Well it's Black Friday, and Newegg had its awesome sales. I unfortunately missed out on the processor I had had my eye on, so I have to wait for that to come back in stock, and then pay a little more for it. But anyway, I figured I'd keep track of the process for posterity and also to have a place to crowd source any issues I might come across along the way.

Here's the haul:
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO - $179.99
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K - $217.49
Video card: MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) - $244.99 (-$20 MIR)
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) - $44.99
Storage: OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC (SSD) - $149.99 (-$30 MIR)
Case: Antec Three Hundred - $49.95 (-$15 MIR)
Power Supply: SeaSonic X750 Gold - $109.99
DVD Drive: LITE-ON DVD Burner - $16.99
Keyboard: Logitech G510 - $84.99
Current total: $1103.37 ($1038.37 after rebates)

What's the clear purplish thing sticking out on the back plate above the red eSATA/USB ports on the motherboard?

You might want to see if buy.com or tigerdirect have the processor you want on sale, many times one or both will mirror newegg's sales and still have stock.

Also, Micro Center if you've got one nearby. I snagged an i5-2500K there on Friday for $150.

That's the Bluetooth module.

Yeah I've been looking around, but haven't seen one cheaper than what newegg had before it went on sale.


Wow, great deal. Alas I don't have any of those close enough to me to be worth the drive.

Thanks to tom61 for the tip - I scored a i5 2500K off of Tiger Direct for only a few bucks more than what newegg had it more. Unfortunately, it's on backorder.

I also grabbed the G510 from newegg's sale on Tuesday, it seems pretty cool.

I'm hoping to find some time this weekend to start putting things together. Meanwhilst, here's a grainy pic of the boxes from the first shipment:

Did you buy the 2500k yet? I can get you one for even less than that locally.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0354589

My processor shipped yesterday. I won't sweat the $30, that's not too much when you're building a $1000+ computer. Thanks though!

I started my assembly today, things went fairly well overall. So without further ado I give you the cellphone-in-a-dimly-lit-basement picture walkthrough!


I started off by taking the panels and front bezel off the case. This makes it easier to work with, especially when it comes to running wires.


The motherboard mounted easily enough, the case came with plenty of standoffs and screws.


Here's where I ran into my first hiccup. I used some of the screws that came with the case to mount the PSU, but they were just a bit too small to that when screwed in they would catch every now and then. After I realized this is was a bit of a pain to get them out, I had to use a little flathead screwdriver to pry them out as I turned. Then I realized that Seasonic gave me some screws - I just didn't see them in the bottom of the box. Additionally, wow does Seasonic know how to do packaging; the presentation of their PSU was pretty impressive and I felt like I was opening something a lot more expensive.


I had to put the front bezel back on to mount the CD drive. No real issues there though.


Antec's idea of an SSD mount is four holes in the bottom of the case. This seemed fine at the start, but then the included SATA cable wouldn't connect since it had a right-angle connector. Then, I had to connect two separate power cables to the PSU, one for the CD drive and one for the SSD, so now I have three extra connectors floating around on the cables doing nothing. I think I'm going to get a 3.5" to 2.5" mounting kit so I can mount the SSD up by the CD drive. If anyone knows of a good kit I'm all ears.


The video card went in with no problems. Running the cables has been a true 'joy' though. I need to do some more work on that tomorrow to try to neaten things up.

I still need to through the RAM in there, and I'm waiting on my CPU, but other than that, I think things went pretty well. My processor should come on Tuesday but I probably won't get a chance to put the finishing touches on the system until next week.

My OCZ Vertex 2 SSD came with a 2.5->3.5" mounting adapter (though it was rather simplistic). Check your SSD box for an adapter first. Otherwise, SSDs produce very little heat (if any), so pretty much any adapter will be fine. Something like this would likely work great, for $5 shipped: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817812011

Did you get an aftermarket CPU cooler for that 2500k? That's an easily-overclockable processor and you're using a motherboard that should make overclocking pretty straightforward, so something bigger than the stock Intel heatsink is probably a good idea. I have a Xigmatek S1283 in my overclocked gaming PC build, and a Cooler Master Hyper N 520 in my other build. Both work great, when I tried the Cooler Master one in my gaming PC build (just for fun) it ran 3 degrees celsius warmer than the Xigmatek cooler. Which is not really enough of a change to even note a difference.

Alternatively, you could go ridiculous: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018
I checked, it'll fit in your Antec 300 with your G-Skill Ripjaws X RAM.

Definitely no adapter in the box. Thanks for the link.

I haven't picked up an aftermarket cooler. I looked at a few during the big sales, but decided to hold off. I'm going to see how it plays TOR and other games stock; I'll OC it if I think it needs a boost. Then we'll see how hot it runs.

That thing is just absurd, I find it hard to believe it'll fit in that little case.

I am considering getting some more/replacement fans for the case in general. It has one in the rear and one on top, with room for two in the front and one on the side. Any thoughts on that? Something quiet for sure, and blue LEDs would be a bonus, lol.

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-120mm-Silent-Value/dp/tech-data/B000O8I474/ref=de_a_smtd?ie=UTF8&m=A2EUTVCJXLAJ4K
They're decent fans, not overly loud at full voltage, and they're $4 each. I'd pick this if you were interested in value. ($16 and you could equip all of the empty slots with a spare)

Alternatively, the Antec Tricool ones are good, come with a low/medium/high switch, and are available in unlit, blue, or red. I'd pick this if you wanted the lighting.

The Scythe S-flex series are SUPER-quiet if you were interested in low noise level instead. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html I have a couple of the SFF21E, and man, you cannot hear them at all.

As far as where to put them, I'd definitely do the two in front, and maybe the one on the side. You'd have to think about overall airflow. (i.e. 2x120mm on the front are pushing x amount of cfm in, the one on the back and the top are pushing x out, the psu is approx x, etc)

In my quest for blue fans that are fairly quiet, I was looking at these:
XIGMATEK Cooling System Crystal Series CLF-F1251 120mm Blue LED Case Fan
COOLER MASTER R4-L2S-122B-GP 120mm 4 Blue LED Case Fan 2 in 1 pack

After the MIR the price is pretty much the same to put two in the front. The Xigmateks move more air but the Coolermasters have some good overall reviews. Thoughts?

Those are both quality brands, but I'd be more likely to grab the Coolermasters based on the large number of positive reviews. Amount of airflow for front fans isn't super-important because hard drives need only a small bit of air flowing over them to stay cool (my front 120mm Antec Tricool fans are on the low speed and my hard drives stay super-cool, at most 5 degrees celsius above ambient). I'd also be inclined to say that the amount of airflow on the side fan isn't all that important either, as I don't even have a fan there in my case and my graphics card stays at a reasonable temperature. Your graphics card is of the dual-slot variety and has two fans, so it likely doesn't need much extra help to keep it nice and cool.

If the above fans (whichever brand) end up being too loud, you can get a fan controller for a reasonable price, either the kind that goes into an extra PCI slot or the kind that goes into a front 3.5" bay.

Side note: buying a product on Newegg based on a large number of positive reviews has always turned out well for me in the past.

I'm building a rig as well (same case actually), and I'm omitting the side fan. I've done a little research into airflow and whatnot, and it seems that in most cases, side fans do little and in some cases disrupt the airflow, causing higher temps. In the 300, I'm setting it up with the two stock tri-cools as exhaust on top and back, two intake fans in the front, aftermarket CPU cooler flowing into the rear exhaust fan, GPU in top PCIe slot, and PSU fan facing down. There is enough clearance in the case for the PSU to intake from the bottom, and should be plenty of fresh air from the intakes. Also, the cable management area on the 300 is GLORIOUS. I ran the whole wad of cables straight into that along the bottom and looped the ones I needed back out. Good luck on your build!

The manual for the case recommended placing the PSU fan facing up, so that's how I have mine set up. The cable management is pretty great, I rerouted some of the obnoxious cables from yesterday's pics today, but a few were too short to go all the way through the cable management area and back to the connections. And the stock fans' power cables need some cable management too.

I had an issue with the fans as well. I was able to tuck the top cable into the management area and hook it up there, but for the rear one I had to lay it on the floor of the case. In the future I might try and run it along the top with an extension. I also find the fan switches to be pretty annoying; who thought it was a good idea to put them on obnoxiously long cables and let them dangle? I might have to hot glue those to the case.