Mike Tyson

[ALXAndy]

A large slab of good karma landed on my doorstep. So I am building my second dream rig. I did one in 2013 and vowed never to do it again but, well, you know how that always ends. "I'm not mad bro".

So this build is going to be everything my other builds are not. No flamboyancy, no lights (apart from some white LEDs) and that is it. It will easily punch well above its weight. I am also avoiding water cooling. I have had some rotten luck with that lately and my Alienware is so complicated that diagnosing anything turns out to be a crap shoot and can take months.

This is also the first time I have ordered everything from OCUK. So I'm happy to be supporting them at a time like this.

More is to come, and this rig changed several times in the last few days but I decided firmly last night and pulled the trigger.

Why Mike Tyson? black shorts, black boots, no frills (unless monstrous hardware floats your boat).

So here is what I ordered last night. I still need maybe a fan hub, and maybe some more cables as the GPU is 3 8 pin lmao.

CPU is the 3950x. I originally planned on 3970x, then it was all getting very daft. This is a gaming only rig, I have tinker toys and fidget spinner PCs for everything else.



I got an MSI originally, then found out it was terrible. So I phoned OCUK and changed it for the best in class at this price.



Cooler. Again, no frills. The fans will only go in the bin any way.



RAM. 4133 8 Pack.



PSU



Two SSDs. One 256 for Windows, one 1tb for games.



I got this case.



Which has dual chambers and can take two GPUs vertically. It's pretty insane and absolutely gorgeous.

Cables.



9 fans.



And a GPU



The case does not work with air GPUs. Mostly because of the chamber. I don't want to "properly" water cool this rig, and this was the best solution. Besides, the money I saved on water cooling paid the £500 premium for this.

I need a few more cables I think. I also want that Der8auer bracket to shift the block, thermal paste and some sort of USB WIFI solution. I'll go and shop for that shortly. Oh, and a Oculus Rift S when they are back in stock.

 

[ALXAndy]

Got the rest.



Didn't fancy £45 on another full set so just got what I needed. Will look nice. Got this too for the sound card.

 

[tyler_jrb]

Very nice specs indeed. Case looks amazing and being lian-li I’m sure excellent build quality too. Always been impressed by them. I always love a good neutral black build as I’m really not a fan of RGB either.

Surprised you didn’t go the watercooling route especially with the cost of the card, although it is a lot less messing around I guess.

Would look insane with black flexi ZMT and silver nickel fittings. I have mine with ZMT and white/silver cables and fittings + clear liquid and hasn’t given me a single issue with daily usage for the last year/18months or so.

Looking forward to it progress, going to look great either way.

 

[ALXAndy]

I'm not ruling it out tbh. Right now though I don't want the headaches.

 

[clifbel]

Look forward to seeing this finished. Always liked Lian Li looks a bit of a behemoth! Can I ask what made you choose those fans? They look cool as, by the way.

 

[ALXAndy]

They're ace for rads. Very quiet, slow spinning but fantastic static pressure.

I've used them in two builds before in white and trans blue. They're just amazing. It's only RGB that has made them unpopular tbh.

Asus and others have gone with the ring design. It keeps the large blades from flexing. It also lowers the tolerance and air gap around the fan.

At £30 each on launch they were expensive. Now they're £15 so a complete bargain.

What also helps is the motor is small unlike the Vardar and thus dead spots are greatly reduced. They don't jitter like the Vardar either.

Sadly noctuas new world beating fans are still beige and brown with no black ones yet. Plus they're honkingly expensive.

 

[ALXAndy]

It's a bit of a pile atm lol.



Unpacked the case. Got a thankyou letter from the president of Lian Li lmao. Any way, they stiff you on the second ribbon and you can't get it any more. Not that I would want to, it's about 80 quid. So I did my research for the best X1 ribbon as it's only for the sound card and I got this, for £17.

 

[clifbel]

They're ace for rads. Very quiet, slow spinning but fantastic static pressure.

I've used them in two builds before in white and trans blue. They're just amazing. It's only RGB that has made them unpopular tbh.

Asus and others have gone with the ring design. It keeps the large blades from flexing. It also lowers the tolerance and air gap around the fan.

At £30 each on launch they were expensive. Now they're £15 so a complete bargain.

What also helps is the motor is small unlike the Vardar and thus dead spots are greatly reduced. They don't jitter like the Vardar either.

Sadly noctuas new world beating fans are still beige and brown with no black ones yet. Plus they're honkingly expensive.

Wow thanks for the reply, it's the first time I've come across them and they seem awesome! I guess they make really good case fans as well then if there's a lot of mesh/filters on them?

Is that Asus making case fans with ring design or they're GPUs?? Yea definitely can't argue at that price!

That's an exciting pile you've got there! Where's the case picture!!

 

[ALXAndy]

The case did come out but I forgot to snap pics. The box was battered so I wanted to check it over.

The eloops were made for rads. Not sure how they shift air, but I used to use 600rpm once and they still did a great job on rads. They're beautifully made too.

 

[clifbel]

The case did come out but I forgot to snap pics. The box was battered so I wanted to check it over.

The eloops were made for rads. Not sure how they shift air, but I used to use 600rpm once and they still did a great job on rads. They're beautifully made too.

Ah look forward to seeing the case pictures!

Those eloops do look very slick, German engineering at it's finest. I had a look on the website and apparently they make some noise pulling air through a medium, so you need to stand it off. If I'm reading the FAQ correctly.

So you have all your bits ready for the build?

 

[ALXAndy]

Pretty much. OCUK have shipped the second order of bits I forgot and the ribbon for the sound card should come quick too.

I've ordered the der8auer shifter brackets but they're not out yet. Still that shouldn't stop me

 

[ALXAndy]

OK so the build was pretty much done last night. I hit a few pitfalls along the way though.

Firstly because this is a water cooling specific case I could not fit a rad in the top on push pull. I wanted the Kingpin up top, but had to remove the rad as it was a good 3cm from seating. The hoses were hitting the mid plate.

I mounted the GPU in the bottom slot, then found out the ribbon cable did not reach the top X16 slot on the board. This would not be an issue on a HEDT, because many of the lower slots are X16. Sadly on mine it's X4. So I took it all apart for a third time and put the GPU in the top section. Ribbon fits OK. Bit of a curve, but it does look nice coming into the board. I can't fit the two SSDs. I didn't realise just how few lanes these CPUs have, and I didn't want my GPU not running at all (8x minimum will do me). So right now I have the 1tb in the top slot and I will put the 256 into my triad (as I robbed the one out of there for my TR build lol). The H100x lives in the top on pull.

Other than it being really super difficult to build into (because you have to do things in a weird order, so GPU first for example) and having to take it all apart on three occasions to rethink and start again I did get it all in. The kingpin rad is in the front on push pull (because that is how the air gets in so I wanted the second fan just to shove it along a little bit and that worked well) and besides the outer fans are controlled by the GPU so will spin up when needed.

Big shout out to Asus for the Strix PSU. It's absolutely lovely. They give you magnet plates to put on if you want it to be extra gamery, but I decided against that as you won't see the PSU. I don't have much more to do now other than general tidying and removing all of the fingerprints. Few cable ties and I can reassemble it.

The 1X ribbon was woefully too short, so I am going to have to bite the bullet and get a longer Lian Li one for the sound card. I don't mind, and I am hoping to possibly pick up a Nu Audio for it but the STX is more than good enough.

In short it is an absolute beast. Even on my potato BIOS set up it scored 4200 in CB15 which is pretty barbaric. IIRC the 16 core gen one TR scored 3000.

Then I need to figure out how all of the BIOS options work and so on. It's been ages since I even bothered. I would imagine enabling PBO is good though right?

The carbon CM cables look stunning. The whole rig does really. It's just black on black on black on black etc with the Corsair pump lighting up white. The board has some RGB, but that is being set white. As are the LEDs on the Kingpin when I figure all that out. Was seeing 90-120fps+ in Timespy, about the most I have ever seen before is 60-70. It's also very quiet indeed and I am thrilled with it. Does need one minor mod, but I will show why and what I have planned for that tomorrow.

Few pics. The sun is brutal and this is with the curtains closed. Note, it's covered in prints and still has a few umbilical cords. Cables need shaping and training, and tying etc. I will do that later today when the codeine kicks in lol.







And the panels.

 

[clifbel]

Such an unusual case to build in, I love it! All black works really well too! Looking forward to seeing the post codeine treatment.

 

[ALXAndy]

Cheers. Still fighting to get my sound card in there. Some one suggested using two risers and connecting them together, but I measured it up and the riser I have still wouldn't be long enough. Plus it comes out at the bottom, which would force the sound card up

However, I found a much better and dirt cheap solution. I never thought I would be thankful for mining for any reason but this was just over a fiver.



It sits flat, so no pushing the card up and the USB cable is just a SS cable so easy to get a black one. It also exits the slot sideways, so won't stick up like a sore thumb. I decided to stick with the splashes of silver on that side, mostly because the side glass is tinted and will tone it down. I'd already got a power cable for the sound card



So I nipped on OCUK and got this for the power for the PCIE board.

 

[ALXAndy]

I got it all finished last night. Still need to revisit it when I get back to it as I need to try and get the sound card sorted. I ran a load of benchmarks and as you can guess it's pretty barbaric. Wasn't sure how the boost clocks all work and the overclocking, but the card was boosting to 2150 straight away. And it's fast. Very, very fast. I didn't get any pics because it was dark but it's all cleaned free of fingerprints and is waiting for my return. I'll upload the stock benchmarks then, and then set about overclocking the CPU and RAM.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

case is so nice. nearly got one myself last year.

pretty sure They were going to remake like the dynamic, steel and more uniformed construction

 

[ALXAndy]

Some of the inner parts are steel. Everything outside is alu. TBH the glass weighs as much as the rig without it lol. I think I will have to remove that before moving it.

It looks absolutely stunning when all back together. I did get it finished but it was 2AM and no chance of getting decent photos given it's so black and dark.

The only issues I could complain about is the ribbon not reaching the top slot (when it appears to on cases on websites, which is odd) and the lack of the second ribbon. Well, unless you want to fit a second card of some sort. I do want my sound card in there quite badly so it's been some work to find a way around that.

But yeah other than that it's absolutely beautiful.

Oh, my only other grumble is the huge opening for the back of the board. I am going to have to get a piece of matt acrylic cut to cover that, as even with the sound card in it will still be noticeable.

 

[ALXAndy]

Again thanks to OCUK for a great price

 

[ALXAndy]

It worked



woohoo.

 

[Cenedd]

Now you just need to take up woodwork and build an angled desk so it all looks nice and level!

Some feet to raise it and just a nats (!) of Dremel work and I reckon you'd get a 240 rad in the bottom there. Go on, listen to the bad idea bear!