An old man's first all AMD rig ever!

[Bartacus]

G'day mates! Happy Good Friday / Easter and all that good food chocolate bunny stuff! Hope you are all eating and drinking merrily!

I haven't posted much of anything lately as far as build stuff goes. But I did pick up some new toys recently, the main one being a Radeon VII GPU, Gigabyte variant (because that's what was in stock). I bought it to replace the GPUs in my 'backup' rig, a pair of old GTX980s. This accidentally lead to me building my first all-AMD rig ever. I've been building PCs since the 386 days, so I thought that was somehow noteworthy. Since I am a born sucker, all my rigs are under water these days. Which leads to the specs:

Radeon R7 1700 (non-X) on Asus Crosshair VI Hero X370
Heatkiller IV CPU block (clear acrylic)
16GB G.Skill 3600CL15 DDR4 - 8GB x 2 (currently running at 3200CL14)
1TB Intel 600p NVME SSD
Gigabyte Radeon VII 16GB with EK Vector RGB GPU block (nickel acrylic block, nickel back plate)
Alphacool XT45 crossflow radiator in the roof / 3 x Phanteks 140mm SP fans
Darkside LP240 radiator in the front / 2 x 120mm PWM Darkside Gentle Typhoons
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe case / D5 strong pump with EK top res combo / Barrow flow meter, Darkside 3/8 5/8 fittings and clear tube
AOC AG352UCG 35" 3440x1440 100hz monitor, Gsync (lulz)

Plus a pair of Aquacomputer RGB LED strips running on a AQ Farbwerk. I named it Furby.

It's not this purple IRL, I swear. I'm just a moron who doesn't know how to take good pics with my new phone (OnePlus 6T). New Barrow flow meter, because I like to monitor things:

The CPU is not overclocked, since it's really not worth it with first gen Ryzen. But the latest AMD GPU drivers have some interesting features, like auto undervolting, auto overlocking, etc. I have the GPU currently OCed a bit, with the core sitting at an upper 'boost' limit of 2125mhz. Here's a shot after a Time Spy run:

Overall system performs respectably, but won't be competing with Kaapstad anytime soon.

Cheers folks!

 

[Dicehunter]

Very nice bud, Welcome to the all AMD club

 

[AlienALX]

Looking good brah.

 

[Excalabur50]

Very Nice Dude!

 

[Thanos]

Nice.

How old do you have to be to be old?

 

[Bartacus]

Maybe I'm abusing the word old since I'm only 48. Few more shots of the finished product:

Take about shiny:

Got the light sorted better, light strips are set to full white, mobo and GPU block are set to light purple. This thing really needs a vertical mounted GPU mod in the worst way!

 

[AlienALX]

D'you know about the only thing I didn't get for my upgrade was that little screen on the GPU.

As the law of sod would denote, I bloody want one now.

Damn you and your old age!

 

[Warchild]

I'll say one thing. The flow meter reading. Damn good loop speed going on in there!

 

[Bartacus]

I'll say one thing. The flow meter reading. Damn good loop speed going on in there!

That might be lying. My Koolance meters all read around 2.7LPM for a single D5 in an average loop. This one reads WAY higher. The Koolance models have a little switch for tube size, and that Barrow meter doesn't. So I have no idea which one is right, or if they're both arse. Either way, it's a lovely little meter, only requires a 3-pin fan connection due to the low power screen, whereas the Koolance ones all require molex (shudder).

 

[Warchild]

That might be lying. My Koolance meters all read around 2.7LPM for a single D5 in an average loop. This one reads WAY higher. The Koolance models have a little switch for tube size, and that Barrow meter doesn't. So I have no idea which one is right, or if they're both arse. Either way, it's a lovely little meter, only requires a 3-pin fan connection due to the low power screen, whereas the Koolance ones all require molex (shudder).

Well one way to find out is figure out what speed your D5 is running at, Approx, then look at the rating of the pump.

2.7 is low where as the reading on the barrow unit is just above the ideal flow rate. Hopefully the barrow reading is correct.

 

[Bartacus]

Well one way to find out is figure out what speed your D5 is running at, Approx, then look at the rating of the pump.

2.7 is low where as the reading on the barrow unit is just above the ideal flow rate. Hopefully the barrow reading is correct.

All my single D5 loops average about 2.4-2.7LPM according to Koolance meters, no matter how complex the loop is. But again, I don't trust ANY flow meter readings for accuracy. I just note the number when the loop is fully bled, and make a note of it. If it starts to drop over time, I know I have a clog. The flow rate doesn't really matter anyway, I've proven that conclusively to myself. What matters is if that number changes over time.

I wonder if you can actually get an accurate flow meter. As much as I hate Aquacomputer's overpriced crap, they do have a flow meter that works on pressure differential, not impeller-based, so I wonder if that would be more accurate. I might have to pick one of those up.

 

[Thanos]

Maybe I'm abusing the word old since I'm only 48. Few more shots of the finished product:

Age is a matter of perspective I guess

Your rig put's my latest build to shame, just the usual couple of LED's / debug display and CPU held in with duct tape lol. Well at least it's in a case this time around I suppose although it's seen better days.

 

[Warchild]

Age is a matter of perspective I guess

Your rig put's my latest build to shame, just the usual couple of LED's / debug display and CPU held in with duct tape lol. Well at least it's in a case this time around I suppose although it's seen better days.

Lords and Ladies... you are only as old as the person you feel.

/looks at partner in kitchen

So yeah im still 28

Age is a matter of perspective I guess

Your rig put's my latest build to shame, just the usual couple of LED's / debug display and CPU held in with duct tape lol. Well at least it's in a case this time around I suppose although it's seen better days.

So you have a sleeper PC. Shoddy looking but a beast in performance

 

[Thanos]

So you have a sleeper PC. Shoddy looking but a beast in performance

Hahaha, more like a mouse really!

 

[Bartacus]

After spending quite a few hours on this build, making everything neat and tidy, fate intervened, and I broke the case (D'OH!). Specifically, I broke some of the LED strips that surround the frame. After giving it some thought, I decided to ditch this case entirely. I didn't need the dual rads really, and the case is much larger than the system in it.


As fate would have it, my local Canada Computers had one model of a case I hadn't considered (and most of you won't like), a Thermaltake Core P3, snow white edition. I have another rig built in a P5, and I love it. Yes, it's a glorified motherboard tray, but it suits a single GPU build perfectly.



First time guts transfer. Now I understand why Tom loves white cases. I love this little thing!

So I made a donation to my water cooling suppliers yacht fund:

That large shipment also contained an item that was the final one in stock (just like the case), an Alphacool UT60 420 radiator, in white:

Purple has become my favorite color, so I also got the last 11 of these that were in stock, EK fittings:

And if that's not enough full-retard purple for you, how about an EK M.2 heatsink (LOL, just because it was purple):

Fast forward a day or two, after battling pump leaks, only to realize I'm a moron and had the Singularity Computers D5 O-ring on wrong (D'OH), we end up with this:

My first time water cooling RAM. LOL, another complete waste of cooling, and $60, but it glows purple which is all that really matters.

Big brother and little brother. Little brother wins IMO!

The only negative is that I can't put the tempered glass panel on little bro due to the pump / res being mounted on the fat rad with fat fans. But that might be a blessing in disguise, since the darkened glass would mute the nice purple (which looks sexerific in person, assuming you like purple). I may actually wall mount this little thing, not sure.

Revised specs:
AMD R7 1700 on Asus Crosshair 6 Hero
2 x 8GB G.Skill TridentZ 3600CL15 ram (currently running 3466@CL14)
Gigabyte Radeon VII
Watercool Heatkiller IV CPU block
EK Vector GPU block
Barrow RGB RAM block
Alphacool UT60 420 radiator, EK Vardar 140mm PWM fans
Singularity Computers D5 pump top / reservoir combo / 140mm res mounts
Barrow D5 pump top dress kit, because purple
EK M.2 heatsink, because purple


Any thoughts, constructive criticism, lay it on me!

 

[Warchild]

The only drawback I see with these cases is that the dust that will collect. Not sure what to call it. Dust Staining? The dead skin particles that literally stick to surfaces and are not removed with compressed air.

It is better without the glass though, since the same particle dust builds on that too, along with fingerprints and other annoying stains that show under light.

 

[Bartacus]

The only drawback I see with these cases is that the dust that will collect. Not sure what to call it. Dust Staining? The dead skin particles that literally stick to surfaces and are not removed with compressed air.

It is better without the glass though, since the same particle dust builds on that too, along with fingerprints and other annoying stains that show under light.

Yeah you can't really beat dust in any system. This one is pretty easy to clean though, just blow on it every time you boot it up, LOL!

I must say I am rather impressed with this Radeon VII GPU. Mine seems happy running at 2100mhz core, 1200mhz memory, with that memory clocking boosting to over 1300 at times. But with that OC, the P3 becomes a great little space heater!

 

[Bartacus]

UPDATE: problems solved, and created!

I decided to fix the issue of the CPU area not being lit up enough. Obvious thing on the to-do list was to flip the RAM block around to its proper orientation. But I also decided to buy a new toy from Daz, a new Barrow CPU block. As much as I love my old HeatKiller, it just isn't pretty enough for this build.

Enter the dragon, Barrow CPU block, along with the fixed RAM block orientation:


The embedded coolant temp sensor display is SWEET. You can set it to 3 different displays, shown in the pics below.

Version 1 (out of the box one):


Version 2 (the red lines expand outward in a pulsing fashion):


Version 3 (my personal fave, and current setting):


The only problem is the CPU block doesn't understand 'purple'. This is as close as I get, lavender pink!


Relocated the flow meter to get it away from the GPU, since that looked a bit crowded:



Pics from my phone do a better job of illustrating how pink it looks:






At the end of the day, I think it's improved. Even though it's not the color I wanted, it still looks pretty damn nice in person. My terrible photographic skills do not do this thing justice.

But the RGB is out of control. The motherboard and GPU block are controlled by Asus Aura, as a group. Motherboard is pink-purple, GPU block is blue-purple (same color setting in Aura). The RAM block has it's own little molex controller. I easily clicked my way to solid purple color, just what I want. For the CPU block, I bought a Barrow 6-way RGB controller, in the hopes I could run multiple things off it, but it kinda sucks. It's only compatible with certain Barrow products that use 4-pin RGB LEDs, but that does NOT include the RAM block, which uses an older 3-pin connector. So I have 4 different RGB parts, and 3 different controllers, only one of which understands purple. But it's a pretty nice rig, so the color problem is my only complaint.

 

[AlienALX]

I likey !

 

[Warchild]

Yeah Barrow are really storming the market with their products. Especially price vs performance.

The new CPU block is awesome. Is it possible to change oritentation? e.g. for some, who prefer to have the temp display above the tubes?

This would look really nice with hard tubing. Especially if you got the 45 bends nailed perfect.