I built my first ever PC in my mid 40's and now I'm dreaming about optimal fan placement for cooling. What have i done?
Posted by Mico4@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 33 comments
It's actually ended up being a great little PC. 200+ FPS on 1440p with CPU temps in the 60s and GPU hotspot around 70 degrees during heavy work. The CPU surprised me (my mates all said it wasn't a great choice) as i have been able to OC it to a stable 5,025Mhz.
Asus Dual OC 7800 XT
Ryzen 7 8700f
Asus Tuf B650m
Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32gb 6000Mhz CL30
1tb M.2 SSD
DeeCool ATX 3.1 850w Gold PSU
Lian Li Galahad Lite 240 AIO cooler
Jonsplus Z20 case
And various fans now in optimal placement haha.
Clear_Ranger498@reddit
Kinda curious why the 8700f?
Mico4@reddit (OP)
It was cheap, and i watched a few vids saying how responsive it was to overclocking and i assume future games might start needing more than just good single core performance. It was an inexperienced choice but has been rock solid so far.
SpaceCadet2000@reddit
Btw for anyone else considering this CPU instead of a regular zen 4 or zen 5 chip: don't.
Compared to a regular AM5 chip (7700 for example), the 8700f has only half the cache, significantly lower boost clocks, and no PCIE 5.0 support. It's "overclockability" does not make up for this.
Mico4@reddit (OP)
What does that mean to gaming and productivity performance?
SpaceCadet2000@reddit
You will get less of it.
Typically, gaming CPU performance is related to the amount of cache you have, though this varies strongly per game. This sensitivity to cache is why the x3d chips with extra cache exist.
Productivity performance is +- linearly tied to clockspeed, though can benefit from more cache too. You mentioned that you "overclocked" to 5025MHz, but a regular zen4/5 chip will already do 5200-5300MHz without breaking a sweat.
In practice, your CPU's performance will be somewhere in between zen3 and zen4.
As for PCIE 5.0, that has less of an immediate impact, specifically since your specific motherboard doesn't use PCIE 5.0 for the GPU slot anyway. So for you it just means that you can't take advantage of using a gen5 nvme drive in the gen5 nvme slot on your motherboard. That said, currently there's as good as no real world benefit to using gen5 drives. Most people (me included) just use gen4 drives, even if their system is gen5 capable.
Mico4@reddit (OP)
BTW i just bought a 7700 thanks to you haha. Well actually it was only US$130 so it was silly not to.
SpaceCadet2000@reddit
That's an excellent price for it.
Mico4@reddit (OP)
Make sense! Thanks for taking the time to explain it.
Clear_Ranger498@reddit
Fair enough, I was thinking of getting it myself but decided on the 7700 (from Alixpress for my first build), it was either that or the 7500f.
Also isn’t the asus mobo got mediocre VRMs?
Emblazoned1@reddit
Same here. I'm very happy with my setup now but man did I go down a rabbit hole. First it was okay I need a few fans but no rgb.........okay maybe a couple rgb fans in front.......okay cpu cooler should have rgb too.......well screw it everything needs to match right.....RIGHT?!?
tbdy500_2011@reddit
Congrats! I just built my first PC (in a looong time, like 20 years) with my son, definitely got the itch to do SO MUCH MORE - cool to see another Jonsplus Z20 case out there as well. That's what we used and it's such a well thought out case and size!
_SeeDLinG_32@reddit
7800xt is such an underrated card. I have one too and it rips. Cheers mate!
Mico4@reddit (OP)
agree mate, I'm new to all this but it seems to outperform a lot of the cards that are incessantly discussed on here.
_SeeDLinG_32@reddit
Totally, I see so many "this GPU vs that GPU" posts and the 7800xt is just in the background keeping up with a 4070 for $500 USD.
Burgeru4brainu@reddit
I have a Ryzen 7 9800x3d with 4070super gaming OC, and I get the same temps, with 300-400frames with maxed out graphics on fragpunk(newer game), Ryzen cards are absolute beasts.
SolomonG@reddit
Ryzen... cards?
Psychological-Part1@reddit
4070 super is nvidia tho lol
PhotoProxima@reddit
SAME!
Scarabesque@reddit
Your friends were correct, the 8700F is a suboptimal choice for a gaming PC as it has half the L3 cache (16mb) as a regular AM5 CPU (32mb). Cache aids greatly in gaming performance (it's why the X3D chips are so monstrously powerful).
Not that it's terrible, but a 7500F/7600(X)/9600X would have been better choices.
Proper_Bit101@reddit
How is the current performance of 7500F?
Sweaty-Ad-7103@reddit
I also want to know🙋
Rozy_666@reddit
CONGRATS! Same here i just ordered the parts of my pc and am waiting for delivery. Finally able to build one at 33 years old. The feeling of saving and scraping every loose penny and extra cash you have for years to finally be able to build one, without getting in the way of your financial responsibility is a feeling on a totally different level. Happy for you.
Vibrant_Sounds@reddit
Same age, exact same situation. Been wanting a gaming computer ever since I was in highschool. Ordered the parts last weekend, and now just waiting (very) impatiently, haha.
Mico4@reddit (OP)
Thanks mate! At the moment around 21 degrees (Celsius).
ZeroTugs@reddit
Same thing for me, 43 and built my first PC a month ago. Got carried away with grabbing extra things and now I can build a second PC minus a GPU. I have extra fans, extension cables, cpu coolers and also have tools/parts to make custom PSU cables on their way. Not to mention the 3D printer Im getting to make custom parts.
Im already addicted to my motorcycle, now Im having to spread my funds on another hobby.
Mico4@reddit (OP)
haha custom cabling was a pain in the arse but very satisfying (and much needed with a giant ATX PSU in a 20L case)
Jeep-Eep@reddit
I too have been kicking myself about fans, in this case deals on the legendary eLoop X.
Electronic_Advisor64@reddit
Congrats, I can relate. I just built my second PC a few months ago. I also went I little fan crazy. I opted to place my cooler along the top which I know loses a little efficiency. I did this because I was trying to minimize the RGB and the AIO fans can light the majority of the guts. I have a fish case with one 14mm outtake above the ISO panel. Then, I have 3 intakes in the bottom and 3 intakes in the back panel. Including the 3 AIO fans I ended up with 10. I would say this is still overkill for most builds. This is double what I put in my first build and in 6 years my CPU never overheated and I gave it to my brother who still uses it for modern gaming.
Burgeru4brainu@reddit
Isn’t mounting the AIO on top the best way to go about it.
Mico4@reddit (OP)
Yeah i have the AIO at the top venting, and Arctic P12 Max intake at the rear, and 2 Arctic P14 max bottom intakes. Very overkill for a 20L case.
Ill-Branch9770@reddit
You'll be dreaming: https://youtu.be/C3GKe7eXbPE?si=4eb-XCrZIX0eWTcN
Mico4@reddit (OP)
Haha that was a great watch. thankyou
Mja8b9@reddit
One of us, one of us, one of us...