The Build
For this, we need:
A camera, some tools, and some refreshments. And a big pile of boxes...
Parts List
I guess that much of this section is a bit geek-porn but hey, whadda ya gonna do?
Asus P6T Deluxe v2
I spent quite a lot of time worrying about which RAM to choose. I still don’t fully understand why RAM that runs at higher clock speeds has higher latency figures. And then I read somewhere that anything over 1333MHz is overclocked anyway... So I went for Corsair Dominator XMS3, which seems universally recommended.
Storage is an OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD for the operating system plus performance-critical files such as the Lightroom database, Outlook files etc, and 4x 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12s, which are in a RAID5 array, giving 2.7TB usable space on the volume (so that’s actual TB, not hard-drive-vendor TB)
It seems a bit weird taking the ultra-modern, significantly expensive SSD and mounting it to what is, frankly, a bit of old pig iron, but such is the 2.5” drive bay adapter!
The graphics card is a Sapphire Radeon 4850 Vapor-X. Really, I just need something to plug the monitor into, but I wanted a card that vents out of the case.
The power supply is a Corsair HX1000W. I wanted modular, I wanted high power, and I wanted a reliable brand. I swithered for some time between this one and the Zalman, and whilst the Zalman seems like a good product, the Corsair makes every reviewer rapturous. Because my case has a bottom mounting position for the PSU, I needed to invert it, to enable the 140mm to blow into the case void, not the floor. So obviously I had to take the sticker off and remount it in the correct orientation!
And finally, the Antec 1200 case. With 5 hard drives plus an optical drive I wanted something big and well ventilated. And the Antec 1200 looked like it fitted all the requirements without spending lots of money.
So, to the build...
Intel ZIF sockets have been good for a while now, but I was surprised to see the “socket” was actually a plug, and that the processor doesn’t have pin sockets, just contact points.
The Noctua cooler is a proper piece of engineering and takes a good ten minutes to assemble. I was quite conscious of its weight and how that would impact the motherboard. In fact, picking the board up by its edges post-cooler install does induce a slight bow. It took me a while to figure out how to put on the fan mounting clips. The instructions aren’t clear, but a Google Image Search helped out, and I subsequently found that there was a FAQ entry on the subject at Noctua’s web site, so it’s obviously not just me being stupid!
After the cooler was configured, I decided to install the board into the case.
The Antec 1200 is most definitely
not a tool-less chassis. Four thumbscrews hold in each of the three-bay drive cages. Each cage has a 120mm fan drawing air into the case, which I like a lot. The drives screw in – fortunately the 1200 comes with a lot of screws. The Vertex seems dwarfed by the cage...
And here’s the chassis with all five drives mounted.
Mounting the PSU was trivial. The 1200 has rubber feet to place it on, then you just screw in.
RAM and power cables went in next. Annoyingly the SATA power cables are oriented the wrong way, upside down. I took a drive cage out and unscrewed the drives, planning to invert them, but then you can’t screw the drives back in when they’re up[side down, so I had to remount them all. And, like I said, it’s not a tool-less chassis. Grr!
So, I’ve used two feeds from the PSU. One runs the top three Barracudas, running up the tray side of the drives, then back down again. The second runs the Vertex and the final Barracuda. The 1200 has a vertical sequence of three holes in the motherboard tray allowing cables into the management area at the back. Of these, the lower two are busiest. All the power cables go out of the lowest one, plus the chassis cables come in to mount on the bottom edge of the ’board. The middle hole is all about the drive cables, with 5x SATA and 1x IDE going out, and the PCI-E cable for the Sapphire coming in. The top hole sees the 24-pin power come to the board, and 4 of the 5 SATAs come into the run vertically down the inside.
Round the back I’ve bunched the cables together as best I can, and tried to avoid any crossovers. Nevertheless, the back panel is a very tight fit! Out front, I’m quite pleased with the cabling.
Last I fitted the cold cathodes. I’ve used the watercooling holes to mount the switch for the tubes. The horizontal one isn’t too stable at the minute.
So all in all I’m pleased with the build. Vista went straight on, and then Windows Update installed the drivers, which was a bonus. Now, to benchmarking and overclocking!
Larger pics here
How's the weight compared to the stock one?
