Hey Ya'll,
This is less of a build log and more of a change log as I was never one to take pictures along the way, not really realizing it was a thing that people did.
I have always liked smaller PC's. My last build prior to this was a Silverstone Fortress mATX build with an at the time brand new i5 2500k and GTX560ti and subsequently a GTX760.
For those interested:
i5 2500k w/ Noctua U9SE cooler (I cant remember the overclock I was running now, but it was solid for many many years.
16gb DDR3 1600mhz
2x 120gb OCZ SSD's in raid 0
GTX560ti/GTX760
I was happily ignorant, having not played many PC games since getting married until my friend introduced me to Farcry 5.... You know who you are!
This resulted in me purchasing a GTX1080 mini from zotac and all of a sudden my frame rates were acceptable, but I now had the bug.
Next I purchased an NZXT H200i but ultimately, while it looked ok, it was way too big.
So I did some research and an ncase M1 found its self my way.
The initial build was:
i5 8600k
NZXT Kraken x52
16gb DDR4 2400mhz
240gb m.2
2tb HDD
GTX1080 mini.
I found this to be quite adequate but I still had the bug and truth be told (as funny as this will seem by the end of this post, I didn't like how cramped everything was from the AIO, so I looked into both water cooling and air.
After realizing there were no GPU blocks available for the GTX1080 mini, I did what any sane person would do and purchased a 1080ti Founders card.
From here it was a swag of different air cooling setups:
I must say I was pretty stoked with both of the above setup's, which netted similar results in the ncase.
But now I wanted to try something new, so I went out and purchased the EK Fluid Gaming kit AND an 8700k i7 processor.
This worked out great and was a really good way to get a feel for watercooling but to be honest the thermal results were disappointing. Given I had never watercooled before I was pretty stoked with how it looked for a soft tube kit, but honestly disappointed that it was louder and hotter than on air.
So naturally, I went and dropped about $700 on watercooling parts and started again.
Or if you prefer:
Adding the 92mm radiator definitely helped, along with the more powerful DDC3.2 pump and I now had a much more quiet machine, though temps were still average at best.
So I delidded the i7 and added an external 480mm radiator under the desk.
The results were AMAZING really. I was able to run the CPU at 5.2ghz with no real concerns on thermals and still an almost completely SILENT machine. As you would expect with 240+480+92MM of radiator on a single GPU setup.
BUT the 480 bothered me and it was a disaster when I had to move the PC etc etc.
And so here we are, the current setup.
Forgive the messy desk, I need to sort out cable management on the desk, however due to working on a corporate laptop and constantly switching peripherals I need to put some extra thought into it.
The results are great, but if I would change and probably will change is I will swap in my DDC3.2 pump into the predator, as the current pump can be a bit noisy at the required RPM to keep things moving.
Current setup:
i7 8700k @ 5GHZ
GTX1080ti @ 2025mhz
16gb DDR4 @ 2400mhz
240gb m.2
500gb SSD
2tb external drive
EK Slim 240 Radiator in bottom
2x 120x15 slim noctua fans
EK Predator 240 side mounted
2x Noctua NF-A12x25 on Predator
I think I am going to sit on this setup for a while. I was tempted to go with a ghost, however with 2 radiators in the Ghost it would actually be taller than the n1 anyway.
ciao!
This is less of a build log and more of a change log as I was never one to take pictures along the way, not really realizing it was a thing that people did.
I have always liked smaller PC's. My last build prior to this was a Silverstone Fortress mATX build with an at the time brand new i5 2500k and GTX560ti and subsequently a GTX760.
For those interested:
i5 2500k w/ Noctua U9SE cooler (I cant remember the overclock I was running now, but it was solid for many many years.
16gb DDR3 1600mhz
2x 120gb OCZ SSD's in raid 0
GTX560ti/GTX760
I was happily ignorant, having not played many PC games since getting married until my friend introduced me to Farcry 5.... You know who you are!
This resulted in me purchasing a GTX1080 mini from zotac and all of a sudden my frame rates were acceptable, but I now had the bug.
Next I purchased an NZXT H200i but ultimately, while it looked ok, it was way too big.
So I did some research and an ncase M1 found its self my way.
The initial build was:
i5 8600k
NZXT Kraken x52
16gb DDR4 2400mhz
240gb m.2
2tb HDD
GTX1080 mini.
I found this to be quite adequate but I still had the bug and truth be told (as funny as this will seem by the end of this post, I didn't like how cramped everything was from the AIO, so I looked into both water cooling and air.
After realizing there were no GPU blocks available for the GTX1080 mini, I did what any sane person would do and purchased a 1080ti Founders card.
From here it was a swag of different air cooling setups:
I must say I was pretty stoked with both of the above setup's, which netted similar results in the ncase.
But now I wanted to try something new, so I went out and purchased the EK Fluid Gaming kit AND an 8700k i7 processor.
This worked out great and was a really good way to get a feel for watercooling but to be honest the thermal results were disappointing. Given I had never watercooled before I was pretty stoked with how it looked for a soft tube kit, but honestly disappointed that it was louder and hotter than on air.
So naturally, I went and dropped about $700 on watercooling parts and started again.
Or if you prefer:
Adding the 92mm radiator definitely helped, along with the more powerful DDC3.2 pump and I now had a much more quiet machine, though temps were still average at best.
So I delidded the i7 and added an external 480mm radiator under the desk.
The results were AMAZING really. I was able to run the CPU at 5.2ghz with no real concerns on thermals and still an almost completely SILENT machine. As you would expect with 240+480+92MM of radiator on a single GPU setup.
BUT the 480 bothered me and it was a disaster when I had to move the PC etc etc.
And so here we are, the current setup.
Forgive the messy desk, I need to sort out cable management on the desk, however due to working on a corporate laptop and constantly switching peripherals I need to put some extra thought into it.
The results are great, but if I would change and probably will change is I will swap in my DDC3.2 pump into the predator, as the current pump can be a bit noisy at the required RPM to keep things moving.
Current setup:
i7 8700k @ 5GHZ
GTX1080ti @ 2025mhz
16gb DDR4 @ 2400mhz
240gb m.2
500gb SSD
2tb external drive
EK Slim 240 Radiator in bottom
2x 120x15 slim noctua fans
EK Predator 240 side mounted
2x Noctua NF-A12x25 on Predator
I think I am going to sit on this setup for a while. I was tempted to go with a ghost, however with 2 radiators in the Ghost it would actually be taller than the n1 anyway.
ciao!
