Welcome Back! There's a slideshow at the end of this post.
The build was very exciting, and went much smoother than I imagined. I started the build almost right after I received my last component, the
HAF 922. I should note, that along with all my pieces, I did also use an anti-static mat and an anti-static wrist strap. Chances of burning the equipment with static are small (make sure you never work on carpet!), and touching the metal of the case occasionally should do the trick, but I went for the safe route and used a mat and wrist strap, both manufactured by
Cables Unlimited.
Starting off, I unpacked the case. Unfortunately, one of the side panels was not built in too well and was stuck. Both sides can be taken off, but I had to use some real force to take off one side. I even tried to lightly hammer the edges and use a chisel, but no luck. Finally, I managed to slide it a little by basically pulling against it, like in a tug-o-war.
After that, I opened the
motherboard, and wow, Asus has a great design, in both hardware, and the blue-black color scheme. The first thing I installed was the CPU. As I
previously mentioned, I decided to go with the default fan and heatsink. Following the little triangle...I put in the CPU without dificulties. As I partially expected, the metal bar that locks the cpu in place in very tight, you do need to push it pretty hard. The fan/heatsink has the usual four push-pin lock design, but one of the locks didn't work the first time I tried. It doesn't matter how you rotate the fan in, usually people just put it so the wire is closest to the power output. After a second the try the push pins clicked in.
After that I placed the motherboard into the case, and it was relatively easy to screw in. Make sure you have your I/O tray placed first, otherwise you'll need to take the motherboard out again later (which I had to do). The
power box in placed on the bottom in the HAF 922, and I decided to have the fan placed on the bottom. Now I know many people suggest facing the fan towards the inside of the box, but the HAF 922 made holes for ventilation, and the legs create enough space for the air to flow upright. Plus, the way air flows in the box, the PSU fan would interfere a bit.
The
hard drive is really easy to build in, as the case has a screwless HDD design. The tray just slides out with a push, and there are rubber 'screws' on the pastic tray to lock the hard drive. This may not be as secure as the traditional way, but it is still secure enough that I didn't worry about it breaking or falling. The
CD/DVD slots are just as easy. Push the metal mesh/grill out the front, and slide the drive in. Once in, push the two side buttons and it's locked.
The
memory is very easy to put in (as with almost all motherboards), and the P7P55D Pro has only the usual clip on one end of the slots. So instead of opening both ends and pushing down, I just opened the one end, slid the memory into the other small end, and then pushed it down on the opened end.
The
video card was also easy to install. There's a metal plate that covers the PCI slots, and only requires a little unscrewing to remove. The P7P55D Pro requires the card to be in the first PCI Express slot, as it won't work in the second.
Wiring was not very hard, and because of the generous space in the HAF 922, I was able to tie most of the wiring to the back. The P7P55D only has 2 case fan controllers, but that was fine because I stuck the 120mm fan from the back to the power fan slot, next to the CPU fan slot. The motherboard has a Q-Connector to plug all the extra case stuff onto, including the LEDs, the Power/Reset buttons, etc. The only thing I would've liked would be to have the 4-pin wire for the motherboard power be about an inch longer. I really had to pull the wire to the max; I seriously think if it were half a centimeter shorter I wouldn't have been able to reach around the back. Wiring through the front is okay, but the power cables for the motherboard are always so thick, and it would make it look ugly from the outside.
Installing
Windows 7 was very simple, no issues. I installed and updated all my drivers as soon as I could, and I have to say, Asus includes a lot of software. I don't recommend using their TProbe Evo, the auto-tuning overclocked it enough that the computer would start, but I faced a few BSODs from it. Everything else included is fine, I especially like the AI suite, which ajusts the fan speed depending on the CPU temperature.
As a final note, here's my Windows Experience Index, non-overclocked from 1.0 to 7.9
| -Processor | 7.5 |
| -Memory | 7.5 |
| -Graphics | 6.7 |
| -Gaming Graphics | 6.7 |
| -Primary Hard Disk | 5.9 |
Thanks for Reading, and please post a comment!
For you Nvidia fans out there, there's been an official video release of the Fermi cards. This GTX 480 gets benchmarked against the ATI 5870. Although it shows a difference in the benchmark, it was not the mega-gap many hoped for. On the good side, prices of the 5870 and 5850 may drop soon, although chances are the GTX 480 will cost more than the 5870 right now. Also, note that the GTX 480 needs a massive power supply and space.
