Temporarily Permanent

[Fluxmaven]

So I have a lot of electronics in my bedroom and it's all on the same circuit. The current PC in there is an i9 10850k with an RTX 2080. I want more GPU performance and to maintain decent CPU performance while overall using the same or less total electrical power draw. 

 

The setup I decided to go for is a 7700x in eco mode with a reference 6900xt with a mild undervolt. The current build uses an Inwin D-Frame Mini with a MO-RA3. So I was looking to just grab a B650 ITX board since I won't be doing anything crazy. 

 

And then I went to Microcenter... The only ITX board they had was the Asus X670E-I Strix. I really didn't want to drop $500 on a board.

 

SO instead I bought an open box Crosshair X670E Gene for $360 

 

Problem being that it wont fit in the D-frame. So I considered hitting  up to see if Inwin was still cool to send out an A3 for review. In the meantime I hopped on BidFTA snagged this cheap ZZAW B3. Some Aliexpress special but hey an all aluminum case for $15, I'm not complaining. 

 

I tossed it together my Arc A770 and a Corsair SF600 Plat. It has a tempered glass side panel but Aside from a Wraith Stealth which I didn't even consider, the Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV.B Ultimate was the smallest air cooler I had laying around and it's too tall for the case. 

 

At this point I think the plan is going to move the 2080 into this build and watercool the system. After the new AMD GPUs release I'll finally try and snag a used 6900xt for cheap. Pick up a B650 ITX board for the 7700x and put it back in the D-Frame. Then Grab a 7900X3D for the Gene and use it as the test bench PC.

 

Here's how it sits for now.  

 

I picked up one of the Barrow CPU blocks with the integrated DDC since there isn't any room to mount any of my D5 combos. 

[neurotix]

Interesting and I love the case. Its a shame you can't get the side panel on currently. Will be following this since you said you are going to do full watercooling once you get a 6900xt.

 

Good work

[Fluxmaven]

Well you will get to see the system watercooled with the side panel on. However, I doubt the 6900xt will ever live in this case.

 

I'm going to move the 2080 over and watercool the system with that. When I get a 6900xt, I'll also get another motherboard and move it all back into the D-Frame Mini. Even though that's an ITX case it supports full ATX power supplies. 

 

Since it's been a couple years since the 2080 has been apart, I picked up a new Heatkiller block to replace the Barrow block that's on it now. Should be here tomorrow. 

 

 

[neurotix]

22 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

Well you will get to see the system watercooled with the side panel on. However, I doubt the 6900xt will ever live in this case.

 

I'm going to move the 2080 over and watercool the system with that. When I get a 6900xt, I'll also get another motherboard and move it all back into the D-Frame Mini. Even though that's an ITX case it supports full ATX power supplies. 

 

Since it's been a couple years since the 2080 has been apart, I picked up a new Heatkiller block to replace the Barrow block that's on it now. Should be here tomorrow. 

 

 

 

What display and resolution are you going to be running on this build?

 

A 2080 is around the same performance as one of my 1080tis and I'm finding mine long in the tooth, I really like the Forza Horizon series and have 4 and 5, and since they are DX12 they only use one card. My res is 3440x1440 144hz and in both games my 1080ti only hits around 80 fps max on Ultra in the ingame benchmark. Most of the time its closer to 65/70 in gameplay.

 

So I'm after a 4090 but I wonder if a 2080 is enough for your res and what you play.

Edited December 14, 2022 by neurotix

[Fluxmaven]

3 hours ago, neurotix said:

 

What display and resolution are you going to be running on this build?

 

A 2080 is around the same performance as one of my 1080tis and I'm finding mine long in the tooth, I really like the Forza Horizon series and have 4 and 5, and since they are DX12 they only use one card. My res is 3440x1440 144hz and in both games my 1080ti only hits around 80 fps max on Ultra in the ingame benchmark. Most of the time its closer to 65/70 in gameplay.

 

So I'm after a 4090 but I wonder if a 2080 is enough for your res and what you play.

 

The 2080 will be pushing 2560x1440 while it's in my room, then 3840x1080 when it moves to my racing sim. I do have the Forza games, but I mostly play Assetto Corsa on the sim which runs fine on lesser hardware. 

 

Got several waterblocks in the mail today. The new 2080 block, a Heatkiller IV CPU block, and a vintage XSPC Delta CPU block that I found BNIB on ebay. Also not pictured a Thermochill TA120.4 radiator. 

 

I also whipped up a bit of an outline for the current state of my builds and my intended plans for them 

[neurotix]

19 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

 

The 2080 will be pushing 2560x1440 while it's in my room, then 3840x1080 when it moves to my racing sim. I do have the Forza games, but I mostly play Assetto Corsa on the sim which runs fine on lesser hardware. 

 

Got several waterblocks in the mail today. The new 2080 block, a Heatkiller IV CPU block, and a vintage XSPC Delta CPU block that I found BNIB on ebay. Also not pictured a Thermochill TA120.4 radiator. 

 

I also whipped up a bit of an outline for the current state of my builds and my intended plans for them 

 

Nice kit you got there, a 2080 is pretty good at 1440p. Nice chart too, you really put a lot of thought into all of it.

 

I too built a PC for my mom. It has an FX-8350, Crosshair V Formula and G.skill TridentX 2400MHz ddr3. GPU is just a $50 GT710 or whatever that we got at Best Buy when her AMD R5 230 fried. She's got a pretty nice Rosewill K85 RGB keyboard with Kailh Blue (clone MX Blue) switches and she loves it for the games she plays. Its in a Silverstone pizza box style case with a Asus V239H IPS 1080p Monitor. She uses it mostly for gaming... Bejeweled 3, Tetris in a 68k Mac emulator, and Kyodai Mahjongg.

[Fluxmaven]

3 hours ago, neurotix said:

 

Nice kit you got there, a 2080 is pretty good at 1440p. Nice chart too, you really put a lot of thought into all of it.

 

I too built a PC for my mom. It has an FX-8350, Crosshair V Formula and G.skill TridentX 2400MHz ddr3. GPU is just a $50 GT710 or whatever that we got at Best Buy when her AMD R5 230 fried. She's got a pretty nice Rosewill K85 RGB keyboard with Kailh Blue (clone MX Blue) switches and she loves it for the games she plays. Its in a Silverstone pizza box style case with a Asus V239H IPS 1080p Monitor. She uses it mostly for gaming... Bejeweled 3, Tetris in a 68k Mac emulator, and Kyodai Mahjongg.

Someday I'd like to create a full inventory of all my PC and watercooling stuff. As well as some more in depth flow charts just to be able to easily visualize what all I have going on. 

 

The 2080 has been doing alright. I preordered a new monitor and it won't be able to run the new refresh rate. Still 1440p but 280hz instead of the 165hz it's pushing now. I already have a waterblock for a reference 6900xt so that's why I'm going for that.

When I first setup my sim rig, I was using a 5600x and crossfire 7970 GHz cards. Since Assetto Corsa supports Crossfire, it actually ran great. Forza was unplayable though. The 2080 will be a big step up for the sim rig. Also the 11900K and B-die at 4200cl16 should help too lol. 

 

Some people might dog on your moms setup for being FX, but I picked up a 9590 and Crosshair V Formula Z for the last HWBOT team cup and I was impressed with how well the system ran. It's actually the first FX setup I've owned but it's one of my favorite combos now. 

 

[Avacado]

17 minutes ago, Fluxmaven said:

Someday I'd like to create a full inventory of all my PC and watercooling stuff. As well as some more in depth flow charts just to be able to easily visualize what all I have going on. 

@Bastiaan_NL I think it could be time to add Noah to the spreadsheet.... Thoughts? Maybe Justin too while were at it.

 

I plan on doing some restoration work on his AGP cards this weekend and will spend some time cleaning up my inventory as well. I did a complete re-casing and listing of all my AMD CPU's, but the intel list is staring me in the face. Plus I haven't added any RAM. 

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Avacado

[Fluxmaven]

13 minutes ago, Avacado said:

@Bastiaan_NL I think it could be time to add Noah to the spreadsheet....

[Bastiaan_NL]

18 hours ago, Avacado said:

 I think it could be time to add Noah to the spreadsheet.... Thoughts? Maybe Justin too while were at it.

The showoffsheet

 

Remind me when I'm on stream tomorrow, will try to take care of it

Edited December 16, 2022 by Bastiaan_NL

[neurotix]

21 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

Someday I'd like to create a full inventory of all my PC and watercooling stuff. As well as some more in depth flow charts just to be able to easily visualize what all I have going on. 

 

The 2080 has been doing alright. I preordered a new monitor and it won't be able to run the new refresh rate. Still 1440p but 280hz instead of the 165hz it's pushing now. I already have a waterblock for a reference 6900xt so that's why I'm going for that.

When I first setup my sim rig, I was using a 5600x and crossfire 7970 GHz cards. Since Assetto Corsa supports Crossfire, it actually ran great. Forza was unplayable though. The 2080 will be a big step up for the sim rig. Also the 11900K and B-die at 4200cl16 should help too lol. 

 

Some people might dog on your moms setup for being FX, but I picked up a 9590 and Crosshair V Formula Z for the last HWBOT team cup and I was impressed with how well the system ran. It's actually the first FX setup I've owned but it's one of my favorite combos now. 

 

 

Yeah the FX-8350 in her rig is lapped and I used to run it at 5GHz 1.55v. It was unstable and would phail intelburntest but was 100% game stable.

 

I switched when I got 2x 290 Tri-X and got a 4770k instead.. Valley at 1080p got 90fps with the 8350 and 135 fps with the 4770k at 4.5GHz. 500MHz lower and 45 more fps..

 

However yes, even now and at stock (I don't think moms RAM kit is even OCed correctly its just at the boards default) the system is snappy. It boots fast and opens programs fast off a SATA 850 Evo. Its fine for her simple games and occasionally web browsing/paying bills online. I'm really happy the R5 230 didn't take the board with it when it failed (that gpu was literally burned all over). 

 

The FX chips clock really high and can even tolerate out of spec voltages on something like custom watercooling, ocs of 5.2GHz were not unheard of on OCN.

Edited December 16, 2022 by neurotix

[Fluxmaven]

So a lot's changed since I last updated this. The parts that were in this case have found homes in different builds or setups, and the case is now planned for a permanent build. 

 

The case will house the 10850K and motherboard that's currently in my bedroom PC along with the Arc. Custom loop for CPU only with an external D5 and rad going to a  Ncore V1 direct die block that I got from Avacado. Arc will just run the stock cooler. This PC will be used for streaming while on the test bench. (totally overkill for that, but I'll probably put a couple games on it to play while waiting on benchmarks to run). 

 

I've already setup everything with my travel PC as a stand in to test functionality. The EVGA XR1, Insta360 Link camera, and USB microscope are all sources that can be streamed. Even if I'm not streaming, I can open OBS an see what's connected to the XR1 (the test bench) so that I can work on both the test bench and streaming PC without having to switch inputs on the monitor. I have a USB switcher so I can swap one keyboard and mouse between PC. 

 

 

[ENTERPRISE]

4 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

So a lot's changed since I last updated this. The parts that were in this case have found homes in different builds or setups, and the case is now planned for a permanent build. 

 

The case will house the 10850K and motherboard that's currently in my bedroom PC along with the Arc. Custom loop for CPU only with an external D5 and rad going to a  Ncore V1 direct die block that I got from Avacado. Arc will just run the stock cooler. This PC will be used for streaming while on the test bench. (totally overkill for that, but I'll probably put a couple games on it to play while waiting on benchmarks to run). 

 

I've already setup everything with my travel PC as a stand in to test functionality. The EVGA XR1, Insta360 Link camera, and USB microscope are all sources that can be streamed. Even if I'm not streaming, I can open OBS an see what's connected to the XR1 (the test bench) so that I can work on both the test bench and streaming PC without having to switch inputs on the monitor. I have a USB switcher so I can swap one keyboard and mouse between PC. 

 

 

Nice. Being a nerd for organisation, I like your build spreadsheet!

[Avacado]

Your AV OCD always impresses me, then I realize you do this for a living.

[Fluxmaven]

So I finally got around to taking my bedroom PC apart so I could grab the 10850K and motherboard for the streaming PC.

 

 

NudeCNC Ncore V1 direct die block I got from the homie Avacado 

 

 

Cooling consists of an Alphacool slim 240mm with a pair of Phanteks T30s, PrimoChill CTR D5 reservoir with Koolance D5 Vario sleeved with the first two pieces of paracord I found lol. Tygon R-3400 black tubing, IDK what the clear tubing is just found it in the tubing pile , Mayhems UV blue coolant, and Monsoon free center compression fittings. 

 

 

Couple Noctua A12x15's as intakes and a Thermalright TL-9015B exhaust wrap up the cooling components. I routed the tubing in this way to make it easy to swap RAM and GPU. 

 

 

Originally I was going to mount the external cooling under the desk, but I noticed while using the travel rig as a stand in, there was this corner of the desk that was basically wasted space. Strapping the cooling setup to the back of the case fills in this space nicely.

 

 

Always gotta take a couple  a e s t h e t i c  photos 

 

 

Getting everything set back up. The bamboo in the window had been making a comeback but I had the window open for folding, and forgot to close it... Then it got super cold in the office... I think it's finally time to give up on it. 

[neurotix]

Looks great but also looks like the instrument of my doom in our little folding war.