And here's how easily the front grill removes...
sevin0seven wrote:looks great Ziggy! love the clean look internally.
Yo, sev, wut up?
My new desktop build!
Re: My new desktop build!
Here's the original model of the case...
And here's how easily the front grill removes...
Yo, sev, wut up?
And here's how easily the front grill removes...
Yo, sev, wut up?
Re: My new desktop build!
Come to think of it, I do recall pulling off the grill on my tower once to put in some extra fans. But I remember it felt and sounded like I was breaking things, so I've never wanted to do it again. lol
Re: My new desktop build!
Yeah, that's what I like about this case. There's no hard to reach places for dust to get trapped in. Everything is wide open, there's no nooks or anythings. As much as I loved my last case, the front bezel wasn't easy to remove when I wanted to dust the case out. And it was definitely a place for dust to get trapped. The bezel had plastic clips that felt like they would easily break or wear out, and I was always worried about them when removing it. This case I have now, there is no bezel. Just that grill that easily removes. And there's no hidden nooks for dust to get trapped!
Re: My new desktop build!
It's been four and a half years since I built this computer, and that just seems crazy! It's been my main, daily use desktop and I've had zero complaints about it.
I actually already did a few upgrades back in 2019 or 2020 and just didn't post about them. Nothing crazy. I bought another identical kit of RAM, so I doubled my RAM from 16 to 32 GB. I've had a few bad experiences with RAM in the past. Knowing that the 16 GB kit that I originally purchased had no issues with the motherboard, I wanted to get another of the same RAM before it became unavailable.
And I added another mechanical HDD, 1 TB, to use as a sort of junk drive. I have the OS on a 512 GB SSD. Then I have a 4 TB mechanical HDD for storage. I have a backup set so anything on the 4 TB drive is auto backed up. So I figured it was easier just to have a separate HDD for a few things, being that they're so cheap now. I set up the 1 TB drive as directories for temp and scratch stuff. And it's also what I've been using to install Steam and GoG games to.
So here are the most recent specs:
I've kept the somewhat ancient video card in there because I really don't do any modern gaming. I figured I would upgrade the card when it was warranted. But with the insanity that has been the graphics card market, I really had no interest in even window shopping.
That is, until now. For the first time in a long time, there's a newly released PC game that I want to play now. Cities Skylines II. I had a lot of fun with the first game, it's the only game that I have on Steam that I broke 100 hours in. I don't really care if there still some wrinkles to iron out, I want to hop on board with it now. But, the system requirements area a little too steep for my current build.
Here's the Cities Skylines II system requirements, abridged...
But I've read that the recommended requires might have gone up due to patches. As from what I've learned with the first game, when large cities start to get bogged down, I don't think I'd have a good time with my current specs barely being able to tread water.
Luckily, there's been some great holiday deals! I really wasn't planning to do these upgrades right now, but I just kept coming across deals on parts I knew I'd eventually get. So here's some parts that I've ordered, and will upgrade soon...
GPU - Finally, I will upgrade the video card. Although I'm still not especially happy with the current graphics card market, I'm not going to deprive myself. What I ended up getting is an MSI Ventus GeFroce RTX 4060 OC. The joke is that the "deal" I got is that it was only regular retail price.
I know a lot of people are disappointment that this card is barely an improvement over the 3060, and the cost and yada yada. I can find so many video reviews on why the 4060 sucks. But the fact of the matter is that it's a huge upgrade from my last card, and it beats the recommended requirement for Cities Skylines II. So that's good enough for me. This card comes in black or white. I probably would have opted for the black, but that was significantly more expensive. The deal was only on the white model, so that's what I got. It doesn't look horrible, and it might grow on me. I was never really one to care about such things.
SSD - The 500 GB Samsung NVMe is still more than enough for the OS. But I didn't want to fill it up with game installs, which is why I got that 1 TB mechanical drive. But now I see that some new game requirements are actually to install on SSD. And the first Cities Skylines would take forever to load (with tons of mods). Cities Skylines II currently doesn't have any mods, but it will at some point. And since games are generally becoming larger and larger in size, it would be nice to load from a SSD now. Still, this wasn't something I was planning on getting. It was just too good of a deal to pass up. Long story short, I got another Samesung 970, but a 1 TB model. It's currently $50 on NewEgg (sold by NewEgg). The 500 GB model is currently $60 LOL, and I paid $118 for the same 500 GB model in 2019! So I'm getting the same drive with double the capacity for less than half the cost. Nuts.
CPU - While my current CPU beats the minimum requirements for Cities Skylines II, it's just barely. And I really don't want to barely beat the minimum requirements. Again, with what I've learned from the first Cities Skylines, the larger the city the more CPU demand. Recommended is a Ryzen 7 5800X, and that's actually what I ended up getting. I guess I can now consider this motherboard to be aging. I see newer Ryzen CPUs are on socket AM5, my motherboard is AM4. So I suppose that means it's set in stone what the best CPU I can get will be. It does support the Ryzen 9 5950X, but when I looked it up there wasn't that big of an improvement over the 5800X. The 5800X was much cheaper, and NewEgg currently has a $40 off promo code for it. Maybe one day, years from now, I will pick up the 5950X used if it's cheap enough. Or the 5800X might very well be the final CPU I have for this build.
CPU Cooler - I am forced to upgrade the CPU cooler. I've been using the AMD Wraith Prism for the 2700X, which is good enough. But apparently not enough for the 5800X. But not wanting to spend a lot of money on a cooler, I decided on getting the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4. Looks like it's one of the cheaper top tier coolers.
LED Lights - OK, I have to admit, the RGB lights have kind of grown on me. My motherboard as well as the AMD Wraith Prism both have RGB lights that cycle through the color spectrum. My PC case has a side window, and it lights up the inside a little bit. Not crazy bright, just enough to get a glimpse of the parts inside. I have it set in the BIOS so that the RGB lights are on when the computer is on, but turn off when the computer is sleeping or hibernating.
Being that I have to upgrade the CPU cooler, I will be loosing the RGB lights. At least the ones from the HSF. I'll still have the lights from the motherboard, but they are very minimal. Luckily, the motherboard has a header for RGB lights. So I picked up some strips on Amazon with the appropriate header connection. They were cheap enough. I'm not sure how they will compare. The light emitted from the CPU cooler is pretty low key. I'm hoping to arrange the LED strip lights so that I can see the light from them but not the lights themselves, if you know what I mean. I want to keep it as low key as it is now.
The video card I've already installed, since it's easy enough to do. The rest of the parts I haven't received yet. I'll take pics when I do all of the upgrading and tweaking and post them here, but that probably wont be until after the new year.
I actually already did a few upgrades back in 2019 or 2020 and just didn't post about them. Nothing crazy. I bought another identical kit of RAM, so I doubled my RAM from 16 to 32 GB. I've had a few bad experiences with RAM in the past. Knowing that the 16 GB kit that I originally purchased had no issues with the motherboard, I wanted to get another of the same RAM before it became unavailable.
And I added another mechanical HDD, 1 TB, to use as a sort of junk drive. I have the OS on a 512 GB SSD. Then I have a 4 TB mechanical HDD for storage. I have a backup set so anything on the 4 TB drive is auto backed up. So I figured it was easier just to have a separate HDD for a few things, being that they're so cheap now. I set up the 1 TB drive as directories for temp and scratch stuff. And it's also what I've been using to install Steam and GoG games to.
So here are the most recent specs:
I've kept the somewhat ancient video card in there because I really don't do any modern gaming. I figured I would upgrade the card when it was warranted. But with the insanity that has been the graphics card market, I really had no interest in even window shopping.
That is, until now. For the first time in a long time, there's a newly released PC game that I want to play now. Cities Skylines II. I had a lot of fun with the first game, it's the only game that I have on Steam that I broke 100 hours in. I don't really care if there still some wrinkles to iron out, I want to hop on board with it now. But, the system requirements area a little too steep for my current build.
Here's the Cities Skylines II system requirements, abridged...
But I've read that the recommended requires might have gone up due to patches. As from what I've learned with the first game, when large cities start to get bogged down, I don't think I'd have a good time with my current specs barely being able to tread water.
Luckily, there's been some great holiday deals! I really wasn't planning to do these upgrades right now, but I just kept coming across deals on parts I knew I'd eventually get. So here's some parts that I've ordered, and will upgrade soon...
GPU - Finally, I will upgrade the video card. Although I'm still not especially happy with the current graphics card market, I'm not going to deprive myself. What I ended up getting is an MSI Ventus GeFroce RTX 4060 OC. The joke is that the "deal" I got is that it was only regular retail price.
I know a lot of people are disappointment that this card is barely an improvement over the 3060, and the cost and yada yada. I can find so many video reviews on why the 4060 sucks. But the fact of the matter is that it's a huge upgrade from my last card, and it beats the recommended requirement for Cities Skylines II. So that's good enough for me. This card comes in black or white. I probably would have opted for the black, but that was significantly more expensive. The deal was only on the white model, so that's what I got. It doesn't look horrible, and it might grow on me. I was never really one to care about such things. SSD - The 500 GB Samsung NVMe is still more than enough for the OS. But I didn't want to fill it up with game installs, which is why I got that 1 TB mechanical drive. But now I see that some new game requirements are actually to install on SSD. And the first Cities Skylines would take forever to load (with tons of mods). Cities Skylines II currently doesn't have any mods, but it will at some point. And since games are generally becoming larger and larger in size, it would be nice to load from a SSD now. Still, this wasn't something I was planning on getting. It was just too good of a deal to pass up. Long story short, I got another Samesung 970, but a 1 TB model. It's currently $50 on NewEgg (sold by NewEgg). The 500 GB model is currently $60 LOL, and I paid $118 for the same 500 GB model in 2019! So I'm getting the same drive with double the capacity for less than half the cost. Nuts.
CPU - While my current CPU beats the minimum requirements for Cities Skylines II, it's just barely. And I really don't want to barely beat the minimum requirements. Again, with what I've learned from the first Cities Skylines, the larger the city the more CPU demand. Recommended is a Ryzen 7 5800X, and that's actually what I ended up getting. I guess I can now consider this motherboard to be aging. I see newer Ryzen CPUs are on socket AM5, my motherboard is AM4. So I suppose that means it's set in stone what the best CPU I can get will be. It does support the Ryzen 9 5950X, but when I looked it up there wasn't that big of an improvement over the 5800X. The 5800X was much cheaper, and NewEgg currently has a $40 off promo code for it. Maybe one day, years from now, I will pick up the 5950X used if it's cheap enough. Or the 5800X might very well be the final CPU I have for this build.
CPU Cooler - I am forced to upgrade the CPU cooler. I've been using the AMD Wraith Prism for the 2700X, which is good enough. But apparently not enough for the 5800X. But not wanting to spend a lot of money on a cooler, I decided on getting the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4. Looks like it's one of the cheaper top tier coolers.
LED Lights - OK, I have to admit, the RGB lights have kind of grown on me. My motherboard as well as the AMD Wraith Prism both have RGB lights that cycle through the color spectrum. My PC case has a side window, and it lights up the inside a little bit. Not crazy bright, just enough to get a glimpse of the parts inside. I have it set in the BIOS so that the RGB lights are on when the computer is on, but turn off when the computer is sleeping or hibernating.
Being that I have to upgrade the CPU cooler, I will be loosing the RGB lights. At least the ones from the HSF. I'll still have the lights from the motherboard, but they are very minimal. Luckily, the motherboard has a header for RGB lights. So I picked up some strips on Amazon with the appropriate header connection. They were cheap enough. I'm not sure how they will compare. The light emitted from the CPU cooler is pretty low key. I'm hoping to arrange the LED strip lights so that I can see the light from them but not the lights themselves, if you know what I mean. I want to keep it as low key as it is now.
The video card I've already installed, since it's easy enough to do. The rest of the parts I haven't received yet. I'll take pics when I do all of the upgrading and tweaking and post them here, but that probably wont be until after the new year.