Scratch Build – In Progress Big Brother, Little Brother (Updated 03/10/2010 Little Brother build Complete)

Hi All,

I've decided to replace my current make do system which is a HTPC that has stood in quite nicely since my rig and everything else was stolen earlier in the year by nasty men.

At the same time, I will be building a new system for my son which is replacing a quite old Pentium D nForce4 system.

I built a system for my daughter last month which is based on the Budget PC recommended list using a mixture of the Bit-tech and the CustomPC one.

Antec 300 Case
Intel i3 530 overclocked the Bit-Tech way to 4.07GHz
4GB Corsair XMS PC3-12800
Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H
ATi Radeon HD5770 1GB
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Corsair CX400W PSU
Samsung Spinpoint F3 320GB
Samsung SH-D162D
Windows 7 64-bit

It runs pretty damn fine so I've decided to knock it up a notch for the next builds.

Little Brother

SilverStone Raven RV02 v1.7
Asus P7P55D-E LX
Intel i5 760
4GB Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800
Corsair H50 Cooler
Gainward GTX 460 GLH 1GB
XFX Black Edition P1-750B-NLG9
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Asus Xonar DX
Samsung SH-D162D
Windows 7 64-bit

Big Brother

SilverStone FT02R-W
Asus P6X58D-E
Intel i7 950
Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800
Corsair Hydro H70 Cooler
Gainward GTX460 GLH **
Corsair HX850 PSU
Crucial C300 64GB SSD
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
Asus Xonar DX
Windows 7 64-bit

**I used the GTX 460 instead of the recommended Radeon HD5870 as I'm only using a 22" monitor and 1920 X 1080 will be fine using this card. Also, it freed up some of the budget for the C300 SSD.

So there you have it. I'm not brave enough for any modifications to the case just yet but may need to using the Corsair Hydro H50 and H70, so any feedback on that would be really appreciated.

Pics to follow and thanks in advance for any much appreciated help.

This is Little Sister (before I went back in and did a cable tidy)

 

How do I post pictures?

Do I need to get permission for that?

 

upload to a imagehost like imageshack

take the direct img link and put img tags around it

like

 

Thanks DeadP1xels, really appreciate the help as I'd read elsewhere that I could just upload them here but I thought I had to get permission.

 

In your User CP you can add an album where you can upload them to, but others work as well.

 

Cheers matey, as soon as the parts turn up over the next few days I'll start taking shots.

 

Those look like nice systems! I have yet to experiance the power of any i based CPU

 

I'm really impressed with the i3 system. So, I'm setting expectations for both the i5 and i7 series very high indeed.

 

A couple of changes to the spec on both:-

Little Brother

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 + Asus U3S6 Superspeed PCI-e controller card (2 port SATA3 (6Gbps) & 2 USB3 ports)

has now been changed to

Asus P7P55D-E LX

The reason for this change is already comes with USB3 and SataIII and can overclock the i5 760 to pretty much the same level.

Big Brother

Intel i7 930

Has been changed to

Intel i7 950

The reason for this is the price drop on the 950 to within £4 of the 930, which is almost half price on last months prices.

 

either you have far to much money (rich!!) or u own a cmputer shop... either way there some tastey system specs there!! cant wait to see some pics up on these

 

Purely Insurance money dude, just replacing what was stolen and saved up a bit to make it worth while. Fortunately for me, quite a few of the previous parts had gone up in price before they paid out.

God I can't wait to get started, GET HERE NOW SCAN AND ARIA DELIVERY PERSONS!

 

i know the feeling mate... waiting for deliveries from kfa, and special tech......HURRY UP i want to.....

 

First drop from Scan just turned up.

The Raven2, along with the GTX460 twins. I've decided to put the Asus card in Little Sister since that will be the only system without USB3 and SATA3.

 

Another change due to stock shortages and a rethink.

Antec TruePower TP-650 PSU

changed to

XFX Black Edition P1-750B-NLG9

This is also a future proof measure if I add a second GTX460 later.

Shipment of every other part will be here by lunch tomorrow. I will be adding a few thank you's once they've all arrived because sourcing the parts has been a little harder than I thought.

 

Everything has arrived!

Little Brother



Big Brother



At this time I would like to make a brief statement.

While sourcing the parts for these builds, as you can imagine it has cost me quite a bit. I compiled the list using this forum, the Bit-Tech and CustomPC recommendations and previous experiences.

I would like to thank you all for helping me choose such a kick ass system for me and my son (and previously the one for my daughter)

I sent a copy of my list to a few retailers but mainly http://www.scan.co.uk and http://www.aria.co.uk

I sent the exact same email asking if it was possible to open an account even though I was paying immediately to take advantage of any further discount.

The response from Scan was "The best way to receive a discounted order from ourselves is to choose from the TodayOnly page" and that was it. My existing account remains the same.

The response from Aria was to change my existing account to a business account and I was called personally by Neil Barwick who went through the list with me and in the end I can hand on heart say I have saved a couple of hundred pounds against what I would have paid with Scan. Fact!

I did place an order from Scan as you can see in an earlier post, these were the parts Aria did not currently stock. That particular transaction was as smooth as any online transaction.

So there you have it, this is my own experience and I won't be doubting anyone who says they have had a better experience from Scan. Sadly, on this occasion I haven't and Aria got the bulk of my money.

You can contact Neil Barwick direct on 0844 579 1206 or neil@aria.co.uk and tell him I sent you to get the good bisquits!

 

Are you going to mod Raven? Anyways, good luck=)

 

Little Brother build

We get going with a quick component health check.



Since it's his system it was only fitting that my Son help build it.



The first hurdle was whether the H50 would fit the case. When I realised it did, I decided to keep the Silverstone fan in place at the top and then attach the radiator to it. Then adding the Corsair fan to the bottom of the radiator with both fans blowing forwards. This meant that not only does the Raven2 have cold air blown from the three fans at the bottom, but the first fan on the H50 blows that cold air through the radiator and the second one blows it out of the case. Thus keeping the radiator at a nice cold temperature.



Close up of the H50 radiator.





Now with the CPU block attached.



This case is absolutely brilliant at hiding the cables round the back motherboard plate. With very little effort, an excellent tidy build is easily achievable by anyone and I really mean anyone.



What's that reflection?



Windows 7 64-bit installed now I'll get on with Big Brother on monday, stay tuned!

 

How can I change the thread name to say there is an update?

 

go to advanced options in edit on the first post

 

Cheers!