMA the board...kind of a long story and won't bore you with the details here. I ended up settling with the Deluxe board, and with my experience so far it is flawless.

 

OCing...For the first time:

This was pretty overwhelming for me initially. I really was not sure where to begin, so I opted for the 4-way Optimization that came with the board. BAD idea. It OC'ed the hell out of the CPU making it wildly unstable (4.7GHz @ input whatever ridiculous voltages you can think of). Finally got the courage to do manual tweaks, slowly pushing the Haswell up until it became unstable via the multiplier. I discovered that the Asus UEFI BIOS was way more friendly then it looked (to a noob like myself). After a few more tweaks and a couple BSOD's...I got the system running stable at 4.3GHz (not bad in my book!). While I was in the BIOS, I also took advantage of the XMP profiles for the RAM.

 

Assembly:

Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the assembly process. I will however get some finished pics if you guys would like to see how my rig fared in the end.

The toughest part by far was cable management. Being slightly on the OCD side regarding things such as this, I took my time trying to route cables to the best of my ability and knowledge.

After running the system for a few weeks I decided the stock C70 window HAD TO GO! I turned to these very forums to figure out where I could find a solid replacement for the stock variant. MNPCtech saved the day! I can attest that their laser cut windows are good stuff and fit the bill very nicely. I opted for the smoked out variant and am loving the results!

 

Conclusion:

Some of the most fun I have had working on anything and an incredible learning experience.

[oOSlushyOo]

So here are some photos of the 99.9% completed rig. Just got some metallic graphite cables in from Corsair to give the interior a cleaner look. Cable management is has been a bit of an issue for me...I'm still trying to clean things up. Let me know what you think!