beaststeak
Description
my first computer was commodore 64, then i had some pentium and then for very long time i was gaming on playstation and laptops ( though i had always so called gaming ones) Then i thought to myself last year i should come back to roots and build me a gaming pc, on which i could also use autocad. Well, i did it finally!
To adress prices: i had 300 USD worth gift cards/coupons for amazon
I couldnt use any of those for GPU at the time of purchase, but i've save anyway! :) for another prices - i was haunting for offers/flash sales or sales in general, as for fans i was very lucky to catch them at almost 45% discount prices! All another parts (almost all of them) were purchased with some kind of discount. It took some time and patience to get the parts, but well worth it considering the budget. I can say here, that living in Iceland might have advantage to choose from US and Europe shopping sites as we are kind off in the middle. The biggest trouble was with case as i had to pay a lot for shipping and customs :-/
Setting it all together was breeze, cable management need a little thought, did not had any trouble. Best experience with packaging was with EVGA and Bequiet products, the worst with Gigabyte GPU - i was actually really surprised how this expensive part was packed.
I overclocked cpu up to 4.7 Ghz just to see how far i can go, but after some stress test running (Aida 64) to make sure i can go that far with no problem when need it i downclocked to 3.8Ghz.
I would like to thank PCpartpicker as this site was/is very helpful and full of interesting ideas, which influences me and "in return" to this site and its users i will do an honest review of all parts - from point of view of first time builder, so i hope that info i will share might help to someone with deciding.
review of the case:
i was in search for case with horizontal MB tray..there are not so many options though. one day i came across this one and i was sold.
+build quality is very good
+easy to modify, as its most of the parts held by screws
+cable management is tight, but i suppose for case this size its on the better side
+i was very pleased with the boxing, especially that the window have protective film on it from BOTH sides
+its sturdy, does not flex even when i stripped everything out and only the skeleton was sitting on my desk
+good dust filter for PSU
- be careful with the screws they tend to strip easily, especially the ones which held the MB tray on place
- front dust filter is lame, its there but i am going to upgrade to magnetic one, looking at silverstone atm
-stand offs for PSU are all metal, i put some stand off to minimize potential vibrations
no more negative inputs come in my mind.
my custom cables and lighting are from ICEMODZ. Mundi is great guy, helpfull and is from Iceland as me! :)
Part Reviews
CPU
i invest a lot time to choose a cpu and i end up with this one. all i need for my use and a bit more. in my case not worth it to go with 6700K and i am happy with the performance.
CPU Cooler
Its really big. well packed. setting it up is easy, just see the vid on youtube as i did. it took me like 10-15min. performance is very good and it is really quiet! when i turned off all my fans and let only this cooler run at 100% it was crispy quiet! very happy and satisfied with this product.
!! this cooler do not fit out of the box with this mobo. i needed to do a little modding. heat pipes were way to close to ram and it was bending the first slot unit. its easy to bend the most outer heat pipes in, just few mm and it fits perfectly and no loss in performance.
Motherboard
i choose this mobo as it has what i wanted and needed and a lots more. bios its very easy, allsuite is superb to monitor/overclock and set up fans i give it 4 stars as there are some minor flaws (in my opinion) that product in the price range and line should not have. otherwise happy so far.
Storage
i wanted to go m.2, i choosed this one as it was cheap, and enough capacity for me as its only used for OS and apps i use. 4stars because i expected a bit more then it offers-speed wise. dont take me wrong its still very good! well, money spend well here anyway.
Storage
no brainer this one. has good reviews, use it for my games. loading and transfer time are very good.
Storage
this was laying around so i decide to use it as my backup and movies drive. for 2016 its slow, but since i have it, didnt think about buying new generation would be worth it.
Video Card
what to say..well, all you need to know is on youtube or forums. its big, its fast, its cooled down well. i dont have any coil whine(so far) i do not plan to OC just yet white led is blueish
took down the 1 stars as i really did not like the boxing of this one. shame that such a awesome piece of hardware have so lame packaging.
Power Supply
got it cheap it has good reviews love packaging of this hardware. EVGA know how to please their customers. with eco mode its really quiet i think that the fan did not spin in my case yet, even though i stress my pc enough.
Case Fan
love it. silent pwm fan. build quality is extraordinary, moves a lot of air. fits in my build, was on sale..really no brainer.
Case Fan
i cant say i love this one as the 140mm. build quality is extraordinary, but it is not that dead quiet fan as the rest of the Be!quiet fans i have. after some try and fail attempts to minimize the sound, the best solution is to put extra rubber washer to take the fan further away from casing. i think that the fan is silent on its own but the sound of the air moving when on high rpm is annoying. well, i minimize that sound with the washers, but still, i expect a bit more. but then again maybe if i did not have the 140mm version i will be not complaining at all. also note that now i have the case under the table and do not hear them until the fans kick in to higher RPM when my CPU reach 40-50 Celsius range
UPDATE
after some tweaking, i realize that the annoying sound is caused by the case-as there are many options for different size fans. so i cut away all the fastening points i do not use and all its crispy silent now. so i also change to 5 stars now
Monitor
like it a lot. coming from 60Hz 1080 monitor..its blast. i had to return the first one as it was damaged on arrival. i did not even bother to try it. so it was not return because of dead pixel or light bleed. i noticed that there is some glow in bottom right corner, but nothing drasticall and also after i set up led lighting behind the monitor its almost gone. 4stars for the tiny bleed issue. but it might be the IPS glow, hard to say for me as i do not have another monitor in that range to compare. i got it cheap so i am not gonna return it because of it. if something change i will update.
Keyboard
fits my theme and i like the clicking.. AL body is nice touch, backlighting has no flaws so far arm rest could be a bit longer/deeper but i have big hands, i would recommend this keyboard right away. i have white WSAD keys on the way so it will add to the look. will post picture when arrive.
Mouse
as i stated before i have rather large hands and this one is perfect fit.also it fits to my theme! :) i would definitely recommend this mouse to people with large hands.extra weights are good for me, as i like when the mouse have heavy feel. there is a lot ways to set up this mouse as you like to. i like the firmware utility a lot
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