Case Pictures

[Grogan]

I wanted to wait until I felt good about my computer, but this is what it looks like for now. At the very least (even if I don't change the motherboard) I'm either going to get one of those Corsair side connecting PSU's, and/or PSU cable extenders like I see ALL of those guys using in their videos. They are stranded, flexible and esthetic. I just hate myself for what I had to do to get the CPU power connector cables to reach from the PSU inside that enclosure up to the top of this tall case. There isn't enough length to route around the back with it that far back in that rigid enclosure (and I have the plastic front part off at that, or it would be even worse). The rear opening at the top of that enclosure is partially blocked by the PSU unit (too close to motherboard pins to force through).

Look at the the far front side of the PSU enclosure, you can see how I have them routed up and over the CPU cooler to reach. That opening was the only place I could route them, without it, there wouldn't have been enough length at all to get there. I don't want any stress on those cables.

There sure isn't much point to that tempered glass, as it's so tinted you can't see much anyway

The bottom two front fans don't have LEDs, neither does the rear fan. The blue LED front fan is actually a replacement 3 speed fan for my Antec case, but I figured I might as well put it in this build.

I take terrible pictures.

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[Zema Bus]

Looks good. The cabling doesn't look bad by my standards, mine are typically much messier.

[Grogan]

Well... shit. Know what I did? Let's throw more money at the problem.

I ordered the side connecting PSU and two sets of braided flexible connection extenders. Sucks... I need two PSU cables and there's only one in a set.

Corsair RM1000x Shift Fully Modular ATX Power Supply - Modular Side Interface - ATX 3.0 & PCIe 5.0 Compliant - Zero RPM Fan Mode - 105°C-Rated Capacitors - 80 Plus Gold Efficiency - Black
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0BP8B6M7Y/

AsiaHorse 18AWG PSU PSU Cable Extension Sleeved Custom Mod GPU PC Power Supply Soft Braided with Two Color Comb Kit 24P/8P to 6+2P/ 8P to 4+4P 30CM 300MM (Peal White)
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0BVQVYVGW/

This is a step in the right direction. Let's get those juicy PSU cables the fuck away from the motherboard and the switch connector block. I see all the guys using extenders like that. (and the white should look good with the LEDs shining on it... just like all the guys have lol)

The side connections will be VERY handy in this case. Won't have to disconnect and pull out the PSU to get at the modular banks. They aren't easy to connect either, they go in tight and straight.

[Grogan]

Installing that blue 3 speed fan up top on the front fan rail was a good thing to do, it helped with the temperatures all around, both CPU and PCH sensor chip. It's a higher velocity fan too, on the highest switch position. I'm happy with my fan placement now at least.

That fan hub inside the back of the case is really convenient, whatever fans you install, just stick the wires through to the "bundle" (at the back there's a spot to bundle with velcro ties and close the hinged door and plug them in at the back.

The only problem/benefit (I like it) is that all the case fans are controlled together. As far as the system knows, all 5 case fans are "fan3" (fan1 is the CPU fan on the motherboard's cpu_fan1 connector). I don't know where it's getting that RPM reading from, but its bollocks.

Code: Select all

fan1:           1513 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan2:              0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan3:            871 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)

This isn't my photo, but this is how it was out of the box, with the two included case fans connected to it. On the left, that small connection is to a fan port on the motherboard, but it's wired only for PWM control. On the right, that little connector goes to a 12V SATA connector that connects to a SATA power cable (which I have connected to my PSU by itself... if you had SATA drives you could just plug into an existing cable) to power the fan hub. I can still plug in one more fan back there.

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[Zema Bus]

Well... shit. Know what I did? Let's throw more money at the problem.

I know the feeling, been there far too many times.

I ordered a set of those extensions, because of something else I did in response to not having another case with the airflow these newer processors need, at least none housing machines I don't want to tear apart, and not being able to find one on Amazon without the attributes I don't like. Also got a side port power supply coming tomorrow, the 850 W version.

[Grogan]

Whether it helps or not, it'll be nice to have that cleaned up. It might actually be something I'll have to live with (avoid) and it's not that uncommon. This board may just be sensitive to that interference.

I found a Steve video talking about that very thing, static electricity. It seems I have this sussed about right. They refer to what I'm having as "disrupting" ESD where it disrupts a signal. Symptoms range from display blacking out briefly and recovering, to blue screens in Windows, to having to hard reset the device. He showed a clip of one of JayzTwoCents' rigs that was doing that when he touched the top of the case (and it won't be because he doesn't know how to put a PC together lol). Just affecting his display briefly, not as bad as mine. Most of the time this doesn't do any damage, it's just a "nuisance".

If I can't solve this, I probably won't replace the motherboard right away (and I won't get the same one if I do).

[Grogan]

I know I don't need a 1000W power supply anymore (hardware doesn't draw that much now) but I always overdo everything. I got on that train back in the dual Nvidia GPU days and did that card ever draw juice, and suck a bag of dick at the same time.

I'm thinking about all the fans, and maybe one of those AIO blocks that's going to have a pump and several fans at a later date (we'll see... nowadays with cutting turbo boost frequency at thresholds, cooling actually gives you better performance). Or maybe I want to plug a coffee maker into my USB ports (umm, no... but I had a lady that used to do that. When I was coming, she'd have my coffee ready, sitting on a USB warming pad. I disapproved, but she liked that thing too much and I really had no first hand knowledge of that causing a problem)

I'm at about 815W using a power supply calculator (at MSI's site)

[Grogan]

Damn, I went to the link in this thread to my pending power supply to review the specs and see that it's $50 more today than I paid yesterday. Sold and shipped by Amazon, Prime logo etc. both new. I paid $239 CAD for it yesterday, and now it's listed at $289

Sometimes it pays to impulse buy

[Zema Bus]

I've noticed big price changes after buying something on Amazon. They use algorithms that automatically adjust the price of items based on demand.

It doesn't hurt having plenty of overhead aside from the extra cost. I have some watt meters I use to measure power consumption, when gaming or compiling with all cores I've generally not seen power draws beyond about 230 W when I've checked (I can't say there weren't higher spikes I didn't see, I'd like to find one that keeps a record of the readings). One exception is a machine with an Intel Arc A750 gaming card that typically pulls over 300 W when gaming (the Intel gaming cards are notoriously power guzzling).

[Grogan]

Yeah, the MSI calculator wouldn't be calculating actual needs, but relative to what PSU you should buy for your hardware. So with that score of 815, it recommends an 850W PSU.

Those watt meters you're showing me, you're measuring input wattage of AC household current the PSU is drawing, not the rectified output your hardware is drawing from the PSU. That would vary with line voltage too. Still, it should be higher than the output to the hardware as there is current loss in transforming and rectifying.

A 1000W PSU is probably wasting a slight amount of money for me at idle times. In theory, as long as I'm drawing 400W on the output side, it should be the same efficiency as an 850W. If I'm only drawing 200W, that would drop the efficiency down a few percent. If the 80+ Gold 87% efficiency is true, then it probably drops down to about 85% if under utilizing the PSU.

[Zema Bus]

Since I have one of these cases and after seeing a lot of reports about how easily the glass panel shatters when I looked up how to safely remove the panel, I ordered a solid replacement panel from Corsair. Maybe if enough people order the solid panel it'll send a message This one may also slightly help with the airflow since it is vented.

[Zema Bus]

The side panels are interchangeable with both sides, so I could put the other side panel on in place of the glass panel until the replacement arrives if I wanted to.

[Grogan]

I'm waiting until I break mine. Notice I said "until", not unless

Not expensive if I need it.

(meanwhile I'm being very careful with that glass panel. I have to take it off to move the computer anyway (it's fucking heavy and I have to be able to not only lift it, but manoeuver it without straining any muscles) and I set it down gently on a soft surface until I have the computer back in place and carefully put it back on.)

[Zema Bus]

I think this case was the most challenging to build in, in all of my 23 years of doing this. It took a while but I finally got past all the obstacles with hidden screws etc. I still have more work to do but it's up and running. This is the cleanest build I've ever done. My mech drive sounds louder because of the shroud around the drive bay. It was sad to discover this case has no drive activity lead. So I pulled one out of one of the sets of spare leads I have and hooked it up. Still have to see if I can find a place for the bulb. It's the red lead in the picture.

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[Grogan]

Heheh yeah, another thing Corsair doesn't think we need anymore. I had that on the Fractal case and it worked for the M.2. I guess that doesn't really matter anymore, if I want to watch i/o I'll use a util.

It is a different way of thinking, working with this case. Why I wanted the bigger one was to have room to get my hands around things, but it also made the distances greater for cabling etc. I found myself putting things on and nope, nope, nope, it's better like this etc.

But now, I know I've done the absolute best I can with the best PSU I could get (esp. for this case) and the best connections I can do. I tested touching the top of the case once and nothing happened, but I will admit that I didn't try too hard to deliberately trigger it. While it's perhaps not damaging anything, it can't be "good" and you're not supposed to be touching things with a static charge anyway.

This is the nicest job I've ever done, I'll also admit that. I even got that front plastic sheath back on the PSU enclosure to protect shit from cabling. Those combs... they actually help keep split connectors together when you have them positioned right while plugging cables in. It was MUCH easier to work with those.

[Grogan]

Well, damnit, I made one teeny, tiny little mistake in my otherwise perfect surgery. I had yanked my CPU fan connector from the board to tuck it behind something else, and plugged it back into the pump_fan header.

It was working, but it became "fan2" and it was running at slightly lower RPM than I remembered it (like 1490 vs. 1500+). I thought oh well, I just plugged it into a different fan header and the sensor is reading differently or something. So I went to the BIOS to see how it was reporting fan RPM and it was 0 RPM for the CPU fan. That's when I knew it wasn't a CPU fan header I plugged into

But... that was easy to fix without moving the machine much or disturbing anything else, it was just a pain to get it on the pins, reaching in there.

P.S. Actually the fan RPMs are about the same, plugged into the correct CPU fan header. It's probably the PSU that's changed that (and I'm not using Smart Fan Control). I also noticed my CPU voltage in the BIOS is staying lower than 1.4V now.

I think I have a good case for returning that PSU without much embellishment. I'm going to say "It has poor grounding/shielding and EMI issues as well as imprecise voltages. It caused me a lot of subtle problems with my build, and a rebuild in a better computer case, until I replaced it."

(Note that imprecise voltages thing is always true to a degree, with Antec vs. Corsair PSUs. I don't lie )

[Zema Bus]

On my Gigabyte board there are two CPU fan headers, since they know lots of people are using tower coolers with two fans. When I was initially testing the board outside the case I only had one fan on the tower, and noticed the fan was turning off after booting. So I hooked up the 2nd fan and checked the fan settings in the bios - it was set to quiet mode, making it stay off until a threshold is reached. I changed it to normal, and now my Noctua fan runs at 1,600 RPM, and will rev up to 3,000 RPM when needed (I can hear it rev up when compiling a kernel). Even when no fan was running it still idled pretty cool, around 30 C, but with both fans going it came down to 25 C.

[Grogan]

The tower/radiator does most of the cooling. I see those guys testing boards just with the tower set on the die with paste, not even fastened down, with no fan. (This isn't under load of course)

[Grogan]

I had a more in-depth poke at the fan settings in my bios, and NOW I understand that (what I thought was a) bogus low 900 RPM'ish value from fan3 (fans connected to the hub). While I had Smart Fan Control off for both CPU and SYS fans, and while the CPU fan was running at 100% (it's simply a 1500 RPM fan), the SYS fan was limited to 60%. It's about 1200'ish RPM at 100% (wherever it's getting that lol). I'm not sure I want to pull all that air unnecessarily (it means cleaning more often) so I set it to 75% where it runs around 1000+. Or should I say, "reads".

Code: Select all

fan1:           1494 RPM
fan2:              0 RPM
fan3:           1025 RPM

Why I missed it before is that you have to graphically click (or cycle through shit with arrow keys in absence of mouse) on the right side of the curve they show you, where it says.... "60%" and you can type a number and hit enter.

[Zema Bus]

It's pretty much done. I have case fans connected to a magnetic RGB hub behind the back side panel that allows changing the colors via a little wireless controller.

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I put the HD activity light in the upper front corner. With the dust filter and front cover in place it's dimmed but still visible.

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[Grogan]

That's a lot of blue coming from those fans, even with the stock fan in the center. Notice how it cancels out the red in your purple motherboard extender cable. It's all blue (just an observation, not that it matters or anything) lol

I generally don't go for lighting, and didn't like that pulsating shit on that first case fan I bought (it had a separate jrainbow connector though and I disconnected it and didn't connect it this time). These two solid coloured fans I have are just incidental, built in. They don't cast a lot of light, so they don't bother me. About the only benefit is that it's easy to see that the computer is on (power switch/LED is way up top there).

I was lucky to find a nice 140 mm Corsair fan for the top in town here.

You can put like 12 fans in these cases

[Zema Bus]

Yeah it's interesting how it alters the color of other things. It kind of reminds me of the "black light" I had as a kid (I had a bunch of UV sensitive stickers everywhere in my room that looked really cool when the black light was on). The default setting for the hub was pulsating light so I changed it to just a single static color.

[TheeRadioDJ]

A recent build, but not my main system. I'm actively trying to sell this one.

That RTX 3080 barely fits in the Meshify 2 case.

[Grogan]

LOL yeah, that's cutting it close, those Fractal cases seem to be on the small side. I see you have one of those pain in the hemorrhoids PSU enclosures on that case too.

I've seen some boohoo pictures of people that bought big humfucker Nvidia cards only to find they won't go in their cases.

Looks nice though, and a very neat job.

That's some weird looking power connections on that graphics card. Looks like three 8 pin PCI-E connectors from the PSU, and some jumper/adapter thingy?

[TheeRadioDJ]

To be fair, that Meshify 2 Compact is one of Fractal's smaller cases. I also have the Meshify 2 (not compact version) which is very roomy. If you want to see a really small Fractal case, have a look at the Fractal Terra. It's a Mini-ITX case that I bought to house a Mini-ITX AsRock mobo I bought. I ended up returning the Terra case. It's very hard to build in. I guess I insulted the AsRock board, as it's now dead. That's two AsRock mobos that have died on me just this year.

The RTX 3080 has 3 8 pin connectors. What you're seeing is the PCI-E cables from the Corsair PSU. They have hard-wired dual connectors on each cable, so I used them both on one cable, and on the other I just tried to tuck it out of the way. It doesn't look great, but that's all I could do.

[TheeRadioDJ]

This is my main system build.

Asus ROG Strix Z790-A
Intel Core i9 12900KS
Arctic Liquid Freezer III 280
XFX Speedster MERC319 RX 7800 XT
Patriot Viper Venom DDR5 16GB (2 x 8GB) 5200MHz
SeaSonic FOCUS 1000W 80 PLUS Gold Modular PSU
CableMod RT-Series Classic ModFlex Sleeved Cable Kit
APNX C1 Mid-Tower ChromaFlair finish

Taz should feel at home, since my computer's name is Taz.

[Grogan]

Ahh cool, that makes sense with the PCI-E power connectors. In pics, sometimes the angle of view obscures where things are really coming from.

Now that's a cool looking build, your personal rig. The figurine looks good in the lighting etc. too.

Those cable extenders with the combs are the bee's knees eh? They make working with power cabling and connectors so much easier. I'll be using those from now on (well, maybe not in small cases... going to probably be doing one soon with a micro atx board for my sis)

I'm really happy with the 7700 card I got in the end, that's a good series, with RDNA3 arch.

[TheeRadioDJ]

Those aren't cable extensions, they're complete 3rd party cable replacements from CableMod. I'm not 100% happy with CableMod. Their QC seems suspect. I have one cable set where the locking tab on the PSU end of the ATX cable just broke off. I have other CableMod sets where the braided sheath has come loose from the connector, and looks like shit. I'm going to reach out to them with pics of the offending cables, and maybe they'll replace them. I can hope, anyway

[Grogan]

Oh, that would be cool (replacements vs. unnecessarily long extenders) if they weren't shitty. The PSU connecting end is the most important, you wouldn't want to be second guessing that, especially way inside that enclosure. That could cause like EM interference too with that broken sheathing (if near something I mean)

I bought "AsiaHorse" brand extenders, they seem to be of good quality. They profusely say so, but in my observations they seem well constructed and have good connectors.

[Zema Bus]

Both of your builds look great! I like the subtle lighting in your main system. These newer cases are sure forcing us to do clean cable management. I never used to bother with that lol!