Production SENTRY 2.0: Evolution of console-sized gaming PC case

[aaaadrian]

Hey guys want to post a quick update on my Sentry 2.0 build with all kinds of information. So I also bought an ASUS B550i motherboard for my wife's future build a while ago, and I've been using that in my Sentry 2.0 with 3700x. What I found is that ASUS BIOS allows me to set PCIE speed for each slot which is great. Then yesterday (11/21/2020) Micro Center in north jersey had a massive 100+ Zen 3 CPU drop and I drove there and got a 5600x!

I switched back to gigabyte x570i to use with my new 5600x because asus mobo is not compatible with my black ridge cooler and sentry's pcie riser card because heatsink would cover the pcie slot. I ran some preliminary stress test and benchmark, and what's interesting is that, 5600x runs much cooler than 3700x.

In AIDA64 CPU stress test, if I set vcore to auto for both CPUs, 3700x package power would be around 85w - 90w, and 5600x package power is 75w. I used to have to undervolt my 3700x to keep it cool but now I don't have to undervolt any more. I also found that 1% low and 0.1% low fps improved quite significantly in some games' built-in benchmarks like far cry 5 and assassin's creed valhalla.

Then there's one last thing regarding black ridge compatibility: I was able to mount black ridge with my original crucial ballistix 3600 memories but they are definitely touching the heatsink and I felt quite uncomfortable, so I switched to corsair vengeance lpx 3600 kit which has no compatibility issues.

Now my build is near perfect, except the last 2 small things that bother me:
1. That damn gigabyte bios pcie speed setting doesn't allow me to run ssd at 4.0 and graphics card at 3.0;
2. Since I had to remove the chipset fan to fit black ridge cooler, my chipset temperature is kind of hot now. I set my CPU fan curve to start at 50% to help cool chipset down but it still hovers around 67 degree Celsius when idling. Hopefully this won't be a big issue.

 

[Dax911]

With the new amd cpus the 5600x is a no Brainer in my opinion. I mean when you only game this thing rocks and you have the lower thermal output to easily cool it with a nh-l9a. The perfect cpu for this beautiful case. Change my mind!

What do you mean by lower thermal output ? What's the difference between the 3700x in terms of thermal ?

 

[Dax911]

Hey guys want to post a quick update on my Sentry 2.0 build with all kinds of information. So I also bought an ASUS B550i motherboard for my wife's future build a while ago, and I've been using that in my Sentry 2.0 with 3700x. What I found is that ASUS BIOS allows me to set PCIE speed for each slot which is great. Then yesterday (11/21/2020) Micro Center in north jersey had a massive 100+ Zen 3 CPU drop and I drove there and got a 5600x!

I switched back to gigabyte x570i to use with my new 5600x because asus mobo is not compatible with my black ridge cooler and sentry's pcie riser card because heatsink would cover the pcie slot. I ran some preliminary stress test and benchmark, and what's interesting is that, 5600x runs much cooler than 3700x.

In AIDA64 CPU stress test, if I set vcore to auto for both CPUs, 3700x package power would be around 85w - 90w, and 5600x package power is 75w. I used to have to undervolt my 3700x to keep it cool but now I don't have to undervolt any more. I also found that 1% low and 0.1% low fps improved quite significantly in some games' built-in benchmarks like far cry 5 and assassin's creed valhalla.

Then there's one last thing regarding black ridge compatibility: I was able to mount black ridge with my original crucial ballistix 3600 memories but they are definitely touching the heatsink and I felt quite uncomfortable, so I switched to corsair vengeance lpx 3600 kit which has no compatibility issues.

Now my build is near perfect, except the last 2 small things that bother me:
1. That damn gigabyte bios pcie speed setting doesn't allow me to run ssd at 4.0 and graphics card at 3.0;
2. Since I had to remove the chipset fan to fit black ridge cooler, my chipset temperature is kind of hot now. I set my CPU fan curve to start at 50% to help cool chipset down but it still hovers around 67 degree Celsius when idling. Hopefully this won't be a big issue.

What's your temps with the 5600x ?

 

[Mosskovskaia]

What do you mean by lower thermal output ? What's the difference between the 3700x in terms of thermal ?

The reviews say the 5600x is cooler than zen 2 cpus with 65w TDP.
But what I mean is that you have nearly or even more sometimes the power of a 10900k in gaming with 65w. If you primarily game this is the cpu for sff cases.
On the sentry website they suggest 65w cpus and this comes with a low of power.
If newer games need more cores in the future I think zen 4/5 arrived and you get more cores for the same heat output. Buying „future proof“ and doing witch craft to cool 105w in a small case is too much work for too little effect in gaming. Compare the 5600x to a 5800x and you’ll see that you getting 5fps more in some titles, is this really worth to spend that much money on the cpu and than cooling? Not for me

 

[Mosskovskaia]

Once again, I'll be repeating myself - wait for actual benchmarks of this smart access tech in games that will actually use it. This is new stuff. It might mean the first games will have negligible gains, it might mean current "pci-e 4.0" risers may glitch out on it, it could mean it'll work flawlessly on pci-e 3.0 (we've barely passed 8 lanes of bandwidth on 3.0 with 2080TI). We'll start thinking about how to tackle it once we will see actual data on it and actual gains. I hope it better be worth it.

This is what this whole thing is about (constant real time scene/content streaming to the GPU)


So wake me up when you'll see games actually doing this in reasonable manner. Note how much RTX actually changed how games look. It might be like this again initially that first games will just barely scratch the surface of what can be done with this tech. That's because most of the people won't have the hardware to run it properly on PCs.



That's because in this type of construction you can't have the slot right at the edge of the case so there's space from either side to make a structure holding the case together. You won't make a bend right next to the pci slot hole. Also if you put fans directly next to a punch out perforation like in sentry or a4, essentially most of perforation types, it'll make turbulence and cause noise. Also the case is made for GPUs with reasonable wattage and triple slot cards are not really reasonable wattage cards for SFF cases like this.



What I don't like here is that the presentation stating *target* PCIe 4.0 compliance is pre PCIe 4.0 release. It's from September 2012, the 4.0 was declared by PCI SIG in November 2011, so that's around the time they started working on it. 3M stating the *target* compliance means they are aiming for this riser to be future-proof, but at that point in time they can't know. The 4.0 spec gets finalised and released in December 2017, meaning whole five years later. Ton of stuff might have changed that 3M didn't know at the point they have made that presentation in 2012. With that said, the 3M is indeed a member of PCI SIG so they had access to the spec as it was developed and most likely took part in development.

My point here is that I'd like to see a spec sheet specifically stating 4.0 compliance that was actually made after 4.0 release and not something marketing-style predictions made for investors years ahead of the release.

Hardware unboxed suggested that the SAM mode even works on PCIe gen 3.0.
Maybe you’re a wizard or you are really good at what you’re doing for suggesting this.
I‘m convinced that gen 4 is nice for workload people who need the speed because that equals money but for gaming this will be something in the future.
But maybe things will change sooner because of the new consoles.
When developers had time to dig into the high speeds we pc gamers could profit of this too but time shows

 

[daddelbud]

With the new amd cpus the 5600x is a no Brainer in my opinion. I mean when you only game this thing rocks and you have the lower thermal output to easily cool it with a nh-l9a. The perfect cpu for this beautiful case. Change my mind!

Well, I wont say easily. I'm running 5600x stock with a l9a and see temps up to 86degrees - im looking forward to try the axp-90

 

[dinorax]

Now my build is near perfect, except the last 2 small things that bother me:
1. That damn gigabyte bios pcie speed setting doesn't allow me to run ssd at 4.0 and graphics card at 3.0;
2. Since I had to remove the chipset fan to fit black ridge cooler, my chipset temperature is kind of hot now. I set my CPU fan curve to start at 50% to help cool chipset down but it still hovers around 67 degree Celsius when idling. Hopefully this won't be a big issue.

Oh i thought i read that black ridge cooler is compatible with gigabyte x570i (including the chipset fan)? which version of the bridgeridge you have? though i think v1 and v2 diff are mainly the mounting.

 

[Mosskovskaia]

Well, I wont say easily. I'm running 5600x stock with a l9a and see temps up to 86degrees - im looking forward to try the axp-90

Well 86C under full load is better than 95C with the 3700x.
Under what circumstances do you get those temps? In gaming or a synthetic Benchmark?

 

[aaaadrian]

Oh i thought i read that black ridge cooler is compatible with gigabyte x570i (including the chipset fan)? which version of the bridgeridge you have? though i think v1 and v2 diff are mainly the mounting.

No it's incompatible unless you remove the chipset fan. I have the v2 cooler with newer mounting bracket. In terms of temperature, my 5600x stabilized at 86 degree after more than 10 minutes of stress test, and my 3700x would break 90 degree and start thermal throttling without undervolt.

 

[Dax911]

The reviews say the 5600x is cooler than zen 2 cpus with 65w TDP.
But what I mean is that you have nearly or even more sometimes the power of a 10900k in gaming with 65w. If you primarily game this is the cpu for sff cases.
On the sentry website they suggest 65w cpus and this comes with a low of power.
If newer games need more cores in the future I think zen 4/5 arrived and you get more cores for the same heat output. Buying „future proof“ and doing witch craft to cool 105w in a small case is too much work for too little effect in gaming. Compare the 5600x to a 5800x and you’ll see that you getting 5fps more in some titles, is this really worth to spend that much money on the cpu and than cooling? Not for me

I thought that the 5600x and the 3700x would have fairly the same thermal output since they are both on a fake 65w tdp and even if the 5600x is lacking 2 core vs the 3700x , the frequency of the 5600x is a bit higher. I would have loved a 5700x with lower tdp than the 3700x. As many of this thread have noticed ryzen cpu seems to tend toward high temperatures ( and boost clock) anf it has been quoted as normal " temp" from amd.
I am going toward rendering and dev , so the 3700x is appealing with the two extra core comparing yo the 5600x, but i am still afraid of the temp...
Gonna wait some more review on the 5600x but i've waited too long this time , the sentry have been sitting for too long in his box .
Going for this build btw if anyone got feedback on this it will be much appreciated .
Case : sentry 2.0 ( obviously)
Mobo: asus rog strix x570-i
Ram : corsair Vengeance lpx 32gb (3200)
Memory : samsung nvme evo 970 pro (or the 980 evo pro)
Cpu : 3700x or 5600x
Cpu cooler : noctua l9hi (am4 ) chromax black
Psu : corsair sf750
Gpu : rtx 3070 evga xc3

I will probably do a video of the build if I got time.

 

[daddelbud]

Well 86C under full load is better than 95C with the 3700x.
Under what circumstances do you get those temps? In gaming or a synthetic Benchmark?

Gaming, but get around the same with 30min of prime95

I thought that the 5600x and the 3700x would have fairly the same thermal output since they are both on a fake 65w tdp and even if the 5600x is lacking 2 core vs the 3700x , the frequency of the 5600x is a bit higher. I would have loved a 5700x with lower tdp than the 3700x. As many of this thread have noticed ryzen cpu seems to tend toward high temperatures ( and boost clock) anf it has been quoted as normal " temp" from amd.
I am going toward rendering and dev , so the 3700x is appealing with the two extra core comparing yo the 5600x, but i am still afraid of the temp...
Gonna wait some more review on the 5600x but i've waited too long this time , the sentry have been sitting for too long in his box .
Going for this build btw if anyone got feedback on this it will be much appreciated .
Case : sentry 2.0 ( obviously)
Mobo: asus rog strix x570-i
Ram : corsair Vengeance lpx 32gb (3200)
Memory : samsung nvme evo 970 pro (or the 980 evo pro)
Cpu : 3700x or 5600x
Cpu cooler : noctua l9hi (am4 ) chromax black
Psu : corsair sf750
Gpu : rtx 3070 evga xc3

I will probably do a video of the build if I got time.

I would go for some faster ram, I can not reach the review results with my 5600x and it seems to be the slow memory keeping the CPU from performing the best.
I 'only ' get around 585/4100 in cinebench

 

[dinorax]

No it's incompatible unless you remove the chipset fan. I have the v2 cooler with newer mounting bracket. In terms of temperature, my 5600x stabilized at 86 degree after more than 10 minutes of stress test, and my 3700x would break 90 degree and start thermal throttling without undervolt.

hmmm, did some diggings and found below from reddit post... from the first imgur pic, chipset fan is compatible with the 92mm fan .. unless you are using 120mm fan? but you did mention you are using corsair lpx kit.. that's weird.

1st imgur link from the reddit post by 'u/titeywitey":

 

[dinorax]

Apologies for the hideous format from my previous post, unfortunately, unable to edit it..

just wanted to share the following link from u/titeywitey on his completed built:
BlackRidge & gigabyte x570i

 

[Idle2824]

I answered that question about the black ridge compatibility a few pages back in this thread.

Anyway, I'm quite surprised that people are reporting such high temperatures for the 3700x. Granted, I have the black ridge with a 120mm fan, but I'm not seeing temperatures above 77 C when maxing out all cores on cinebench or the calculations I run for work. I am running my cpu completely stock.

 

[dinorax]

I answered that question about the black ridge compatibility a few pages back in this thread.

Anyway, I'm quite surprised that people are reporting such high temperatures for the 3700x. Granted, I have the black ridge with a 120mm fan, but I'm not seeing temperatures above 77 C when maxing out all cores on cinebench or the calculations I run for work. I am running my cpu completely stock.

Thanks, i did rmb reading your post.. just got curious when i read about the incompatibility ..

fyi for everyone else interested in blackridge setup, I believe here are some pics of the offset mentioned:
Not mine, found it in a reddit comment, but i didnt manage to capture who posted it..sorry...

I thought that the 5600x and the 3700x would have fairly the same thermal output since they are both on a fake 65w tdp and even if the 5600x is lacking 2 core vs the 3700x , the frequency of the 5600x is a bit higher. I would have loved a 5700x with lower tdp than the 3700x. As many of this thread have noticed ryzen cpu seems to tend toward high temperatures ( and boost clock) anf it has been quoted as normal " temp" from amd.
I am going toward rendering and dev , so the 3700x is appealing with the two extra core comparing yo the 5600x, but i am still afraid of the temp...
Gonna wait some more review on the 5600x but i've waited too long this time , the sentry have been sitting for too long in his box .
Going for this build btw if anyone got feedback on this it will be much appreciated .
Case : sentry 2.0 ( obviously)
Mobo: asus rog strix x570-i
Ram : corsair Vengeance lpx 32gb (3200)
Memory : samsung nvme evo 970 pro (or the 980 evo pro)
Cpu : 3700x or 5600x
Cpu cooler : noctua l9hi (am4 ) chromax black
Psu : corsair sf750
Gpu : rtx 3070 evga xc3

I will probably do a video of the build if I got time.

I am in exactly the same situation as you ... been waiting and saving up funds with the sentry still in the box, lurked here for the longest time ever..
My current plans are:

Case : Sentry 2.0 (waiting in box)
Mobo: Gigabyte x570i (Status: pending)
Ram : TG T-force 2x16gb 3200mhz (Status: bought this many months back with the initial plan for 3600 cpu)
Memory : Adata XPS SX8200 (Status: bought this similar time with the ram)
Cpu : 5600x (Status: pending, or 3600 if there are no stock anywhere)
Cpu cooler : Black ridge v2 (Status: bought it long ago with plans for DAN A4 till Sentry 2.0 poped up.. lol)
Psu : corsair sf750 (Status: pending)
Gpu : rtx 3070 evga xc3 or AMD radeon 6800 (Status: pending)

Sadly, stocks are very limited nowadays ... just gotta wait longer, hopefully not too long.

 

[Dax911]

Thanks, i did rmb reading your post.. just got curious when i read about the incompatibility ..

fyi for everyone else interested in blackridge setup, I believe here are some pics of the offset mentioned:
Not mine, found it in a reddit comment, but i didnt manage to capture who posted it..sorry...


I am in exactly the same situation as you ... been waiting and saving up funds with the sentry still in the box, lurked here for the longest time ever..
My current plans are:

Case : Sentry 2.0 (waiting in box)
Mobo: Gigabyte x570i (Status: pending)
Ram : TG T-force 2x16gb 3200mhz (Status: bought this many months back with the initial plan for 3600 cpu)
Memory : Adata XPS SX8200 (Status: bought this similar time with the ram)
Cpu : 5600x (Status: pending, or 3600 if there are no stock anywhere)
Cpu cooler : Black ridge v2 (Status: bought it long ago with plans for DAN A4 till Sentry 2.0 poped up.. lol)
Psu : corsair sf750 (Status: pending)
Gpu : rtx 3070 evga xc3 or AMD radeon 6800 (Status: pending)

Sadly, stocks are very limited nowadays ... just gotta wait longer, hopefully not too long.

Nice build , got some number of the black ridge v2 vs the noctua nh-l9a chromax ?

 

[Dax911]

I answered that question about the black ridge compatibility a few pages back in this thread.

Anyway, I'm quite surprised that people are reporting such high temperatures for the 3700x. Granted, I have the black ridge with a 120mm fan, but I'm not seeing temperatures above 77 C when maxing out all cores on cinebench or the calculations I run for work. I am running my cpu completely stock.

Thank you, I may consider the black ridge then !

 

[Dax911]

There is a nice yt video for low profile cpu cooler if needed

 

[GVLT]

Hi, is there a list of compatible 3080 around here? I already sold Asus TUF OG because it won't fit.

 

[riba2233]

Hi, is there a list of compatible 3080 around here? I already sold Asus TUF OG because it won't fit.

EVGA XC3 is your best bet.