A developers Workstation will be built

[gurusmi]

This has been in another Thread here also. I've seen that. but the only things that have to be cooled by air are the PCH and VRM of the board. and to cool them i have 6 120mm fans in the front(intake), 1 140mm in the back (intake), 3 140mm fans on top (out) and 3 120mm fans at the bottom of the case (out). The fans on Top and at bottom do have a radiator under itself. I estimate that those fans are enough for moving the air.I did want to have a higher air pressure inside the case so that the case blow out even at the thinnest gap. With that the dust will blown out of the case and don't be sucked into it.

But honestly i already thought about 3D-printing cases for all the cables inside my case. Also about holders for all the tubes.

 

[gurusmi]

Today the 2nd radiator, a tube cutter and the 2nd temperature sensor arriveed at my site. For the rest i have still to wait for. When i see that package from AlphaCool and the last from EKWB I know why I use to buy at EKWB. It is more expensive. Yes. But it is packed with much higher security against delivery damages. The products are presentes much more pleasing the eye. At EKWB one has the the feeling that he knows what he paid for.Also the radiators on it's own are much more "eyecandy". At EKWB they have alloy side panels. At Alphacool they have no panels at all. If the 360 Radiator were produced by EKWB i wouldn't have bought an AlphaCool one.But EKWB do not have a 360mm long X-Flow with a height of 30mm. Unfortunately.

 

[gurusmi]

I took a look at the posibilities to integrate the new "small" radiator. When using the distroplate-ports like intended i won't be able to mount the radiator. Both don't work together when using the standard drain port.I need to use one at the SLI-Connectors. And even with that it is a quite hard work with only rare room for the fingers. Also i will have to disconnect the Drainport on the opposite pace so i can tube directly at the dirstroplate-connector.I won't go on further as i need to mount the fans first to examine in detail if and how i have to mount the radiator.

It is such a huge case. But with all my watercooling equipment it is getting real small inside. Ok. One 420 radiator, one smaller 360mm one and a 360mm distroplate are a bit. It's working but one has to think a lot about how to place and tube all that.

 

[gurusmi]

Yesterday in the evening i was unmounting the 2 140mm fans at the bottom first. They have to leave so i can mount the radiator and the fans on top. After that i tested the placement of the radiator. There i realized that my original idea didn't fit anyway. The lower part of the graphics card is much too near at the radiator. I wouldn't be able to add a riser card. So i need to design a holder it on my own. So i will have to add one more thing to design and 3D-print. It's getting more and more parts. As usual one can find it at thingiverse when i uploaded it.

In general the process of designing is not that easy for me. Sometimes i take a already available model and start to change it till i like it. Then i print it to check if everything is fine. I mount it at the desired position and check first if the measurements are correct. If not i change it seperately by every dimension till it works fine. After i check if everything else is fine. That could take some days until i'm satisfied with the accuracy and optics. At the last point i upload all those models towards Thingiverse.com. A Platform one can download models mostly for free.

Right now i miss to have a metal 3D Printer. I would print all my parts in stainless steel and paint it after. But that would cost a hell of money. At Online-Services they charge i.e. for my Heatkiller dRGB Stripe holder printed with alloy round about 100€ per piece.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Yesterday in the evening i was unmounting the 2 140mm fans at the bottom first. They have to leave so i can mount the radiator and the fans on top. After that i tested the placement of the radiator. There i realized that my original idea didn't fit anyway. The lower part of the graphics card is much too near at the radiator. I wouldn't be able to add a riser card. So i need to design a holder it on my own. So i will have to add one more thing to design and 3D-print. It's getting more and more parts. As usual one can find it at thingiverse when i uploaded it.

In general the process of designing is not that easy for me. Sometimes i take a already available model and start to change it till i like it. Then i print it to check if everything is fine. I mount it at the desired position and check first if the measurements are correct. If not i change it separately by every dimension till it works fine. After i check if everything else is fine. That could take some days until i'm satisfied with the accuracy and optics. At the last point i upload all those models towards Thingiverse.com. A Platform one can download models mostly for free.

Right now i miss to have a metal 3D Printer. I would print all my parts in stainless steel and paint it after. But that would cost a hell of money. At Online-Services they charge i.e. for my Heatkiller dRGB Stripe holder printed with alloy round about 100€ per piece.

I wish you would post build pictures as your going along.

 

[gurusmi]

At the last turn i ordered the needed Fans for the lower radiator. I ordered at Amazun. But i received different ones. Now i have to think about the order and the fans again. At one hand i already have and own the fans by Zalman. But not enought. On the other hand i can order a fuull set of a new design. That would be Alphacool ones. Quite a hard question. Especially as i don't want to buy useless things in general. I don't want to throw away any useful thinhs. And those Zalman fans would be useful. Especially as they are new and do have totally unusual optics. But i have to react on that. The Alphacools were on position 2 of my fans list. A set of three Zalmans right now cost about 60€. All the Alphacool would total to 141€. So the difference is not that big and quite affordable. But the design...

 

[gurusmi]

I was able to order three of the fans in the design i did want to have. Let's see if they are this time those ones. I will be able to answer this question at the end of the month. The delivery takes that long.

Otherwise i will have to think abou the fans again. There are two different opportunities. First i would have to build out the three fans at the back Side panel and substitute them by unlighted ones. They are not that visible from the frontpanel as the are mounted behind the distro plate. That unmounted fans would be mounted on top of the bottom radiator where they are quite visible. The second version would be that i substitute all fans by others i explained that already in my last post. That is my least favorite option as i did want to have the LED's on the fans in a X-form and not round. Also i really like that unusual design. The next order will focus on all the rest to have the CPU and GPU set to watercooling. Also i answered my question about the graphics card.

 

[gurusmi]

The waterflow of the system is not that easy. There are at least two water coolers at the CPU and GPU installed. Then there is a fillport and also a drainports. Two radiators and a distroplate. The following picture tries to make the undstand of the flow more easy:

the white shows the flow og the cold water. The red symbolize the hot water. When the build is finished i will photograpg it andalso include the pivtures in this thread. A performance radiator is 45mm thick. The slim one 30mm.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Looking good. What's the case?

I'm using two 360's a 60mm and 45mm, my temps are sweet.

 

[A Computer Guy]

The waterflow of the system is not that easy. There are at least two water coolers at the CPU and GPU installed. Then there is a fillport and also a drainports. Two radiators and a distroplate. The following picture tries to make the undstand of the flow more easy:

View attachment 313278

the white shows the flow og the cold water. The red symbolize the hot water. When the build is finished i will photograpg it andalso include the pivtures in this thread. A performance radiator is 45mm thick. The slim one 30mm.

I think there is some (2) mistakes in your diagram. Here I put some whiteout and arrows to correct one. Can you see the remaining issue now?

 

[A Computer Guy]

I was going through a mental exercise a few weeks ago trying to see how to minimise the total number of tubes needed.
This diagram is just for fun.

 

[A Computer Guy]

At some point I thought you mentioned ram water cooling to so I made a new template but gave up the mental exercise due to the complexity added by the NVMe and RAM watercooling. Which for the NVMe there are some good active air coolers and RAM doesn't really need it.

 

[gurusmi]

The Distroplate has connects (In/Out Pais) for a radiator. Also one for the CPU and 2 pairs for the Graphics cards (SLI), The original Fill port is at the side of the plate. But i don't have place to geti it there as the rotary 90° angled adapter would collide with the lower radiator. So i planned to take the lowest SLI-Port for draining.

Originally the upmost row of connections is for the radiator (in/Out) and the fill port in the middle. The row to down shows: Radiator out Distro in, then CPU out, CPU in, GFX out, SLI in 1-3. The manual of the Distroplate can be found here at page 8: Linkservice.

 

[gurusmi]

To be honest i don't know exactly, what hardware i will integrate in detail. The Ram is clear as it is on the QVL of my board. Also the CPU. But the SSD drives are still on discussion with myself. Also a bit about the graphics card. I want to have that one watercooled. So any RX7800XT is out. I'm thinking about a RX6900XT, 6950XT or a RX7900XT. At the SSD i think about PCIe 4.0x4 or 5.0x4. Will the benefit by the faster drives will be that much that i'm willing to pay the price for.

 

[gurusmi]

I thought a bit about the drives subsystem. I own a ProArt X670e. That board supports Raid-level 0, 1 and 10. I have a small lack there. Is it possible to have 2 Raid 0 system at one. One for two PCIe 5.0x4 and one for the PCIe 4.0x4 drives. If so i would save money and the systems drive would be much faster that PCIe 5.0. A Raid-Level 0 / Striping nearby doubles the speed of the slowest drive. If both drives are the same and the original Speed is PCIe 5.0x4 then the resulting speed could be almost PCIe 6.0x4. The same to the two others. But i stil need to know if Asus supports at my board 2 raid volumes.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I thought a bit about the drives subsystem. I own a ProArt X670e. That board supports Raid-level 0, 1 and 10. I have a small lack there. Is it possible to have 2 Raid 0 system at one. One for two PCIe 5.0x4 and one for the PCIe 4.0x4 drives. If so i would save money and the systems drive would be much faster that PCIe 5.0. A Raid-Level 0 / Striping nearby doubles the speed of the slowest drive. If both drives are the same and the original Speed is PCIe 5.0x4 then the resulting speed could be almost PCIe 6.0x4. The same to the two others. But i stil need to know if Asus supports at my board 2 raid volumes.

When organizing raid-0 I would do it based on specific workload requirements. Your not gaining much solely by doing it to your OS drive/OS partition.

For example I might choose to Raid-1 (or no raid) for the OS on the PCIe 4.0 segment and Raid-0 on the PCIe 5.0 segment in conjunction with setting up the swap file on the raid-0 because it's faster. Then run the heavy application i/o on the raid-0. Does this make sense to you?

Also depending on the implementation of raid-0 requires consideration. Dedicated hardware, vs. firmware, vs. OS implemented raid. I think with your setup dedicated hardware is factored out since your not running a fancy NVMe hba with battery backed ram and specific raid processor so that leaves firmware (UEFI/BIOS) or OS (disk management/storage spaces). Personally I don't know if I trust firmware raid from AMD to deliver the best performance or reliability for that matter (maybe intel firmware raid is better) so my choice would be OS. The disadvantage is of course more CPU overhead but if needed you can recover your physical array in any windows pc if your pc breaks as long as the array is not damaged.

 

[gurusmi]

The Raid volumes are striped already at BIOS Level. The "Raid Card" is a part of the BIOS on the Asus Motherboard. I do not run a raid on OS level because i use a dualboot system. Linux and Windows in parallel.

My Data drive is to keep mostly actual ununsed data. The Data needed in a higher frequency is stored in the user profile on the system drive. One workload example: I scan an object in 3D. All the data is stored at the Desktop in a special directory. I work on that model till the printing files are at stage final. When that happens i move all the data to the data drive. Both drives are backed up on a daily base. I keep those backups for 22 days. I always have 1 full backup and another 21 incremental backups available on a diffent external drive. With that backup i can always restore the drives onto a new raid or a single drive.

So the only revenue of any raid for me is speed. Nothing more. Nothing less. No matter how fast it will be effectively. I will win anyway.

The data drive can be bought as one 2TB drive or 2 1TB drives. The price for the systems drive is at PCIe 5.0 speed equal. It would be an advantage of 10 Eurocent or so. The price difference for the data drive is not that equal. Two 2Tb Samsunf Pro 990 would cost me around 300€. One 4TB Crucial T700 would cost me around 550€. so here i save 250€ with getting round about the same space. I don't need the speed here that much as this drive is running on a save and forget base. Rarely opening an archive,... doesn't need a high speed. I could take over the data by a external USB hard disk and there wouldn't be that much change. Aside my older 3D models i have my music files (mainly Flac) and a documents archive on the data drive. When listening to the music i transfer the music files to my DAP. THen i listen to that directly or via my DAC/KHV.

The only real speed advance is only at the systems drive. And technically there is the upmost level right now at PCIe 5.0x4 for one drive. If i usee two of that norm in a Raid0 i will win anyway.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Don't forget when you raid-0 SSD's your drives will likely lose access to TRIM. From my best understanding from comments I have read elsewhere over time, depending on how aggressively you hit your array with I/O, you may need to overprovision the drives more so the controllers can take care of cleanup.

 

[gurusmi]

As a manager:
Your mentioned topic is the problem of Asus and the board. Not mine.

As a technician:
I don't know if my actual SSD drive (Sabrent Rocket PCIe 4.0x4) uses TRIM. I don't remember that i ever switched TRIM on or used it. I even don't know what that TRIM is good for. But as i never cared about it the board seems to manage that fine. I heared that something like TRIM exists. Thats it.

I think i should say a few words about me:

I'm a software developer since at least 35 years. The machine has to run on it's own. The machine don't need me to interfere at every single topic. At BIOS Level i use to switch all towards automatic. I only use to switch on the EXPO/XMP Memory profile. I use to enter the BIOS once at the first start and everytime i change hardware. That is that the BIOS will recognize the change. I save straight after and the BIOS GUI don't see me again. It's a lot for me to configure the RAD volumes at BIOS level. I'm not interested in pushing switches at BIOS level. I'm interested in beautiful program code. This are two complete different worlds. I'm building that high levelled water cooling that i never ever again need to take care about temperatures etc. I use that amout of hardware that the system will run for the next years without the need for me to open the case even one time.

In my original job (freelancing project manager for software rollouts) i have employees (from my customer) who take care about the hardware and the bios. In my job i have no time to take care of the hardware of (let's say) 10k Clients. Or 200 Mail servers. Or whatever. I say what i want to have canfigured and that's it. The systems have to run on their own. That's the game i'm in. I'm not a "hardware fraggle". My work runs in my brain is is nowhere visible. The 10k+ people gets home for weekend on friday comiing back on monday. The switch on their (new) system and they can work as before or they are trained in new programs they have to use. The telephone doesn't ring. They don't address problems and issues they have. If so i made my job as intended and paid for. I get a hell of money for such a procedure. If there would arise problems i wouldn't have made my job.

Now i start a different job. The preparation for that will be finished in 2025 as i have a lot to invest and plan. The new Endor is only a small portion of the total work. I use to generate one or two models per year. Such a generating an preparing job takes around 14 days. The rest of my time i'm working on Marketing, Sales, Controlling etc. There i mainly use Excel/LibreOffice. Additionally i develop my own Management software needed in my company. And to be honest. I just don't want to wait for my system. A threadripper would be fine for the model generation but there is no positive efect on the usage of Excel etc. And si i got to the conclusion that 14 days a year the price the HEDT system is not worth it. That's why i didn't planned about that at this moment for this build generation. I could be that i think different in future. But that future is too far away to take now. I'd choosen the AM5 base and not upgrading my AM4 Base because of the more powerful SC of the 7950x over the 5950x. I also thought about Intels I9. But i don't like Intel that much and the values where nearby the same. So i decided to build new instead of investing "only" 1500€ to get my actual rig running faster. Whatever i do, it will be faster than my actual 3800x system. No doubt.

I'm quite addicted to the figures about the new Endor. It's mostly like a small boy getting a new plaything. I don't need the power of my choosen graphics card. And realisticly I don't need that speed on the drives. Honestly i don't need the PCIe 5.0 speed at all. But it is nice to see the in an initial benchmark. I don't play. I use the GPU to display the dektop on two monitors with a resolution of 2560x1440 pixel at each with a frequency of 75 hz. For that i used in older times a matrox GPU. I used Matrox card beginning wth my first PC, an Pentium II. The time before i owned an Amiga. And there before an Olivetti M20. And there before an Intel whatever which i had to solder on my own. And that was in the 1970'ies. The first one i had to program in mnemonics translating into assembler by hand with a data book. I was trained in that by my father.

 

[gurusmi]

Right now I'm thinking about a real technical issue. I own as already mentiones a ProArt X670e board. That has one Connector for USB 3.0 with 19 Pins. It also has that USB-C adapter on board. My case hasn't a USB-C port. But 4 USB- 3.0 ports. For them it has 2 cables each ending in a 19 Pin Plug. To have all four USB ports at the frontpanel usable i was in need of a second 19 Pin port. I bought a PCIe card because of that. I thought that the problem is solved. Bzt when designing and mounting a vertical GPU i cannot use this PCIe card at all. I just have not enough space for both. So i'm in need of a second PCIe Port again.

I found three items at amazon thing that could help at this problem:

1 Auf 2 Motherboard USB 3.0 Header Splitterkabel 15 Cm 19-poliges Internes Verlängerungs Header Kabel USB 3.0 19-poliger/20-poliger Header Splitter USB 3.0 Auf 19-poliger DualPort Header Adapter

xiwai Dual Ports USB 3.0 19/20Pin Female Header Splitter zu Single 19/20Pin Motherboard Connector PCBA -Adapter -Hub 5gbit/s

SABRENT 4 interne USB 3.0 Ports, Extension Hub Splitter Adapter, Motherboard USB Header Splitter mit 2 USB 3.2 gen1 hub, Plug und Play (HB-INTS)

I heard that just splitting don't work that all 4 ports are used at the same time. So the first suggestion don't seem to work. The second item ist not that kind i trust of. So the third items keep alone and also working.

Does anybody has a glue if and which one will work that i can use all 4 USB Ports at the front panel? To say it clearly. I do not need four ports at once. But i don't want to think which port i can use for transfering files from one stick to another.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Right now I'm thinking about a real technical issue. I own as already mentiones a ProArt X670e board. That has one Connector for USB 3.0 with 19 Pins. It also has that USB-C adapter on board. My case hasn't a USB-C port. But 4 USB- 3.0 ports. For them it has 2 cables each ending in a 19 Pin Plug. To have all four USB ports at the frontpanel usable i was in need of a second 19 Pin port. I bought a PCIe card because of that. I thought that the problem is solved. Bzt when designing and mounting a vertical GPU i cannot use this PCIe card at all. I just have not enough space for both. So i'm in need of a second PCIe Port again.

I found three items at amazon thing that could help at this problem:

1 Auf 2 Motherboard USB 3.0 Header Splitterkabel 15 Cm 19-poliges Internes Verlängerungs Header Kabel USB 3.0 19-poliger/20-poliger Header Splitter USB 3.0 Auf 19-poliger DualPort Header Adapter

xiwai Dual Ports USB 3.0 19/20Pin Female Header Splitter zu Single 19/20Pin Motherboard Connector PCBA -Adapter -Hub 5gbit/s

SABRENT 4 interne USB 3.0 Ports, Extension Hub Splitter Adapter, Motherboard USB Header Splitter mit 2 USB 3.2 gen1 hub, Plug und Play (HB-INTS)

I heard that just splitting don't work that all 4 ports are used at the same time. So the first suggestion don't seem to work. The second item ist not that kind i trust of. So the third items keep alone and also working.

Does anybody has a glue if and which one will work that i can use all 4 USB Ports at the front panel? To say it clearly. I do not need four ports at once. But i don't want to think which port i can use for transfering files from one stick to another.

If the splitter is also a hub then it should work with all 4 ports simultaneously. Personally I like the Sabrent solution but I found this reddit post so you might want to do some more research to determine if the redditors problem with this product is a real concern.

 

[gurusmi]

Aehhm. Which post?

 

[A Computer Guy]

Aehhm. Which post?

I hyperlinked it in my comment "reddit post"

 

[gurusmi]

I hyperlinked it in my comment "reddit post"

I'm sorry. You didn't seemed to At all i didn't found it when hovering all over the text with my mouse.

But if it the same post i have read: This has been three posts and one mentionened that when using the Sata Power it possibly will damage the board. I use it for let's say a maximum of 2 or 3 USB Sticks. So that is not that much power. I also searched for the named ModDyi solution but it is EOL. I did select the named alternative
modDYI USB 3.2 Gen 1 Motherboard Header 19 Pin Internal USB Hub Controller
That is surprisingly cheaper that the Amazon Sabrent Hub. 7-8 Euros per part. That's over 10%. Nevertheless it'll take 3 weeks to get it and after i will have to print a closed and also individual case for protection.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I'm sorry. You didn't seemed to At all i didn't found it when hovering all over the text with my mouse.

This was the link I had found.
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/k7m0ji