First Build, Cryorig Taku, Not For Gaming!

[hounddiggity]

Like many i'm in the permanent work from home category now, though to be honest that was true before COVID.  In an effort to make my home office a bit more organized i wanted a separate computer from my development rig (the company owns that so i try to keep as much personal software off if it as i can).  Mostly I wanted a PC for playing my very large music library, i was a very (very) early adopter of the MP3 format, heck i had the original Diamond Rio player when it came out.  Previously i was using my old laptop to serve that purpose, then output through a TV i got at a repair shop.  When i started looking around for something to fulfill my particular needs, i could either find really powerful PCs, with high end CPUs and a ton of storage, or lower spec ones with very little storage. What i needed was low power CPU and high capacity storage.  At that point i realized I would need to modify whatever I got so i just decided to start from scratch and get something that i wanted.  

 

I looked around for some interesting SFF cases and finally discovered the Cryorig Taku and decided that it was perfect for what i was looking for.  After that it was a good bit of research to determine what components would suit my needs.  I ended up with the following list :

 

Cryorig Taku

MSI MPG B560I Gaming Edge WiFi Gaming Motherboard
Intel Core i5-11400
Corsair SF600, Fully Modular
Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 500GB (system drive)
Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB (library)
16GB Crucial Ballistix 3000 MHz DDR4 (8x2)
Noctua NH-L9i, Low-Profile CPU Cooler
Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM
Logitech ERGO M575 Wireless Trackball Mouse
Razer Pro Type: Wireless Mechanical Productivity Keyboard
Fosi Audio BT20A-S Bluetooth 5.0 Amplifier
Audioengine P4 Passive Bookshelf Speakers
 

I opted for no graphics card and just use the integrated graphics on the i5, like i said this is not a gaming rig, and should be more than sufficient for any video playback i may want to do.  The build itself was fairly straightforward, even though it was my first time building a PC.  Lots of tutorials and build guides were watched before I even started so i knew mostly what to expect.  I was very surprised that on the first power-up it worked great, got to the bios and all the parts were identified.  Took longer than i thought to install all the software, but in the end it was much less trouble than i thought it would be. 

 

I would say that for a novice like myself the Taku is a wonderful case to build in.  The layout with everything on one horizontal plane was really helpful for understanding everything.  It was a bit on the expensive side for a case, but it really fit in with the whole look i was going for.  The TV in the photo below will eventually be replaced with a Samsung Frame TV that i'm going to mount on the wall behind the unit, but that will require redoing a good bit of the office first so it is going to wait.

 

I did run a few stress tests on it and under load the thermals are just horrible, but i kind of knew that going in.  During it's normal operation it is more than fine, most of the day it draws maybe 13 watts total and the noctua fans can easily keep up with that even with the "sub optimal" airflow in the case.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[coollincolnboi]

Where the Frick is the cooler???? Did you put thermal paste 

[da na]

1 minute ago, coollincolnboi said:

Where the Frick is the cooler???? Did you put thermal paste 

on the motherboard lmao

 

 

OP, great build! 

[hounddiggity]

5 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

on the motherboard lmao

 

 

OP, great build! 

thanks man, i appreciate it.  

[RONOTHAN##]

Nice little rig. I'm kinda surprised the case didn't do a layout more like this with a PSU extension cable though

Spoiler

 

Not that there's anything wrong with the way they did it, it's just that with that way you could have avoided the need for 24 pin and 8pin extension cables, plus might've made it a little smaller at the same time. Still not a bad case, it's very simple (I mean that as a complement) and straight forward for an ITX rig. It kinda reminds me of a test bench. 

[hounddiggity]

14 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Nice little rig. I'm kinda surprised the case didn't do a layout more like this with a PSU extension cable though

  Hide contents

 

Not that there's anything wrong with the way they did it, it's just that with that way you could have avoided the need for 24 pin and 8pin extension cables, plus might've made it a little smaller at the same time. Still not a bad case, it's very simple (I mean that as a complement) and straight forward for an ITX rig. It kinda reminds me of a test bench. 

that big open area in the middle would be used for a GPU, which i don't really need.  i have even seen some folks try to cram an AIO in this thing, whew that would be a lot.

[RONOTHAN##]

4 minutes ago, hounddiggity said:

that big open area in the middle would be used for a GPU, which i don't really need.  i have even seen some folks try to cram an AIO in this thing, whew that would be a lot.

Yeah, I figured the center was for a GPU, I was more talking about everything to the left of the GPU with how the PSU is laid out. 

 

Still, nice little rig you got there.