The crate.

[AlienALX]

Oh god what a happy bonus (note, 14th gen ready)

It has no bios flashback so I was pooping my pants thinking I might have to take my 12700k out of the PC it's in.

So aye. Two custom made black EPS cables and a Strimer, and one finished RGB thing. Will hook up the EK screen shortly to make sure it is good. I am hoping Lconnect shows on that and scales...

If not I will have to buy AIDA and pee around making my own.

 

[AlienALX]

Affirmative. No peeing around with, or paying for, AIDA 64

 

[AlienALX]

OK so a bit of opening and having a look. The board surprised me. I thought for some reason it would be very light and a bit tacky. Sadly the photos make it look as such, but it's actually really heavy and lovely.

I've bought one of these for the NVME with no sink.

The RAM also surprised me. It was £93, and comes in inner box that's really nice. I mean yeah, it is only a box, but I have spent far more on Corsair RAM before (Dom) and it was just in a nasty packet.

And the frame.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so things done. Remove retention (squeaky bum time). Fit CPU, install frame.

I then removed the top NVME cover and reversed it. Like, 180'. It then fits the middle one. 1tb installed in there. The big old Thermalright one will go up top on show. Part of me wonders why they couldn't just add another fiver and give you three, but I suppose then it looks the same as the one costing 3x as much. My little hack on the other hand makes it look that good any way.

Other things. The other week my new TV PC was fired up for our game night. Went to connect my controller and uh oh... No bluetooth. "OK I will use my USB wifi card !". Still no bluetooth ffs. So I had to play wired. Really not wanting to buy a wifi card I found that you can buy £5 dongles for BT only. Perfect then, they are also tiny so nice and stealthy and tidy.

The CPU block concerns me. They provide the block, one set of post screws with springs on and another without. No instructions and no labels on the baggies to tell you which are to be used for which. I hope Barrow have instructions on their site ffs.

Also Ross.... They are M3 now. So I guess they realised like every one else that M2 sucks monkey testes?? I mean even tapping M2 is a bloody nightmare.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so I crumbed and bought the cheapest air cooler I could find. £15.99 delivered. I am not home til Friday.

And well, it all works lovely.

I pre armed myself with the latest bios (which it needed) and a few other things. Sadly I forgot you can't even get into Windows without it connected to the internet so I am in a bit of a pickle. I have bought a £4.99 tiny USB dongle that should arrive tomorrow.

I have also bought a BT dongle. I won't need the wifi one once it is all built, but I will need BT for my Xbox controller.

 

[AlienALX]

OK cool got around that. There is a bypass..

Any way, did that and then used phone as USB tether to get wifi. All done ! water block has been fitted (then booted to make sure it was good) and then packed away.

 

[AlienALX]

Bah sod it. Do it once etc.

I would have had a 512mb, 1tb and 2tb. I didn't have a gen 4 so I got that. 2tb. I will out the 512.

 

[AlienALX]

Good afternoon.

I didn't want to make this post yet as I am sat on the floor with a really bad back lmao. Problem is the photos were building up and otherwise it would have turned into a monster post.

So to catch up. I got home on Friday and started to strip the PC down.

After which I installed the new second rad.

End tanks are linked down here.

Not much else needed changing apart from a new return line. That is up here.

The new SSD and cooler came just before I left.

And so.

Unfortunately I had a spill and the GPU had to come apart and be dried and rebuilt into the block, as well as all of the boards and stuff in the bottom.

Then I fitted the board.

The long return hose will go into the CPU block at the top... I think the hardest part of that was fitting and positioning the Strimer EPS that never existed and stopping it fouling the fan. I got there eventually, however. Now obviously the rest was a known entity at this point, so about 7 hours later and it was back in one piece.

It is still enormously stealthy on the hoses which was awesome.

And then a side quest. I rebuilt my Hunstman Elite a while ago using phantom caps from Razer after two sets failed to fit. I have a spare now which is nice. However, the wrist pad pleather was rotten and falling to pieces. Cue Ferrari coloured leather.

Then.

Before finally

This is why they are called phantom caps.

OK so why am I not working on it and finishing it? well, it seems I have a jonesing for pain.

Ugh. The reason for this extra pain is I want it done and never have to do it again. I will leave you with this parting shot. Totally too bright and over blown, hence why I have not showed the new lighting scheme. I will have to darken the final pics to make it match the real world.

Until next time....

 

[AlienALX]

OK so to finalize this stage.

Many many hours of wiring. I know it looks awful, but there is just nothing you can do when faced with so much. Tidy safe and able to fit the panel is going to have to be good enough.

Note carefully where the front monitor wires go. There is literally just enough room there to get them through. So like I said, ugly? yes. Right? also yes. They come out like this.

It was there I realised something. The screen was not going to work on the floor with the PC plugged into the TV. There is only one HDMI out, and the TV was using it. I did try plugging it into the onboard with limited success. IE I got to see it working but it was refusing to see the GPU as monitor 1. I knew when moved to the desktop it would be fine, but obviously because of that it would not work as intended until it was back on the desk.

So with the worst part done it was time for a wedgie.

Which took several attempts. I got it there in the end, though.

Turn him back around.

Inside pics. The silver fan shrouds are gone, they distracted from the Proart IO cover IMO.

Besides with the additional silver and acrylic on the block it didn't need it.

Note I do not have the LEDs on in those pics. This is because the red LEDs look pink and washed out on photos for some reason. "Booting rainbow farts" though, look fine.

With the very dark glass on it looks much better with the red active. The front thing looks too bright, though. IRL it looks completely different to this.

OK so after 10 hours of Indy I realised I really should use the TV PC next to it, or it would remain there for gawd knows how long. So this morning I buttoned it up.

And then finally moved it into place. At which point the screen was connected and set up successfully.

And.

OK so things needing to be done still. I don't like the hole in the side of the monitor on the front panel. Obviously they had to do that, but it looks crap. So I need to machine a couple of side plates to be attached to cover them over. Other than that? I would say it is pretty much spot on.

So next it is onto where we began, the desk itself. Well, after my lil N64 project I have cooking.

Until next time.......

 

[AlienALX]

Affirmative. No peeing around with, or paying for, AIDA 64

Wow what an omen that turned out to be ! a good one for once.

So about 10 days ago I fired up PUBG for the first time. It felt off. I got absolutely slaughtered in three games and then realised something was wrong. Not me for once (I am old, crap eyes) but yeah. Any way I glanced over to the screen and noticed my CPU was only being used around 10%. Looked at the GPU.... 20%. Which then made me realise there was something badly wrong. Looked through PUBG and I had frame rate smoothing on (not needed on a GPU like this) but that did not fix it either. Which led me onto realising the monitor was set to 60hz.

So yeah, the screen told me what I needed to know and saved me potentially taking the entire PC to bits.

It's funny AF because I never thought I would be able to tell the difference above 60hz. The game actually made me feel nauseous.

 

[Meaker]

You get used to the higher frame rate for sure, going to work and using a 60Hz monitor feels odd on the desktop compared to the 160Hz at home.