Log CG7 #1 - personal build setup

owliwar

Master of Cramming
Original poster
Lazer3D
Apr 7, 2017
586
1,082
Hey all, I know I got the CG7 design topic, but I wanted one post to just show off my build and how I'm using it on a more personal level, without mixing it too much with the topic that should be more for questions and thing related to purchase and shopper questions; anyway, with that out of the way

Welcome to my home office setup
I always had a dedicated home office setup for my freelancing stuff, and I've been using the CG7 as my daily driver for over 2 years now.
As with a lot of people, I've been working on my day job as well from home on this quarantine and my setup has evolved a bit, so I though I could share a bit on my cozy place

This is how i'm working right now:


the current star of my build is the Low prifile GTX1650 from gigabyte . its a really nice powerful little gpu. for comparison, my partner has a gtx970 on a full tower, and the performance is pretty much the same. that doesn't seems like much but look at the size of this thing!
it only really gets loud when playing games, otherwise the whole system is very silent. temps for gaming is around 80c

The case: CG7 Cravo

My baby and creation in partnership with Lazer3d, I have the earliest prototype of the final form (we had an early one but I don't talk about that) and its almost exactly like the ones that is available to buy. the only caveat is that this prototype had a minor clearance issue on the pci cutout, that is fixed and works perfectly on the retail unit, so keep that in mind.
more earlier pics can be seen on the development thread, but I'll post what I have currently inside:

CPU - i7 4790
GPU GTX 1650 LP
RAM 16gb ddr3
Drives 480gb sata ssd + 1tb 2.5 hdd
PCI USB 3.0 x4 hub
MB H81M-VG4 R3.0 (basic 1150 motherboard)

the PC is starting to get kinda old now, but it still holds really well for what I do. I was going to update for an am4 this year but the pandemic hits and there's no itx motherboard available anywhere here anymore. :(
also, if you take a closer look to my motherboard, you'll realize that its not ITX. so I had to get creative.

The lower portion of the back panel is not screwed in place. I could remove the DVI port on the gpu but I didn't wanted to lose the warranty. the backpanel is still hold in place by the top screws and the middle slot that the back piece has, so its actually quite secure in place. The rest of the panels attatched to the metal corners just fine, so the case is still pretty solid.
The downside to this is that I had to remove the noctua case fans, so the gpu had to rely on its own little fans but thats ok.

I took the time to update my cooler to the noctua NH-L9x65; it is a worthy upgrade from the NH-L9i that I was using befor or the C7. even though they were hella cool, I DO have the space right. I haven't fully teste my temps yet but I could do it if anyone is interested.


This is how it was on the inside (last month pic)


As its hard to see, its basically: a usb hub/ conector on the 1st pci slot + the gtx 1650 on the 2nd and non existent 3rd slot. the gpu is around 3 to 5mm from the bottom panel. I put a piece of rubber there so the fans wont touch the case and help fix the gpu in place a bit better.

IMPORTANT
This case has a dedicated micro-atx layout, with 4 extension slots (for narrower motherboards, check the dev post for more info) BUT I currently don't have the hdplex here with me.
I honestly suggest that if you need more pci slots like I did, you go with external psu but I don't have that option right now!


On current updates:
I bought the silverstone 300w tfx psu. I already swaped it and I didn't had time to update the interior pics, so I'll just put the comparison of the psus here:

Im actually a bit sad that the cables ares not fully black but that's ok. the psu it a lot better anyways. the seasonic unit was an OEM one and already used when I got it. a small light blink would shut off my pc, while the silverstone can handle small peaks;

the current usb pci card i'm using is this one btw




The Desk:
Let me break it down some stuff from my setup and what I do in my desk


The desk I've made myself (its just mdf, simple structure that works great), the little shelf for speakers and for my miscellaneous stuff was made from the leftovers of the same wood,
I've made the speakers, I've designed the CG7, and thats the extent of what I can design at the moment haha
as you can see, design is my passion

For Work, I do book cover Illustration for freelance, also at my day job I work with graphic design as well for a big company. I've been doing digital illustration for a decade now, and for that I use my (now really old) intuos 4 medium. the size is great for my 24 inch monitor, which I have on an arm. the Shelf / stand is mostly for storing my drawing tablet and macro keyboard, because otherwise fitting all of this on a small table is a nightmare. The wacon itself used to just be under my keyboard, and its kinda scratched because of that.
also, is really nice that, when I want desk space to write or draw on paper I can just shove everything down there and thats really nice.

For my macro keyboard, I have a Razer Tartarus v2, I use it basically for illustration (yes, up until last month I've been using these kind of keyboards only for photoshop.)
the large drawing tablet is great for illustration, but very bad for your shoulders. so, after a lot pain, five years ago I got the Razer Nostromo v1 (the blue one) and this year i updated to the v2 that kept the scroll wheel. that's important because I use that for brush size control. also its RGB

The keyboard I have is the akg k552RGB (brown), from red dragon. its wildly available here in Brazil and I love that. it got our ABNT2 layout, and its per key RGB lightning allowed me to match it to my purple-ish gradient on my tartarus v2



The mouse is nothing fancy, as I don't game that much, its just an logitech m280.

For audio, I have my akg k92 connected to the um2 from behringer. its a nice setup, the k92 doesn't need that at all, I just like that I can keep both my speakers and my headphone connected now. also I use the um2 to measure speakers with a flat response microfone, and that's DIY audio stuff that I do as hobby.
Also i'm getting a proper mic to use for voice chat. I'm currently using the flat response mic on an arm that's attached to my shelf there and its really comfortable. kinda dig the look more than i actually need it, but aint we all?

For productivity, I've been using my ipad as a second monitor via duet display + usb cable. works really well, the latency is kinda bad but I use mostly for media consumption, text messages or when I got to look at spreadsheets while doing design work.

Another HOT TIP is that recently I've been using the Across software that allow me to use my keyboard and mouse on the ipad via bluetooth. < mechanical keyboard on the ipad is a godsend for those apps that are not cross compatible with windows like the 'things' app, for example.

And at last, have a 3d printed part on top of my monitor, that's where I put my phone to use as webcam during my weekends tabletop rpg game. but i'll update that later.




That is it for today!
Thanks for the visit! my cat morgana says bye

(yes, my PC gets full of fur from time to time)
 

owliwar

Master of Cramming
Original poster
Lazer3D
Apr 7, 2017
586
1,082
! Urgent News !

An AM4 Mini ITX board became available last week (in a really good price), and I just had to buy it. I algo bought a 32gb ram kit, that had a relatively fair price. the Cpu market here is a a lot overpriced and soon we might go to ryzen 4000s so I just got a Ryzen 5 1600AF.
comparing to my current specs, I'll be overclocking it so I'll be just a litte better in single thread but almost double performance in multithread scores.

New Part List:
Ryzen 5 1600AF
Gigabyte B450 I Aorus Pro Wifi
32GB DDR4 TrydentZ neo RGB, 3200mhz

GTX 1650 4gb gddr5
500gb SSD
1TB HDD
2x noctua 92x15mm case fans
noctua L9x65mm cpu cooler

I might change to the C7 Copper, or regular C7 for aesthetics, dunno yet.

As soon as the parts get here I'll try to update the photos. I'm still a month away from vacation and I'm doing a lot of freelancing nowadays so I'm not sure If I'll have enough free time to transfer my system before then hahaha
 
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owliwar

Master of Cramming
Original poster
Lazer3D
Apr 7, 2017
586
1,082
Can I just say the name Morgana fits your cat perfectly.
Thanks <3
I adopted her when I was playing persona 5 with my partner so I just had to


also, update:
mail delivered my ramm sticks yesterday.
so I did a system transfer last night and everything works!
I should have waited until the weekend but obviously I was to excited haha

now under normal workloads I'm "only" using 24gb of ram