The new TV rig. Sorta kinda.

[AlienALX]

At it again. Mostly because PC hardware seems to have tanked in the UK and the bargains are amazing. I used to have two XB1X. One at my mother's and one at home. They were starting to show their age, so I gave one to my cousin's boy who suffers from anxiety and loves his games. At the time I built a TV rig, this one.

 

 

It consisted of my old 1920x threadripper, and a 2080Ti Kingpin I have now upgraded. It didn't do very well in gaming. At 4k the GPU was the limiting factor, and at 1440p which looked fine the CPU was suffering badly. I only had a far from ideal 240mm AIO on it, so overclocking was out, and at 3.6ghz on Ryzen 1 yeah, it was stutter fest. Stray was fine, and I played it though in 4k, but stuff like Spiderman was out. The CPU just wasn't good enough.

 

About a week back I spotted this on Amazon (actually Amazon not 3rd party) for £199.

 

 

I really didn't know what it was, it just looked lovely. So, I bought it. What I did not realise was it was basically the best Z590 board made.

 

 

And cost a packet. So I was stoked. I wanted Z590 as it automatically disables power limits for turbo on the 11400F, so 4.4ghz and 150w. So I got another 11400F for £118. I can't believe the deals on Rocket Lake atm.

 

 

Those arrived a few days back, but I could not play until yesterday.

 

 

 

The box off to the side is these.

 

 

I didn't think red and blue would look right with that board. Or the GPU. So now it was on. I have a kit of this.

 

 

Which is perfect for the build.

 

I then did some planning, and the case I had was unsuitable. It looks like this inside.

 

 

And the red bar thing is totally in the way of the board. You can move it, but with the side loading 24 pin it will hit. And that is a problem. It is there to get around the cheap flimsy quality of the case, and to stiffen it. If you remove it the case becomes floppy, and then when you bolt radiators to it and move it the rads can crack. I did this exact thing a couple of years ago  cracked a 120mm rad and ended up with black coolant all over my white carpet

 

I do not want to kill the GPU by that happening.

 

 

So I conceded that I needed a new, bigger case. Thankfully it isn't that much bigger outside, but has tons more room inside.

 

 

I got it half price. It is the model with no fans, and the straps appear to be missing. I don't care about that, you'll see why shortly.

 

Any way, I have a bit of a hotch potch of fans. None of which have any RGB, and I didn't  want to have it look crap. So, I found these Boras for half price. Total was £48 for 6.

 

 

And I have one of these I got for £10 in a clearout OCUK had last year.

 

 

So the layout will be 3 Bora in the front, two Bora on the rad in the roof, one in the rear and the Unifan on the cooler I got. Which was this. Again, half price. God I love OCUK's clearance section

 

 

The Boras look like this btw.

 

 

The blades are the same as the unis, but they have CNC alu plates front and back. They are gorgeous !

 

OK so the reason why I don't care about the carry straps. This PC will go from room to room, unlike the one that is wired to my desk. Meaning I can then game in any room, and don't miss my Xbox.

 

 

And that is how I will do it. Roll the bugger.

 

For the PSU I have this. It's superb.

 

 

And for storage I have two Sandisk 1tb SATA SSD, one Revodrive X4 960gb and will grab a 512gb NVME for booting from. The case will allow me to vertical mount the GPU, whilst having the cards behind it. Which is nice as it will hide them.

 

I also have this.

 

 

Which will go in behind the GPU also.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Looks like some good stuff.

 

I will never buy an NZXT case ever again, lest it be one of the OG Phantom cases.

[AlienALX]

The only reason I bought it is because I love PUBG so much. I play it nearly every night, and it made me smile. But yeah, never had one before and won't again. It's all form over function. Airflow is terrible too.

 

Edit. Bugger, I forgot a pic. I took the board out last night and checked the pins (always do) and then fitted the CPU.

 

 

The board is stupendously heavy. Dear god.

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, AlienALX said:

The only reason I bought it is because I love PUBG so much. I play it nearly every night, and it made me smile. But yeah, never had one before and won't again. It's all form over function. Airflow is terrible too.

I had a similar experience with my S340. It wasn't a terrible case and airflow was actually pretty decent, but it just became a pain to work in. Even with just a "normal" gaming rig with an air cooler, single GPU, 1 SSD + 1 HDD, and a semi modular PSU.

[AlienALX]

Yeah you have that right. It took me about two days to build it. The bar is a pain in the bum, too ! I mean crap dude, even stripping it out took about three hours ffs.

 

My pal got the TUF last year. They do a LAN night every Weds, and he takes his rig to another pal's house. So the straps were ideal.

 

Thankfully I don't need them, as they are missing. Probably why it was half price. The dust filter and frame for it are there though, which I do want. I am going to fit the fans later. I need to get it all home, so it will be easier with most of it in the case already.

 

I will probably CNC some SSD covers too. The Sandisks are ugly, but I want them in the case on the mounts. I was really pleased to see that the four SATA cables Gigabyte give you are all braided. A nice touch, and it saved me buying the exact same thing lol.

[AlienALX]

OK final pieces ordered.

 

 

I have a super Intel U.2 drive but sadly it needs a M.2 adapter so it looks like poo and I would have to perma remove the entire shroud to use it. I want stealth on the boot drive, so I grabbed this.

 

 

I needed a 30cm ribbon

 

 

These.

 

 

And I think that ought to do it. I put the three intakes in today and the rear, but sadly they all had to go upside down so the stickers look stupid. I found a bit of real 3m vinyl so I will make 4 for those. The two on the rad will look fine.

[AlienALX]

OK so I got a wee bit done yesterday. First thing to do was put the rubber corners on all of the fans. That took longer than putting them all in lol. Fiddly, too !

 

 

I then cut the circles out of the black 3M.

 

 

And the back fan has one too on the outside face.

 

 

I then thought about what I could cover the 2.5" drives with. They are old, scratched and pretty nasty. I wanted to CNC covers but I don't have any plastic and CBA doing that now. So I got this.

 

 

Sadly I could not find the proper Dinoc 3M stuff, not in any affordable size. I should have another one of these too, as this did not come with the mobo it has been on my desk for ages. I will put one on each SSD.

 

[AlienALX]

Mail call. Cooler is a little dusty, but otherwise new. Would imagine it was a display model.

 

 

 

The SSD arrived. Will fit that in a bit.

 

 

And the ribbon is here also.

 

[AlienALX]

Well that was rather scary. First thing to do was fit the NVME. Thank god I did not have to remove the absolute chonk of the armor. Just a small piece from the top.

 

 

In.

 

 

I then crapped myself a bit thinking the cooler was not going to fit. Such is the way when they don't include a manual, just a card with a Q code on that I didn't have my phone to scan with. I didn't realise the arms were adjustable, so no matter which way I rotated it the arms did not line up with the board holes.

 

Got there eventually.

 

 

By then I was pretty paranoid, so I did a dry test fit.

 

 

Phew.

[AlienALX]

I put the board in just a bit ago.

 

 

Case is lovely to work in. Took me about a third of the time over that NZXT. All of the RGB is hooked up too, and it was so nice to see the board has two connectors for it.

 

[AlienALX]

Vinyl came in today. Lighter than ideal, but it will do.

 

 

I don't have any SATA extensions left, and I don't want to waste a whole run with the nasty angled connectors all up the side. So I got two of these.

 

 

Have used them before years ago.

 

 

It's a pain, but I don't want to spend over £100 for the same thing (2tb storage) when I have it already.

[AlienALX]

 

Got a 32gb kit, and it was only about a tenner more for the RGB.

 

I had some of the Klevv RAM back in the DDR3 days and it was gorgeous to behold. Very expensive then, though. Apparently now they have been bought out by SK Hynix, hence the quality still looks great but they are Corsair or less prices.

[AlienALX]

OK so that's done.

 

 

Vroom vroom !

 

I just need to remember not to climb on it and try and ride it down a hill.

 

 

Sadly I can't paint the frames because the wheels are riveted in.

[alyen]

27 minutes ago, AlienALX said:

Sadly I can't paint the frames because the wheels are riveted in.

The white does look too bad on that carpet. Colors almost blend in giving it a floating like look.
I really like having casters as feet on cases. I always feel the extra height should be more standard for taller cases that are more suited for being placed on the ground.

[AlienALX]

The wheels are fine being grey. I was hoping to paint the metal parts black.

 

That said I will take it over a hernia any day.

[RollinLower]

that motherboard layout is super wacky with the 24 pin and stuff, you can definitely see this was made for overclocking. 

looking nice so far!

[AlienALX]

OK so Covid stopped play for 10 days. I am now home with it, and have gotten this far.

 

 

 

At some point I will fit the PCIE cards, and put the RGB fans on the GPU rad and get that fitted also. However I decided to buy a replacement PSU. It works fine, but it makes a clicking sound. Could be the fan, but I CBA swapping the fan out only to find it's not. It also has capacitors all over the connectors (which is annoying) and I managed to find one of these used for £35.

 

 

The guy had bought a 4090 and didn't want to chance it. It's the 850w model, so more than enough for me.

[thrasher_565]

6 hours ago, AlienALX said:

OK so Covid stopped play for 10 days. I am now home with it, and have gotten this far.

 

 

 

At some point I will fit the PCIE cards, and put the RGB fans on the GPU rad and get that fitted also. However I decided to buy a replacement PSU. It works fine, but it makes a clicking sound. Could be the fan, but I CBA swapping the fan out only to find it's not. It also has capacitors all over the connectors (which is annoying) and I managed to find one of these used for £35.

 

 

The guy had bought a 4090 and didn't want to chance it. It's the 850w model, so more than enough for me.

hmm thow are like $250+...

[AlienALX]

Well buggeration. The GPU hits the CPU cooler. I sometimes wonder who designs all of these cases tbh. I mean really, do they not even TRY and fit an air cooler with the GPU vertical?

 

This would not be an issue IF the GPU didn't stick up so much. But it does, and tbh? so do most of them now. After faffing with it all day and removing the cooler and thinking about modding the case I gave up. It simply isn't going to work, and I simply CBA hacking the case to bits.

 

I started looking around, and I found this for £23.

 

 

Which is a staggeringly low price. I watched a review of a guy testing it with a 12600k, so it should have more than enough cooling capacity. What I really like is the way it fits. Instead of hogging your RAM space it raises over the VRM cooling, so I should be fine.

 

 

The good thing is the fan will no longer be impeded badly like it was by the RAM.

 

 

It also comes with two sets of fan clips. One for the low profile fan it uses (which I will ditch) and one for a normal 25mm fan. Which for the price is amazing, and the grey part looks so much better than the black extruded plastic top on the Cryorig. I reckon it will look way better being able to see the whole fan too.

[AlienALX]

Thank F for that.

 

 

Spent all night and all of today worrying it would hit those ridiculous board sinks lol.

 

[AlienALX]

So yesterday afternoon I fitted the GPU. Do note, at this point there was no PSU.

 

 

Not only does it fit like a glove it also leaves lots of room to work in there. I can access the RAM, SSDs etc. I tell you what I absolutely love this case. It is nothing special, just steel (and a bit thin steel at that) and plastic but it looks much more expensive than it is and has tons of room. I would not suggest putting a GPU in the vertical mount like that if you intend to use the glass (and I do), but in my case the card is cooled remotely. IE by the rad. So it is fine. It's also amazing how you can dump a load of butt ugly PCIE cards in there and it hides them all.

 

Another note, since putting in the PSU I have added a lot more combs to the GPU wires. I will get more pics when the installing is all done and the setting up and testing. Again another note, I have had no time to sync the RGB right now and nor can I be bothered.

 

So last night I grew impatient and fitted the 750w PSU. And guess what? no clicking. I have a strange feeling it just did not like Threadrippers, which is what it has always powered. I took a chance and fully wired it properly, and thank the lord it booted first time.

 

 

Please excuse the mess. It is the weekend, and I have been doing lots of wash. Just need to put that away lol.

 

Few rig pics of rainbow farts.

 

 

 

You can see the GPU cables better in that shot. They look bloody brilliant.

 

 

I have just installed PUBG on it and will use that to test it properly tonight. It is about the most torturous piece of software I have lol.

[AlienALX]

/Sega Rally. "Fiiiiiiiinish"

 

 

 

[AlienALX]

Remember how I said it was done? I sorta lied.

 

For ages and ages now I have been drooling over the Lian Li Odyssey X. I don't care what Gamer's Nexus have said about it. Any way, I just haven't been able to muster up the amount of cash they cost (£400) due to everything shooting up in price. I guess I could have saved for it, but that would have meant waiting ages.

 

Today I woke up to find an extra £1300 in my bank account. And it is all totally legit. As such I caught up, sent my mother £300 for her holiday (I have paid half) and bought some clothes (boring, but sensible) and yeah, have just been sitting around all day contemplating buying crap. And then I remembered I really wanted a OX.

 

Had a look around but they have only dropped to £370. Whilst I now had more than enough cash I have always bought stuff based on price. I know for a fact the quality will be unmatched, because my 012 is absolutely incredible. And then it happened.

 

£220 on Ebay. Guy bought it, opened the box and never built into it.

 

 

 

As it happens I did not want the black one. Mostly because it is very dark. I also bought black/grey cable extensions, so yeah that was a no brainer.

 

It looks like this.

 

 

But I will not be running it that way. I want to run it as I am running the TUF now. Like this.

 

 

But with the glass closed. This gives me a great chance to fit the 850w PSU too, as I got impatient. I have it now. All seems to work perfectly, just a little dusty. So I can pull that apart and give it a nice clean.

[AlienALX]

Just quickly as the case will be here very soon.

 

I want to run the GPU vertical as it is now. They don't make a riser for the OX specifically, but I did find a pic where the guy was using a Lancool 2 one. This one to be precise.

 

 

I got it for 40. Open box again, from OCUK. I would like (noting don't need per se) more fans. So I bought three more. Full price this time @45, but the last 6 were half price so hey, swings and roundabouts and all that.

 

 

Then I went down the PSU rabbit hole. Due to the stiffening caps on the Gigabyte PSU and the fact you can not hide the cables due to glass both sides that was out. I stripped down the Super Flower and cleaned it all so it looks like new, but the cables are old fashioned. I decided to donate the case to a friend of mine who hosts LAN nights, I will also give him the GB PSU and keep the SF as a spare. Long story short it came down to the Loki or the Thor. Both cost the same at 220 (ouch) but as I was deliberating the Thor popped up open box, again on OCUK for 150. So I got that.

 

 

I was then horrified to find that not all 3 PCIE cables are braided. *sigh*

 

 

I then remembered my Mizu pin tool broke from serious usage so I had to order another, *sigh 2*

 

 

Case will be here soon. Pics will come

 

Have a good day people.

[AlienALX]

Here we go ! case got. The box is enormous, so I totally fell erse over head when coming up the stairs lmao.

 

 

I shall run the front panels like this.

 

 

Looks the best IMO. The top is very thick.

 

 

As I suspected Gamer's Nexus and Jay didn't mention the quality at all. Why would they? they wouldn't appreciate it. As such their negative attitude about it made me want it even more. As it stands the quality is sublime as I have come to expect from Lian Li.

 

One good thing is I don't have to change much of anything. I have decided on layout. 4 120 in, two 120 on the rad for the GPU mounted in the side, then three on the top taking air out. Meaning I don't have to take much of anything to bits.

 

The over engineered screw kit made me smile too lol.

 

 

I also bought a 2tb NVME. This way I can put the SATA drives back in my NAS from where I robbed them lol.