Please note: This is the script from my video, press play above to watch or click here for things to make more sense.
So I’ve basically removed everything in the PC. Because there are quite a few changes that I want to make. The first one being, I do not like the AverMedia capture card in the case and also if I use two PCI-e slots you only get x8 on the main graphics card. The top one. Because of the motherboard.
So x8 and x16 should not really make a difference. There are plenty of videos out there that talk that talk about this but to be honest I only need x4 for the capture card and also the cable is smaller and I can run it out the back and then that way it does not affect temperatures of the GPU.
So we are just going to uncluck this. We are just going to unclick this this little baby. There we go. Lovely
We will put in the x8, which comes in a lovely static, anti-static, bag, You do not want a static bag. Hulk impression. And here we are, much smaller, much thinner, no jokes.
This obviously is for Mr Zotac 4090, which has been phenomenal. Video incoming. Just not had a got there yet. So what we are going to do, take off this little bit so it can plug in.
Yeah, we will print something that can just hold it outside the case so that makes it easier to connect the stuff to the Xbox Series X so that is a good thing. That is now hanging out the back. No jokes. Jeez, Ben.
This is the 12WVPWR cable, whatever it is, I always forget the name. That converts two into one, basically. For the RTX 4090 and it has worked phenomenally but I do check that it is seated properly for obvious reasons.
We have this little rubber grommet thing here which has come loose and you cannot get your hands down here unless you have paper fingers. We will just fix that. It is very dusty, but we will blow my PC in a bit.
Now, I also put this back on. Not as pretty. Got the fan cables from the lovely industrial iPPC Noctuas, 3,000rpm for the win, and one singular Corsair.
I will try some different brands. You have the Phanteks T30, which is 120mm but 30mm in depth and that is a very powerful fan. Maybe some other ones here and there, not entirely sure, but for now we will keep it as is.
Running this fan wire there. I will probably put some sort of shroud on to hide this bit, make it pretty. Not that you will see it easily when the dark glass is on the and the graphics card is coming up to about here, I guess you could feed it a bit lower but that is fine for now.
We also need to fit this lovely Western Digital Black SN850X. I did look at the Samsung Evo 990, which is faster generally for video editing and that kind of stuff. But for gaming, this actually seems to win. The one I have got is the Evo 960, however this has a maximum of 7,300MB/S so this will be much faster.
It is also two terabytes so I do not have to keep uninstalling and reinstalling games every thirty seconds to make videos so that is a big plus. The four terabyte one was £350 which is a lot but for one or two terabytes these are dropping a lot.
Unless of course you want Gen 5, which are hundreds, but to be honest I am not sure it is worth it yet.
Now the M2 lives under here, under this little cooling area and there is another M2 down here. So what I am going to do is put the new one [SN850X] in the secondary slot so that allows me to then copy over what is here to here.
Of course, that will be annoying because I will then have to swap these around and take everything out so what we are going to try and do is a temporary setup to run the PC while I faff with this, clone it then I will do a fresh install because it just generally would be nicer and better for the system.
And these days you can do it without losing all your files. Easy, not a problem, done it before, all good. RAM is all seated fine.
Now, of course, the other modification is we need to put in the new CPU cooler. Despite being a smaller case, the fact I can push it away from the glass side one or two inches meant that temperatres have been good so far. I think the maximum I had seen was 80 Celsius but in general use the GPU running SnowRunner maxed out 4K was 50 degrees Celsius, which is nothing. The 3080 was much higher than that and not doing as good a job. Lower settings.
The CPU, the max I have seen is 74/75 Celsius which is not bad because the 5950X is a bit of a beast. To be fair, this is a 240mm AIO. The 240mm referring to the two 120mm fans. 280 is two 140mm. 360 is three 120mm and 420 is three 140mm.
But the one I have bought, show and tell time. Just until I upgrade later we have the lovely DeepCool LT720, which is a triple-fan beast. This should help keep everything super frosty. It is a mid-ATX case, a mid-sized ATX so I am not trying to cram stuff into an ITX or MATX.
This is a pretty large case really. When you see people running their Corsair, Phanteks, NZXT, some of those only do the double fan. This is the triple.
You can do a triple both ways. You could actually probably get a 420mm [radiator] down here if you really wanted to but 100 per cent a 360mm. It would be a bit close actually, not much clearance down here, but you can actually move the fans up and down a bit.
So the riser Gen 4 cable has not been a problem at all. Worked really, really well. Now we just need to get into the M2 slots. I think every PC owner needs some sort of toolbox kit. I think iFixit does a good one.
This, ‘olrike’, anyway whatever. I use this one for general DIY so despite the fact bits of it seem to come apart… I don’t know what that substance was. It is actually a phenomenal bit of kit.
If you faff with a PC. Honestly get yourself some sort of proper. I keep leaning on things… Some sort of proper tool set.
And it has a picture and name for all of them so if things tell you to use something specific you can and it is easy. The SN850X is cheaper, or not much more, about £13 different, if you want the cooler heatsink on top.
Which I did not bother with as I have metal on top and it is probably not an issue and the fans are blowing cool air from here. But if you wanted the heatsink and your motherboard allows you to then that is an option.
I need to be careful as that will drop the screw into the hole of death, AKA my wire management. Actually, it has a failsafe so they do not come out all the way. Oh Asus, ASUS, smart. That feels so cold, like that actually feels like it does something.
It has got the thermal pad. Interestingly, because I have never used this it still has this thing on which to be honest I will leave on in the short-term because I want to swap them and it will stick to the new SSD and I will have to swap and blah, blah, blah.
Now I may get some of the Phanteks Halo Digital Lux RGB things. Basically, it is just a mount that goes over the top of your fans so you can have RGB on non-RGB fans. So I might jazz up the back fan and these two. Maybe get a third fan so I can get rid of the Corsair.
I have got the Corsair light strips to be fair so I guess I will have to keep it in. Generally, these do not have RGB. This will be done by the cooler itself. Another RGB/fan controller is goi8ng to go in. Yay, more wiring.
So we are now going to see what is behind door number one. I mean I know what is behind because I put it there. Plot twist, I have left the cover on this one for thermal pads. Wouldn’t that be sensible. I mean, the thing has always run ice cold according to HWInfo so I guess not. We are going to find out.
Not so easy to do this when you are trying to see the PC at home and I can only see half of it with one of my eyes so that is fun. As you can see, but of a squish on the thermal pad. However, it did come off without too much pain so we are good to go for Mr WD SN850X. I need bigger nails for this. Satisfying. Thermal pad action, phwoar. I should probably sensor that.
So here we go, here is probably one of the world’s smallest items [car beep] but one of the most expensive. Yeah, that is actually the right screw and it is in the right location.
You do not tend get the screw with the SSD, it is normally in the motherboard pack. So if you cannot find it, that is annoying. Dig it out, probably in the motherboard instruction pouch thing.
Always worth keeping. In fact, when I got my power supply unit. Corsair RM850i… Now there is the X and I think there are three versions. But you get this pouch, which I showed in my last video and you can cram it with everything.
Anytime you buy something, keep it in the little bags, keep it in there and things do not get lose. Life is much easier.
I am going to swap them around. This is a more intense job if you only have [one M2 slot]. Get that little click and you know things went well. It will not go any further so do not try.
Now if you do get a screwdriver set, one with a slightly magnetic end is nice. This would probably be easier if I was using a star head but I am stubborn so we will make this work. Would have been done by now, not going to lie.
So that was a good system, hold that up with one hand and the same hand and then there and then. Yep, we are going to swap to a star head. Not going as well as I had hoped. You know when something would make your life easier but you just do not do it. We are weird aren’t we, humans, not going to lie.
Try to remember which is which, so the one with the colour. Ooops, do not get your fingers on the thermal pad like I just did. It is a lower risk item, let us be fair, so who cares. I feel like I am going to pop my shoulder out at this angle.
Out you come Mr Riser. Should have done that in the first place but apparently I like to make my life difficult because I am an idiot. So whatever. Do not need to do that up too tight, just enough to create pressure.
A bit of mess there. So what we will do is use some software to clone the old to new as previously said. That was much less painful than I thought it would be so… That is lovely. Both SSDs in, thermal pad can actually do its thing but there was nothing there before so irrelevant.
Now it is time to see if the DeepCool LT720 will actually fit. Obviously I did some measurements because only an idiot would buy something that does not fit in your case.
Wouldn’t that be a complete moron things to do. Fortunately, as everyone knows on the internet tape measures never lie… [Anguish.]
Now you get to watch me open a box, do not say I never bloody look after you. So here we go. Already dusty, it has actually been sitting here a week because I had life admin and other things to do.
So it is annoying because I wanted to play with the gaming PC but unfortunately I could not. Spoiler alert: I have already opened this, just to look. Just a cheeky gander at how ridiculous the thing is.
Now I am kind of worried about the length of the radiator, which is 402mm but I am also worried about the size of the cooler [block] that sits here., Because yeah that is a reasonable one but this is gigantic in comparison.
Could return it but I did not want to so we will make it work somehow. So you have got your triple fans. Three 120mm ones. These spin up to 2,350rpm or 2,500 or something like that. Higher than your average fan.
These have actually been adjusted a little bit for this particular cooler. Basically, the same as what you get on the LS series but the LT came more recently and I like the CPU cooler head which we will get to in a bit. Going to be noisy at full tilt but at lower RPM it should be nice and cool and quiet.
So here is your gigantic radiator. In comparison obviously with that it is significantly smaller. Now it comes with thermal paste pre0applied and a little plastic cover so you can actually try to see if things will fit before ruining the lovely neatness of the paste.
Seeing a flat grey object is not hugely exciting but not far off the description of this. You have some things you can move so you can neaten up the cables and of course the ridiculous CPU head.
Now in theory, let us see if this works, take this off. And this has a cable because it has got the RGB inside, Infinity Mirror. But what it allows me to do is just have a look to see whether it will fit.
So the CPU cooler should be fine, it is not actually too different and the RGB sits a bit above so if there are any clearance issues it should go over the top. I could take off some of those panels, you will not really see them.
But the radiator is rather long to the point where I will have to shift these fans here. Is that going to be a good plan?
Maybe not if I leave the front case on but if I take it off free flowing air so that will not be a problem at all so I think we will give this a go. This is very annoying if this does not fit because I then have to faff and put everything back.
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