OK I actually completed this project some time ago but hadn’t got round to posting the last section which was simply putting the last few bits together and tidying up.

This was actually the easiest bit in terms of jumper identification as the Asus motherboard manual is so clear and concise so it didn’t present any great difficulty. Some parts like fitting the cables round the case to help airflow were tricky but the pictures below show the system with the final few parts added:

Well the motherboard finally arrived so I now have all the parts to crack on and finish this beast! A pic of the motherboard contents is below…

The “scariest” part for me was fitting the CPU as this is where it could all of gone horribly wrong. Luckily both the CPU and socket have notches to prevent incorrect insertion so that fear was largely unfounded.

Fitting the fan above the CPU was very tricky as I had to use some force to ensure the fan was secure over the CPU so I’m glad I did that before installing the board into the case. I also fitted my 4x1GB RAM sticks before wiggling the board into place on the built in risers and aligning the rear ports.

As you can see from the pic below, there wasn’t a lot of space left after I did this!

Now it’s just a case of plugging all the bits into the right place!

How do you get a square peg into a round hole? With great difficulty!

This is what I found today trying to squeeze this puppy into the case.

Although the Antec case has excellent routing and ducting to allow cables to move around the case without disrupting airflow, getting the bugger into the PSU cage is a feat of endurance!

On the plus side it’s incredibly solid and fully grommeted to eliminate vibration. Plus it has oodles of power for all the fans and the processor so this will all help keep the speed up.

The pic above shows the two raptors installed and the cables looking a little messy at the moment.

I’ll be tidying it all up tomorrow when the motherboard finally arrives…

Now surprising as this may seem from a geek like me but I have never actually built my own computer system from scratch although this has always been one of the things I’ve always wanted to do.

Faced with rising temperatures and sluggishness in my current system, I made the decision to upgrade the core components and custom build my own system.

Now before starting I decided to draw up a list of wants and needs. This obviously dictated what parts I purchased and the spec so…

• Cooling is paramount due to the heavy usage
• Multi-tasking speed due to the large nbumber of applications
• Sufficient storage space for multiple disks
• Ability to upgrade further in the future

With the fantastic help of Simon at Computer Products Limited, who also supplied all the parts at an excellent price, I settled on the following spec for the new machine:

• Antec P182 Case
• ANTEC PSU/TruePower Quattro 850W 80PLUS C
• Asus P5N32-E SLI Socket LGA775 motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 socket 775 processor
• 2 x WESTERN DIGITAL HD Raptor/74GB SATA150 100

The remaining components such as the RAM, graphics cards and two other disks were taken from the existing system to be added to new beast.

At the time of writing I’m just waiting for the motherboard to appear and then I can really crack on. I’ve have made a start and took some pics though:

Next job, fitting the PSU…