Help Building My Version of Logan's Epic $3200 PC

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1

Hi, so some of you might have seen Logan's video on here about building an epic $3200 pc. I have been wanting to build my own pc for a while and his parts list seemed pretty epic... lol. I ended up replacing a few of the parts with ones of my own choosing. This is my first build and I was hoping I could get a little help figuring out where to put what. The case I'm using is pretty modular and there are a bunch of different places to put fans. I'm not even sure where to move the fans that came with it. Any help would be greatly appreciated! My plan is to use the Cougar fans in a push/pull. Also if you notice I ordered something wrong or need to order something else, please mention it! I'm doing the best I can. Note: I picked up a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium to use with this pc.

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EDIT: I wrote this down farther, but decided to put it here as well. I have already purchased the h100 water cooler, but having liquid in my case makes me really nervous. If I throw a Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 in it instead, do you think it will cool nearly as well as the h100? Thanks in advance!

**UPDATE** I have decided to go with the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 140mm and 120mm SSO CPU Cooler instead of the H100 or H100i for fear of leaks.

I also ordered 3 COUGAR CF-V14HB Vortex Hydro-Dynamic-Bearing (Fluid) 300,000 Hours 14CM Silent Cooling Fans (Black)

I will be selling the H100 and returning the 120mm cougar fans that I have listed as part of my build below. That simplifies things a lot for me, and clears up a lot of the questions I had concerning this build. My only other question which was raised when necrosexual mentioned a rheobus, is "Do I need a fan controller?" Do they work better than software controls?

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Logan's List:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($549.98)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($94.99)

Motherboard: MSI Big Bang - XPower II XL ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($379.98)

Memory: Mushkin Redline 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($144.98)

Memory: Mushkin Redline 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($144.98)

Hard Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($229.99)

Hard Drive: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.99)

Hard Drive: Seagate Constellation ES.2 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($368.99)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($519.99)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($519.99)

Case: NZXT Switch 810 (Black) ATX Full Tower Case ($199.98)

Power Supply: SeaSonic 1250W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($212.50)

Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($61.98)

Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-fi Titanium ($149.99)


What I ordered that's the same (I think) and from where:

Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73930K

CORSAIR Hydro Series H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

MSI LGA2011/ Intel X79/ DDR3/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&2GbE/ XL-ATX Motherboard BIG BANG-XPOWER II

Mushkin 993997 DDR3 UDIMM (4x4GB) 16GB PC3-17000 2133MHZ 9-11-10-28 Redline Ridgeback 1.65V

Mushkin 993997 DDR3 UDIMM (4x4GB) 16GB PC3-17000 2133MHZ 9-11-10-28 Redline Ridgeback 1.65V

Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/240G 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-Alone Drive)

Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-Alone Drive)

Seagate Constellation ES.2 ST33000651NS 3TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

NZXT SWITCH 810 BLACK Full Tower Chassis with USB 3.0

SeaSonic X-1250 1250W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply

ASUS Black Blu-ray Burner SATA BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS


Parts I ordered that are different or in addition:

EVGA 04G-P4-2690-KR GeForce GTX 690 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

ASUS Xonar Essence STX Virtual 7.1 Channels PCI Express x1 Interface 124 dB SNR / Headphone AMP Card

TP-Link Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter with 3 x 2dBi Antenna (TL-WDN4800)

COUGAR CF-V12HPB Vortex Hydro-Dynamic-Bearing (Fluid) 300,000 Hours 12CM Silent Cooling Fan with Pulse Width Modulation (Black) 4 of them

2

Nice power supply.

As a general rule of thumb I have more fans exhausting than intaking.  Currently on my box I have 2 in the top, 1 in the side, and 1 in back all exhausting, with 2 in the front pulling fresh air over the HDDs.   Looks like you got four fan spots right?  I would recommend getting a rheobus for total control over those puppies, but not quite sure what to recommend in that department.

What specifically do you need help with?

Have you seen this video?:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Js2A1qdB8

Be careful with static.  I usually plug in the power supply first, even if its not in the case but don't turn it on at the wall.  The metal case of the power supply will then be grounded to the earth pin of the house and you can touch that to get rid of any static before touching component.  I usually periodically give it a tap while I'm putting things together.  You could also attach an anti-static wrist strap to this.

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Thanks for responding. I have seen that video, and I just re-watched it for good measure. What confuses me is how many places I can put things in this case. Take a look at the product manual's first page.

http://www.nzxt.com/Download/switch_810_manual.pdf

3 spots for fans at the top. There are 2 spots on the bottom where I could mount fans. There are also 2 spots in front of the HDD cage's, and 2 pivoting spots attached directly to the HDD cages.

The way it is shipped, there is one fan in the top at the back, one in the back at the top, one in front of the top HDD cage, and one attached on the back of that cage.

I'm also not even sure where I should be installing these HDD's. Does it matter if they are in the top or bottom? Is one better? What I originally was thinking, was that I would move the top fan in the back, to the front top space. Next to that, where the top fan orginally was, I would install the h100 with 4 fans. But then I am still not sure if I should move the fans in front and back of the HDD cage at all, or just leave them as is.

As far as static goes, I was under the impression I just had to touch something metal to discharge the static. Am I wrong? What you are saying is I should plug the power supply in (but not turn it on), and then touch that to discharge? I have never heard of an earth pin before.

4

I'm so irritated... I just found out there is a corsair h100i that just came out, and I have my h100 brand new, but unwrapped sitting on the floor. I can't return it now can I? =\ Think I should just order the h100i and sell the h100 on craigslist for a discount? Anyone have another idea? Supposedly they added fan speed control and its quieter with a performance boost for like 10 bucks more...

EDIT: The more I think about watercooling, the more I get nervous about it. I would hate to be the 1 in 1000 who has a leak and then has to deal with cleanup and fixing everything. I have put a lot of money into this. Are there high end air cpu coolers that would cool as well as the h100? I could always sell the h100, return the fans unopened, and buy one. I see a lot of people talking about the Noctua NH-D14 SE2011, it looks like I could even use 2 of the cougar fans on it instead. Thoughts? I'm not sure if I should start a new thread for this question or not. I'm pretty new to actually using forums. If so, sorry!

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A noctua D14 gets very close to a H100. The H100 has more available options for being silent and cooling, noctua push alot of air so they can get pretty noisy. I wouldnt worry to much about a leak, if you really are supposedly they fixed almost all the problems with the H100i. So I would try to return it or sell if off new. Is this pc already purchased?

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Yea, I have already purchased all the parts that I Iisted for this pc. I'm still waiting on a few things to arrive though. It should all be here by Monday or Tuesday latest. I just want to have a good idea of what I am doing beforehand, so when everything is here i can get to work. I read a few reviews of the H100i on newegg where one guy reported a leak and another reported a smoking pump that caused a burn, the same thing I was worried about with the H100. I just know if I opened my case and saw goop sprayed everywhere, I would freak out. Even if I could get whatever was destroyed replaced, I wouldn't want to deal with it. That sounds like a nightmare. Since you say the D14 is very close to the H100, I think I will go with it instead, even if I sacrifice a little performance. The peace of mind it would give me is more than worth it. I read a few people replaced the fans on their D14 to make them quieter. That is also something that interested me.

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Yeah, totally viable option. Noctua fans are pretty fantastic though.