PUBG crate. The spares build.

[ALXAndy]

OK so I got lazy and didn't finish it. I did however try and use it, and my findings were...

The 1920x sucks balls for gaming. I connected it up to the PC and the 2080Ti is more than man enough for what I was doing but yeah it didn't run well at all. Stray was fine, and I completed it, but stuff like Spiderman even at moderate settings wanted a faster CPU. With Dead Island 2 coming in April (I've bought it already) I don't want to be stuck on my desk for many hours at a time what with it being an RPG I will absolutely play with the controller. I am not carting my main desk rig around either, as it's 90% glass. I did think about overclocking the 1920x, but the very same CPU before needed a 360 rad *and* a 120 to remain stable at 4.1. When the 120 broke it could not even do 3.9 on the 360, so I knew on a 240mm AIO I had absolutely no chance. An ill fitting 240mm AIO at that.

So, I bought a new CPU. 11400F, the best deal I think I have ever gotten on a PC part ever. It's absolutely superb at gaming, beating my 3950x easily.

Just needed a board. Z590 boards now go for absolute peanuts. And I mean, peanuts. The Z590i Vision D I bought for Modular cost me £129. Which is what has put me off of all modern AMD CPUs, as well as the older ones (with ITX boards no longer being available so scalpers be scalping). It's not worth it, given the 3600 is slower than the 3950x in gaming. I found this. It's absolutely hilarious !

Quite possibly the most daft coupling ever, but it was £199 delivered brand new. £318 all in, for a total brute of a board.

 

[ALXAndy]

Needs more black on that board
'ere, you can't sell me a 1920x and then go posting how bad it is! Anyway, you're doing it wrong as it'll run a stress test at 3.7GHz all-cores and not top 40°C....you just need Mo' Ra' That reminds me, now I've got the RAM stable I must see if I can open those all-core taps a bit....can't have it under 4GHz now can we!

Well I didn't think you would want it for gaming ya nana. I figured you'd want it for server etc use.

I think it would help if I could OC it, but like I said it was bodged, with about 20% of the CPU at the ends having no cold plate contact. So I didn't wanna take the pee

Been doing some reading and that board is a bit of a nutter. I don't think GN's "Waste of sand" review helped Z590 much lmao. Seems all of the Z590s cost peanuts now.

I think I can get the locked CPU to overclock itself too. Apparently Intel left a hole in it where if you change the power limit from 65w to 125 or higher it overclocks itself on the power. Apparently from the 12 series they fused that out of the micro code.

That may explain why the one I have at mum's seems to run so well. Great thing is on the 11 series you get full access to all of the M.2 slots too, whereas apparently on some boards on the 10 series only the one connected to the CPU works.

 

[ALXAndy]

Yeah to be fair when I sold it to you it was much more current than now. That was like aaaages ago.

It was fine in Stray. I played it all the way through in 4k. Problem is with other stuff the 2080Ti wasn't enough for 4k, and the CPU wasn't good enough for 1440p. Rock and hard place.

I am praying that the engine in DI2 is older. And thus it won't totally stink like Dying Light 2 in terms of performance. And may be a bit more optimised and well polished, given it's been in dev for 8 years and through numerous devs. It doesn't look like the same engine that DL2 uses, that's for sure.

 

[ALXAndy]

You will all be absolutely gutted to hear I can't use the case. HARUMPH. It is pretty tight in there, and this board I bought is friggin huge and has a side loading 24 pin. I could have possibly taken out the "NZXT bar thing" but that is their way of getting around the fact they use thin metal on the case. As such when you remove it she goes a bit floppy. Given I once cracked a radiator by lifting a floppy case just like it (some cheap Phanteks thing) I was reluctant to do that, and potentially crack the rad on the Kingpin. Yeah ouch, that doesn't bear thinking about. So I bagged this from OCUK on sale.

My mate got one last year. Given I need to move the rig from room to room the straps on top are super handy. Perfect even. I have a real mixed bag of fans, and actually want to bring lots of air in now so I found these on sale. I bought two sets (so 6)

Which marry up perfectly with the bargain one of these I got last year.

You'll also cry when I tell you that I did not carry the red and blue cables forward. I know, just try to cope and get by one day at a time.... I have packed all of that back in the original PUBG box. I got these. Super cheap and have what I need (2 8 pin, 3 8 pin PCIE)

I also got really annoyed trying to find the correct plates for my AIO, so grabbed this on sale too for £24.

And providing it fits should work lovely. I say that because look.

Gawd knows, but I am sure I will find out.

 

[ALXAndy]

Hahahaha. I know dude. it's my first air cooler since 2009

I can't find the wings I need in the UK. They are £10+ from China and £15 from Corsair but all out of stock. Besides. There is a big issue with 99% of pc cases. And that is that they assume you are going to use either your CPU or GPU on water but not both. If you do? Then you can't run any intake fans because all positions are then blocked with rads.

This way I can have 3 120s on intake, the CPU on the air cooler and the GPUs rad in the top.

It will quite probably cool better than any other rig I have.

The day they make large cases with three useable areas (front top *and* bottom? The problem will be solved. Well it is in the 011 XL. Problem is it's foogin dear.

I'm really stoked with the epic half priced bargains ive bashed out here. That said the mobo RRP was £540. So I super duper scored on that animal of a board.

 

[ALXAndy]

Yeah the NZXT had to be bodged in the roof to get the rad in the way I wanted. I think the only case I have ever seen that was perfect were the Lian Li Lancool ones. Like the LC2, and so on. They really are amazing when it comes to options and flexibility.

So I got some goodies.

Terrified of opening the board* I was expecting to see a big RMA sticker.

But nope, all shiny and new as described.

* Apparently according to a mod on Linus Tech Tips I would not get the board. They only made 1000 of them, so it must be a scam etc.

 

[ALXAndy]

Man, this board is absolutely ridiculous. It weighs a friggin ton.

It's beautiful, though. I was so stoked to see that it comes with braided black SATA cables too, as I have two 1tb SSDs I want to use.

 

[ALXAndy]

Yay. Another huge thankyou to OCUK.

Case arrived. No handle straps, but that doesn't bother me at all. You will see why later.

The dust filter is in a box inside. The Bora fans also came too.

And are absolutely friggin gorgeous. I have decided on layout. 3 in the front as intake, two on the rad in the roof, one in the back and then this on the CPU cooler.

The reason I don't care about the carry straps is this.

I am going to paint the metal black, and have the grey wheels.

 

[ALXAndy]

OK so I got a wee bit done yesterday. First thing to do was put the rubber corners on all of the fans. That took longer than putting them all in lol. Fiddly, too !

I then cut the circles out of the black 3M.

And the back fan has one too on the outside face.

I then thought about what I could cover the 2.5" drives with. They are old, scratched and pretty nasty. I wanted to CNC covers but I don't have any plastic and CBA doing that now. So I got this.

Sadly I could not find the proper Dinoc 3M stuff, not in any affordable size. I should have another one of these too, as this did not come with the mobo it has been on my desk for ages. I will put one on each SSD.

 

[ALXAndy]

Mail call. Cooler is a little dusty, but otherwise new. Would imagine it was a display model.

The SSD arrived. Will fit that in a bit.

And the ribbon is here also.

 

[ALXAndy]

Well that was rather scary. First thing to do was fit the NVME. Thank god I did not have to remove the absolute chonk of the armor. Just a small piece from the top.

In.

I then crapped myself a bit thinking the cooler was not going to fit. Such is the way when they don't include a manual, just a card with a Q code on that I didn't have my phone to scan with. I didn't realise the arms were adjustable, so no matter which way I rotated it the arms did not line up with the board holes.

Got there eventually.

By then I was pretty paranoid, so I did a dry test fit.

Phew.

 

[ALXAndy]

I hate how you have to mount it from the back. Especially with such a heavy board. Really sucks that does !

 

[ALXAndy]

I put the board in just a bit ago.

Case is lovely to work in. Took me about a third of the time over that NZXT. All of the RGB is hooked up too, and it was so nice to see the board has two connectors for it.

 

[ALXAndy]

Yeah the shroud comes off very easily. Two screws. It is only plastic, so doesn't weigh a ton either.

A lot of board manus have argued that angled connectors are bad. Which of course is BS. The reason why they don't all do it? money. It costs a lot more. EVGA do it also.

 

[ALXAndy]

Vinyl came in today. Lighter than ideal, but it will do.

I don't have any SATA extensions left, and I don't want to waste a whole run with the nasty angled connectors all up the side. So I got two of these.

Have used them before years ago.

It's a pain, but I don't want to spend over £100 for the same thing (2tb storage) when I have it already.

 

[ALXAndy]

Got a 32gb kit, and it was only about a tenner more for the RGB.

I had some of the Klevv RAM back in the DDR3 days and it was gorgeous to behold. Very expensive then, though. Apparently now they have been bought out by SK Hynix, hence the quality still looks great but they are Corsair or less prices.

 

[ALXAndy]

OK so that's done.

Vroom vroom !

I just need to remember not to climb on it and try and ride it down a hill.

Sadly I can't paint the frames because the wheels are riveted in.

 

[ALXAndy]

See now THAT's the sort of content that would bring great popularity to any project!

I should enter one of those awesome red bull things where they race go karts down a hill. Can't see it holding up to jumps though !

 

[ALXAndy]

Put wheels on that Big Chungus, that'll do the trick.

Ah that's gone mate. One of the few projects I never finished !

The RAM came yesterday. Not opened it or anything yet. We had a funeral yesterday, and it was a long one, so by the time I got home I was frozen through and went to bed. There is a lot to be said about losing 5 stone, but being warm ****** ain't one of them !!

 

[ALXAndy]

Thanks dude. Funeral went off lovely, but it took a month from when he passed. Bit of a nightmare right now, but I think every one feels relieved.

I fitted the air cooler last night. It isn't that big, and weighed very little without a fan on (that one I want on there is at home, so that's cool). I also went ahead and fitted the RAM. Mostly because no matter how hard I tried to reduce the amount to carry I still had the case in its box (obs) as well as a cooler in a box, RAM in a box, the ribbon in a box *and* the friggin board box. Oh, and two Lian Li Bora fans in their box too ffs. There is no way I would have gotten that all up in one trip and I can't do two back to back. So, I fitted the air cooler and RAM and then removed the guts of the mobo box and put everything else in there.

Didn't get any pics as I had left my phone downstairs, and by the time I had lugged it all close to the back door for leaving on Tues morning I didn't want to make another trip down. Not a problem, I will get some before I carry on building it once home. Better lighting in there too.

Also, which was a result, the wheels could stay on completely. The polystyrene packaging fits the front and back and they fitted in the box no probs. Which was also a nightmare, though, as they used actual polystyrene which broke into several pieces when I pulled it out so I had to put them all back together like a puzzle and tape the whole lot.

Again though given I shall be transporting it back (very gently I may add) it only needs to last until it comes out of the box again. Then it will all go in the bin.