First post and photos of my rig!

Hey everyone! I'm a long time lurker who finally decided to make an account and share my rig!

I'm rubbish at the whole modding thing but want to really start to venture into it with my current case which is a Corsair Graphite 230T, I love the design and think that with some work it could look awesome! Below are some photos I've taken today just to post here. There are two things I would love to add to this case, a PSU cover the covers up the wires (mess) and a small cover to go between the HDD/SSD bays and Optical bays so that it can be better used for cable management. Any ideas would be kick *** and much appreciated!

Anywho, on to the photos.







Here's my terrible cable management...




I think this case really does have potential and I'd really like to give it a shot but don't know where to begin other than the two things I mentioned earlier, so please any simple ideas would be really awesome!

Here's the specs:
CPU: AMD FX-4350 @4.2GHz
MOBO: Gigabyte 970A-UD3P
RAM: 2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz
SSD: 1 x 256GB OCZ ARC SSD
HDD 1: 1 x 2TB Seagate HDD
HDD 1: 1TB Hitachi HDD (For ShadowPlay)
GPU: EVGA Nvidia GTX 970 4GB ACX 2.0
PSU: OCZ 500w ModXstream
Case: Corsair Graphite 230T

Thanks guys!

-N

Looks way better than my first rig!
Nice budget gamer you've got there

Back side cable management is forgiven, it has to be somewhere! Otherwise it's a nicely arranged unit.

Very clean build! You should flip that bottom fan so it blows into the case. You want airflow like so:

Front/bottom/side = Intakes
Top/rear =Exhaust.

Heat rises so you want the hot air to flow out. Flipping the bottom fan will help and also aid the video card

ATMINSIDE said:

Looks way better than my first rig!
Nice budget gamer you've got there

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Thanks, it's not my first rig though haha Sadly all of my rigs have been budget haha this rig is the most expensive one I've built XD

RollingThunder said:

Back side cable management is forgiven, it has to be somewhere! Otherwise it's a nicely arranged unit.

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Thanks! I just want more space for a neater job haha, or at least more covers so I can hide more.

Nebulous said:

Very clean build! You should flip that bottom fan so it blows into the case. You want airflow like so:

Front/bottom/side = Intakes
Top/rear =Exhaust.

Heat rises so you want the hot air to flow out. Flipping the bottom fan will help and also aid the video card

Click to expand...

You know, I've never thought of that haha according to my temperature software I'm idling at 0-5oC right now, I honestly think that is wrong haha I'll swap it round anyway, thanks!

-N

what?????? that looks neat and tidy!!! very good build with plenty of power for game.

The idle temps are an issue with FX processors. Just watch the load temp

caddi daddi said:

what?????? that looks neat and tidy!!! very good build with plenty of power for game.

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I think it's the PSU cables that make it look messy which is why I'd like to put a PSU cover on it.

ATMINSIDE said:

The idle temps are an issue with FX processors. Just watch the load temp

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Yeah, I just did a stress test with CPU-Z and it setled around 28oC give or take, I'm not sure these figures are correct haha! Here's a screen shot

[/IMG]

-N

CPUz bench doesn't heat anything up.
20 minutes of Prime 95 blend will give you the real deal.

Love that case!




It might not look like much, but you gotta understand the story behind this guy. I picked it up for a cool .01 on account of the fact that it had been hit with a forklift or something. The case was truly mangled. I had documented the restoration process pretty well and was going to write a post about it, but I lost the "before pics". It was blaze orange to begin with. To make a long story short, a 2 x 4, a heat gun, and a couple cans of paint made this case "acceptable" but I will never go through the effort again. I also added sound dampeners on the sidepanels and put plastidip on anything that would touch a moving part like a fan or a drive. I am overall pretty happy with it, but I still look forward to the day when I get a brand new case - I might even get another one of these as I really like the drive cages and such.

knoober said:

Love that case!
View attachment 173561

View attachment 173562

It might not look like much, but you gotta understand the story behind this guy. I picked it up for a cool .01 on account of the fact that it had been hit with a forklift or something. The case was truly mangled. I had documented the restoration process pretty well and was going to write a post about it, but I lost the "before pics". It was blaze orange to begin with. To make a long story short, a 2 x 4, a heat gun, and a couple cans of paint made this case "acceptable" but I will never go through the effort again. I also added sound dampeners on the sidepanels and put plastidip on anything that would touch a moving part like a fan or a drive. I am overall pretty happy with it, but I still look forward to the day when I get a brand new case - I might even get another one of these as I really like the drive cages and such.

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I'm going to be completely honest and say that when I'd first seen the photos I though it was a mod gone ghetto but after reading the story I can completely understand! You've done a great job bringing back the original look, probably better than what I'd have done with it. If only I could fall upon a deal like that, I'd give it a good run and see exactly what I can do to it. I'd love to mod this case like really mod it but I don't want to completely screw it up if you get me? I know for certain that I want to paint the panels gloss white and the interior gloss black.

After dragging my *** through the internet I know some things I want to do. Try and get my hands on some 1/2mm white acrylic or other plastic to make a motherboard cover, just something that will go over but not completely cover the board like those professional covers you see on high-end boards, just a standoff type thing. Some matt black acrylic to cover the space between the drive cages for extra cable management space. And finally a cover to go around the PSU towards the drive cages so I can hide those ghastly cables

Just a quick question about your set up, what's the panel in the top 5.25" bay? Is it a fan controller or LED switch?

-N

NOOD7E said:

I'm going to be completely honest and say that when I'd first seen the photos I though it was a mod gone ghetto but after reading the story I can completely understand!

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It would have looked ghetto anyway . that's just the kind of work I do That panel on the front I will admit to trying to be "fancy" with. I was hoping that giving it an odd shape and some curves would be nice on the eyes, but I had to stop before it got worse. And yeah those are zipties on the corners, but I had absolutely no idea how to attach that panel otherwise, and the origional was ruined.

After dragging my *** through the internet I know some things I want to do. Try and get my hands on some 1/2mm white acrylic or other plastic to make a motherboard cover, just something that will go over but not completely cover the board like those professional covers you see on high-end boards, just a standoff type thing. Some matt black acrylic to cover the space between the drive cages for extra cable management space. And finally a cover to go around the PSU towards the drive cages so I can hide those ghastly cables

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Im rather fond of the results in this thread, but it is a bit above my patience/skill quotient. Perhaps you will see something helpfull here. And as far as the cable managment goes, as long as the main portion of the case is open and free flowing then you needent worry. Some zipties will help alot, and if you try to follow the natural lines of the case you will be able to clean it up some. This case doesnt have a whole lot of options for cable management

Just a quick question about your set up, what's the panel in the top 5.25" bay? Is it a fan controller or LED switch?

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Its a fan controller with military style switches. it doesnt have the fine grain control of other fan controllers (Ive only got Hi/low/off for settings) but to me the looks make up for it

Quick update!

I've got my hands on some cable combs for my 6+8 pin PCI-E power cables and my 24 pin mobo cable so things look a lot neater and tidier! I've also finally gotten around to putting Windows 8.1 onto a USB drive so I can finally remove my useless DVD drive and free up some more space! I've managed to take some glamour shots to really make things look pretty inside!













And finally I dug out my old 660 Ti and cleaned it all up. It looks brand new!



Oh and Knoober I'm really digging it, very ghetto but practical! By the way do you store you HDD/SSDs in the 5.25 drive bays up top or did the drive cage survive?

-N

I considered cable combs like that a while back. Youre getting really nice looking results. Check this thread for other nice looking cables. I was fairly well floored by what I saw, and if you can appreciate cable management, you might see something you like. Also there is a dedicated cable managment thread here on the forums that has some rather nice looking pics as well.

NOOD7E said:

Oh and Knoober I'm really digging it, very ghetto but practical! By the way do you store you HDD/SSDs in the 5.25 drive bays up top or did the drive cage survive?

-N

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My drives cages? That's where I had to pull out the heat gun. Like I said: Ghetto is just the kind of work I do This thing was still in the original box/ had all the original hardware, just one side had gotten crushed in. It was absolutely new and unused - except for whatever had happened to it. I really wish I hadnt lost those pics! One of the front support columns (right behind the front bezel) was bent in at a steep angle, which twisted the drive cages all up and the fan that came preinstalled was all mangled as well. Since they are just plastic pieces I sat them under a blast from the heatgun for a minute or two until pliable and then held them in place until the plastic hardened again (yeah the fan too. The blades wouldnt even turn until I straightened out the frame). I also Plasti-dipped the drive cage so the vibration from my mechanical drives would be less noticable ( but it mostly just makes the drive cage match the rest of the paint I put down inside). I did lost one of the retention clips from the drive cage in the process, but the bay still works just fine.

One last little point of bragging/observation. That black crap at the bottom of the front bezel is Fiber Fix. There was a pretty large chunk of the bezel frame that was missing there and if FIber fix can hold a shovel handle together (according to the marketing) I figure it might just do the job. It did