AR sandbox

Once the PC was booted up and running stably, my first move was to get it connected to internet, and then do some benchmarking (testing the performance of the computer). I started out with UserBenchmark, a free tool, which was great for diagnosing each part of the system. Starting out, I had some issues (mainly involving the GPU), but I simply overclocked it a bit and it performed above expectations. Most of my other parts were doing fine, although I was noticing some general lag involving files, which I addressed by adding an SSD. As you can see above, this PC functions in the 83rd percentile for PCs with the same components. This is a CPU-Z status display, showing the performance of the i7-870 in this machine. Interestingly enough, it clocks in at 3.29 GHz, rather than the 2.93 GHz it was advertised to have, leading to better than expected performance. This CPU works quite well with the GPU I paired it with. I wanted to do some sort of stress test benchmark,

 The first step of the build was to remove the components from the old case. This involved removing the motherboard, the drives, the power button, and unplugging cables. They all had to be removed due to the size of the GPU, which was far too large to fit into the old case. Here is the motherboard post removal, with the cpu heatsink and gpu removed. Because the heatsink was attached to the case, it fell right off when I removed the motherboard. I needed to find a new way to attach it later. This was fine for the time being, as new thermal paste needed to be applied anyway. Once the old GPU was removed, I was able to put the new one into the PCIE slot. I also hooked up the power supply in order to test its fit with the motherboard. Unfortunately, it did not fit. The optiplex 980, as it turns out, uses a proprietary power connector for the motherboard. The build had to wait until my next set of parts could be acquired. After buying the connector I needed online, and get

In order to run the water Simulation Software used by the sandbox, many sites recommend buying a computer, generally for around $600-700. However, due to my past experience with pc building, and some inspiration, I figured I would build my own. I tried my best to cut their price in half, and succeeded. For this build, I used an optiplex 980 desktop I purchased for a very low price on ebay, along with a few components to upgrade it. Here is my parts list: 1 optiplex 980 desktop with: 4x2GB sticks of ddr3 RAM                          $68 for all (USED) Core i7 870 CPU 256 GB hdd                              RX 580 8gb GPU                                           $125 (USED) 240gb crucial BX500 SSD                             $32   (NEW) Rosewill 750 watt Bronze PSU                      $37   (REFURBISHED) 8 pin ITX to ATX PSU adapter                      $10   (NEW) USB WIFI (optional)                                      $13   (NEW) Case (can be done differently) 4*