Building the Oh Baby! Rig

So I know it's taken me quite some time to write this post, but with 90 pictures, I'm sure you could understand. I expected this to be done more towards the end of my friend actually receiving the rig, but it appears that because of the huge amount of build pictures there are for it, it was a bit more than I could chew at the time. But regardless, here it is finally. The Oh Baby! rig post.

First I will go into which parts I used in the build. The part list is as follows:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K @ 4.5Ghz, 1.38v
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD65
Memory: Patriot Memory G2 Series PC3-12800 9-9-9-24 @ 1600MHz (2x4GB)
Heat-sink: Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme w/ Phanteks PH-NDC paste
Power Supply: OCZ ZT 80+ Bronze 750W
Graphics Card: EVGA GTX 560 DS SSC
Hard Drives: Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 60GB SSD
Optical Drive: LG DVD-RW
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Case: Corsair Carbide 300R with four Xigmatek XLF-F1455 140MM fans.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I have already written overviews on both the MSI Z77A-GD65 and the Corsair Carbide 300R I will not go very in depth as to specifications or anything of the sort here. If you wish to read up on either of the two, click the appropriate link text above and it will take you to that lengthy post. I will however go a bit into some of the other hardware used in this build as I go through building it. First lets start with the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 60GB SSD.

The Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 60GB SSD

The Mushkin Chronos Deluxe is one of the best budget Toggle NAND SSDs out on the market right now. If you wish to learn more about Toggle NAND you can visit this link HERE. Toggle NAND is one of the fastest types on SSDs to date, competing extremely well with some of the fastest synchronous NAND SSDs on the market. The budget permitted only a 60GB SSD though which results in fairly quick boot times as well as read and write speeds. The Mushkin SSD comes with an additional 2.5" to 3.5" aluminum drive adapter so you can mount the SSD into a desktop system that does not have native 2.5" drive support. 

The screws included with the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe

The Mushkin Chronos Deluxe also comes with four mounting screws to attach the 2.5" drive to it's adapter as well as screws to mount the adapter into a rig (should it not be tool-less). As I already have tons of black 2.5" drive screws from the Corsair rig, I will be using those instead of the silver screws included with Mushkin's drive. It would be nice to see these screws in black especially considering that both the adapter and the drive are black. It is nice, however, that they included the screws regardless.

The hard drive sled and the Mushkin SSD

The Mushkin SSD mounted to the included bracket

The rubber mounting grommets for the hard drive sled

How the SSD adapter was mounted to the hard drive sled

The amount of clearance between the SSD and the side panel

One thing I was on the fence about for the Carbide 300R rig was whether to mount the SSD into the drive cage via use of the 2.5" compatibility holes on the bottom of the sled. However after further debate, I decided to mount the drive into the included adapter and then into the sled simply to allow for extra heat dissipation should the drive ever need it. One thing unexpected that I ran into is that the sled cannot have the tool-less grommets mounted in the middle hole of the sled. This was a bit disappointing but it was rectified by simply using two of the included black screws from the Carbide 300R rig to mount it into the sled securely.  After putting the sled into the rig, I was relieved to see that there was still plenty of space to route all the necessary cables to the drive without much fuss. I did not have a mechanical drive in the build at the time as it was not in the budget, but I set up all the necessary cables so that my friend would have no problems installing the storage drive into the system when it was purchased.

The Xigmatek XLF-F1455 fans used in the Oh Baby! rig

The Xigmatek fans mounted to the top of the rig

Alternate shot of the Xigmatek top mounted fans

The motherboard I/O shield installed on the rig

For the fans installed in the rig, I used Xigmatek XLF-F1455 fans for all the 140MM empty fan slots. The rig already had fans installed on the front and rear so this saved some time and money doing so. Mounting of all the fans was fairly straight forward, align the holes and put the screws in. The rubber washers on the top of the rig were very nice and (as I said in the Carbide 300R rig overview) I wish that there were the same washers on the side panel as well to prevent scratching of the nice black satin finish. After installing the fans I then installed the rear I/O plate which went very well with the overall aesthetic of the rig, being that it was black as well.

It looks clear from here

The LG DVD-RW drive

Attempting to install the LG drive into the top bay

The LG drive hitting the top mounted Xigmatek fan

The LG drive installed into the bottom 5.25" bay

The front of the rig with the LG drive installed

After installing the Xigmatek fans into the rig, I decided to install the CD Drive. This is where Corsair made a bit of a design flaw. I went to install the drive into the top bay, but it didn't seem to want to install. Upon further review of what could be going on, I noticed that the drive was not installing because the casing was hitting the top fan closest to the front of the rig. This isn't a fault of the Xigmatek fans, they have a standard sized frame with slight spacers around the screw hole areas to allow for less turbulence. The problem is that the fans mount too close to the 5.25" drive bays causing the top slot to be pretty much unusable for any standard length drive. Something like a 5.25" card reader may be able to mount in the top slot but certainly not a CD drive. As such, I decided to put the drive in the bottom slot simply because installing it in the middle slot would look a bit goofy and offset the clean look of the outside of the rig.

The Patriot G2 memory

The Patriot memory installed on the Z77-GD65 board

The G2 memory looks sharp on the MSI board

After dealing with the dilemma of the CD drive, I turned my attention to equipping the MSI board with it's important hardware. First I started with the RAM. I used Patriot G2 memory simply because I know that the blue color of the memory goes excellent with the blue of a MSI board. The same RAM been reliable for me for the last two years. One thing that I find odd about installing memory on to new motherboards is how if you are not filling all the slots and wish to have good performance on dual channel you need to fill slots two and four rather than one and three. It's a minor thing but something I haven't quite gotten used to yet. Another thing that is nice is they are low profile heat-sinks so I don't need to worry about having compatibility issues with the CPU heat-sink.

The i5 3570K with it's included heatsink, manual and rig sticker

Popping the cover off the CPU socket on the MSI board

The exposed CPU socket on the MSI board

The i5 3570K installed on the MSI Z77-GD65 board

The MSI board installed in the rig

After installing the RAM I then turned focus to getting the CPU and it's appropriate heat-sink installed. One thing that is nice about Intel boards is that they all come with covers for the CPU socket to protect the pins from getting damaged in any way. So firstly, I removed the cover and inspected the pins to verify nothing was damaged during the build of the motherboard. After that I then installed the i5 3570K into the system and verified that it seated correctly. After making sure everything was nice and cozy on the motherboard, I proceeded to install it into the rig.

The Tuniq Tower 120 boxes (seems to be an OEM box)

The accessories included with the Tower 120 Extreme

The checklist of parts the Tower 120 Extreme has included

The heat-sink I chose for the build was a Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme. I chose it simply because it has a good price for performance and will look nice inside the system. That being said, the mounting hardware is a little bit dated but it will suffice none the less. The Tower 120 Extreme comes with mounting hardware for both AMD CPUs as well as Intel CPUs. The sockets it supports are everything from current generation (AM2+ and 1155/1366) but it does not appear to have support for LGA2011. That being said, it is a bit of an older cooler so I'm not entirely surprised that it doesn't support it. It even has support for older AMD CPUs such as K8 based processors (754/939/940) so that's neat. Also included in the box is a fan controller, the installation manual and some TX-3 thermal paste. I have stopped using TX-3 for a while simply because it's shelf life is very poor. It tends to harden up fairly quickly if not in use which is disappointing. That being said, I decided to use some of my Phanteks PH-NDC thermal paste instead for the build.

The HDT designed heat-pipes displayed by the packaging

The Tower 120 Extreme in it's clamshell

The embossed logo on the Tower 120 Extreme

The Tower 120 Extreme's heat displacement

The Tower 120 Extreme comes packaged in a plastic clamshell with two foam spacers to help aid during shipment. I would have preferred to see something a bit more thought out for shipping as when I received my old Tower 120 Extreme (which I gave to a friend) the plastic clamshell was pretty much destroyed and a bunch of the fins were bent. Luckily it wasn't the same situation for this heat-sink so that's fine by me. The Tower 120 Extreme has a HDT style base with the five 6mm heat-pipes exposed to touch the CPU directly. The included Tuniq fan is a blue LED lit three pin fan (no PWM) and when installed seems to be fairly loud. I don't remember my old one being this loud, but as such I decided that installing the fan controller would be a good idea to help keep the noise down. On the top of the bracket that holds the fan it has Tuniq's logo embossed on the metal.

The tab on the four included mounting screws

The backplate notches that correspond to the individual sockets

The backplate equipped with it's appropriate hardware

Installing the backplate onto the motherboard

One thing that it is important to be aware of when installing the Tower 120 Extreme on to the motherboard is that the screw head tabs insert correctly into the back plate. The reason for this is so that the screws don't shift up and down on the Intel socket based slots. It also helps prevent the screws from moving along with the nut when you are tightening the mounting hardware. After installing the screws in correctly to the back plate, I then started to install all the important parts onto the plate. Before you continue make sure to pull the screws a bit to allow the tabs to pierce through the plastic part of the back plate. It's very important you do this otherwise as you're screwing the caps on they may slip and not install correctly. After you have the caps on, make sure to install the included plastic adhesive washers into the caps so as to not cause any possible issues with metal contacting the motherboard directly. I inserted the back plate into the motherboard with the rig still on but because it was being so difficult I decided to take the motherboard out of the system and install the cooler first before re-installing the motherboard into the rig. This is simply because of the way it mounts is easier to be accessed outside the case as I can access the screws from all angles.

How the front of the board looks with the backplate installed

The Tuniq Tower 120 mounted to the motherboard

The clearance between the memory and the fan

The clearance was thanks to the extra included plastic spacers

The motherboard reinstalled into the rig

After removing the motherboard from the rig, I then proceeded to install the Tower 120 Extreme on to the board. I noticed an issue right away. The fan hangs quite low when attached to this board and as such it was not installing all the way down on the CPU. Upon further inspection I noticed the fan cage on the heat-sink was actually putting pressure on the RAM. After realizing this, I used the included extra fan spacers on top of the already installed fan spacers to allow for enough clearance. Quite a tight fit but at least the fan is not directly against the RAM. After tightening down the four thumb screws in a 1/3 and 2/4 fashion I re-installed the motherboard back into the rig.

The EVGA 560 DS SSC box

The accessories included with the EVGA 560 DS

The included badass metal case badge

After taking a short break from building the system (because it was quite lengthy getting everything unscrewed and screwed in) I then opened the box up for the EVGA GTX 560 DS SSC. The reason we went with a 560 rather than a 560Ti is simply because the Ti was not within the budget of the build but the standard one was. One thing I really like about GPU boxes nowadays is that they have a minimum wattage recommendation somewhere on the box so that people won't run into problems simply because they have a power supply that does not have enough wattage. Inside the box the GTX 560 comes with a HDMI to mini-HDMI adapter, two 6 pin PCI-E to molex power connectors, a DVI to VGA adapter, a case badge, and all the documentation and drivers.  The included case badge appears to be made of metal and is quite impressive when installed on the rig.

The front of the EVGA 560 DS

Now on to the GPU itself. The EVGA GTX 560 DS SSC comes equipped with a custom cooler also featured on some of the other 500 series cards (560 and up). It has been replaced on the 600 series with the Signature 2 cooler. I have yet to see one up close but I assume that the Signature 2 has a similar layout internally with heat-pipes and externally there are two fans. Unfortunately, EVGA didn't offer the Signature 2 on their 670 yet when I went to purchase my GTX 670 (or else I would have gone with EVGA instead of Gigabyte). On the DS cooler, it has four heat-pipes which span the cooler (branching out from the middle where the GPU processor is located) and makes sure that the heat dissipates evenly on the heat-sink for efficient cooling. The two fans that are installed seem to work fairly well in keeping the GPU cool. The SSC designation means that the card has been fairly overclocked from factory sporting 900MHz core clock, 1800MHz shader clock, and 2079MHz (4158MHz effective) memory clock. The stock reference clocks are 810MHz/1620MHz/2004MHz(4008MHz effective). So that's a fairly good factory overclock (11% overclock on core and shader and 3% overclock on memory). I didn't bother to overclock the card more to push it as it was not my system and even on the factory overclock it is very respectable on performance. I expect though that the card should be able to be overclocked a bit more on the memory and possibly even on the core/shader clocks as well. Like all other GTX 560s, the card has 336 Cuda cores and 1GB of memory running on a 256-bit bus. 

The rear of the 560 DS with the beautiful backplate

To the rear of the card, it sports a beautiful black backplate which dissipates a fair amount of heat that comes from the back of the card. This is something you don't see on many card even to this day, but a few companies have followed EVGA's example by putting a backplate on their more premium edition cards. This is something that is both aesthetically pleasing to the eye as well as helps the card out by distributing the heat evenly over the card to be cooled rather than having hotspots in certain areas such as the rear memory chips.    Most of the 600 series cards EVGA sells now have the option of coming with a backplate which is something that I would like to continue seeing on cards in the future.

The 560 DS installed into the rig

If I sprung for the 560Ti it would have came with 384 Cuda cores. However it was not in the budget. EVGA also makes a 560Ti 448 edition which has 448 Cuda cores (similar to a GTX 570 which has 480 cores) which is fairly decently priced nowadays. Once again though, was not in the budget as it costs even more than a 560Ti. That being said, EVGA does not offer the DS cooler on either of those two cards anymore as they were limited runs (which is disappointing as it is a quality cooler). Seeing as the 600 series has come out, the 500 series is going to be phased out soon due to cards that compete price wise on the 600 series lineup now. When I purchased the 560 DS it was $190 from Newegg.ca (plus applicable taxes and shipping). EVGA sells their cheapest 660 (which is an EE version) at Newegg for $220 dollars. The increased price does come with benefits though. The card is more power efficient, has over double the amount of cores (960 vs the 336 I mentioned above), double the amount of memory available (2GB on the 660 vs 1GB on the 560) and higher clocks (1046 core and 3004 memory). The only drawback is that the 660 runs on a 192-bit bus. Considering the big difference in other performance based improvements, running at 192-bit bus won't be a huge difference it would seem. One thing that is unfortunate with the Signature 2 series is that they do not come with a backplate installed which is disappointing. Having to pick between backplate with an EE cooler vs a Signature heat-sink with no backplate is OK I guess, but I wish they would offer the backplate on the Signature 2 cooled GPUs as well.

The OCZ ZT series box

After installing the GTX 560 DS into the system, it was time to wire all the power supply cables into the system. For the power supply I chose a OCZ ZT series 750W modular power supply. As we were not looking for the most efficient power supply but something decent enough with good quality internals, it fit the bill perfectly. One of the first things I look for in the power supply is whether it has a single 12V rail or not. This is because if it has multiple rails, sometimes certain hardware loads onto one rail and overloads that rail's amperage causing instability. Next thing I look for is whether it uses Japanese capacitors. This is simply because they are rated for higher temperatures/loads and will (in theory) have a longer lasting life. Third thing I look for is how modular the cables are on the power supply. Most systems do not tend to use every single power cable available from the power supply so it's good to find out which ones can be eliminated to allow for less clutter of extra cables in the system. This will allow for better airflow throughout the case as well as look more tidy when it's opened up and worked on.

The packing job of the ZT series PSU

OCZ appears to do a pretty nice job packaging up their power supplies (if this box is a standard for their packing). The power supply itself comes in a nylon cover (which seems to be the norm for most higher end power supplies nowadays) which helps protect the finish from scratches. The large box next to it contains all the cables and accessories that came with the power supply. The 750W ZT series power supply comes with one 20+4 pin ATX cable, two 4+4 pin CPU power cables, four 6+2 pin PCI-E power cables, two cable sets of 3 molex connectors, one molex to Floppy adapter, three cable sets of 3 SATA power connectors and of course a power supply cable (which appears to be of good gauge thickness). Also included in an accessory pack is four zip ties, four standard case screws, the warranty card, and of course the manual.

The rear of the OCZ ZT series PSU

The bottom of the ZT series PSU

The modular interface on the ZT series PSU

The side of the ZT series PSU

The finish on the OCZ ZT series power supply is excellent. It is covered in what appears to be a matte black powder coat finish and looks very aesthetically pleasing to the eye. On the rear of the power supply there is (of course) the power cable connector and the power supply cutoff switch. It does not have a voltage switch due to the power supply having active PFC (which will automatically determine the incoming voltage and convert it as necessary to power the system). The bottom of the power supply contains it's 140mm ball bearing fan as well as OCZ's metallic logo. Located on the front of the power supply is the modular cable interface. One thing I found interesting is (to prevent confusion) OCZ colored the PCI-E cables with a grey connector to allow people to avoid plugging a CPU power cable into one of the PCI-E connectors which could damage the power supply. The top of the power supply contains a sticker which has all the information on the power supply's specifications. Finally, on both sides of the power supply there are yellow stickers stating the power supply that it is (which in this case is a OCZ ZT series 750W). The stickers on the sides are oriented so that no matter which way the PSU is installed the sticker will always be oriented so that the sticker is readable without having to tilt your head.

All of the accessories and cables included with the 750W ZT series

For the Oh Baby! rig I used two PCI-E power cables, one SATA power cable, the 20+4 pin ATX cable, one 4+4 pin CPU cable, and one molex cable. The length of the cables allowed everything to be tucked away nicely to allow for optimum airflow throughout the system without much restriction. One thing I really wished that OCZ included were black screws to mount the power supply. Luckily I could paint them black and not have to worry about it. It's still disappointing how some manufacturers still include silver screws for a black power supply, almost ruining the aesthetic of a black cased system. If more manufacturers would just bother to match the color of screw with the casing of the power supply I think it would allow rigs to look a lot more stealth on the outside and not distract you from what's going on with the inside (assuming you even have a side window). One thing they did get right for the interior though was having the cables be all black to allow for a stealth look, rather than having the cables be their multicolored counterparts. The all black look allows everything to look that much tidier inside a black painted system.

The ZT series PSU installed into the rig

Once I had all the cables plugged into the power supply, it was a matter of routing them through the back and into the appropriate areas on the system. The 4+4 pin CPU cable fit perfectly. I say this because some manufacturers of power supplies don't make the CPU cable long enough and so you can't route it through the back. In some other cases the cable has a rather fat connector head and won't fit through some of the rig holes that are used for the CPU connector area. Luckily this wasn't the case for this rig.

The front headers for the case

The M-Connectors included with the Z77A-GD65 board

After getting all of the power supply cables routed to their appropriate spots, it was down to the home stretch. All that was left was to attach the front panel button and indicator cables into the motherboard. This is made easy with MSI as they include their M-Connector which allows you to plug up all the appropriate connectors onto a hub which can then be plugged into the motherboard. This allows for easy assembly and dis-assembly as all you have to do is unplug the hub from the motherboard. It also allows you to keep the cables organized and orientated correctly so you never have to worry about where the positive lead goes for a front header. 

The side panel reinstalled on the rig

After installing the front panel cables onto the motherboard, all that was left to do was tidy up the cables and hide away any that aren't necessary to see. The end result allowed for quite a tidy setup with almost no exposed cables attached in the system. With one of the molex connectors I attached both of the side panel fan adapters to allow them to be detached easily from the system should it ever need to be worked on. As the adapters are also completely black, it is almost unnoticeable at first when looking inside the system. 

The Xigmatek fans installed onto the side panel

The side panel reinstalled onto the Oh Baby! rig

Finally, after double-checking everything was plugged up correctly, I re-installed the side panel onto the system with both of the Xigmatek 140mm fans installed. The end result of the system looks excellent, with an all black exterior (aside from the motherboard I/O shield) which looks excellent. The Corsair Carbide 300R rig (even with all of it's faults) looks excellent once completed with all it's guts filled up.

The Oh Baby! rig ready for greatness

The above picture is the end result of this system. It has been running strong for almost a half year. There were a few minor hiccups with the BIOS a couple months ago, but other than that it's been great for the owner and they are very pleased on the outcome. Everything we throw at it for games plays excellent (considering it's not the highest end GPU) on pretty good video settings. 

In conclusion, I'm happy to have built another excellent PC for a great friend and am glad that I could build everything to the best of my ability for the price that was provided. If you wish to see the full album of pictures for this rig CLICK HERE.Stay tuned for more posts in the near future where I will talk about a few of the new additions to my own system.