Out of Pod Experience

I would go for this option and keep area under GPU clear

if you decide to slot HDD there anyway that linked one is ok but for more size and cache id go w this i use it for over half year now and it works great it is sata III in laptop.

it is basically Western Digital http://www.amazon.com/HGST-Travelstar-2-5-Inch-7200RPM-Mobile/dp/B0097LG9U8


Edit:

Size comparison.

I will be sending my motherboard back on the warranty on monday next week.

However, i have changed my mind about what keyboard, mouse and mousepad i'm gonna get. As i'm going small sized computer, i'm kinda gonna go small on the keyboard and the mouse to. The new update on this are in my first post to.

So here is the keyboard, mouse and mousepad i'm gonna get.

Keyboard: Logitech Bluetooth Illuminated Keyboard K810.

Mouse: Logitech Anywhere MX Wireless Mouse. This mouse is really good and good enough my my type of gaming. How do i know that?

Because i had the same mouse to my Samsung laptop that i sold. Yes i sold the mouse with the laptop.

Mousepad: Corsair Gaming MM600.

I'm also gonna buy 2 of this fan to place it on the front and the back of my Corsair H60 Liquid Cooler radiator. And because i also want some lights inside my computer as i have a plexi window on my computer case, i'm also gonna buy this white LED light.

That's the update so far.

Here is an update.

1 week ago i bought the 'Logitech Bluetooth Illuminated Keyboard K810' that was the planned update to my keyboard.

But today i bought 3 new things that is also a part of my update. The first thing i bought was the 'Logitech Anywhere MX Wireless Mouse'

The 2nd thing i bought was the 'Western Digital Black 3 TB 64 MB Cache S-ATA III' harddrive that's gonna replace my 2x 1TB harddrives.

As i will place this harddrive on the front on the inside of the computer case, i will free up the space under the GPU to allow it to get more air to the GPU. And i will also free up some weight to as one harddrive have lesser weight than two .

The last thing i bought was this.

The reason i bought this now is because i did sell my old computer to a friend of me.

So my next update after that is to buy me 16 GB of RAM, the 256 GB M.2 SSD from Samsung and a new Corsair mousepad i linked to in my first post.

OP seems to be going for a mid range machine but maybe this will help someone.

Using this motherboard with this processor you can then pick this chip up in a few years at a knock off second hand price and have it compatible.

Not critising, I tend to hold onto computers too long as it is a hassle to setup a new one just the way I want it so I end up spending more on legacy repairs and upgrades.

I also have friends who has spent more time and money on weird projects, like one guy use a Rasberry Pi to build a computerised screen complete with remote and video codecs. It works really well but he could have bought a pre-programmed TV for a fraction of the price and without all the effort. (TVs generally have less pixels, which is why they can be huge and cost less than a computer screen. Like my 1920x1080 screen that is 24" is roughly as many pixels as a TV that is six feet wide and four feet high.)

Luckily, the GTX 970 is using very little power (in watt) compared to AMD's card in the same performance segment.

So the GPU isn't getting that hot, so it's kinda a trade-off for having a small computer case. Here you can see some graphs on how much wattage the GTX 970 is using: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GTX_970_STRIX_OC/23.html

Last tuesday i did send my motherboard back to where i bought it from on my warranty (finally). And i haven't got it back yet as it takes around 2 weeks to handle my case. However, they had to first get my motherboard down in Oslo and then they had to send it to Stockholm in Sweden and it's in Sweden the case takes 2 weeks.

So hopefully by the end of next week i should have my motherboard back, or a new one as the one i had had this defect.

Luckily, i have my father's laptop i can use in the meantime and ofc my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 that i can just use on my TV via my MHL to HDMI adapter . So i'm all fine so far.

Update time. And there is one bad and one good news.

I called the webshop i bought the motherboard from today where i had sent it in for a repair on my warranty. And they have refused my warranty case for one simple reason.

They found out that i had bent some CPU pins on the CPU socket, so they couldn't repair the motherboard for that reason. But the thing here isn't that there is any issues that way with the CPU pins as my motherboard and CPU was working perfectly fine before i did send the motherboard back to them. So it wont be any issues when i get the motherboard back either.

The only thing that might be somewhat weird is that i might have to bend the CPU pins back to their original positions. By reading on the internet about the same issues, like here for example, it seems to be a problem for someone that the pins gets bent way to easy.

The thing here is that this bending issue on the CPU pins must be very easy to bend as i haven't used any forces or have had any other stuffs close to the CPU socket that could have damaged it while i have assembled it.

That's the bad news. The good news however is that i still have some rights on me when it comes to warranty as there already was one defect from the production of the motherboard that was the main issue for sending the motherboard back on the warranty in the first place. So the webshop i bought it from might just give me a new motherboard (the same one as i have now) on goodwill. They just have to look at the picture of how much the CPU pins are bent before they can go any further.

It's a complex case to solve. To take one example on where i would be totally out of luck. If i for example had been complaining about issues with the CPU or the RAM (as the CPU communicates with the RAM) and then had sent it in to them because it wasn't working like it should, then i would see their reasons for denying my warranty case if the CPU pins are bent, because if not all pins have connection with the CPU, then there might be several issues that way anyways.

But in my case, the motherboard was working 100% perfect. So the bended pins on the CPU socket isn't causing any issues for me. It didn't cause any issues for me before i did send it in. So even though that might stop the warranty, they still have to continue the warranty case as there is a manufacturing defect on the motherboard that was the main issue for sending the motherboard back on the warranty.

Because of that, they can't simply just refuse to repair it or give me a new one. They have to give me something in compensation for the defect anyways.

Have anyone of you here experienced something similar?

Final update about my motherboard case.

Today the case got resolved. It got resolved by getting confirmed by the webshop i bought the motherboard from that the blocked pins (defect from the factory) i had the issues with was infact blocked, so they are sending me a new motherboard even though they couldn't fix the motherboard via the warranty.

So in the middle of next week i will have the new motherboard (the same ASUS motherboard). I will update my post here later when i have got the motherboard back and started to build the computer up again.

I will soon update my article on my blog with new pictures of my computer. But i made a post about my computer with the new pictures on the TechPowerUp forum here earlier today: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/your-pc-atm.65012/page-1091#post-3275946

However. As i'm kinda going wireless on my computer, i'm thinking on going wireless for my headphones to. Does anyone have any good Bluetooth (with Apt-X) headphones with REALLY great soundquality to recommend?

I don't want those HUUUGE gaming headsets that makes you looks weird. I'm thinking about the same size as the current headphones i have now that is this one.

And i need a new microphone to. Anyone have a very good microphone to recommend?