Current desktop was getting old so instead of buying a new one from Dell my dad gave me permission (and capital! ) to build a new system. Geared towards gaming but overall a very versatile machine. This is the final product of the machine I've been talking about in 90% of the threads I've started here on Sal's. Specs:

Phenom II X4 940
Sapphire HD4870 1GB
4x2GB G.SKILL DDR2
Biostar TA790GXB A2+ (the onboard audio on this thing is awesome!
Hitachi 1TB HDD (probably a Deskstar)
LG DVD burner
Rosewill 550W PSU
Scythe Kabuto CPU Cooler
Antec Three Hundred
Two Antec 120mm exhaust fans that came installed in the chassis
Some Arctic Silver 5 of course!

Running Vista 64-bit. The box on top is my external HDD, I was transferring some files over so that will go back to the old Dell once I'm done with it. The performance jump compared to my old rig was CRAZY! P4 at 3.4GHz is nice but can't compare to a quad-core at 3.0GHz (might overclock to 3.5-ish later on). The memory and graphics card are very nice pieces of kit as well. Runs every game I have at highest settings with no chop whatsoever. I like it. . Pics:

Everything laid out before the build:


Case won't be empty for long


Finished product:







No that's not my kitchen...



Need to get all the wires somewhat more organized before I put the side panel on, plus it's fun to look at!

That looks more like a Windows 7 manual to me.

That's cause it is. I got Vista w/ the free Win7 upgrade for next year, and it came with the RC on disc.

I have the same case as you on my build, and that's one sweet PC you've built.

You should have put this in Tech Talk though, you would get better responses there.

$%&@*@! I meant to do that. And now I feel dumb.

The mainboard kink all settled now? And just so you know; the onboard audio is hardly awesome. IIRC It's ALC662. It's decent but that's it.

Indeed...Turned out what I thought was the supplemental power connection you mentioned is just a random 4-pin Molex port...The actual supplemental power port was 4-pin square and near the CPU. It's a rockin' machine now!

Learned to RTFM¹ (or LATFMP²)?


¹ Read The fudgeing Manual
² Look At The fudgeing Manual's Pictures

Too bad you bottommounted the PSU. That board does much better with top-mounted. That way you don't have cables all across the board; hide what you don't need in the 5" bays and be able to run what you do either along the back wall or on a more direct route. I have never REALLY liked the Three Hundred because of that; the ATX12V or EPS12V is always the most difficult cable to route. The 4-pin supplemental for graphics (yes the molex plug) isn't REALLY necessary on most setups.

Us men do not read these manuals which you speak of.

Sounds about right to me. Let me rephrase about the onboard audio - it's light years ahead of the audio on my old Dell, which had a Sound Blaster Audigy card installed. I'm no audiophile but I listen to a lot of music and the onboard is way more than sufficient for what I want/need.

What the hell is a manual

Next he'll be having us asking for directions

Meh, i'll just kind of skim through it, most of it's nonsense anyway and the rest usually is in another language.

I never need ask directions again thanks to Sat Nav.

Nice build though, good to know you didn't run into any problems. Tons of people on other forums always do... like, they forgot to connect a power cable or something.