Memory Bank [A WIP]: Restoring / re-purposing my parents old pc, that I built for them many years ago [I replaced it, by making a Node 202 build]. System will be offline, once all relevant programs / drivers / components are applied
AM3 - AMD Phenom II 4C
Kingston 8GB DDR3
ATI Firepro W5000 [PCIe slot powered]
120GB SSD + 3x1TB 2.5in + 4x4TB 3.5in HDD [waiting]
LSi PCIe x8 HBA [waiting]
Raidmax 635W + Cooler Master HAF 912 + 2x120mm + 2x200mm [1=Red RGB]
Pop OS 20.04
My first long term pc, was involving this Phenom II chip [nestled in a cavernous HAF 932], to which I never want to give up on it. Some upgrades took place as expected [more RAM, more advanced GPUs], but still playing nice to limits. Ultimately, requirement plumping by simpler bits of software and missing instruction sets [esp. for some newer games] would be choking this old dogs collar a bit. Plus W10 was looming H A R D. Then my OG Biostar mainboard failed, in such a whimper / lackluster fashion, forcing to craft up a new pc [AM4], that near 3mths to get all needed parts. Later on, I’d came across an unused whitebox AM3 board, at a rather fair price [couldn’t refuse]. Getting hold of a few new parts [+ a few eBay bids later], along with the mindset of a smaller package, this unsung hero of a chip would have its life renewed [also turned out to be my physically easiest / tidiest pc work to date].
AM3 - AMD Phenom II 6C + TT Frio 12 HS
Crucial 16GB DDR3
EVGA 2060KO
60GB SSD + 1TB 2.5in HDD
Seasonic 750W
Cooler Master QL500 [I eventually learned GNs Steve, is a bit disappoint]
3x120mm [1 = high RPM exhaust]
Manjaro Linux OS… + Creeper Level1 Pingu
Current working and playing machine. First dive into SFF PCs, has been one hell of a ride but in the end I got a decent result out of it. It’s working very well, but still dealing with RAM issues (Corsair placeholder RAM until the G.Skill Trident Z kit that was in the originally comes back from RMA). also some weirdness with USB devices due to the AMD platform. But, beside that, I’m very happy with how it performs and what it can do.
Not much else really to show of it’s guts.
Ryzen 7 3700x - Noctua NH-l9x65 - Asus Crosshair Impact VIII - 16GB 3600MHz CL18 RAM - MSI Gaming X RTX 2070 Super - Corsair SF600 Platinum - Sabrent Rocket 3.0 512GB - Samsung 850 Evo 1TB - Silverstone RVZ03 ARGB case
Depending on your case temperatures as is, silver-stone makes a 120mm cooler (SST-NT06-PRO-v2) that fits in that chassis… not only does it keep the core cooler, but it has a VAST impact on RAM, chipset and VRM temperatures, which can sometimes cause hard to track down instability.
I don’t think it’s compatible because of the SoDIMM.2. Also Trident Z RAM is going to get back in soon and it’s quite a tall kit of memory.
To be honest it’s doing alright cooling wise. The two fans for the chipset and VRM do a great job + on the side panel I replaced the Silverstone fan with a Noctua one that can spin faster. And I also gave a go at undervolting a tad the CPU. Stays in the low 70s while playing games with a room temperature of 21°C.
I use to have an AM2 Phenom (8450 with a 9800 GTX+) way back…that was an overheating mess It had a Zalman CPU cooler on full blast with case side panel off and would get about 15 to 20 mins of gaming in before it would overheat and shutdown. It use to frequently freeze, blue screen and occasionally I would get no display from the GPU. I don’t forget those butt clenching moments when working on my degree final project consistently saving, hoping that the system does not lock up
Just dusted off some random components I will have some overclock fun with
A Gigabyte X58 Extreme motherboard
Intel 920 CPU
Power Color Red Devil RX580
6gb OCZ RAM with gold heatspreaders
Corsair AIO
Kingston KC600 SSD
750W EVGA PSU
Inwin Alice case
I have a good deal of weird computers, today I rebuild another one, this is actually the hardware that used to be in the InWin case above.
It was ment to be a server, but turned out it was bit overpowered and I use it as my streaming rig to run my twitch stream instead
Asus P8B-M uATX server board with a strange layout
Some Noctua server cooler I forgot the name of (the socket have holes that are little off the usual standard)
Intel 520 SSD
Some random Toshiba SSD
4x4 GB ECC RAM
A random Arctic Cooling fan
EVGA 750w. PSU with custom cables sized for my old gaming system
Almost forgot the CPU, Intel 1270v2
My old Zotac AMP extreme GTX1070 graphics
Elgato HD60Pro capture card
Did those monsters put the 24 pin socket on the Topedge of the motherboard?
What evil Daemon possessed them‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽‽
I mean, you did a really good job, looking sweet, but I hope you saved the backplate to hunt down the monsters and kill them slowly with DEATH BY A THOUSAND BACKPLATE CUTS…
Welcome…
To the weird world of ITX systems. Nothing is where it should be. Everything is wherever they could fit it, after tracing the main stuff… It’s a mess and people love it.
That cable management though… My soul hurts just looking at it.
I know… But the cables are first of all placed all strange around the board, and secondly, Im not sure where I put the original cables for the PSU, and these custom ones where originally used in another system where they made a lot more sense
So without having to use extensions, this is the best I could do. Most important was airflow, and actually, both GPU and CPU is totally free to breathe