Hacksawing was successful....case now closes... and it's 'installed' as my current prime machine.....hooked up to all the peripherals as was the oldie.

I have 2 VMs running as well at the moment...and don't even notice...

Sitting on the desk at my right ear the loudest noise is the odd seek noise from the HDs....

Both the PSU and GPU's fans don't run at all  ...... until there's sufficient load.... and the Noctua CPU one is just ticking over.

The case material is so solid [read heavy] there's no real sound at all...

I'll need to rejig my desk [and holes] to suit cable placement - eventually.

Now the old machine is sitting there looking forlorn and dusty...so it's possibly time to point some TLC at that one too....

Dunno a 100 bucks less would make much difference.... if I want the high-end CPU and mobo.  And that rich uncle never came out of the woodwork.  Maybe the termites got 'im.

Never mind, the Coolermaster Cosmos II is still a quite decent case with oodles of room... and I will be happy with it... @ a 1000 bucks less.

Or then there's this one, which is also huge and heavy. It stands almost 3 foot tall at 692mm x 252mm x 650mm and is being dubbed a 'Super Tower'... so it would not fit IN my desk, should I lean that way....  then neither would the Coolermaster.  Still, I have that covered with a raised platform arrangement I built that adds on to the desk to showcase the Level 10.

Right now it's an either or, though I'm presently leaning a little more towards the Coolermaster.  The Corsair Obsidian 900D is also a great case with enormous interior space and many cooling options... not to mention rather sleek and elegant in appearance.  I guess time will tell as to which one gets the nod on the day... and then, something equally attractive could present itself in the meantime.

That 900D looks like it'd handle everything [at the same time even]...where-as the LE Level 10 needs careful consideration.....and won't fit a lot of variables.

I think one issue is with the Haswell boards that look like they have the CPU further to the 'right' [away from the rear panel IOs] and maybe lower...as the cutout in the MoBo tray doesn't match the CPU position .... and the cooler ends up too low and almost too 'forward' of the recess allowed for it in the MoBo door/cover.

The GTX980's cooler piping also actually contacts that door too...there SHOULD be note made of how WIDE the GPU card can be ...not just how long.

The hot-swap drive bays work just fine...but can be fiddly to align to slide in.

On the up side.... apart from boot-time I have never heard the PSU fan run .... that means that so far I'm under 40% load....

I am yet to experiment with overclocking....but without it I'm stoked by the improvement in FSX [and so I should be....going from a 920 to a 5960 means a shitload more grunt processor-wise]...

The previous 2 machines have run a benchmarking 'game demo' at averages of 21.9 and 106 fps .....next trick is to see what this one does...

Yes, I quite like the 900D... and it is sexy to boot.  Being that it's 18.6kg devoid of components, however, I dunno that I'd wanna be picking it up to often.

What's more, being near 3 foot - okay, so it's closer to 2' 3" - a bloke's not gonna tuck it under his chin so he can see over the top while carrying it, is he!

Mind you, the Corsair Cosmos II is 22kb [almost 50lbs] so that'd be a heavy fecher once all my stuff is in it... and it stands tall at 704mm [2' 4"ish"], though the feet and handles account for about 3" of that.

Hmmm, decisions decisions!  I like them both; both look great; both would easily accommodate the components; each has great expandabilty and cooling options; and neither would fit in the tower recess in my desk, meaning I may have to redesign the shelf addon to make room for both my Level 10 and the new machine.

Speaking of my Level 10/Intel beastie, I have missed it so much that I extricated it from its storage location while I repacked my belonging into plastic crates and reorganised things.  I probably shouldn't have done it, what with the fracture in my arm, but it was necessary. Yeah, cockroaches and other vermin eat their way through cardboard.  Despite the area being fumigated just prior to storing my stuff, I've seen a few pests - it's the weather for 'em - and prevention is better than cure.

Anyway, my beastie is here with me now and I plan to set it up when I arise later. Presently it is 3.42am and I'm way too buggered to consider it... not to mention a backache and other "oh fech it hurts" after my earlier efforts repacking.  Hopefully the pain meds kick in soon and I can get some snooze.

Couple of years ago there was a Benchmarking 'Demo' of Resident Evil 5  which was a handy way of comparing systems.  I'd kept several vers...

You run the game/demo and at the end it gives you the average framerate....at [my default] 1680x1050 [DX 10].

First system I tested was a P4 3.0 with an ATI Radeon HD 385 [AGP] which ran at [1280x1024 - best it could do] 21.9 frames per second.

Then came the i7 920 with a GTX285 at 106.0 frames per second.

Next, the same machine with a GTX590 at 144.4 frames per second.

Today.... 'the Beast' ...i7 5960 and GTX980 does it all at 250.8 frames per second.

Now, If I were to look at overclocking.....

You'd have to anchor it down... but still notify the nearest air traffic control... just in case the chains give way.

Well I didn't get around to setting up my beast today - well actually, yesterday now - cos I was required to run a few errands and help grab a few last minute supplies for Xmas.  By the time all that was done and the evening meal was finished - AND my daily pains had subsided - I'd had a couple of beers [Kilkenney, a nice Irish drop] and just didn't feel too enegetic.  I figured there's another day tomorrow... or the day after, and simply pulled the plug on the idea.

It'll be a day of eat, drink and be merry in another 4 - 6 hours... and another 6 pack or 3 of Kilkenney's and/or Tetleys bitter [no lemonade] to whet my whistle, so I'm thinking maybe Friday, which is also a cricket day and when I can take the stitches out of my elbow.  Now I could do that in front of the mirror so I'm able to see, or I could get Shaunna to do it... which might be the best bet if I've indulged in a few 'lubricants'

Anyway, both you and Terry have a very happy Xmas, orright! 

Ditto to you all there...

Re overclocking .... I 'should' at least get the ram at 2666 ... it's still the default 2333 ....

Thank you... from all of us.

I'm not too familiar with overclock.  I did it a couple of times using BIOS tools that made the relevant adjustments, so I'm not sure by how much RAM clock speed needs to be adjusted in comparison.  There may be some members here familiar with the process, but there are several sites dedicated to overclocking that'd have all the latest news and data you'd need to get the job done.

New system's still humming along....

Since then I've stripped, cleaned and rebuilt my old one ...to be rebirthed for Terry...once I've migrated her settings across.

This means that the hand-me-down process sees me getting the $6 Core 2 Duo back to mess with ....

Meanwhile....our Fridge died [again/properly]...so we're getting a new one, and Terry's getting her idea of a little Tab ... a 12.2" Note Pro [she's blind-ish].

Egad...Boxing Day sales, etc.... the horror....the horror....

I'll be doing the same with an old rig of mine for Bianca... when I can get at it again.... it just needs a clean and tune up and it'll be ready to go.  That has a fairly newish Thermaltake Elements case {as in hardly used]; a 4 core AMD processor @ 2.8ghz on a Gigabyte board; 8 gigs of RAM; a Nvidia 8800GTX and x2 500gig HDDs. It's no slouch and should serve her well for a while yet.

Oh how I hate that... something breaks down just on or after Xmas.  I hasn't happened to me this year - touch wood - but I've had stuff die/give up the ghost on me in past years around Boxing Day or shortly thereafter... like the year my washing machine died on Dec 27 and I had a daughter still in nappies, and not those horrible disposable things, either.  The next year it was the freezer [on Boxing Day] and there I was, running around like a blue arsed fly trying to find alternative homes for much frozen food. Luckily I had a great neighbour who let me put the majority of it in hers.

Good on her... 12.2" is quite a nice size for a tablet, not to big to lug around, and not too small, either.  I was going to get a Microsoft Surface Pro at 12.2", until I spied this HP Envy at 13.6" and couldn't go past it.  It's only an inch and a bit difference, but it is noticable when reading text, and given my eyesight ain't as good as it once was, it seemed the better choice.  There was a 15.6" model of the same unit for not alot more... fine as a laptop but too cumbersome as a tablet, I thought.

I was looking on the Thermaltake Global site today and the black version of the Level 10 is still listed as available, though it would appear the same is not true at Thermaltake Australia, which is possibly why local suppliers no longer stock it.  I could order it through Thermaltake USA or Global direct, and it was my 1st choice case, but that could work out more expensive in the long run, and it is a bit of messing around with exchange rates, etc, so I'm thinking that I will stick with one of the Corsair or Coolermaster cases I linked to above.

The other thing I decided is to start purchasing components throughout 2015, preferably when on special, thus saving myself the larger lump sum in August.... and if I'm tight-arsed about other spending, which I usually am, the final, more expensive parts, CPU and RAM, should be affordable when needed.  To start off I'm thinking about getting that 480gb PCIe SSD from Kogan for $275... less $45 with a coupon I have in my possession.  My thought is to install it in my Level 10 rig and migrating the OS to it in preparation for shifting it over to the new build in August.

As for Boxing Day sales,  it'll be a cold day in Hell.... this year and others.  I have absolutely NO patience for argy-bargy/push shove or rudeness/bad manners... people trying to grab shit out of my hands cos I got there first.  Nah, fech that!!  Besides, I have alternative plans... they cannot be derailed because of some sale or frivolous spending on something I neither need or really want.

Hey Paul, just found this article on PCIe and M2 SSD drives and thought you might like to check it out.  I found it most interesting to read indeed, especially the parts regarding speed and best performance.  My current mobo has an MS slot, but I would not see the best performance from an M2 drive as it runs off the chipset, not the CPU and uses slower lanes.  Still, I would see twice the speed/performance and will still install one for the OS in my current rig in readiness for the new build.

Yep, mine's the XP941 so it's the 'best' without costing too many arms and legs .... but so far I'm still on an SSD for the OS.... but the M.2 is partitioned to have half OS and half FSX.  FSX is already showing benefits...but of course the CPU and GPU and ram are all new/different as  well....

I thought my current mobo had M2 support - well that's what I read in a compatabilty guide - but alas, that's for Rev 1, and mine's the previous model.  What I'm doing now is researching to see if I can use the one I'm interested in with a PCIe slot.  Thus far it seems I can, using a M2 to PCIE adapter, which may or may not affect performance. 

Still, the ultimate goal is the install it in the new build, so it's not of huge importance if performance is slightly affected.  I also read that standard SATA SSDs can be adapted to PCIE with the right adapter, though I'm not sure of the cost factor... whether it is or isn't worth is cost-wise.  Looking at one, there's quite a bit more goes into them and are likely more expensive than the M2 adapter, which I can pick up for around 20 bucks AU.  I will check out SATA to PCIe adapters, however, as the option may well be advantageous in my current rigs somewhere down the track.

Well I decided against this SSD as I just checked the specs they sent me and it is indeed a SATA M2, which is NOT what I want at all. The SATA versions draw their power from the PCIE slot but still require a SATA cable to the mobo for data transfer, and that, to me, sort of defeats the purpose of higher speed M2 devices.

What I have done instead is check out the offerings at RAM City.  I can get a Samsung XP941 256 PCIE M2 for $324.99 AUD and a PCIE to M2 adapter for $27.99 [a grand total of #362.88 with postage].  Okay, it's a bit more than I originally planned to spend prior to purchases specifically for the new build, but I believe the decision will pay off over time.  Besides, it's by far the cheaper option than going with a compatible M2 mobo AND a PCIE M2 SSD... and alot less work into the bargain.

There are brands sporting cheaper 256gb's [and some more expensive], but the XP941 has the best reviews regarding speed and performance, so I likely will go with that combination, for now, that is.   In the future, however, I may just go with a 512gb for the new build and leave the 256er in the current rig.  I believe a 256gb SSD is more than a sufficient size for an OS and installed programs on this rig, plus a couple of games if I so choose, and when the new machine is complete with its 512gb [or bigger if it's afforable at the time] I can pretty much load the OS, proggies and all the games I want... have.

Edit:

For anyone in Oz wanting to upgrade a SATA SSD to PCIe, there is this adapter for S185.99 at RAM City. This adapter holds 2 standard 2.5" SSDs, and when used in Raid0 formation data transfer speeds of up to 800mbps are possible... 500mbps with one SSD connected.  No doubt there are cheaper, single drive versions out there, not that I've found any as yet, but the ability to upgrade 2 drives for $186, and achieve 800mbps, isn't too bad at all... and why would you go with a single drive version capable of SATA only speeds?  

In fact, I may even get one to go in my Thermaltake Chaser [full tower] rig, which has x2 120gb SATA SSDs in RAID0  it.  As it is it is lightening fast with an AMD octocore CPU @ 4.6ghz, 32gb of RAM and a GTX770TI in it.  In fact, it boots Windows 8.1 significantly faster than my Intel rig.

The article you linked to in #206 indicates that dev is on-going so it's likely that later in 2015 there'll be much faster options.

Currently 'the go' is what I fluked....x99 with 40 channels and on-cpu access to the M.2 x4 giving the fastest speeds readily available - without wild expense.

Once I'm entirely happy with the OS on the SSD I'll image it across to the M.2 and see how things go.

Currently there are 'quirks'...ie. Safe boot doesn't ... sfc /scannow won't ... so it's likely some sys files didn't survive the dissimilar image transfer from the old machine.

Once I get it ALL to behave as expected then I'll do the image.

Ignoring those issues the system is fine...

It's fast....and it's cool....AND quiet.

I'm still waiting to hear the PSU and GPU fans actually come on.... and the case is 3mm thick 'solid' aluminium [yes, 'ium'] so doesn't need sound proofing... and the isolated components don't have a chance to transfer heat to the others.

CPU is 39c - fan at 1140 , MoBo at 27c and GPU at 32c - Ambient about 18.

The Noctua cooler came with 2 fans....a 140 in the middle and an extra 120 on one 'end'...but that one conflicted with the ram so was left off.

The old machine was noisier than this one and the numbers were all in the mid/high 40s...