HOL 2021 MAXIMUMPC 67
1 2
AT THE HEART OF THIS SYSTEM lies a bit of a Frankenstein build,
pieced together out of various parts from several builds that we
created throughout the past year or so. The main bulk of that
surrounds the Corsair 5000 D 4K gaming PC we put together back
in March 20 21, albeit with a fair few changes on top.
The first big change comes in the form of the GPU. We dropped
the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT for an MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Suprim X.
Next up was the memory, we just weren’t having any luck with that
32GB (4x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro memory kit, so we swapped
it for the special order 64 GB (2x 3 2GB) kit of HyperX Predator DDR4
@ 3200 MT/s that we got in for our tiny NZXT H1 Editing PC back in
September 20 20. And lastly, we dropped down to a single M.2 drive
in the form of the PCIe 3. 0 Corsair Force MP 400 2 TB SSD. By no
means a super-speedy drive, compared with the best PCIe 4.0 has
to offer, but for our day-to-day use with this machine, it has more
than enough storage and performance for everything we do. Aside
from that, the motherboard, processor, case, power supply, and
cooling were all identical to the 4K system (albeit we did add in one
extra sleeved PCIe power cable from a separate Corsair kit for the
power-hungry Suprim X GPU).
With all that in mind, and given this was a transplant system,
we knew there were going to be some drawbacks when it came to
downsizing into the H 510 Flow’s chassis. Namely the CPU cooler.
Because the case only supports up to a 280mm cooler, we ditched
the Corsair H150i Elite and instead opted for another Frankenstein
part, the be quiet! Silent Loop 2 2 40mm AIO from our Raijintek
Retro build back in our August edition of 2021 , all of which would
be supported with six of the Corsair QL 120 fans from the 4 K build to
top it off (for maximum internal and external lighting).
THE 50 00D AIRFLOW has been a fantastic choice for a
chassis for this 4K build. Its only drawback (as long-time
readers will know, we tend to lean on the smaller side
of PC building life) is that it’s a big, solid unit. Now that
could be a positive, it certainly makes it easier to build
in and easier to cool, but as our systems are typically
something we want to show off, it’s less than convenient
placing it on a desk.
Thus the conundrum. Ours has sat underneath a 9ft
long desk for well over half a year at this point, where
it’s just sucking
up dog hair
and dust
perpetually. So
removing all
of the kit and
migrating it
into a smaller
chassis that
we can stick
on top of the
desk, without it
looking too out
of place, is the
perfect call.A LOT OF DIFFERENT PARTS are going into this build from
the original setup, but the one thing we can’t take across
is the cooling. Sadly, the H5 10 tops out at a single 2 80mm
AIO and, as such, we need to pick out a new cooler.
We decided on the Silent Loop 2 for a number of
reasons. It’s really easy to install on an AMD socket. The
pump is insanely quiet, and honestly, we quite like the
design. One thing we won’t be taking with us is the two
be quiet! fans. Instead, we’ll be using the Corsair QL fans
that we built with during the 4 K build, but doubling up,
and attempting to configure a push-pull configuration
(basically having two fans on one side pushing air
through the radiator, and another two on the opposite
side pulling), but more on that later.DECONSTRUCTION FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER
INGREDIENTS
PART STREETPRICE^
Case NZXT H510 Flow $110Motherboard Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero $450CPU AMD Ryzen 9 59 50X $740GPU MSI GeForce RTX 3080 10GB Suprim X $2,500Memory 64GB(2xDDR4 @ 3200 32GB)^ HyperX^ Predator^ $392PSU 750W Corsair CXF 75 0W 80+ Bronze $ 110Primary
Storage2TB Corsair MP40 0 Force PCIe 3.0
M.2 SSD $370CPU Cooler be quiet! Silent Loop 2 240 $140Fans 6x Corsair iCUE QL 120 $233Operating
System Windows^10 Home^64 -bit^ OEM $32Total $5,077