X570 Aorus Elite / Ryzen 9 5900X / Sapphire Nitro+ RX6900 XT SE / 64GB Quad Kit Kingston Fury Black 3600MHZ CL16 / RM1000 X PSU
You might know that I gave away a computer during my 2022 Labor Day LAN party. Well, this Thermaltake Level-10 GT was the original case from what I gave away. I wanted to save this case, so I had bought a new LAN COOL case in August 2022 to house the older components that were in the Thermaltake Level-10 GT (FX CPU, stuff like that). Meanwhile, I won the Rig of the Month contest in the AMD Forum September 2022 contest with my Purrfection build, so I had the two prizes of a B350 Gigabyte motherboard and an AMD 3600X CPU. I figured I would use those in the new build, but I also had an AMD 3950X CPU and an AMD 5600 CPU lying around too. What to do? Try them all, and that's what I did. An old case but one I like quite a bit for superior cooling.
But, nothing worked. I tried all three CPUs in this B350 motherboard and then I realized that the motherboard wasn't going to recognize these CPUs until it had a BIOS update (the Gigabyte website said these CPUs would work). But alas, I could not do a BIOS update on this motherboard without a working CPU to start with. I wasn't going to tear one of my old machines apart to get to an earlier Ryzen CPU, so instead I ordered a new Asus X570+ motherboard from Amazon (It arrived the same day!). I tried the AMD 3950X CPU in the new Asus motherboard and no joy. Apparently this CPU is dead. So, I put in the AMD 3600X CPU and it finally booted into the BIOS. Soon I had Windows 11 installed (remember to enable firmware FTM in the BIOS for Windows 11) and now I could proceed with the build into the case.
So now you see the importance of building up the system outside of the case. I would have been pretty upset pulling the motherboard out of the case multiple times as I swapped the CPU. The next steps were to put the new components into the Thermaltake Level-10 GT case (which I will now call 'Level-Up' as a new gaming machine on my LAN). That went smoothly, but I did add some RGB fans a few days later and now we have a snazzy looking gaming machine with a 32" 1440p, 170 Hz gaming monitor on the Big Al Computers LAN!
Got away from my jank setup and now I'm running an open air bench set up. 7800X3D with 4090FE (I know it's Nvidia). I like the look though.
Build started around 2020, With 3400G and 2x8GB kit due to high GPU prices. Upgraded End of 2022 to 5950x and 64GB ram. Bought W6600 few weeks ago.
Aesthetics wise... I really prefer simple/minimalist, workstation-y, no nonsense, "old-school" look. Anything plastic-y looking is a big no-no. Led's are usually off/white.
So: Chose not to get black chromax cooler because I want all steel to be exposed. Like nickel plated ram, uncovered back I/O ports, etc. Even GPU shrouds are metal. 😉 My case is Fractal design Torrent and it features black lines running up, like on old IBM or modern dell stations, same can be seen on the motherboard... PSU is located at the top! Next things to-do would be to replace cooler's fans to black colored ones and to maybe install some cold cathode tubes, no? 😂
Also, I think that AMD makes the most sexy GPU's available on the market:
AMD Ryzen™ 9 5950X @eco | Noctua NH-U12A
OEM Micron 32GB (x2) 3200 CL22 ECC 4m16b @OC 3600mt/s CL18 | EK-RAM Monarch (x2 Nickel)
ASUS Pro WS X570-ACE
AMD Radeon™ PRO W6600 | AMD Radeon™ PRO WX4100
Fractal Design Torrent | CORSAIR RM Series™ RM850 | :penguin::penguin::penguin:
Built this one for my nephew for Xmas.
And this one is mine. Once I get the rest of my photos sorted through, I'll be doing a full article on the trials, tribulations, grief and FUN I had building Project Spectre. The PSU sitting on top is a spare unit to power the pump while the loop was burping and going through the final leak check.
Well, here you go, these are some really old photos (right after I built it with still some cables still to manage) AND without the HerculX but theres more here:
LINK: RAPHAEL - Full RoG RiG
My AMD ryzen 7800 x3d paired with a sapphire 7800 xt in tempered glass case frameless.
Basanti ii the old workhorse/gaming rig...
- Ryzen 7 gen1 1800x
- Corsair ram 32gb pc3200
- Vega 64 lc 8gb
- Samsung 960 pro 1tb
- Nzxt Noctus 450
- Corsair 110i aio cooler
- Gigabyte 750w gold psu
Sorry for the poor photo..
