Maximum PC - USA (2021-Holiday)

(Antfer) #1
HOL 2021 MAXIMUMPC 71

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WITH THE RADIATOR INSTALLED and the fan cables
threaded through into the rear of the chassis, it’s time to
install the block onto the processor. Luckily, as we used
this cooler in our Raijintek build (also an AMD system),
we had all the mounting hardware to hand.
Installation is simple enough. There are four plastic
standoffs, two metal brackets, and four screws. Remove
half the stock mounting bracket that comes with the
board and install the be quiet! one over the top. Once
secure, do the same with the top. This is a smart way
to reduce fiddling about with the back bracket when the
board is already in the case. That way it won’t fall out,
unlike if you removed both stock brackets at once.

WE KNEW THIS was immediately going to start getting a
little cramped in here. So cables were next on the agenda.
The two CPU power cables went in at the top left, then the
motherboard’s 2 4-pin, and the front panel connectors
went in the bottom. We then installed the remaining fans
in position making sure to route everything to the back of
the chassis for our secret weapon.
Fitting to the top-most fan was a bit of a pain because,
even though it was slightly smaller ( 120 mm not the
maximum supported 140 mm), it was making contact
with that right-most CPU power. After some ‘gentle’
encouragement (including pushing it in place really
hard), finally, we managed to get it secured.

THIS IS ONE OF the neat things about this case. Given the
hefty girth of the card, it has a tendency to sag. The RTX
3000 series are seriously hot and so most of the cards’
cooling solutions have been amped up to be a minimum
tri-slot design. The Suprim X is no different in that regard.
Because that puts an excessive amount of weight on the
slot, you can end up with GPU sag, so to combat that, MSI
includes this handy little adjustable stand.
Usually, these stands look really out of place and a
bit ugly, but given how close to the radiator that GPU is,
you can almost hide this alongside the AIO. That should
reduce tension on that slot and keep our card more
secure in the long term.

WITH THE GPU FINALLY IN and the card plugged in, the
system was complete, but not quite as bright as it should
be. Despite having iCUE all preconfigured, thanks to a
pre-installed OS (as it’s a transplant system), it wouldn’t
load the settings and defaulted to this until a complete
reinstall was performed. Why? Not a clue. Most likely
it’s something to do with unplugging everything from
the Corsair Commander module and removing the iCUE
cooler extension. This thing looks epic. Of course, it’s not
without its flaws but, then, no build ever is.

CPU BLOCK ATTACHED CABLES, CABLES, CABLES

STOP SAGGING COMPLETED!
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