My First PC Build

This is the first gaming and work PC I've built.

I haven't really built a PC other than in 2002 when I bought a pre assembled motherboard, CPU (I think it was an Athlon XP 1.2GHz) and fan and then went and installed the other parts like a case and hard drive.

The full list parts I used to build this PC is available on PCPartPicker but here is what I went for:

Type	Item
CPU	Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler	Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard	Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600 Memory
Storage	Sandisk Ultra II 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage	Sandisk Ultra II 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage	Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage	Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage	Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage	Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card	Asus GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Video Card
Case	Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply	EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit
Case Fan	Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 107.4 CFM 140mm Fan
Case Fan	Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-2000 PWM 107.4 CFM 140mm Fan
Case Fan	Fractal Design GP14-WT 68.4 CFM 140mm Fan
Monitor	Apple LED Cinema 27.0" Monitor
Keyboard	Ducky ONE Wired Standard Keyboard
Mouse	Zowie FK1 Wired Optical Mouse
Headphones	Sennheiser HD 202 II Headphones
Other	Asus Thunderbolt 2 Ports PCI Card for Z87/Z97 Deluxe

I've always wanted a gaming PC but never had one. Until recently I've played most of my games on consoles but after hearing about Microsoft's Play Anywhere initiative, having already bought loads of games through services like Humble Bundle (I'd buy them planning on getting a PC someday) and wanting to play more games at 60 frames per second I decided to just go for it and build a PC.

Since 2006 I've been mostly a Mac user and I already had a 27" Apple Thunderbolt display so I wanted to keep using that but as the display is Thunderbolt only I had to get a PCIe card that would take a DisplayPort input from a graphics card and send it out via Thunderbolt 2. So I picked up the Asus Thunderbolt 2 Ports PCI Card and selected a matching ASUS motherboard with a Thunderbolt header on it (this didn't work at first and I had to plug my PC into my TV via HDMI and change some BIOS setting to allow Thunderbolt to be on when the PC starts). The Apple display has built in speakers which are OK but I thought I would just use my everyday Sennheiser HD 202 II headphones when gaming.

I also had several old Western Digital Green hard drives that were used inside a Drobo before they were replaced (with larger Western Digital Red hard drives) so I wanted to reuse them for mass local media storage.

The last thing I had laying around was a 480GB SSD I used to use as an external drive for the Xbox One. I'd hardly used the SSD but ended up replacing it with a 960GB SSD so it was just sitting in cupboard.

Once I got all the parts putting it together was pretty easy, everything pretty much snapped into place.

My Windows install is on the Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD and the M.2 slot is set to PCIe mode so it's really fast! Booting up takes a few seconds (after all the P.O.S.T stuff). The two Sandisk Ultra II SSDs are in RAID 0 (giving me one 960GB drive in Windows) and hold all my games. The two Western Digital Green 3TB hard drives are in RAID 1 (giving me one 3TB drive in Windows) and is used for local media and document storage. The spare 1.5TB Western Digital Green drive is plugged in to the slower SATA 2 drive and is currently used to hold back ups.

I'm really happy with going for a GTX 1070 as I can play pretty much all my games at 60 frames per second at 1440p on medium to high settings.

My poor old Xbox 360 and my PS3

For the last 3 weeks I have been without my Xbox 360. After almost 2 years of use my 360 decides to throw up the dreaded Red Ring of Death. What makes it worse was that it decided to do this the night before my holiday started. I ended up spending the next week with very little to do.

I sent my 360 off to Microsoft to get repaired but after endless phone calls and each representative on the phone telling me something different about my repair I doubt I will see the thing again any time soon (and I have heard the Microsoft don’t even send you your own console but send you a refurbished console back instead).

I think my Xbox 360 decided to die on me because that week I had bought a PS3. I bought the PS3 because that week the 40GB version was launched and the 60GB version was given a price drop. I bought the 60GB version as it has backwards compatibility, SACD playback, 2 more USB sockets, a card reader and 20GB more hard drive space for an extra £50 when compared to the 40GB version.

I bought a PS3 bundle which included 2 games and 2 Blu-ray movies. I have not really used the PS3 as a games console as I prefer my Xbox 360 and games seem to be missing something when there aren’t any achievements. The main reason I bought a PS3 was for Blu-ray movie playback and for its price it’s a good player as the picture quality is on a par with my HD DVD players.

I can't enjoy the HD goodness....

I just got a new Toshiba HD-XE1 HD DVD player and a Sky HD box but I have not found the time to watch any HD DVD’s or watch a lot of HD TV.

The HD DVD player arrived last week but I have not had a chance to watch any discs yet. Sky HD got installed last Sunday but sadly I had to work.

I really wanted to watch the Chelsea vs Tottenham Hotspur game being shown on BBC HD as I heard their HD picture quality is the best and I thought Spurs could beat Chelski. Sadly I couldn’t find the time to watch the game and by the sounds of it I missed an absolute cracker. Oh well never mind we will have to beat Chelsea at White Hart Lane again!

I however did mange to see the end of a Kaiser Chiefs concert on BBC HD and the picture quality for a TV broadcast was great the colours were sharp and the crowd was very detailed. I also managed to watch part of the Blackburn vs Man City game being broadcast on Sky Sports HD. The Sky Sports HD picture was far better than the SD version but I think the picture quality on BBC HD was better, although it’s not fair to compare a fast paced football match played under floodlights with a concert in a dark location.

360 HD DVD

After a few months of collecting HD DVD discs I finally got my 360 HD DVD add-on drive for my Xbox 360 (last Thursday).



The picture is great. Contrary to what some think I didn't watch any special HD "movies", the first film I watched was Batman Begins and some of the scenes looked stunning.

Since watching Batman Begins I have watched Serenity and I have got a few more films to watch over this weekend.

I know a few people have reported that films like Batman Begins had sound sync problems but I have not yet noticed any problems like that myself with my setup.

I pre-ordered this item in several places to make sure I got one as soon as possible. Sadly 2 of my orders were posted around the same time so now I have two! Does anyone out there want to buy a 360 HD DVD add-on?