My 5800x in the Asus x570 has begun shutting down at random. I use the machine in the shop, where it serves regular desktop duty and on occasion opens up CAD files, and most often plays music for the shop stereo to blare at me. I suspect either a Windows Update feature Bork is shutting the machine down after idle (playing music for hours) or perhaps my PSU has decided that it doesn’t like idling the machine stably. Hopefully thenAsus motherboard didn’t shit itself. I’ll update when I feel well enough to do a full diagnostic and repair session on it. Thus far all I’ve done is turned off all PBO function and it still randomly powers off. I also removed my UPS as I suspected that it may be blipping off due to weak batteries or just general shartiness from being old but that wasn’t it either. Meh
Zen 3 build thread
- Thread starter w00key
- Start date
Hmm. I had this 5800X randomly reboot on me too... Screen dies, next thing I know I'm staring at the BIOS startup sequence.
--
I tried my hardest to find any decent work laptop with an Ryzen 6000 series CPU and just couldn't. Yes, a few gamer laptops are available paired with a RTX 3050+ but that's just wtf for an MS Office and Gmail machine for a manager.
Oh well, I guess it's another Dell Inspiron 15 then. The i5-1235U isn't a bad chip, it's just less nice than Zen 3, either way it's fine as a portable PC with a decent screen and numpad for Excel. At least these can be configured with 3y on site service + accidental damage without fuss, can't say the same for a random Asus ROG laptop.
--
I tried my hardest to find any decent work laptop with an Ryzen 6000 series CPU and just couldn't. Yes, a few gamer laptops are available paired with a RTX 3050+ but that's just wtf for an MS Office and Gmail machine for a manager.
Oh well, I guess it's another Dell Inspiron 15 then. The i5-1235U isn't a bad chip, it's just less nice than Zen 3, either way it's fine as a portable PC with a decent screen and numpad for Excel. At least these can be configured with 3y on site service + accidental damage without fuss, can't say the same for a random Asus ROG laptop.
It’s worked fine for a couple of years until this week. I wonder if it’s something as easy as a PSU swap. I’ve lost the use of my left arm for a bit, hopefully just short while anyways, but I’ll manage to tear down the unit soon enough and will report the fix.
I know you paid a lot for all those high-end GPUs - at least it wasn't an arm and a leg, just an arm.
Jokes aside, hope your arm heals ASAP!
Looks like Zen 4 with vcache is a 30% performance boost over regular Zen 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvCFDqEioyk
He goes into some details about Zen 3 with vcache, namely that it was a beta product. In some games, you see massive uplift, but in general it was a 10-15% uplift and is voltage limited. Zen 4 with vcache is a second generation product that has less limitations.
He speculates that Zen 4 with vcache will be shown off after Raptor Lake launch as a way to tell people, "we have something better coming in the near future", similar to what they did with Zen 3 vcache, but they're planning to deliver the product to consumers on a shorter timeline than the 5800X3D.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvCFDqEioyk
He goes into some details about Zen 3 with vcache, namely that it was a beta product. In some games, you see massive uplift, but in general it was a 10-15% uplift and is voltage limited. Zen 4 with vcache is a second generation product that has less limitations.
He speculates that Zen 4 with vcache will be shown off after Raptor Lake launch as a way to tell people, "we have something better coming in the near future", similar to what they did with Zen 3 vcache, but they're planning to deliver the product to consumers on a shorter timeline than the 5800X3D.
IMHO there is a very interesting general trend in the way AMD has been managed ever since they returned from the brink of death as a superhero.
Every single one of AMD's product plans has had several "Plan B"s. First generation EPYC was a modular server processor, where individual modules could be sold as a consumer CPU. Or the modules could have been embedded controllers with on-die ethernet controllers (perhaps for telcos or other network equipment; or for industrial control). Then there was the skunkworks "Plan C" to couple just two instead of four modules as a HEDT processor (Threadripper).
In the Zen2 days we didn't even get to see any Plan B, because Plan A sufficed to knock out Intel wrt servers, desktop and HEDT all at once.
But Intel got back up on its feet, and Alder Lake gave Zen3 a hearty beating. So we got to see 3D-VCache even for mere mortal consumers.
Allegedly Raptor Lake will be a real competitor for Zen4, so AMD has to tap into 3D-VCache a little sooner than planned. But the plan has certainly been ready for execution, and I strongly suspect AMD has a few more viable options prepared in case they need to soup up their products some more.
Every single one of AMD's product plans has had several "Plan B"s. First generation EPYC was a modular server processor, where individual modules could be sold as a consumer CPU. Or the modules could have been embedded controllers with on-die ethernet controllers (perhaps for telcos or other network equipment; or for industrial control). Then there was the skunkworks "Plan C" to couple just two instead of four modules as a HEDT processor (Threadripper).
In the Zen2 days we didn't even get to see any Plan B, because Plan A sufficed to knock out Intel wrt servers, desktop and HEDT all at once.
But Intel got back up on its feet, and Alder Lake gave Zen3 a hearty beating. So we got to see 3D-VCache even for mere mortal consumers.
Allegedly Raptor Lake will be a real competitor for Zen4, so AMD has to tap into 3D-VCache a little sooner than planned. But the plan has certainly been ready for execution, and I strongly suspect AMD has a few more viable options prepared in case they need to soup up their products some more.
My Instability seen in the 5800X and ASUS Dark Hero motherboard was isolated to a power supply cable not making secure contact with my GPU. I suppose that it failed slowly over time with a bit of heat but the moment that the PCI-E external power drop is detected from a sharty molex connector you BLAM, powered off. The ol' take-everything-out-and-reseat got me booted into BIOS and during that reseating is where I detected the faulty pin.
Amazing. A single bad connection and the machine is bricked. Thankfully that was less than an hour of detective work and I'm now up and running again with a juicy overclock and blasting optical out into the shop stereo. I'm happy to not have had to do a full tear down or PSU swap as my shoulder is badly injured so tinkering hurts.
Cheers. Reseat->Check your contacts->reset CMOS and go. Note that I believe a little bit of GPU sag on the 3080Ti contributed to this contact becoming intermittent and it probably shifted around in the molex socket while hot. Edit: I have supported the GPU now a bit better with a rubber spring.
Amazing. A single bad connection and the machine is bricked. Thankfully that was less than an hour of detective work and I'm now up and running again with a juicy overclock and blasting optical out into the shop stereo. I'm happy to not have had to do a full tear down or PSU swap as my shoulder is badly injured so tinkering hurts.
Cheers. Reseat->Check your contacts->reset CMOS and go. Note that I believe a little bit of GPU sag on the 3080Ti contributed to this contact becoming intermittent and it probably shifted around in the molex socket while hot. Edit: I have supported the GPU now a bit better with a rubber spring.
Glad you found the root cause quickly. I'm a bit surprised the connector was able to overcome the latch but there you go. Hopefully no damage suffered due to arcing or similar.
Isn't it a nice feeling when you can fix what seems like a serious problem, without having to spend any money or very much time? I always find that to be an amazing relief. Had a problem with a garage door recently that worked out like that... all worried about having to have a tech in, and dealing with the hassle, but ended up being able to fix it myself.
Hope your shoulder feels better soon.
Hope your shoulder feels better soon.
Around 20 years ago I tore 3 of the left shoulder tendons when I missed a step carrying an old heavy CRT TV down the stairs. The pain when it happened was excruciating, only surpassed by some spiny kidney stones I passed twice. Couldn't lift my left arm for 3 months - I had to place it on the steering wheel to drive to work. Since I have really bad rheumatoid arthritis, having surgery could have made it worse, so I rehabbed it myself. Mowing the lawn actually helped along with driving so it works pretty good still. About ten years later I tore one tendon in my right shoulder trying to start my old lawn mower for the last mow of the season. So, the lawn mower giveth and the lawn mower taketh away. :scared:
So, prices on the recent fire sale are back to launch prices, meaning it's probably not a good idea to build anything at the moment. Looked at both the S1700 and AM4 options and i just can't seem to find a price point where i will pull the trigger. $200+ for any 5600 (non-XT) or better. On the S1700 side, the 12400F is $200, - and it might be a better idea although i can't seem to find a cheap motherboard for it with at least 4 ram slots that is less than $140. I can forget about a DDR5 board though, they are much more these days.
For those who are not too much familiar with Intel like me, how is the Intel 610 chipset?
I sold my 5600H Yoga as i have no need for a laptop, and for once i actually managed to sell it for more than what i paid for it.
The fan noise just annoyed me as soon as it fired all its cylinders So currently i am using an i5-4590 pizzabox which has been fine for simple things, but of course i can't game on it at all.
I do have a spare unfinished B450/2200G box that i can upgrade, although i am not sure that makes any sense either with the looming release of both AM5 and Raptor Lake. What says the forum?
For those who are not too much familiar with Intel like me, how is the Intel 610 chipset?
I sold my 5600H Yoga as i have no need for a laptop, and for once i actually managed to sell it for more than what i paid for it.
The fan noise just annoyed me as soon as it fired all its cylinders So currently i am using an i5-4590 pizzabox which has been fine for simple things, but of course i can't game on it at all. I do have a spare unfinished B450/2200G box that i can upgrade, although i am not sure that makes any sense either with the looming release of both AM5 and Raptor Lake. What says the forum?
If your B450 board has a UEFI that supports Zen 3 CPUs, I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a used 5600(X) for not too much, that would bring the performance up a good long way. Couple that with a used GPU bargain and you're gaming for probably not too much money.
I suppose it boils down to (as always) your budget Vs the level of performance you're after. What games do you want to play, and at what resolution?
I suppose it boils down to (as always) your budget Vs the level of performance you're after. What games do you want to play, and at what resolution?
The spare Ryzen 2200G deserves a test drive, unless there are so many parts missing that getting it to run is not financially viable. Instead of "not gaming at all" (like your i5), the 2200G will "almost not game". And your games might happen to be within that interesting "almost" band.
The 2200G's iGPU will need dual channel RAM (i.e. paired DIMMs) to realize its potential ... of narrowly beating a GeForce 1030 GT.
It's only slightly related, but it just so happens that one of the tech YouTubers tried out a few dozen games on a Ryzen 5700G:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn_XCijaWUU
The conclusion is that a majority older games can generally be tweaked to deliver an enjoyable experience. The 2200G is slower than the 5700G, but that concerns mainly the CPU cores. The Vega iGPU in both cases is mainly limited by RAM bandwidth.
The 2200G's iGPU will need dual channel RAM (i.e. paired DIMMs) to realize its potential ... of narrowly beating a GeForce 1030 GT.
It's only slightly related, but it just so happens that one of the tech YouTubers tried out a few dozen games on a Ryzen 5700G:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn_XCijaWUU
The conclusion is that a majority older games can generally be tweaked to deliver an enjoyable experience. The 2200G is slower than the 5700G, but that concerns mainly the CPU cores. The Vega iGPU in both cases is mainly limited by RAM bandwidth.
I have a 2200G system. I tried a few games on it, both with the iGPU and a RX 560 dGPU. It's not fit for gaming today. The CPU itself is too slow. The iGPU is also too slow.
Zen 4 will be both expensive and have teething pains. Raptor Lake will be expensive. Even if you have the budget, AMD has yet to launch a new platform that doesn't have odd quirks, or outright QC issues, for the first few months. Raptor Lake is getting new motherboards, but will work in existing Socket 1700 boards.
You missed AMD's sale, where the 5600 was $150. It's back up to $177 at Amazon. Assuming your B450 board's BIOS received an update to support AGESA 1.2.0.7, you should be able to replace the 2200G with a 5600, and then pair it with a dGPU. The RX 6600 is $240, the RX 6600 XT is $300, the RTX 3060 is $350, the RX 6700 is $370, the RX 6700 XT is $400, the RTX 3060 Ti is $400, The RTX 2080 Ti is $477 open box, and the RTX 3070 is $500, so there are a wide range of choices now available from $240 to $500 to fit a budget and desired performance tier/features.
I am grateful for these prices and the detailed reply, but prices are very different here. The regular 5600 is $231, - at the lowest (using a price watch service). The RX6600 is $363, The 6600XT- $445, - 3050 at $331. 3060 at $428, -, The TI at $528, 3070 at $665, and lastly the 2080 Ti at a cool $2727 - yes, that is not a typo, so it seems to me the announced fire sale on GPUs haven't quite materialized over here yet.
I'll look at the used market and see if i can find something interesting, there is a regular RX6600 for about $240 used where i contacted the seller, but not sure if i was fast enough. There are basically no Ryzen's to be found on the used market, except for a few 3400G and a few 2600X for $80
I needed RAM for that B450/2200G combo but ordered a used pair of 8GB 3600Mhz sticks today based on the replies here that will solve that problem. They were $50, so i think I'll go that route for now and look for the next sale which will probably happen when AM5 arrives.
That'll do an okay job with old games, and there are thousands of them.
Overall that chip is fine for gaming if you don't expect recent-ish FPSes to run, and if you're willing to reduce the resolution in fast-action games. 720p will run pretty well and look pretty good in many titles, and 1080p will be fine in strategy and most 2D games. But the poster wouldn't be able to just buy anything and expect it to run well; they'd have to think carefully about purchases. Cutting-edge graphics would not be a thing.
This would definitely be better, and paired with a big enough GPU, would allow any modern game to run well. The difference would be major. But the 2200G, motherboard, and RAM are presumably already paid for, so the choice kind of comes down to paying zero and being reasonably good at older games, but weak at modern ones, paying $700ish to get a 3070-class GPU and a 5600, fully up to modern spec, or choosing a weaker GPU based on budget, and landing somewhere in the middle.
edit: GPU sizing depends a lot on resolution. At 1080p, a 3060 or 3060Ti would be fine. At 1440p, a 3070 is a better match, although it will be limited to ~100 to ~120 fps. A 3080 would run 1440p at max res and 144fps. At 4K, nothing really drives full res and full frames.... you want the best card you can afford.
I game at 1080p as my needs aren't the greatest. It is RDR2 at the high end of system requirements and it was playable even on the 2200G when it was in use. Galactic civilizations require RAM for huge maps (32GB) and Paradox games aren't really very taxing so i think a 3060 or an RX6600 will meet my needs for a while.
I setup a pricealert for the 5600 and will look for a used dGpu to tide me over until i can afford to build a better system. Thanks
I setup a pricealert for the 5600 and will look for a used dGpu to tide me over until i can afford to build a better system. Thanks
I tested No Man's Sky, Destiny 2, and Warframe, all games that pre-date the 2200G's launch. I game at 1080p. To make two of the three playable, I needed to drop the render resolution to 75% in No Man's Sky and Warframe, which made them playable, but they looked like a smearfest. No amount of tweaking would make D2 functional. D2's CPU requirements were too high.
If you need to go down-market, the Ryzen 5 5500 and Ryzen 5 3600 would get you Zen 2 performance. Here, the 5500 is typically cheaper. The 3600 fluctuates from above the 5600 to below the 5500. It's currently $121 at Amazon, but Newegg has it via a 3rd party for as high as $178, $1 more than the 5600 at Amazon for $177.
The 2200G will not be sufficient, so i will replace it, but rather with a regular 5600+ even if i won't take advantage of PCIe 4 but i assume B550 motherboards will be plentiful and cheap in the near future. The 5500 has less cache as well and while it's a $50 difference between them here, it's not much in the long run.
I believe D2 was free on Epic this week, so I'll give it a go for laughs when i get the RAM in the mail.
I believe D2 was free on Epic this week, so I'll give it a go for laughs when i get the RAM in the mail.
Cache size makes a big difference on Zen 3, so you'd get substantially more CPU speed for your $50. And now that GPUs are coming down to something reasonable again, you should be able to get something outstanding on the cheap. I expect they'll go lower; you may be able to get something at a pretty substantial discount to MSRP by October.
You can sorta kinda game on Ryzen 3000g/3200g if you don't mind lowest details and a low resolution blurfest as IceStorm put it. Definitely NOT the way I like to do my gaming, that's for sure.
I'd recommend taking a look at some of the videos on the RandomGamingInHD channel where these APU's regularly show up in comparison to whatever else is being tested at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/user/RandomGaminginHD/videos
I'd recommend taking a look at some of the videos on the RandomGamingInHD channel where these APU's regularly show up in comparison to whatever else is being tested at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/user/RandomGaminginHD/videos
I did score a used RX6600 today for $230, - which is $130 off the retail price here, so it will be interesting to pair the 2200G with it until i can find a replacement. A bit short on funds so i need to wait until October in anyways
The Radeon RX 6600 should actually be capable of running quite a few games at 1440p if you can live with "medium" settings rather than "high".
I am used to Vega 8 on my previous 5600H based laptop, so i am sure it will be a very nice upgrade for me. I scored an Odessey G3 24" at a flea market for $20, - last week, and another IIyama 28" pro-monitor this week, so i am not exactly used to high-end hardware.
Having replaced my main artery from kidney to groin and not being able to work, i am not sure I'll ever make enough money to build what i want, but it's fun nonetheless
Enough off topic, thanks for the insights and guidance, my build will be at least half-finished in a few days
If you are looking in-country for used, keep an eye out for the Ryzen 3 3300X. It's still 4 cores, but it has eight threads and has only one active CCX, meaning there's consistent latency going from one core to any other core, vs the 3100 which has two CCXes and has the same core to core latency issues as Zen 2 does in general.
Other than that CPU, the 3600/3600X with its six cores and twelve threads is also a solid choice, just don't overpay for anything used.
Other than that CPU, the 3600/3600X with its six cores and twelve threads is also a solid choice, just don't overpay for anything used.
I am aware of the 3300X, but it's a hard one to find. The few listings of any Ryzen's here consist of more 2200/2400/3200/3400G's, maybe a few 2600X ($120) and some 1600X/1800X (Non AF)
Prices for most used Ryzen's are usually around the $100 mark which is not interesting at all. The one 3600 i found is listed for above $200 which i attribute to people hoping to sell off to finance their AM5 budget in a few weeks.
I am sure the 5xxx series are going to have another fire sale in the coming months or so, and i am likely to pull the trigger then.
I got the RAM so i am typing from the 2200G box now, It's an B450 Asus Prime Plus and off i go to update the BIOS and do some tuning.
If you can build the rig I may have a GPU to help out with your refugee efforts. We’ll need to solve the Intl shipping issues but it can be done.
Edit: plan for minimum 850W PSU.
Little bit of a Necro here but worth the fun. Over the past month I’ve liquidated some things and sent my 5800X/3080Ti over to my nephew for his gaming needs and while we both agreed that it’d be great to have a 4090, he didn’t know that I’d taken the ludicrously expensive Asus Dark Hero motherboard out of his machine for a standard X570 WiFi replacement. Alas, it was unpleasant to have the shop PCless. No Toslink to feed the stereo, no sit-down browsing on the 32”, no pulling up or working on CAD files and of course no more gaming far from bugging my wife at odd hours. I also need something to drive CNC tools without going into the house for every operation.
This all lead to the great idea that I could build a PC for $5-600 now that the Zen3 components are so affordable. That notion of budget didn’t work as I’d forgotten that I had no spare GPUs, but I did build a nice computer tonight after the daily beating the crap out of myself so it was in part rushed, though turned out fairly well and with room for improvement.
Specs:
5900X @5GHz
X570 Dark Hero
Dark Rock Pro 5
64GB Corsair DDR4 3200 C/16 (see comments)
Corsair 4000D
MSI Expert 4080 Super
EVGA 1300W PSU
1TB 980 Pro
1TB 970 Evo Plus
(3) 120mm Noctua Redux PWM 1200s
(2) 140mm Arctic Cooling 14s
(1) 120mm Arctic Cooling 12
The PSU, fans, SSDs, and motherboard being in inventory it was only natural to give birth to what I feel is the best work that AMD has ever done so parts were ordered.
I like to build my motherboards out to this level of completion prior to installing them in the case:
This all lead to the great idea that I could build a PC for $5-600 now that the Zen3 components are so affordable. That notion of budget didn’t work as I’d forgotten that I had no spare GPUs, but I did build a nice computer tonight after the daily beating the crap out of myself so it was in part rushed, though turned out fairly well and with room for improvement.
Specs:
5900X @5GHz
X570 Dark Hero
Dark Rock Pro 5
64GB Corsair DDR4 3200 C/16 (see comments)
Corsair 4000D
MSI Expert 4080 Super
EVGA 1300W PSU
1TB 980 Pro
1TB 970 Evo Plus
(3) 120mm Noctua Redux PWM 1200s
(2) 140mm Arctic Cooling 14s
(1) 120mm Arctic Cooling 12
The PSU, fans, SSDs, and motherboard being in inventory it was only natural to give birth to what I feel is the best work that AMD has ever done so parts were ordered.
I like to build my motherboards out to this level of completion prior to installing them in the case:
Attachments
For some reason Ars’ mobile interface eats posts while I try to caption photos, so I’ll do a few little entries.
Here, I’m thinking that OK, these 120mm Noctua fans are very quiet and will feed the Founders style GPU and CPU cooler quite well if I also shove some more positive pressure down from above. The colors looked like they might matter with an anodized aluminum GPU inbound as well, alas they don’t perhaps but for internal smiles. The 4000D is a very small case and part of the fun for this build was stuffing a pretty damned powerful componentset inside of it while keeping it quiet.
You can fit a 140mm rear exhaust if you remove the glass panel registration peg and the upper detent cup in which it sockets into, however this also requires drilling fan mounting holes and I’m injured, and cannot feel my hands so that was a no-go mod idea but posted for posterity. Two 140s pushing down into the CPU heatsink and a single 120mm exhausting (in addition to the Dark Rock’s two fans) seemed good enough.
Here, I’m thinking that OK, these 120mm Noctua fans are very quiet and will feed the Founders style GPU and CPU cooler quite well if I also shove some more positive pressure down from above. The colors looked like they might matter with an anodized aluminum GPU inbound as well, alas they don’t perhaps but for internal smiles. The 4000D is a very small case and part of the fun for this build was stuffing a pretty damned powerful componentset inside of it while keeping it quiet.
You can fit a 140mm rear exhaust if you remove the glass panel registration peg and the upper detent cup in which it sockets into, however this also requires drilling fan mounting holes and I’m injured, and cannot feel my hands so that was a no-go mod idea but posted for posterity. Two 140s pushing down into the CPU heatsink and a single 120mm exhausting (in addition to the Dark Rock’s two fans) seemed good enough.
Last edited:
Hmm, this may be impossible:
Yeah, that was. I had to remove the rear 140mm before further struggles but I skipped an important gallery.
Unveiling the Dark Rock was a fantastic unboxing experience. It exudes quality engineering and manufacturing in every component. Inspecting the machined surfaces tells you just how much work goes into making these monsters:
Here’s a dry fit and eventual dry fit of the GPU planning my cable routing and airflow patterns:
Yeah, that was. I had to remove the rear 140mm before further struggles but I skipped an important gallery.
Unveiling the Dark Rock was a fantastic unboxing experience. It exudes quality engineering and manufacturing in every component. Inspecting the machined surfaces tells you just how much work goes into making these monsters:
Here’s a dry fit and eventual dry fit of the GPU planning my cable routing and airflow patterns:
Some various detail shots:
Holy Fuckballs, this is a heavy GPU. The plastic grille covering the opposing fan’s fin stack kinda bugs me but it’s otherwise IMO one of the very nicest card builds that I’ve ever handled. I hope that MSI keeps up this trend.
The 4080S is huge. Did I already write that?
Holy Fuckballs, this is a heavy GPU. The plastic grille covering the opposing fan’s fin stack kinda bugs me but it’s otherwise IMO one of the very nicest card builds that I’ve ever handled. I hope that MSI keeps up this trend.
The 4080S is huge. Did I already write that?
Let’s see if there are any other useful tidbits in here before jumping to software:
The EVGA cables are long enough for a full tower. They’re two feet long, so I ended up folding the three 8-pin leads neatly alongside of the PSU’s right side, along the rear of the case. Corsair give you some extra girth to manage cables in their 4000, 5000, and 7000-series cases so I’ve used them extensively over the past couple of years now.
Some IO on the Dark Hero. Not bad for a pandemic generation board. I do not think that we’ll need anything else in our shop for a bit (needs something immediately) after adding in two USB 2.0 brackets, as some Logitech peripherals have frame drops on USB 3 (and above) interfaces.
This was in my inventory so WTH, yeah, it’s massive overkill.
It was rather challenging to connect the two CPU cooler fans to each other and to the motherboard header with both components installed within the case. Thankfully, the front fan retaining springs on the Dark Rock are easy to both pull and to reattach. That provided just enough leeway to get this assembled.
The EVGA cables are long enough for a full tower. They’re two feet long, so I ended up folding the three 8-pin leads neatly alongside of the PSU’s right side, along the rear of the case. Corsair give you some extra girth to manage cables in their 4000, 5000, and 7000-series cases so I’ve used them extensively over the past couple of years now.
Some IO on the Dark Hero. Not bad for a pandemic generation board. I do not think that we’ll need anything else in our shop for a bit (needs something immediately) after adding in two USB 2.0 brackets, as some Logitech peripherals have frame drops on USB 3 (and above) interfaces.
This was in my inventory so WTH, yeah, it’s massive overkill.
It was rather challenging to connect the two CPU cooler fans to each other and to the motherboard header with both components installed within the case. Thankfully, the front fan retaining springs on the Dark Rock are easy to both pull and to reattach. That provided just enough leeway to get this assembled.
Attachments
Last edited:
All put together this turned out to be one rather dense machine. I was a bit daunted at the prospect of moving it over to the electronics section due to, um, hazards in the shop essentially located everywhere, but it worked out and I got a post on first boot using my old Win10 install on the 970 Evo Plus. Impressive for such a jump from a 2016 Intel Skylake rig’s boot drive:
After setting DOCP Profile 1 it dawned that my midnight shopping skills were not without fault. Somehow I had shopped far and wide for C16/3600Mhz RAM as per SOP with a Zen 3 build but got myself 64GB in two sticks @3200Mhz. Return has been accepted, and four 16GB sticks of C16/3600 are en route.
In the meantime, I let Windows install 22H2, and the machine was feeling really slow to me compared to when I had a 5800X in this motherboard. I looked into BIOS once more and that’s where I saw that a lazy overclocking attempt from early after first boot had slacked Cas latency to 23! Doof. Fixed and running back at 3200Mhz again I then continued updating Windows on the older SSD attached to the southbridge, clicked on “NO, I do not want Windows 11 to follow the Win10 22H2 update” radio button and naturally, Windows Update said, “oh you really meant yes, so we’ll just pave over your Win 10 partition. Hope that you didn’t have any legacy software on there, like say as in the only reason that the SSD was even in the machine to begin with, sucka!”
OK, it’s alright and my 400+hr modded Skyrim build survived but that irked me a tad. I will not be taking the time to restore a Win10 boot drive unless absolutely needed (possibly for CNC software).
All told it took about three hours to slap this one together and I let Windows upgrade itself over the course of perhaps another hour. Installed Nvidia’s 4080S driver, blasted some music over Toslink and called it a night. Oh, some stability testing and HWInfo to peek at what the machine was doing under loads and then yeah I was pooped.
Tomorrow night I’ll install my clean drive with Windows 11 Professional and associated shop software onto the 980Pro that’s attached to the PCIe lanes and then when some free time materializes I’ll play some more with the older Win10-11 drive’s data. There is room to quiet the machine down further while retaining that modest overclock.
Cheers, Ars! Edit: fatigues
After setting DOCP Profile 1 it dawned that my midnight shopping skills were not without fault. Somehow I had shopped far and wide for C16/3600Mhz RAM as per SOP with a Zen 3 build but got myself 64GB in two sticks @3200Mhz. Return has been accepted, and four 16GB sticks of C16/3600 are en route.
In the meantime, I let Windows install 22H2, and the machine was feeling really slow to me compared to when I had a 5800X in this motherboard. I looked into BIOS once more and that’s where I saw that a lazy overclocking attempt from early after first boot had slacked Cas latency to 23! Doof. Fixed and running back at 3200Mhz again I then continued updating Windows on the older SSD attached to the southbridge, clicked on “NO, I do not want Windows 11 to follow the Win10 22H2 update” radio button and naturally, Windows Update said, “oh you really meant yes, so we’ll just pave over your Win 10 partition. Hope that you didn’t have any legacy software on there, like say as in the only reason that the SSD was even in the machine to begin with, sucka!”
OK, it’s alright and my 400+hr modded Skyrim build survived but that irked me a tad. I will not be taking the time to restore a Win10 boot drive unless absolutely needed (possibly for CNC software).
All told it took about three hours to slap this one together and I let Windows upgrade itself over the course of perhaps another hour. Installed Nvidia’s 4080S driver, blasted some music over Toslink and called it a night. Oh, some stability testing and HWInfo to peek at what the machine was doing under loads and then yeah I was pooped.
Tomorrow night I’ll install my clean drive with Windows 11 Professional and associated shop software onto the 980Pro that’s attached to the PCIe lanes and then when some free time materializes I’ll play some more with the older Win10-11 drive’s data. There is room to quiet the machine down further while retaining that modest overclock.
Cheers, Ars! Edit: fatigues
Last edited:
After some poking around I think that I can squeeze an Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280 in, so the Dark Rock will serve some light duty until I’m able to perform the swap. $80 for a very good AIO that I know will keep that CPU cool and quiet while the GPU is under load kinda sealed it for me. The tight spacing here did as well. There isn’t enough room to baffle a good volume of air out back from underneath the air cooler. The fans will have to run a bit too hard for my liking while trying to concentrate:
I’d still recommend the Dark Rock Pro 5 if you have the room to feed it a cool stream of ambient air and not a column of GPU ejecta as seen above.
I’d still recommend the Dark Rock Pro 5 if you have the room to feed it a cool stream of ambient air and not a column of GPU ejecta as seen above.
A bit of an update after some trial and error with various configurations. The 5900X was hovering in the low 40s at idle with the Dark Rock Pro 5 installed and the 4080S at idle (fans off, just radiating a bit of warmth) and since I had a 4090 inbound I did a full swap out of RAM, GPU, and CPU cooler. Long story short is that the 4090 ROG Strix OC GPU idles at 7.4W, the 240mm Arctic Cooler II AIO idles the CPU at 33-34 degrees and is inaudible. I used Arctic's "hotspot offset" mounting scheme as always since that makes a nice difference on these older CPUs. The machine is very quiet and since I went with an RGB model for the AIO, and with the Asus GPU and motherboard being rather illuminated that required just a few minutes of poking around in Open RGB to get the whole machine glowing a nice, toxic waste green.
Some cable routing and build pics to come, though it's humming along rather nicely here at proper DDR4-3600/C16 and 5Ghz on the CPU. Not bad for pandemic-generation hardware. I can't wait to test the GPU in a real game. I've got to perform my clean Win11 install on the 980 Pro first, though I'll add some pics in a follow-up post. Huzzah for old gear!
Edit: for any poor soul out there wondering how to program the addressable headers of the Asus Dark Hero for a two-fan AIO with RGB, tell the mystery ports that Open RGB detects that they have 24 LEDs in them and then both fans will illuminate identically.
Edit 2: That's an average CPU core temp of 30.3 degrees at idle. I think that the MX-5 needed a minute to cold flow into a perfect union with the cooler's copper heatsink.
Some cable routing and build pics to come, though it's humming along rather nicely here at proper DDR4-3600/C16 and 5Ghz on the CPU. Not bad for pandemic-generation hardware. I can't wait to test the GPU in a real game. I've got to perform my clean Win11 install on the 980 Pro first, though I'll add some pics in a follow-up post. Huzzah for old gear!
Edit: for any poor soul out there wondering how to program the addressable headers of the Asus Dark Hero for a two-fan AIO with RGB, tell the mystery ports that Open RGB detects that they have 24 LEDs in them and then both fans will illuminate identically.
Edit 2: That's an average CPU core temp of 30.3 degrees at idle. I think that the MX-5 needed a minute to cold flow into a perfect union with the cooler's copper heatsink.
Last edited:
MX-4 has an affinity for certain surfaces such as perfectly milled CPU lids and cooler dies, and this about gave me a heart attack. the cooler felt a bit stuck after removing the retaining screw and I twisted the whole heatsink to break the joint between cooler and GPU but no, a gentle lift and twist got me this!
Holy fuck. Close inspection with my magnifying hood and lamps showed a single pin had gotten a fine hair of MX-4 gooped onto it yet not a single pin was bent. Inspection of the CPU socket proved uneventful, yet I still had doubts that this CPU would work again after being so violently removed from the clamped AM4 socket. Ohshitohshitohshit
Some new RAM and prep for the Arctic Freezer II pump module:
The CPU happily reseated as new. My hope began to coalesce.
Here’s a nice tip to further quiet your AIO. This kit came with four silicone grommets which may be useful for bump damage prevention in another part of an install or a different socket type but they do t get used for AM4. I stuck them between the case and radiator for a bit of dampening:
OK, and we’re off. First boot reveals unicorn vomit:
Note that I didn’t like the cooler loops coming down in contact with the GPU’s backplate so I’m working on a permanent solution to keep the snugged up. A zip tie is doing that work for now.
Properly greened:
Glass installed:
I’m not really an RGB kinda guy but that looks pretty neat IMHO. It’s a lot of computer in this tiny case which also makes the project the fun challenge that it turned in to.
OK, next problem…
Holy fuck. Close inspection with my magnifying hood and lamps showed a single pin had gotten a fine hair of MX-4 gooped onto it yet not a single pin was bent. Inspection of the CPU socket proved uneventful, yet I still had doubts that this CPU would work again after being so violently removed from the clamped AM4 socket. Ohshitohshitohshit
Some new RAM and prep for the Arctic Freezer II pump module:
The CPU happily reseated as new. My hope began to coalesce.
Here’s a nice tip to further quiet your AIO. This kit came with four silicone grommets which may be useful for bump damage prevention in another part of an install or a different socket type but they do t get used for AM4. I stuck them between the case and radiator for a bit of dampening:
OK, and we’re off. First boot reveals unicorn vomit:
Note that I didn’t like the cooler loops coming down in contact with the GPU’s backplate so I’m working on a permanent solution to keep the snugged up. A zip tie is doing that work for now.
Properly greened:
Glass installed:
I’m not really an RGB kinda guy but that looks pretty neat IMHO. It’s a lot of computer in this tiny case which also makes the project the fun challenge that it turned in to.
OK, next problem…
I was wondering. The iPhone that I shot those on reproduced the colors that I see fairly well but they’re a bit blued and far less saturated on the iPhone’s OLED. When I posted the photos here that fidelity issue seems to have worsened. It is most likely a color rendering index issue and with the LEDs blinking too quickly for the iPhone to compensate the rolling shutter accurately, the image post processing is doing a best guess. IRL the color is a strong chartreuse shifted into the green spectrum a tad.