Part Build - possible?

gman said:
Found this interesting chart whilst looking up the Ninja:
Click to expand...
Yup... The Ninja I have isn't the best AFAIK, but it is pretty good and only a single fan. I have my system maxing at 75 deg C when running 4.3GHz. I'm sure it could be lower with a better cooler, but I'd prefer to be 1-200MHz slower and quieter.

gman said:
Here's a fair sized heatsink in a Coolermaster 430 so I reckon I have a fairly good choice available?
Click to expand...
Yup. Here's what the Ninja 3 looks like in my workstation and server (which is a cable mess at the moment):

IMG_6852-800.jpg



IMG_0037-800.jpg
 
gman said:
I think the motherboard has four fan connectors (are these just for controlling fan speed and not power?) + the CPU fan. But I'm not 100% sure about the PSU connectors. Am I going to need to adapters or splitters or will my PSU have enough cables for everything?
Click to expand...
It depends what the BIOS supports as to what the system supports. There are two ways of controlling fans: PWM (sending the fan a control signal to modulate fan speed) and changing the voltage being supplied.

The CPU fan is generally PWM based (you can tell as it has 4 pins which are power, ground, pwm control, speed sense) and thge BIOS generally has options to modulate the speed of this fan depending on the temperatures on the CPU die (when it gets warmer, the fan speeds up and you can control when it starts and how quickly it ramps to full speed).

For the mobo fans, things are different as these are generally 3 pin connectors that are power, ground, speed sense - the 4 pin connectors are pin compatible with the 3 pin connectors BTW). These fans are controlled by changing the voltage to them. Support for control is completely dependent on the BIOS. On the motherboard there are normally temp. sensors that sense the ambient temperature and often the chipset temp in addition to the CPU temps and you can often set the voltage to the case fans from the BIOS. Generally, the more expensive the board, the more configurable the fan settings are. There are two things to be wary of here, the fans minimum voltage to start and the BIOS' threshold for an alarm condition. Some fans need a big kick to start them and some BIOSes will post an alarm condition if the fans don't start. This varies from board to board and fan to fan.

Out of the box, the BIOS will be set to whack the fans to full pelt as soon as the power is applied which is the safest setting, but the most noisy. By understanding the case design, airflow and CPU and chipset temps, you can often cut down significantly the noise from the case.

In my server case, you can see a small brass U shaped lump of metal in the backplane. I have a variable resistor system to control my fans (my old mobo didn't have as good settings as my new one does for this). Cost a few £ from China off e-bay.

I really do know a shedload of s... about this stuff :shake::shrug:
 
Cheers for all the detail, I reckon I'm best to wait now until all the kit arrives and then go from there! I just don't want to end up going to PC World and buying crap stuff just to get it going.
 
PSU, Processor and RAM arrived today :D Just the case, fans and SATA3 cable to go, looks like the build will start next week.
 
Never thought of that, will get the compact out so you can all have a laugh at my cable management skills! Couldn't get the Case direct from the rainforest so it's coming separately and the SSD never came with a cable so had to order that separately also - but won't be long. Oh, and the mobo is in transit haha, forgot about that!
 
Motherboard arrived. Come on case and fans, waiting patiently!!!!
 
The case has finally arrived, let building commence!
 
I stupidly decided to start building it at about 8pm and finally finished at about 12.30am. Laying things out, taking my time and in particular cable management took a good portion of that time. Was actually not all that bad, a little daunting at the beginning but once I got going it all just flowed nicely. The PSU came with a bloody yankie doodle plug so I just used my old one.

Hit the power button and nothing. Got the sweats.

Started cursing the case and the power button connectors, then the PSU and then the motherboard....but then spotted two green power lights glowing on the GPU. Re-read the motherboard manual and it quietly noted something which I reckon is pretty ********* important - the front I/O cables have the positive cable marked by a triangle. Common sense to me was to plug them in to the motherboard adapter with the text facing me but it's all over the place apparently. Reconfigured connections and away we go.

I'm not sure if it's the processor or the SSD but this system is fast. Disgustingly fast!

Glad I did it myself though, at least I know that everything is screwed down and there's decent components in there. So much to install now though.... that's me for at least 5 years! lol

Have some photos but was tired so not the best. Will get them up soon so you can laugh at my cable management!
 
Good stuff....

Re: speed. Yes, once you're used to it, other computers you use will seem incredibly slow. It will also put into context the posts from people who say "I have a 5 year old Core Duo and have no problem processing images". You'll probably quickly surmise they must have a lot of patience ;) :D
 
Sounds good, you will probably find that the system will slow down over time to allow you to keep up with it :LOL:

No, but seriously, as you use it, Windows will become bloated with temporary files etc and will slow down, I use Auslogics free defragger on a weekly basis to keep things humming along! < - Yes, I know that defragging does not remove those..... It just re-arranges stuff on the hard drive so it can find things quicker! I am sure people will offer 3rd party solutions to get rid of the temporary files etc!

Cheers,
Ste
 
Last edited:
lol, cheers all. I thought SSD drives didn't need defragging due to how they operate?

I've now got the long process of installing everything but judging how fast Windows 7 and MS Office installed, it should be painless. Everything is so instant, although things were pretty fast in my old system when I did a full reinstall so here's hoping all those Windows updates etc won't slow things down too much.

I'm just happy there's no blue screen of death and I have to give a lot of thanks to these guys as their videos helped a lot, especially with my confidence. The motherboard manual was excellent and easy to follow and you can take both sides of the case off so that's good for cable management - there's space there as well! There's an extra 4 connectors on the MB for fans so I only had to connect one fan directly to the PSU. It looks like the MB can control these fans, or monitor them at least, which is good.

There were only a few issues:

1. There's no way in hell you can get a fan on the bottom of the case as the PSU covers a fair portion of it, even a smaller PSU would obstruct it I reckon. I'm glad I didn't buy a fan for this bit.
2. The top fan nearer the rear presses against a heatsink that is built into the motherboard - it's only just touching and not massively keen on that but I installed the fan anyway.
3. The window on the side of the case does not support a 140mm fan but online it says it does (perhaps a bad review). Had to drill some new holes so no big deal.

I think the case is being a little optimistic with the amount of fans or the placement points of them isn't too good - a bigger case may have been better for me as I like lot of space. There's plenty of room on the other side though where the harddrives are.


The biggest annoyance was the PSU because of the plug but again easy solved. I've read online of people using a 2 pin adapter (like you use for shaving) but the fuse is like 1amp in these so I wasn't keen and just used my old supply instead.

Will get the photos up soon, have a lot of work to do.


Cheers all, was good fun and feels even better now - I like making things! haha



EDIT: Windows Experience is coming back at 7.7 with the processor and RAM being the lowest at 7.7 each, the graphics being 7.8 and the SSD being 7.9. Not sure if this is any good? It's just a stock system at the moment.
 
Last edited:
gman said:
lol, cheers all. I thought SSD drives didn't need defragging due to how they operate?
Click to expand...

correct. you normally defrag a mechanical drive as it operates faster accessing data sequentially.

SSD accesses data randomly so isnt necessary.

and more writes to the SSD actually shortens its life span. as long as you have TRIM enabled your SSD will look after itself.
 
neil_g said:
as long as you have TRIM enabled your SSD will look after itself.
Click to expand...
Which you enable by running a windows experience index score once you have everything set up.... Evidently.
 
neil_g said:
saying that though i installed the samsung toolkit and it said defrag wasnt disabled which confused me slightly as i thought that did it.
Click to expand...
Talking of which - what do you think of a 2-SSD system... (sorry for the slight OT drag)?
 
<sigh>
 
No probs about OT stuff, I was thinking about putting a second SSD in but may wait for the now. No idea what trimming the SSD is, sounds like some form of electronic barber?
 
Rico said:
Why so many fans? Are you planning on overclocking?
Click to expand...

Not just now but I kinda looked at things as such that fans are cheap and the ones I've got are quiet so why not have a cool [temperature] case!

Two input and three output plus the vent in the bottom and any gaps in the case seem ok to me, it's a negative pressure setup and I'd rather get the hot air pulled out. The input fans are probably more for just pushing the air through and out rather than actually bringing cold air in - which I guess can only be as good as the room temp?

It seems to work ok, the room is quite warm but my temps are:

GPU (not under load): 27C
Case: 23C
Harddrives: 21C
CPU: 26C

Nothing amazing, but I don't think they are bad?
 
Ok, not the best build photos but it was a long late night and there'll always be much better out there on the net anyway. I ended up stopping the photos near the end as I lost the will to live with cable management.

IMG_1062.JPG


IMG_1063.JPG


IMG_1064.JPG


IMG_10661.JPG


IMG_10671.JPG


IMG_10682.JPG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top