In the end, I was never able to finish the side panels for Project SLITX. Up until May of last year, I was still in Texas, finishing up my Master's degree and pondering whether I should find a job or continue to Ph.D. The next moment I landed a job in Japan and now I am working as a software engineer in Tokyo. All that moving and changing wouldn't allow me time for SFF stuff and the SLITX was never finished.
Now I'm kinda settling down and finally have some time to look at the PC stuff again. Here's what I found out when I was away:
- RTX 2080 Ti replace GTX 1080 Ti and cost more than the Titan XP <insert surprise Pikachu face>
- SLI is officially dead
- Navi is, well, okay, I guess
- Zen 2 has Intel by the neck => HEDT 10th gen price slashed by half
- RAM/SSD price went down significantly
- SF750 came out, SX1000 probably at the end of the year
Also reviewing the current state of Project SLITX after being literally dragged around the planet:
- The 1TB NVME almost ran out
- One of my risers is dead and I have been running only one 1080 Ti ever since
With that in mind, this is going to be a rebuild instead of a fully new build, specs as follow:
- Motherboard: X299e-ITX/ac - Still the only existing X299 ITX motherboard on the planet, and seems like it'll hold out for another generation
- CPU: Core i7 7800X - Not that bad for my everyday task, that's why I'll wait and see how the price for HEDT will play out now that Intel slashed the price by half
- RAM: Kingston HyperX SODIMM DDR4 2400Mhz 16Gb x 4 - Almost not enough for Chrome, but the 32GB DIMM price is also falling rapidly, so this will have to do for now
- PSU: Silverstone SFX-L SX-800 LTI: Still the largest capacity SFX-L PSU, I don't really see the need to switch to anything else other than the SX1000
- Storage: Toshiba XG4 1TB NVME SSD, plus another Intel 660p 2TB NVME SSD seems like a no brainer choice for storage, finally an upgrade, phew!
- GPU: Palit RTX 2080 Ti GamingPro OC: Now, to be honest, Bifurcated SLI is really a PITA to get driver maintenance for, also the problem of riser failing. Rather, I am now going for the most performance and cooling out of what we call SFF (<20L Limitation).
Which also means full custom water cooling and no riser anymore. I wanted to see how much rad can be actually mounted inside a 20-liter volume constraint:
- CPU Block: the pump block leftover from the Be quiet! setup because I'm too cheap to buy another CPU block
- GPU Block: The currently all the rage XG7 block for 2080 Ti from Corsair
- Pump/Res: 2 DDC Pump/Res Unit, because I want two separate loops for CPU and GPU, each will be cooled by one of the:
- Two XSPC TX360 Radiators: Ultra-slim at 20mm and perform similarly to a 30mm
- Six Noctua A12x25 Sterrox would be mounted on the rad and controlled by the Corsair Commander Pro
Enough text, I guess. Here are the photos:
So I rearranged the frame a bit to accomodate the Rads. Now it stands at 400mm x 220mm x 220mm = 19.4 L. I am pushing the SFF Limit over here
Here's the CPU Loop
Let's check the CPU temp first:
The bequiet block is actually a pretty good performer, ambient temp is around 25C
Meet my newest victim:
Let's put the block on and test for DOA first,
That's how I imagine how the second pump/res gonna fit
And how everything fits
I really digs those GentleTyphoon style fanblades
Alright, let's fill the GPU loop
System up and running!
Now I'm kinda settling down and finally have some time to look at the PC stuff again. Here's what I found out when I was away:
- RTX 2080 Ti replace GTX 1080 Ti and cost more than the Titan XP <insert surprise Pikachu face>
- SLI is officially dead
- Navi is, well, okay, I guess
- Zen 2 has Intel by the neck => HEDT 10th gen price slashed by half
- RAM/SSD price went down significantly
- SF750 came out, SX1000 probably at the end of the year
Also reviewing the current state of Project SLITX after being literally dragged around the planet:
- The 1TB NVME almost ran out
- One of my risers is dead and I have been running only one 1080 Ti ever since
With that in mind, this is going to be a rebuild instead of a fully new build, specs as follow:
- Motherboard: X299e-ITX/ac - Still the only existing X299 ITX motherboard on the planet, and seems like it'll hold out for another generation
- CPU: Core i7 7800X - Not that bad for my everyday task, that's why I'll wait and see how the price for HEDT will play out now that Intel slashed the price by half
- RAM: Kingston HyperX SODIMM DDR4 2400Mhz 16Gb x 4 - Almost not enough for Chrome, but the 32GB DIMM price is also falling rapidly, so this will have to do for now
- PSU: Silverstone SFX-L SX-800 LTI: Still the largest capacity SFX-L PSU, I don't really see the need to switch to anything else other than the SX1000
- Storage: Toshiba XG4 1TB NVME SSD, plus another Intel 660p 2TB NVME SSD seems like a no brainer choice for storage, finally an upgrade, phew!
- GPU: Palit RTX 2080 Ti GamingPro OC: Now, to be honest, Bifurcated SLI is really a PITA to get driver maintenance for, also the problem of riser failing. Rather, I am now going for the most performance and cooling out of what we call SFF (<20L Limitation).
Which also means full custom water cooling and no riser anymore. I wanted to see how much rad can be actually mounted inside a 20-liter volume constraint:
- CPU Block: the pump block leftover from the Be quiet! setup because I'm too cheap to buy another CPU block
- GPU Block: The currently all the rage XG7 block for 2080 Ti from Corsair
- Pump/Res: 2 DDC Pump/Res Unit, because I want two separate loops for CPU and GPU, each will be cooled by one of the:
- Two XSPC TX360 Radiators: Ultra-slim at 20mm and perform similarly to a 30mm
- Six Noctua A12x25 Sterrox would be mounted on the rad and controlled by the Corsair Commander Pro
Enough text, I guess. Here are the photos:
So I rearranged the frame a bit to accomodate the Rads. Now it stands at 400mm x 220mm x 220mm = 19.4 L. I am pushing the SFF Limit over here
Here's the CPU Loop
Let's check the CPU temp first:
The bequiet block is actually a pretty good performer, ambient temp is around 25C
Meet my newest victim:
Let's put the block on and test for DOA first,
That's how I imagine how the second pump/res gonna fit
And how everything fits
I really digs those GentleTyphoon style fanblades
Alright, let's fill the GPU loop
System up and running!
