PC Build: ZEN PC

goods
Goods are in! Massive order from MSY.

cooler
I think PC stuff is pretty ugly, from the packaging design right through to product design, but I won’t lie, this thing looks like it belongs on my car not my PC! Pretty fucking sick!

evo
EVO, Turbo… what’s going on here?!

insidee
Had no idea what I was doing, never built a PC before, but I’m not lazy when it comes to research. It’s amazing how much you can learn with a bit of light reading and watching YouTube videos.

boot
She turned on first go! No bad burning smells, all good! Pat on the back for succeeding in building my first PC. Massive thanks to Ved from Selectnine for not only putting the general list for this build together, but also lending a hand to be there during install from hardware through to software setup (he was my QA Inspector!).

testing
Testing testing 123. Man she runs super cool. 43 on idle, and up to 70 when playing The Division (ON ULTRA!!!!!).

alive
The case sits between the couch and the TV, making it possible for cables to reach the couch if need be (charging controllers, corded headsets etc).

logitech
I hid the Logitech main control unit under my Stormtrooper helmet, it’s the little things!

magnet
The NZXT case came with a cool magnetic gizmo which lets you hang your headphones, very nice.

lives
The case is pretty wild at night, maybe it needs even more LED’s!

x

inside

dongle
I’ve used a Belkin USB hub to hide the XBOX and Mouse/Keyboard wireless dongles in the book shelf.

wegotthis
Ahhhhh, WE DID IT!

doom
Now to finally play DOOM (thanks again for the copy Bethesda!), which came on a CD (Ved’s last PC didn’t have a drive!).

The Division on ULTRA, on my couch, with a controller. WE DID IT! The console killer, now a reality. I’m so happy with this PC Build; which all went super smooth amazingly.

No blood, sweat or tears were had. Initially I was sure Ved was going to build it for me, but you know me… once the goods came in I was ripping boxes to get my hands dirty, next minute I’d built it as far as I could go, but had a couple of cable connections I wasn’t so sure about so Ved came over to look over everything before I started up the PC for the first time.

Have to admit, I was super nervous about the PC starting up for the first time. I felt like an American Chopper, turning the key over on a motorbike build for the very first time wondering if it was going to run, or melt. Amazingly it lit up in a blaze of LED lights, and WOW! She hums along real nice!

The fans that came with the case are super quiet, the cooler fans are crazy quiet, and the shitty little fan that sits on top of the RAM is the noisiest fan of the lot, go figure! I can’t hear the PC at all where it sits though. The NZXT S340 Elite case made it super easy for me to create a minimalist clean setup. Cable management on this thin is fantastic. The only issue was the cooler was too big to sit in front of the fans, as the case has a control unit up there, luckily I figured out I could mount the fans first, then the cooler, which made for a way sexier build in the end IMHO!

We had no issues installing software, and getting my games from Steam and UPLAY onto the new machine was a breeze. My Skyrim and Fallout 4 are heavily modded though, and moving mods over didn’t quite work. It looks like I’ll have to re-install all game mods again, but that’s no biggie. Sound is super bass heavy, but that low volume rumble is exactly what I was looking for to fill out the space. TV is crazy sharp and all my concerns about using a huge TV instead of a computer screen have been put to rest, big time!

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