AngryAnt

1. Budget & Location Company purchase, mostly existing parts repurposed. Denmark. 2. Aim As we have settled on transitioning permanently to WFH, I am looking for a more permanent solution for our makeshift solutions to running work services from home. On top of that my personal rig is now somewhat redundant with the work machine sitting next to it and I have some personal services like misc. NAS stuff, media center, etc. running on an old Synology which I'd like to also include in this sweep-up. I really like the Silverstone CS381B case for this use case - fitted with an AIO and fully populated with Noctua fans from the personal rig which I am breaking apart here. Drives, CPU, GPU, and memory will all get re-purposed from existing NAS'/servers and my personal rig. Swapping my current personal GPU for the secondary in the work machine (size constraints in the chosen case) as well. My gaming habits are generally last-gen and earlier, often via Steam Link, so 1080p medium settings are fine. I have certainly not been stretching the legs of my current 5700XT as much as I had expected at point of purchase. Gaming being something run off a VM with a smaller GPU passed through, via Steam Link or similar will be fine. That said, I would like to stay on the X570 platform (in mATX given case choice) so as to make use of PCIe Gen4 m.2 speeds as well as maintain an upgrade path for both CPU & GPU. The case will be sitting in my home office not very far from where I am sat working all day, so quiet operation is a priority (hoping the re-used Noctua fans will help here). I will be using the hot swapping feature of the CS381B for periodically cycling drives with off-site cold storage. 3. Monitors Current thinking is I'll be running Proxmox to manage VMs and containers. I have an older flat screen on an arm which will be just fine for whatever direct interaction may be necessary. 4. Peripherals I need to connect with at least three different physical networks - bound to various VMs and containers - hence the four port network card (I would like the option to expand if necessary). Other than that I have a couple of low-bandwidth USB peripherals used by some services - no need for latest & greatest throughput here. 5. Why are you upgrading? Mostly I would like to get rid of some hardware by consolidating things in this new reality. None of the current hardware was purchased with the current situation in mind. I would also like to run some of the services in question on a more flexible platform. As it is, I am basically at duct-tape capacity of what my personal NAS was designed for. 6. Please, No Dream Builds Definitely did not dream up any of this * flapping arms *, promise. Mostly I am looking for feedback on the parts choice for the new things I am buying for this build. This would be the first time I run an AIO for example - would there be a point of replacing the fans on it with the Noctua fans migrated over? Or are they a bad fit in theory as well as end-of-day real-world "ok yes that static pressure is actually insufficient"? Is the AIO actually any good? What are considerations? Anyone experienced with this motherboard? PSU? Dimensions for use? Experience with its quality? This thing needs to run 24/7 with decent spikes during gaming and other use in parallel. Overall thoughts on the project? Did I miss something obvious aside from rainbow barf LEDs? Is the whole thing a pipe dream? Any feedback welcome. PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core OEM/Tray Processor Purchased For $0.00 CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken X53 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler $119.99 @ Newegg Motherboard ASRock X570M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $177.99 @ Amazon Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory Purchased For $0.00 Storage Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Western Digital Red 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Western Digital Red 8 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Western Digital Red 8 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Western Digital Red 8 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $0.00 Storage Western Digital Red 8 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $0.00 Video Card Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB NITRO+ Video Card Purchased For $0.00 Case Silverstone CS381B MicroATX Desktop Case Power Supply SeaSonic FOCUS SGX 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply $130.98 @ Newegg Wired Network Adapter Syba SI-PEX24042 PCIe x1 1000 Mbit/s Network Adapter $45.99 @ Amazon Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $474.95 Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-01-02 05:15 EST-0500

Still not clear if a liquid solution with a 240 and 360 rad actually stands a chance of meaningfully reducing the long-term sustained load temp. Or if, as suggested, there may still be an air solution, different from my current one, able to do the same.

If I need to order something for import to solve the problem, that is fine - not getting this for my personal setup. I just need to know what I can reasonably expect to be a tangible improvement on the current situation.

Have I understood which model you're referring to here? It was my impression that the Noctua solution was still performing better - in spite of being a single tower? Ex: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/be-quiet-dark-rock-pro-tr4-cpu-cooler,6126-2.html

I absolutely _love_ the nhd15 - it is what I use for my 3700x setup. However since it does not cover the IHS, surely it would deliver a worse result than the nhu14s currently on the 3960x system?

Oh I don't specifically need to _not_ have something designed for artistic expression - it just isn't a consideration Several components in the current build have all kinds of rainbow going on - the motherboard even has a fregging screen attached to it. I can clearly see them if I go under my desk and take off the sidepanel I would definitely go soft tubing and non-coloured water with appropriate additives, but if some component necessary for the best cooling result has non-optional rainbow explosions going on, that is not a problem. I am mostly worried about spending a ton of effort on a 240+360rad setup for a 5C drop and no significant change in noise levels.

A huge fan of pragmatism and low complexity, I have preferred to avoid liquid cooling. My personal machine runs a 3700x which is kept very nicely cold and silent by Noctua air cooling. My work machine is a different beast. Built around a 3960x, pegged for long periods of time, its tdie span is 80-90C (on ~25C ambient) while a case full of Noctua fans do their very best to fight it. Theoretically (given the AMD specified max temp of 95C) this is fine, but I would really rest a whole lot easier if: a) The tdie span could be brought down significantly - a bit closer to that of my 3700x. b) I could bring down the noise levels of the machine some more. After a ton of tweaking of fan configuration, physical & digital, and scratching my head on this for months, I am pretty sure I am at the limit of my options with air cooling. Which is why I have been considering something like an EK waterblock for just the CPU - hooked up to a loop with a 240 and 360 rad. However as mentioned I have absolutely no experience in this area and could really use a sanity check of this whole thing. Does it sound like I may be missing something obvious with the air cooled setup or do those temps sound reasonable given context? Is it actually realistic that a watercooling setup as described could do significantly better? I am not looking to overclock or go for artistic expression. I just want this to continue running stock settings, in a black box, under my desk, while not slowly melting in the socket and sounding like I left a window open.

Updates: I got the RAID running: https://www.angryant.com/2019/12/07/RAID0-NVMe-on-Ubuntu/ Try as I might, the G4 case could not fit this build: Still running Ubuntu 18.04 with no compromises to my work environment or gaming setup (recently I've enjoyed the hell out of The Outer Worlds). This past week I managed a light injury, confining me to working from home for that week - during which at no point I thought about pulling out my daily driver laptop. I will be setting up a Win10 VM for testing, but that's about it.

New fans arrived. Silence is mine! Also gave me sufficient splitters to run the 80mm intakes.

Also the 200mm fan fits perfectly to cool the back of the motherboard around the CPU area. It's just in there with a wire mount while I work out a more permanent solution (executing that at the same time I cut out the bottom HDD trays for two 140mm fan mounts), but with the pair of 80mm set up as intakes above the power supply, utilisation of that second hold looks pretty good. The three 140mm Corsair fans which came with the case are unfortunately even worse than expected noise-wise. I should be getting Noctua replacements today.

So something is clearly off on the CPU cooler clearance measurement - there is *plenty* of space for it - even with the fan offset for ram clearance. The default Corsair fans are stupid loud and getting replaced and the HHD trays just failed to relay signal, but otherwise it's been a very nice experience.

Thanks Jake. It is a refreshingly clean case to look at, but when I don't have a noise problem to dampen and desire high airflow, it does seem like an odd choice to me?

Ah yea that's interesting - I hadn't noticed the option to remove the shroud SSD caddies entirely for full throughput of bottom case fans. It might be a bit tight on CPU cooler clearance (currently offsetting one fan for RAM compatibility), but it may well just be me reserving too large a margin of error there. Checking local availability I think I'll take the Carbide 540 for a spin first (same CPU cooler clearance, which is why I had looked at it bigger sibling in stead) - it looks like it would be a fairly straight forward mod to set up bottom fans in stead of drive caddies there. If that doesn't work out (before taking a drill to the 540), the Meshify C is also easily available to test here after returning the 540. Thank you for walking me through this

No argument from me on managed high airflow vs. noise reduced closed case. That is exactly why I am partial to the compartmentalised boxy designs from Lian Li and Corsair - offering actually useful bottom intake as well. Unfortunately it looks like the Carbide 740 is pretty much impossible to purchase today and it is the only model I have managed to find with sufficient CPU cooler clearance.

Sorry I just fell into an internet hole again and came out of the labyrinth with this link: https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categories/Products/Cases/Carbide-Series™-Air-740-High-Airflow-ATX-Cube-Case/p/CC-9011096-WW Any thoughts on the 740? Glass panel aside, that thing looks like it ticks just about every box. I was unable to locate any Gamers Nexus review on it - the LTT walkthrough provided a good practical overview, but I am curious how it compares to the competition.

OHAI! My initial plans for a case did not pan out, so I am looking for recommendations on alternatives. Having spend the past couple of days looking through reviews and listings, I'm finding that getting an overview is not as straight forward as I could have hoped. The build has been sitting on my desk, in use for a little over a month, and I am quite happy with the (lack of) noise from the fans. So I am not specifically looking for a case which offers additional damping, but would prefer that the geometry of one not result in *more* noise. My preference tracks towards Lian Li style boxy over high tower, no LED, no glass, no Transformers styling, no wild colouring. That said, I am most likely going to move the case to sit on the wooden floor (decent bottom fan intake / outlet) below my desk. I quite like the Lian Li 011 (optimally with the glass swapped for a metal side panel with a 200mm fan fitting), but unfortunately it does not offer sufficient clearance for my CPU cooler. This is what I currently have sitting on my desk: PCPartPicker Part List Type Item Price CPU AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor $326.99 @ SuperBiiz CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler $89.90 @ Amazon Motherboard Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard $315.99 @ SuperBiiz Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory $139.99 @ Amazon Storage Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive $189.99 @ Amazon Storage Corsair MP600 Force Series Gen4 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive $189.99 @ Amazon Storage Seagate IronWolf Pro 8 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $269.99 @ Adorama Video Card Asus Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB STRIX Gaming OC Video Card $459.99 @ Amazon Power Supply Corsair RMx (2018) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $119.89 @ Amazon Case Fan Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM 31.37 CFM 80 mm Fan $9.94 @ Amazon Case Fan Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM 31.37 CFM 80 mm Fan $9.94 @ Amazon Case Fan Noctua NF-A20 PWM 86.46 CFM 200 mm Fan $29.95 @ Amazon Case Fan Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM 60.1 CFM 120 mm Fan $29.90 @ Amazon Case Fan Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM 60.1 CFM 120 mm Fan $29.90 @ Amazon Case Fan Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM 60.1 CFM 120 mm Fan $29.90 @ Amazon Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts Total $2242.25 Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-24 05:14 EST-0500 Any recommendation / other advice or pointers would be highly appreciated.

Wrapping this up, I am well satisfied with the setup of sticking with 18.04 with latest AMD drivers. It is my primary work environment and my games are playing well here, so I have no reason to continue trying to get Windows to cooperate. Will in stead be looking at running a single-partition RAID0 setup across the two SSDs. With all things software covering my needs, I can better focus on the real challenge of fitting all this crap inside my stripped out old PowerMac G4 case

So I gave 1201 a go. At least it does not impact the ability to boot the current Ubuntu install, but unfortunately it also does not affect the Windows 10 installers ability to boot on the system. Setup is: Secure boot disabled Compatibility mode enabled NVMe drives not in RAID configuration

Tadaa! Turns out I was looking at the wrong version number. "2.20.1271" appears to be the version of the BIOS UI (I was looking at the last bit of it, 1271, and reading that as the bios version - clearly a later build than 1201) - not the actual BIOS. The actual BIOS version number is 0807 x64 (build date Aug 07 2019). I'll run a backup of it and give 1201 a try.

I gave it a look earlier, but was not exactly filled with confidence in it when the listed version "1201" is lower than what the BIOS reports. I don't have access to the machine right now, but will verify the version number when I get back.

So getting to 19.04 via 18.04 worked. Still no dice on Windows 10. Guessing an older image or going via Windows 7 might work? Anyone else who's been successful installing Windows 10 from scratch on a 3700X or other 3000 series? Curious what variables are at play here - motherboard BIOS build interaction mayhaps?

Managed to dig up more info on the Ubuntu side. At least there, the issue looks related to a bug in the current microcode for Ryzen 3000 CPUs, serving up bad rand values: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1835809 Additionally, I realized that in order to properly boot installers ASUS BIOS needs "fast boot" disabled in addition to having compatibility mode enabled and secure boot disabled. I managed to get Ubuntu 18.04 set up and am upgrading from there to 19.04 at the moment, so we'll see. Ubuntu was having none of the RAID0 setup from ASUS, so I disabled it. Will give Win10 a shot once 19.04 is confirmed running solidly here.

OHAI, fellow internet citizen! I just put together a new build (initially testing on my desk) and was excited to get going. Everything appears in order when going through the data reported to BIOS, but unfortunately neither the Ubuntu 19.04 nor the Windows 10.1903 installers are able to fully start up. They boot, but once I select "Install Ubuntu" I just end up just staring at the logo screen - dots moving away. Similarly the Windows installer just barely boots - the cursor blinking in the upper-left corner, eternally mocking me. Build: ROG Strix X570-F ROG Strix AMD Radeon RX 5700XT AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Corsair Vengance 2x16GB 3200MHz Corsair Force Series MP600 1TB x 2 Corsair RM750x Attempted configurations: RAM set to auto (2133) or manual 3200 Compatibility mode on or off Secure boot set to Windows or non-Windows system NVMe's in RAID 0 or no RAID Web searches are not turning up a whole lot other than "this is how you configure your boot order" - which is not super helpful. Just to be clear: Both OS installers boot. They just end up sitting there. Any insight or reference would be very much appreciated. My daughter already turned the shipping box into a space ship, so some value has come out of this - but still. I would quite like to end up with a working computer at the end of this

I want to build a stationary for home, dual booting Ubuntu 19 and Win 10 for work and play. I like the spec on the recent AMD generation and so would like to build the system around that. I’ll not be overclocking and will be building in an opaque case (old PowerMac G4 - stripped way down, featuring actual airflow) in which I don’t want to waste LED bling. Day to day use case is dual-display multithreaded work on Ubuntu and game streaming to a Steam Link from Windows. I put together a build list, but I am not very confident in parts choice and would like some feedback. Different vendor recommendations? Some bits not balanced well with others? Something else?

Excellent! Thank you for that very nice dump of useful resources :)