From Newegg to New Computer...

[Urbanwolfie]

...in 585.9 esy steps.

Per my 'hello' thread I've gone ahead and kept notes regarding the process of building my rig. There will be pictures added later. I've decided to post each section as a new post for ease of my own organization. So...

The Parts
Case: Cooler Master CM Stacker 830
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower 700W w/ Modular cabling (W0106RU)
Fans: 2x stock with case, + 5x Thermaltake Thunderblade A1926 120mm Blue LED w/ silicone dampeners
Motherboard: ABIT AW9D-Max
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700
CPU Cooling: Vigor Gaming Monsoon II TEC
RAM: Corsair 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 @ 4-4-4-12
Video: EVGA Geforce 7900 GTO 512MB PCI Express x16
Sound: Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty
Storage: WD Raptor X 150GB 10k RPM + WD Caviar 500GB (both SATA)
DVDRW: Samsung 18X + Lightscribe
Display 1: Acer AL2423Wdr Silver/Black 24" 6ms GTG Widescreen LCD Monitor
Display 2: SAMSUNG 205BW Black 20" 6ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
Etc: Sunbeam 20-in-1 card reader, VANTEC fan controller, Logitech G-15 KB, Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman

The Arrival
6 out of 9 packages arrived today. I’m still waiting on the Samsung display, motherboard, memory, and trackball. A thorough package inspection was first in order. I hate UPS; when I worked for a manufacturer we would have no end of trouble with them; packages would almost always arrive on time, but the shape in which they arrived on our customers’ doorstep was often questionable or worse. I would have used FedEx for shipping, but the cost of shipping over 100lbs of equipment with them was somewhat prohibitive.

The first shipment, plus a kitten


Everything unpacked, plus the *other* kitten

 

[Urbanwolfie]

Preliminary Steps
Everything looks good so far. Since I don’t have the motherboard and RAM yet my efforts will be limited to prepping the case and assembling the front panel devices and hard drives.

First things first, I had to reverse the front door; the system will sit on the left side of my desk, so I need the door to open from the right side. As advertised, this was as simple as switching the pins and springs to the left side, the magnets to the right side, and took less than 5 minutes.



As reported, the side access door was very difficult to remove; a quick session with a flathead screwdriver took care of that in seconds.
After clearing all the accessory parts out of the inside and tossing the BTX crap into a dark hole to rot for all eternity I removed the motherboard tray and prepared to mount the PSU, fans and front panel accessories.

 

[Urbanwolfie]

Power Supply
The power supply, a Thermaltake Toughpower Cable Management 700W beast, came packaged with a silicone vibration dampener and enough cables to wire the universe (or at least a heavily device-laden computer/battleship). Installing the PSU with the dampener on was somewhat problematic due to the increased bulk on the face of the PSU, but a little bending of the Stacker’s faceplate solved that.



I’m a little disappointed at the placement of the blowhole vent; in order to attach some of the modular cabling I’m going to have to slide the PSU out slightly because the metalwork around the fan frame blocks access. Placing the hole only half an inch closer to the front would have prevented this issue.

 

[Urbanwolfie]

Front Panel Devices
Installing the front panel devices is an unexpected pleasure compared to the days of prying out metal bits and inserting ridiculous numbers of screws. The Stacker’s tool-free slide locks make this fast and easy, and the small swinging doors on the front hide the edges of the bay vents very stylishly.



I have a *lot* of wiring running to the front panel. It’s going to be difficult to bundle all of it away, but I think I’ve managed nicely so far, though this is an earlier pic, so it doesn't show.



It is worth noting at this time that my card reader has a CF/MD card slot. This is good, because I just realized my laptop doesn’t, and now I have a way to transfer the images off the camera I procured for this. (EDIT: And so does my roomie's computer, so I'm able to get them off now! Woohoo!)

 

[Urbanwolfie]

Fans
Installing the fans themselves took mere minutes, as the fan mounts were all of the snap-in variety. After attaching power and running the wires to the fan controllers I bundled all the wiring away; since I have to run the wiring on the door fans down the back side of the door it won’t be *completely* out of the way, but I managed to bundle it and keep it out of the airflow path.





The silicone dampeners will be returned, as the Stacker's snap-in mounts are a tight fit, and thus prevent their use.

I've gone about as far as I can without the motherboard. I'll pick up here when the rest arrives.

 

[Urbanwolfie]

Bumping for added pictures. Also, a question. Each fan has a double-ended power plug; I won't be using the male molex end for anything (each fan is wired individually to the controller), so can I safely cut those off to remove excess bulk from the wiring?

Moving on, here's the Acer AL2423W hooked up to my laptop (a 17" widescreen, for comparison). Even with the brightness turned all the way to the minimum setting it's plenty bright for pretty much any situation and the image quality is just amazing.


The Motherboard and RAM arrive monday, so I'm stuck until then. On the upside, it gives me something to look forward to after my Physiology exam.

 

[Uqdroma]

lol...Is the Diet Pepsi required for this build? jk Thanks for letting us live through you...I've never been able to afford doin' it all at once like that. Looks good so far.

 

[Urbanwolfie]

The Diet Pepsi is *vital*. I usually can't afford all this at once myself, but I managed to fit it into my student budget with a little planning and and lots of ramen.

 

[OnDborder]

Nice set-up you got there.

 

[Aman]

wow..

maybe you could teach me some things aobut building rigs.
i will be building one soon.

 

[Urbanwolfie]

Well, this is the first system I've built in about 8 years, so let's see how badly I do with this one before I start giving advice to others.

 

[UnrealAlex]

You outfitted the door with 4 fans :O
Thats wicked. Going to be noisy? xD

 

[Neuromancer]

Yeh gods am I jealous Well at least I got some stuff arriving next week too

 

[Urbanwolfie]

You outfitted the door with 4 fans :O
Thats wicked. Going to be noisy? xD

I hope not. The TT fans are supposed to be reasonably quiet, and I'll use the controller to run them just fast enough to keep the case temp close to ambient and give the chipset sinks some bonus airflow.

I probably could have done with less, but I like the idea of keeping the RPMs down and being able to direct the air where it's needed by revving up one fan or another.

 

[OnDborder]

Ya, I think the 4 fans on the side panel is cool.. Gives me an itch to mod one of my panels..
Does the fans on the panel have any kind of dust filters?

 

[Urbanwolfie]

The case came with preinstalled dust screens. I took them out for the moment, as they were pretty dense and would have impeded airflow severely. Since it's going to be at least somewhat noisy already I didn't want to add air resistance on top of that. The fans themselves had no dust screens however.

 

[nvidiaOCmaster]

Man.... nothing like stacking up all the components to make a computer and taking a picture... I love those pictures.

 

[Urbanwolfie]

It was like the holidays as a child, for sure, only with significantly more expensive toys.

The wait for the mobo and RAM is killing me. I want to play nooooooooow!

 

[Urbanwolfie]

Last parts ame in today. More as I work on it.

 

[Aman]

More pictures pelase. These pictures are helpign me lot because i will be building my first computer in few months.