Advice on any weak spots in current system

DoggyX

DoggyX

DoggyX

Associate
Joined
21 Oct 2004
Posts
205
Location
West Yorkshire
Hiya, bit of an odd ask, first my current system in its entirity:

case: Phantek Enthoo pro m window
case fans:
1x Phanteks PH-F140SP 140mm (came with case) - exhaust
1x Phanteks PH-F140MP PWM 140mm (didn't read description properly before buying) - front intake
no fan controller, mobo profile
mobo: MSI Tomahawk B350
cpu: Ryzen r5 1600 (currently back at stock for now)
cpu cooler: Coller master masterliqiud 240 - mounted at top of case in pull config
gpu: Sapphire Nitro+ rx480 8gig
ram: 2x 16gb Teamgroup 3000mhz DDR4 @ 2933 using XMP profile 2
psu: Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus Bronze'
ssd: kingston 120gb SSDNow V300
hd 1: WD Blue 1tb 7200rpm
hd 2: Seagate Barracuda 2tb 7200rpm
network: TP-Link 450Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter (TL-WDN4800) - absolutely no way to run cable without messing with drills and its a rented house so best not. Gripes as there is no native Windows 10 drivers for this card but it does work, just switches to 2.4ghz from 5 to often and I cba hard resetting the Virgin router to get the password for settings to work again (update bug apparently).

monitor: AOC G2260VWQ6 22" 1ms 75hz 'gaming' monitor
kb: Mars Gaming Hades
mouse: Mars Gaming MM5

Currently system runs pretty solid, have a few crashes in BF1 which I have googled to link to Windows update bug where is just randomly closes once in a while mid game.
All other games run excellent, usually maxed out at 1080p.

My gripe is with noise and overclocking on cpu/heat, I'm close to pulling trigger on this order:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £151.90 (includes shipping: £0.00)​
​


Fan controller is to simplify the fan speeds and from what I've read should help with noise.
SSD is just so I can move WoW and BF1/4/5 and any other bigger scale games to something a bit faster without spending a lot.


Which would then give me better airflow on intake using a non radiator fan.. and to replace AIO with better and hopefully quieter fans, am mostly looking for a quieter system when stressed - which it doesn't really get unless long games on BF1 (mostly play 64 man conquest) and BF5 when it comes out - beta ran ok and seemed to push the system a little more but being beta... Would like as quiet as possible.

Have had weird frame stutter in some games when I used to overclock, research put that down to voltage being to low but when increased so did the temperatures. Was hitting to high in stress tests and at the time didn't feel comfortable with it all but I wouldn't mind having a play again, which is for another topic and plenty of threads on that to read first.
I have read some people complainig about the VRM's on the Tomahawk board and them getting to hot, have wondered if switching back to cpu air - say the NH-D15 for example - might help with that but I am a total novice with tech nowadays.
So also wondering if its worth swapping the board out?

I'm happy with the 1600 at moment as I am limited by the GPU and neither seem to get hammered at the res I play just yet.

Monitor upgrade? would I see much real world difference looking at a 120/144hz monitor?
I tend to limit fps to refresh and use freesync which has worked well so far, BF1 Ultra and always smooth (except that annoying sound bug in bunkers!)

PSU? - put my system in a PSU calculator and even though it added it up to under 400w recommended a 700/750w psu??? just confusing!

ram? worth filling banks or as I game 16gb plenty? read its plenty but worth a quick ask.

KB/MS? - both are budget as you can tell, no gripes with them but then wouldn't know any different.

Just mainly curious, its a budget build I did before GPU prices went nuts and ryzen was still fresh so now stuff has settled I just want to maximise its potential and longevity without doing anything extreme.

Sorry for long post, if you at least made it this far - whether you reply or not - thank you!
 
Your GPU is perfectly fine for 1080p gaming that you are doing now and the only thing I would change, apart from the silencing measures you are already taking, is to upgrade the monitor from a 21.5" to a 27" 1080p freesync.
 
DoggyX said:
Fan controller is to simplify the fan speeds and from what I've read should help with noise.

Which would then give me better airflow on intake using a non radiator fan.. and to replace AIO with better and hopefully quieter fans, am mostly looking for a quieter system when stressed - which it doesn't really get unless long games on BF1 (mostly play 64 man conquest) and BF5 when it comes out - beta ran ok and seemed to push the system a little more but being beta... Would like as quiet as possible.

I have read some people complainig about the VRM's on the Tomahawk board and them getting to hot, have wondered if switching back to cpu air - say the NH-D15 for example - might help with that but I am a total novice with tech nowadays.
So also wondering if its worth swapping the board out?

I'm happy with the 1600 at moment as I am limited by the GPU and neither seem to get hammered at the res I play just yet.

Just mainly curious, its a budget build I did before GPU prices went nuts and ryzen was still fresh so now stuff has settled I just want to maximise its potential and longevity without doing anything extreme.
Click to expand...
That PWM Hub is "stupid" splitter relying on control signal from motherboard or some actual fan controller.
It won't give any better control over fans than those.

For manually set fan speeds there are plenty of controllers, wit both included RPM display and just control knobs
Programmable temperature based controllers cost more:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/water-cooling/components/sensors-and-controllers/controllers
Anyway second intake fan would be good to add.

Compact/slim and especially cheap AIOs aren't good in cooling per noise performance.
Despite of all waterpipe hype they're still air coolers in the end relying on dissipating heat to air...And pump (additional noise source) to transfer heat from CPU.
In fact good heatpipe coolers are better with less noise sources.

Ryzen 1600 certainly doesn't need any luxury cooler to stay in good temperatures for as long as ambient temperature inside case is good.
Good ambient temperature inside case would also help with that low end VRM of motherboard.
 
orbitalwalsh said:
3 for the price of two, run them at 100% and wont here a thing

quieter

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Click to expand...

Cheers for that, nearly missed a bargain!

MartinPrince said:
Your GPU is perfectly fine for 1080p gaming that you are doing now and the only thing I would change, apart from the silencing measures you are already taking, is to upgrade the monitor from a 21.5" to a 27" 1080p freesync.
Click to expand...

Was looking at a a few of the 144hz monitors yesterday, 24" though, I sit less than an arms length away from monitor see pic in spoiler:

XuW7TpO.jpg

So 27" might be a bit big considering but nice though. I'm going to keep an eye out on run up to Xmas for a better monitor, defo would like one with better hz rating. Quite like the look of the MSI curver 144hz series, as said before house is rented, saving to buy in next year or two and PC shares a small room with my tools, weights and some other things. No room for a bigger desk, chairs even a simple folding thing - used to use weights bench..

EsaT said:
That PWM Hub is "stupid" splitter relying on control signal from motherboard or some actual fan controller.
It won't give any better control over fans than those.

For manually set fan speeds there are plenty of controllers, wit both included RPM display and just control knobs
Click to expand...

Cheers EsaT, saved me from a pointless buy, that link to controller with the display looks nice.
Tempted to just get fans for now and see how well I can get mobo to control them first, bit of fussing with fan profiles should work in theory..

Cheers all!

/edit, bought the set of 3 bequiet fans, 140mm phanteks case fan and sdd+ case bracket. Should arrive at my work Friday so guaranteed it doesnt get missed :)
 
Last edited:
DoggyX said:
Cheers EsaT, saved me from a pointless buy, that link to controller with the display looks nice.
Tempted to just get fans for now and see how well I can get mobo to control them first, bit of fussing with fan profiles should work in theory..
Click to expand...
Adding more case airflow should help with temps and maybe make motherboard lower fan speeds more.

But in lower end motherboard adjustments might be really limited and also Windows can apparently mess BIOS controls:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/case-fans-running-at-100.18828621/
Hardware/physical controllers don't care about sucky software/state of Windows.
But unless wanting to manually adjust fans depending on use, you're stuck to setting some compromised fan speeds...
To keep noise under control in desktop/idle/light use and to have enough cooling during gaming.

Most controllers advertising automatic features have very limited features.
Lamptron CM430 doesn't seem to have much of automatic settings:
http://www.lamptron.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Lamptron-CM430-Instruction-Manual-1.1.pdf
That's why I myself changed to Aquaero:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQcNl2ZE1Lk
Even if Windows/software or motherboard crash there's physical temperature sensors as backup for fan controls, which ran on their own microprosessor.
Lamptron CM615 doesn't come even clsoe to Aquaero's level of controls.


As for how empty hype cheap compact/slim AIOs are in cooling per noise Scythe Mugen 5 cools same as CM Master Liquid Pro 240 fans maxed, but making 39 dBs less noise:
https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8320/scythe-mugen-5-rev-cpu-cooler-review/index6.html
 
EsaT said:
for how empty hype cheap compact/slim AIOs are in cooling per noise Scythe Mugen 5 cools same as CM Master Liquid Pro 240 fans maxed, but making 39
Click to expand...

Yeah, kind of wished I had gone for a performance Air cpu cooler when I moved from the ryzens stock cooler. Just never had an AIO before and decided not to go full water-cooled (which I really want to one day purely for the experience if you will) because my gpu doesn't have a waterblock available (there's a nitro 480 version but not nitro+), something for next major upgrade/build.
It can cool well, as you already stated though, it gets noisey! Hopefully better fans will allow me to find a good balance.
 
Next steps is to use 'upgrade' parts, get AIO rad setup with better fans in push config. Find a good balance on case fan speed/noise and custom a sensible cpu fan profile to balance heat/noise.
Fingers crossed it'll keep me happy until AIO dies or I upgrade, which ever comes first. Don't mind spending on fans as they are always handy for future builds or can give them my lil brother for one of his many build projects
 
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