Mike Tyson

Nah this rig is staying as it is. It's as cool as a cucumber. You can't get water blocks for the GPU either, so yeah this is my gamer (and needs to be reliable as it's all I have here).

Sadly the sound card clicked out after a few songs, then repeated that pattern. The relays on the Asus cards are a total PITA. Even in regular use this happens on certain boards. So I will wait for the Soundblaster before writing that fiver off.

I have asked about this elsewhere but I will ask here too. OK, so this is what my manual says.

vh4xObJ.jpg

So would this work in there? it's an M key SATA. I don't want to lose lanes, and I really don't want to be running SATA cables either. I'd rather keep it as clean as I can.

N2STnb2.jpg
 
HoneyBadger said:
Yep that’ll work.
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It ought to work as it meets the spec. I think the important question to ALXAndy is whether it'll use zero PCI-E lanes if it's a SATA mode model rather than an NVME model. For the record, I don't know. For what little it's worth I have a pair of NVME M.2's in RAID 0 and they don't show up in HWInfo on a PCI-E lane but under the Intel RST - as SATA if I remember correctly.
 
Yeah, both confirmed. It will work, it won't use lanes*

And then I read about X570, and how the PCH adds 16 lanes. So *that's* why it has two M.2 slots, a X16 slot and a X4 slot lol. It doesn't matter as it's only for games and was significantly cheaper than a top spec NVME which would cost double.

The good news is I can now get something like this.

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And also use the 256gb Viper that is still sat in the box lol.

The ZXR came today. Not opened it yet. Have been testing the mining riser with the Xonar STX before I go ahead and fit it to this rig. Firstly it was cutting out a lot. The relays on the STX are a bugger. Any way, it turned out that powering the riser was what was causing the issue. I would imagine it provided too much current, and is only strictly needed for GPUs. Since removing that and securing the socket onto the card with some masking tape (test stage) it's been rock solid.

I've ordered a much prettier USB cable for that also.

Oh also. M.2 SATA may eat a couple SATA ports, but I don't care about that. Not using them any way.
 
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OK sound card and riser fitted (and installed and working). SSD worked too, so thanks for the advice there guys.

The blue USB cable looks a bit crap, but I've ordered the above. If they are too long I can just get a black 60cm for about £3.

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There is one thing I don't like, mind. The front rad mount thing has 140mm holes and 120mm holes. I am using a double 120, so it looks a bit "gappy". Even though the filter.

So I got these in gunmetal. They are 140, so will cover the gap. I won't be hooking up the RGB but they weren't too cheap given they are alu.

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Still, £36 in the grand scheme of things didn't seem too bad.
 
seth1969 said:
Nice build there fella :cool:
You loving the gpu?
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It's an animal. I've not gamed on it yet but I ran it through every torture test I could think of. Straight out of the box it was boosting to 2050, which easily increased to 2150 with just an automatic scan. I've not got into the round two of benchmarks, because I've been working on the rig itself. I wanted to get it all built and stable so I could get back to decent settings if it wouldn't post. Got the RAM to 3600 last night, will probably work on timings later :)

Hoping to get 2200 out of the GPU. It should do it, but I am wary of installing the BIOS that gives full voltage control. Firstly I don't have a clue what I am doing, and secondly it invalidates the warranty.

One thing that is pretty annoying is that there is nothing under the PCIE slots to hold the tabs on add in cards. I guess they designed it to be held by the socket, but I am not using the stock socket. So that will need a piece made. Nothing too hard to do, and I think I have some 8mm black plex left over. It's just to stop the sound cards bending when I install things into them.

I'm not rushing it. I don't really do much any way, but I want something to do whilst all this madness is going on.
 
OK, those USB cables don't work. So it's plan B.

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I've ordered it in two sizes (10mm and 15mm) and will see how I get on. I also got this

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So I am sure that I can come up with something more suitable.

The one thing that is super annoying is that the sound cards are not being held at the bottom of the PCIE slot. Even if I had the genuine Lian Li cable it would not stop the secondary input card from doing it. They bend in when you connect things. I had two options. Drill through the bottom of the slot so I could bolt into the holes in the cards (not a fan) or make something out of 8mm acrylic and stick it in with 3m to stop them doing that. I ordered the 3m and acrylic. If that fails I will have to drill the case, but I would rather not.
 
Ugh. Decided to hook up the frames. I had to get this to do so.

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I wouldn't have, but HWC did a video on the neons today that I was looking at and I cracked.

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I suppose it will be nice to actually see the hardware in there.
 
Dude tbh I don't even want to get my soldering iron out. Sadly I may have to, as the frames are 12v LED and not DRGB. I'm pretty sure the board does both, but yeah no doubt I will have to make some sort of adapter.

I have to make a piece of acrylic to hold in the sound cards as it is. The case has no "tabs" for PCI cards to go into, so they are only held in by the screw. So when you go to shove those big old fat connectors in they bend into the rig FFS. I guess Lian Li didn't expect you to put anything else there but a GPU held in by their bracket. Thing is? even with their PCIE riser and bracket the back card would still have nothing to hold into.

I ordered some 8mm acryl and 3M tape. I just need a small piece to slot them into.

My X16 riser card for the NVME came today. I'll bung that in later with the 256gb drive and move Windows over to that. I've not been taking pics because it hasn't changed much (apart from the fact it's bang tidy) and I can only really work on it at night.
 
Shout if the acrylic needs milling....but I'll need drawings....with dimensions! Think I have some 10mm black I could cut down to 8mm which would leave it a matt black.
 
orbitalwalsh said:
@ALXAndy

used those frames on silent wings... such a good idea at the time. specially if you've invested heavily on expensive non argb fans and want a glow not a light show
Click to expand...

I used cheapo frames on my silentwings and yeah, it looks awesome. I love the way the ribs catch the lights.

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It's more expensive, but man it's worth it. They'll work on any fan too. Plus when you turn them off you are left with a nice black fan. Most RGB fans are white or milky.

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I got that done last night. It took about twenty seconds lol. That's what you get for having a three day HL2 marathon ffs. Any way, as I said no rush. I was rather pleased though. Mainly because the one in there already is upside down which is annoying my OCD. I don't want to try and remove the cooler, as they weren't cheap so I will have to live with the annoyance. However, I got my bonus from the fact that the board is upside down, so usually you would see the underside of the riser and nothing else. Not only will you see the drive, but the logo is also the correct way around :D
 
Tonight I will be practising the art of turning the brightness down lol. Got the braid for the USB cable today, but not the other supplies. I did fit the 256gb SSD last night, and it worked fine. GPU has remained at X16 too which is awesome.

I did email myself the benchmarks at stock(ish) but they never arrived and I had come upstairs by that point. I will send them over again tonight.

I also realised that a certain part of the case is removable, so I took it off and sorted out the cables.

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So out it came, and it has a load of holes to tie the cables to. Can't believe I didn't notice that before. I'm contemplating running the GPU cables into it and down, but I don't know if they will all fit in there. Something for next time I have it all apart perhaps.
 
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