So, in the nearly 7 years (wow, time flies...) I've been here, apparently I've not posted any of my builds in here. Here are a few of my own over the years. Side note: I worked as a system builder at OcUK for around 18 months during which time I built over 3000 so I won't post pictures of all of those
This is an older system of mine, circa summer 2010. I built a system before this in around 2008 which was my first ever custom build, this build used almost nothing from the old build by the time I was done upgrading and changing things. I reused the PSU, cooler and graphics card in my next build but changed the core components. Basic specs: Asus P5Q Pro, Q6600 @ 3GHz, 4GB Corsair XMS2, Samsung F3 1TB, Thermalright IFX-14, Intel Pro/1000CT NIC, Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic, Corsair HX650, Asus GTX 460 TOP, in a Coolermaster Stacker STC-T01. Imageshack felt the need to rotate my images back in the day when I uploaded them, and I don't have the originals any longer. I apologise for any neck strain caused
Next system. This was a complete rebuild and much, much neater. I loved the Stacker case but cable management was awful without some serious modding, and I didn't have the tools or time to take that on back then. I used a Fractal Define R2 case, Asus Crosshair IV Formula, Phenom X6 1055T @ 3.8GHz if I remember rightly, the same IFX-14 heatsink, same graphics card, PSU and HDD, and G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3. I added another HDD, I think this was a Samsung F4 2TB. Later, this build expanded with a total of 3xF3 1TB which I ran in RAID for a while. I also got rid of the Creative sound card as driver support was abysmal and bought an Asus Xonar DS.
Next, we came to my first foray into watercooling my own builds. By this time I had changed my graphics card, and then everything else apart from the HDDs was new for this build. I had a Supermicro H8DAi-2 board, 2 x AMD Opteron 6419EE hex core CPUs, 8 x 2GB DDR2 ECC RAM, an MSI Twin Frozr GTX 470 with EK fukll cover waterblock and backplate, slim 420mm radiator in the top of the case, powered by an OCZ ZX850W PSU, wrapped up in a lightly modified Fractal Design XL case. The radiator proved to be a pain to fit due to me not measuring properly, but we got there. The PSU was total overkill as the system drew very little power, but it was the lowest wattage unit available with all the right connectors, to avoid me using adapters.
This system treated me well until I ended up needing more raw power for gaming, the Opterons at 1.8GHz were great for data crunching with 12 cores and used very little power but severely bottlenecked my 470, which clocked like a beast. I sold it, went for an i7 at 4.2GHz with 24GB RAM, added an SSD, sat on that for a while, before selling most of it off to downsize my PC. That downsized PC has now been sold and I'm gearing up for an epic new rig, something that may not be the fastest out there any more but is something I've wanted since it was released. I'm waiting on certain parts to come back into stock, so till then....watch this space. If you like high end builds, you will not be disappointed
This has been a little brief in places so if you have any questions, just ask
happy to answer any questions anyone may have.