Roll Credits [Thanks to OCForums]

Finally finished my new system that I have been working on for a while.

• Asus Rampage III Formula MB
• Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz (overclocked to 3.5 GHz for now until I figure out my temp problems)
• Corsair 950W PS
• OCZ Vertex 2 60 GB Sata II SSD
• G.SKILL Ripjaws 12 GB (3x4GB) DD3 1600 Memory
• 2 x 1TB Western Digital Internal HD (in RAID1)
• Antec 902 Black Case
• Corsair H70 Cooler
• GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB (SLi will come later)
• Windows 7 x64

It was a pretty crazy build for me. Lots of firsts for me including water cooling, 64 bit OS, SSD and RAID hard drives. Unfortunately, I had to end up RMAing the motherboard because of a DOA memory slot, but it all worked out in the end... I wanted to say thanks to everyone who answered my questions and helped me along the way.

Beginning comments and revisions about my original build. I would have never even thought about liquid cooling or the GTX580 if it wasn't for these people. Probably would have wasted money on Blu-Ray drives among other things as well:

• Wathnix
• diaz
• doz
• Knufire
• psionic98 - huge thanks for pointing me towards the h70 review
• Neuromancer

H70 installation and SSD help:

• m0r7if3r
• conumdrum
• SeanOMatic
• SMOKEU
• PhysX

RAM problems with first motherboard:

• Psycogeec
• redduc900
• mgbon2

CPU temps and voltage problems:

• TehNate
• redduc900

I've attached a couple of photos (I know... my cable management is a mess. 902 case is a bit rough for cable management)

I think this vid pretty much sums up my feelings on the situation (SFW):

Again, thanks to everyone!

Good build there. Now you just need some wire management

Take the 24pin, CPU power, and PCIe power and route them through the wire management holes if you can.

Are the HDD cages and front fans one unit like on the original Antec 900? If so, you can do like I did: Put your SSD and 2x HDDs in the top HDD cage, move both HDD cages + fans up two slots, and then stuff your extra PSU wires under the bottom HDD cage. Doing that will also give you better intake airflow, because if you look at your bottom intake fan, it's blowing right into the PSU cords...

MattNo5ss said:

Good build there. Now you just need some wire management

Take the 24pin, CPU power, and PCIe power and route them through the wire management holes if you can.

Are the HDD cages and front fans one unit like on the original Antec 900? If so, you can do like I did: Put your SSD and 2x HDDs in the top HDD cage, move both HDD cages + fans up two slots and stuff your extra PSU wires under the bottom HDD cage. Doing that will also give you better intake airflow, because if you look at your bottom intake fans, it's blowing right into the PSU cords...

Click to expand...

The 24pin, CPU power and PCIe power are just to big. I ran all my fan cables behind the motherboard which worked out alright. Anything larger and I can't close the case

Unfortunately I can't put any of my HDDs in the top bay because my graphics card infringes on the space. The bottom space is the only place I can put cables, I figure it's better to keep the top part of the case cool where the CPU and GPU are rather than the bottom part where only the HDDs lives.

oldtrilogywarz said:

The 24pin, CPU power and PCIe power are just to big. I ran all my fan cables behind the motherboard which worked out alright. Anything larger and I can't close the case

Click to expand...

Hmm...I was able to put all of those behind the mobo tray with my Antec 900. It took a little work, but it was possible. No big deal if it won't work though.

oldtrilogywarz said:

Unfortunately I can't put any of my HDDs in the top bay because my graphics card infringes on the space.

Click to expand...

If you move you HDD cages up two slots, then you can fit the SDD and HDDs in the top cage because the cage will be completely above the GPU, so the GPU won't interfere with HDDs like it does with the cages in their stock slots.

oldtrilogywarz said:

The bottom space is the only place I can put cables, I figure it's better to keep the top part of the case cool where the CPU and GPU are rather than the bottom part where only the HDDs lives.

Click to expand...

Keeping the top part cool is most important, you're right, and that's why I think you should move both of your HDD cages up two slots, so that bottom intake fan isn't blowing cool air into the PSU wires, which does nothing. Plus, moving the cages up will make the top intake fan blow more air to the CPU cooler. This will also give you more space to put wires at the bottom.

How do you like that motherboard? I have the same one

MattNo5ss said:

Hmm...I was able to put all of those behind the mobo tray with my Antec 900. It took a little work, but it was possible. No big deal if it won't work though.

Click to expand...

Maybe I should try again... I was kind of anxious to get the system together so I didn't try to hard.

MattNo5ss said:

If you move you HDD cages up two slots, then you can fit the SDD and HDDs in the top cage because the cage will be completely above the GPU, so the GPU won't interfere with HDDs like it does with the cages in their stock slots.

Click to expand...

Oh I see what you are saying, leave very top slot open for GPU clearance. I think the only downside to that is if I want to go SLi later, I will end up having to move the HDDs back down.

MattNo5ss said:

Keeping the top part cool is most important, you're right, and that's why I think you should move both of your HDD cages up two slots, so that bottom intake fan isn't blowing cool air into the PSU wires, which does nothing. Plus, moving the cages up will make the top intake fan blow more air to the CPU cooler. This will also give you more space to put wires at the bottom.

Click to expand...

I moved the PSU cord to the side for now, no reason it should be hanging over the PSU fan.

MattNo5ss said:

How do you like that motherboard? I have the same one

Click to expand...

It's alright, was expecting a bit better customer service when I tried to RMA it. They kind of jerked me around and I had to sort of yell at them to get a new one. A little disappointed with the BIOS interface. Took a lot of manually tweaking to OC. They couldn't stop saying how easy it was to OC with this board, I guess that's just par for the course... If I had to build another system, I probably would go with another board. Do you like it?

I still don't think I'm getting what I mean across to you. It's probably b/c I'm just not explaining it very well...sorry about that. So, I'll do before and after pics.

The Red boxes are the HDD cages with fans attached.
The Dark blue box is your CD/DVD drive.
The Yellow lines show where your SSD/HDDs are located.
The Light Blue arrows represent your intake airflow.

Here's you're system as is:



My proposed changes:

You're just moving the red boxes (HDD cages) up two 5.25" slots so they are right below the CD/DVD drive, and putting the SSD/HDDs in the top cage.

Pros:
- More airflow to CPU cooler.
- SSD/HDDs are out of the way of any GPU config.
- PSU wires can go under the bottom HDD cage, which allows better airflow to the GPU and PSU.

Cons:
- Airflow to CPU cooler will be a little warmer than ambient b/c of the HDDs, but not by much.

Oh ****... you went and busted out paint

Thanks for taking the time, but there is no fan up there, it's just empty slots. My SSD is fine but the HDDs need forced convection otherwise they will be dust?

If they don't need fan cooling, then that would be a sweet setup.

He is saying to move the cages up to adjust the airflow. Mechanical drives will need airflow of some sort.

That will leave the bottom few slots open for you to hide wires.

oldtrilogywarz said:

...but there is no fan up there, it's just empty slots. My SSD is fine but the HDDs need forced convection otherwise they will be dust?

Click to expand...

The HDD cages have the front intake fans attached to them. So, when you move the cages up, the fans go up with them.

MattNo5ss said:

The HDD cages have the front intake fans attached to them. So, when you move the cages up, the fans go up with them.

Click to expand...

Oh ya... I'm a jackass. Yeah, that's definitely a better setup for air flow and cord management. I think I am gonna try to switch that up tonight, thx for the help.