This build is currently in progress, to be hopefully finished by early/mid May...

This new build has been completed!

 {Cleaned up the OP, removed a bunch of mindless drivel...etc!} 

 

 

Decided to start building a new PC after getting an EVGA GTX 680 at launch.  In all honesty its not really needed as every game I currently play or have plans to play run exceptionally well, but my current CPU is an older Lynnfield 875K 2.93Ghz, and I wouldn't mind having something better.   Thus with the new Ivy Bridge nearing release, I thought why not.  That was all I had plans to purchase, but then decided I wanted a new case and after weighing some of the options, I wanted something big, massive even, much larger than my current Antec 1200.  Why, no reason really, just because for sure!{better airflow definitely}

I had originally chosen the Xigmatek Elysium but changed my mind after seeing the Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra.  Essentially the same case inside, but with different exterior aesthetics.  It has more fans and sports a red/black theme that I love more.  And at the time it was $40 cheaper, plus I was able to get an additional 15% off with a Newegg promo code.

 

Then I figured I might as well get everything new, I had the money so why not build an entirely new PC.  You can view what I bought along with what I paid below.

 

Here are the parts I've chosen for this new build thus far:  

Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra Case ~ $153.00

ASRock Z77 Extreme6 ~ $169.99

Intel i7 3770K 3.5GHz CPU ~ $350.00

EVGA GTX 680 ~ $500.00

Samsung 256GB 830 Series ~ $303.00

16GB Corsair Vengenace RAM ~ $81.00

Corsair AX850 PSU ~ $177.00

Thermaltake SpinQ VT ~ $53.00

Saitek Cyborg V5 KB ~ $46.00

12x 120mm Rosewill RFX Fans ~ $77.00

100 Black Case Fan Screws ~ $12.00

2x 4-Pin Molex to 5x 3-Pin Case Fan Connector ~ $15.50

30ft Black Cable Sheathing ~ $14.50

1in Mounting Bases, Cable Ties & Elctrical Tape ~ $6.00

10" NZXT 8-Pin Motherboard Power Extension ~ $8.00

 Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound Paste ~ $6.50

  

Thus far ~  $1977.00

-Minus $300 {from the sale of my GTX 580}

Total ~ $1677.00

 

  Thanks for looking...

 

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Parts, Unboxing and Size Comparisons: {4/17/12}

Here are the 12x Rosewill 120mm fans I ordered, only need 10 but bought 2 extras, some sheathing, new cans of Air, and the 16GB of Corsair Vengeance.  {would've been nice if they separated the screws, but alas they're all in one bag}

 

Unboxing and comparison with Kunae, my male Lab.

 

Inside and Out of the Blackhawk.

 

 

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{4/18/12}

Finished sheathing and running/hiding fan cables for that which came pre-installed.  {I also moved the 230mm fan that was on the side panel to the bottom of the case as an exhaust.  I figure with my HDDs installed in the lower bays, whatever heat is being push/pulled off of them will then be immediately exhausted from, instead of being added to the case...}

I really wish those 230mm fans were black w/ red blades instead of clear.  I looked up a guide on how to disassemble and paint case fans, but its a lot of work, and considering this new build does not have a side window, I won't see them 99% of the time, so why bother.   Also, I would have started installing the other 10x 120mm fans, but for some silly reason, all my new fans that are black, with black grates, came with silver screws...seriously I don't get why they did that, but anyway, I found some bulk black screws and they're on the way.  Another $12 just for screws....lol

 

 

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That is a nice case and the price isn't bad either. Honestly, looks like you are going to be building a beast of a PC. I would spend the extra ~$200 for a SSD. The difference is night and day!

I second the idea for the SSD. Even if it is a small 60gb one like I have. Put your OS and your favorite games on it. It is amazingly fast!

looking forward to seeing the finished pics

I own that case you can check it out in my mod rigs photos.If you are comfortable with drilling holes, may I suggest making 2 holes in the HD bay support rail on right of case to help with cable management.Take advantage of that area for cleaning up cables. I will be making two more cut outs in that side rail for my sata cables and that will leave me with no cables inside the case area at all.That area is a untapped resource for cable management. The case makers should realize this and make cut outs ahead of time.
 

Looks good, can't wait to see it as you go.

 This looks promissing!

O.o Nice

I cut out a small section of the drive bay support and now have all the cables behind mobo.
 

Thanks for the tips.  
 
Shall look into making sure every cable is hidden as well as possible.  Forgot to mention but I also bought a pack of about 30ft of various sized black sheething to cover all the colored cables with.  I expect it'll be quite a lenghty chore, but when done right, it looks so much better.

Added some new pics to the OP...
 
Did a little more research on the Ivy Bridge options, and I'm pretty sure I'll be going with the 3770K.

Looks like a good plan. Xigmatek makes some nice fans as well.

Looks like it will be great!
I would seriously consider a SSD. Even if just for boot drive, a 128GB SSD won't set you back that much, and will make a world of difference.
 
Also, are you looking at air or liquid cooling for CPU?

Macros

Also, are you looking at air or liquid cooling for CPU?

 
Air cooling.  Read the OP, made a major change in cases today.
 
On that note, I updated the OP with some new info in red, and crossed out some other parts.  Decided to change my case selection for aesthetic reasons.  I also changed my parts list with different case fans ~ 12x Rosewill RFX 120mm {includes +1 spare}.   And after looking over CPU Heatsink options, I'm still very much in love with the Thermaltake SpinQ VT I have.  The turbine fan design and red glow will go very well in my new case.  I've read that heatsinks made for the LGA 1156 can work with LGA 1155, probably just need a different mounting bracket, and I've seen some universal ones for 1155.  Just need to find one that will work with my SpinQ VT.
 
I'll look into an SSD, but I rather focus on paying for the new MB and CPU at this point.  Thats gonna be close to $700 alone, plus I'm planning on getting the GTX 680 4GB FTW model and will have to find a buyer for my current 2GB GPU shortly thereafter...

I am definitely looking forward to watching this build! 

Well, that was nice of Newegg, although I had to raise a bit of complaints to make them honor their semi-late promotion.
 
I ordered the Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra case on Friday, and I got the 'it has shipped" invoice for it around 12:30 today, then not but 3 hours later, they send me another email with those, "A token of thanks 'your account only" promotion codes" in regards to the 16GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM I bought the week prior.   Low and behold one of the promo codes was for 15% off Rosewill Cases...le sigh  Or another $28 off, the already $40.00 off deal they have going for a grand total of $153...not too shabby.
 
I contacted Newegg's live chat and at first they said they wouldn't honor it because she thought it was a price drop at first, and they don't match even themselves, but then realized it was a promo code.  Took about a 10-15 wait, but she was able to finally offer me the 15% credit.
 
You know I love Newegg, have had minor issues with them, and they're unrivaled IMHO, but sometimes it would be nice if for instances such as this, from an account thats in EGGcellent standing and that spends a great deal of money there, it would be a no-questions-asked immediate honoring of such semi-late promotions!

 
Should be nice when it's done!     

Updated the OP with screens of my new Blackhawk Case and Accessories. 
 
I've gotten started on the sheathing of cables and shall have more photos as I get further with that as well as once the other 10 fans are installed. 
 
Its a very tedious process and will take awhile though...

going to be sweet can not wait to see it finished...

 
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{4/20/12}

My black screws arrived today.  And I got started on mounting the 9 fans on the side panel.  It looked easy in my head, but it was kind of a nightmare deciding where to mount the 3-pin power splitters without conflicting with anything else, as well as being in a nominal location where each fan cable would reach.  All-the-while {and I forgot about this at first, almost mounting them at the top of the panel} making sure the power cable could reach them, and leaving ample design to allow opening the case for dusting once a week.
 
Finally I settled on the bottom as you can see in the pictures, with the power cable right next to the PSU where it will stretch in an accordion fashion allowing ample room to set the panel to the side....whew! 
 
I discovered an interesting flaw, or stupid design with the fan mounts.  Those black rings are much larger than  the screw heads, so you couldn't apply too much pressure or tighten them too much or they'd just pop through to the other side.  I suppose it has to do with minimizing vibration from all the fans by making them kinda float there instead.  Shall see eventually when it the build is complete.
 
Anyway, here are a bunch of pics from this part of the build tonight:
 
Laying out the hardware...

 
Mounting fans, running cables and 3-pin power splitters...


 
Cables tied down, fan grills installed, and thus complete...

 
 
I have 96 Silver Case Fan Screws I don't need!  {what to do with them ~ what to do!?!?!?}

 
 
 
I think it looks really cool with the red fan blades visible through the side mesh.   Hopefully it'll look even better once running.  The only small bit I wouldn't mind changing are the white 3-pin connectors to black, but that would cost another $15.  And I mentioned it before, but painting the 3x clear 230mm fans to match these would look great, but so few people {in my life} will ever see this case after the build is complete, why bother.  If LAN Parties were still prevalent like I used to attend and host a decade ago, then I'd probably do those things and more, but nowadays everyone just stays at home and games with Ventrilo.

[ 
 
Ok lame, just typed out a huge post, and all that was posted was the bracket in the corner!  Lost it all....FUUUUUuuuu

Trying this again, cause my last post didn't work out...
 
I decided to make some last minute changes to my build, namely I canceled the EVGA Z77 FTW pre-order I had.  I really would have liked to stick with EVGA again, but in all honesty that MB is extreme overkill for my gaming addiction w/ a slew of features I'd be paying for but never use.  Or missing older features that I need for current hardware.
 
Namely it has no PCI slots which is expected for a board of such high quality, but I need one for my current PCI Creative X-Fi Sound Card.  Sure they make newer PCIe sound cards, but after doing a little research for an equivalent card to what I already own would run me between $100-$200, just for the PCIe compatibility.
 
Thus I decided it best to find a cheaper Z77 motherboard with at least one PCI slot.  After weighing my options I decided on the ASRock Z77 Extreme6 MB and I'm gonna be completely honest, in that I'm not keen on the gold/black scheme and would prefer black/red to match the rest of my build, but unless I wanted to pay another $60 for the next ASRock board up with that scheme, as well as more features I didn't need, this is what I'm stuck with...ahh well.  {Maybe a little gold accent in the sea of black and red will look nifty...}
 
 
Also, I'm gonna have to call EVGA out on this, but why no UEFI Bios on their new Z77 FTW, for a $330 MB thats rather blah to not have one, when much cheaper boards do.  {I know it was said they're possibly working on one for a later bios update, but this is something I think should already be there...}
 
 
Minus the EVGA Z77 and a PCIe Sound Card, that freed up close to $300 I was expecting to spend, thus, I finally decided that I should get an SSD for this new build.  You can read my SSD seeking thread here where I ended up finding a combo deal on my new ASRock MB, that included a 256GB Samsung 830 Series SSD.  Basically only paid $300 for the SDD after combo discount, $473 total for the combo, so not bad!
 
I'll be sure to get some pictures posted as soon as my new hardware arrives.  The last I'll be needing is a new PSU and the Ivy Bridge CPU that I'll be purchasing come Sun 4/29...

Nices, in light of my disappointment in getting the GW2 client to work today, several new pieces of my build arrived to return a smile.
 
Received my ASRock Z77 Extreme6 MB, 256GB Samsung SSD, and a new Thermaltake SpinQ VT CPU Heatsink {love the look of this thing so much from my current build, I had to get another one}  Certainly not the best CPU cooler, but does a decent enough job, plus it has plenty of clearance for the Corsair Vengeance RAM I bought.  I almost bought a Noctua, but it wouldn't fit unless I broke off several fins to accommodate the high profile RAM I now have. 
 
Anyway, a few pics of my new hardware:
   
 
This MB is really fricken sexy, though a little difficult to see through the anti-static bag.  I'll get better pics once I'm ready to install it next week.  I was at first not so excited about the gold/black scheme, but it looks really good, and is much darker than most the images online depict, so all good! 

Looking great! Can not wait to see it all in the case.

And here we go soonish.  My Ivy Bridge CPU, KB, and PSU are all arriving this afternoon.  Then I can start my new build!   Been camped out by my front door for hours...its keeling me!
 
I'm only about 10 miles from the UPS sorting facility, and my boxes have been on their truck since 3am...I swear I must be near the end of their delivery route...gah

That's usually how it is for me... does it ever seem like the packages you wait on come earlier in the day like the driver came freakishly early (11-12) vs the VERY end where you think you missed it or they arent coming like 6-7PM... yeah had those days... and I am at the end of 1 of the guy's routes.
 
Also they do bussniess' first in most cases so can always ship to your work.
 
/yay mithra!

Well that was neat...UPS just arrived...YAY!!!  Shall have some new pics up shortly!

OK, and here we go with the build.
 
This was one of my most lengthy and grueling builds ever.  I wasn't feeling very good yesterday to begin with, had a very sore/dry throat, coughing a bit and to top it all off, I had one hell of a bad migraine ~ still do, but its not so bad atm.  The anticipation of parts arriving was keeping me awake too, thus I only got about 2hrs, and shortly after receiving my PSU and CPU I began my build.
 
Here is my new hardware:
   
 
Finally getting to see my new MB outside the static bag:

 
Installing my new Ivy Bridge i7 3770k and SpinQ Heatsink:
  
 
Installing MB in the Blackhawk case ~ damn this case is huge!
  
 
Routing all the cables took about 5hrs, as it was difficult to keep a clean look all-the-while having enough length to reach all the hardware.  Thus I didn't bother to take pictures during, but here are some after:  {This was before I installed the DVD drive...seriously forgot about it.}
     
 
Build complete and in-place:
    
 
Moment of truth ~ after all the routing of cables and installing hardware, did I get everything correct, is everything powered, are any of the parts DOA...
 
Success!!!  {It powered on, UEFI loaded and everything is running well!}
 
 
In the dark, glowing menacingly:  {love this all black/red scheme}
 


 
 
Will admit though, at first I had a bit of trouble getting Windows installed.  Everything was set up right and my SSD was configured for AHCI but every time I got as far as the Win gui screen, I lost KB&M support and couldn't do anything.  About an hr later, I figured out that the standard USB ports next to the PS2 mouse port that one would normally use are USB 3.0, and that the USB 2.0 ports are down lower on the MB.  Once I plugged them in there, they came back on and worked.  I thought you could use USB 2.0 products in USB 3.0, or rather its because I didn't have drivers installed yet...dunno.
 
Anyway, Windows took less than 20min to install, and for the last few hours I've been installing/downloading a slew of software and getting my new PC setup!  Lastly, i'm working on getting all my downloads pointed at my primary 1TB storage HDD, and linking folders and programs to my SSD.  Another grueling process, but it'll be over soon, then I'll start to install a few games and really test out this SSD.  So far its incredibly fast, Win 7 is loading in under 7 sec, so I can't wait to see how it does with games that have long loading screens! 
 
Oh and this is my 4th custom build in the past 12 years that went smoothly with no DOA parts, everything powered on and is working correctly!  Shall update my Mods Rigs page soonish...
 
 

Ran the heaven Benchmark recently to see if there was any difference with the new i7 3770K.  Not huge by any means but a higher number is a higher number and I'll take it!
 
Old PC with the i7 875K...

 
New PC with i7 3770K...