IronManJFF Posted August 15, 2013 Share Posted August 15, 2013 This is my 4th revision of my project (after research) so I think I am ready to submit it for your consideration/comments ... My goal is to make a mini-tower on par with Apple's iMac with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB GDDR5 but with an replacable GPU Objectives: Performance on par with iMac 27" Must work as much as the real thing (Wake-on-LAN, Wake on WLAN, Wake on Bluetooth, Target Disk mode, etc ...) Must not sound like a Boeing 747 taking off If possible, OS X will report WiFi as Airport FireWire 400 and 800 required Max Budget $1500 Use : Music recording (amateur) , talking GarageBand from 8 to 24 tracks Games (native and thru Wine) Dabbling in XCode (hobby) MyBuild V4 Mobo Z77-MX-QUO-AOS (mATX) CPU Core i5 3570K (intend to overclock it moderatly ) RAM Corsair Pro 16GB PSU Corsair TX650M (is it enough to power a GTX 760 ?? ) GPU EVGA GTX660 (considering going to GTX 760 ...) Cooler Corsair H60 Liquid cooler SSD SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD250BW 250G Chassis BitFenix Prodigy M (unavailable yet, but good looking mATX chassis are rare, suggestions are welcomed) WiFi Rosewill N900PCE BT IOGEAR GBU521 Already Owned 23" monitor Apple BT mouse & keyboard External FW800/USB2 external drive External FW400 audio interface M-Audio FireWire 410, Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 Fire away .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted August 16, 2013 Author Share Posted August 16, 2013 Anyone care to comment ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.D. Posted August 17, 2013 Share Posted August 17, 2013 You are a brave man to use the QUO motherboard... do you actually have one or are you waitlisted or are you just hoping that they'll have one for you? All the other components are solid. Plenty of resources for nVidia cards here. I am unsure of the roswell wifi adaptor. I'm not saying it wont work, I'm just suggesting you go thru the hardware forums above and look for that adaptor before you buy it. Also, why water cooling? Are you doing it for the looks? I know you said you want as silent an operation as possible but there are very very good air cooled options available that are pretty quiet. I, personally, have never seen the facination with waterblocks, other than for EXTREME overclockers or for looks. I like M-Audio stuff - have an old 24/96 just cant use it because my new rig doesnt have legacy PCI slots... Good luck with the build - keep us updated on what you decide to do! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flipit23 Posted August 18, 2013 Share Posted August 18, 2013 I would opt for the pro version of the Samsung ssd. I have the Z77MX-QUO-AOS, so far so good. The rosewill card should work, although I don't own one. The PSU I'd think will be fine. I want the prodigy m also, good looking case. I have yet to hear of a hack with target disk mode, but not going to say its not possible. Especially with this new Z77MX-QUO-AOS motherboard. Again I'd urge you to go pro on the Samsung ssd. I have one and it works flawlessly. I've heard there has been issues on the non pro version Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted August 18, 2013 Author Share Posted August 18, 2013 QUO Board : It is ordered, should ship by the end of the week ... SSD : Pro version ... Thanks for the tip .. I think that apple Actually uses the Samsung Pro in the latest iMac when you order it with Fusion Drive RoseWill Wireless : According to Stork on T's board Golden Build ... it works as great as the TP-Link and Wake-on-WLAN works OOB Liquid Cooling : Was thinking mostly for silent operation ...surely not for looks @flipit23 : Did you used the stock BIOS that came with it or ...you know ? Hopefully there will be reviews poping up for the Prodigy-M soon ... just to make sure what the gotcha are .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flipit23 Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 I used the H3A BIOS developed by HermitCrab Labs. I didn't even try anything with the BIOS version that shipped on the board. The rosewill wifi card you want is a shell shocker deal today from newegg for $22.99. Deal starts @ 3:00PM (PDT) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted August 21, 2013 Author Share Posted August 21, 2013 SSD : Samsung 840 Pro became Shell Shocker at NewEgg Canada yesterday morning ... order made .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmy_pete Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 @IronMan - Are you in the kickstarter or did you buy it off the website? In terms of chassis I've been looking at the Fractal Designs Arc Mini R2 but outside of the USA only the original Arc Mini (which is missing the two additional SSD brackets) seems available at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted August 22, 2013 Author Share Posted August 22, 2013 I did buy through the website ... Thanks, I'll look up the chassis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted August 24, 2013 Author Share Posted August 24, 2013 I've emailed Fractal Design about availability of the Arc Mini R2 in North America , here is the answer from FD : Thank you for contacting us here at Fractal Design. The Arc Mini R2 is not yet available for purchase in North America. They should be available by the end of September. Keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages as we will make an announcement there as soon as they are available for purchase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted August 26, 2013 Author Share Posted August 26, 2013 Update #1 : My external HD (on my MBP) is giving me more trouble, ordered a HD from NewEgg Update #2: Found an Apple BT module on eBay , getting that instead of BT IOGEAR GBU521 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flipit23 Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Did you try removing your external hdd from its enclosure and installing it as an internal hdd? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted August 26, 2013 Author Share Posted August 26, 2013 No room to do that in my MBP (the drive is physically too big).. It is the third time I ressurect this drive in the past 6 months.. it is overdue. I plan on cloning the old to the new on my hack once it is built, then do a low-level format and scan of the old one and keep whatever is left of it as an external off-site backup/emergency drive... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kan2905 Posted August 27, 2013 Share Posted August 27, 2013 QUO Board : It is ordered, should ship by the end of the week ... SSD : Pro version ... Thanks for the tip .. I think that apple Actually uses the Samsung Pro in the latest iMac when you order it with Fusion Drive RoseWill Wireless : According to Stork on T's board Golden Build ... it works as great as the TP-Link and Wake-on-WLAN works OOB Liquid Cooling : Was thinking mostly for silent operation ...surely not for looks Don't get your hopes up. I have been waiting for months just to get the shipping confirmation (which I did not get yet). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 10, 2013 Author Share Posted September 10, 2013 Thank you for your order from Quo Computer! We wanted to let you know that your order was shipped via DHL, Express Worldwide on 9/10/2013. You can track your package at any time using the link below... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 11, 2013 Author Share Posted September 11, 2013 Big update : Motherboard has cleared customs and is on its way ...so with mobo incoming and Prodigy-M not yet available had to make some choices and update the build so here we are now : MyBuild V5 Mobo Z77-MX-QUO-AOS (mATX) CPU Core i5 3570K (intend to overclock it moderately ) Chassis BitFenix Prodigy M Chassis : Silverstone FT03 PSU Corsair TX650M PSU: Silverstone Strider STF65-G + short cable kit RAM Corsair Pro 16GB RAM Corsair Vengeance Red 16GB GPU EVGA GTX660 or GTX760 (will start without a dedicated GPU.. waiting for a shellshocker in Canada ...) Cooler Corsair H60 Liquid cooler SSD SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD250BW 250G SSD SAMSUNG 840 PRO 250G BT IOGEAR GBU521 Genuine Apple Bluetooth WiFi Rosewill N900PCE (will get when it goes shell shocker in Canada as I can simply wire it for now) Already Owned 23" monitor Apple BT mouse & keyboard External FW800/USB2 external drive External FW400 audio interface M-Audio FireWire 410, Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 Delivery attempted for motherboard.... Was not home, they will retry thursday ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 Today received Mobo, CPU and RAM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 16, 2013 Author Share Posted September 16, 2013 Power supply came in today ..all i miss is the case Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 18, 2013 Author Share Posted September 18, 2013 Case should be in thursday... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 20, 2013 Author Share Posted September 20, 2013 Comp is built-up .. I am on it now ... Some thign i still have to fix like iMessage, i think my H60 migth not be running properly .. temps r higher that I expected ... makes more noise than I expected Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 23, 2013 Author Share Posted September 23, 2013 Status update : H3A.739 on 10.8.4 Sleep, shutdown issue resolved (Parrallels Desktop kext from MBP was preventing power managment to work correctly) Wake from Bluetooth works WLAN works, Wake on Bluetooth works Firewire 400 works (tested with M-Audio FW400 and external FireWire hard drive) USB 2 device in USB 3 port works (I don't have any USB 3 device) Don't have a Thunderbolt device to test Apps that uses AppleID are working (iTunes,Message) Still to come: Overclocking More to come (have to get the hardware first) : WiFi Discrete graphics HWMonitor & Sensors work ... except ambient temp which is stuck @ 127 Celsius H60 noisy .. opening a case to Corsair for advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted October 31, 2013 Author Share Posted October 31, 2013 Status Update: Updated to 10.8.5 and H3A.816 WiFi -> TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 , recognized as Airport ... Wake on Wireless LAN does not seem to be working or takes too long Overclocking : On hold, still waiting for a replacment for the H60 from Corsair Discrete Graphics : MSI GTX 760 OC, installed and working Issue : Wake ... it works but it takes a really long time until you get to input your password ... Still to come : Overclocking , Windows & Linux (for educationnal purpose only) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted December 6, 2013 Author Share Posted December 6, 2013 Status Update: H60 replacement installed Replaced the stock case fans with Noctua's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronManJFF Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 Status Update: WD Blue drive crapped out , second WD drive that fails for me in the last year .. Exit WD Enter Seagate Barracuda STD2000DM001 Retired M-Audio Firewire 410 (it now live with my old MBP in the music room) in favor of Focusrite iTrack Solo and out of retirment is my old Apple's iSight connected to the FireWire port Installed a little system speaker to help with diagnostics Updated BIOS to Osmozis H3C.1479 Updated OS X to 10.9.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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