5950x and PBO overheated something or busted custom loop?

[Mussels]

I came here for blown up motherboards, but I stayed for the chicken stir fry and fingering thermal paste

Super important to never use iso propyl alcohol when you clean the plexi stuff, it'll crack instantly - cleaning my EK parts was "fun" as they stained super easily, and had to be scrubbed every loop rebuild to get rid of it all

The RGB strips are pretty much generics - i've seen a video of someone just getting a cheap random strip, cutting it to length and slotting it in. The one on my 3090 backplate seems to be failing and it's tempting me.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Super important to never use iso propyl alcohol when you clean the plexi stuff, it'll crack instantly

Yep, that's why I had it as a reminder on my checklist. I went back and put in an edit for readers to keep in mind.

 

[OneMoar]

9 pages of people that don't understand thermal density and that it just doesn't matter what kind of loop you have once you start pushing ryzen 5000 past a certain point
that point in case it needs explaining is 1.4v at any load
they can't get the heat out fast enough
amd ment it when they said designed to operate at 90c
its gonna be that reguardless of your cooler beyond a certain point
deal with it its fine

 

[A Computer Guy]

9 pages of people that don't understand thermal density and that it just doesn't matter what kind of loop you have once you start pushing ryzen 5000 past a certain point
that point in case it needs explaining is 1.4v at any load

At the risk of going off topic what does that have to do with blowing up my original board with PBO and rebuilding my custom loop? I don't understand your comment here it seems out of context.

 

[OneMoar]

not going to read this mess of a thread so I am just going to assume the topic is what the topic is
=kthxgg

 

[A Computer Guy]

not going to read this mess of a thread so I am just going to assume the topic is what the topic is
=kthxgg

TLDR the first post huh? I am no longer able to edit the OP anymore but in summary due to lack of overcurrent protection the motherboard burned out traces to the CPU and melted the socket when it couldn't supply enough power after simply lifting the limits in PBO and running multiple all core workloads. This doesn't have anything to do with thermal density and the custom loop had no problem handling the VRM and CPU temps. Approximately 1yr since the original post, this thread (coordinated around the time of yearly custom loop maintenance) is leading up to the discovery or likelihood of whether or not the CPU was damaged in it's ability to support 128GB of memory or memory OC in general otherwise it has survived and working fine.

 

[Mussels]

that point in case it needs explaining is 1.4v at any load

There is no such thing as a voltage limit like that, since the number of cores involved and clock speed make that voltage one part of an equation
Only amps matter, with watts second.

And dude, you should know better. This thread did not go anywhere near the direction you think it did, it's basically the AM4 version of the current exploding boards fiasco.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Ok trying to get back on topic...

Day 1 (after lunch) continued...

Proceeding to unpack the new GPU block

Ooooo perdy colors... let's take a closer look

Look at that light pattern. I think I cracked open another dimension and found the secret sauce to EK's cooling engine.

Round and round I go unscrewing the block. Again like before start to loosen them a bit at a time going around the outside to the inside until all the tension is released to avoid breaking the acrylic threads , then taking the screws out one by one. I should have measured with a micrometer. That jet plate is thicc.

Ok let's get to cleaning

Reassemble, inside to outside putting in all the screws. Then tightening them a little bit at a time round and round.

The gaskets look clean, nice, and sealed.

Pressure test to make sure I didn't screw up.

next pasting and mounting...

Day 1 (after lunch) continued...

Mounting the new GPU block. New backplate = new adventure

Test fitting to see how I am going to manage this. Ugh, that's a lot of wiggle room. I'm not so happy about how unexact this exact mount seems.

I didn't take a lot of pictures here but I think what I did was lay the board flat on it's back with the backplate (on a soft towel) and line up the screws with the block.
Then pressed the block in to get the screws basically aligned in the holes while sliding my hand under the board and pressing it together like a cheese sandwich.
While still applying pressure I used my thumb to rotate the screws to start the threads.
Once the threads started I freed my hand from the backplate to go round and round applying the mounting pressure.

All right lets get this pasting over with. Ok not bad, I think I'm getting a little better at this finally.

Let's inspect with a nearly impossible cell phone camera shot. Ok looks like I got enough paste this time but not too much.
Also a very difficult zip tie to tame that RGB cable. Yes I cut off that tail with the snippers.

Let's look at my checklist and see where I am. It's getting late and I really want to conclude day 1.

Next... Fun with fans, cable management, and test fitting new rad.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Sorry for the wait...time to get to work on these fas from the side/rear of the case.
Because of the mounting of the new rad I need to make some zip tie mount points on the fans for cable management in a similar way that I did for the top mount radiator.

Allright time to get it mounted.

double checking the thread length

Everything is lining up, this is going to work.

Let's get things tidied up now.

This one screw just wouldn't thread in so I had to leave it.

...12 screws later...

Let's leak testing to make sure the fittings are on tight.

Let's have a look at the top rad after a nice bath to clean it up. Also I had some rubber gaskets I wanted to try and see if they would work to seal up some of the fans sides where air can escape instead of being pushed through the rad.

the first one went on ok

I'll have to test the height when I get the distroplate in to check if it obstructs the fittings from the distroplate.

I can't get the gaskets to line up properly. They are like .1 to .5 mm too wide at the screw holes causing the outside edges to bulge and deform.

putting it away.

Strapping the fans back up and inspecting the other side of the rad.

Cleaned up the workbench and prepped for tomorrow. Finally this ended day 1 of 3!

Next the distroplate teardown and cleaning, pump change, sound dampening, new tube runs, fittings reassembly on Day 2 to be continued...

 

[Mussels]

Also I had some rubber gaskets

Whered ya get those? I've been wanting some and they're hard to find, other than aliexpress ones i dont trust to arrive usable

 

[A Computer Guy]

Whered ya get those? I've been wanting some and they're hard to find, other than aliexpress ones i dont trust to arrive usable

I didn't think of it at the time but if you widen the holes a bit that would probably prevent the gasket from bowing as the screw holes are a bit off.
Also if you try to use them for surface mounting to a case the holes will catch on the screw and twist the gasket so if you get them make the screw holes bigger.

Amazon.com

 

[Mussels]

I didn't think of it at the time but if you widen the holes a bit that would probably prevent the gasket from bowing as the screw holes are a bit off.
Also if you try to use them for surface mounting to a case the holes will catch on the screw and twist the gasket so if you get them make the screw holes bigger.

Amazon.com

Yeah $8 USD becomes $25Au and stops being remotely worth it, sadly

Keep up the updates, good old hardware porn never gets old

 

[A Computer Guy]

Day 2 - Distroplate Teardown Continued...

Taking the pump off. Like with the cpu blocks first loosening the screws slightly going around and around to gradually release the tension on the acrylic threads, then removing the screws completely.

A quick inspection of the pump. There is some blue markings on the impeller. Not sure what this is. It's wasn't on my pump from my EK Kinetic but similar blue markings were on my replacement pump impeller as well. Could this be causing some issue such as additional friction or imbalance on the impeller?

Alright now to take out the plugs

Looking closely at the plugs it looks like I have two different styles. The one with the thicker tapered head was from an extra pack that I bought. The thinner ones came with the distroplate used especially for the front were it needs to still be able to clear the glass of the O11D case.

Now to dissemble the right side. First the plate for the RGB then the RGB panel.

Now going around the distroplatef. Like with the cpu blocks first loosening the screws slightly going around and around and around and around (many times) to gradually release the tension on the acrylic threads, then removing the screws completely. The ones pictured on the left were particularly difficult with a lot of tension on the screws. The area near the pump and inside the cluster of screws on the right were fairly easy. I skipped a lot of photos here so you only see the part where after I released all the tension on the screws and finally just removing them.

Next.... a little up close inspection of the distroplate. I'll be looking for the white residue deposits around where the gaskets were.

Inspection of the non-gasket side of the distroplate. Here you can see the outlines of the gaskets and in some parts noticeable buildup of residues.

Next... gasket removal

My i-fit toolset has a nice too for this...

Going to try a close up inspection with the camera. It's difficult to see but there is a line of white residue on the inside of the gasket.

On to the next gasket

Let's not forget the flow indicator.

Gasket set 1 removed. Next to remove the front plate gaskets.

Front plate, once again the same technique, going around and gradually reducing the tension on the screws the removing them all.

It's open let's inspect.

Time to wash with a little dish soap and a rag. Washed both pieces and most of the residues came off but a few places were really stubborn needing a lot of rubbing with the cloth. Rinsed with hose and set aside to dry after blowing the water off with my datavac to help speed up the drying process.

Back on the bench I'm using a q-tip to wick out the water from the screw holes. After every time I stick it in and take it out I needed to squeeze out the water, reshape the q-tip back into a point. Went around to all of the screws for multiple passes before finally they started to dry out. Set them aside to dry more while cleaning the gaskets.

Back to the bucket of soap and water cleaned each gasket very carefully by rubbing them between my fingers with the cloth around the entire gasket.
This removed all the white residues from all the gaskets fairly easily. Rinsed in a bucket of clean water. Set the gaskets aside on a drying board with a towel.
The largest gasket took a lot of time and multiple passes on a few spots.

On to some more gaskets cleaning.

To be continued.... (I reached the max image quota per post tonight)

Even after washing the metal plate still had a lot of crud so I hit is with some IPA and it got rid of most residue. Just a shadow of the gaskets remain.

Let's inspect the front plate after washing. I can still see faint outlines of the gaskets in most areas.

This one spot here was most troublesome and wasn't too happy with the outcome. A bit of dry rubbing with my finger helped a bit but still this residue is a bit tough in this area. I think because my water levels were near this point the most deposits collected near here where the return from the rad on high pump speed splashes around in this area. In all cases these lines become invisible after the fluid is added.

Drying complete. Let's get these gaskets back in. Time to glove up again so skin fingerprints and skin oils won't be everywhere.

After I got all of these in I realized I made a critical error, I was supposed to do the front side first!

Flipped it around, did a quick inspection of the gaskets. Put in the front gaskets. Before putting in the gaskets I treated them a bit in a small bath of EK cryofuel.

Now to put the plate back on. Lined it up, put in all the screws. went around and around gradually tightening. This took quite a long time although not nearly as long as the rest of the distroplate.

 

[Mussels]

Those blue markings are a quality control stamp thats faded away, i've seen it on D5's before

Found something similar from a koolance D5 on google - the exact stamp varies between brands of course

The impellers are weighted, and sometimes that weight balance is off and causes them to vibrate/wobble, not something i've ran into here - but found it on google searching for that image, as its why people disassembled theirs to take photos.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Now back to the other side. Giving the largest gasket an EK cryofuel treatment before putting into place.

A swipe with a lint free microfiber cloth to remove any paper towel fibers and moisture.

reapplying some cryofuel to the other gaskets

Cleaning the front plate and test fitting. I have a bit of an issue getting it realigned. I want to avoid twisting the gaskets out of place or from causing bulges in case the front plate moves a bit when screwing it back in. Need to find a creative solution.

Let's try Pasta because why not? (sorry I'm missing some pictures during this side adventure) Oh this was a huge mistake and epic fail. The pasta being not nearly as thick as the screws allowed for too much shifting of the top. After setting it down, getting it wrong, and lifting it back up all the gaskets stuck to the top plate and I had to reseat them all. Next plan B.

Plan B....I used the plugs as spacers. This allowed me to feed in a few screws to guarantee proper alignment and lower the plate without shifting.

Look at that GAP!

Again being very careful went around the distroplate gradually tightening the screws to apply even pressure and avoid cracking the acrylic threads.
This took a lot of time going round and round and my fingers were starting to get raw.

Now onto the inspection. I'm looking for even compression along the gaskets. On the side of the distroplate where the RGB part goes you can tell it's is not as compressed since I haven't done that yet.

In the final shot I can see I have close the gap between the plates considerably to the point you can only see the gaskets in the gap.

Let's get the RGB side in

Finally this side is compressing evenly.

Finally it's back together. That was a long haul already but day two isn't done yet.

Next cleaning and comparing the pumps (new vs old), Leak testing the distroplate, Testing for pump noise and some interesting findings. Sound dampening the distroplate, installing rads, distroplate, tubing, rethinking drain assembly....

... to be continued ...

 

[A Computer Guy]

Continuing with day 2...

Looking at the replacement pump and comparing.

Closer inspection. Things look ok. The ceramic ball on the old pump looks a tad bigger. I forgot to get my micrometer out to measure it.

Cleaning the impeller of the old pump to remove the qc stamp and reinstalling for sound check. This did not make a difference.

A quick leak test before I fill and test the system

This PSU switch was a really nice purchase from Amazon.

I should have went and gotten my EK fill bottle but I found my funnel on my workbench and decided to use that for a quick fill. However it wouldn't fit into my tube and I decided to modify it. Overall this was a terrible idea. I figured the gap in the funnel would allow for air to escape as I was filling it but too much fluid locked into the tube and ended up back flowing fluid out of the funnel gap instead of air simply escaping from the fluid displacement. After a few tries not realizing what kept going wrong I simply ended up very carefully pouring the fluid right into the tube instead.

The next challenge came when I thought I could get away with only filling the distroplate up about half way. The D5 had such a strong pull with such a small loop to took me by surprise and vortexed and mixed chamber air with the fluid right through the pump so I had to nearly completely fill it to stop that from happening. With the distroplate full I turned it on and recorded the sound for comparison later . When testing the new pump and comparing the sounds turned out running at full speed by default wasn't very helpful.

Here I'm changing out the pump after draining the distroplate. The new pump basically sounded the same. Unfortunately I didn't have a variable PWM speed controller. It would have been nice to compare the sounds at different speeds at this point but I have to forge on and see how it sounds later after assembly. I put my ear up close to the distroplate and discovered a lot of the sound reverberated within the plate itself especially at the point in front of the pump with the metal plate.
( The old pump was audible with resonance starting at about 48% speed which is much worse from about 2 years ago where 60% pump speed was quiet. )

Before wrapping up I noticed the spills when filling with the funnel wicked a bit into the distropate on the RGB side. I took that side apart and dried it out.
Hit it with the datavac to blow out the liquid or push the little remaining liquid into the gaskets where capillary action took over.

With that out of the way the new pump is installed and I'm ready to figure out what I'm going to do about dampening the resonance of the distroplate into the case.
(At this point I don't know if the new pump would be quieter than the old pump)

Next applying sound dampening materials....

 

[Dr. Dro]

Mad respect for all this work... you have the patience of a saint! As much as I'd love a setup like this, preferably with a chiller, it's just too much maintenance

Hopefully the DeepCool Assassin IV can handle my processor well, I hear reviews are coming out soon, maybe the NH-D15 Gen 2 for an upgrade here

 

[A Computer Guy]

Continuing with day 2... Sound dampening

Luckily for me I keep a variety of packing material on hand from my various purchases over the years and I found a very thin and compressible material for use and my super glue.
Cut up some strips and away I went. I have only 2mm of space I can mess with at most in order to clear the top rad.

I hadn't used my superglue in a very long time and it apparently glued itself shut with the cap breaking off the threads when I tried to open it.
Ended up using a q-tip as an applicator by dipping it into the opening of the super glue bottle.

Strategic placements as determined in earlier posts.

Now to test fit the distroplate. Oops, those fittings are in the way!

Ok fittings are off but I forgot to put some padding on the bottom where I had some super glue ready, yikes!

Put some padding on the bottom. I had to press on top of the distroplate a little to though an opening on the top of the case to compress the bottom padding a little and get the screw holes to line up in front of the case and mount the distroplate firmly.

Next getting those fittings back in. A very close fit next to the distroplate. It's difficult with my fingers to get that 90 deg fitting on there tight.
I had an idea how to deal with that RGB cable and tuck it away but will put that off until later.

Test fit complete.

... to be continued ...

Next new tubing runs and rethinking drain assembly....

 

[Mussels]

Unfortunately I didn't have a variable PWM speed controller

While they can sound different, you can still use voltage controls on PWM devices - they support both methods
I've had fans that whined or rattled at a specific RPM, but it went away if swapped between PWM/voltage control

Love the attention to detail on the pasta fail

 

[A Computer Guy]

Continuing with day 2... New tubing runs

I realised I didn't finish posting so I will start with a meme and continue

Let's break out the new tubing. I was pretty sure I didn't have enough scraps from the last change over from EK Duraclear to Primochill so I got another box and good thing too as it took a couple of attempts to cut the right length for the more direct runs for the new rad. I was getting pretty tired by this point in the day and 1/4 of an inch off ment not having a satisfactory run or an uncomfortable bend.

Below you can see my new drain layout with a rotating 90 on one side so I can tuck it away nice an neatly. For comparison I put the old setup side by side below. I also got rid of the ball valve on the other drain and replace it with the newer EK drain valve so I could reuse the ball valve elsewhere.

Let's take a look at the new rad

So I opted to route the tubes from the pump output directly to the 2nd rad and return back to the distroplate. The tubing run was fairly simple although I wasn't fond of putting the 90 back in there but I didn't have another 45 on hand so there it is.

Also since I had ordered some additional offsets I wanted to align the tube runs from the top rad a little better (and farther away from the motherboard I/O panel. At the time of ording I couldn't decided on black or nickel so I ordered both. Good thing as I was able to use them all in a useful way.

It took me some trial and error as I was test fitting rad and the offsets.

The inner most offset was good and moved the tube away from the I/O panel and squared it up to the distroplate nicely.

The outer most tube however was coming in causing the tubes to line up into a V pattern instead of parallel so I reoriented the offset so they are both pointing outward.

Next that pesky RGB Cable. I managed not to squish it to death when putting the distroplate back in. It helped by moving it outward to the right then folding it toward the rear/side compartment. There was just enough space between the top rad and the distroplate to use a credit card to push the flat RGB cable between them up past the rad cover screws and tuck the cable at the top very nicely.

Now lets run these rad tubes. I decided to keep the hot side temp sensor where it was before the loop enters the first rad on the top.

Now let's use this beautiful new drain plug arrangement and pressure test the system starting with the first side of the distroblock.
Swinging the bad boy out there and hooking up the pressure tester.

!!! Oh WTF I've got no pressure !!!! Pressure was quickly draining !!! All I could think of was at this point the new rad's fittings must have come loose when I tried to put the 90's back on. (because they were a real pita trying to tighten and I wiggled them a lot)

Ugh. Taking out both rad to retest.

Both rads were OK. The problem is elsewhere but where could it be?

Stupid me I forgot to put back in a plug! Major Homer Simpson moment that cost me a lot of time but at least it wasn't a catastrophic error.

Hooking it back up and testing both sides to be sure. Now working as expected.

Top rad back in and pressure test it again.

Ok prepping the motherboard

(reached image posting quota)
... to be continued ...

Reinstalling Motherboard and GPU in and I skipped taking a lot of pictures at this point but I finished attaching all the tubing but not testing the whole system yet.

And this finishes day 2 in the late evening.

Next up Day 3....

continuing with Day 3....

Pressure testing. It looks good. Taking out the new cryofuel batch I mixed a week or so before and ready for some fun.

Keen to avoid the mishaps I had with the funnel and too lazy to go get the painfully slow EK fill bottle I decided to hookup my EK res and use that for the fill.
Turns out this was a really great idea and filled my system very quickly. You can see the new EK fluid has a slightly yellow tint to it, not sure why.

Opened the valve, gulg, gulg, gulg, in goes the fluid.

Using my handy PSU switch to turn on the pump. (was careful to not connect the pump's PWM during this time)

It's filled and I'm letting the pump run for a bit checking for sound and looking at the flow indicator. What I see happening is the flow indicator is running slower than normal. To which is not entirely unexpected considering I did add a new rad to the system and some 90's. I remembered I forgot to flip the orientation of the QDC's so time to drain the system and flip them around.

Opening the valve to help drain the system enough the change the QDC's. Rebottling the new fluid for now.

it was fast and easy.

Since I had the QDC's ready I took a bit of a detour and decided to try out this new filter I ordered. I thought this filter would be handy for the next time I have to setup some new rads.

It's all working and reversing the QDC's did improve the flow indicator speed. Packing some things up.

Still have to put back in the bottom fans and the Corsair hardware. That new radiator fit just perfectly.

First the fans. The dust filter that comes with the 011D is terrible because once you put the screws in for the bottom fans the magnetic sides of the filter are pulled a way a bit and doesn't stick to the case as well. I got some new dust filter and magnets to remedy this problem by making a custom dust filter.

eSata plugged back in and cable management on the bottom is looking good.

Next up Corsair cable management and having fun with a lot of zip ties.

... to be continued ...

 

[Mussels]

Oh man, i've left the drain port open with a hose into a bucket and wondered why the loop wasn't filling before too

D'oh doesn't cover it

 

[A Computer Guy]

At this point I'm getting pretty anxious to get my PC back together for work on monday so I skipped a lot of pictures. (my backup pc was already prepped just in case)

Next fixing the path of the GPU RGB cable. having two RGB cables on opposite sides of the GPU was a real PITA when I needed to remove the GPU off to the side to access the motherboard M.2 The RGB cable is for the flow indicator on the GPU.

I put a lot of hours into cable management but it still looks rough no matter how hard I try.

First nights test was a success. The noise level was much improved and I could run the pump at 70% now with comfort. Full load temps were much better as well and a 1hr zip job had the system only about 5 degrees over ambient (previously 10 to 12 degrees) and GPU temps were better too not that I was stressing GPU anyway.

Bonus material ... I had gotten some TGShield figured I'd give it a try on the case lamptron to protect against dust and finger oils. In the process I discovered I had a brightness switch on back. I was careful not to cover the switch or connectors.

This concludes day 3 ... phew that was a marathon.

Next up Summary!

Oh man, i've left the drain port open with a hose into a bucket and wondered why the loop wasn't filling before too

D'oh doesn't cover it

It was good that I was pressure testing it with air. I was about to wing it and give it a test fill but I came to my senses.

=================================================================================

Summary

• Figured out using 970 Evo specific drivers is bad for drive image backup/restore to different model replacement drives and how to fix this problem.
• The ek offset fittings for the new xspc 360 rad worked perfectly to make compatible with the case and distroplate.
• The ek offset fittings on the top rad effectively moved the tube away from the motherboard I/O panel nicely.
• The ek velocity2 block is installed with thermal grizzly kryonaut extreme and appear to be working well.
• The replacement ek pump is working well and and the sound dampening was a success. The overall sound profile is better.
• Learned the distroplate is just plain bad in terms of acoustics. The metal plate in front is an issue so don't have it pointing at you if you care about sound.
• Using the new Corsair v4 software to control the fan speeds based on the water temp works fine.
• The added CPU quick disconnects are installed now make it possible to swap the board easily if needed without draining the system.
• Rerouting the distroplate RGB cable was a success allowing the splitter to reach all devices.
• Rerouting the GPU RGB cable was a success making removing the GPU practical.
• The new rad, fittings, and quick disconnects definitely added more flow restriction. This was observed in the distroplates flow indicator rotation compared to before - especially at low pump speeds.
• Quick disconnect orientation matters in regards to flow restriction.
• The PC is definitely heavier.
• Remounting the Corsair Commander Pro was fairly easy with a bit of zip tie creativity.

What went wrong

• 970 Evo replacement revealed an important problem with drive image backup/restore and perhaps in general with any imaging solution that relies on specific NVMe drivers that can cause Windows to fail to boot unlike a typical SATA based connection.
• The rubber fans gasket experiment was a failure.
• Using a funnel to fill the distroplate was a failure.
• I didn't think to use vinegar on the distroplate acrylic to remove more of the residue.
• After the first nights test run I messed up my motherboard RGB configuration by mistake.
• Forgot to put a plug into the distroplate when leak testing. This caused a lot of time tearing down the system again for individual component leak testing.
• ASRock never responded to my ticket of my Master SLI/ac burning itself to death from PBO. It was a really nice motherboard while it lasted.

Things to keep an eye on during the year

• CPU and system temps.
• Overall noise profile.

Unfinished work

• Cleaning the old ek monoblock and inspecting for corrosion. It was filled with liquid for a year because I forgot to drain it.
• I lost time to disassemble and clean the GPU block however I can do that at any time with the QDC's and the RGB cables that have been rerouted. The sunlight inspection looked really good so I might not bother to do this until next year.
• I still have to make custom dust filter for the bottom of the case and the opening in the rear/front chamber.
• Need to put the Lamptron back into my case. (Was actually using it as a 3rd monitor on my desk)
• I accidently switched the hot and cold liquid temp sensors and need to switch them back into order: air input, water cold, water hot, air exhaust
• Fixing the motherboard RGB. I think the splitter is the issue when trying to change settings with Polychrome and will try to correct the problem with it disconnected.

The end of the Journey

• With the CPU swap complete the end of this thread's journey will conclude with further testing to try and answer the question: Was the CPU possibly damaged in its ability to drive 128GB last year when when the original motherboard fried? Not sure when I'm going to get to this yet and I'm still waiting for the latest UEFI/BIOS to come out of beta.
• Also retrying PBO experiments that started this whole mess. With the new motherboard I stopped because UEFI/BIOS wasn't enforcing some limits when certain combinations of reasonable values were being used. Figured to wait for the latest UEFI/BIOS version to possibly fix things before bothering to retrying again.

Hope you have enjoyed the build journey.

*** RGB Update *** The problem was somehow I messed up the RGB addressing and the I/O and PCH addressed got mixed up including the back side of the board Red and Green were inverted. To make matters worse when the RGB splitter was attached the GPU flow indicator LED's and some LED's on the distroplate were also addressed incorrectly and were showing different colors tied to the I/O and PCH LED's that were mismatched.

So I managed to fix my motherboard RGB by reflashing it and using OpenRGB to reset the zone colors.

For ASRock here is how I reflashed the controller. Run command line as administrator and cd to "C:\Program Files (x86)\ASRock Utility\ASRRGBLED\Bin" then execute WriteFW.bat.

After that the I/O and PCH LED's were lighting up in the correct groups and the anomalies in the GPU flow indicator and distroplate RGB's were corrected.

 

[A Computer Guy]

*** Custom Dust Filter Update ***

For the biggest piece that goes on the bottom I only put two strips of magnet down the length so the edges can flex and snap into the tabs yousee here. The magnets are think enough the fan screws and case screw burrs don't cause any issues now.

Here this intake dust filter is a perfect fit.

And this last one here I opted to put on the outside.

*** Completed Assembly Pictures Update ***

 

[Mussels]

What dust filters did you get? I've used some from DEMCiflex before, and they're still going strong a decade later

 

[A Computer Guy]

What dust filters did you get? I've used some from DEMCiflex before, and they're still going strong a decade later

This is what I ordered. Had it been a larger sheet I might have also opted to replace my side glass with a magnetic mesh panel but I would also need a 5in plexi rectangle for the bottom half for the in-case lamptron display.

400x300mm DIY PC Case Dust Mesh Filter, 2Pack PVC Dustproof Mesh Filter Cover with Magnetic Strip for Computer PC Case​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Y336F2R