TR Forums

Hello all,

I know I've had a few threads pop up here and there other the last couple months, as I was trying to make up my mind about what my final build would look like. I'd been stuck using hand-me-down machines for almost a decade, so my original plan was to go completely overboard and throw a ton of cash at Newegg. Fortunately, wiser minds among the Gerbils counseled against that. I still spent quite a bit, with more to go (Big Maxwell + 1440p display), but it could have been worse

I was also in the position of needing to buy everything, whereas you might usually have hard drives / PSU's / etc around to carry over from build-to-build.

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Pile of Parts


I ended up going with the Node 304, hosting a ASUS Maximus VI Impact + 4770k. I opted for the 140mm Corsair H90 to keep the CPU frosty. I was surprised at the size of those fans! My last tower (Athlon 3000+) had maaaybe 92mm fans. Maybe. Probably were 80mm. I went with a push/pull config, and ordered an additional Fractal Design Silent 140 to match the default case fans. This thing is so quiet! My dying laptop could be heard clearly over the box fan in the window, from the other side of the room. The node is practically inaudible during "everyday" use from two feet away.


Tiny, Tiny Motherboard


I am amazed at how small everything is. I mean, I knew that mITX boards are small, I could see the measurements. But holding the motherboard in the palm of your hand? Crazy.


This might be snug


While everything fit just right in the case, the edge of the AIO seems veeeery close to the PCIe slot. I don't think it'll be a problem, though.


Push/Pull


I'm particularly proud of how I routed the power cables for these fans, it just looks nice (to me, anyway) In case you wondered, at stock speeds, the H90 keeps the 4770k at about 25-28C at idle, and about 40-45C at full load. I accidentally had the motherboard software OC it to 4.2GHz, which still barely broke the 52C barrier. The ASUS software is nice, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to go back to stock speeds once you've run the "optimization". I'll get around to OC'ing more, but for now 8 threads @ 3.9-4.2GHz is waaaay faster than 1 @ 2GHz.


Waiting for Maxwell


I didn't really bother properly routing any other cables, as I didn't want to have to be cutting zip ties once I'm ready to shove a big GPU in there. You can see the M.2 SSD sticking out just above the PCIe slot, though. It's the Crucial M550 512GB, which was (surprisingly) only $5 more than the 2.5" version. Having that as my boot drive lets me use all the SATA ports for mechanical storage (I could fit 4 drives, but for now 2 x 4TB will do).


First Boot


Once I got it all together & plugged in, I was nervous. It'd been yeears since I'd done a full build, not to mention I totally fumbled the CPU and dropped it on the floor. I was sure it wouldn't boot, but it did Good thing we have carpet.

Anyway, thanks for reading, thanks for your advice, and thanks for being part of a great community.

Looks great!

Congrats on the build!

Terra_Nocuus wrote:

Once I got it all together & plugged in, I was nervous. It'd been yeears since I'd done a full build, not to mention I totally fumbled the CPU and dropped it on the floor. I was sure it wouldn't boot, but it did Good thing we have carpet.

Haha, well glad to hear it still booted up fine! Ever since they removed the pins those LGA CPUs are probably the safest part out of a computer to actually drop

Kougar wrote:

...those LGA CPUs are probably the safest part out of a computer to actually drop

At least, on carpet .

Yeah, bounced a couple times on the carpet, then landed contact-side down on the metal register vent cover. /facepalm
I think I froze, and stared at it for a minute or two. "300 bucks down the drain!"

I think the AIO/GPU clearance could be an issue. Do you have access to any cheapo GPUs you could test in there? Before you buy, be very conscious/wary of any GPUs that have backplates . (Sapphire predominantly) If the GPU fits, it's going to be VERY tight. Electrical tape on the side of the AIO would be a good idea to prevent shorts.

DPete27 wrote:

If the GPU fits, it's going to be VERY tight. Electrical tape on the side of the AIO would be a good idea to prevent shorts.

Good call on the electrical tape. Thanks.

Other builders have successfully fit Titans / 780's in there with the H90 (with 0-2mm clearance), but they've had to loosen the radiator from the case to seat the GPU, then tighten it back down. I'm looking to get a blower-style card, probably a reference design, and those don't usually have an enhanced backplate or anything that might cause interference.

At worst, if the GPU does have an offending backplate or some other non-electronic intruding feature, you can do what every other modder does- take a Dremel or file to it and make it to fit .

Apparently all my doom and gloom about the M.2 SSD not fitting were incorrect - I'm glad you had the guts to go for it! Looks like a nice, clean build. I'm always amazed when I do builds with integrated graphics, audio, etc. for work and pretty much the only cables are power and sata and a pretty naked board. With that SSD you could theoretically just have power cables running to it

I was worried when I first booted up with the Windows 8 installer, but it listed the M.2 drive right away, no problems. I did have to re-isntall Windows, though, as I selected the SSD and clicked "install", rather than clicking "create partitions": clicking "install" used the entire SSD for the C drive, and created the system/recovery partitions on one of the mechanical drives... which was stupid. So, blew that all away and started over.

Also, installing Win8 from a USB3 drive? 4 minutes to desktop. Crazy fast.

Terra_Nocuus wrote:

Also, installing Win8 from a USB3 drive? 4 minutes to desktop. Crazy fast.

That's one perk I'm looking forward to on my next build, though I must say, USB2 with a fast stick sure beats the hell out of doing it from a DVD, if not quite as fast as USB3 would be.

I'm loving SSD to SSD disc-cloning over USB3 via UEFI-ready cloning tools

From first boot to a domain-joined workstation with 70GB of software (including five major suites) in under 10 minutes.

I don't think it'll be that long before you can connect to your OS vendor via the web directly from your UEFI BIOS and install your OS to a blank disc from the cloud.

Chrispy_ wrote:

I don't think it'll be that long before you can connect to your OS vendor via the web directly from your UEFI BIOS and install your OS to a blank disc from the cloud.

The technology exists today, so I'm guessing that it's just a matter of will at this point.