Associate
- Joined
- 25 Sep 2012
- Posts
- 125
Parts
Streacom DA2 Mini ITX Desktop
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming Mini ITX AM4
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core
NZXT Kraken X63 280mm Cooler
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD
Western Digital Blue 2 TB M.2-2280 SSD
Palit GeForce RTX 3090 24 GB GamingPro OC
Corsair SF 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX
I’d felt like building a small form factor PC since seeing a LOUQE Ghost S1 review and ended up buying a Streacom DA2 on sale. It sat empty for a year while I drew up a parts list that changed regularly depending on what reviews I'd read. The new Ryzen 3 processors made me pull the trigger and while I'd wanted a 12 or 16-core for no reason than just in case I needed it, parts shortage made me go with the 8-core 5800X. I'd already bought the Kraken X63 280mm and the rest of the parts just picked themselves. I had a GTX 1060 lying around and it kept the slot warm until I could get my hands on a RTX 3090.
Tearing down the DA2 to it's bare frame was easy once I figured out how to remove the front IO panel. The motherboard and PSU installation is relatively straight forward and the frame rails do a great job of keeping everything secure. It really is a clever system. The real problems are the Kraken X63 and cable management thereafter. Pump orientation is pretty much dictated by the proximity of motherboard components and radiator tubing. As it was, I must have removed the RAM at least a dozen times while installing the pump cables and tidying them up after to stop them snagging the radiator fans. The radiator just squeezes into the frame and there is maybe a mm or two between it and the rear power cable. You would want to consider this if you wanted to change the stock NZXT fans. They are loud at full blast but fortunately ASUS AI Suite allows you to adjust fan curves from the default silent to 100% with nothing in between. Haven't yet got round to undervolting but I suspect that will bring noise levels down further.
Once all the parts are in and cables tied away, you realize that there's little room left to add anything else. The radiator and fans take up a lot of space so there's no room between the PSU and the fans. I doubt you could get a 2.5" SSD in there without cable issues. There is another M.2 slot available on the underside of the motherboard. A full-size PSU is not possible without serious compromise to either radiator or GPU size. As it is, I am wondering about the logistics of a 30cm RTX 3090. Cable management will be vital. For every cable tie in its final place, I must have used another 5 that I ended up cutting off and discarding as it didn't quite work. I also probably stripped it back down twice just to try and create some more space, cursing every step of the way, hence the title of the build.
For anyone wondering about x570 and Vermeer CPUs, my mid-January purchase of the ASUS X570-I motherboard came with a "AMD RYZEN 5000X DESKTOP READY" sticker on the box.
===========================================================
Following on from the original, I managed to purchase a Palit RTX 3090 OC. I had wanted an Asus TUF OC but these look to be discontinued and as beggars can't be choosers, Palit it was. As I was going to take the case apart again, I thought I'd make use of the second M.2 slot with a WD Blue 2TB as there was no way I'd be able to fit an SSD inside the case. A little extra case ventilation wouldn't hurt so I managed to squeeze a Noctua 92mm x 14mm slim fan in the back of the case - more on this later.
The Palit is just shy of 30cm and fits in the case well. The Streacom case is really good when it comes to securing the heavy card and once it's in and screwed tight with the locking mechanism, there is absolutely no card sag. You can actually keep the bottom mesh and plastic of the case as there's only about 1mm of outward bowing from the card above it but I suspect it would restrict cooling so I've left it open to fresh air on the underside. It's not at all visible once the side panels are back on.
The problem with this size of card was that the rigid tubes of the NZXT CPU AIO cooler now had less space to be tucked away and now snagged the AIO fans. This meant moving the fans to the other side of the radiator and changing the fan configuration from a IN to OUT push configuration to an IN to OUT pull configuration initially, with the AIO tubes now resting on the radiator, not the fans. This also meant that the radiator would sit deeper in the case meaning I'd lost the Noctua case fan I'd squeeze in earlier and the ventilation that went with it. The only real way of getting round this and the ventilation issues created would be to have one of the fans pushing cold air in and the other fan pulling air out. That and the now open case bottom seems to work and temps are good, though I haven't really stressed the system enough to test it fully.
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/bP7Ajh51JM
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/Dj42mEZYhF
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/7KoxCGYBOH
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/xC7XYm9QGh
Streacom DA2 Mini ITX Desktop
Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming Mini ITX AM4
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3.8 GHz 8-Core
NZXT Kraken X63 280mm Cooler
Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME SSD
Western Digital Blue 2 TB M.2-2280 SSD
Palit GeForce RTX 3090 24 GB GamingPro OC
Corsair SF 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular SFX
I’d felt like building a small form factor PC since seeing a LOUQE Ghost S1 review and ended up buying a Streacom DA2 on sale. It sat empty for a year while I drew up a parts list that changed regularly depending on what reviews I'd read. The new Ryzen 3 processors made me pull the trigger and while I'd wanted a 12 or 16-core for no reason than just in case I needed it, parts shortage made me go with the 8-core 5800X. I'd already bought the Kraken X63 280mm and the rest of the parts just picked themselves. I had a GTX 1060 lying around and it kept the slot warm until I could get my hands on a RTX 3090.
Tearing down the DA2 to it's bare frame was easy once I figured out how to remove the front IO panel. The motherboard and PSU installation is relatively straight forward and the frame rails do a great job of keeping everything secure. It really is a clever system. The real problems are the Kraken X63 and cable management thereafter. Pump orientation is pretty much dictated by the proximity of motherboard components and radiator tubing. As it was, I must have removed the RAM at least a dozen times while installing the pump cables and tidying them up after to stop them snagging the radiator fans. The radiator just squeezes into the frame and there is maybe a mm or two between it and the rear power cable. You would want to consider this if you wanted to change the stock NZXT fans. They are loud at full blast but fortunately ASUS AI Suite allows you to adjust fan curves from the default silent to 100% with nothing in between. Haven't yet got round to undervolting but I suspect that will bring noise levels down further.
Once all the parts are in and cables tied away, you realize that there's little room left to add anything else. The radiator and fans take up a lot of space so there's no room between the PSU and the fans. I doubt you could get a 2.5" SSD in there without cable issues. There is another M.2 slot available on the underside of the motherboard. A full-size PSU is not possible without serious compromise to either radiator or GPU size. As it is, I am wondering about the logistics of a 30cm RTX 3090. Cable management will be vital. For every cable tie in its final place, I must have used another 5 that I ended up cutting off and discarding as it didn't quite work. I also probably stripped it back down twice just to try and create some more space, cursing every step of the way, hence the title of the build.
For anyone wondering about x570 and Vermeer CPUs, my mid-January purchase of the ASUS X570-I motherboard came with a "AMD RYZEN 5000X DESKTOP READY" sticker on the box.
===========================================================
Following on from the original, I managed to purchase a Palit RTX 3090 OC. I had wanted an Asus TUF OC but these look to be discontinued and as beggars can't be choosers, Palit it was. As I was going to take the case apart again, I thought I'd make use of the second M.2 slot with a WD Blue 2TB as there was no way I'd be able to fit an SSD inside the case. A little extra case ventilation wouldn't hurt so I managed to squeeze a Noctua 92mm x 14mm slim fan in the back of the case - more on this later.
The Palit is just shy of 30cm and fits in the case well. The Streacom case is really good when it comes to securing the heavy card and once it's in and screwed tight with the locking mechanism, there is absolutely no card sag. You can actually keep the bottom mesh and plastic of the case as there's only about 1mm of outward bowing from the card above it but I suspect it would restrict cooling so I've left it open to fresh air on the underside. It's not at all visible once the side panels are back on.
The problem with this size of card was that the rigid tubes of the NZXT CPU AIO cooler now had less space to be tucked away and now snagged the AIO fans. This meant moving the fans to the other side of the radiator and changing the fan configuration from a IN to OUT push configuration to an IN to OUT pull configuration initially, with the AIO tubes now resting on the radiator, not the fans. This also meant that the radiator would sit deeper in the case meaning I'd lost the Noctua case fan I'd squeeze in earlier and the ventilation that went with it. The only real way of getting round this and the ventilation issues created would be to have one of the fans pushing cold air in and the other fan pulling air out. That and the now open case bottom seems to work and temps are good, though I haven't really stressed the system enough to test it fully.
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/bP7Ajh51JM
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/Dj42mEZYhF
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/7KoxCGYBOH
https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/xC7XYm9QGh