iMbalance - a very weird box of power [RX6800XT]

[AT0MAC]

So, I build this PC a while ago - the Killer Panda PC

Let me show you the before pictures, what we are working with here:

The parts before:

• Asus Maximus Code X Z370 motherboard

• Intel i5 8600K Der8auer Advanced Edition CPU OCed to 5000 MHz

• 16 (2x8) GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 2400MHz CL10 RAM (OCed to 3000MHz)

• Zotac Amp Extreme GTX 1070 graphics card

• Corsair Force MP500 120GB NVME SSD for boot

• 500 GB HDD for media (I draw a lot)

• 1TB WD Black for games

• 240 GB SSD for editing video (I do that too)

• Corsair ML120 120mm fans (14 of them!)

• Phanteks 120mm Halos Lux fan frames

• HW Labs Nemesis GTS 240 white radiator

• EVGA SuperNova G2 750watt Gold PSU

• Koolance 702 coolant

• All sorts of wire extensions to make it pretty.

• A panda sticker

• A sticker

• Bamboo tape

It’s an absolute awesome PC to use
But it’s starting to show its time, mostly because of the 1070…

Pretty damn bad timing! But I found sort of an okay deal, soooo…
I bought a AsRock RX6800XT, the one recently tested on this channel

And THAT’s why I need to re-arrange things, because this graphic card is MASSIVE (the weight alone is 1.815 grams, as in, almost 2KG)

Let me show you what I did…

[AT0MAC]

This thing comes in a pretty big box, and I could instantly see that might be bit of a problem, had not really thought this through before I bought it tbh…

The case I have to work with, is a rather old Lian Li model, a PC-V33

The reason why I stick to this case, is because of the placement
The build is placed inside a closed closet, where I have a air tunnel to fresh air from outside
So cant really use any tall or deep cases, this cube perfectly fits and thats why I stick to it

[AT0MAC]

First things first for any big build like this - plan!

So I fired up SketchUp and started drawing and a whole lot of measuring

Let me just tell you, the motherboard, fans and radiator is models I found in the SketchUp library, I did not draw those.
But, I did make all the holes in the fan grills, because I really wanted to see how this might look

[AT0MAC]

The thing is, I needed to switch out the hardline tubing as I simply can’t fit it inside the case with this massive gpu

Instead I bought a AIO, but as everything is hard to come by these days, I ended up with a 360 model, that I also can’t fit inside the case…

Good thing is, I’m basically a unemployed artist (pretty cliché), I make video, draw my own coloring book and much more, so thinking outside the box really can not surprise me

If I build it sort of as I’ve drawn it, then it will fit!

I re-measured the internals, I should have space for the 33cm long GPU

See, in the drawing, that’s the 5mm, between the front fans and the back end of the GPU

[AT0MAC]

I did not want to spend money on the re-build itself, i mean, hardware is expensive enough

So I found a old shelf I had laying around, and the left over paint from the Reaper PC I linked earlier, started to cut the shelf and painted it

In the drawing it’s wooden, but I figured it would look better in black

Drilled a bunch of holes, and mounted my old radiator to the side, with some of my unused fittings, and glued some aluminum to the inside - mainly because I had it, and I did not feel like painting both sides of the wood

[AT0MAC]

Put some rubber dampers on the screws, so I did not have to screw the radiator in fully, it’s even balancing itself off the fittings there, I countersunk some holes so they sit sort of flush into the surface
I did not bother to screw in the lower row of screws, it’s only on for cosmetics, because I had it and it looks kinda cool

Let me just say, yes I know the aluminum is not fully straight cut, it’s scrap metal, it’s not expected to be fully straight

The wood underneath is btw a left over piece of my desk, again, wood I just had laying around

[AT0MAC]

Just like in TV shows, I cheated

Because I have actually been running with the Asus ROG Ryujin 360 for a while, one of the valves in the hardline loop somehow broke and started dripping, not sure how it happened but it did and that’s why I originally rush jobbed in the aio like this
It looks pretty bad, so this is the time to do it better

Before you ask, that thing on the table is a blunderbomb replica I made from the game Sea of Thieves, and its laying in a pile of gold, because i’m a pirate

I really like this trend of making technology black, grey and white (I painted the case white)

[AT0MAC]

As it was sitting there I test fittet the AsRock RX6800XT and damn, it’s big

Guess you can kinda see it there, but I have mounted a Phanteks fanframe to the inside of the front fans, so they actually have LED frames both in front and behind
That totally covered the 5mm space, just look at it

I cleaned the case and the dust and all after this, this was just a test fit

[AT0MAC]

After a clean, from a few different angles

How the innards look now, with a few more of my old water cooling bits added, just for looks

Sorry it’s not super sharp, pictures are all taken with my phone and it’s like anything else a few years old, so it’s not the greatest

The reflection on the AIO is actually one of the coloringbook pages I have drawn myself, I do a lot of linework, that there is my pirate from Sea of Thieves, drawn in Illustrator, and colored with colorpencils
The grey power cable is from Reaper Cables, from that Reaper PC I linked earlier, I had an extra one laying around and figured, grey don’t look too out of place in this build (the GPU uses 3x8 pin power connectors, totally mad)

[AT0MAC]

Time to wrap it up, kinda…

I had some gold foil tape laying around, it’s ment to be use on cars, and some white duct tape, I figured that could look cool - so taped up the front panel

One of the front USB ports never worked, for some odd reason, so I block that port off with the tape, same goes for the front audio, I don’t use it and never will

[AT0MAC]

Sneak peek of the finished system, it looks pretty nice I’d say

Remember I said I put a LED fan frame both in front and behind the front fans?
It actually ended up matching the effect on the graphic card almost spot on

Yeah its rainbow puke, but the RGB software for ASUS, messes with the Steelseries for my mousemat and my Corsair for my mouse - so the happy medium is that I dont use the ASUS software, set my mousemat color and uninstall steelseries - only deal with iCue for my corsair mouse, else the settings of the mouse is all wonky

So yup, I’m one of those actually using rainbow colors (remember, the PC is inside a closed closet, so its actually not like I see it much anyway)

[AT0MAC]

Here is a fun fact, you might notice the mirrors around the case on one of the pictures

The reason being, it’s inside a closet so when plugging it in, I really can’t see much - so I use a flashlight and mirrors, while I stand on a stepladder

Yes, it’s NOT your everyday computer build if you have not guessed it yet

[AT0MAC]

I use this rig for video editing, playing games, drawing and much more - I have more computers than most people, but this one, is my star of the show

At this stage, I tried playing Sea of Thieves at the highest quality, man it looks purdy!

Also played Assassins Creed Valhalla, I’m danish btw, so I am viking and absolute love this game, also on Ultra quality, damn…

Yeah, I’m sort of a ingame photographer, so this is absolute critical that I can play in high quality

[AT0MAC]

It’s done, let me show you some of the details

This old cap for the watercooling loop I used to have, give it bit of a steampunk feel

View of the side, it has a special feature - I since the build swapped out the RAM for a 64GB kit, instead of the 16, and I could do that without disassembling anything - just reach in and swap
Also, thats the AIO there on top, I mounted it basically with some fan mounts and really strong double sided tape - it works wonders both to dampen vibration as it does to stick things down
If I was to do this permanent, I would rivet the mounts on instead, but I guess I at some point re-do all this again so this will do for now (like, lets say I swap motherboard and CPU)

I glued on this fake carbon vent for a car, just to make it look different and because I had it laying around

[AT0MAC]

A bit of CyperPunk mood when the lights are on, am I right?

This is 4x RGB fan frames, a lighting fan on the GPU, RGB light spread across the motherboard, a mini screen on the AIO and a large white flood light LED mounted with magnets on the inside of the case lid

[AT0MAC]

Let me tell you btw, that aluminum filter that used to be there in the open part of the case, jesus it was glued on with something very strong.

Spend a good 30 minutes just trying to peel it off, but got it in the end

[AT0MAC]

So, HERE IT IS

I named it iMbalance as it’s a odd pair, the overclocked 8600K, with a bunch of drives, watercooled with a too large AIO, in a very small cube case, very many fans, 64GB RAM and a brand new kinda overpowered GPU - pretty much imbalanced, but it works

Made this picture for my instagram, it was easier than posting a bunch of pictures, you guys got the whole story instead

New parts list:

• Asus Maximus Code X Z370 motherboard

• Intel i5 8600K Der8auer Advanced Edition CPU OCed to 5000 MHz

• 64 GB Patriot Viper Steel (2x32) GB DDR4 CL16 3000 MHz

• AsRock RX6800XT graphics card

• Corsair Force MP500 120GB NVME SSD for boot

• 500 GB HDD for media (I draw a lot)

• 1TB WD Black for games

• 1TB m.2 Sabrent Rocket USB-C drive for games

• 240 GB SSD for editing video (I do that too)

• Corsair ML120 120mm fans (12 of them!)

• Phanteks 120mm Halos Lux fan frames

• HW Labs Nemesis GTS 240 white radiator

• EVGA SuperNova G2 750watt Gold PSU

• All sorts of wire extensions to make it pretty.

• Duct tape and heat shielding gold tape

• A shelf, a part of a desk and some scrap aluminium

• Fake carbon vent and a HW Labs Nemesis GTS 240 white radiator

I have a old 1000 watt Corsair PSU I might consider putting in instead, I had a weird thing happen a day I tried Watchdogs Legion on Ultra, with 25% extra details and RTX on medium, it worked, had 25fps, but it quit unexpcted - I think it made a power spike it could not handle (it works smooth if I dial it down, just had to try)

[AT0MAC]

Sorry guys, feels like ive just spammed a lot.

I’m not a robot, I just basically copy/pasted all this from another site I posted it to

Thought I share it here, since there recently was a review of the same exact graphic card on the YT channel

Hope you like it, I really do

[AT0MAC]

UPDATE

So, remember when I said the original system had 16GB RAM?

I switched out the RAM somewhere between the rebuild and posting it here, so I was running it like a week with the old RAM, before the new RAM arrived.

That week worked super smooth, but something is up with Patriot Viper Steel, ever since I switched to the 64GB RAM I have random crashes to Windows, as in, the computer do not restart, its just whatever game I play, the game sometimes quit and I get no error.
The only thing I switched out was the RAM, so got to be that.

Anyway, long story short, I reset my overclock, run the system at basic for now, and just applied XMP.

At the same time, I also had found my much more powerful PSU, I thought it was a 1.000 watt, but nope… It’s a AX1200, 1.200 watt!

So now I at least know it’s not a power issue for the new GPU, the AsRock RX6800XT actually look pretty sweet

[AT0MAC]

Here is a closer picture of the RAM in question, a 64GB (2x32) 3000Mhz Patriot Viper Steel
Pretty bad for overclocking, but really a good deal in terms of amount of memory.

I do a bit of video edit, sound and draw, so I have an actual use for the memory, 32 would make more sense, but this costed about the same as higher quality/speed 32GB sets, so I rather have the amount

I could actually switch out the PSU without taking anything else but the sidepanels off, like in a normal case, this is just not a normal case, so it actually surprised me a bit

Now when I had the chance, I decided to clean up the cables a little, looks pretty neat I’d say

For now, It’s running pretty smooth, I can mainly tell when I start the PC, that it starts a bit slower (it takes 30 seconds now, as supposed to around 10 before, so not a big deal), FPS is like 10-15 fps lower, so not a big deal either

I noticed that the GPU pull little more power now than before, it used to sit around 250-270 Watt, but most of the time it now pulls 280-300 watt when gaming, so guess the PSU efficiency did something (its about 45-50% power usage now, instead of like 70-75% on the old PSU)

Thats it for now, its done, again

~ cheers