WIP "Fortress of Air" Build

[Caldezar]

After much deliberation, and several adjustments, this is what I'm looking at. All parts are to be ordered tomorrow morning. (Would have been today, but I needed to shave a bit for budgeting and missed the order deadline.) I opted to keep the 890FX board with an nVidia card for a couple reasons. First, I intend to eventually switch to XFire when the new generation is released, but I needed to drop to a single GPU for budget; and the 480 is the king there. And secondly, because I wanted to stay AMD, and the best chipsets available for them are the 890's.

But as it sits, I'm pretty happy with it. I will update with photo's, build log and benchmarks when the parts come in later in the week. I'm very anxious to see how good the overclocked temps and case volume will be on, what I'd consider to be, an optimal air cooling setup.




SilverStone Fortress FT02B
XFX 850W Black Edition
Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5 AMD890FX
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Zotac GTX480 AMP! Edition
Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3 4X2GB DDR3-1600
2x WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S (Raid 0)
Noctua NH-U12P SE2 (NM-A90 Upgrade Kit will be ordered)
LG DVD-RW

DELL U2410 Monitor

I've decided to pick up a half decent sound card as well, given all the discussion regarding them in the forums over the past few days. But I really need to do some more research before I jump in to that boat, as I haven't used an off-board sound card since... well... let's just say I clearly remember owning a 'Game Blaster' card.

[Caldezar]

First batch of parts arrived

[Perineum]

Are you sure the Zotac 480 with 8gb of corsair ram is going to be good enough

[Caldezar]

Haha yeah yeah... Fixed :)

[Caldezar]

UPDATE

Well ordering through work took a bit longer than expected, but all the parts were ordered last week. The monitor will be in at the end of next week, everything else should be Wednesday or Thursday. Unfortunately the Zotac 480 AMP! is on back order though, so not sure on timing for that yet. I could order a different 480, but that's the one I really want so hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

[jcmaz]

Couldn't you get an EVGA model instead? The normal 480 from EVGA is only $510 after MIR, nearly 40 cheaper...

[Caldezar]

Originally Posted by jcmaz

Couldn't you get an EVGA model instead? The normal 480 from EVGA is only $510 after MIR, nearly 40 cheaper...

The reason I was going for the Zotac is the custom cooler. It runs extremely quiet and cool. (Quiet being my primary concern) If I go with an evga, I'd have to spend an extra $60 to get a decent after-market cooler, then install it myself. And since Zotac offers a lifetime warranty as well, the only real advantage to evga would be that they are based in NA.

[jcmaz]

Originally Posted by Caldezar

The reason I was going for the Zotac is the custom cooler. It runs extremely quiet and cool. (Quiet being my primary concern) If I go with an evga, I'd have to spend an extra $60 to get a decent after-market cooler, then install it myself. And since Zotac offers a lifetime warranty as well, the only real advantage to evga would be that they are based in NA.

I see. Have fun building!!!

[Caldezar]

Well the first bundle of parts arrived. Looks like the GPU is on back order, and the monitor should be here mid-week. That gives me lots of time to put this together. Will also give me a head start on ordering the AM3 mounting bracket for the Noctua cooler.

Parts pic up.

[Realityshift]

Just did some benching with my new 465 GE, overclocked it sure does pack a punch ;) hint hint.