The Green Lean Bench Machine - Not Anymore

[Jay85]

Im building this purely out of boredom and to fulfil an itch i've had for awhile.

I've always wanted a little test bench to mess with but at the same time i dont wanna be spending an absolute fortune on parts for what is basically a very little use case scenario.

So with that in mind, i went out on the hunt for cheap parts, nothing latest and greatest but no slouch either. Budget myself to a max of £500 for the entire build, for several weeks i've been looking for parts. Wanting to keep with ITX form factor as well for that cute and uniqueness made it that much harder to source parts for cheap.. cos you know ITX is double the price of ATX! The Smaller you got the more expensive it gets!

Parts list over the weeks i've acquired:

• 6700k (This chip was marked as untested, took a punt and it freakin works no issues!)
• Asus Z270i ITX board (Won this on auction for what is probably a rather good bargain price considering they still go for £120+)
• 32gb DDR4 Corsair Low profile ram 3600mhz (Nicked this from work, unwanted and was destined to be recycled)
• Crucial P3 Nvme SSD drive (Amazon bargain for £35)
• Lian LI SP750w SFX PSU (OCUK B Grade special, knocked a fair chuck off the list price after some negotiation with the ocuk team and Rob, ta mate!)
• Cult 3D printed ITX Test Bench by JTKW, printed by Sabitech in my favourite colours, Carbon Fibre and Proper in your face green for £35
• GPU? Probably order a Sapphire RX7600, i want this more for the Starfield code than anything else .

Total Spend thus far: £268 exc the gpu.
Including GPU: £498 ooooof that was close!

But Jay, you haven't bought any cooling?! What are you gonna cool it with? Fairy fans?!

Naaaah mate, i have a ton of leftover watercooling stuff, fittings, blocks, rads, tubing, everything to make a man happy.

So cooling i have:

• XSPC Raystorm (New revision) cpu block
• XSPC TX120mm radiator, i have a 240mm radiator as well but mounting is an issue right now and im sure the weight will hold.
• XSPC compression fittings, i might go hardcore and go hardline on the cpu side.
• Old EK DDC pump res combo, however just bought a Phanteks R160 res combo from MM on ocuk so will swap that out.
• Leftover Phanteks D30 fan

Last night the build began, took weeks for some parts to arrive due to RM having a hissy fit with its management. But a few weeks delay and all the parts arrived safely, even despite the postie hurling my motherboard box over the gate like his life depended on it.


First check out this Cult 3D ITX test bench! I honestly thought an ATX psu would fit into this so i went ahead and bought one only to find it doesn't fit so that's back up for sale (Please buy it ), hence the need for a ITX psu in the end. I did panic for abit since ITX psu's have skyrocketed in price recently, i can't find a decent spec one with a high wattage for sub £125! SFX means it will cost you double what a regular ATX would cost, bonkers!








Now the build pics! Some soldering and hot melting required here, i bought some special tips so i could push the holt melt inserts in for the screws to fit in. Worked a charm, i highly recommend these to anyone wanting to do this with 3D printed stuff.








All inserts done and ready to assemble and test fit. Always a nervous part for me, if it doesn't fit now im ******! Also, didn't use the FLT120 in the background, too heavy and mounting isn't good. Adds too much pressure on the mounts with it being 3D printed plastic i didn't want to risk it.













Board assembled, ready to go in.




Yup those are keyboard switches for the Power and Reset switch! Went for some Tactile Zaku II's for that nice satisfying press! Love it! Just need to solder the pins on the back to a switch cable.




Watercooling hardware mounting, tricky but i got it to work. Might need to get some more printed mounts to fit this.












This is where i left it last night, tubing runs to do and plan but i need to take into a count for the gpu. Will also use some QD's as well so i can integrate a watercooled gpu for testing purposes if need be.

Thats it for now!

 

[Jay85]

Some soldering done the other day for my Power and Reset Switches. As mentioned previously, i used Zaku II Tactile switches. Wasn't using them in a keyboard anyway so made use of them in my pc stuff instead , feel like the keyboard community would kill me for it tbh. Keeping it as neat as possible with heatshrink. Just need to add another lay of heatshrink over the split wires to make it more seamless. Not a awful job considering i don't solder often!






Also updated and adding ZMT tubing, what stuff i had leftover and used some leftover 16/10 compression fittings. Was gonna hardline some areas but thought naaaah, a mix of hardline and soft tubing is kinda cool but when i find a little more time i might do it.

Just waiting for the Phanteks R160 reservoir to come now so i can swap it over. The old EK res is fine but i don't think it matches the modern aesthetics, going for that cyberpunky look here again!

GPU i think im pretty set on getting a RX 7600 for this, with the savings on it and the game code i think its a pretty good deal. Was a little tempted by the 6700xt but i dont think its £80 more tempting afterall im only gonna be using it for benching/testing and maybe the odd emulation stuff. GTX 550ti is a placeholder , can't believe it still works lol.

 

[PitterPatter]

Nice work!
I wish i had the patience to do really tight, small builds but I was losing my mind just doing an mATX build. Impressive.

 

[Jay85]

Nice work!
I wish i had the patience to do really tight, small builds but I was losing my mind just doing an mATX build. Impressive.

Thanks mate,

I find most large cases suffer the same issue of buildability where you still have to contort your hands to screw stuff in, it's not really that much different to a ITX build like this. If anything i have the ability to easily move the system around and work on all sides without having to haul the huge mass about.

More updates coming tonight or tomorrow, installed a bigger rad due to higher temps on the 6700k. It's a lot hotter than i thought it would be!

 

[Jay85]

Parts ordered today, couldn't justify the cost of a 6700xt. For a smaller low power rig and for the cost of the RX 7600 at its new price point with a Starfield code included (eager to play) i think its abit of a steal tbh.




Going to have a play about with the sleeving as well, i really wanted Atomic Green but unfortunately ocuk can't ship any across from Caseking in the quantity that i want unless it's i want a lot of it...

Hopefully the Reservoir arrives today or tomorrow as well so i can do abit more messing around with this.


Next up is deciding on a 4th monitor which i plan on hanging ontop of my 34", i have some funky ideas going on with this!

 

[Monkey Puzzle]

Nice work - very tidy!

 

[Jay85]

Reservoir has arrived! Can get reconstructing tonight, quite eager to get going!

 

[Jay85]

Also looking at getting a KVM USB Switch so i can switch between 2 computers with a single mouse and keyboard. If anyone has a better idea do give us a shout.

 

[PitterPatter]

Also looking at getting a KVM USB Switch so i can switch between 2 computers with a single mouse and keyboard. If anyone has a better idea do give us a shout.

I was looking at getting a kvm some months back but i got completely lost in the various options. In the end i just went with a wireless keyboard and mouse and sold my old gear.

The new KB and M connect to 3 different devices so that does me but curious to see what you end up with as it was a minefield for me.

 

[Jay85]

I was looking at getting a kvm some months back but i got completely lost in the various options. In the end i just went with a wireless keyboard and mouse and sold my old gear.

The new KB and M connect to 3 different devices so that does me but curious to see what you end up with as it was a minefield for me.

Dont think i have that luxury right now to change out my keyboard, my mouse is wireless which is fine but my keyboard is custom mechanical keyboard and doesn't have a bluetooth or battery option. KVM usb hub is my only real option i think so i'll give it a try. There's a UGreen version for a fiver more but the reviews for this one seem solid enough. If its crap i can always return it i suppose and think of another solution.

This switch does require a 5v usb power though which i think i can accommodate... maybe.

 

[dlockers]

I have this one: Deal: SABRENT USB share switch Selector, 4 PCs in 4 out, computer peripheral Switcher, USB sharing splitter, Control four PCs with one monitor, for PCs Mouse Keyboard Printer Scanner printer (USB-USS4) https://amzn.eu/d/3V6N94P

It doesn't need power to work but it has a power option. Works great for 2+ years.

 

[Jay85]

I have this one: Deal: SABRENT USB share switch Selector, 4 PCs in 4 out, computer peripheral Switcher, USB sharing splitter, Control four PCs with one monitor, for PCs Mouse Keyboard Printer Scanner printer (USB-USS4) https://amzn.eu/d/3V6N94P

It doesn't need power to work but it has a power option. Works great for 2+ years.

Awesome stuff man, thank you! Will get this one ordered instead then. I've not pulled the trigger yet as i've been scratching my head over how to install this pump/res from Phanteks lol.

 

[Jay85]

Update, Phanteks Reservoir arrived yesterday so spent the evening looking at orientation for the block. Real head scratcher on this due to the awkward case. There is nothing wrong with the mounting gear as it was designed to mount to a 120/140mm fan but in my case i dont have the luxury or space and i need to balance the weight out to avoid it falling over and tipping despite it having a low centre of gravity. I also took the opportunity while the loop was drained to change the 120mm XSPC TX radiator for a XSPC 240mm Xflow radiator. This also made the tubing a bit cleaner in the process.




My first orientation was probably the best and most ideal with the coolant flowing straight down to the waterpump, however i quickly realised my mistake... how on earth would i mount a gpu with that in the way?

So yeah back to the drawing board and dismantled it again to try a different method.




Second orientation is good though does take up a bit more room horizontally and im not sure how well it would work as the coolant amount now needs to be maxed out to not leave any air bubbles. Purging air bubbles would be abit of a nightmare too, i'm sure it would be a headache so once again decided against this orientation without testing it.. should have tested it really. (No pics for this, got abit frustrated at this point lol)



Last orientation and the one i settled on is this. There's no actual mounting platform for this as there's no predrilled holes in the back to allow for it to sit like this. I had to undo 2 screws that hold the pump to the reservoir then use longer bolts to screw the mount to the block into the reservoir as 1 single unit. It holds and its water tight though a little sketch since the entire weight of the pump and reservoir is held on by those 2 screws and with this in mind i've ordered longer screws to accommodate this extra weight.






And finally the gpu arrived today, the Sapphire Pulse RX 7600! The gpu that made no sense on launch but since its price drops and Starfield bundled it now is a pretty decent buy! Effectively making the card around £170 brand new! I watched a few reviews on this prior to purchasing and the build quality was one of those things that came up a lot. The cooler being abit flimsy and the mounting of said cooler not being great but i can say on my sample its a lot better, still a small amount of flex in the centre where the plastic is a lot less and thinner but overall its a very sturdy card. Quite abit of weight to it too despite its size.

Will be doing some tests on it tonight once i get the rest of the build all sorted out. I still have some more cables to sleeve and hide, it's a little bit of a mess but nothing i can't sort while i wait for other sleeving to arrive.

 

[clone]

You sir are a wizard, cracking little build

 

[Jay85]

You sir are a wizard, cracking little build

Thanks haha! Done some testing with the build today and most importantly overclocking!

Cranked that 6700k up to 4.6ghz at 1.3v with the ring ratio trailing behind at 4.5ghz (Much easier with no e cores to contend with). I tried for 4.7ghz but it needed too much voltage and more than im actually comfortable with. Decided 4.6ghz would be enough for the time being with it nibbling at the heels of the 7700k in both single and multi threaded tests on R23.


I am noticing a slight bottleneck even with the RX 7600 though but that was to be expected with it being so old. I undervolted the gpu to 1170mv and that allowed a power draw of around 130w while still cranking upto 2.7/2.8ghz, card runs super cool under 60w with this setting. Memory i literally just cranked it all the way up and its fine, just works lol.

RAM wise i only managed at a 3466mhz at 20-24-42 timings at 1.35v. I tried for the XMP setting of 3600mhz but it would get stuck on a boot loop and no post. This on a 32gb set (2x16gb DDR4), older arcthitecture so im guessing less compatibility for higher speeds right now. I never mess with this chipset or cpu when it came out, i kinda skipped the whole 6th and 7th gen and went straight into the 9th 9900k which had no issues with higher speed ram.
Sitting Pretty next to my main rig




Stock Test on 3D mark Time Spy:




Overclocked run:

 

[ALXAndy]

Nice. TBH the 7600 is pretty epic at the price they are going for ATM.

 

[Jay85]

Nice. TBH the 7600 is pretty epic at the price they are going for ATM.

I count it as a pretty goddamn good deal since i wanted Starfield anyway so its just a bonus of needing a gpu to run on this at the same time.

I tell you what though, haven't gone back to this older build now i've realised how much i've missed overclocking the old way without having to deal with e cores and such. Crank up some voltages, adjust some multipliers and run some benchmarks is such a delight to dive into again. I never got that feeling overclocking my 12700k and the 9900k kinda gave me that feeling but it ran too hot to really do anything with it.

 

[Jay85]

I have this one: Deal: SABRENT USB share switch Selector, 4 PCs in 4 out, computer peripheral Switcher, USB sharing splitter, Control four PCs with one monitor, for PCs Mouse Keyboard Printer Scanner printer (USB-USS4) https://amzn.eu/d/3V6N94P

It doesn't need power to work but it has a power option. Works great for 2+ years.

Just want to add i got the one you quoted on Amazon and its brilliant, so easy to use and doesn't require external power. I've plugged my custom mechanical keyboard in and my powerplay mat which connects to my mouse and it switches between the 2 pc's flawlessly.

 

[dlockers]

Just want to add i got the one you quoted on Amazon and its brilliant, so easy to use and doesn't require external power. I've plugged my custom mechanical keyboard in and my powerplay mat which connects to my mouse and it switches between the 2 pc's flawlessly.

I ended up double siding the usb hub itself to the back of the desk. I cable tied the button to my keyboard wire - all nicely hidden and neat!

 

[Jay85]

I ended up double siding the usb hub itself to the back of the desk. I cable tied the button to my keyboard wire - all nicely hidden and neat!

I kinda did the same with the double sided tape, its stuck down tight and the switch is stuck down to the side of my desk where i can conveniently hit it to change between the 2 pc's. I just wish the switch was a little stiffer, its abit spongey haha.