Ryzen 3000 Ghost S1 + 3700x + 2070 Super - Build Check

WikiWikiWang

What's an ITX?
Original poster
Aug 23, 2019
1
0
Hi all! This is my first time building a PC and I've always loved the idea of having a powerful, compact computer that could fit in a backpack. Just wanted to post here and get a few more eyes on the build to spot any potential problems. My main concern is temperatures, and I don't have a good idea outside of YouTube videos and Reddit posts of how cool the Ghost will run. I've read that having the right fan placement in the Ghost can change temperatures significantly. I have a lot of questions about my choices, here's some of my thoughts in no specific order:

1. My build will primarily be used for productivity apps. I'm running Blender, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects, deep learning with CUDA, Unity and Unreal Engine, and Cinema 4D; I'll also game but that is just a secondary priority. Games I will be playing are Overwatch, Rainbow 6 Siege, CS GO, Civ, Squad, Battlefield V, Rocket League.

2. For Blender, I want to have good live viewport performance. In this case, I don't think stepping up to the 3900x would make much a difference since a lot of things seem to favor single-core performance. Furthermore, I chose the 3700x due to it's lower (65W) TDP, so that should relieve temps a bit? **I will not be using CPU for rendering; purely GPU CUDA rendering.** So the Ryzen 3000 Blender CPU render benchmarks that sites keep throwing around don't have much affect on my choice of CPU. I also heard Resolve utilizes the GPU heavily.

3. I chose the 2070 Super with the possibility of upgrading to a 2080 Ti or next gen in the future. (Also why I bought the Corsair SF750) **I'm conflicted between getting the Founder's Edition or the EVGA XC Gaming). I simply want the best temps**, and I hear AIB cards cool better than founders? It looks like the fins are more exposed on the EVGA vs the Founder's, where the metal covers up a lot. I'm firm on having an Nvidia card as I will need CUDA.

4. I will be cooling the 3700x with a NZXT Kraken x52 on the top of the Ghost S1 with the large tophat. I was also considering buying a small or medium tophat to put on the bottom of the case along with 2x Noctua NF-A12x15 fans. Will this help temps? **If I do get two fans and a tophat for the bottom, should those fans be in intake or exhaust?** My gut tells me intake because air would be sucked in through the bottom, run across the VRMs on the motherboard, and then through the AIO. However, I realize that intake would also cause the fans to blow more hot air from the GPU upwards toward the AIO as well. Exhaust would blow more GPU hot air out, but I'm worried about VRM temps on the X570 I Aorus Pro Wifi motherboard. I saw a thread talking about it here (). Since I'm using an AIO instead of a NH-L12, there won't be any air forced past the VRMs. Don't know what matters more...

5. I bought two SX8200 Pro NVMe's. The 500GB is for OS and apps, while the 1TB is for project files, a scratch disk when editing, and games. The motherboard I am getting has two M2 slots: one has a heatsink and fan on the front of the motherboard, while the other is on the back of the motherboard with no heatsink. **Which NVMe should I put in the cooled socket?** Will the 500GB OS NVMe run hotter since it's always being used? Or will the 1TB NVMe run hotter since when I play games or edit projects, all the assets will come from there?

6. **Can you fit an SSD between the PSU and the middle panel?** I want to get a small SATA SSD for running Linux, and would rather not partition one of my NVMe's. I saw a post on here () showing this mounting position, but I haven't seen a picture of a build where someone actually did this. Will this affect the routing of GPU power cables?

7. In the future, I'm hoping to upgrade my CPU and GPU to the max, as long as the case can cool it properly. **Will 3900x + 2080 Ti turn the Ghost into a furnace ??** I've seen 9900k + 2080 Ti builds here, but do they actually perform well?

8. Might be pushing it here, would a 3950x survive in there ??

I'll end this post with the parts list below:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor ($329.00 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X52 Rev 2 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($169.99)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($125.00)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($60.34)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive ($118.99)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8 GB Video Card ($499.99 @ Best Buy)
Power Supply: Corsair SF 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Custom: Ghost S1 (Ash) ($269.00 @ Amazon)
Custom: Ghost S1 Tophat (Large, Ash) ($49.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $1931.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-08-23 03:20 EDT-0400