Log My (second) Streacom DB4 build

[Raiju]

Instead of upgrading the old one I decided to build from scratch. AMD build this time.

My first one used the HDplex cpu block, although it does its job with a pentium G4560 I am not fond of the block. It is made of 2 copper blocks with solder inbetween, they are not well soldered, instead of breaking it apart and resoldering I opted to go with the HDplex gpu block for the cpu. That block is a real beast.

I managed to mount it to the motherboard.

Parts so far:

Gigabyte A520I AC
Ryzen 4750g pro
Samsung 16Gb 2666Mhz ECC (b-die) x 2

waiting for the ssd and various other parts

 

[rfarmer]

Curious to see your cooling results. I have a 4350G in a DeskMini X300 and it is a great little CPU.

 

[Raiju]

Curious to see your cooling results. I have a 4350G in a DeskMini X300 and it is a great little CPU.

I made a typo, its the 4750g. I'll start with one panel and hope it can run stock without throttling, if not 45W profile should work., I hope.

 

[Raiju]

I figured I test the hardware first before I build it. Normally I am build, flip switch and hope everything works.

I decided to check the contact between the cpu and heatsink first. So I put the cpu on top of the theatsink. O dear, I could rock it about a full mm, that’s bad, very bad.

The heatsink showed light machine grooves, nothing bad, looked ok. Did some tests with light and it failed. Out with the sanding paper, took for ever to grind the grooves away. After that took a lot of further sanding to get it flat. My arm is sore but the heat sink is flat.

Second try with the cpu, better but still could rock it a bit. Should I do the cpu? Never done one with pins before. Wasn’t so bad, put some foam on top of the pins and it did the job. Ihs had one nasty high spot.

Third try, nice contact! In fact I am so pleased with it I think Coollaboratory metal pad might just work.

Time to assemble and see if I can get it to flow in the bios.

 

[Raiju]

I ran it like this

When I got in to bios cpu was 30C, rising very slowly 1C at a time. Apparently there was decent contact even without the pad melting,

After well over an hour it kinda stabilized at 70C, too low so I put a heatgun to the heatsink and got it up up to 90C.

It cooling now, hope it worked.

 

[Raiju]

Looks like the pad worked, updated bios, memory does 3200 Mhz @ 1.2v

running over an hour now

 

[Valantar]

Those APUs are ridiculously easy to cool, I've been running my 4650G (mostly) passively under an Accelero S1 GPU cooler with great success. It has a fan, but it barely ever runs, set to kick in above 65°C.

I had no idea Gigabyte had an A520 ITX board btw. Looks nice! Nicer than the ASRock my APU lives in

 

[Raiju]

Yes, that why I choose the apu, because of the monolithic die.

 

[Raiju]

I would appreciate some opninions on this.

The DB4 now comes in titanium color

Thing is titanium is above msrp and black below, resulting in almost 100 euros price difference. That's a bit steep for just a color but I really like the titanium.
I can afford it since I can't get a gpu now anyway. What should I do? Get titanium or save some money and get black. Maybe get it re-anodised? that way I can choose the color I want, no idea how much that would cost though.

 

[dealda]

I think getting it reanodized yourself probably isn't cheaper than the 100€ premium. So if you don't want a specific color which isn't available I wouldn't do it.

 

[Valantar]

I think getting it reanodized yourself probably isn't cheaper than the 100€ premium. So if you don't want a specific color which isn't available I wouldn't do it.

Not to mention that it would necessitate either etching, sanding or sandblasting the current anodization off, which would change the surface texture and affect the final finish - and not in a good way unless whoever does it really knows what they are doing.

 

[Raiju]

Thank you both for the input. I agree, re-anodizing is too costly and with risk of the panels getting damaged.

Some fun facts I didn't know, anodized aluminium radiates heat 8-9 times better than bare extruded aluminium. And black radiates 15-16% better than clear, the silver one is clear I believe. I suspect the titanium to sit between silver and black..

Reason enough for me to go with the black one.

 

[Raiju]

pm9a1 1Tb

Qnap heatsink

 

[Raiju]

I managed to get a shot of how well the pad flowed, some of it even oozed out, couldn't take shot of other side but that looked the same.

Back to the ssd, no fit

problem, bottom of the bracket doesn't clear the heatsink.

After a lot fiddling with a vise.

perfect

Black DB4 is ordered.

 

[BaK]

Where did you apply the Gelid thermal pad to?
Only on the controller or on the NANDs too?

I had a look at M.2 cooling recently and it turns out the NAND should not be cooled down.
From Gamers Nexus' video:

Or from Paul's hardware one.

 

[Raiju]

In case anyone else is wondering what is below this sticker.

Turns out it's not really a sticker but a nickel plated copper plate glued to the bare die.

This was totally not planned, I can be a bit impulsive at times. I had put it back with some MX4.

Where did you apply the Gelid thermal pad to?
Only on the controller or on the NANDs too?

I had a look at M.2 cooling recently and it turns out the NAND should not be cooled down.
From Gamers Nexus' video:

Or from Paul's hardware one.

Yes I know nand likes to be warm. I am in hardware test fase and controller and nand both run at 29C idle. But once it all goes passive that is going to go up at least 10-20C, so nand is going to stay nice and warm. Besides this heatsink mounts in the middle, if you leave out pads from the nand it will tilt and make poor contact with the controller.

 

[Raiju]

Well I couldn't really get tight timings with the ram, it didn't respond to voltage either. 3600Mhz 20-19-19 @ 1.2V is best I could do. It isn't bad for ECC I guess, windows confirms multi-bit ECC. I was a bit scared ECC might not work with a pro apu, couldn't find clear info, but it does.

This is my first AMD cpu and I am impressed.

 

[Valantar]

In case anyone else is wondering what is below this sticker.

Turns out it's not really a sticker but a nickel plated copper plate glued to the bare die.

This was totally not planned, I can be a bit impulsive at times. I had put it back with some MX4.

Most people could have told you that's no sticker, that's the IHS/chip package. Just be glad they didn't use a stronger adhesive, or you might well have killed the drive.

Regarding the thermal pad, given the mounting for the heatsink shown above, you could probably get away with cutting the pad so that it only contacts the controller. It'll sit slightly askew, but most SSD coolers do that already due to the controller and NAND packages being different heights, so that's nothing to worry about. You could always stick a sliver of cardboard or something in there as a spacer if you need it flat, of course. The NAND isn't going to overheat.

 

[Raiju]

Case has been here a while now, unopened yet. Didn't have any time.

Got an intel AX210 and some antennas, combo works nice.

On with the build, next is to connect the chipset to the vrm heat sink to the rear panel.

 

[Raiju]

Project has been on backburner for a while now because no gpu. I ordered a RTX A4000.