- Joined
- May 30, 2018
- Messages
- 1,890 (0.88/day)
- Location
- Cusp Of Mania, FL
| Processor | Ryzen 9 3900X |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | Asus ROG Strix X370-F |
| Cooling | Dark Rock 4, 3x Corsair ML140 front intake, 1x rear exhaust |
| Memory | 2x8GB TridentZ RGB [3600Mhz CL16] |
| Video Card(s) | EVGA 3060ti FTW3 Ultra Gaming |
| Storage | 970 EVO 500GB nvme, 860 EVO 250GB SATA, Seagate Barracuda 1TB + 4TB HDDs |
| Display(s) | 27" MSI G27C4 FHD 165hz |
| Case | NZXT H710 |
| Audio Device(s) | Modi Multibit, Vali 2, Shortest Way 51+ - LSR 305's, Focal Clear, HD6xx, HE5xx, LCD-2 Classic |
| Power Supply | Corsair RM650x v2 |
| Mouse | iunno whatever cheap crap logitech *clutches Xbox 360 controller security blanket* |
| Keyboard | HyperX Alloy Pro |
| Software | Windows 10 Pro |
| Benchmark Scores | ask your mother |
Right now, I just run a decently spacious case (psu shroud and odd intake layout aside,) with a big tower cooler and a triple-fan midrange card. Simple. Three 140mm intakes on the front, one exhaust on the back. The top of this case is also an exhaust. It has 3 additional fan slots. I figure I have what I need for decent positive pressure. A 3900x gets a lot done and doesn't really consume much on average. It can be a sub-100w CPU. The 3060ti does around 200w. So it's like my ASUS 2060, which could use 180w to do far less. I'm getting my use out of this updated corsair RM650x. Cables are a bitch, but it's a good, quiet unit.
Everything I have is decently quiet, I leave that breathing room and carefully tune my curves and heuristics. This EVGA card might have issues one day and at stock wasn't the quietest. It has auto-stop for its 'efficiency' mode. But the bearings on the fans are those that hate full spiderman orientation and growl a little every time they start. At idle, it teeters around the threshold. So they'll just begin to spin up, stop for a random little moment in time, and try to start again, over and over. I run a more traditional low-rpm idle instead and it ends up being a pretty quiet card. I don't mind the triple fan 1.5-2 slot cards for that reason. My strix 2060 was a hulking beast of a card, just so overbuilt. But because of that it was super-quiet and it would pass 2000-mhz all on its own. I like when things can work out like that on air.
I do generally prefer air. It's just so much simpler and more reliable for parts that run down at middling power levels. Less expensive, too. Clean the dust every now and then - check your filters (use filters.) I don't like to always be tinkering with my gear. After the whole discovery period where I'm feeling out the balance and learning where the performance capabilities are, I kind of see the constant tweaking as a mark of dissatisfaction. Not that it's necessarily true for you, just my conclusion when I look at myself. I discipline myself a little to put serious focus on working it up to an optimal performance niche for my needs so that from that point on, it can just work for me and I can put my full focus on what I'm actually using the system for. I enjoy playing with PC rigs and new parts, too. But I can just seek out the odd commission build for that fix. My main system is why I bother to gain the knowledge in the first place. There's a goal with a start and end point.
It just has to be like that for me. ADHD makes one want to deviate from projects like these at some point, you get pulled in different directions. A system in continual need of refinement and adjustments is a major monkey on my back. It's easier to get to that crystallization point with air.
However, my next build is gonna be a very compact build. Maybe still ATX, but very small. Like, as small as possible, on the SFX PSU standard. I like the Cerberus X a lot. It's a rewarding challenge. Looks well built, giving you quite a lot to work with while being impressively small for something that accommodates a full ATX mobo. It's barely wider than the mobo itself. You could still put it on air, but obviously there isn't going to be much space in it for a good flow pattern.
It has other PSU options, and things like an optional hinged front rack to add mounting spots. Still gonna be a challenge in terms of rad space. It could concievably house at least two 240mm rads as long as they're under 30mm thick. Or something a like a 280 and a dual 92mm rad - slap some noccies on it for extra bottom rad volume to back up a 280 on the front. The way the mounting areas are punched allows for that kind of stuff, which is handy, because being limited to only convetional component forms would make laying out a full loop and leaving mounting space for a 2.5" drive or two much more difficult - I will have to be pretty careful with part selection to make everything work out. I'm honestly not sure what I would do with a case like this, yet. But that's part of the appeal with this side of building and configuring cooling setups.
With current platforms allowing for 2 nvme drives, I can deal with doing just that for system/games and then tacking on a fatter sata ssd for general storage. I came into a dual-chip 10-core xeon dell server, which is going to get packed with drives for both shared network storage and backup. So I can leave pretty much all of my available mounting space for cooling. But in a case this compact, I think I would rather go full custom liquid. It would be an interesting challenge for me, and will likely be the better way to get decent cooling for more power-hungry components.
Everything I have is decently quiet, I leave that breathing room and carefully tune my curves and heuristics. This EVGA card might have issues one day and at stock wasn't the quietest. It has auto-stop for its 'efficiency' mode. But the bearings on the fans are those that hate full spiderman orientation and growl a little every time they start. At idle, it teeters around the threshold. So they'll just begin to spin up, stop for a random little moment in time, and try to start again, over and over. I run a more traditional low-rpm idle instead and it ends up being a pretty quiet card. I don't mind the triple fan 1.5-2 slot cards for that reason. My strix 2060 was a hulking beast of a card, just so overbuilt. But because of that it was super-quiet and it would pass 2000-mhz all on its own. I like when things can work out like that on air.
I do generally prefer air. It's just so much simpler and more reliable for parts that run down at middling power levels. Less expensive, too. Clean the dust every now and then - check your filters (use filters.) I don't like to always be tinkering with my gear. After the whole discovery period where I'm feeling out the balance and learning where the performance capabilities are, I kind of see the constant tweaking as a mark of dissatisfaction. Not that it's necessarily true for you, just my conclusion when I look at myself. I discipline myself a little to put serious focus on working it up to an optimal performance niche for my needs so that from that point on, it can just work for me and I can put my full focus on what I'm actually using the system for. I enjoy playing with PC rigs and new parts, too. But I can just seek out the odd commission build for that fix. My main system is why I bother to gain the knowledge in the first place. There's a goal with a start and end point.
It just has to be like that for me. ADHD makes one want to deviate from projects like these at some point, you get pulled in different directions. A system in continual need of refinement and adjustments is a major monkey on my back. It's easier to get to that crystallization point with air.
However, my next build is gonna be a very compact build. Maybe still ATX, but very small. Like, as small as possible, on the SFX PSU standard. I like the Cerberus X a lot. It's a rewarding challenge. Looks well built, giving you quite a lot to work with while being impressively small for something that accommodates a full ATX mobo. It's barely wider than the mobo itself. You could still put it on air, but obviously there isn't going to be much space in it for a good flow pattern.
It has other PSU options, and things like an optional hinged front rack to add mounting spots. Still gonna be a challenge in terms of rad space. It could concievably house at least two 240mm rads as long as they're under 30mm thick. Or something a like a 280 and a dual 92mm rad - slap some noccies on it for extra bottom rad volume to back up a 280 on the front. The way the mounting areas are punched allows for that kind of stuff, which is handy, because being limited to only convetional component forms would make laying out a full loop and leaving mounting space for a 2.5" drive or two much more difficult - I will have to be pretty careful with part selection to make everything work out. I'm honestly not sure what I would do with a case like this, yet. But that's part of the appeal with this side of building and configuring cooling setups.
With current platforms allowing for 2 nvme drives, I can deal with doing just that for system/games and then tacking on a fatter sata ssd for general storage. I came into a dual-chip 10-core xeon dell server, which is going to get packed with drives for both shared network storage and backup. So I can leave pretty much all of my available mounting space for cooling. But in a case this compact, I think I would rather go full custom liquid. It would be an interesting challenge for me, and will likely be the better way to get decent cooling for more power-hungry components.
Fingers get hot too you know.
