Nice Phantom! I will be building a new rig after the wedding.. looking forward to it.. but i had to unsub to ncix and newegg deals.. too much of a tease lol
The Phantom is a really nice case. Although it's my first, so I have nothing to compare it to, lol. Either way, the only problem I've had so far is the gloss black plastic front and top covers REALLY show dust/fingerprints.
I'd give you a pic of the build I made a while back that was updated from its 5 year old parts a bit ago with the same case, but the wire management is so terrible (I've tried but seriously this case just doesn't like wires) I'd be more embarrassed to show it. It is a good computer though.
The Phantom is a really nice case. Although it's my first, so I have nothing to compare it to, lol. Either way, the only problem I've had so far is the gloss black plastic front and top covers REALLY show dust/fingerprints.
Sucks about the mobo, but I'm looking forward to seeing what you put together!
Joe, that thing is awesome! That would've been fun to do if I needed something that extreme.
Well, I didn't get a chance to get pictures in the dark, but here's the internals.
The cable management is great in this case. Lots of areas to run them behind the other side panel (which is a pretty big mess):
One of the green LED fans with white blades. I think I like the clear bladed one the best. I also have to say, these NZXT fans are quiet! They move a lot of air on high, which causes air noise. But with all 6 case fans (3x 120mm, 140mm, and 2x 200mm) running on low, I can barely hear the computer at all. They don't make any mechanical noise whatsoever on any speeds.
The boot speed on the SSD is incredible. Now my biggest bottleneck is my crappy wireless internet, lol! Trying to figure out how to get a ethernet cable up to my room from the basement... But programs in general are so much more responsive although I haven't been able to fire up my usual photo editing setup yet (LR4, PSE8 (well, 10 once I get my product code from EVGA), music, and browser).
Thanx man i actually did not need anything that extreme but its a hobby and that machine can slaughter any game on the market. I have actually had problems with games running too many frame rates which caused screen tearing so i had to either cap the fps or enable vertical v synch. For one instance in deadspace 2 im running like 324 fps on a 28inch monitor with 1920x1200 res. Some games wont even recognize quad sli so i have to go in the nvidia control panel and basically turn off one video card to get the game to play properly.
Whoa, how have I never found this here before! Building computers is a favorite hobby of mine. I built my first rig when I was 16, and now being 22, it's been through at least 2 complete refreshes.
Here's a few pictures of my current build. I've gotten over the crazy whacked-out doodad stage, and I'm digging the minimalist approach now.
MSI Z68 mobo
i7 2600k @ 4.2 GHz
16GB DDR3-2000
Twin Crucial M4 128GB SSDs in RAID 0
1TB and 2TB storage drives
Radeon 6950 has been added since the pictures were taken.
I actually looked at the pics first and that was the first thing i noticed was no gpu in the pci-e slots then i was like dang i doubt that mobo has onboard vid. Then i was like y would he water cool the cpu and have 16 gigs of ram and no external gpu. then it made more sense after i read lol.
The internal GPU in the i7 was better than I expected - but it was just a stepping stone while I found a non-watercooled graphics card for this time around (too complex a loop for switching from Propolene Glycol to DW). I was planning on saving up for two top-of-the-line cards... and then I started buying cigars :smoke:
The internal GPU in the i7 was better than I expected - but it was just a stepping stone while I found a non-watercooled graphics card for this time around (too complex a loop for switching from Propolene Glycol to DW). I was planning on saving up for two top-of-the-line cards... and then I started buying cigars :smoke:
Yea tell me about it in some ways since i have so much over kill instead of spending 2 grand all on video i could have done just 1 grand and still be sitting nice and put the 1 grand in some boxes!
Ive been building PCs for years. Latest build has LIAM Li cube case, dual quad cpus, 4 YES 4 Nvidia GPUS in SLI, 10TB HDD storage in raid 0+1 array and all liquid cooled with no fans period. My water loop goes into tubing buried in my basement so all the heat gets dissipated there.
I know this is an old post, but I've built every computer I've owned since 1997. Though I don't build for hardcore gaming, I build for getting work done with power and efficiency. Most of my builds these days are small, powerful, quiet machines that can be hidden away...have done a few HTPC and server builds too.
I used to build them. Local flea market guy moves about 40 systems a week. Paid $120 for one with XP & $140 for Vista. I already had the monitors. Still running great after 8 months.
I dont really build computers anymore, for my needs i can get some mass-produced computer that meets my requirements (not a gamer) way cheaper than i could source the hardware to build my own. On the other hand i did recently build an unraid box for big storage purposes. If you have never heard of unraid and are looking for affordable scalable storage its worth checking out. I have tried a couple different solutions in the past and this is hands down the best i have found for the money.
Whoa, how have I never found this here before! Building computers is a favorite hobby of mine. I built my first rig when I was 16, and now being 22, it's been through at least 2 complete refreshes.
Here's a few pictures of my current build. I've gotten over the crazy whacked-out doodad stage, and I'm digging the minimalist approach now.
MSI Z68 mobo
i7 2600k @ 4.2 GHz
16GB DDR3-2000
Twin Crucial M4 128GB SSDs in RAID 0
1TB and 2TB storage drives
Radeon 6950 has been added since the pictures were taken.
Yes you can buy a Dell for next to nothing but where is the fun in that! Cant overclock it, can water cool it, cant trick it out. About the only thing you can do with a Dell is upgrade the memory but even that is limited. Oh you can replace your HDD and or DVD/BD but cant really expand.
You certainly cant do this! My last serious mother of PCs build!
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