More RGB, Less performance

abit-sean · November 7, 2021

After 20 years of building PCs this has to be one of the strangest. I spent more time researching RGB than I did putting together the hardware list.

This is new build for my 10 year old who is currently using a Dell 390 SFF with a 2nd Gen I3. I was planning on building a new PC based on the I3-10100 but after looking at my daughters microsoft family usage it would of been overkill. Majority of the time all she plays is a few apps from the MS store, Among us, Minecraft Win10 and Roblox.

So I took a look around my workshop and dug out a few bits I had leftover from previous projects and other builds.

This what I came up with:

Intel I5-3470 3.2Ghz
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
Corsair 2x8GB DDR3
MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4GB (Have it spare so I might I aswell use it)
SEASONIC 600 WATT (Given to me by Seasonic when I worked for abit. Old but still good)
WD VelociRaptor 500GB (Game library drive)

Stock Intel cooler

2x 120mm fans

Then I bought these:

GAMEMAX MINI ABYSS CASE
RGB PCI-E POWER EXTENSION
SHAKMODS ATX 24 & 4 PIN BLUE EXTENSION
JONSBO RAM RGB HEATSPREADER
GAMEMAX ARGB Controller with RF remote
ADATA 240gb SSD

I like the case but its small and cable management was hard. Also the front lights are not compatible with the seperate GAMEMAX controller I got which is annoying. So I removed the controller that comes with the case and made an adaptor to change it to a standard Argb header.

abit-sean · November 7, 2021

All built and it lights up like a christmas tree. Temps are good given the restricted airflow from the front, I did add 2 120mm fans on the front and there is side ventilation bring air in. If I built it again I would use the larger version of the case as cable management was a nightmere.

Added bonus I found my old HP WMR VR1000 headset which pairs perfectly with this rig. This will allow my daughter to play Job and vacaction simulator in her room instead of using the living room VR.

Just need to keep it hidden until Christmas.