Quickie Office Computer Build Part II

I ordered the parts for the office computer.  I had to do it quick to get the parts here before Christmas.  I decided to make it a Christmas present for my wife who has been having problems with here PC that have been unable to be resolved.  The parts only took a few days to arrive here in Alaska and I finagled $0 for shipping!  Here’s the parts list:

• Case - Corsair Carbide Series Black 300R Mid-Tower
• MoBo - ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
• CPU - AMD FD6300WMHKBOX FX-6300 6-Core Processor Black Edition
• Video Card - XFX AMD Radeon HD 5450 1GB GDDR3
• SSD - Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gbps 2.5" Internal SSD
• PSU - Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt ATX/EPS  80 PLUS
• Optical Drive - Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive
• OS - Windows 8.1 System Builder OEM DVD 64-Bit Windows 8.1 System Builder OEM DVD 64-Bit
• RAM – Crucial 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3 PC3-10600, CL=9, Unbuffered, NON-ECC, DDR3-1333, 1.5V, 512Meg x 64

Initial parts layout

The only tool I needed to put it all together was a screwdriver.  After getting the parts and doing a quick read of the important parts of the manuals it took 90 minutes to build it.  I was impressed by the Corsair case, which was a solid build with great ventilation and just the right areas for placement of the parts.  Since I was just putting together an office case I would have settled on on-board graphics for video.  However, this MoBo seemed to fit the bill for what I needed and only spent $29.00 for the video card.  I originally planned on a four-core processor but it was sold out by the time I made my decision – I ended up finding an AMD six core for $20 less than I was going to spend for the four core…  I wanted the SSD drive for speed.  I felt sorry for my wife who waited for a long time for boot up and opening programs.  I also decided on eight GB of RAM since some of the new programs and OS have four GB as a minimum.  I bought the RAM and SSD from Crucial which I have had good luck with in the past.

Everything done but the video card and final wiring.

The build was uneventful.  It fired right up after hitting the on switch and into the BIOS, which is awesome.  If this build were for gaming, overclocking would be cake.  The most surprising thing was the boot up time and opening programs and files.  It almost scares you how fast things pop up on the screen – instant.  After tweaking the BIOS to bypass some of the checks, the boot until windows was finished loading was 19 seconds.  A thing of joy, for someone who has dealt with a slow computer for the past three years.

This is the build.  Very easy to do and a good trial run for my next build – which I am still debating on which way to take that.

Quickie Office Computer Build

My wife has been having some issues with her Dell computer she bought a few years ago.  It came with a bunch of pre-installed apps that have cluttered her system and are not causing problems making it run very slow.  Calls to Dell have led to hours on the phone and the problem is not solved.
This got me thinking - why don't I build her a new one that wont come with all the useless apps?  This will be the second computer I have built her - the first one in 2002 that lasted about six years until most of the parts became outdated and non-upgradable due to changing designs for the newer components.  This would also be a chance to dip my toe in the water and see how much has changed in building PCs over the last 12 to 13 years.
I began researching parts for a basic office computer on the internet and at local computer shops.  It became apparent that this would not cost a lot using components that were the "state of the art" about a year ago.

Computer Build Ideas

Ideas
I have been spending some time coming up with ideas for a computer case mod design.  There are plenty of examples of creative designs for case mods on the internet.  After looking at them and adding some of my personal preferences here is a list of concepts (ranked in order of current preference) from some brainstorming:

1. Steampunk
2. Aircraft instruments
3. Aircraft wing
4. Some kind of military theme
1. Camouflage paint?
2. Honeycomb hex paint?

1. Steampunk theme is interesting and would leave open a lot of creative possibilities.
2. Aircraft instruments would be interesting designing the front to look like a cockpit.  This seems like the most work intensive to make things look like aircraft instruments.  Also expensive unless i can come across any discarded airplane parts.
3. Making the sides of the case look like an airplane wing.  I got this idea on a recent long distance flight looking out the window at the wing where the rivets had dark lines tapering off where it looked like fluid or oil was leaking out and the wind blowing it in a fading tapered line.  This would require rivets, grey paint, compressed air, stencils, and a bit of airbrushing (which i have no experience in).
4. Military theme seems like the easiest.  I have plenty of military insignia etc.  I have run across videos of painting "MultiCam" patterns.  I really like the honeycomb patterns used in some camouflage also.

Other considerations to think about for my brainstorming include;

• do I want to watercool this computer?
• do I want a window in the side of the case?
• what size of case?
• my limited skills and equipment for airbrushing...
• availability of parts and modding materials.

If you have any ideas you can leave a comment on this blog - below.

Computer Builds

Background
In 2001 I decided to build a gaming computer.  It was not hard to learn how to do it and in the long run it turned out to be a very good computer that we used for about eight years.  I wanted to build a computer to learn more about them and have a machine that I understood how it worked without all the junk that is put on the commercially built computers.  In 2002 I build another office computer for my wife to use that also lasted a long time with no problems.  In 2007 I slowly migrated to Macs, primarily due to my video hobby and have been using them since.  However, in the last few months I have become interested in building another PC.  I am interested in customizing a case for a moderately "high speed, low drag" gaming computer.  I would like to log my ideas and experience in this blog.