Corsair blog

Since I am normally overclocking my hardware, it has been a few years since I built a new desktop gaming machine. Although I had done a few key upgrades to my old machine, like a Force Series™ SSD, an Obsidian Series™ 800D full-tower case, and a new graphics card, the machine was starting to show its age. After attending the several LAN parties this year such as the Intel® InfernaLAN and the GXL LAN, the bug to start gaming has bit me. And, of course, the first thing to do was build an awesome gaming rig! So here we go...

To start off my new build I chose the Special Edition White Graphite Series™ 600T mid-tower case. My choice of components included the following:

• Gigabyte™ X58 motherboard
• Intel® Core™ i7-980X Processor EE
• Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX750 PSU
• Corsair Force Series 200GB SSD
• 12GB kit of Dominator® GT 2000MHz DDR3 memory (CMT12GX3M3A2000C9)
• Corsair Hydro Series™ H80 CPU Cooler
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 480
• Corsair AirFlow Pro™ memory activity display

With these components I should be able to handle any of the current or upcoming games.

I started off by installing the Intel 980x CPU into the motherboard.

Next I installed the 12GB kit of Dominator GT 2000MHz CMT12GX3M3A2000C9 memory. These modules have the special 5 pin connector on them to connect to the AirFlow Pro. Right now would be the perfect time to install the cables for the AirFlow Pro, however I have something special planned for the AirFlow Pro.

With the components ready to be installed, I opened up the 600T and got to work.

The AX750 power supply was first to be installed, in the bottom of the case.

Now it was time to install the motherboard. The 600T was so easy to work with I didn’t even need to lay the case on its side to install the motherboard.

Now that the motherboard was installed, I could install the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 video card.

The Force SSD was installed using the screws supplied with the case. The hard drives do not require any screws and install in seconds into the hard drive trays.

With most of the hardware installed except for the H80 CPU cooler. I started to wire up the machine. First I ran the USB 3.0 cable out the back and into the motherboard. Then I connected all of the front panel connectors.

Next the power cables were connected to the power supply and the other components. The SATA data cables were installed after that.

Then it was time to install the H80. Since the 600T case has a cut out for the CPU backplate I did not need to remove the motherboard to install the backplate for the H80.

Next the rear 120mm fan was removed from the case to make room for the fans and radiator of the H80.

The rear fan was mounted as an intake to the rear of the case. The CPU cooling unit from the H80 was installed on the processor.

Make sure you connect the RPM sensor from the H80 to the CPU fan header on your motherboard. This will prevent the motherboard from throwing an error caused by no CPU fan speed.

With everything connected I plugged the second fan in and mounted it to the radiator. At that point I was almost done.

The very last thing I added to my machine was an AirFlow Pro, although it was not installed in its normal fashion. I installed it in the front behind the mesh of the 600T. To see how to do this mod was done see Carlos’s blog here.

Building my new gaming machine was really enjoyable and it went together very quickly. With the H80 on silent the loudest thing in my machine is the GTX 480. I was able to overclock my 980x to 4.38GHz "Linx" stability test without any issues on the H80. Now I just need to wait for Battlefield 3 to come out!