So this is one of those "I'll just upgrade a few bits" that has snowballed into a fully watercooled slightly case modded system. I'll warn you from the off, it's a slow one. Started way back in October last year. It's a background project with no time constraints so I'm really taking my time. Mostly waiting around for crazy deals to come up because money is limited. The original system specs: (sadly I don't think I have a picture of it) CPU: 3770k cooled with a Kuhler h2o 920 AIO Mobo: Asus Maximus V Extreme RAM: 16GB Kingston 1866 GPU: GTX560 HDD: Kingston HyperX 120Gb HDD2: 2Tb for storage PSU: Corsair HX520w Case: Antec P280 Case The New System CPU: 2x Xeon E5-2670 Mobo: Arock Rack EP2C602-4L/D16 RAM: 64Gb 1600 ECC GPU: GTX690 HDD: Samsung 960 Evo 250Gb + misc SSDs + 2Tb for storage PSU: Corsair AX1200 Case: Antec P280 Case (with a few little mods) Cooling: Ever evolving. So this is quite an upgrade from what was top of the range in 2012 to... what was even more top of the range in 2012! It's got many more cores and a hell of a lot more GPU power than the previous system. GTX690 - I just want to address this before anyone says anything about buying a more modern, more efficient card. It's the best performing GPU for the £115 I spent on it. I also game so little that any power efficiency increase from a more modern card would not be worth it. Quick back of the envelope calcs for energy vs a similar if slightly better card:- GTX690 300W - £115 GTX1060 125W - £180 Price difference: £65 Cost per KWh: £0.13 Taking those numbers I'd have to game for 500 hours, or 4 hours every day for four months to make the difference back in energy savings. Sadly I do not game this much, maybe 10 hours a month. Pictures, everyone likes pictures. So here's one to kick things off. Straight in there with a nude. The Anec P280 totally stripped down. Spoiler The more astute of you might have noticed the modding had already started by this point. - The first thing to do was remove the horrendous feet Antec used on the case and replace them with casters. Because, if you're anything like me, I'm always round the back of my PC fiddling with something or other. One of the small negatives of this is the PSU dust cover no longer fits as it's mechanically obstructed by the nut on the back corner caster. I can live with this. - The second action was to remove anything related to drive bays, because who the hell has one DVD drive these days, let alone four? The 5 1/4 bays are all integrated into the 3 1/2 in bays so they came out too. This makes room for the radiator and pump. My fingers are getting tired so I'll pause for a moment. More text and pics to come as and when I find time. Interested to see what you guys think of this Frankenstein's monster.
Only issue I can see is VRAM. Well, and support in games. I guess with a board/cpu set up like that you won't be gaming so much any ways. Looking forward to seeing this. Was tempted a few times myself.
Yes, VRAM is a limitation, although only above 1080p, which I'm happy to deal with. I mostly play racing games that, so far, have gad good support for SLI on this card.
There's nowt wrong with alow and steady. Especially when it's a crazy build Took me 3 months to complete my upgrade and that didn't really involve any modding.
The feet: Here's a comparison between the original feet and the casters I replaced them with. The originals had been battered around a fair bit by being transported back and forth between houses and rooms. They were prone to falling out at a moments notice, sometimes when not even being moved. Something more versatile had to be used. These casters and very strong and should last a hell of a lot longer than probably the rest of the case. The process was fairly simple. Big drill bit and some big nuts and washers. The case was instantly 100 times better. Also makes it really easy to do modding when the PC is on the desk, can push and pull it around as required with ease. The final result!
Well, technically casters would be 2006-ish. -Especially if you had busted out the bling rimmed casters.
