Very Pleased!

[GTaudiophile]

Well, it was a smooth build!

My new rig is up an running. Current CPU temp is 28C at idle (mobo temp is 33C).

Antec P150
Enermax Liberty 500W PS
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
AMD Opteron 170 with Artic Cooling Freezer 64 PRO
2x 1GB Corsair DDR400 CL2
eVGA GeForce 7800GT
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic (545 revision)
WD 250GB 7200RPM/16MB Cache SATA II HDD
NEC 3550A DVD-RW
Mitsumi FA404M Floppy/USB2 Card Reader
1 x 120mm Nexus Real Silent Fan
1 x 92mm Nexus Real Silent Fan


Just to give you an idea how loud the system is...

I have two machines here in my room, the new one, running with a total of five fans (PS, CPU, GPU, Case 1, Case 2), sits near another machine only running a stock AMD Sempron 2800+ HSF (one fan), and from what I can tell, the Sempron HSF fan is louder! The loudest thing on the new system is easily the GPU fan, but I decided in the end NOT to buy an NV Silencer for it. The Nexus fans and Freezer PRO are for all intents and purposes silent. And like I said, I am currently running at 28C at idle and has been no more than 36C after playing Far Cry.

The P150 case was fairly easy to work with. I actually had to read the manual to find out how to install the HDD. (You sit the drive on the silicon pads and the screws are inserted up through the middle of the pads.) What I really like about the P150 is the fact that you can remove the other side panel and "hide" a lot of wires on that side. This feature helped a lot as I tried to make the interior of the case as clean as possible. As you can see, I did not use the stock power supply. I did not even try to go there given what I have read about it.

A note to anyone who buys the Enermax Liberty 500: It comes with two IDENTICAL looking plugs for the 12V plug (2x2). Without really looking at them, I plugged one of them in, and ended up getting an undervoltage warning during the POST sequence (was getting 9.79V). I then looked at the plugs again and noticed that one has "12V" written on it and the other does not. I plugged the 12V into the board and have been getting 12.16V ever since. But I thought I had a bad PS there for a second!

Anyway, I thank you all for all the advice you've given. I now have the fastest and quietest system I've ever built! Let's hope it can last me circa. 3 years with a few minor upgrades in between (Raptor, R600 or G80, etc.).

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Glad to hear that you are happy with the machine? But you should have learned one more thing--if you are going to post about your machine like this, you have to include pics! Glad to hear it.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Congrats!! I've heard nothing but good things about the P-150 and you have a nice high
end rig inside. The only weak link is the Mitsumi, for card reading it may do well but as
a floppy it has a bad reputation. They tend to have a short life if used often. Not a big deal.

...Galvanized

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
Glad to hear that you are happy with the machine? But you should have learned one more thing--if you are going to post about your machine like this, you have to include pics! Glad to hear it.

Ask and yee shall receive PICS:

PC Running in desk.
Entire desk: PC, DELL FP2001 LCD, Boston Acoustics BA7800 speakers, Logitech G5 mouse, BTC 6200C keyboard.
PC outside of desk.
PC: Right side removed to show wiring.
PC: Front open showing drives and HD cage with fan/filter housing.
PC: Filter removed and fan housing open.
Looking into case from above.
PC: Closer look at the Freezer. You can see the CPU at the bottom.

Just another note about the Freezer installation: It can't get any easier! It's just as easy, if not easier, than installing the OEM/AMD HSF. Nothing extra required. The fan snaps off with ease, so I took it off, installed the Freezer, and then reattached the fan. Just make sure you've already installed your RAM into the DIMM slot under the fan cage or else you can't get to it.

Galvanized: I rarely use a floppy and bought the Mitsumi mainly for its USB2 card reader function. I just wanted to kill two bids with one stone and not take up an entire 5.25" for a card reader.


Edit: I don't know how some of you get the inside of your cases, window or no window, so damned organized and clean! I spent at least an hour doing the shoddy job I did!

Before building the thing, I was skeptical that the black drives/white case would look okay, but it turned out fine IMO!

 

[crazylegs]

Load temp???

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: crazylegs
Load temp???

After playing Far Cry for about an hour, I think I saw it was 36C. It's never gone higher to my observation.

 

[Corporate Thug]

well done

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug
well done

Thank you! I think I did okay.

 

[One43637]

that's a great case, and you have some nice parts. thanks for showing those pics, it reminded me of something i need to pick up

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: One43637
that's a great case, and you have some nice parts. thanks for showing those pics, it reminded me of something i need to pick up

What is that?

 

[zagood]

I've got the same case, and I'm adding fans/cutting grilles/adding fan controller so I've got wire management on the brain. Some tips and suggestions...

Attach peripherals to case before screwing in motherboard standoffs. You can hide a lot of wires, especially fan wires, underneath the motherboard.

Loose cables like your sata wires should be bundled together in a free area like a drive bay, or in the area on the backside of the case. Keep them out of the way of airflow.

Wrap up your front bezel connectors on the attachments that are on the backside of the HD cage.

Use a flat ATA/133 ribbon cable for your DVD drive, I'm sure you've got one sitting around. Perfect for hiding on the back wall.

Move things like your ATX power cable back behind the drive cages.

Then, just sit back, look at it, figure out the wires that really bug you, and go get it. Sometimes simple things like unplugging another wire so you can get past it can really help.

And remember...it's supposed to be fun.

-z

 

[One43637]

cable wraps, zip ties, rounded floppy and ide cables.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: zagood
And remember...it's supposed to be fun.

-z

LOL. Yeah, tell that to my wife. You should see how she rolls her eyes if I even say the word "fans". LOL. She is so tired hearing about me wanting new / different fans for my case. LOL. I don't think I have the heart to tell her that I want to swap coolers on the video cards!!

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: zagood
I've got the same case, and I'm adding fans/cutting grilles/adding fan controller so I've got wire management on the brain. Some tips and suggestions...

Attach peripherals to case before screwing in motherboard standoffs. You can hide a lot of wires, especially fan wires, underneath the motherboard.

Loose cables like your sata wires should be bundled together in a free area like a drive bay, or in the area on the backside of the case. Keep them out of the way of airflow.

Wrap up your front bezel connectors on the attachments that are on the backside of the HD cage.

Use a flat ATA/133 ribbon cable for your DVD drive, I'm sure you've got one sitting around. Perfect for hiding on the back wall.

Move things like your ATX power cable back behind the drive cages.

Then, just sit back, look at it, figure out the wires that really bug you, and go get it. Sometimes simple things like unplugging another wire so you can get past it can really help.

And remember...it's supposed to be fun.

-z

Thanks for the tips. I had thought about routing some cables under the motherboard, but it just seems like those risers don't offer much space!