NTP66's thread of IT

Postby **NTP66** » Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:23 am

Air cooling? Absolutely not. AIO water cooler or nothing. This is the one I have, and would absolutely recommend it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0842Z9WYG/. Just make sure that your case can accommodate a water cooler radiator.

Postby **Shyster** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 12:36 am

Mrs. 'Om wants a PC to play her stuff on, so I told her she can have mine since I was going to start building a new one anyway. Checked out r/buildapcforme and this balanced option they have pinned looks nice: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Photonman1/saved/Py42kL

Anyone else build a new rig recently?

I built a new gaming computer toward the end of last year, but it's at a much higher price point than I think you would want to pay. Specs in this post here.

I'd second a water cooler. I bought the Deepcool LT720 water cooler, which has a three-fan 360mm radiator, but their two-fan 240mm costs less than the one mentioned above by NTP66. I've had zero problems with it. The Monarch Air case would fit a radiator, if that's the case you want to use. The Ryzen 5 7600 is a 65W processor, so it would do fine with a 240mm cooler.

Postby **Shyster** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 12:56 am

I also decided to recently upgrade my Linux machine. The Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 case has mounting spots both for a full-size ATX mobo and for a mini-ITX. My Linux machine is now a Minisforum BD770i mini-ITX that uses an integrated laptop AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX (8C/16T). I put in 64GB of memory, and that computer doesn't do any gaming or anything really all that demanding, so I expect it to last for years. Power comes from an external power brick feeding a HDPLEX DC-ATX power supply. The motherboard has an integrated air cooler, and I have a Noctua 120mm fan sitting on top.

Postby **faftorial** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 1:29 am

I also decided to recently upgrade my Linux machine. The Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 case has mounting spots both for a full-size ATX mobo and for a mini-ITX. My Linux machine is now a Minisforum BD770i mini-ITX that uses an integrated laptop AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX (8C/16T). I put in 64GB of memory, and that computer doesn't do any gaming or anything really all that demanding, so I expect it to last for years. Power comes from an external power brick feeding a HDPLEX DC-ATX power supply. The motherboard has an integrated air cooler, and I have a Noctua 120mm fan sitting on top.

What are you doing on that beast that requires such high horsepower?

Postby **Shyster** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 2:36 am

What are you doing on that beast that requires such high horsepower?

Ha, nothing. I know it's currently way overpowered and over-memoried, but I did that with the hope that I wouldn't need to touch that hardware again for many years. Plus, that laptop CPU has a lower TDP than desktop chips that AMD will actually sell to consumers, and it's set up to run at very low power when not under stress, which I thought was a good thing for a computer I basically leave on 24/7. If AMD would actually sell the "GE" low-power Ryzens with integrated graphics to anyone other than OEMs, I would have gone with one of those and a mini-ITX mobo, but it's been a peeve of mine for years that those are basically unobtanium unless you buy a prebuilt computer.

The Minisforum BD770i was right around $400, which was price competitive with buying a mobo, CPU, and air cooler separately. For another $100, Minisforum also offers the same board with a 16C/32T Ryzen 9 7945HX. I certainly didn't need that.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 9:57 am

Hmm, water cooling has always scared me because of the humidity here...and my fear I would **** something up during the install.

I don't overclock, and the Peerless Assassin 120 keeps my 7600x at 60-65 c at full load (and BF 2042 is a very CPU intensive game). It isn't even loud, probably because I have the fan ramped up on the 5700XT and I can't hear it.

Maybe for the rebuild I'll look at an AIO. I would really like to liquid cool a GPU because that's the noise maker in my setup.

Postby **NTP66** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 10:37 am

Don't let it scare you away, air cooling is for clowns these days. My water cooler setup is dead silent, and even when the fans kick on during high CPU operations, it's still quieter than a traditional fan setup.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 11:42 am

You really do have some definite opinions on things, NTP.

Postby **NTP66** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 11:45 am

Hey, this is my area of passion, just trying to point you in the direction away from clowniness.

Postby **Shyster** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 11:59 pm

I remain both surprised and annoyed that water-cooled video cards aren't really a thing yet. There are some cards out there with water blocks, but most of the ones I've seen are set up with connectors only such that you have to run your own custom pump and radiator. And the handful that are set up with AIO water-cooling setups are stupidly expensive.

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Apr 29, 2024 8:59 am

I managed to track down two more wireless devices in my house so that I could update the entries in my router. There are still three devices that I have absolutely no **** clue what they are, and their MACs give nothing away. I am gone room by room to inventory wireless devices yet cannot find these. I may just block them in the router and wait for an issue/error to pop up.

Postby **NTP66** » Mon Apr 29, 2024 9:52 am

Found one, our EcoQube radon detector. The other two devices are offline, so I'm assuming that they're phones from my daughter's friends.