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Nighthawk 117 Build

Paul Domingue

Paul Domingue

Resource contributor
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us-california
Ok, you thought this is about a stealth aircraft, it's not and sorry to disappoint you.
This is about building a new computer system from the ground up, well almost.
A couple of months back my motherboard went into meltdown. I had to start from scratch on a new build. I wasn't concerned about the project from a mechanical standpoint just monetarily.
Now that I have all the components needed I have been building the system with a new case. My old case, and I mean old, from 1990 is a full tower ATX class.
My new case is a full tower EATX gamer case made by Rosewill.
They call it the Nighthawk 117 because it resembles the aircraft somewhat.
I have spent the evening working on it and taking pictures as I go along.
I thought it would be a good idea to post my build and the steps involved as well as the problems to watch out for.
This forum is for FS developers and a place to teach new people just starting out. Without a good computer to develop on you just can't get it done. This is for those who like hands on and saving money.
Once the job is done I will post the images with the instructions since this post is from my phone.
 
I have pondered upgrading my case for years, but somehow the razor sharp, self made case fan cutouts, hardly fitting PCI card screws, dead spaces serving as dust bins (despite monthly cleanups) and general lack of space have grown on me so much over time that the investment into a new one feels like a waste of money.

Thanks to the modern, efficent chips I could even cut down the case fans from eight to none at lower component temperatures than ever before (despite higher clock speeds).
 
lionheart said:
Cool! I look forward to see it, Paul.

Are you posting photos on Facebook?
Click to expand...
I'll be posting the pics in this thread soon.
Heretic said:
I have pondered upgrading my case for years, but somehow the razor sharp, self made case fan cutouts, hardly fitting PCI card screws, dead spaces serving as dust bins (despite monthly cleanups) and general lack of space have grown on me so much over time that the investment into a new one feels like a waste of money.

Thanks to the modern, efficent chips I could even cut down the case fans from eight to none at lower component temperatures than ever before (despite higher clock speeds).
Click to expand...
I think you might change your mind once you have seen what I have done for relatively low expense.
 
This is the first installment of my computer build. Some of the pictures didn't come out real clear but they are good enough.

The biggest reason for my old motherboard and processor dying was the accumulation of dust and there was a lot. I'm lazy and it's a pain in the butt having to take the computer apart every couple of months to clean it. My case was very out dated and had poor ventilation so I decided to purchase a new one to help protect the new motherboard and CPU that I had purchased.

The motherboard is a MSI G series 970 gaming board with an AMD FX 8320 Eight-Core Processor and 8.00 GB duel stick Corsair Vengeance RAM. This set me back just short of $400 US.

I already had a decent graphics card and I had installed a Thermaltake Corsair H100 liquid cooler for the CPU. Hard drives and DVD of course were just being transferred so there was no additional cost for those components.

I did have to shell out another $50 US for a new power supply as the old one burnt out the fan motor one week after installing the new motherboard in my old case. Probably dust related.

Time for the new case. I did a lot of research and looked at several different cases comparing cost vs. benefit. I didn't want to spend to much as I have a very limited budget and I had to wait a bit before I had the money. I settled on two cases from Rosewill and took the information to a friend of mine who has a small mom and pop computer repair shop. He gave me the thumbs up and I ordered the Rosewell Nighthawk 117 case which was the more expensive of the two. It is usually priced around $120 to $135 depending on where you look but I found it on Amazon for $99.00 US.

Amazon ships fast and I got it in a couple of days. The box was huge! I opened it up and the case was a monster compared to what I had been used to. 37 lbs. worth of case empty but it sure was pretty.

Here it is with the top, front and side panels removed.


Tools.
You don't need much in the way of tools. The most used tool is a #2 Phillips head screwdriver (non-magnetic). I recommend a set of jewelers' screwdrivers for working with graphics cards as I will show later. You can get a nice little set at a good hardware retailer like Home Depot for under $10.00, also pick up a small tube of thermal conductive paste from a computer store. A tooth brush, preferably one your not going to use again. A small flash light is useful for looking into dark spaces inside the case. That pretty much covers it for tools.

This is my old case next to the new one. I had already removed the radiator for the liquid cooling system that was mounted on the bottom as well as the graphics card. It was very congested.


Both the radiator and the graphics card were choked with dust. Because of the wrong mounting brackets for the CPU (I had brackets for Intel but they wouldn't work on AMD) I had to wait for new ones before I could mount the liquid cooler to the new CPU. I'm still waiting for them with this posting.

I had to disassemble the graphics card to clean all the dust out of the heat-sink radiator and fan, cover not shown. The toothbrush is the tool needed for cleaning out dust.


In the next picture you can see the temporary cooling fan on the new CPU still in the old case. It has accumulated quite a bit of dust in less than a month of use. I still attribute this to poor ventilation in the old case.


Stay tuned for the next installment.
 
Paul Domingue said:
I think you might change your mind once you have seen what I have done for relatively low expense.
Click to expand...

My limit for a new case is $30, but that sum is more often than not preferably spent on beverages with 5%* (or more) interest.


(*Alcohol percentage of the average beer.)
 
Heretic said:
My limit for a new case is $30, but that sum is more often than not preferably spent on beverages with 5%* (or more) interest.


(*Alcohol percentage of the average beer.)
Click to expand...
If it isn't 80 or 90 proof what's the point? All you do is expand your gut. :p
 
Paul Domingue said:
If it isn't 80 or 90 proof what's the point? All you do is expand your gut. :p
Click to expand...

The wear and tear on my running gear begs to differ. Nice try though.

It's been a while since I had "high octane" booze. Maybe it's time for a bit of absinthe. Or another round of self-distilled...alcoholic stuff...from my polish colleague's family.
 
Part 2

The case came with two large fans mounted on top. I had to remove them because the liquid cool radiator was going to be mounted there which had two of its own fans. I took one of the top fans and mounted it in the bottom and added the other fan to my computer parts collection, never know when you might need something later.





Note: this case comes pre-drilled to accept many different components so you don't need to worry about any mountings. Most quality ATX class cases do not need altering. This case also came with a good supply of mounting hardware.

Attention needs to be paid when mounting a fan. Do you want it to draw air in or exhaust? Fans can be mounted either way. Since the power supply fan and the two liquid radiator fans will be pulling air in I want the other fans, four by the way, to exhaust.

You can tell which way a fan rotates by looking at the turbine blades. In this picture the fan rotates CCW and blows down which is how I want to mount it in the bottom of the case.



I'm now ready to install the motherboard. First a word of caution. Don't wear that wool sweater your great aunt Bessie gave you for Christmas. You know the one you like to wear while walking on shag carpet and then touching your sister giving her a shock. You want to avoid having a static charge. If you think this may be the case just touch a metal part of the refrigerator and that should discharge you.

Locate the mounting holes on the motherboard and determine which ones correspond with the case back panel. These ATX cases will be ready to accept any type motherboard and have multiple holes pre-drilled and threaded. Install the motherboard stand outs.



If you haven't already done it, install the back panel plate, it just snaps into place from the inside.



If you are transferring your motherboard from another case than go ahead and mount it on the standouts with the screws provided. If this is a new motherboard then install the CPU, Cooling fan and RAM sticks according to the instructions that came with your motherboard. It will be easier doing this first before mounting the motherboard into the case.



Next let's install the power supply. Easy just four screws. This one mounts in the bottom of the case. Some mount on the top but the bottom mount is becoming more common in large cases. This case has a removable filter under the power unit for easy cleaning.





Route the bundle of wires out through the back panel. With these new cases all the wires can be routed behind the motherboard to keep it neat and tidy and allow better air flow.





That's it for now. Check back for part three, installing drives and wiring everything up.
 
Part 3 Final

Installing the drives was easy, in fact everything about this case was easy to do. The drive bays have neat slide out trays with quick snaps, no need for screws although there are screw holes for a more secure fit. The SATA cables were plugged into the motherboard and routed out the back then back through the drive bays as well as the power connectors.







There are four bays in the top for the DVD player or what ever else you would like to install, one bay is blind and the other bays have nice snap out covers.




Time to install the top panel with all the wiring for the various switches, lights and ports.



The drive bays have a removable center section which I decided to leave out since I wouldn't be using them and it allows for better air flow by uncovering one of the front fans.



Here is a little tip. When I was reassembling the graphics card there were four little screws that I had to place down under the fan in a recessed location. The only way to do this is to place the screw on the end of the screwdriver and stick it in the gap between the fan blades. To keep the screws from falling off the end of the screwdriver I took a bar of soap, slightly moistened, and dipped the screwdriver tip into it then placed the screw on the end. This gives just enough adhesion to hold the screw while placing it into position and the slight residue left will evaporate.



All motherboards come with great manuals and diagrams for all the connectors. You will need it to properly plug in the wiring. For someone trying this for the first time it may look a little daunting but it is really quite easy since most of the wiring from the case is labeled.




There are four system fan connectors on this motherboard but I chose to not use them and connect the fans through the case fan system. The motherboard runs the fans at a constant speed but this case has two banks of switchable fan speeds, slow, medium and fast. I have the back and bottom fans on one switch and the front two fans on the other. The two fans for the Corsair cooler are regulated depending on the amount of heat coming from the CPU.

The brackets I needed to mount my liquid cooled system to the new AMD CPU came in by UPS. This is where I needed the thermal paste. I also needed it for the graphics card reassembly. Clean off the old paste and apply to the top of the CPU, don't try to cover the whole top because it will spread when the cooler presses down during mounting.




With all of the wiring connected it was just a matter of cleaning up the mess behind the firewall, as I call it for lack of a better word. There are protrusions for the use of zip ties to clean up the wiring. I found that if you wish to make changes in the near future and don't want to mess with tying up all the wires there is plenty of room between the wall and the cover to just push them in place without worrying about pinched wires. A nice feature with the side panels is that they do not slide into place but rather hinge and swing into place.



Well that's it. I have a nice clean system with easy access to the motherboard without a jungle of wires in the way. The case is very quiet, to my surprise. A cool feature are the top cowl flaps, that's what I call them, that you can open and close with a slider bar and a great feature is the hot swap drive connector. All in all I'm very pleased with this case.





I hope this may inspire someone else to try building their own system and if you have any questions you know where to find me.
 
Thanks, I hope somebody can take something out of this. I don't want to think I was just spinning my wheels posting this.
 
Thanks for documenting this process Paul. I'm just crazy enough to try it myself next time I need a replacement.
Ed
 
edphipps said:
Thanks for documenting this process Paul. I'm just crazy enough to try it myself next time I need a replacement.
Ed
Click to expand...
You don't have to be crazy to build your own system just crazy like a fox. It's really quite easy. You can build a system to suit your needs while saving money. What we do here is much harder. If you can develop addons for FS then building your own computer is like falling off a log.
 
Building PCs is easy after the first time. Just remember to handle with care and plug in what needs to be plugged in. After having installed a HDD on one of my first builds I nearly panicked because it didn't work. Turns out I forgot to connect the power cable.
 
It's easy to forget something with all the wires. Did it on this build. No signal to the monitors, forgot the power on the graphics card. :confused:
 
I nearly burned my room down with my first (several) builds. Room smelled like burnt wiring for a week. Every time I came in my room, the oder would freak me out, like something was on fire. I thought to myself, never again. I tried it several times, still didnt work. Had to replace parts. Still didnt work. Then Fry's said 'hey, we'll do it for you for free'. I got it home, loaded up FS, and it did nothing but crash and crash, and smelled like hot wires (again). Took it back and even got my money back. I was very grateful for that. But a week of high anxiety was not what I wanted to relive. Some people can bend polys and some people can build computers. Thats how I see it... :S
 
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