First PC Build, Thoughts?

[indrBeanie]

Hey all! Been lurking forums for a  while and decided to join a few back. Just built my first PC not too long ago and wanted to show it off! I had been rocking a laptop for college, a dinky Lenovo Yoga 2 13, and while I could play League of Legends just okay, the little thing just didn't like my taste in games. I knew I wanted a beautiful custom built PC that could handle 1080p so I began researching.

 

Few guides I read said to start with a case and go from there, so I did. I knew I wanted to go with a mini ITX mobo and after some digging I went with the Phanteks Enthoo Evolve ITX. I don't like flashy and this guy was simple enough with a spacious window. From there it was pretty straight forward. I could only find a few builds in the Evolve ITX online so I wanted to see what I could do with it. I got an M.2 Samsung 850 SSD to reduce cables, though I know it doesn't have the full PCIe speeds. I went with an AIO cooler so I could open up the view in the window, since the case has limited space inside. The red/black theme was easy to build for so I went for it (I know it's basic).

 

Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 Mobo

Intel Core i5 6600K CPU

Corsair h100i v2 AIO cooler

Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB 2133 MHz DDR4 RAM

MSI GTX 1060 6GB Gaming X 6G GPU

Corsair CX550M PSU

Samsung 850 Evo 250GB M.2 SSD

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Case

Phanteks PWM Fan Hub

3X Corsair AF140 Red LED Fans

 

 

 

 

I liked it at first but the hose lines on the AIO were bent awkwardly and I lost my space for the hard drive I'm going to throw in soon. I ended up top mounting the radiator like everyone else to open up the drive bays again and so I could improve the LED lighting. Initially I was hoping that 3 red corsair AF140 fans would be bright enough, but I was disappointed with the lackluster lumens. So I piked up a cablemod 30cm red strip and stuck it up behind on the mounting rack. To note, I was very pleased with how well the radiator looks with the window panel on, as the window width just about matches that of the radiator. I also did a little cable cleanup and addressed my GPU sag. I had seated it with the case upright to start and it was keeling over like my late grandfather, making me concerned for it's health. Reseating the massive MSI GPU with the case on it's side, along with some support from the 4pin cable did the trick.

 

 

 

 

Much better! I built a lot towards aesthetic a lot here. I could've got a much more powerful system for the same price, but I like pretty things so I'm happy with her. I felt the GTX 1060 would be good enough since I'm only gaming at 1080p, which opened up some budget for the good looks.

 

 

 

Sometime next summer I'll look to upgrade to a Kaby Lake i7 (hoping my mobo will have support then) and possibly a GTX 1080 when I get the funds.

[refinedskillz]

Looks lit, just the PSU. Would've been better off with an EVGA GS PSU

[KrMaH]

Like your build bud!
Contemplating using the same case as your when it becomes time for me to build my first build, and since this is your first Id love to hear your thoughts about how it was building in it?
you also have pretty much the same specs as I want, except Im going for a different mobo (I want a black and green color scheme), AiO and no HDDs. 
Whats your temps like? and your framerates?
Otherwerwise, loving it!

[Cereal5]

Looks great! wish I had more LEDs like you lol. Always thought the evolv was a great looking case. Very good cable management also. Thumbs up from me!

[indrBeanie]

4 hours ago, KrMaH said:

Like your build bud!
Contemplating using the same case as your when it becomes time for me to build my first build, and since this is your first Id love to hear your thoughts about how it was building in it?
you also have pretty much the same specs as I want, except Im going for a different mobo (I want a black and green color scheme), AiO and no HDDs. 
Whats your temps like? and your framerates?
Otherwerwise, loving it!

The case is fantastic, lots of space. They only real issue I had building in it was removing the the top panel (which takes 12+ screws) so I could finagle the radiator on the mounting rack comfortably and remove the 200mm fan in the front.

 

I can post pictures of my temps and frame rates later today, but off the top of my head the GPU hits a max of 70 C (with an ample OC on it) and the CPU hits a max 50 C (at 4.4GHz) on the hottest core. What's nice with this case is the GPU has ample room above the PSU shroud to breath, I've read some issues with ITX cases and the GPU clearance for aftermarket coolers. My main test game is Witcher 3 and with maxed everything at 1080p it averages about 50 fps, although this can be smoothed out by taking off NVIDIA Hairworks and a couple settings down to high from ultra.

[indrBeanie]

Alright, did some some tests with The Witcher III. I recorded min/avg/max fps with FRAPPS twice, once with NVIDIA Hairworks on, and once with it off, all other settings as high as possible. I stayed in the same area, a populated village in game with a dozen or so NPC's. Here are the results...

 

2016-10-19 13:52:39 - witcher3
Frames: 2736 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 45.600 - Min: 34 - Max: 55

2016-10-19 13:53:58 - witcher3
Frames: 3608 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 60.133 - Min: 53 - Max: 69

 

There is a massive performance penalty for having Hairworks on.. otherwise the game is fairly smooth. There are occasional dips and some cutscenes I've seen massive drops around 15 fps or more.

 

 

Here are my GPU OC settings and temps after running the game 30 min or so. Very pleased with these results.

[KrMaH]

thanks bud!