WYSIWYG - BC1 Mini

[tinyitx]

This build has the following bought and soon-to-be-bought components:-
‧Streacom BC1 Mini
‧Corsair SF600 Gold
‧Noctua NH-C14S
‧Asus Z390I Gaming
‧Intel i9 9900K
‧G.Skill Trident Z 2x8GB DDR4-3200
‧Samsung 970 Pro M.2 512GB (OS+)
‧Samsung 970 Evo M.2 1TB (Data)
‧Windows 10 Pro
‧MSI RTX 2070 Gaming Z

This is my first ever encounter with SFF (ie ITX motherboard, SFX PSU) and Windows 10 (wish me luck here).

I just start to use imgur to host my pics. I have not registered and just use it without an account to see if this goes well.
(BTW, does anyone know how long a pic will stay there without having an account?)

First pic of the build. I have mounted the SF600 onto the BC1 Mini. You can see I am using a mockup to test out the length of the stock cables as well as the famous stiffness. Fortunately, I think the length of the 24-pin cable is enough and the stiffness is manageable.


Edit#1 spec updated

 

[loader963]

i believe imgur keeps pics 6 months from the last "view" . After that it goes into the ether.

 

[el01]

i believe imgur keeps pics 6 months from the last "view" . After that it goes into the ether.

WE NEED AN AUTO REFRESH THEN!

It's beautiful though... Can't wait for the build!

 

[tinyitx]

My local stores now carry almost all Asus Z390 motherboards except one. Guess which one is missing.
Yes, it is none other than the Z390-I Gaming!
Well, I have waited so long and I suppose I can handle one or two more weeks.

One good news though. I found out from Noctua website that my NH-C14S is lised as 'Compatible' with Asus Z390-I.

RTX 2070 should come put on 17th and i9 9900K on 19th. While waiting, I think I will get the SSDs first.

 

[tinyitx]

Got SSDs today.

 

[tinyitx]

This cooler is so eager to come out to cool something. Hopefully he can come out of the box to show his muscle in a week or two.

 

[tinyitx]

Today makes a big step forward with the purchase of an Asus Z390i Gaming.
While waiting for the release of i9 9900K, I am comparing various RTX 2070 cards, among themselves as well as comparing with a 2080. If you have an opinion on a favourite 2070, do give it here.

 

[tinyitx]

Today, I installed the memory and the top SSD.
Note the huge rear I/O shield (which is also an aluminum cooler for the VRM) and the relatively tall memory (44mm) and the to-be-installed GPU will form a almost closed 'valley' or bowl, making this not very suitable to install a small top down heatsink CPU cooler. If such a cooler does not rise above this 'valley', hot exhaust air will have difficulty to escape and hot air pocket might form somewhere.

I will be using a Noctua NH-C14S, which is taller than this 'valley' and so hopefully the down draft will bring beneficial cooling to the memory, SSD, VRM and possibly the backplate of the GPU.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

What You See Is What You D ? What does the D stand for in WYSIWYD ?

 

[tinyitx]

What You See Is What You D ? What does the D stand for in WYSIWYD ?

The 'D' should be a 'G'. A typo.
This build is a 'naked' build and everything is visible for your eyes to see and feast on.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

The 'D' should be a 'G'. A typo.
This build is a 'naked' build and everything is visible for your eyes to see and feast on.

Makes sense ! So this a G for "get" :-)

 

[tinyitx]

I installed the EK M.2 heatsink to the bottom SSD but refrained from putting it into its socket. My general install practice is to install only the boot drive in a new system. When the OS is installed successfully, I will then install other drives. So, this bottom SSD has to wait before getting home.

One lesson I learned and like to share:-
Samsung 970 EVO 1GB NVMe has 'varying' thickness along its length. Actually, it is, sort of, stepped. The thickness of the memory modules is thicker than that of the controller.
So, the proper way to use the thermal pads is:- for the entire length of the bottom, use 0.5mm thickness (as per EK install guide). No trick here. But, for the top, use 1mm thickness pad only for about half the length (toward the socket end). And use 0.5mm thickness pad for the rest (toward the screw end). If you follow the EK instruction and use 1mm along whole length of the top, you will have a very hard time to put the clamp into place.
I am not sure if this is Samsung 970 EVO 1GB specific or this applies to other brand/model, just keep this in mind.

 

[tinyitx]

The Borg Pentagon has arrived. It is ready to assimilate anything in its path.
I plan to mount it on during this weekend with the NH-C14S.
One step at a time.

 

[tinyitx]

Installed the Noctua Secufirm 2 system into the Asus Z390i Gaming.

Two essential points to take note:-
1. The alignment of the 2 mounting bars must be what is shown in the pic below. If they are rotated 90-degree, then the NH-C14S will not be able to be installed due to physical conflict with the VRM heatsink to the right.

Furthermore, the NH-C14S can be oriented in only 1 of the 2 directions. That is:- with the heatpipes pointing to the right hand side. The other direction (with heatpipes pointing at the display card) will have physical conflict between the cooler and the GPU.

2. The lower mounting bar touches slightly the heatspreader of the nearer memory module, exerting pressure enough to make it to incline slightly toward the other module. As I am not sure of this effect in the long term, I use a steel file to remove some material off the apex of the curve of the mounting bar. So, instead of having a curvature, the apex is now, sort of, flat. About 0.5 to 1mm of material needs to be filed off. A 10-minute job.

Another solution is to pick a memory module kit having a not-so-thick heatspreader. Mine is GSkill Trident Z RGB which is just a tiny bit too thick (~8.5mm). I would probably have chosen Kingston Savage or Fury (~7.1mm thick), thus giving a reduction of (8.5-7.1)/2 = 0.7mm off from one side.

 

[tinyitx]

NH-C14S is assimilated into the rig.

The GPU will be installed very soon, hopefully sometime today.

 

[kittysox]

You can easily remove that I/o cover if you want. Not like you can see anything once you orient that c14 correctly.

 

[tinyitx]

You can easily remove that I/o cover if you want. Not like you can see anything once you orient that c14 correctly.

Yes, I know I can remove the I/O cover. But I do not want to because it is there not for its look but also serves a functional purpose of cooling the VRM as it is a big piece of aluminum. So, for functional purpose, I want to keep it.

With this orientation, the C14S provides maximum cooling to both (top and rear) VRM heatsinks and the RAM while the SSD receives lesser air. If the C14S is oriented pointing forward towards the RAM, rear VRM heatsink receives lesser air but the SSD gets more. So, it is a trade-off, IMHO. But, from a pure aesthetic point of view, I agree that a forward pointing C14S seems to look better.

This is my first ever ITX motherboard and so I am learning.

 

[tinyitx]

All major hardware components are in place. There are still minor things like setting up USB ports.

Now I will move onto the software side. Windows 10 is my main concern of this entire build.
But, first and hopefully, it will boot up OK into the BIOS. I will tackle this tomorrow.

 

[tinyitx]

The volume of this rig is 2.54 x 2.51 x 3.05 = 19.44, just making into the SFF category.

Edit#1:
Visually it is much smaller than 19.44 as this number includes the vast space around the cantilever display card.
Without a case, the visual perceptive volume is about 10 or 11.

 

[tinyitx]

System boots into BIOS but I have yet to find time to install Windows.
A few important and/or urgent matters come up and need my attention.

My first build with entirely M.2 drives, thus having no SSD data and power cables.
A much cleaner look. This is more important for a test bench because there is no place to hide cables.
So, it is down to the absolute minimum of 5 cables:- mobo 24 pin ATX, 8 pin ATX, two GPU PCIe and CPU fan.
And, no case fan!