My awesome new rig

[THE_STIG]

I see so, it looks just brilliant and its only R1500. The MSI I was after is R1300 but it is very boring and i am still not the biggest fan of MSI

Have had good experiences with asrock before so I dont see there being any troubles

[petrivanzyl]

It sucks to wait for RAM

[ADT]

i am still not the biggest fan of MSI

+1

especially after what happened with my previous Msi mobo, I'll only stick with a Gigabyte or Asus mobo now

[Stuart]

Have had good experiences with asrock before so I dont see there being any troubles

You don't like Intel but you're a fan of Asrock? Really?

[THE_STIG]

yes, Never have I had any trouble with Asrock. Intel boards are not going to blow up or anything but I just dont like them, seriously boring and lacking extra features. Not cheap either

i am still not the biggest fan of MSI

+1

especially after what happened with my previous Msi mobo, I'll only stick with a Gigabyte or Asus mobo now

I used to find the build quality rather poor, but that appears to have changed. Have not had much trouble with any but I still dont really want one. I like my gigabyte but now they seem to have become expensive

[naughty]

seriously boring and lacking extra features.

if by boring you mean "not able to give you a single problem while doing everything asked of it" then i want all my PC parts to be seriously boring - and if extra features land up being one extra thing that you cannot use then why would you in all honesty want it there sucking up the power

Not cheap either

quality does not come cheap BUT i dont know where you get intel boards from because i always find most Intel boards are cheaper than most "name brand" counterparts

[THE_STIG]

By boring i meant no fancy heat sinks or interesting color schemes. Now for office PC's this is not an issue but for a gaming PC you sort of want it to look exciting

The pricing. Here is an MSI z77 board:
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?ma ... ts_id=5700

and here is an equivalent priced Intel Z77:

http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?ma ... ts_id=6031

As you can see you are getting a bit more for your money with the MSI and that too is pretty reliable. but really all of the extra stuff is only useful to a gamer, not so much if you are not a gamer

[Stuart]

I've never had any joy with MSI motherboards. I'd pay extra for an Intel board any day of the week.

[THE_STIG]

Sounds like you are not the only one. But I dont think their recent products are like that, have not had any hassles with them just the old stuff.

ECS remains one of worst for me, it seems they have upped their game but I dont think I could ever trust one.

[petrivanzyl]

The stig has spoken...

[THE_STIG]

I would not say that

Have you had issues with ecs before?

[petrivanzyl]

Never had a ECS. Had an Asus P5N32-E SLI PLUS for close to 5 years now, no issues.

[THE_STIG]

Ha yes Asus make good stuff, nice mobo that better and far than my little g31. Time to move on it is

[petrivanzyl]

I finally got the RAM:


and the correct case:


Will do a build write up and photos tomorrow

[THE_STIG]

Grats man.

Looking forward to seeing the completed rig. The red memory heatsinks look nice against the black PCB

[D3PART3D]

Niiice

Very similar to my build.

[DeathStrike]

How much did all the parts cost? *mouth waters*

[petrivanzyl]

How much did all the parts cost? *mouth waters*

R20k including windows, screen, etc.

[petrivanzyl]

Okay here goes: Build log with photos.

First I assembled the major components (m/b, ram, PSU, GPU) outside of the case to test if it works.

This was my first ever build from scratch by myself, I watched on or two YouTube tutorials to make sure I didn't mess it up.

1. I put the motherboard on its box (not on it's static baggy as that is conductive) and opened the LGA1155 slot for the CPU by pulling on the lever


2. Installed the i5-3570K CPU and closed the bracket


3. Installed the RAM


4. Next the CPU cooler, first removed the fan from the heat sink


5. Unpacked all of the brackets and tools


6. Installed the back plate to the back of the m/b


7. Applied the thermal paste on the CPU (I think I used a little bit too much) and applied the "baggy technique" to spread it out


8. Thermal paste spread out


9. Installed the heat sink and screwed it in place


10. Then put the fan back on the heat sink making sure that it blows in the correct direction as indicated by the arrows on the fan


11. Plugged in the fan to the CPU fan header


12. Plugged in the PC speaker to hear the POST


13. Plugged in the GPU carefully as its heavy and there is no back play support


14. Plugged in the power from the PSU: the 24pin, the 8 pin and the two PCI-e to the CPU


Now it was ready to test. Plugged in the PSU to the wall and held my breath hoping not to see smoke and hear the POST. Pushed the swith and...........no POST (still don't know why - PC speaker not working?) but entered the UEFI BIOS and the only error was no boot disk as per the LED error code on the m/b. So everything was working properly now to build it into the case.

[petrivanzyl]

15. Ready to start in case installation, first removed the case screws and cable ties


16. Important to read the manual - mostly for things like which DIMM slots to use, which SATA ports to use, where the relevant headers on the motherboard are


17. Luckily the case indicated which holes needs m/b risers for the ATX m/b


18. So easy to put the risers in


19. Installed the PSU at the bottom of the case fan down


20. Great thing about the case are the grommets for cable management


21. Ready to put the m/b in


22. M/b in place


23. All cables nice and tidy, easier to do before installing the GPU which covers the SATA ports. But requires lots of time and planning


24. GPU in place including power


25. Hard drives in their screw less brackets ready to be installed: My old 1TB Seagate, new 2TB Seagate and the OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD


26. and installed

[petrivanzyl]

27. Front panel removed to install DVD drive


28. The mess of cables at the back. Now you see it...


29. ...now you don't


30. Pretty cool and informative ASRock UEFI Setup utility (BIOS)


All done!

[THE_STIG]

Nice man. I must come in the night and borrow this PC on a permanent basis

[DeathStrike]

@petrivanzyl congrats on first build and post some stats if you can. Which games you are going to play first?

[ADT]

ya congratz man, nice rig

[petrivanzyl]

@petrivanzyl congrats on first build and post some stats if you can. Which games you are going to play first?

I must still finish Max Payne 3 and next I think AC3 and XCOM