** LIAN-LI PC-O11 DYNAMIC - IT'S RAZER TIME **

[Adexus]

I believe my old BeQuiet PSU is a Seasonic one under the hood.

This new EVGA one though appears to be made by Super Flower.

I'll probably wind up being OK with the normal cables it comes with, but I guess it's possible I'll change my mind on that at some point.

I am really struggling to see why the new processors are so expensive, but oh well. I was tempted by an 8700K upgrade with a decent motherboard, but the 8700K has only gone up in price over the last year!

Just tallied up a ATX 24 pin, 2x8pin PCI-e bridged, 8pin EPS and a Sata cable with 4 ends on it, all Pro with 3 combs on each... came to €199.60 including shipping, guess I'll leave it for now...

No complaints for my 8700K, other than having to delid it to get the temps down to a reasonable level, I paid £395 for mine too, was back in November 2017 mind.

 

[HungryHippos]

Just tallied up a ATX 24 pin, 2x8pin PCI-e bridged, 8pin EPS and a Sata cable with 4 ends on it, all Pro with 3 combs on each... came to €199.60 including shipping, guess I'll leave it for now...

No complaints for my 8700K, other than having to delid it to get the temps down to a reasonable level, I paid £395 for mine too, was back in November 2017 mind.

That is more expensive than buying the whole PSU!

8700K can be had for around £365 retail elsewhere, which also comes with the Intel bundle (Hitman 2, Total War Warhammer 2) which I'd probably sell if buying this, to help lower the cost of the CPU a little.

9700K can be had for around the same price, but no gaming bundle with it. However it's got 2 extra CPU cores and is a newer generation of CPU.

I know that both 8700K and 9700K can run hot, if anything 9700K may go hotter as it has 2 extra cores to cool! I don't really want to delid my chip so I assume both would be cooled OK without delidding via the X52 Kraken?

In both cases the chips work with Z390 motherboards, so the question would then become what motherboard to go with it? I think for this kind of thing I'd want something good, and so far I am leaning towards the Aorus Z390 Master.

 

[Adexus]

That is more expensive than buying the whole PSU!

8700K can be had for around £365 retail elsewhere, which also comes with the Intel bundle (Hitman 2, Total War Warhammer 2) which I'd probably sell if buying this, to help lower the cost of the CPU a little.

9700K can be had for around the same price, but no gaming bundle with it. However it's got 2 extra CPU cores and is a newer generation of CPU.

I know that both 8700K and 9700K can run hot, if anything 9700K may go hotter as it has 2 extra cores to cool! I don't really want to delid my chip so I assume both would be cooled OK without delidding via the X52 Kraken?

In both cases the chips work with Z390 motherboards, so the question would then become what motherboard to go with it? I think for this kind of thing I'd want something good, and so far I am leaning towards the Aorus Z390 Master.

I had this 8700k cooled via a Kraken x62 and it couldn't keep up, I'm still not sure if it was faulty or not though, the pump was on according to CAM but I could never hear it, even when it was at a higher RPM, was fine for gaming though but rendering videos was a no go as it was reaching the upper 90s..

So I bought the Corsair 150i which helped a bit but not enough, so I got all the delidding gear and watched endless tutorials and did it, was quite fun in the end but definitely not something I'd want to do all the time though, but it did the trick anyway.

It could just be my chip and it having worse thermal application than yours though, you could get lucky! Looking at benchmarks between the 8700k and 9700k, I'd probably just go with the 8700 to be honest.

 

[HungryHippos]

I had this 8700k cooled via a Kraken x62 and it couldn't keep up, I'm still not sure if it was faulty or not though, the pump was on according to CAM but I could never hear it, even when it was at a higher RPM, was fine for gaming though but rendering videos was a no go as it was reaching the upper 90s..

So I bought the Corsair 150i which helped a bit but not enough, so I got all the delidding gear and watched endless tutorials and did it, was quite fun in the end but definitely not something I'd want to do all the time though, but it did the trick anyway.

It could just be my chip and it having worse thermal application than yours though, you could get lucky! Looking at benchmarks between the 8700k and 9700k, I'd probably just go with the 8700 to be honest.

That's nuts if the 8700K can't even be adequately cooled by a decent AIO.

Definitely need to consider whether I want to change to something like that, especially as the 6700K seems reasonably good on thermals, or at least doesn't habitually overheat

They seem to benchmark similarly, but at the same price for the capability to use 2 extra cores I am not necessarily seeing the benefit of the 8700K over it. If it was significantly cheaper enough then yes I'd say that made sense.

 

[Adexus]

That's nuts if the 8700K can't even be adequately cooled by a decent AIO.

Definitely need to consider whether I want to change to something like that, especially as the 6700K seems reasonably good on thermals, or at least doesn't habitually overheat

They seem to benchmark similarly, but at the same price for the capability to use 2 extra cores I am not necessarily seeing the benefit of the 8700K over it. If it was significantly cheaper enough then yes I'd say that made sense.

Is it the 6XXX series where Intel last used solder on their chips and not rather bad thermal paste? I still remember my Q6600 being a cooling beast, spent ages lapping it too, back in the good ol' days.

But yeah they benchmark pretty much the same and trade blows in others, won't make much within gaming either way, it is always nicer to have the newer model though so probably go for the 9700k I'd say.

And yeah the Kraken x62 is one of the best reviewed on the market for thermals so I was expecting it to do a lot better, I'm sure something was up with it but I could never figure out what, the CAM software isn't great though so I'm glad I switched to the 150i.

 

[HungryHippos]

I'm not sure when they broke the thermals but it does sound like they need to sort it out for the next ones.

I'll have a good think about it before committing to getting one I think don't want to be left with a chip I can't cool in summer time.

 

[Adexus]

I'm not sure when they broke the thermals but it does sound like they need to sort it out for the next ones.

I'll have a good think about it before committing to getting one I think don't want to be left with a chip I can't cool in summer time.

Just had a look and it seems that Intel have been using the solder method on the 9 series so I'd definitely go with one of those.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

9600k and 9700k over 8600/8700k if you can.
Esiaber 360 or Corsair h150 AIO

Dark rock 4 or Pro for 9900k for air or noctua equivalent

 

[HungryHippos]

I've put some thought into it and I just don't think it's worth doing, especially for the sort of cash they are asking for the processors. I think I'll stick with my i7 6700K a little longer, but I've overclocked it a bit to 4.5Ghz

I will keep eyes peeled on the next gen intels as they are shrinking the nm process again, maybe they'll crack getting a decent performing chip that can stay within sensible temps!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

I've put some thought into it and I just don't think it's worth doing, especially for the sort of cash they are asking for the processors. I think I'll stick with my i7 6700K a little longer, but I've overclocked it a bit to 4.5Ghz

I will keep eyes peeled on the next gen intels as they are shrinking the nm process again, maybe they'll crack getting a decent performing chip that can stay within sensible temps!

only advice, once Ryzen 3000 launches and first reviews hit... hit order or pre-order before they sell out and sky rocket in price like intel does on launch day

 

[HungryHippos]

only advice, once Ryzen 3000 launches and first reviews hit... hit order or pre-order before they sell out and sky rocket in price like intel does on launch day

I'll look into them, I assume the new Ryzens are probably going to work on the existing Ryzen boards so if they look promising I can start looking at what boards to go with.

The Kraken AIO has an AMD set of connectors, so that should be good to go as well.

My main workstation usage is gaming, so even if Ryzen is better at everything else, it needs to be comparable for gaming performance.

 

[Adexus]

I'll look into them, I assume the new Ryzens are probably going to work on the existing Ryzen boards so if they look promising I can start looking at what boards to go with.

The Kraken AIO has an AMD set of connectors, so that should be good to go as well.

My main workstation usage is gaming, so even if Ryzen is better at everything else, it needs to be comparable for gaming performance.

Gaming performance with Ryzen is what I'm looking for as well, would love to swap to AMD at some point.

 

[Adexus]

Got the bracket installed, was quite a painless process, would be a lot better if I had a smaller GPU...




As you can see the GPU is right up against the RAM which does made it a bit wonky unfortunately.



Think I might swap to a smaller GPU, I just don't want to pay anymore than what I paid for the Trio, the Asus would be nice but it's an extra £70 I think?

 

[orbitalwalsh]

@Adexus

mine did the same and my ram is taller! also had to mount it slightly higher due to having RGB covers on top of my silent wings =/

touches backplate and moves card by 3 degrees from dead center but should be fine! Just loosen the 2 bolts on the Bracket kit ever so slightly and ram should be okay

looking for a slimmer card, the Gigabyte Gaming OC- 4 years warranty and standard PCB width

hows your GPU temps before and after ?

have noticed, Phanteks version keps GPU in line with the edge of the unit, cooler master pulls it cooler into the mobo

 

[Vidar]

That's a beautiful looking set up!

 

[HungryHippos]

I've added the RAM today!

Looks great and the Corsair iCue software seems alright as well. Once again my camera makes it looks much brighter than the lights are.



Colleague at work was asking how I can change the colour without any cables, I started to wonder the same thing, but fortunately it "just works" when using the Corsair software.

Looking at my RAM placement and the pump cables, I think I'd struggle to fill the other 2 bays as things stand. Fortunately though I think it looks good with just the 2 plugged in, and if I really wanted to I could probably force 2 more RAM sticks in

I've added the new PSU as well, the only slight annoyance is trying to route the AIO pipes, but the way I have it here seems reasonable so far.

I need to turn the NZXT fans around, but I am still considering replacing them for better ones.

 

[Adexus]

@Adexus

mine did the same and my ram is taller! also had to mount it slightly higher due to having RGB covers on top of my silent wings =/

touches backplate and moves card by 3 degrees from dead center but should be fine! Just loosen the 2 bolts on the Bracket kit ever so slightly and ram should be okay

looking for a slimmer card, the Gigabyte Gaming OC- 4 years warranty and standard PCB width

hows your GPU temps before and after ?

have noticed, Phanteks version keps GPU in line with the edge of the unit, cooler master pulls it cooler into the mobo

Assumed if I loosened the screws up then it'd kind of just sag down a bit though? Or do you mean for the PCI-e bit?

And I was looking at the Gigabyte but it takes a 8 pin and a 6 pin PCI-e and these cables don't have the +2 break away on the end

GPU temps went down by about 3 degrees but fans are quieter and CPU went down quite an insane amount which is 15c, must've really been starved of air up at the top!

That's a beautiful looking set up!

Thanks!

I've added the RAM today!

Looks great and the Corsair iCue software seems alright as well. Once again my camera makes it looks much brighter than the lights are.


Colleague at work was asking how I can change the colour without any cables, I started to wonder the same thing, but fortunately it "just works" when using the Corsair software.

Looking at my RAM placement and the pump cables, I think I'd struggle to fill the other 2 bays as things stand. Fortunately though I think it looks good with just the 2 plugged in, and if I really wanted to I could probably force 2 more RAM sticks in

I've added the new PSU as well, the only slight annoyance is trying to route the AIO pipes, but the way I have it here seems reasonable so far.

I need to turn the NZXT fans around, but I am still considering replacing them for better ones.

My phone camera does that as well, probably the AI tech on the Huawei that does it on mine and makes them super bright when they actually aren't, aside from the RAM with which I'm pretty sure I could see my future within the lighting if I stared long enough...

Looking very nice though! And yeah I'd definitely replace those NZXT fans for sure!

 

[HungryHippos]

You can lower the RAM brightness, I have mine on about 40%. Only negative is it does highlight a little the lights aren't totally giving a uniform colour output.

Considering Noctuas for the fans, just need to see what ones. Must be black though, the standard Noctua colour is icky.

The new PSU is already bugging me a bit, it's meant to only spin up under load, but the fan comes on occasionally even outside of gaming, and it's by far the loudest thing in that case. Might have to seriously consider the Seasonic Fanless one.

 

[Adexus]

You can lower the RAM brightness, I have mine on about 40%. Only negative is it does highlight a little the lights aren't totally giving a uniform colour output.

Considering Noctuas for the fans, just need to see what ones. Must be black though, the standard Noctua colour is icky.

The new PSU is already bugging me a bit, it's meant to only spin up under load, but the fan comes on occasionally even outside of gaming, and it's by far the loudest thing in that case. Might have to seriously consider the Seasonic Fanless one.

The lights are too godly to turn down!

And yeah I want Noctua but again has to be all black.

And that sucks man, definitely recommend a Seasonic one though.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

The lights are too godly to turn down!

And yeah I want Noctua but again has to be all black.

And that sucks man, definitely recommend a Seasonic one though.

@HungryHippos

I'd avoid fanless PSU in the case. Have to seriously thing about your airflow. It's in its own chamber, with no active airflow. Also depends on if your positive and negative with your fans and then stock filters really hinder airflow without active fans by them