Cooling Solutions

Things were running a little hot so wanted to upgrade the fans and add some color to the tower. Here we go!


Two Rosewill 80mm blue LED fans and a ThermalTake silent 1156 heatsink and fan combo.

First step was to open up the fans.

Nice fans overall. The little box has the power adapter connections in it. One will connect to the mobo and the other connects to the PSU. Here is a shot of the factory fan.

Then the new one after installation

I noticed after installing the 80mm Rosewill was actually smaller than the factory fan. I believe the old one was a 90mm. I'll most likely upgrade the back exhaust to a 90mm in the future. Up next was finding the spot for a front intake fan.

Also had to pull off the front of the case to get the install completed.

And here is the new fan installed. Looks like this one has the holes for a 90mm fan too... Interesting!

Alright, with the new case fans in it was time to move on to the heatsink and fan for the cpu. Here is the unboxing.

This thing is a monster! I took some shots for scale.

Here it is next to the factory Intel one

The thing that really geared me towards buying this one is I didn't have to bolt or glue any brackets to the motherboard. It comes with the little peg legs that will install right onto the board like factory. Here is an Epic picture with the legs installed.

Taking a look at my table I thought I would snap a pic of the mid install mayhem LoL.

Placed the new thermal compound and installed the heatsink/fan. It installed really easily. Here is a shot of it in the case after install.

Wait a minute... That's no moon... It's a Space Station! LoL This thing is crazy looking. Few more shots of it installed.

Alright, super awesome! Time to hit the lights on the new LED fans!

And the front

Killer! I love this setup. It kicks off some nice light even with the side cover on. The fans make hardly any extra noise. My CPU temps are way down. Holding steady at 70-75 degrees under load. It used to skyrocket to 90+ before I would have to shut it off. I think all of this was less than 50 bucks and has gave the case a great look and improved performance!

The Build

Now it was time to put everything together. This would be my first FULL build from scratch. Sorry for the sideways pictures, blogger doesn't let me rotate them...

So about halfway through getting everything in the case I see the e-mail about doing a bench test... I felt I was at the point of no return so I had to keep going!

This is my cheesiest " I'm so excited to do this!" face. LoL!

Opened up the case. Like mentioned nice and roomy. Rosewill certainly does make some good stuff. It is a solid case for sure. No flimsy tin crap.

Both drives installed. CD/DVD installed. The 2nd HDD is in place but won't get hooked up until the OS is in.

Next I put in the mother board. Yes I put the little brass things underneath. The little bracket that fits over the I/O ports on the back was a pain in the ass!

Next was to install the processor. First, I wanted to test it's durability to hammer strikes! Plus this step helped get the box opened.

Got the chip and fan in. This was the most stressful part of the whole thing. Not to mention the lovely plastic cracking sound I got when installing the fan and heatsink. Also found out thermal paste is already applied to the factory heatsink.

Next in was the RAM. Pretty nice stuff.

Ok, So, the graphics card is so awesome and beastly I had to modify the case to get it to fit... I didn't need that piece.. I hope. LoL!

Here is a crappy picture of the card in.

Little better shot here. You can see it takes two expansion slots in the back but only uses 1 PCI slot.

Last minute touches.

Connecting Power! I had to refer to the diagram from the manual to get the case lights powered right.

All wired for power! Tried to keep the wires clean for maximum airflow efficiency and style points. 

All closed up, shot of the back.

And the front. I was pretty happy I got some little stickers from some of the parts to put on the front of the case. Makes it look more legit.

Success! To plug this thing in and power it up and get to see all the fans spinning and that picture come on the monitor was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. Kinda like when you get a car started up that's been broken!

Little shot of the BIOS screen. All that's needed now is the OS and we'll see what this baby can do!

Goodies!

Got everything in the mail! Just unpacking everything and snapped a few pics. The case came 1 day later.

Woo Hoo, Like Christmas!

William liked the packing material

Dual Hitachi Drives

The DVD/CD player/burner

i7 chip baby!

250GTS 1gig video card. With the size of the fans it takes up two PCI Slots!

4 gigs G.Skill ram.

Mother Board

Opened up

The Case with 500w power supply

Opened Up

Here is the case next to my old Dell pc. The case is a mid tower yet it's still a pretty big case. Lots of room for working though.