The VitaChan Project started as many others do, someone asking for advice.
VitaChan had previous experience in the world of ROG with the proud ownership
of a G74, a Never had to Once RMA .. G74, but found a laptop just didnt fit his
gaming style and longed for the power and limitlessness of a desktop.
Of course the G74 had answered the question of Brand. It would be an Asus ROG,
but which ? Where to start ? So many boards and gpus, limitless possibilities are exhausting.
With the plus and minuses of each considered and a strict budget in mind, VitaChan was born.
Or so we thought ..
First Lesson: If the budget is tight .. the case is not a good place to save money. The case is
the true foundation of the DeskTop .. It will long outlive any other component you add.
A RosWell case was attempted .. I found it just above tin foil, barely. As soon as it was opened
it was obvious that it was not worthy of the build .. Lesson learned.
The build went flawlessly. The CrossHair V bios was 1102 using an AMD 8150 on factory liquid, ready to ROG.
16GB Corsair Dominator GT 2133 kit .. stick in slot one .. a fresh Asus 7950 and hit the power.
Perfect. On first boot, right in, no issues .. set the Memory Profile (Not forgetting to set
T2 or Read to Read timings to 5) and restart. Flawless.
This board impresses me more each time I touch one, this was to be no different.
Loaded windows 7 Pro 64bit .. the latest GPU drivers from AMD and it was time for a quick trip into
the bios for a little OC bump action .. again right to 4.2 without a hitch And as a bonus ..
the factory AMD liquid cooling was performing beyond 'my' personal expectations.
I even noted that the CPU led was still green .. meaning I hadn't even over Volted it yet .. yippy.
So far, so Good. Or so 'we' thought. A little wire management, a few tweaks and VitaChan
was ready to button her up, take her home .. and let the ROG begin. Right.... ummm. No.
While sliding the case cover on the up until now Kinda-Build-Smoothness-We-Dream-Of ..
the Video went out ...... huh ?
Take the cover off .. check all the wiring .. look for shorts .. ect .. ect .. to no avail.
Switch power connections around from the PSU (Thinking there may be a psu issue.)
Booted right up ... problem solved .. faulty PSU... ummm. No.
Put the cover back on .. Video went out Again. What the ROG is going on here ?
Open it again .. the case Must be somehow shorting 'us' out .. right ? mmm..NO.
This continued for several hours .. as many of the trouble-shooters among us know..
this happens .. its on .. its off .. Made no sense at all. Until it would not come back on.
There MUST be something under the board .. only one way to find out ... yep ..
out it comes ... Nothing.
This is where the sad part of the story comes in. I take another real close look at the
Asus 7950 .. I am so very sorry to have to report that a simple manufacturing flaw Fried
the Gpu ... a moment of silence Please. The heatsink was simply not tightend down
properly .. [ I know, I should have caught that, I spanked myself already.] But the damage
was done ..
RMA the card for a replacement .. at which point VitaChan had Asus doubts .. he had read
all the reviews and some of the previously posted gpu comments even before he approached
me for the build.
He had decided to upgrade to the 7970 since he was RMAing anyway .. but was 'gunShy' to
Asus .. I could not overcome his objections and the XFX Ghost, because of the warranty
won out .. for now .. with the agreement that when the Asus 7990 is released we WILL revisit
this. [..and we will even if I have to buy that XFX to do it.. hahhaha right Vita?]
Not taking any chances this time .. I tested the equipment on 'my' custom Asus TestBox .. Perfect.
Also .. a case upgrade was now part of the build.
I can not speak highly enough of the CM Trooper. If you have not seen one yet .. please do.
This blew my Haf X away .. no disrespect to he Haf X in the least .. but this case is everything
that the Haf X is not. It is beautiful from top to bottom with built in fan control, fans out the Wa-Zoo..
and no detail was to small or overlooked. I found this when i picked the rig up by the Troopers
perfectly balanced handle and discovered much to my suprise that the under part of the handle
had a 'comfort grip' for those long carries .. it hugged my fingers, much to my glee. There is
almost enough room in this case to move a small family into .. and even a covered, secured
tool tray hidden in the front .... I could rave on and on about this case .. you will have to go see
it for yourself.
<<< Link [[ The Rifle is NOT Included .. drat !!! ]]
A little wire management and a few tweaks .. and The VitaChan Project is One Scream'n AMD ROG.
VitaChan took her home and hasn't been heard from since. [His Girlfriend Now Officially Hates me. Yikes!]
Please watch for VitaChan to join 'us' Here in the Forum
and be sure to give 'them' the warmest of ROG Welcomes.c.