February 25th, 2008
The Adventure Begins...
As a long-time contributing writer and tech editor for PC World, as well as someone who's got their head inside a PC case for at least a few hours every week, it's fortunately fallen upon me to oversee, test, and assemble PC World's Dream PC. I get a kick out of playing with the latest, greatest stuff so this is hardly what I'd call a tough gig--I'm having a ball.
That said, with a set of components chosen by not one, but a number of editors, there are bound to be some that won't play nicely with others. I'll be dropping by here every so often to give you a status report and a blow by blow of some of the issues I run across.
I can already tell you about some stuff. Numero uno--the Gigabyte 3D Mercury case has been a near thing. The paint job looks great and the liquid cooling is, well, kewl.
But I've had to temporarily remove the two back panel fans to squeeze in the extra large, EATX Intel Skulltrail D5400XS motherboard. It fits with only a millimeter or two to spare.
Also, because of the location of the liquid cooling tank and its fan, we've had to switch to a shorter power supply. The Ultra X3 we wanted to use, a marvelous unit with a modular cable system that lets you use only the cables and connections you need, was too long and has been replaced by a standard-sized 1000 watt OCZ ProXtream.
The OCZ hasn't shown up yet, so I started workbenching (assembling outside the case) the main components today using the Ultra X3. Alas, the Skulltrail with its dual LGA771 (no, not the more common LGA775) CPU sockets demands two of everything, including separate 8-pin, 12-volt power connections. While the Ultra X3 has two such outlets, the package only contained one cable so I was unable to fire anything up.
On the workbench I'll be using two Zalman CPS9500 AT copper coolers to keep the thing cool so I don't have to mess with the Mercury's plumbing. Installing those was a bit of a challenge, partly because the Zalman docs talked about force-fit clips, and my units shipped with screw down types. You must also screw together the front mounting bracket to a stress relief plate on the back of the motherboard which required handling the Skulltrail a bit more than I'd like--you never know when that stray bit of static electricity might rear its ugly head!
I used OCZ's Freeze thermal compound in lieu of the small tubes of paste Zalman provided. In my recent experiments, Freeze has resulted in CPUs running several degrees cooler than with my previous favorite--Arctic Silver. On the other hand, it's a bit gooier than most compounds and as a result, a bit messier.
Tip: you don't need more than a very small circle of any thermal compound. I've had to clean up PCs where it's been slathered on like icing on a cake and it can be a real mess.
Tip 2: You don't need to spread the compound around--place it in the center and the pressure of the cooler CPU plate against the CPU will spread it for you.
Well folks, that's it so far. Can't wait to fire this puppy up and start working with those dual 64GB solid state drives! Should be a lot of fun. I'll post some pics of the stuff on the workbench if I remember to drag my camera along tomorrow.
Cheers, Jon 
P.S.
By the way, I'm required by contract (and conscience) to mention that Tiger Direct has provided or procured all the components in the Dream PC. They've done the heavy lifting in this area so thanks guys.
