lately, its become apparent that it would be a prudent time to upgrade, mostly because my existing motherboard is showing early warning signs of a critical failure, other reasons have more to do with the fact that i am a total and utter geek and enjoy building new rigs. I have already chosen and purchased a new case for this project, a white shinobi XL (with side-window), so this will be an upgrade that i plan on turning into a computer modification (otherwise known as a mod), featuring the stormtrooper, of course :)
First stage is assembly of a stock standard PC that i hope will give me the best bang for my buck, next comes sleeved wiring, fan controllers and selected case fans. after that i will mod the case with detail and some functionality (lighting and other controls) and then will come water cooling. When i've finish building my loop and assorted hardware, perhaps i will post the build log here? for now - all i have are some pics i took with my phone...
1. Shinobi XL White (window) (about $200 delivered)
2. CPU: Intel i5-3570K ($250)
3. MOBO: Gigabyte Z77 UD5H motherboard ($240)
4. RAM Patriot Viper3 2133Mhz DDR3 ($150)
5. Lego Stormtrooper clock - already own one, cost about $40
while this total is just the fraction of my shopping list, with this stuff i can start figuring out what cabling i will need to replace/refit. i will be re-using my corsair HX750 (about $150), along with my Vertex 4 SSD (about $150) for 128Gb boot drive, three SATA3 HDD's and the standard old optical DVD, all worth about another $330. I have also done some initial calculations and it looks likely that to sleeve the lot, i will need at least $120. this could cost a little more by the end of the build, no more than $150 in total.
a custom water cooling loop on the other hand, is going to be costly. i could just buy a standard CPU cooler for under $150, however there is no fun in that, nor does it look all that impressive. building your own setup offers you more freedom, and while it certainly costs more, the result is something that is not only whisper quiet but can look stunning. plus, it be a challenge to successfully install a water cooling loop and also undertake my first real case mod - so i am bound to make some mistakes along the way ;P
the trouble is going to be drawing the line at the level of detail i put into this project. I have some solid ideas for aspects of the water cooling loop and some ideas for staging inside of the case once everything is in place. It is, however, impossible to plan too much ahead until i have all the parts in hand. in fact, every time i look at the damn thing, i get a new idea or aspect of modding i would enjoy incorporating. "over engineered" could well end up being the outcome here if i am not carefull!
the mini-fig's have also all arrived. there was a minor problem with one supplier who was impersonating a local business. fortunately i still have all the items i ordered (even if it took a suspiciously leangthy ten days to arrive).
MOAR PICS ...when i actually migrate the old rig into the new system :)
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