ITX was fun and all, but bigger is better... right?

[Invertigo]

So I've purely had ITX systems for a long time now, in fact I think the last full ATX system I had was an i7 860 and GTX470 or something... been a while!

Anyway, our spare room has been redone recently and now consists of a 2m long desk, so figured a jump back to ATX was worth considering this time around. I do love compact systems, but my abolsute top priority this time out was silent gaming.

So, the 'old' system, an i5 8600 on a H370i mobo, 16gb 2400mhz memory and a GTX1070Ti Mini. Not bad by any means, but certainly lacking some kick at 1440p 155hz.



So the initial idea early this year was to try a larger ITX case. Seemed sensible for better cooling, so we ended up moving to a Fractal Nano S. Better airflow, 2x140 intakes so all should be good, right? Well, eh... Something left me unimpressed and so, with a Summer of going nowhere, figured the new product launches was an ideal time to upgrade.

Stage 1, GPU!



Hello my pretty! Silence taking the front seat, so I picked up the quietest, coolest running 3070. Smashing. Uhm, one slight problem...



Yeah thats... thats not going to work. PSU isn't fitting in there. Front fan isnt fitting either. Sod it, time to crack out the ATX build!



Looks a touch... lost... Basically I got a case straight away after the 3070, and I wanted to use it immediately because I'm an impatient child with new toys. So the ITX system got transplanted into the new case (4000X from Corsair, nice case but a touch pricey honestly).

So that did, until the next stage came along (thanks to another lucky find of new hardware)





Looking a bit more substantial now, good. But the CPU fan ramping constantly got annoying fast, and I figured, now that I have a bigger case, surely I should leverage that. Enter Arctic.



Better. Much better. Bit of a squeeze mind you.




So since this, the memory has been changed slightly. Now running 3600mhz C16 Crucial instead of the 3200mhz Corsair. But there we go, a damn near silent gaming PC with ample 1440p performance. First proper build in a while too, nice to be back at it!

 

[Gray2233]

Looking good!

You must have been lucky with Ryzen 5 stock, excellent call on the Freezer II too. It's one of the few AIO's I'd consider using over mid-high end air.

 

[Invertigo]

Looking good!

You must have been lucky with Ryzen 5 stock, excellent call on the Freezer II too. It's one of the few AIO's I'd consider using over mid-high end air.

Very lucky, happened to stumble on it listed for pre-order the day before it actually released, so it was delivered to me before it had even meant to be available for sale. Can't say I'd expected that and I was ready to get a 3600 to fill the gap until stock was reasonable.

The cooler is immense. Have it set to 35% speed, cant hear it and the CPU never breaks 55c in stress tests. Now if I turn on PBO it'll climb into the mid 60's, but then its also throwing out 4.85ghz all core and 4.95ghz single core frequencies on that setting. Handy little CPU, first AMD build ever too, as it happens.

 

[Gray2233]

Very lucky, happened to stumble on it listed for pre-order the day before it actually released, so it was delivered to me before it had even meant to be available for sale. Can't say I'd expected that and I was ready to get a 3600 to fill the gap until stock was reasonable.

The cooler is immense. Have it set to 35% speed, cant hear it and the CPU never breaks 55c in stress tests. Now if I turn on PBO it'll climb into the mid 60's, but then its also throwing out 4.85ghz all core and 4.95ghz single core frequencies on that setting. Handy little CPU, first AMD build ever too, as it happens.

Excellent.

I'm impressed with the Freezer II I really am. I was an anti-AIO die hard for a long time (and with good reason I'd argue), but we're finally starting to get to a place where I think they're genuinely worth considering. I remember seeing pictures of it for the first time and laughing over the little fan on the CPU block, but after some consideration and a couple of reviews stating it actually helped with VRM temps while most AIO's were a bit of a detriment in that regard I've been swayed.

You've some really nice hardware, although in your case I'd be chomping at the bit to get my hands on one of the new AMD GPU's if only to play with the new memory technology, easier said than done though and the 3070 is a lovely bit of kit regardless.