My brother and I are identical twins and in enjoying each other's company I get to constantly see what state his computer is in. After helping him build his second PC (his current machine) over 4 years ago I continuously helped him maintain and upgrade his system. Here are the parts in his old system:
AMD Athlon II X4 640 overclocked from 3.0 to 3.75GHz at 1.525v Vcore cooled by an Antec Kuhler 620 AIO cooler and Scythe Grand Flex 2000RPM fans (fantastic fans to put on a controller because they perform amazing across the whole 1000-2000rpm range).
MSI 870A Fusion motherboard
2 x 4GB G.skill DDR3 1333 @ stock CL9
OEM style Powercolor HD 7870 (LOUD) overclocked to 1150/1300 at a slight voltage increase.
Samsung 256GB 830 series SSD boot drive (migrating to new system)
NEW oem WD Caviar blue 1TB HDD for media and games (also migrating)
Cooler Master Storm Scout mid tower case
Corsair TX650 power supply
and a Video of the "before" PC and how loud it is playing games:
Youtube video link
Now, the new build will have these parts:
AMD FX-8350 ===========================> donated by friend
Asrock 990FX Killer mobo ====================> also donated by friend
2 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 CL10 ram ==> bought used for $60
Samsung 256GB 830 series SSD ===========> from old PC
WD Caviar Blue 1TB storage drive ==========> from old PC
Fractal Define R5 black window case =======> won through Tek Syndicate at PDX LAN in Feb.
Corsair CX750M power supply ==========> was laying around as my extra PSU for the last year
ASUS R9 290 reference (no water block yet) ==> bought for $190 lightly used
Watercooling Parts and Fans:
- Hardware Labs Black Ice GT Stealth gen 2 280mm radiator in the front of the R5 with 4 Rosewill Hyperborea 140mm fans in Push/Pull
- Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis GTS 240mm radiator ( $50) with 2 120mm Rosewill Hyperborea 120mm fans in Pull
- XSPC Raystorm CPU block with red leds ==========> waiting for a build for 18 months
- Danger Den dual bay reservoir and D5 Vario pump =====> also laying around
- Monsoon Free center compression fittings 7/16" x 5/8" ==> laying around with many other fittings
- Primochill PrimoFlex Pro LRT gloss black tubing 7/16" x 5/8" size = 5 x $1 per foot ==> $5
6 fans run about $85 roughly
Not yet bought = Alphacool NexXxoS GPX - ATI R9 290X and 290 M01 - with Backplate = $105
:::::*****The running total for parts is about $500 for a badass watercooled system*****:::::
The more realistic pricing if you had bought all the parts new(ish) can be found here:
PCPartPicker link
So here are pictures of the build progress. As we speak I am leak testing the system with only the front 280 rad and CPU in the loop.
The XSPC Raystorm seems to not be 100% compatible with the Asrock original backplate, but I was able to improvise and we will see what temperatures look like tomorrow after the 24 hours of leak testing is done.
The GPU block is coming later as it hasn't been purchased yet, but I am sure listening to the stock R9 290 reference cooler will make me hurry to buy that last, important piece.