Alright, we’re packing it up. It’s done. Well, mostly.
That’s a lot of screen real estate…
Final spec as per below:
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X w/ Noctua NH-D15
64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM
MSI MPG B550 Gaming Carbon WiFi motherboard
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD x2
Western Digital Blue 4TB SATA SSD
Zotac AMP Holo RTX 3080
So yes, we swapped the B450 board for the B550 variant. It was a few dollars more, and I didn’t realize when buying it I wasn’t getting full speed out of my NVMe drives. With both slots now supporting at least PCIe 3.0, I’m getting within spec reads and writes on the second drive. There’s some other nice stuff like support for front panel USB-C, the option to turn off RGB directly on the board, and full access to the SATA ports even with NVMe drives connected. It should better support Zen 3 if I do decide to move over to that.
More brown and beige.
I’ve also gone ahead and added a few additional Noctua NF-A14 PWMs as bottom intakes, and managed to get a nice sized finished piece of MDF for the tower to sit on top of. This also let me re-invert the power supply to feed it cool air from the bottom. The 3080 is a very hot card and the more cool air I can provide to it the better. All fans run at 35% (About 500-550 RPM). When system temp jumps up past 40 degrees, the case fans will ramp up to 80% at 50 degrees with a .7 second ramp up time and 1 second ramp down time. 100% is at 60 degrees, which I think is pretty unlikely to be hit. This ensures the system is fed plenty of cool air when it’s under load, but otherwise maintains my desire for silence. It’s not as quiet as it was, but the TDP is definitely higher so that’s understandable.
I ran out of black zip ties so here we are with clear ones… Oh well, closed case.
The processor is a different story. Since single core loading can ramp up die temperature very quickly, I have the fan set to run constantly at 35% until it hits 65 degrees. It then will ramp up to 80% @ 75 degrees and 100% at 85 degrees. This keeps the noise level down when doing day-to-day things like browsing and videos and whatnot, while still ramping up when required. 65 degrees is not uncommon to see in quick bursts, but I really don’t want to hear the whir of the fan right away when I know the thermal mass of the D15 can take care of most of the heat.
Wide boi.
The U4919DW is absolutely massive. The size of the box alone is extremely large. From a real estate perspective it’s like having 2 27” 2560x1440 displays side by side, without the bezel in the middle. And yes, I could have had 2 4K displays for a bit cheaper, but this resolution will be easier to drive for games. A single mount is fairly attractive, and even after playing a few hours of games I can see how this is much more immersive than a single 4K display would be. The work laptop gets a single USB-C cable connected to it, which drives video and power. The desktop gets connected to Displayport. Mounting the display was a bit of a challenge, as I needed to purchase 40mm long M4 screws and nylon spacers to get it far enough off the wall to use my ScreenBar.
ScreenBar Plus - Pricey light, highly functional.
Finally, we have the ScreenBar Plus from BenQ. Out of focus in the background you’ll also notice the control knob. I keep it on auto most of the time, however there’s full control of the warmth and brightness from the knob. I gotta say, having a task light makes things considerably easier during the darker winter months.
So that’s about it other than a few small things. I have maybe 2-3 more small things to look at before calling it complete, but it’s highly functional as of now.
Longer USB-C cable for connecting the laptop - Included one is fairly short and makes powering on the laptop a bit of a pain.
Better routing for headphone cable - Considering an extender run from the back, anchored at the bottom of the desk between the two drawers.
Better WiFi antennas for the WiFi on the motherboard - Connectivity seems fine, but it could be better. There’s some options out there with a magnetic base that seem great.
Shelving above the monitor - I have a shelf I like for this but pandemic means no access to a hammer drill. Will wait on that for now.
Cable routing - This could be improved with a larger cable channel.
Bias lighting on the monitor - Researching solutions here. I really just need the light to be on when the monitor is on, so I may just go with a fairly cheap USB powered warm light strip and see what it’s like. The ports go unpowered when the monitor goes to sleep, so it should technically only be on when the computer is in use.
Speakers - This may just be a Bose Solo 5 mounted above the monitor. If we upgrade the living room TV we’re likely to replace the Solo 5 with something a bit beefier, so I can just take that.
Maybe better positioning for the magsafe charger? It’s fine for now.
Not bad, but definitely things for the new year. For now, I’m waiting on CyberPunk!