So, power is the word - and it's a longer update, so I'll cut it into two pieces:
I start by looking at power to the board, and the plugin-PSU - it seems to fit where it's supposed to - even with it's new PCIe neighbour in place.
Practically, I don't need to change any of my existing cabling I have been using for my x570 board - there is, however, one thing that always made me a bit nervous about my RC plugs, and that's the potential of one of them coming loose when fitting in stuff into my rather tight environment, and exposing some of my single rail 800W +12 Volt current to anything within the case.
So I add a layer of "collar" shrink tubing around all female connectors...
...that makes for a pretty solid overlap of insulation material between connectors and should be able to deal with the odd unintended pull to a cable.
I shrink them on in connected state, and once cool, I have something that interlocks precisely when pulling it on and off.
Board power: Check!
Next: The GPU.
A low hanging fruit is to replace the custom corsair plug at the end of the cable coming with the GPU water block (yes, I'll keep the RGB!) with the plug at the end of the adapter shipped with it to save cable length and unnecessary components.
It's a pretty straightforward cut-and-solder job, and after some sleeving I get something that looks pretty much like what I had before, but with the right connector and cable length:
And that's where all low hanging fruit is collected... the next one is a bit more demanding:
Replacing this...
...with something that can fit in here:
For orientation, this is towards the rear of the case and showing the GPU's outlet tube bypassing the 3090's 12-pin power connector. So yes, there is space, but no, it wouldn't fit NVidias adapter supplied with the card.
And here is where I resort to
@Josh | NFC 's method of "low profile connectors". I have prepared the single strands with connectors earlier in this log, this is also where you find a link to Josh's instructions:
To make sure I'm not pushing my luck twice and not confuse polarity to the 3090, six of them are now marked with a piece of white shrink wrap indicating +12V - better safe than sorry!
Having learned something about heating my connectors too slowly and boiling off the gold plating, I'm now using my beefy Dremel gas soldering iron to join six 18AWG strands into a single female 5.5mm bullet connector which serves as an adapter to the wiring I use for the connection to the PSU.
With some helping hands and a lot of flux...
...I get things soldered in pretty swiftly - and the gold plating remained intact this time around!
Reminds me of something I have seen in "the Matrix"...
With both poles prepared, I can start position them on the GPU and lenghthen the main wiring. In the centre of the image, you see a nylon standoff I have screwed into an unused hole of the GPU's PCB. With a perforated cable tie screwed onto it, it serves as a strain relief to make sure the tiny connectors I'll use to plug into the 3090's power socked remain intact.
Two strands of 35cm 16 AWG silicon wiring for each pole should be able to safely take the 550W power spikes a 3090 can pull without risking out-of-spec voltage drops.
NB that voltage (drop) this is a function of resistance and current - ie, should you want to run significantly longer wiring, you will have to increase the cross section as correlating to resistance.
A little soldering later, I have something ready for sleeving...
...and soon look at these two wires which should be ready for attachment to the GPU.
Plugging them in needs some care and patience...
...as the connector pins are not really designed to be bent and will eventually break, so having an idea about the final angle they need to be bent to is important to not move them too often.
With all twelve inserted and bent to not project over the PCB's footprint...
...I can tie them down to the GPU to make sure no strain or movement is exerted onto the pins plugged into the connector.
Good to go into the case!
A last mod missing is the RAM.
The G.Skill sticks above are at the sweet spot of what I have designed this machine for, running it 1:1 with an infinity fabric at 3,600 MHz. The CL14 timing may even allow me to push them further should I choose to, though aim is to get things running at slightly-above-average speeds and within the thermal and power envelope that the size of the build required.
As I have no space for decoration (and heat sinks for RAM are, really), I have gone for the non-RGB version as anything but the bare PCB would need to come off anyway.
There are various approaches to removing the heat sinks from the sticks (they appear to be bonded with an adhesive), and after looking at a range of them on you-tube I settle for the hot-air-with-credit-card-method - there are some quite crude techniques out there involving steel rulers and brute force - doesn't strike me as a good idea...
After some pre-heating (RAM is actually pretty robust, and so is my Panasonic high performance hair dryer - indispensible!), sliding the credit card between heatsink and PCB (starting from the bottom) requires surprisingly little force...
...and the heat sinks are pretty co-operative in falling off the modules.
The adhesives strips are rather messy, though - not the most elegant solution IMO!
Nothing that alcohol and cotton pads couldn't fix!
This looks compact enough...
...and putting everything else back around it confirms that things fit.
A bit blurry - it shows how the sticks now fit into the "tunnel" undertake GPU connector. And the water block's RGB strip - all bells and whistles in place!
The wiring from the GPU is routed to the front of the case and lengthened to connect to the PSU...
...and with the motherboard's power feed attached, everything should be in place to drop in the PSU and power things up.
But first I need to fill the build with coolant - not the most straightforward process in lieu of a dedicated reservoir (the pump has one for air separation, but it doesn't make for a fill vessel).
With that sorted...
...I can drop in and connect the PSU.
Fits...
...and ready to power on!
And: Nothing
After a lot of measuring it turns out the plug-in PSU's power connector has a broken pin - probably have bent the cable one time too often. No big drama, but a good point to for a break...
Next episode: Power, Part 2!
