In my recent blog post, I was asking folks for their input on rebuilding my old Windows 7 computer. It's time for an update!

Here's the part breakdown . . .

• iBuypower ARC 647 CASE ATX Mid Tower Case (unchanged from original)
• Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (a recent purchase but before this build)
• PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card (unchanged from original) Update (as of 09JAN2019): Radeon RX 580
• LG UH12NS30 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer (unchanged from original)
• Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
• ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
• Western Digital Blue 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
• EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
• CORSAIR Vengeance LED 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 300
• Cooler Master SickleFlow (Red) 69.7 CFM 120mm Fan (I had to replace a fan in front, more on that below)
• NZXT Sleeved LED Kit - red - 1m (12 LEDs)

The Pictures!

Here's a "before" picture for you with all of the old equipment, with the side off. You might note that there's a small fan between that huge light brown Noctua fan and the side of the case. That fan - a red LED fan - was moved to the front of the case in the build. It joins another red LED fan that was purchased to replace an old one.

Here's the case emptied out.

The Intel chip is installed in the motherboard.

Power supply installed. Better look at the fan that was later moved to the front.



The monstrous fan is put back in.

As you can see above, the Corsair RAM almost could not make it in due to the large fan size. That RAM has red LEDs in them.



Are you seeing a red theme in this build yet? It's interesting to me because the original build had a blue cathode light bar. That red band on the side of the case should have convinced me to go with a red light bar in the first place.
I wanted some red lights in there besides the RAM so I went with the lighting kit listed above. I wanted it subtle so I placed the LEDs just outside of view of the window so there would be a faint glow rather than something more Vegas styled.



Here's the back of the case.



Side panel reinstalled, with room lights on.



Front of the case, in low light conditions.



Side of the case, in low light conditions.

This process has not been without a headache. After installing the Windows 7 back on the computer, I discovered (after the fact) that Windows 7 computers do not recognize drives above 2TB because a partition type called MBR. It has to be a GPT type to do that. However - and here comes a catch 22 - you can't install Windows 7 on a GPT drive.

But I do still have a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive from the original build which I'll be installing back into the computer. The Windows 7 will install on there, enabling me to changine the parititon scheme on the 4TB drive from MBR to GPT. I just have to have the time and patience to get back into the computer to install that drive. In the mean time, I can certainly make do with 2TB as it's more than what I had before!

Finishing touches:

I'm one of those old folks that like to use Windows event sounds. Mine mostly came from this video.

(I also added a few myself from other sources.) I might be able to part with them if you PM me. (This offer may be retracted at any time.)

Special Thanks.

Thanks so much to Th3bigM00se to helping me put this together. (He did most of the work.) You can visit his Youtube channel here! (Be nice, folks!)