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Built My Cleanest PC Mod Yet - Hello Kitty Theme For My Wife (1 Viewer)

Anthony Martino

Anthony Martino

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Location
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My wife is a Hello Kitty fiend (hey, it's cheaper than diamonds). I got some inspiration lately and just put this build together this weekend. Excuse the lights on the RAM sticks, the software to control it is in beta and it has conflicts with some of the software that controls other lights in the system (motherboard and the water cooler)

So the colors should be red/white on the RAM sticks to match the theme of the build once they get the software sorted. Anyway, my cleanest build to date, feeling really good about the build (and my wife is super happy)

SPECS

Intel i5 7600K CPU
GIGABYTE Z270 Designare Motherboard
ASUS NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB Graphics...
G.Skill Global Trident RGB 16GB DDR4 RAM
Western Digital Black 512GB M.2 SSD
Crucial Memory MX300 512GB SSD
NZXT H440 Case
NZXT Kraken X42 Water Cooling
EVGA Supernova 650 G3 Power Supply
CableMod ModMesh Cables
Corsair HD140 RGB Fans
Jmmods Custom Fan Guard, GPU & SSD Backplates
SSP Vinyl Custom Case Graphics

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Really really well done. I never get the cabling right. it always looks like a huge mess
 
I believe the M.2 drive either operates on a separate bus or allows for faster data transfer, or both. M.2 drives also tend to be more expensive if memory serves.
 
The M.2 drive is ridiculously fast, way faster than the SATA SSD drive. It's used as the primary boot and install disk, the other SSD is there for backup and media storage, plus for aesthetics by having a custom backplate of Hello Kitty on it.

Spent around 2K on the system components (not including the custom work and cablemod cables). This includes a light-up keyboard and mouse not shown, a white Asus widescreen monitor and Logitech speaker system.

edit: Surprisingly the M.2 Drive was only 20-30 more than the SATA drive, but no cables to manage and like 3-4x faster. I wouldn't have purchased the other drive except for the aesthetics on the case.
 
kk405 said:
Really really well done. I never get the cabling right. it always looks like a huge mess
Click to expand...


Check out Cablemod Cables. They're pricey, but make the cabling so much easier. Or, in the least, buy a fully modular power supply with sleeved cables and make sure to purchase a case that has good cable management options for tie-downs. Having a case with a PSU Shroud really helps hide the clutter.

My rear cabling would've looked even better except for all the frigging fans, fan controllers and lighting controllers that just added a ton more cables into the mix.
 
Anthony Martino said:
Check out Cablemod Cables. They're pricey, but make the cabling so much easier. Or, in the least, buy a fully modular power supply with sleeved cables and make sure to purchase a case that has good cable management options for tie-downs. Having a case with a PSU Shroud really helps hide the clutter.

My rear cabling would've looked even better except for all the frigging fans, fan controllers and lighting controllers that just added a ton more cables into the mix.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think my biggest problem has always been with two set of cables: Power Supply and HDDs
 
kk405 said:
Yeah, I think my biggest problem has always been with two set of cables: Power Supply and HDDs
Click to expand...

Well, if it's any consolation I never managed my cables much in the past. Really only started this past year when I saw some impressively clean builds and wanted to improve my own skillset.

Kinda how I didn't start negotiating when I purchased cars until I was in my 30's. It's never too late to learn some new tricks. If I can be of any help with advice drop me a pm!
 
moose said:
But why two different?
Click to expand...

I can think of a few reasons for this. If the machine fails, it's pretty simple to move just the data drive into another machine while you try to fix it. If you dual-boot (Windows and Linux, for example), it's handy. Major O/S upgrades and system recovery are safer from that perspective too, as you can unplug the data drive and format / clean install the machine without fear of accidentally nuking the data.
 
kk405 said:
Really really well done. I never get the cabling right. it always looks like a huge mess
Click to expand...

Are you maybe using a non-modular PSU?
My case innards looked like shit as well with all the dangling extra cables before I built a machine with a modular PSU. Only attach the cables you need. Makes it much easier to stuff them behind the mainboard backplate as well.
 
Nex said:
Are you maybe using a non-modular PSU?
My case innards looked like shit as well with all the dangling extra cables before I built a machine with a modular PSU. Only attach the cables you need. Makes it much easier to stuff them behind the mainboard backplate as well.
Click to expand...

I don't know why I never even came across the modular PSUs. I am now really mad at myself! The last 3 PCs I have built have all had these massive 650-1000W PSUs with a ton of thick, ugly and obtrusive cables that I could never fully manage. Will definitely make that change in the next build, probably sometime next year.
 
Holy shit! Posted this on Instagram (my wife encouraged me to create an account) and Newegg (where I buy most of my tech products) loved it so much they asked permission to share with their followers!

But the cherry on top is they have 81,000 followers but only follow 99 people...........and they just followed me! :eek:
 
Anthony Martino said:
Holy shit! Posted this on Instagram (my wife encouraged me to create an account) and Newegg (where I buy most of my tech products) loved it so much they asked permission to share with their followers!

But the cherry on top is they have 81,000 followers but only follow 99 people...........and they just followed me! :eek:
Click to expand...

Congrats. Honestly, it's a sweet ass work, but lots of credit also goes to your wife's liking of Hello Kitty stuff :D
 
kk405 said:
Congrats. Honestly, it's a sweet ass work, but lots of credit also goes to your wife's liking of Hello Kitty stuff :D
Click to expand...

Lol, what's funny is her favorite color is purple, she REALLY wanted a purple computer. But the vision I had was the red/white theme for this one, and told her to just trust me on it.

One day she'll get her purple PC though
 
Finally got around to listing the build completed over at PC Part Picker and they just featured it on their homepage!

https://pcpartpicker.com/

I'm working on the complete version of the Police Interceptor mod I've been wanting to do for a long time. Only thing mucking it up is the digital currency miners jacking up all the graphics card prices, delaying completion of my build until prices stabilize.
featured1.png
 
Confirmed they want to run a story on the build, pretty freaking cool!

In the interim, I just caved and purchased an EVGA GTX 1070 SC2 8GB video card along with two western digital black 512GB M.2 drives for my new build. The case has been dropped to the vinyl wrap company for custom graphics and I'm in touch with the guy who can do the GPU backplate and fanguards.

I can't wait to build this thing and show it off.
 
Showed my 5 year old daughter these pics and she looked up at me and exclaimed "Oh. My. God." then asked "Is that my Christmas present, Daddy?"

I needed that laugh.

Just a really beautiful build, sir.
 
Ok, I have to ask the stupid question because I have no idea about computers. You put all that cool shit inside the machine, then close it up so no one can see it?
 

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