As such, I did mention about my PC in my last post and promised to post about it. Well, this post will all be about my rig and what's in it.
Do take note that this is an ongoing upgrading. I have yet to settle on the final build as there are a few parts which may be upgraded depending on my needs.
As such, I will be updating my specs every now and then until I find the perfect combination.
I will post up my specs and I will state the reason why I chose them. But before that, a little info about me.
My main reason for having such a rig is actually for overclocking and benchmarking purpose. I've always been attracted to computers from an early age. Perhaps it was due to my mum who enrolled me in that old computer learning company( I admit, I forgot what's the name). At the age of 5 years old when I should be on the playground and getting myself cuts and bruises, I was actually behind a monitor and studying BASIC (an old computer programming). I started playing portable Tetris when I was 4 although I did not get my first ever computer till I was about 15. I started tinkering at the same time I got my computer and I did plenty of amateurish mistakes. That was when my love for custom built PCs begin. Instead of looking at girls, I prefer to look at a motherboard. Instead of playing soccer, I was test benchmarking my PC. I only stopped when I entered National Service and did not continue as I was thrown into the world of working my butt out to earn money.
Now after like 9 years out, I'm back and much wiser. Of course, Youtube and the WWW has helped tremendously in solving little problems but my appetite for tinkering and making custom builds grew even stronger. As such, I have an awesome rig now after going through some trial and error (minimized this time), I have a fully capable PC that runs Crysis easily on Ultra settings. Take that Crytek!
Chassis: Coolermaster NVIDIA Edition 690 II Plus
CPU: Intel Ivy Bridge i5 3570k 3.4 Ghz Overclocked to 4.2 Ghz
CPU cooler: Coolermaster V8
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 Mhz 4 GB x 4 modules = 16 GB
HDD: (Main) Intel SSD 520 series 120 GB (OS and certain games)
(Backup) Western Digital 1 TB Green 5200 RPM (For movies, MP3s and backup files)
(Support) Corsair ForceGT3 SSD 120 GB (Pure games)
MB: Asus Maximus V Formula with ThunderFX module
GPU: 2 x Gigabyte Geforce GTX 670 2 GB DDR5 Windforce 3 (Physx configuration currently)
Sound: Asus Xonar Phoebus
PSU (Power supply unit): Corsair AX1200 providing 1200 watts
Optical Drive: HP Blu-Ray combo writer 12X
Number of fans (Excluding CPU & GPU): 5 x 120 mm in push/pull config
Display: Samsung 40" LCD TV 2nd Gen
Pretty awesome specs to say the least. If you were to manually purchase each one on its own, the entire rig will set you back for at least SGD 4500. With that amount, I can easily buy a retail ready made PC and a laptop. But I'm one of an enthusiast and I prefer to tinker around. Who doesn't want their own custom built PC?
The reasons:
Chassis
To be honest, I didn't want this chassis at first. I was actually aiming for Coolermaster's insanely beautiful and practical Cosmos II. But, at that point of time, it was a pretty rush buy as I wanted to start tinkering as soon as possible. Also, the price of Cosmos II was expensive. I mean 500 bucks for that chassis was way overboard for me at that time because I still needed the money to buy other parts. And so I bought the 690 II Plus.
The chassis looks nice with the side transparent NVIDIA logo and it does fit E-ATX motherboards to a certain degree. Plus, it has the removable HDD racks and grommets plus the space to fit the new current generation of graphics cards. The fact that Coolermaster is well known for their quality in chassis also adds in. Cable management was easy although there's some effort as the space for the cables behind the motherboard is pretty small. But overall, my PC does look neat without all the messy cables. ATX motherboards will have no problems in this case but E-ATX will cover a little of the grommets at the side. But it isn't really an issue as I still have a large gap between my HDD and the motherboard
CPU:
This was a decision I really had to think hard. Ivy Bridge was significantly new at that time and I was planning to go Sandy Bridge. More specifically the X79 types. But, in my best wisdom I chose this as power consumption was a factor. Plus, due to the fact that I was buying an LGA 1155 motherboard for Ivy Bridge, I bought this CPU as a temporary measure and to test out overclocking on Ivy Bridge. Needless to say, I will definitely be upgrading the CPU in the near future but in the meantime, the i5 is pretty much keeping me happy with its overlocking and power consumption.
CPU cooler:
Again, another one I had to think hard. But it was the design and visual that made my decision. As my motherboard is an ROG product, the visual designs of the V8 really attracted me. It screams car engine at me and has red lights which complemented my motherboard. And it's actually doing quite a good job of cooling my CPU as evidenced by my overclocking (3.4 Ghz - 4.2 Ghz: 800 Mhz OC)
RAM:
G.Skill is a no brainer for me. Together with the Corsair series, both are my top two choices for RAM right now. I lost hope in Kingston although they're reliable but the overlocking potential for both is what I need. 16 GB is definitely overkill but I'm a multi-tasker. I run like 7-8 different programs at any given time and RAM is essential in order to prevent any latency
HDD:
I actually have my Western Digital hard drive from before. WD products have always been known to be reliable. But here comes the weird part. Why do I have 2 separate SSD? Why not get the same? I bought Intel to take advantage of its Rapid Start Technology and the accompanying software since I'm using Ivy Bridge. And it does shows. Boot up time from pressing the button till desktop screen is less than a minute. I bought the ForceGT when I realized my space in the SSD is running out. And besides, both are using Sandforce controllers so I don't have a problem here. The only regret was that I actually did not use both as RAID instead. Or used one of them as a cache for my WD 1 TB. Call it inexperience since I haven't built a rig for so many years. I will rectify this once I got hold of another SSD.
Motherboard:
I was impressed with Asus quality in the motherboard segment. They, along with Gigabyte, have really established themselves as one of the top motherboard makers. I was contemplating getting the Gigabyte G1 Sniper 3 edition as the colour scheme fits perfectly with my chassis but what forces me to get the ROG motherboard was the BIOS. I still think Asus has made one of the best BIOS ever, especially for overclockers. It was easy to use, and there's even preset overclocking options. Sometimes, enthusiast like me are tired of going through every single option and test out certain things. The presets really help a lot. Plus, Asus also have accompanying software with the motherboard for on screen real time overclocking helps too. Feature-wise, the motherboard is like heaven for me. There's plenty of great features in this motherboard. The last best part is I'm getting a ThunderFx module here for free. An external sound card module for free and it's mine for life. Even if in the near future, I'm using another product or building a new system I can easily transfer the module to the new one. And that, to me, for its price, while a tad expensive is worth it.
GPU:
Ah, this is the one where everyone was screaming at me "OVERKILL!!!" To be honest, I actually wanted to get TWO GTX 690s and do a 4-way SLI. But when I saw the price, I was like WTF? SGD 1600 bucks for a single card? Sure, it's dual GPU but what the hell? I can easily build like 4 budget HTPCs with that amount! So, I decided to be sane and bought the 670s. Not as powerful as 680 nor the 690 but it comes close. On its own, 690 and 680 definitely beats the 670 but in SLI mode, it actually is on par with the other two. So, pretty happy about it. But why Gigabyte, you ask? Well, the fact that it has the Windforce triple fans on it and that Gigabyte is pretty well known for good quality cards. I though of getting the Asus 670 DirectCu II version but hell, that amount of fans alone is good enough for me. And besides, I'm using the Physx option so I don't really have insane amount of heat from the GPU but having a Windforce on it relieve some of my uneasiness as I'm running a fan cooling system.
PSU:
Another overkill I know. I just want to have a peace of mind that my PSU can cope with my constant upgrading. At least having that option, I can rest my mind knowing that whatever upgrades I may have in future, my PSU can handle it. Fully modular and plenty of cables, it's pretty solid.
Optical drive:
I bought this due to its relatively cheap price and that most internal Blu-Ray drives offer similar performance. Although the software is a tad disappointing but hell, there's plenty of freeware nowadays, it doesn't really matter. So far, it's been performing really well.
Fans:
As I mentioned before, I'm using a push-pull configuration which means some fans suck the air into the case while other fans blow out the heat from the case. Normally, fans that pull air into the case comes from the sides while the fans that push out are located on top due to basic physics (Hot air rises). Since I have an ATX motherboard, I'm using 5x 120 mm fans of which 2 at the front of the case, 1 at the back and 2 more at the top. Front and back pull while the other 2 at the top pushes the hot air out.
Display:
I'm currently using my TV as I don't really have enough space at the moment for another display. And besides, it's only temporary. With Blu-Ray options and having multiple HDMI ports, using a TV seems adequate. I do intend to get a good LCD monitor as my TV doesn't output the full 1920 x 1080 resolution properly. For now, I will be using it for my gaming sessions and so far it's been good.
As you guys can see, not all of my products are actually new. Things such as my CPU cooler, chassis and optical drive pretty much came out last year or the year before. But I will be upgrading my chassis as I still feel it's a tad too small with the insane amount of cabling I had to hide and that it's a hassle for me whenever I upgrade. CPU is a definite in the near future. I may go into water-cooling but it depends on my choice of chassis of course. The fact that I have the Maximus V motherboard may also play a part as the motherboard has ThermoFusion which allows watercooling of motherboard. HDD is a definite must as software and games become increasingly bigger and disk space requirements increase. Depending on the price of the 690, I may or may not upgrade as there's not many manufacturers coming out the latest version of NVIDA GPUs. I may even go for AMD's Radeon cards but at the moment, the 2 cards are actually doing fine for me.
I will post up pics soon as I'm actually writing this post while preparing for an event soon. So, whenever I'm free, I'll post up pics and maybe videos of my rig as soon as possible.
Anyways, thanks for reading and do comment if you have any advice or comments you wish to share.
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