A parts list and some photos of the innards would be awesome!
Here you go:
MB: BIOSTAR X370GTN
CPU: Ryzen 7 1700
RAM: G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB 3200
SSD: SAMSUNG 960 PRO M.2 1TB
GFX: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini
TL;DR summary - assembly 90% done, thermals suck with cover on, have some minor issues to address, still love the case and the PSU.
Wall-o-text:
I started assembly, and I think I made every mistake possible, at least twice. Having said that I did get everything into the case tonight and I definitely have some tweaking to do. The CPU is pretty cool (high 60s) but the 1080 TI is hitting max temp pretty quickly, and the clocks come down quite a bit (1600 ish, compared to 1800ish outside the case). I played with the GPU fan curves but the card just is way too loud with the fans over 70%, so I need to add some supplemental air. I have some Noctua 40mm and 60mm fans that I will play with to see if they can bring any additional cooling onto the card.
I'll send pics once I get some of the wiring cleaned up, looks horrible right now.
One issue I need to solve is I am getting some GPU sag (i plan to use the unit horizontally), which results in the fan near the front bezel hitting the metal/bezel. I can manually adjust it and it stays in place, but moving it and it will sag again (not a lot, just enough for interference to happen). I will try some strategically placed foam inserts and some double sided tape so they don't move around.
Feet for the case is a must if using a hot card like the TI, I had the S4 laying on the motherboard box for some testing and the card throttled all the way back to default clock speed of 1620! I missed out on Josh's machined feet so I picked up some speaker feet, and I'm playing with mounting options; I want something that doesn't require me to take the case covers off to add or remove the feet, so more double sided tape! Love the stuff.
I used a kill-a-watt meter to see what I'm pulling under stress, depending on the test it's between 380 watts and 450 watts (yes I know, it's not going to show my spikes). I noticed my brick was getting pretty toasty so I let it run and the brick looks like it hit thermal limits and shutdown after an hour. It didn't appear to be due to power draw itself, but it's hard to tell. I checked my order and it looks like I ordered the wrong brick (he has several). I've sent in an order for his best brick which is supposed to support 450 watts.
I view this as my issue, not the PSU/brick's fault. For now I'm going to try slapping some thermal tape/heatsinks and a fan on the brick and see if I can bleed off enough of the heat to make a difference.
Now, having said ALL that, I'm not getting the same amount of pull when playing games, just the synthetics, so I'll do more long term testing this weekend based on how I plan to use the system (portable Oculus Rift VR system, stuffing the S4 and the VR gear in a Pelican).
