First build, well in a few decades

[Sofanisse]

So i normally ghost forums and don't take the time to write much, but this is such a good community it deserved a post.

 

So i haven't messed around with building computers since ATX was a new thing (feeling old) but work, kids and life in general just got in the way. I've gone the easy route and just bought a pre-build one from a decent local computer place. Last fall i realized my monitor was over 10 years old, and thought holy .... this is somewhere i could really get some quality of life improvement. My wife agreed and got me a beautiful curved MSI monitor and that's where the trouble started
Getting a ultra wide screen obviously meant my old rig was struggling to keep up (load times were all ready abysmal, TW Warhammer II) so i thought i'd spoil myself with a semi-new processor to help its all along and just put it in my old rig and call it a cheap update, boy was i wrong haha.

 

Started googling a bit around and (this is where LTT got my attention) and found out AMD was kinda rocking now, who would have thought. Landed on a 3700x as it seemed like a cheap easy upgrade, however also learned i should get DDR 4 ram to go with it and that none of it would fit in my old motherboard, Challenge accepted! Got a Tuf x570, 2 sticks of cosair ram and the Rysen 3700x with a stock cooler (hey they give you a free cooler now wtf) This would have been the end of it if not for that bloody cooler, installing it i realized it had bloody lights on it (yeah yeah RGB, i've been out of the loop for a long time) i thought that would be cool to see. Around the same time my new monitor went on black Friday sale, i complained about it and got a gift certificate for the difference. Used that to to buy a Cosair Spec 06 RGB, and a 3 Corsair LL 120mm fan with a lighting node, yes i know i got bitten by the RGB bug. Transferred everything to the new case and thought i was done, but nooo iQUE dosen't play nice with the Ryzen stock cooler + that thing is bloody loude, so got a Cosair hydro 100i platinum to replace it and had to rewire the front of the spec case to play with iQUE. After that it seemed silly to not just finish the build so i threw in a modular power supply, a MSI RTX 2070 super, and a few more RGB strips.

So that the build:

 

Case: Spec 06 RGB

Motherboard: Tuf x570

CPU: Ryzen 3700x
Ram: 2x 8gb Corsair 3200 vengence

GPU: MSI RTX2070 Super

Hardrive: System is on a NVME, with a few SSD's for games and a HHD for storage.

The end goal for the Rig is the same as the previous one: To play Star Citizen if it ever comes out as a full game!

 

 

Now i started this journey out as a cheap upgrade, but it escalated so i learned a few things along the way.

 

1 - I'm stuck wishing i had gotten a 3800x CPU as this one seems limited on power draw when i try to overclock it (any suggestions or just leave it, because the boost is so good anyway?)

2 - The Tuf motherboard is good, but definitely not high end. I spend the first few weeks with the board not booting after a restart until i got a new bios update.

3 - RGB is awesome, but dont get dragged to far in.

4 - The MSI 2070 super its really loud when under load and radiates silly amounts of heat sidesways, to the point where the case glass is silly hot. I considered vertically mounting it, but I'm afraid to just choke it instead. Any thoughts?

5 - i only have 2 intake fans, do i need another one to help with point 4, or do i just need to bite the bullet and have an ugly case with the front panel off? (my wife will murder me if a spend more on another case now haha.

 

Thanks for reading through my journey of relearning how to build computers, it was a ton of fun to do but really appreciate all the youtube videos.

[IsaacG]

Dope! Don't have the budget for rgb myself but I like the look. If the noise and heat of the 2070 is an issue I only really see 3 options. You could downclock it, get a custom watercooling loop, or install some kind of cpu cooler (either an aio or air cooler)

[Fraya]

looks really nice, clean and neat cable management.  love the case. 

 

you said about lots of heat and noise, what size are the front panel fans? if there 120mm, i recommend changing them to 140mm, it looks like you have more air drawing out of the case than in.

 

If the top fans are 120mm, and the rear also 120mm, that's 3 120mm fans drawing air out, and 2 on the front (if 120mm) putting fresh cool air into the case. 

for better performance and basically no dust in your system, you want to have positive pressure system, where you have more surface area (of fans and volume of air) pulling fresh cool air into your case than fans taking air out, as there is holes in the rear panel, i would suggest 2x 140mm fans on the front and a 80mm or 92mm rear exhaust fan. 

make sure the CPU cooler fans are 120mm or if 140, add noise suppressor cable so they run quieter, less RPM and still do a good job and keeping a positive pressure in the case. 

you can also customise a bracket and add an extra fan on the front right down on the bottom to direct cool air into the GPU space.  make sure you run low noise fans and adaptors. 

 

this is just a suggestion if you feel you still have hot case temps.

 

apart from that beautiful build. 

 

 

[Sofanisse]

Thanks for the reply and sorry about the slow reply, work got a bit crazy before it all got locked down.

 

I added another 120mm fan to the front and altered the fan curve for the 3 front fan's so they step up a bit faster the the rear one, The QL-fan really doesn't make much noise until they are running at like 70% so its not really an issue. The GPU fans still gets silly loud when i stress them, but the sideways heat has improved with the increased (and positive) air flow.

 

Still wish i could vertical mount the graphic card in the middle of the case (half way between the glass panel and motherboard) i think i would help the heat from the card escape better without choking it, any clue if a mount like this exists? 

 

Also i aware i should take the bloody pictures without the glass on, but i just cleaned it and dont wanna put finger prints all over it again...

[Sofanisse]

Oh well i got fed up with the fan noise from the GPU, and went all the way. It now makes almost no sound when under load, the fans obviously still ramp up a bit but its not the annoying small fans of the  GPU. 

 

I went into this running and very blind, but I'm fairly happy with the result. I'm running Pump/res --> CPU --> 240rad --> GPU --> 360rad in a single loop and i'm sitting comfortably on 40ish degrees on the GPU and 60 on the CPU (might be a bad paste job here?) I'm aware its way overkill for this setup, especially when i haven't overclocked it yet, but it wonderfully quiet. Only regret is building in a case this small, but i guess i'll rebuild it once i have to drain it. 

 

[Sofanisse]

Oh well 2020 continuous to be a "stay the fuck at home" so i threw the computer into a new case. The size on the old one was seriously bothering me and everything was to crammed in there. So i (as everyone else) fell in love with the Lian li o11.

 

Gave shaping acrylic a first try, and while i am not a 100% satisfied with the result i think its worth a share.

 

New pump and res as well, the XD3 was way to loud, and the XD5 turned out to be a big improvement

 

Yes, its all corsair but i coulden't deal with having multiple ecosystems. I should properly buy some stock.

 

Happy new year, and hope you all stay corona free.