So when I did my 5800X3D upgrade, I had a few spare parts to add to the shelf.
My nephew mentions he's saving up for a console on his birthday back in October.
Little did he know, I had this plan in the works from the start.
Hitting a few sales here and there I was able to put together a pretty slick AM4-based 1080p gaming powerhouse for him.
But... I felt really, REALLY dirty for doing it... for more than one reason. I'll explain later.
The specs:
R5 5600
G-Skill Ripjaws 2x8GB DDR4-3200 CL16
MSI Mech V1 RX6750XT
MSI B550M Pro-VDH Wifi
Thermaltake SmartRGB 750W PSU
Stuffed into a Cooler Master MB311L ARGB, with some extra Cooler Master fans. Their Sickle Flows are good fans, even if I'm partial towards Arctic Cooling.
I even added in a BenQ Mobiuz EX240 monitor, and of course the mouse & keyboard.
Now, reason #1 why I feel dirty: RGB. I absolutely HATE the stuff. But my nephew? Loves the stuff.
Reason #2 I feel dirty: just wait...
So two mistakes I made: doing the build in a mATX MINI tower, and using the MB311L. Not slagging on Cooler Master... but this case is not AIO friendly. It's a bit narrow for standard height RAM kits (like the G-Skill Ripjaws I was using) and long. So top mounting I hit RAM clearance issues, and front mounting proved to be about an inch and change too short for the hoses to properly orient. I prefer a hoses down, so that the air bubble stays in the crossover tank. Thankfully, I snapped up a Hyper 212 air cooler for cheap. One more drawback of it being narrow: Cable management is TIGHT.
Apart from the snag with the AIO, the build was pretty straightforward. Added some extra fans, some cable extensions since the PSU I was using had these really ugly cables (bright red plugs for the PCI-E, and yellow for the CPU power) and run the fans through the controller that came with the case. It took care of the ARGB and PWM fans with ease. I just needed to dip into my splitters and extensions to get enough reach for a couple of them.
The finished product:
Now, I know that this won't be my last RGB build. Not as long as my nephew is into it, or I get commissioned to do builds for people. But after a few years off of doing builds for other people, I'm getting the itch to hang my shingle out again. I'll probably sit tight on that until I get good at bending hard tubes.
But Axxe, you said there was another reason why you felt dirty on this build!!!! Sit tight, kids. I'm getting to it.
I had most of these parts sitting on the shelf in my apartment for a couple of months. My sister and nephew had come over a few times to help me out getting some things rearranged so that I can buy some new furniture. Something I haven't had ever. My nephew moved everything around probably 5 or 6 times during that process. Why him? Simple: I'm a cripple. I need crutches to get around and can't lift and carry things very easily. He had asked about the parts, and I told him it was for a client build. I slipped up in casual conversation a couple of times with my sister and mom, and of course, teenagers have very keen selective hearing. Lucky for me, I have a co-worker with the same first name as my nephew. So every time I oopsed and mentioned it as HIS build, I'd have to make reference to my co-worker to cover my arse.
Now, sit back, and watch my nephew's reaction to getting a gaming PC for Xmas. Be forewarned, the language is PG-13. The whole family spent the bulk of their adult lives working in the oil patch. Dirty words are commonplace and a form of punctuation. My dad is a machinist. I'm an oilfield truck driver turned dispatcher. My sister (easily the worst of the bunch) works in oilfield supply and deals with rig-pigs on an hourly basis. Nothing really bad, just a couple of 💩 here and there.
And of course, I had to head over today and help the kid set up in his tempoary gaming lair! He needs a proper desk, and maybe a better chair, but he'll make it work for now.
Here's the end result:
I had a riot building this rig, even if it has a lot of the components that I HATE: SFF, Air Cooling, RGB... I would have certainly said NFW had it been an Intel/Nvidia build. Now I just have to convince my nephew's friend Raynan that AMD>Intel/Nvidia when it comes to price:performance ratios. He's got a gamer uncle too, and that guy and I would probably resort to brawling over brand loyalty. 😄
