The Build

Well the time has arrived to begin the build. Overall it went pretty smoothly, but I somehow got a small cut on my index finger (an extremely shallow paper cut-like scratch really). I have no idea how it got it, but its nothing more than a nuisance. Onto the build. I took pictures when I remembered to, but I was mostly concentrated on the build, and not necessarily my camera. I apologize in advance for the low quality pics.

First I did the easiest part of the setup. I installed the 80x80x15mm fan on the backside of the motherboard tray.
Again, just click on the image to see the full picture.

The 80mm fan that sits right behind the motherboard on the right side of the case

This procedure was pretty simple because the motherboard tray had these two little slots that I just had to push the corners of the fan into. These were pretty snug, with no screws needed. Seems to hold well.

Detail of the two slots I was talking about

I then screwed in the standoffs for the motherboard. There are plenty of holes into which the standoffs can go, but which ones you actually use depend on the motherboard itself. I also installed to two 120mm top fans into the case. Just four screws per fan, and that was it.

The inside of the case, showing the standoffs and the two top fans (click to get full picture)

The outside top part of the case, showing my two new fans

Next was to install the power supply. This was also a simple procedure. I made sure the fan was facing the bottom, and just screwed it into my case using the screws provided.

The power supply sitting at the bottom of my case

The rear of the case, showing the attached power supply

Then the two intake fans on the left hand side of the case were installed to the lid. Again a very simple procedure.

I made the wires run together down the middle of the panel

Here is what the outside of the panel looks like.
Maybe I should have gotten black fans, but the clear ones were cheaper.

Next I connected all of the fans' power connectors to the power supply. I'm glad the Cooler Master fans came with splitters or else I would not have enough connectors on my power supply for all of my fans. Hiper should look into that. I strung as many wires as possible around behind the motherboard tray to have more room to work inside the case.

My mess of wires behind the motherboard tray

My next step was to install the drives. The hard drive cage came out pretty easily, and the side screws just fit into the case just as if it were 3 5.25" drives stacked on top of one another. The hard drive just slides into any of the 4 slots, and installs using screws. Pretty simple. It's nice that the hard drive screw holes on the cage have these rubber feet. Hopefully that will dampen the vibrations.

The hard drive cage

The rubber screw holes

The hard drive installed

And now for the DVD drive. It's a similar procedure; the tool-less side is simple enough. I just wanted to use screws on the other side because it just made me feel safer.

The DVD drive installed in the slot

The redundant screws for my own sake

Both drives finally installed

Attached SATA power connectors

The second front fan that I planned to put at the top of the front panel was a little tricky. I had seen someone online use zip-ties so I decided to try that out. I just lined up the fan in the general location that I wanted it and searched the case for appropriate holes. I pretty much got what I wanted, but of course this is not as ideal as having an extra cage. If I was not going to have my DVD drive in the middle, I would have considered attaching the bottom of one fan to the top of the hard drive cage and and another to the bottom of the hard drive cage, leaving the other edges free to hang. I think that would be secure enough, but just not my ideal configuration.

The fan positioned right where I wanted it (almost)

The zip ties on the right side holding the fan in place

Prepping the motherboard was not as daunting of a task as I thought it would be. Installing the CPU was simple. Just switch the lever, open the lid, place the processor in, close the lid and the lever. Just make sure you don't touch any of the pins on the processor. The notches of the processor only match up one way with the motherboard socket, so there was no need to worry about it being backwards.

The open motherboard socket

It's hard to believe that something this small can do so much

Processor installed

Next step was the heatsink. I completely forgot to take pictures of these next steps because I was so scared of messing it up. It's not that difficult though. Just be careful. I applied a very thin line of thermal compound (about 1 inch in length) down the center of the processor. Next I mad sure I had my heatsink fan pointing toward my top exhaust fan, lined up the holes on the motherboard and the backplate, and tightened the screws. It seemed pretty secure when I was finished with it. After that, I screwed in the motherboard to the motherbaord tray. Six holes were provided on the board that matched up with the tray and that seemed fine. I plugged the CPU cooler fan into the motherboard, plugged in the CPU power (which I would've forgotten had my friends not told me to), and plugged in the motherboard power. The front panel connections from the case were also plugged into the motherboard. These are a little hard to figure out, but if you read the motherboard and read the wires, you should be fine. The print is just a little tough to make out on the motherboard when you have bad lighting.
After that I installed the RAM, which is a simple process (just make sure the pins match up and connect). Since I had two sticks of RAM, I was told by my friends (who have built before) to use two slots of the same color because of reasons that are still unclear to me.

The motherboard installed, showing the power connector, CPU fan connection, and RAM

Next up was the video card, which again, was simple enough. My board only had one PCI Express x16 slot so I just plugged it in. The tool-less design of the expansion slots made this very easy. Don't forget to power your video card or else it will scream at you when you turn it on without plugging in the power (literally, it will shriek). My friend told me this when he did this on his own machine a while ago. I tested that, and sure enough, it's true. Then I plugged the SATA cables in; connecting the DVD drive, Hard drive and motherboard.

Video card, and SATA cables

The inside of my complete case (look at that wire management!)

I tied up a few wires in the case with zip-ties so there is more room for airflow, and routed as many extra wires as possible behind the back of the motherboard tray. After organizing the cables, I was ready to close up and boot.

More wire management where nobody will be looking

Everything in place, ready to close up

My desk setup, ready to go

Lookat the pretty lights!

I booted up, and looked through the BIOS. Changed a few things around and was ready to go. The monitor worked fine, and so did the keyboard. I'm going to install Windows Vista Business (64-bit) soon and see what happens. After I have all of the settings ready I'll probably experiment with some overclocking.

My final setup, with my old VX Nano mouse and Creative I-triuge L3800 speakers.

|:^)