Intel Core i7 quad-core with 2×22″ Ultrasharp Dell LCD’s!

March 23rd, 2009

That’s quite the title isn’t it?! Well over the past couple of weeks I went on a Visa frenzy in an effort to revamp my home desktop/office. Using my Toshiba Satellite laptop as a desktop worked well for the longest time but I got a sudden urge to upgrade my setup at home simply because the laptop as a desktop felt restricting. I was no longer using my laptop as a laptop but as a desktop and this bothered me somewhat. I lost the luxury of portability because I had all these cables and USBs hooked up to my laptop so I never wanted to move it from its spot.

So I thought to myself, this would be a great time to build my first computer! Suprisingly enough I thought to myself, I haven’t built an entire computer from scratch by myself ever! Sure I’ve serviced computers many times, I know how to install ram, swap hard drives, and do basic hardware stuff- I have just never built a computer from its individual parts. In order to do this, I turned to some trusty people over at the RedFlagDeals.com forums. I knew the forum is filled with tech savvy and money savvy people.

Surely enough RFD users came and provided immense help in choosing parts for the computer I wanted to build. Although I do have to admit, they successfully pushed me to spend about $500 more than I was hoping to do but who can blame them. ;) The computer build also went from an AMD Phenom II X4 base to an Intel Core i7 920 with several heated debates about platform versus price. The users at RFD didn’t fail to disaapoint though because through their heated discussions I was able to come to my own conclusion that going the Intel Core i7 route would be the better solution for my needs. Then parts were dissected into what would fit into my computer build and I put in an order through NCIX as they offer an incredible almost no questions asked price match policy and Canadians outside of BC only get charged for GST! So NCIX offered the best cost effective store to purchase these awesome new computer parts from.

Intel Core i7 Quad-Core Computer Build Parts

So here is what my build consists of…

The build came out to a final grand total of: $1439.77

Pictures of Parts and Build

Antec 902 and various parts shipped from UPS and ordered from NCIX.

Antec 902 Box

Parts shipped from NCIX well packaged in the box, all the parts came unharmed.

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, Core i7, Corsair PSU, HD 4830, and $10 NCIX gift card for free ground shipping with my order.

Antec 902

Antec 902 with side window and side fan.

Big Boy 200.. no seriously that's what Antec calls the gigantic 200mm fan on the top of the Antec 902 that draws a massive amount of air out of the case.

Front shot of 902 with 9 drive bays. The front of the 902 also has 2 120mm fans with blue LED lighting when powered on. There are also 2 USB ports on the top, 1 eSATA port, and 2 audio jacks (one audio and one mic I presume).

Opening up the 902, the Antec 902 has an all black interior compared to its earlier sibling the 900 which did not have a sexy all black interior. The Antec 902 uses thumbscrews for the side panels and also to remove the hard drive bays. But installation of hard drive and DVD drives still require the good old screws.

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHZ

Gigabyte EX58-UD3R motherboard, love the colours on this motherboard. Has some nice shiny blue heatsinks.

Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, this thing was bigger than I thought! Big heatsink for a high end CPU!

The Ultra 120 Extreme mounted on the Core i7 and mobo. The 120 uses spring screws and it seemed a little flimsy even after installation. The heatsink still moved around quite a bit more than I thought it would even though the screws were tightened.

G.Skill 6GB 3x2GB DDR3 ram inserted into the ram slots. Love the shiny red heat spreaders on this ram!

Gigabyte Ud3 goes into the computer case. Had quite a lot of problems with this and the holes to the brass standoffs. The gigantic Thermalright 120 Ultra heatsink didn't help the cause. Finally able to get it in after I noticed I didn't put the I/O panel in properly so it wouldn't allow the motherboard to go in all the way. The HD 4830 video card is also installed in here.

Gigabyte Ud3 goes into the computer case. Had quite a lot of problems with this and aligning the holes to the brass standoffs. The gigantic Thermalright 120 Ultra heatsink didn't help the cause. Finally able to get it in after I noticed I didn't put the I/O panel in properly so it wouldn't allow the motherboard to go in all the way. The HD 4830 video card is also installed in here in the PCI-E slot.

Corsair 520watt modular power supply installed. Didn't realize how much of a pleasure a modular power supply is to work with. Basically I can pick and choose which connectors should connect to the PSU, this reduces the number of unwanted connectors from the PSU. Also note the PSU is installed at the bottom of the Antec 902 versus the top which is usually the most common in retail computers. So no, I didn't install the PSU upside down. ;) Cables also getting a little messier now.

Another shot of most of all the components installed.

But wait… there’s more, Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA 22″ Widescreen LCD x 2!

So coincidentially about the same time, Dell had an awesome sale on the Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA. This is a 22″ widescreen LCD with a high quality e-ips panel. The e-ips is a new LCD technology developed by LG which reduces the cost of an usually expensive high quality IPS panel because the e-ips uses a backlighting technique which makes them more cost effective to manufacture. The Dell Ultrasharp line also traditonally is a higher line of LCD monitors as they feature a really flexible and useful monitor stand. The 2209WA was no exception. They regularly go for $369.99 but were on sale for $219.99! So I picked up 2 to replace my old Dell Ultrasharp 2005FPW which was a 20″ widescreen s-ips panel which I ended up selling for $160 so the cost of purchasing these 2 new 22″ LCD came out to $337.16 after taxes and deducting the sale of my old monitor! Awesome steal in my books.

There's one box, the other one was stuck at the border. Had to wait another day to get it.

2209WA came well protected.

Lovely monitor, no cosmetic problems, so far so good! Looks really sleek and business-y. Stand isn't as sturdy as my old 2005FPW but still really good.

Cable management at the back and height adjustable stand.

Everything in Action Finally!

New i7 rig on the left and the 2 new 2209WA monitors on the desk!

Computer booted up with Windows 7

That's a whole lot of pixels. Also got the HTC Touch HD in the bottom right hand corner ;) not to be forgotten that sexy Windows Mobile phone.

It's a light show. Really, it's not that bright, increased the exposure time on the Rebel XT to make it look cooler than it actually is ;) but it still is pretty cool.

Another shot at night.

Close up shot of the computer. I really love the honeycomb effect from the lighting. Really slick and subtleness makes it look nice in the room when the light reflects off the walls.

Well that’s all folks, hope you enjoyed it! I hope there aren’t any 56K users still out there… like one of my profs *cough*.

15 responses to my rambling...

Nick H March 24th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Good taste sir, good taste
Nick H March 24th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
oh, and [H]ardforum! go go go!
Robert J. II March 26th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
WOW that is simply…. SEXY!!!!
Marlon Maulsby March 27th, 2009 at 8:12 am
I am loving that System!
Jerry April 1st, 2009 at 11:20 am
Hey I found your site while browsing RFD. I really like your website. That setup looks sick!
Chris April 2nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
You should get an AC Accelero S1 Rev 2 for your graphics, it is even better than the stock cooler without a fan! And also a lot less noise.
BillW April 15th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Love the lamp! Where did you buy it? What is the model?
Thanks!
Chris April 15th, 2009 at 9:39 am
OMG Dell just had those monitors for $189 lol

Deal only lasted for about 3 hours though haha….man people on the forums are going crazy
John Hok April 15th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
@BillW Honestly I don’t know where we got it from. We’ve had it for so long and have absolutely no idea where it was bought. Sorry. I actually find it rather ugly haha

@Chris are you serious?!? Are you sure it’s the same model?? Link please, want to read over the frenzy.
balance April 16th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
nice setup? why do you have the heatsink fan mounted on the rear? should it be mounted infront blowing toward the rear?

it won’t fit?
John Hok April 20th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Thanks, actually I’ve switched it around. I thought the fan blew OUT so I figured the rear fan would funnel the air out from the heatsink.

Then I read up some more and it seems the fan is mounted on the heatsink to blow into the fins on the heatsink. So now the fan is on the other side and it blows the air through the fins and out the rear fan.
Tim April 22nd, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Can you still set up your side fan with that cpu cooler?
Arfan April 30th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Loving it!!!!!!!!!!! I need to upgrade my computer and laptop both lag on me like no hell tomorrow
John Hok May 5th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
@Tim: I believe you still can, the Thermalright is just thin enough to have enough clearance to prevent it from blocking the side fan.

@Arfan: Thanks (: I had Photoshop CS4 running yesterday using up 1GB of ram and the rig was still chugging along like nothing was wrong!
Michael A. September 2nd, 2009 at 8:32 am
Seriously dude,

you need to discover newegg.com.

Everything you bought from NCIX, is almost 20% off at Newegg.com. And they have been a round for a while, and a very trusted retailer for computer enthusiasts.