Gaming Rig Theorycrafting

[Wol]

cable ties

You may even find that your case comes with some fancy cable ties rather than having to provide your own.

re: thermal goo, there are quite a few videos online of how to do this which probably show it better than you could explain it in words.

 

[waterproofbob]

As far as putting mobo in first, what I tend to do when it is mobos and coolers I've not fitted before I tend to put the risers into the case then pop the board in loosely and sort your cabling with the cooler off. This allows you to work out routing around the unfamiliar case. Once you have your cables tidy I tend to remove the board fit the cooler and then put the board back in. If I can import one piece of knowledge it is get some cable ties if the case doesn't come with them. And make your cabling as neat as possible.

Tidy cables may not seem important but they can make a huge difference to the air flow if they are very messy. That case has room behind the mobo board for cable routing so there is no excuse for messy cabling. ]

As far as fitting the CPU cooler that case actually has a hole in the mobo tray for easy access to the back of the mobo to fit the cooler so fitting it once the board is in is much easier than more old school cases.

First time fitting of coolers can be a little fiddly so I'd suggest having a look at fitting it once out of the case so you are familiar with how it goes on. Also retention brackets for the coolers will hold it tight and may need a bit of force. I've seen cases before where people haven't been confident fitting coolers and that has meant they don't sit securely.

Regarding thermal paste, your really don't want a lot on there. I've see people smearing thinking the more the merrier. You want enough so you have a good contact between the top of the chip and the cooler.

I've also just ordered some new bits so when I do the build for that which will be into a new case as well I'll video it and send you that.

 

[Chuchurocket]

Yeah cable routing is something I've been looking at, the case seems to have quite a lot of places to tie cables to as well as the recess behind the motherboard. Also, it has a removable HDD caddy which I'm considering removing to increase the airflow from the front intake fan. The only thing I've heard is people using the caddy as a cable tie point so ill probably have to see the situation when I get the stuff.

The sticking points I've been looking at have been:
>Ensuring good thermal compound application
>Cable management
>Hooking everything up to the PSU and motherboard wire-wise.

So putting in the cooler AFTER ive done some cable tidying would probably be preferable. Also do you reckon the fans that come with the machine be enough to keep things cool? (200mm front inlet fan, 120mm exhaust fan) Theres plenty of places to put extra ones in but im guessing for now itll be ok as is.

 

[Chuchurocket]

Ok so first part of my rig has been bought (the desk <3 ikea ) So the way its worked ive got enough for a monitor and was eyeballing this Looks nice and has a good response time as well as HDMI inputs for xbox/computer. The other cheaper option being this. 1 inch smaller and no HDMI but is LED and has some interesting features (e.g. MagicAngle). Any thoughts?