My 1st Custom Build - Cerberus 3D Workstation

[artbywaqas]

Hi Everyone,

So after my laptop ( of 7 yrs!) finally died I decided I should try to build my own smaller portable 3d workstation. This was my first time ever building a computer from scratch.

I'm definitely no expert but hopefully this post will help out other first time builders and give you
a better idea of how to plan for and work with a small form factor case.

If you've never built your own computer before I highly recommend it.

It was actually quite easy to do!

If you're curious here's where this whole endeavor began:

SFF Workstation Building Advice Needed

I'm interested in building a portable pc workstation to use for 3D Animation, VFX, VR & Game development. I do a lot of contract work onsite and always end up using my own computer so durability and portability are a must! I really like the MSI Trident X series but the two things it's...

smallformfactor.net

Here's the parts I started out with:

System Builder

pcpartpicker.com

 

[Chromavoid]

Nice! Im building a Cerberus PC soon-ish, but on an i7 9700k (with a Noctua C14s cooler), and likely a 2070 or 2080. Thanks for sharing

 

[artbywaqas]

You're welcome

 

[artbywaqas]

002 Installing the CPU -




Installing a CPU - Linus Tech Tips





This was the one thing I had never done before and was most scared of messing up.

Just make sure you have your anti-static wrist band on and that you're properly grounded.








Beginner's guide to motherboards - JayzTwoCents





Using an Anti Static Mat - Michael Canady

 

[artbywaqas]

003 Installing the Motherboard -


Installing the motherboard is pretty straight forward. Just refer to your manual which should have a diagram showing which screws go where.

When you mount your motherboard in your computer case make sure you have these little tabs on the IO shield in place correctly.

I actually had 2 tabs that were not. Which I realized only after I put together the whole computer.

 

[artbywaqas]

004 Installing the Top Fan, Front Input cables & RAM

Top fan

Make sure the top fan is 120 mm, 15 cm thick.




Why is the front USB3 cable so long?

 

[artbywaqas]

005 Installing SATA Hard Drives


So here's one problem I ran into. Yes, you can install two hard drives directly on the inside of the case but the SATA power cable plugs are so big and thick that they just won't fit together.




My solution was to simply remove the lower 2 screws on the top hard drive so that it is no longer flush against the case allowing for the SATA plug for the drive beneath it to easily fit behind it.

 

[artbywaqas]

006 Installing the Lower Fans & Power Supply

 

[artbywaqas]

007 Installing the CPU Cooler







Make sure to apply the thermal paste on the CPU first!



The metal bracket was easy to install.

The radiator was not. The springs on the 2 screws of the radiator are really tough to push down and required considerably more force than I was thinking. Also they need to line up with the little pegs sticking out from the middle of the brackets above.. These were very difficult to line up and tighten and for a while I was so sure I broke something in the process.



Anyhow once installed the fans were easy to attach.

 

[artbywaqas]

008 Installing the Graphics Card

The graphics card I got is really long. I had to take out the power supply and front fan just to get in.


That was fun.

 

[artbywaqas]

009 All Done?




I had not planned on it but in the end I did add an additional M2 Sata drive when I realized I needed more space.

 

[bubbl3]

The build would be fine, but you need much better cable management, the SF750 definitely has long enough cables for the 8 PIN CPU to go around the profile of the motherboard instead of across.

 

[CountNoctua]

The build would be fine, but you need much better cable management, the SF750 definitely has long enough cables for the 8 PIN CPU to go around the profile of the motherboard instead of across.

True, but very impressive regardless for a first-time build. I don't think I started doing proper cable management until relatively recently (a lot of people never bother with it, especially for purely functional builds). Does help with airflow, though, so not purely aesthetics thing.

 

[Valantar]

True, but very impressive regardless for a first-time build. I don't think I started doing proper cable management until relatively recently (a lot of people never bother with it, especially for purely functional builds). Does help with airflow, though, so not purely aesthetics thing.

True, but for a portable build proper cable management can also be a boon for longevity in keeping the cables tied down and not flopping about - either coming loose or obstructing a fan, for example. From the looks of the cables, they should be flexible enough for relatively easy routing (though I'm not familiar enough with the case to say whether it'd be easy). Still, the build is nicely done, looks well laid out. Gotta love the Cerberus for its combination of compactness and ability to take full-size hardware. Quite the upgrade from your laptop, no, @artbywaqas ?

 

[artbywaqas]

@bubbl3 I was thinking that's the only way to not block the CPU fan or the RAM.

I'll try seeing if I can move those big power supply cables over to one side somewhere.. maybe towards the top of the case?

@Valantar Yeah, it's nice but I've already run into some problems. My power supply died last Thursday. The replacement should be here sometime today.
I wonder if I placed it wrong? I had it with the fan facing the front of the case.


Another issue I've had is with high CPU temperatures while rendering. I've only tried rendering once since I've been mostly just 3d modeling and texturing lately for work.

I was trying a light mass build in Unreal and it went up to 85 and then even 92 degrees for a few min! I've seen people get high temperatures even with the Kraken x62 which was what I was originally thinking of using for cooling.

Given this I'm thinking I need to figure out how to down volt so I can lower the CPU temperature? I looked around the the MSI Bios setting but I was not sure what I need to be editing.

 

[artbywaqas]

010 Down Volting the CPU

Ok so it turns out this is pretty easy to do .. if you ask the right person. I called MSI Tech Support.

Here's what you need to do:

Go to the OC - Over clocking section of the Bios

Under Misc Settings you can disable overclocking altogether by turning off Intel Turbo Boost.

Now the CPU will run at it's base speed 3600Mhz

After doing so if you still want to overclock your CPU but have more control over it what you want to do is
manually set the CPU ratio.

Changing the CPU ratio. The default for the i9-9900K CPU is 3600Mhz. Ratio x base clock = frequency so for the default 36 x 100 = 3600 Mhz If you want to try overclocking in a more controlled way keep the Intel Turbo Boost disabled and try increasing just the CPU ratio manually. DO NOT change the CPU Base Clock which is set to 100.

See images for more info



I also found this very good video which explains what settings and results you can potentially get with the i9-9900 K

 

[Valantar]

Disabling turbo boost is a rather extreme measure, and will undoubtedly make your PC far less responsive in day-to-day use as it'll stay at base clock even for quick single-core loads (which are extremely common). A significantly better, more flexible solution would be to adjust your multi-core turbo multipliers to levels more fitting of your thermal budget. Intel CPUs have different turbo boost clocks depending on how many cores are active, and these levels can be adjusted either in Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) or in the BIOS of any half-decent motherboard. Add a negative voltage offset (most modern Intel chips handle something around - 0.01V) and you'll have a much cooler-running system that won't feel any slower in bursty workloads.