I have ascended

The Goods

I've been a console peasant my whole life, but last year I resolved to change that. So all my savings have been going towards this. As a first-time builder, I debated between buying a third-party build, having my friend help me build it, or building it myself. I probably should have gone with the second option, but by the time the parts arrived, I was too excited to wait.

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0 GHz
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6 GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0+
Motherboard: Asus z97-A
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken x61
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16 GB DDR3-1866
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500 GB SSD + Seagate Barracuda 2 TB @ 7200 rpm
PSU: XFX PRO 850 W 80+ Gold Certified
Optical: LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800
Case: NZXT Phantom 530

Baby Steps

I had read the guides, watched the tutorials, consulted the manuals, and moved meticulously slow, but it still took me about six hours just to get to this point. "Lego pieces" my butt. I was terrified of having to apply thermal paste myself and I didn't want to do a test boot with the stock heatsink because I didn't have any rubbing alcohol on hand to clean off the pre-applied thermal paste. So I went ahead and assembled and mounted the x61 pump, only to realize that the mobo got in the way if both the fans and radiator were mounted inside the case. I had to drive out to Walgreens at 3 AM in the freezing cold to pick up isopropyl alcohol and coffee filters, disassemble everything, wipe off the thermal paste, reapply it after several failed attempts, mount the radiator on top of the case by screwing it to the fans underneath (a real pain), and remove the mobo to get the last fan screw in.

At long last, I finally summoned the courage to try turning it on. The liquid cooler fans started spinning and my CPU didn't explode. Good enough for me. The DRAM LED lit up during the POST, but I still could hardly contain my excitement.

First successful boot!

After realizing the problem was caused by the RAM, I had yet another scare because I immediately concluded that I either had bad sticks or I had somehow damaged the mobo ramming it against the I/O shield. But no, I just didn't have the sticks seated completely.

lol what's cable management

The rest of the installation went smoothly, except when I tried unplugging my front panel USB 3.0 connector from the mobo, it took off the pin housing with it. I spent the next half hour trying to pry the housing off the connector and line the mobo pins up with the housing's infinitesimally tiny holes.

After all was said and done, I tied things down to the best of my abilities. I don't get how people are able to do this tidily.

Looking good...

Nice and roomy up front!

Let's go.

Still needs an OS, but it's finished. I'm amazed everything works even after I put my mobo through hell. This has been one of the most frustrating experiences of my life, but it has also been one of the most rewarding. I take a lot of pride in it!