Nehalem i7 Build Log (56K Warning)

[j.o.s.h.1408]

2009 Nehalem i7 Build Log 16-18th January 2009

During the weekend beginning from the 16th of January , the old Pentium 4 built inside a chieftec matrix case was about to be replaced by a new machine altogether.

The specs of the old machine are as follows:

• ABIT ice-7 pro Socket 478 Mobo
• 2gb DDR Ram
• Nvidia 7800GTX AGP Card(i had a ATI 9800gtx before)
• Intel Pentium 4 3.2ghz northwood
• Seasonic 450w PSU
• Chieftect full tower Matrix case

The specs of the new pc are:

• ASUS P6T deluxe Socket 1336 Mobo
• 3GB DDR3 Ram
• Nvidia 260GTX card
• Intel i7 920 2.6GHZ Nehalem
• Seasonic m12 600W PSU
• Lian LI full tower PC-A7010 case
• Thermalright Ultra Extreme aka TRUE
• Enermax 120mm fan.

As you can see, this is a major upgrade for me and one i have enjoyed building over last weekend. Enough talk, lets see some pictures !!



This case is a monster. Just look at the size comparison between the case inside the box and my 360!




More pics of comparing the size of the case alongside the 360.





Christmas came late for me

The Brain of my new pc



The memory





Nice looking mobo!





This cooler took AGES to install!! A nightmare if you don’t know how to do it first time!




Installed in the mobo tray




Look at the size of that card!




No hard drives?


Old vs new




My legendary pc!! It has served me well for the past 5+ years. As you can see i modded it and cut out the side panel myself using a electric jigsaw




All up and running hows my cable management lol




All done..

[kalniel]

You do have a thing for large cases! Those things are enormous!

[handscombmp]

Images aren't showing up for me

Sounds good though!

EDIT: Can see them now

That case is huge!!

Hope you have fun with it.

[Maccer101]

Beautiful mate, bit supprised you table doesn't break with that monster on it

So I'm guessing there is a wee bit of a performance leap from the old PC.

Cannot believe the size of the 260gt, its a monster

[Max Tractor]

Lian LI full tower PC-A7010 what do you think of it? The hard drive bays with plug in sata do they work ok

cheers

[aidso]

If you dont mind me asking, how much did you pay for the upgrade? Looking to get one of the Intel Quadcores and i think i could get away with the processor and mobo for my upgrade.
Looks like a sweet setup mate.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

Originally Posted by Max Tractor

Lian LI full tower PC-A7010 what do you think of it? The hard drive bays with plug in sata do they work ok

cheers

yea they work fine. the molex connectors on it are abit cheaply done though.

the case is huge as you can see and very easy to work in. i wished they had put more mobo tray holes to route my cables better.

Also i could not find any case speaker connector on it. are they not used these days anymore?

Originally Posted by aidso

If you dont mind me asking, how much did you pay for the upgrade? Looking to get one of the Intel Quadcores and i think i could get away with the processor and mobo for my upgrade.
Looks like a sweet setup mate.

it all cost me around £1100

[kalniel]

Originally Posted by j.o.s.h.1408

Also i could not find any case speaker connector on it. are they not used these days anymore?

Should be built into the motherboard now, no need for an external speaker.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

ahh ok cool thanks. there was a connection for it on the mobo itself but could not find it on my lian li case

[Max Tractor]

I have been looking at that case, hiding cables looked rather tricky, I also noted that the top hard drive cage can be removed and the psu installed there

cheers

[Tweaker]

What kind of temps are you getting? Are you running stock or overclocked CPU speed?

[Mighty God]

Looks like a good setup, you not consider getting SSD's?!? I suppose they are a bit expensive for the amount of storage you get! You got any WD Raptors in there?

[j.o.s.h.1408]

raptors are nt that faster then a few sata drives.i am going 2 buy a 1tb hdd soon.the ssd are very expensive

[j.o.s.h.1408]

I am seeing a price reduction of the ddr3 ram! crucial are selling 6GB 1600MHZ Ram for less then £100!! teh thing is that they dont have any heat spreaders on it and are kind of bare bone ones.

are they any good?

[shaithis]

Heat spreaders do sod-all for RAM, except make them look cool.

Looking on the crucial site, the only ram I can see in that price-range are DDR1333. Although stilla good price at ~£75

[transylvanic]

Originally Posted by shaithis

Heat spreaders do sod-all for RAM, except make them look cool.

But they are damn good at it. As Reginald D. Hunter would say, do what you do best!

I could fit a child into that case, if I were so inclined.