Log B35 Upgrade After 4+ Years!

[Cawa]

It's been a minute. I designed and built the B35 in 2017 to serve my needs at the time, which revolved around CAD for work and school, and it served me well in that capacity. To recap:

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CPU: Intel i7 7700K​

Motherboard: Asus Strix Z270i Gaming​

RAM: G.Skill TridentZ RGB 32GB 3200​

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i​

GPU: Nvidia Quadro P2000​

PSU: 300W G-Unique Type-A (300W)​

Storage: Samsung 960 Evo 1TB NVMe SSD​

Cooling: 3x NF-A6x25 PWM​

(Full build log here)​

I honestly haven't had any issues with this setup, but once I started working and using company-issued computers I found myself using it less and less, and when I wanted to get into gaming I couldn't really use it. So for the most part, it sat in its pelican case for the past little while. And while I still love how the case turned out, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with it for the following reasons:

1. Cable management from the original build sucks
2. The blower fan of the P2000 is very loud and annoying, even at the lowest 44% setting
3. The 300W restriction is very limiting
4. No space for any modern GPU*

And that asterisk is where this upgrade begins. Instead of designing a new sensible case I want to cram a full modern build into this package... again. And there is one GPU that can help me accomplish this- the A4000. It's a single-slot, full-length card, whose PCB is the size of a half-size card! @Runamok81 recently completed the Neon Rocket build, which showed off the potential of the A4000 in a SFF format, and it turned out spectacular!

I will have to take a slightly different approach. The B35 features 3 60mm intake fans on the bottom which help cool the VRMs and RAM, but on the other side of the case are currently doing nothing. I will use these fans to cool the A4000 via 2 3D-printed ducts as shown:

Still need to finalize the duct designs once the A4000 comes in as I intend to reuse the stock heatsink and shroud. The GUnique will be modified with additional wiring for PCIe power and the 300W external brick will be replaced with a modified 500W unit. A new PCIe gen 4 riser will be needed to run the A4000, but everything else should be pretty straight forward. I haven't decided whether to go with 12th gen i7 or i5 for the build, but leaning towards i5 due to reports of the 12700K running a little hot. This is the current component list:

CPU: Intel i5 12600K or i7 12700K (undecided)​

Motherboard: Asus Strix Z690i Gaming​

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32GB 5400​

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i Chromax​

GPU: Nvidia A4000​

PSU: 300W G-Unique Type-A (500W)​

Storage: Samsung 960 Evo 1TB NVMe SSD​

Cooling: 3x NF-A6x25 PWM​

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Updates to follow in the coming weeks!

 

[Mashndrow]

I'm impressed by the looks of the design and I think it's the coolest thing to have a case that no one has. I would recommend you to go i5 as you said about the heat that i7 can make. I would undervolt it to keep it in safe temperatures and lower the fan speed which you probably would.

I don't know if you buy the parts or not but would you wait for the new Ryzen series to come up and see the results? That way you may have better support for future CPU updates and I'm assuming you want ddr5 for future proof so you don't have to change the motherboard every two years.

 

[ignsvn]

Glad to see you again. Would be really interested to see the GPU temp after the implementation of the fan duct. Do share with us the results!