Project PRIME!

Alright so this is a ground up build, its done already, so the entire start to finish is below, enjoy!

The building blocks:

Haf932 (blue edition)

Gigabyte P55USB3

i7 875k

2x2 Patriot Viper 2 Sector 5 2400

MSI Gtx 470

750tx Corsair

500 gb Barracuda

Noctua U12P cooler

2x Liteon dvd/cd burners

Kama 5.25x3 mount + Slipstream

2xred and 2xblue cathode lights

Clean and simple idea, paint the inside black, strong cable management, add the kama bay, and have a solid machine. Plenty of personal reviews/assessments/suggestions for anyone who is a newer builder.

This is actually my first ground-up build.

Day 1

All but mobo arrives, first up is the case. HAF 932, went with the blue edition because of my idea to have lighting options, the clear fans will compliment the cathode tubes well. So gripe number 1, no manual in my HAF box, I didn't plan to use it all that much, but just makes me feel weary, like I'm getting a refurb or something. I'll also say that the box did not included a screwdriver or alen wrench to work with the case. Again, not a huge problem since I would usually use my own, I was lucky enough to have an alen wrench that fit perfectly.

Pictures:

So outside of no included tools, the case was very easy to strip down, seemed made to take apart. All of the tool-less features do a great job of being lightweight and easy to use without being too cheap. As you can see in the pictures here, I already popped the top console.

Now, maybe this is standard, but the front i/o connections were HOT glued. I found this to be very bad form personally. I had to cut off the glue to remove several things and reduce clutter.

Picture:

If anyone has looked up painting/taking apart this case, you already know that the 5.25 tool-less parts are well designed... unless you want to take them off. Ended up using 2 flatheads to push both clips down slowly, still had to search for the springs that jumped out a few times, and before I found this method, I gashed myself pretty well. Stripping everything really only took about an hour, I went really slow on purpose, could have done it in 30 min on the first time if I was in a hurry. With the military / boxy design of this case, taping off the parts I didnt want to paint was also quite easy. Just used some painters tape and some magazine pages.

Pictures:

Total time on day 1, 3 hours. Ready to paint tomorrow.

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Day 2

Mobo came in from Newegg. Not that I have to tell most of you, but Newegg is such an amazing site. So quick, easy, smooth. I can't imagine another company giving a better buying experience. All the orders were smooth, good pricing, quick delivery.

I will say, checking over the boxes, that both the mobo and the 470 boxes were not sealed. They seemed very new inside, but still makes me uneasy.

The noctua box is SO heavy, made me nervous about having this piece hang off the mobo. Now to head into my professional painting booth. Will be painting the inside and back of the body, insides of both sides, the PSU mount and the removable PSU slot shield.

Pictures:

Painting is probably what I spent the most time reading up on. I have used spraypaint on several occasions, but these were all farm-related, not exactly new car painting.

I read about sanding, priming, blah blah. But to be realistic, the factory paint on the case wasn't anything amazing. Not that it is bad, its painted to look rugged, and it does. So since im only painting the inside, theres no reason to get a ferrari finish on it, for obvious reasons. So I used some good ol' Krylon x2 Satin Black finish. Worked wonderfully. Better than expected actually. Check the last picture for a side by side comparison of my paint to CoolerMaster's.

Painting strat was very simple, semi-quick, light strips, about 6 or so coats on each part, very gradual progress. I only let each coat dry for about a minute, the final coat I went slower, basically just feathered over each area until I could see a reflection. The paint grabbed very well. Again, very pleasently suprised with how well it turned out.

Total time: 30 minutes. Obviously there was wind involved, and a few little bugs, I just used a can of air duster to move them off. Didn't have any damage to the paint.

Still day 2, cleared a work table to do a once over on everything I ordered. I will set up a torture rack to test and plan everything before touching the case, I left it in the very warm garage for 3 days to 100% cure.

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Alright, so lets get the rack set up.

Pictures:

Gigabyte's board was solid. Nothing amazing, but for the price range it serves quite well. color scheme is a little funky :) but thats not a big deal.

Ram/Chip/Cooler

Pictures:

The patriot ram had a cool tough look and feel to it, much like the HAF case. Both the ram and chip were a clean install. Make sure if you are doing this for your first time that you check your motherboard's manual before installing anything. Typically ram goes in slot 1 and 3 if you are only using 2 stick. Reading a little can save you a lot of hassle later on.

Next is the Noctua cooler, quite a beast.

Pictures:

You've seen these comments everywhere, but the Noctua colors scheme is so strange to me.

The bracket installation was a little nerve racking. Not difficult per se, but holding a mobo up with one hand while installing a bracket on the back of it can be pretty intimidating for someone who isnt comfortable with the hardware yet. Very nervous about doing damage to anything, but it all worked out. TIM applied, took 2 tries to get what I felt was a good clean line on it. Make sure if you have to remove it you use something that has no lint/fuzz, many people suggest coffee filters. And its not a bad idea to practice on some paper or something first, to avoid a hassle later.

Another small gripe. I originally planned on using rubber grommets on the heatsink to hold the fan off of it. But there were actually some rubber strips included by Nocta... they were WAY oversized. Again, not a big deal, just odd. Maybe they use the same strip for all thier products? Either way, just clipped off the extra, looked good after that.

The clearance between the intake fan and the ram was hairline. Got lucky on that one. If you don't get this lucky on your build, simply install the fan a little higher up on the heatsink, shouldnt be too much different cooling wise. If it were me, I would raise the exhaust too so they are even. This will likely give you better final results, even if it looks a little funny.

Next the GPU / PSU / HDD / DVD

Pictures:

Like I mentioned before, the 470 box was unsealed. Not happy about this, but the box seemed very new and factoryish, so I doubt it had been opened.

Corsair by far had the best packaging experience. Very neat box, good looking, a quality Corsair emblem bag inside. Bonus points for corsair here.

I used stacks of notebook paper as a grounding base, probably not needed on a wooden table, but it looked nice and neat :) and protected the table too.

Booted up the test bench with a small panic, everything kept looping to power, off, power, off. You'll get a kick out of this one. I completely overlooked the 12pin ATX connection. Had a quick laugh at myself after a successful boot. Windows 7 pro 64, very fast, very smooth installation. Can't say enough how easy this went.

End of day 2. Time spent, about 6 hours today.

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2 day lapse to go see Chelsea Handler in Richmond!

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