First off, the hardware that was used in that build:
- SilverStone Sugo SG13B
- Asus ROG Strix B450-I Gaming
- AMD Ryzen 5 2600X + Enermax LiqMax III 120mm + BeQuiet SilentWings 3 120mm PWM High Speed + Noctua NT-H2
- Sapphire Radeon RX 590 Nitro+ "OC" 8GB
- Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
- Two Kingston A2000 SSD NVMe 250GB in RAID-0
- Corsair TX750M + BeQuiet SilentWings 3 120mm PWM High Speed + 10kOhms NTC Temperature Sensor
I already owned one Kingston A2000 SSD NVMe 250GB, that I acquired a few months ago for my previous computer, but it turns out that 250GB isn't enough for Windows, all games and software...
So, since the motherboard has two M.2 PCIe 3.0 4x ports, I just bought a second one identical and put the both of them in RAID-0 using AMD RAIDXpert2.
You'll notice I don't have extra storage, that's because all my data are on my RAID-Z2 24TB NAS, where I have plenty of redundant storage space.
Which is also the reason I don't care if the RAID-0 fails at some point: nothing of importance is ever stored on the computer itself, just the OS and software.
The biggest limitation in that case, is the air-flow.
With only a single 120mm fan location on the front, usually used as fresh air intake, and nothing else at all, I'll have to rely on the PSU's fan to extract the hot air at the back of the case.
That's why I used a full size ATX PSU with a 120mm fan, and replaced it with a SilentWings used as air exhaust, connected on and managed by the motherboard (CHA_FAN).
And I also added a 10kOhms NTC temperature sensor glued right next to the secondary stage MOSFETs' heatsink to keep track of the PSU temperature (according to reviews of that specific model, FLIR pictures shows it's the hottest part of the whole PSU).
The sensor is also connected to the motherboard (T_SENSOR).
The PSU left me very little space for the CPU cooler, which is the reason I use an AIO watercooling.
It's of course a 120mm radiator mounted on the front of the case, with a second identical SilentWings fan used as air intake this time.
I didn't like the RGB light on the AIO pump/waterblock which was ON by default, so I plugged the RGB cable onto the motherboard for the sole purpose of turning it OFF.
The intake fan is of course connected on and managed by the motherboard (CPU_FAN), and the AIO's pump too (AIO_PUMP).
I used custom Q-Fan settings for both fans, the pump run at full speed at all time. I could make the pump run slower at low CPU usage, but it is surprisingly completely silent, so why bother.
The AIO tubing takes quite some place, but I managed to clear enough space for the PSU without kinking anything.
Most cables are tucked on the side and on the top, leaving the space behind the fan mostly free for a good enough air-flow.
Cable management is really a PITA in that case... so I did what I could.
Now let's talk about the graphics card.
That thing is in fact a little too big for that case: it's too tall and too thick which made it impossible to use the dedicated hole at the front of the case.
Plus the top spar was too wide for the card to be plugged onto the motherboard, I had to use pliers to twist part of the metal, which is quite ugly, but fully functional.
It took me almost an hour to put the card in the case, I had to twist the whole case frame to make enough room to put it inside, since I couldn't use the dedicated hole on the front and I had absolutely zero wiggle room.
It's touching the PSU on one side, and the case's frame on the other side, the front and the back...
The clearance for both fans is tight, but enough for some air movement.
Once everything is in place, time to close it up. All black look, with a few stickers on the front. Only the front blue light ON, everything else in stealth mode.
And finally the computer in its final location.
- IKEA cheap desk,
- Two Acer 24" K242HYLBbidx basic monitors,
- 7" system monitoring screen with a custom printed mount,
- Logitech K800 keyboard,
- Logitech MX Ergo trackball,
- Logitech Z2300 sound system,
- Songmics RCG52BK desk chair.
Obviously not a real gamer setup, I mostly use my desktop for work (software development and 3D modeling).
The only game a regularly play is Cities Skylines, so no real need for gamer keyboard/mouse. The game is quite demanding on the hardware though.
I like to keep an eye on the system usage and temperatures, and using a separate screen for that right next to me is just perfect.
It uses HWiNFO64 with HWiNFOMonitor add-on and RTSS running in the background.
Note that my desk is right in front of my wife's, where all the mess is situated...
I'm quite happy with the result, temperature are good enough. Workloads are tackled with ease, gaming in 1080p too at high settings across the board.
- SilverStone Sugo SG13B
- Asus ROG Strix B450-I Gaming
- AMD Ryzen 5 2600X + Enermax LiqMax III 120mm + BeQuiet SilentWings 3 120mm PWM High Speed + Noctua NT-H2
- Sapphire Radeon RX 590 Nitro+ "OC" 8GB
- Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz C16
- Two Kingston A2000 SSD NVMe 250GB in RAID-0
- Corsair TX750M + BeQuiet SilentWings 3 120mm PWM High Speed + 10kOhms NTC Temperature Sensor
I already owned one Kingston A2000 SSD NVMe 250GB, that I acquired a few months ago for my previous computer, but it turns out that 250GB isn't enough for Windows, all games and software...
So, since the motherboard has two M.2 PCIe 3.0 4x ports, I just bought a second one identical and put the both of them in RAID-0 using AMD RAIDXpert2.
You'll notice I don't have extra storage, that's because all my data are on my RAID-Z2 24TB NAS, where I have plenty of redundant storage space.
Which is also the reason I don't care if the RAID-0 fails at some point: nothing of importance is ever stored on the computer itself, just the OS and software.
The biggest limitation in that case, is the air-flow.
With only a single 120mm fan location on the front, usually used as fresh air intake, and nothing else at all, I'll have to rely on the PSU's fan to extract the hot air at the back of the case.
That's why I used a full size ATX PSU with a 120mm fan, and replaced it with a SilentWings used as air exhaust, connected on and managed by the motherboard (CHA_FAN).
And I also added a 10kOhms NTC temperature sensor glued right next to the secondary stage MOSFETs' heatsink to keep track of the PSU temperature (according to reviews of that specific model, FLIR pictures shows it's the hottest part of the whole PSU).
The sensor is also connected to the motherboard (T_SENSOR).
The PSU left me very little space for the CPU cooler, which is the reason I use an AIO watercooling.
It's of course a 120mm radiator mounted on the front of the case, with a second identical SilentWings fan used as air intake this time.
I didn't like the RGB light on the AIO pump/waterblock which was ON by default, so I plugged the RGB cable onto the motherboard for the sole purpose of turning it OFF.
The intake fan is of course connected on and managed by the motherboard (CPU_FAN), and the AIO's pump too (AIO_PUMP).
I used custom Q-Fan settings for both fans, the pump run at full speed at all time. I could make the pump run slower at low CPU usage, but it is surprisingly completely silent, so why bother.
The AIO tubing takes quite some place, but I managed to clear enough space for the PSU without kinking anything.
Most cables are tucked on the side and on the top, leaving the space behind the fan mostly free for a good enough air-flow.
Cable management is really a PITA in that case... so I did what I could.
Now let's talk about the graphics card.
That thing is in fact a little too big for that case: it's too tall and too thick which made it impossible to use the dedicated hole at the front of the case.
Plus the top spar was too wide for the card to be plugged onto the motherboard, I had to use pliers to twist part of the metal, which is quite ugly, but fully functional.
It took me almost an hour to put the card in the case, I had to twist the whole case frame to make enough room to put it inside, since I couldn't use the dedicated hole on the front and I had absolutely zero wiggle room.
It's touching the PSU on one side, and the case's frame on the other side, the front and the back...
The clearance for both fans is tight, but enough for some air movement.
Once everything is in place, time to close it up. All black look, with a few stickers on the front. Only the front blue light ON, everything else in stealth mode.
And finally the computer in its final location.
- IKEA cheap desk,
- Two Acer 24" K242HYLBbidx basic monitors,
- 7" system monitoring screen with a custom printed mount,
- Logitech K800 keyboard,
- Logitech MX Ergo trackball,
- Logitech Z2300 sound system,
- Songmics RCG52BK desk chair.
Obviously not a real gamer setup, I mostly use my desktop for work (software development and 3D modeling).
The only game a regularly play is Cities Skylines, so no real need for gamer keyboard/mouse. The game is quite demanding on the hardware though.
I like to keep an eye on the system usage and temperatures, and using a separate screen for that right next to me is just perfect.
It uses HWiNFO64 with HWiNFOMonitor add-on and RTSS running in the background.
Note that my desk is right in front of my wife's, where all the mess is situated...
I'm quite happy with the result, temperature are good enough. Workloads are tackled with ease, gaming in 1080p too at high settings across the board.
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