GabeN Jr.

[Weegee64101]

Hey after almost a year of planning and over 2 weeks of living hell with the UPS, I finally got to build my PC. I named it after one of my favorite people, Gabe Newell.

This guy costed about $1550 at the time I made it, and It's absolutely great.

---It comes packed with an Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor, which with no doubt is one of the best cpus on the market today. I love mine; it runs cool (even with my stock cooler) and it's just 100% awesome. $250 5/5
---For my motherboard, I picked up a MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard for $125.99 which was sweet for what I was getting. The BIOS is sleek, and although it's temps there are really bad (15-20 deg cel more than Windows 7 idle) I still love it. 4.5/5
---For RAM, I chose the G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory mainly because it was on sale for 65 bucks. It runs fast as advertised and it looks great. 5/5
---For my OS and a few apps and games, I got the Sandisk 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk. Once again, I got this because it was on sale, but It works as advertised. Got it on sale for 80 bucks. Came with no HDD case adapter, but my case has a dedicated SSD slot, so it was cool. 4/5
---For main HDD storage, I got the Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive because it has good reviews and I like it too, though I did have to mess with it a bit to get it to work. $89.99 4/5
---With every sexy machine a sexy graphics card must be included, so a MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card for $319.99 is pretty sweet; I got some benchmarks below 5/5
---For a wirelss card, the Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter on sale for $25.99 is a great choice. I have some distance and wallage between my PC and my router, and it still delivers flawlessly. No instructions, but installation was still easy. 5/5
---The case that I chose was the NZXT Phantom 530 White ATX Full Tower Case on sale for $100 (yes, I got quite a few sales). It's a great case with lots of room for beginners, with lots of cable management and fully modular Hard drive cages. It looks awesome too. Stock fans are awesome, and it comes with pre-placed ATX mounting points. 5/5
---For my PSU, which I needed to be SLI ready, I picked up the Corsair Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply For $125.99 on yet another sale. It's awesome, except that it only comes with 2 SATA power cables (I don't know their names, I just know it's what powers SATA devices into the PSU). 4.5/5
---A good, cheap disk drive that works isLG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer which I got for $15.99, not on sale. It works, it's not loud, and its cheap. What more could you ask for?
---Since I don't like change, I got Microsoft's Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) for the normal price of $82.99 @ OutletPC. Though it shipped with some scratches on one spot, It works. 4.5/5
---I really don't need a huge 27" monitor, so a nice LED IPS Acer H226HQLbid 60Hz 21.5" Monitor works fine for me. The IPS panel is something that really shocked me since I've never seen it before, and I love it. Note that it takes around 5-8sec to boot up. Comes with HDMI, so I'm happy. $119.99 4.5/5
---For my keyboard, theMicrosoft SIDEWINDER X4 Wired Gaming Keyboard is always a great option. At it's pricepoint, though not mechanical, it's a great Backlit keyboard that gets any job done. 5/5
---For a gaming mouse, the Razer DeathAdder Wired Laser Mouse for 51 dollars is a great buy. It works, it lights up, and it has a handy two macros. the cord is long, and it works fine. 5/5
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Benchmarks
(All are done on max settings @ 1080p, even the Heaven benchmark)
BF3- Min 79fps
Max 94fps
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 FPS:
37.8
Score:
952
Min FPS:
7.7
Max FPS:
85.6

Settings Render:
Direct3D11
Mode:
1920x1080 8xAA fullscreen
Preset
Custom
Quality
Ultra
Tessellation:
Extreme
Powered by UNIGINE Engine
Unigine Corp. © 2005-2013
The i7 runs at an idle temp of 28-32 deg, and it got the hottest (in BF3) at 61 deg, with an average of 52 deg whilst gaming.
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Pics

(yes, I know that last one was missing a few things, by the time I had all of the parts, most were opened already due to curiosity)

Thanks for reading
-Dave

 

[M1GU31]

Nice rig

 

[Weegee64101]

Nice rig

Thanks!

 

[paulpicks21]

It looks very nice, I am sure you are gonna have a lot of fun on that thing! Great job

 

[madcratebuilder]

Looks great, nice job, great case for strip lighting.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Nice rig and good spec of components ! Now you live in Texas and Texas gets hot, save up and look into the NZXT Kraken X60 your case was made for this radiator and you'll love the look and what it will do for your temps.