What I did on my days off.. fun

[RockyJ]

Well a couple of weeks ago FXOpen kicked me out because I am a U.S. trader..
So, while waiting for my funds to arrive and be reallocated I took the time to build me a brand spanking new trading computer..

I knew I was past the point that ordering anything from dell would satisfy me and looking at a few sites with custom made units they were usually pretty high priced, so with the help (in advice) from a bunch of geeks from here, http://forums.overclockersclub.com/ I proceeded to build my own.
p.s. they do know their stuff...

I had actually been toying with the idea for a few weeks so I had already done some research on what I wanted but I had no idea if what I wanted would translate in to a good setup.. but it did with just a couple of changes along the way.

Here is the meat of what I ended up with.

Intel i5 2500K CPU

ASRock Z68 EXTREME4 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157264

Corsair XMS3 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800) CL9 Desktop Memory Kit (Two 4GB Memory Modules)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0347306

Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120 120GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) with SandForce 2281 Controller
http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0364780

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler, RR-B10-212P-G1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103065

SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817151095

SAPPHIRE Flex 100328FLEX Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express (2 cards)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102938

CASE Fractal Design Arc Midi Black High Performance PC Computer Case w/ USB 3.0 and 3 x Fractal High Performance 140mm fans
http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=57

And believe it or not this all went together with no problems what so ever. I'm telling you I put this together (my first) and it worked first time and has been running almost non stop now for a week.

I was able to save a lot of money by buying where the best current deals were, I was able to get the i5 cpu for 179 and the ASRock mobo for 134 which is well under what you see on the sites..

This rig is pretty fast, basically boots up instantly, the SolidState Drive (SSD) helps that. The intel i5 is unlocked and overclockable, I'm running it at 4.0GHz (3.3GHz stock) which is very mild overclocking but I did go ahead and replace the stock cpu cooler as advised for oc'ing..

I used 2 Sapphire Radeon 6770 Flex vid cards , while it is not a real powerhouse card for gamers (I don't game) it does allow the running of four (4) monitors off each card so I can run up to 8 flat panels off this system as is.. someday... I'm shooting for 4 real soon and 6 down the road.. 24 inch variety..

The SeaSonic power supply is a beauty (imo) it was on sale now out of stock..

The case, well the case is imo absolutely beautiful in a sophisticated urban mechanical sort of way.
There's a great pic of it in the link, top right picture on the fractal website.

Im pretty happy with it all and darn happy that I have had no problems.. After reading all the trials and tribulations from the newegg site in the reviews on motherboards I was a bit skeptical but as I live in Denver there is a Micro Center close by so I knew I could walk in and exchange any motherboard I bought from them if I ran into problems... And they had the best price on the mobo by a long shot..

I'll throw up a few pics if I can figure out how to re-size them (smaller) they come out huge when you click on them.. I'll figure that out I guess..

[RockyJ]

some build shots..

[SteveHopwood]

That is one Mean Machine.

I built my own Mean Machine a few years ago. It is my development machine and I am typing into it right now.

Every time I use it I get this warm, rosy glow, cos I am a technical incompetent yet I managed to build my own machine.

Hecklers about to yell, "Yes but it is only Lego" stay stum. Leave a guy with his pride.

Us Mean Machine Builders have to stick together. Me and Rocky are now Official Bosom Buddies cos We Have A Shared Experience.

Next time you need a new machine guys, you should try building your own. Actually, it is only Lego and is great fun to do.

[garyfritz]

My 13-yr-old specced and built his own Mean Machine last year. He had a bit of help from Dad and his big brother but mostly he did it on his own. It's a fun project and really easy to do, if you're willing to do a bit of study and learn your way around.