My New Build - Woo And Yay For Gaming!

[Switch[uK]]

Ladies And Gents, (who am I kidding... Gents)

A great thing has happened today; Parts have gone on order for my new build. No longer will I be stuck in the dark ages of gaming!
Eventually, and due largely to the help I received in this forum my confirmed splurge items were:

• Antec 300 Case
• Zalman ZM-MFC2 Fan Controller (for a bit of sexiness)
• DFI LAN Party X48-T3RS
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16Ghz
• Cosair DD3 4GB Dual Channel Kit TW3X4G1600C9DHX
• Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10,000RPM
• ASUS EAH4870/HTDI/512M
• 800W Oryxx TITAN Gamers PSU

Will also be starting off by running 32bit XP until i have some more moniez to buy x64 Vista. My current speakers mouse and headphones will also be transferred. I have some 6.1 Cambridge soundworks speakers, A Razer Copperhead Mouse, and Razer Barracuda 5.1 Headphones.
Ive also decided to continue to use my current 17" CTX CRT Monitor too. Basically, because i've run out of cash but will let you know when i upgrade that to something a lot bigger, wider and flatter too.

All the parts are currently on order and should arrive by the end of the week/beginning of next week. I plan to do the build next week. Fear not; Photos will be included for all you guys! May still be requiring a fan or 2 though as the stock case doesn't come with a front mounted fan; Any suggestions?. I also want to take this opportunity to ask people to post up some suggestions for Pimpin' my Case?
My pimpin' currently includes the Zalman ZM-MFC2 Fan Controller and an 80mm Counterstrike Fan Guard (pictured)[Although where/how I am going to include my CSS Fan guard when i don't have an 80mm Fan I don't know; Suggestions?]. I'm Not averse to anything including painting the case or cutting holes in it. But I ask that you stick to air cooled suggestions because my budget probably wont stretch to Pumps and black lights for glowing UV Liquids. Shame...

Have we ever had a video build? Maybe I could video the build and post it up here? Your thoughts?

Anyway... The waiting game has begun! God help any company that messes up my orders now!
Switch[uK]

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to add the picture of the CSS Fan Guard



Cool huh?

EDIT EDIT: How do i resize images on the forum?

[Switch[uK]]

Hooray!

Pieces of kit have begun arriving. First lot from Novatech. That's speedy delivery to say it was free! Just have to wait for the rest now!

Switch[uK]

[Kelainefes]

You could buy UV reactive cable sleeving, heatshRink and, black lights, for starters.
Then a hole in the side panel just on top of the CPU cooler will greatly improve temps, and same goes for the video card.
One 80/92 mm fan should be enough for a dual core, and one 120mm for the video card.
I suggest you use aluminium dust guards for the fans, they are pretty and there's no problem showing them, while the plastic ones are horrible and should be used only in places they won't be seen.
As for the fans, if you like them black i suggest you buy Scythe model, if you like them nice i can tell that SilenX LED fans are beautiful to look at, silent, provide good airflow for the RPM, and downvolt more than others.

[Switch[uK]]

S***yLink have just delivered me some more bits and pieces. I now have my PSU and my case!

Some great suggestions there Kelainefes. And i'll certainly look into those fan recommendations. I was certainly thinking about getting a green 120mm LED fan for the case front. As for the UV items - thats defiantly the way to go but i really have to put a window in the case side before I can do that. I'm sure B&Q will sell me some perspex right?

Ive also managed to aquire some green LED feet for my case. They will require some drilling to fit but it should give a nice underglow. I now just need to find a net for a printed circuit board to get them to dim in and out like my Razer Copperhead Mouse. Ive always like the way that the On-The-Fly made it look like it was breathing...

Other ideas i have was to get a strobe sound to light for low frequency sounds. That way when i was gaming with my speakers explosions would make my case strobe. Now if that isn't pimp i don't know what is! Ive also been looking at this site that shows how to put a mirrored black finish on the case. Could be expensive but would definatly look the bogs dollox!

Switch[uK]

[Switch[uK]]

Hooray! All the bits for my new computer are here!

Unfortunatly (and there is always a catch isn't there) one of the components - my motherboard - from Scan.co.uk: Computer Hardware - All was delivered late, to the wrong address - but that i was blaming on s***yLink. However, i may have been to harsh to judge the delivary company when i took the board out to get my first glimpse at how awesome it was!

The first thing i noticed was that the box was fairly battered on the front. Especially for a £200 board. I'm willing to let that go though, afterall you dont plug the box in. However, when i opened the box and took a look at the flame freezer it had thermal paste on it where it had been previously attached. The bracket also had thermal paste on it. So that had obviously been plugged in. I opened the accessories box to take a look after that to find that the cables (although they were cool and green UV)were not in packets. Infact the packets had all been ripped open and put in the box. along with the cables. I took a look at the instruction manual to find that it too was covered in spots of thermal paste and corners of the pages had been folded over as if somebody had been reading it.
In all, when i expected to find a brand spanking new board, i found somebody elses reject. I double checked the advertisement on scan's website and it was sold as a new board. I am pretty reluctant to plug in the other £700 worth of components to a board that might have been tampered with so I have emailed scan. Unfortunatly, it being the weekend I am unlikly to hear back till monday and that delays the build entirely!

Somebody doesn't want me to play FarCry2!

Switch[uK]

[Clunk]

Aye, get them to collect it and send you another one - that's not on.

It's generally quicker to sort this kind of thing over the phone with scan - for some reason they take days/weeks to respond to emails.

Looking forward to seeing what mods you can come up with for the case

[supershanks]

the condition of that mobo stinks, Send it back for sure, ideally take some pics of ut before, just in case there are ongoing issues.
Frustrating though

[Switch[uK]]

Just a quick update:

After contacting Scan and a few back and forths they have agreed to take my motherboard back tomorrow to look at the condition in which it was sent. I'm therefore expecting my new board to be here by friday next week (all being well).
It does mean I can start the build then, but unfortunately that doesn't help since I took the week off work to build it... However, it might mean i finally get to play FarCry2 by christmas...

Switch[uK]

[Clunk]

Should only take you 20 mins to chuck it together when you get it back

Up and running in no time

[technogeek]

Originally Posted by Switch[uK]

Just a quick update:

After contacting Scan and a few back and forths they have agreed to take my motherboard back tomorrow to look at the condition in which it was sent. I'm therefore expecting my new board to be here by friday next week (all being well).
:Switch[uK]

Yeah good luck with that, it took 3 phone calls and a moan on another forum before I got my faulty keyboard back from Scan.