The YABHT Build - She's finally finished!

J

Jason

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 20, 2003
Messages
490
first off, my apologies for not having pics to put up just yet. i have taken a ton, but i haven't had the time to process the raw images off my camera. i promise i'll get them up tomorrow. no excuses!

second, i want to say thanks again to everyone who offered advice and contributed to the various threads i've started in the past several weeks. an especially big thanks to enginurd, danny bui, hardwareguru and shiro for their patience in answering my barrage of questions.

so, in case you forgot, here are the specs of the build:

intel xeon x3440
cooler master hyper 212+ hsf
gigabyte ga-p55-ud4p
4gb gskill ddr3 1600
xfx radeon hd 5770
seagate 7200.12 500gb hdd
sony optiarc dvd burner
coolermaster rc-690 case
corsair 650tx psu

swapped out all of the stock case fans for 1200rpm scythe slipstreams and i swapped out the fan on the 212+ for a scythe pwm.

i must say, i'm a little surprised at how smoothly the build went (aside from the damn dog!) considering how long it's been since i last built a machine. my last build was a socket 478 p4. the toughest part of the build, by far, was cable management. i tried to save a bit by going with a non-modular psu. next time, i'll spend the extra money and save myself the headache. with a little patience though, i was able to get everything tucked on the back side of the motherboard tray, and overall, i'm pleased with how clean i was able to keep things.

for now i'm doing a ghetto fan mod with twist ties in the 5.25 bays. would like to do something a bit better there. other than that, i'm going to keep an eye on temps and maybe see about installing some additional case fans. i have a feeling i won't need them though. i'm not planning on any oc'ing for the foreseeable future.

the biggest news, and what i imagine most people will be interested in, is that my x3440 worked in a p55-ud4p. i had absolutely zero issues. the machine posted on the first try and within seconds i was installing win7. i'm honestly a little surprised with myself. not a single issue. not one loose connection. i somehow managed, after all these years of rust to shake off, to pull off a build without a hitch. well, there is the hitch with my dog (see my other thread in gen hardware) but nothing build related. :]

i'm so stoked to start using this baby! i guess the thing to do now is get started with getting all my apps setup. i'm also wondering about running that intel stress test to burn in the processor. is that necessary? i believe i've read that stress testing the cpu will allow the thermal grease to cure effectively. (i used some mx-2.) so far, the machine has only been run briefly, long enough to get win7 installed. after all the time i spent with cable management (plus i just took my time in general) i ran out of time to get any further.

so yeah, she's done! i feel great about it! thanks for the help folks!

pics are coming soon!
 
sorry for the double post, but ignore that bit about curing. i stopped being lazy and did my homework. the mx-2 is a quality product and i shouldn't even be worrying about it. duh!
 
sounds like you had a good adventure of it, glad there weren't many hiccups

yeah modular is the way to go when it comes to cable management and ease of setup, the only bad thing is you really are paying more
 
pics! sorry these are a bit late, but better late than never. :p

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COMPONENTS
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STAGE ONE
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STAGE TWO
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STAGE THREE
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STAGE FOUR
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STAGE FIVE
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MANAGE 'DEM CABLES
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VOILA!
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MISCELLANEOUS CLOSE-UPS
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might as well throw up a shot of cpu-z for good measure. :D

cpuz.gif


as you can see, i've left all the clock throttling stuff like speedstep turned on for the time being. that 1200MHz reading is with my system idling on the desktop, nothing running other than cpu-z.
 
Good build but get some cable ties soon as the heat will make that tape very hard to get off in a while.
 
yeah, the tape is temporary. i needed something to help hold the cables down so i could get the side panel of the case on tightly. i figure after a few days the stiffness of the cabling will slacken up a bit. then i can yank off the tape and maybe try to clean things up a bit more.

i saved cable management for last, and by that time, i was anxious to get the machine booted up. have to admit, i kind of half-assed it.
 
you can use some sleeves to put those cables in and make your cabling a lot better, that would also help you improve your air flow in there and keep everything cool and looking good


but hell yeah great pics, i like it, fix that ghetto cabling job though
 
Fail said:
you can use some sleeves to put those cables in and make your cabling a lot better, that would also help you improve your air flow in there and keep everything cool and looking good


but hell yeah great pics, i like it, fix that ghetto cabling job though
Click to expand...
i wasn't sure if more sleeving would help me much. the biggest problem is that there are just so many extra cables coming out of my non-modular psu. plus, the cables are already all individually sleeved. if i sleeve them together in bunches, they're still going to be difficult to arrange behind the motherboard tray.

i was thinking maybe i could get some of those cable or ladder clamps and mount them on the backside of the motherboard tray, and use them to hold down and arrange the cabling, instead of the tape.
 
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yeah that would look pretty unwieldy but I think you can manage it if you do it right

putting it behind the motherboard around the back of the case like you have is what most people do, but they also put enough tension on it to make it look less cluttered and clear some of the wires out of the way

look at the Rate my Cabling thread in the Case mod subforum and you can get an idea of what to expect
 
thanks for the heads up on that thread. forgot all about it. i love to steal ideas from builders far better than i. :)
 
well if your cabling gets better, don't forget to post pics

it's common to have a mess like that when you're just getting things together and testing them to make sure everything works and shit

after that, it's clean up and sleeve time

good luck pal

great pics and congratulations on your build
 
haven't oc'd just yet. i'd like to finish getting this fresh install of win7 all setup first. i still have a few more of my regular apps to acquire as well.

once i'm all "settled in" i *might* see what this xeon can do. to be honest, i don't need the extra horses, so i'm tempted to just leave it at stock for the time being. (although, i suppose the true [h] thing to do would be to crank 'er up just for the sake of seeing what she can handle.)
 
do you have a slipstream blowing out the back, the pwm blowing through the heatsink on the cpu to the back, and then the other two up front blowing into the case? Is that how you set it up?
 
This is damn near the exact same build that I'm looking at. Good to see what it will look like.
 
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