It's time to build fellows...

[mfenn]

Coolermaster Hyper T4 dimensions (per newegg) 128 x 44 x 152.3 mm
NZXT cooler clearance (per their website) 158 mm

You are good to go. That's a pretty good deal on that case too.

Yeah, the Phantom 240 has a neat aesthetic, but can't take a full 120mm cooler. $40 AR is a great price though! Without the rebate, the somewhat bigger Phantom 410 would be the better choice.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Yeah, the Phantom 240 has a neat aesthetic, but can't take a full 120mm cooler.

The measurements indicate it should be able to accept most 120mm CPU coolers. Saw one reviewer on the newegg saying CM212 won't fit..... not sure if they are correct..... newegg reviewers can be silly.

If the Dannar26 is set on the case a message to NZXT support would probably clear up any confusion.

OR go with a AIO water cooler.

OR go with a Cooler Master Hyper Tx3 measures 90 x 51 x 139mm. Should be plenty of clearance then. Decent 92mm coolers are within spitting distance of their 120mm big brothers. I'm using a Xigmatek Loki on the 4690k and so far have run up to 4.6ghz without any heat issues.

 

[Dannar26]

When I was playing around on microcenter's website the i5 + pro4 came out to 285. The extreme4 (and it's *4*, not 3) came out to just over 300,but has a $20 MIR. For the same price I'll take the better board!

I also pulled the trigger on the phantom 240 and t4 cooler. A guy I spoke with at the microcenter said it was a wise move as his buddy sometimes has issues with his hyper 212 getting too close to his RAM with this board.

The case deal also comes with 3 extra fans. I wish they were LED fans...but for this price point I really can't complain. Here's a cool thread about adding your own LEDs to an otherwise plain fan.

http://www.overclock.net/t/529361/how-to-install-leds-in-fans

I took your advice Mfenn about the OS. Got a full retail copy of 8.1 on NCIXUS for $105.

I just have to wait for everything to show up now. I'll pester you all again about monitors and gpus somewhere down the road, most likely in a month or two.

Do you guys reccomend getting my own thermal paste, or just using what comes with the cooler?

 

[monkeydelmagico]

I did not see that the T4 came with thermal compound. Even if it does, it's not really great stuff..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103027


Arctic mx2 is what I use and has some decent reviews. It's fairly inexpensive too.

 

[mfenn]

Do you guys reccomend getting my own thermal paste, or just using what comes with the cooler?

The paste that comes with the cooler is fine. There is really very little difference between them; your application technique matters more.

 

[Dannar26]

(let's see how Tapatalk deals with image uploads...)

So there it is. My list of buys where I break down the individual costs and savings on the parts I bought. $765.48 including OS and HSF... Although I don't have a real gpu included in there since I'm waiting. Still though, not bad imo!

Here's to hoping this HSF isn't a total bear to install. I've not worked with one before.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Nicely done. Your custom build is competitive in terms of performance vs. $$$ with the benchmark mid-range build.


Gotta ask though: The xfx 6670 what in the world were you thinking on that?

 

[TheStu]

Nicely done. Your custom build is competitive in terms of performance vs. $$$ with the benchmark mid-range build.


Gotta ask though: The xfx 6670 what in the world were you thinking on that?

Cheap GPU to get it up and running? He said

Although I don't have a real gpu included in there since I'm waiting.

 

[Dannar26]

Gotta ask though: The xfx 6670 what in the world were you thinking on that?

Iongish story. Built my wife a pentium rig recently and used the RAM out of my core2 system, which was my main at the time. It stopped working when I put in its old 4 GB RAM set and cleaned the system. It got power and would turn on, but it wouldn't post.

Foolishly thinking to be the video card (my gtx 260's fan wasn't spinning), I picked up the cheapest quickest card I could get my hands on. The fan on the new card worked, but I had the same problem...no post.

I figured oh well, I'll suffer using it until NVIDIA kicks out their 800 series cards, and re-evaluate from there.

In the mean time I've decided to look at 1080p monitors @ 144hz.

 

[mfenn]

(let's see how Tapatalk deals with image uploads...)

So there it is. My list of buys where I break down the individual costs and savings on the parts I bought. $765.48 including OS and HSF... Although I don't have a real gpu included in there since I'm waiting. Still though, not bad imo!

Here's to hoping this HSF isn't a total bear to install. I've not worked with one before.

Picture of a printout on a wooden table. Are you a DailyWTF reader by any chance? 😀