mATX & mITX - The Phenom Two

[randomshenans]

Semi cross posting here, but since I've gone from looking at 1 to building one and on the second, I thought I would share here, too.

I do a lot of work at home and recently did my back in, so riding to work with a laptop was getting more painful, so I decided (my justification anyway) to build a new machine.
I haven't built one in ages, properly, so had to get up to speed on what I should get...

Now, I wanted something pretty compact, and so looked at the mATX Phenom. Nice, simple case. I like it.

Then came speccing out the machine:

I started getting the pieces in, I had the aim to spread it out and that went out the window really and so bought most of it. I went for the EVGA Supernova 650 though, not the above. Also, I went with 32GB RAM to start, in 2x16 so I can add more in there.

I did go Corsair Vengeance, but you'll notice it's in the wrong box. I got a good deal due to this, so saved me 50EUR on it.

CPU had arrived also, so just waiting on the case. Which is when I made a bit of a balls up.

I ordered it from Amazon.de as it's got free delivery to my German PO box and it's super quick to arrive, but clearly my German reading sucks as I bought an mITX Phenom and not the mATX. Damn.

Not a problem, I got abuse from the wife for wasting a case, I said I won't and ordered a new one.

I put it all together, took it apart again a few times (that damn H100i in there is TIGHT with all the other cables!) for routing and then FINALLY my 1080 SC arrived as well and then I could get it together...

Booted up first time and all went fine:

Bit of an auto tune on it, and was happy with that! With it all tidied up it ended up a simple build like:

No crazy RGB LEDs etc. but I'll do that more for my desk instead (when I eventually move house end of june, brand new, blank canvas space of an office. Much excite).

So that is that one, and excuse the lack of detailed pics, I was in such a rush to get it all together. But that's not all, with the spare mITX case, I thought I would flip the coin and go other side with it, so I've specced up another machine:

My wife has a YouTube Channel and we (read: I, a lot of the time) will edit her vids for her, and so thought she could use this machine to do that. Or, depending on which I prefer...

Again, I thought I'd take my time on it, but digitec.ch happened to respond to my message about getting the biostar board in, and got it just got me. Again, I probably should have waited for the other boards on Ryzen for itx to come out, but hey, it wasn't expensive. I can always sell it on and get another.
So, I have just ordered the board, but while I was on there, I saw a "damaged packaging" 1700X shown on their site... again, a 50EUR saving with all guarantees. Done.

I am away with work at the moment, which tends to mean I have time to bugger about in the evening if I'm not at an event/dinner/ some crap. Which might have meant I also ordered the RAM, NZXT and GPU. The GPU I've gone for though is the GIGABYTE AORUS Radeon RX 580 XTR 8GB - seemed to have the best clock speeds of the ones I was looking at.
Again, I'll upgrade to Vega when it's finally released.

As soon as I'm back and it starts arriving, I'll get some more pics up. I should have a couple of beasty powerful little sleepers soon!

 

[randomshenans]

Picked up new mouse - getting ready for moving in July, so my setup area in general should improve massively. I have a nice desk area planned.

I am on the lookout for a nice RGB wireless keyboard, but seem just chinese ones available and not full size either. I might have to suck it up and get a wired one, but I like the fully clean lines.

Also got this notification today:

Q on LED strips - I want to get some for the back of my monitors for the wall, as well as running down the back of the desk. I bought some before on the rainforest and the corner joiners just plain didn't work for toffee, anyone got a reputable option?

 

[randomshenans]

Clean looking build!

Thanks man, I just wanted something as powerful and clean as possible. Same with the Ryzen build. Some builds on here are the nuts and way out there, but for me it's all function over form. If it works well and kicks some ass, I'm pleased! I'm more about the overall office "project" appearance

 

[randomshenans]

Just waiting on everything coming in now, I received these today:

ANd I'm waiting until 24th for the Biostar board to come in and then I'll pick up the board and CPU at the same time.

Then waiting on these as well... everything is so long.

Just need to order my PSU now... I'll hold off, the wife is killing me on my deliveries at the moment

 

[randomshenans]

This will all come in pieces, until it all starts coming together. PC wise and then office space wise, but I have grand plans and a completely blank canvas of a room. 3.5m x 3.8m of my own play space. Glorious.

So some decisions and purchases still to make:

 

[randomshenans]

It's actually just a to do list template in Office 2016 excel... thought it was nice and easy though.

Trying to work out if the Ikea Karlby 246cm worktop will suffice without sag and intervention. I like the Alex/ Karlby combo, so I'm going to get these legs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00W78ZTGI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2UN7CVME0JH6C&psc=1
And properly thread them into the worktop/ units, so they, 1. don't slip at all and 2. provide a bit less sag potential being fixed. I'm also going to attach a couple of metal bracing strips front and back of the worktop underneath.

 

[randomshenans]

Slowly starting to get the other pieces together.

Slowly...

 

[randomshenans]

Nice! I'm wondering what sort of space and cooling I'm going to be trying to squeeze into the ITX case, so will gut it and see what I have to play with. The 1700X runs hot I hear anyway, and if there is anything I can do to bring that down in such a small space, that'd be good.

 

[randomshenans]

Slowly bits starting to come together for number 2.

First impressions on the board is that it's pretty damn basic. I knew it didn't have onboard wifi and BT which is a pain, but from the looks, it's not much to shout about. Having said that, for about 100quid you can get a mITX board with a 1700X shoved in there. So, function over form and all that, I'll see how she plays.

I'm off for a week tomorrow to the US, so I will have to wait to pick up my PSU I ordered that's sitting at the couriers place, but once I have that, I will have all the things I need... well, for this anyway.

I also got some LEDs that arrived in the week for the monitor setup and have chucked some wall monitor stands in my amazon basket, too. Just need the go ahead when we move and the real project should start to come together.


Now... should I Hackintosh it or just Win 10?

 

[randomshenans]

Been in the US for a week, but my PSU is at the post office and after a couple of pints at lunch I just bought this

Now I'll collect the PSU and the monitor when it arrives and find somewhere to hide it... move in date 3 weeks time.

 

[randomshenans]

That's where it'll all be going...minus all the other stuff in there.

I mean, the board is the only ITX AM4 out there, but little details in quality are lacking somewhat!

Then I had to work out where I was going to put my heatsink and rad... I should have gone 240mm on the rad, not smaller, but thought I'd lack the space. Seems the inside of this case isn't too bad from that point of view, especially if you strip out the drive stuff, which I eventually did. For the GPU though, I have some clearance issues, so might end up getting another case down the line.

You can see here how close the slots are to the casing. With the 580 being so wide it touches the case, and since that's where the fans are, it can't be good.

Battery died soon after, once I'd snapped the pic of the 580, but it's nearly there. I just need to fit the PSU which I picked up today and route some cabling nicely. Tempted to go for one of the NZXT cases though instead, if they offer a better GPU clearance. RGB it up a little.

So that's all back in the box until I move next week, I'll think about a new case while I'm at it.

I also got one of the new monitors arrive, too. That's the middle one sorted. It's at work with me at the moment, no point taking it home just to move. I'll have it here until my wife is out haha

Going to look at the 2 27 samsungs to go either side of this. It should offer mega real estate, and much overkill but hey.

More soon.

 

[randomshenans]

XTR card is a beast, Use a bit of Thermal Grizzlie on mine

Yea, it's depth is what's killing me. Then, the layout of the case would always mean the fans are butted up against the case side, which is a bit of a crap layout.
How do you find it?

 

[randomshenans]

Nice! Looks sexy!

 

[randomshenans]

So I moved in to the new place, with much ballache associated with it, too. But we are in.

I had to go away with work, so office got backburnered, and especially when the rest of the house needed sorting, I was told it wasn't a priority (shock!).

Anyway, this week I've had a nice easy one at work, so decided to crack on with getting things in place and built up.

First off was getting the Alex drawers built up, so got that done and the Karlby on top. Job one done.



I then setup the machine on there to make sure it was OK and so I could get some work done. That's the 2x22s on there. Did some work, no prizes for neatness or cable management. But plus points for LED addition.

Unboxed the amp, dac and mission LX2s. I mean, that would be a nice setup, but hey...

I had to start ordering some wall mounts etc. so got all those on order for the speakers, and some more cables and also monitor mounts.

I bought a Samsung 34" monitor a while ago and had it at work for a bit, so brought that home and swapped the 22s out.



I then put in an order for a couple of 27" samsungs, as my OCD for making them all the same look made this the only option.



This one arrived first, had it on there and got a lot of ear about too many monitors from my wife. The LEDs kept dropping too, so I used some more hardcore sticky pads to keep them in place. My speaker mounts arrived at this point so I mounted those to the wall.


My god they sound spot on. Positioning as well I'm made up with, it's perfect when you're at the desk. Totally fantastic sound.


3rd monitor arrived and one LED monitor backlight kit did too. SO many of these kits are pure crap. They never seem to work properly for me using the corner pieces as they're useless. Anyway, this one I got working with some work and ordered a couple more.

Too much desk space taken up, but so much monitor...

Time to wall mount... If you know the Samsung monitors you'll know that they're stupid with a lack of standard mount, but the 34" came with a samsung adaptor, whereas the 27s didn't and that's a pain.



Sized it up, made sure it was central...



She's up!

All of these monitors have power blocks as well, which is a mission for cables, so velcro is my new best friend.



I also used half a white drain pipe I cut down and some velcro for the extension and 2 other power packs. It's all hidden from view but will get tidied properly when I have everything mounted.


I haven't wrapped up the cables yet, as they're not in their final resting place.




So that's centre mounted, and adapters ordered for the other 2. Should arrive on Tuesday. I have a new 7 port USB 3.0 hub as well I'll mount at the back hidden, for things like the mouse etc. get all of that hidden.

It's coming on...

I still need to purchase my new chair, this one is awful, it's a dining room chair :/ and today I'm going to setup my Ryzen rig and have it on the other side, so I can switch between the 2 machines. That and the very obvious cable management, which I'll sort as soon as it's all mounted. I am looking for a nice stand for my headphones, too.
Either way, happy with the weeks progress.

Rest of the room also needs sorting, I have been donated this old fold out sofa (wife said it should be here...) so I've got some new material coming that I'm going to cover it in etc. as it's ming at the moment.
Got my Trump Joker painting up though



More this week

 

[randomshenans]

Herman Miller Sayl chair ordered, should be here this week!

My wife has said that she won't come in here as she's annoyed it's the nicest room in the house hahahahaha Works for me.

 

[randomshenans]

No middle leg, no. still fine. Monitors are all wall mount so no weight on them

 

[randomshenans]

CF27F591

They're only 1080 though, and I would like them to be higher res but meh, they're perfectly fine for me. @blairw

 

[randomshenans]

@blairw Yea, all on wall mounts. Could get them slightly better aligned but need 2 people to play with adjustments and they're good enough for me. Excuse the mess, busy day WFH


I think I paid about 250 for each 27 and then about 700 for the 34. Not cheap and don't tell my wife.

 

[randomshenans]

I also am still using this machine in this thread for this haha FWIW I added another 32GB RAM and another NVME.

Spec is:

ASUS Strix Z270G Gaming
i7 7700K (I'd like to upgrade to a 9700k tbf for more cores)
64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200
1TB Samsung 860 EVO m2
500GB WD Black m2
2TB Samsung SSD (forget which)
GTX1080SC GPU

It's still pretty good but I do a lot of vid editing now so would like to change up the CPU for more cores and maybe an updated GPU...