End of Year PC Build

Dude's on vacation, lol. Comes back when I go on vacation. So no news about this until the second week of September at the earliest. Until then!

So...

Fractal Design Define 7 XL IS REALLY HUGE AND HEAVY. I almost broke my lower back lifting it, dammit.
There it sits, I cannot start operating on it yet. Have to wait until next week when I'm back from north. Then its super intensive installing.
I now have Win 11 Pro, I'll use GPO's to disable Defender and Windows Update. Before that I have to make sure the builders updated BIOS and then use rufus or NTLite (or similar) to make Win11Pro installation image for USB stick.

Before installing though, I have to disable licenses of all my pro audio software on the old machine, download the installation packages of latest versions and... OH MY ITS SO MUCH WORK!

Sorry for rant, I'm just preparing here. I calculated from my VST directory I have around 100 installation packages to run...

Well it looks something I would not personally want, as I rather take mostly closed case. But, that looks quite awesome and HUGE. Then again its very flashy, I take just utilitarian approach to the case

Simplistic and basic. I like it. Though for my build I needed something with a bit more air flow -no liquid for me. So I got the following way back when building phase was starting...
What you think about this out of stock case:

OMG is huge. Thats the largest noctua sitting on top of R7950X and you could put two motherboards there into the case

You have an excellent taste in cases, my friend.

The case is the Rosewill Thor V2. Currently its out of stock everywhere. Though I think its actually a discontinued case line. Shame since its the best thing I found that with elbow grease can have fans in the bottom, front, top and side. Now sure its heavy too but you know me: I like to lay computers flat so fans on the side become the top and are a must to accelerate CPU cooling while not using water. Ironic due to the flooding we are now getting here... snow can't come fast enough to allow me to take care of the leaks so I get the new system built.

The Cooler Master cases are not nearly as big as this I believe. Probably stopping short of the top of the side X vent of the THOR V2. That being said I still don't understand the popular opinion of glass side panels -since all they do is hurt performance. Maybe its just me but efficiency in performance matters more than looking nice. Not to say the Cooler Master cases don't do a good job for their intended purpose but in my opinion anything with glass will loose some performance. Maybe I should just follow Jayz example and make it a testbench system but that kind of defeats the purpose of keeping dust out... or just go water cooling... NO! NEVER! 

That is why this old setup -yes still that AMD 8370 FX and Noctua D-14 cools so well: CPU sits around 20C*idle and if pushed can reach about 45*C in say Cinebench but no matter what it never goes over that and the GPU sits around 30C* Idle and again if using Metro Exodus can approach 60C*.

Though its probably more along the lines of combining air cooling methods. I use a Push, Pull, Pull on the D14 -yes I have a fan zip tied to the back of the D14 making it a 3 fan cooler. All three fans pulling to the exit fan. However it doesn't stop there for I also have a fan on top of the D14 blowing air down into it.

The GPU fans died long time back so put 2 120 Noctua 12x25 or whatever they are called... the slider spidery fans they make on the GPU shroud instead. If I did not do this I am sure I would have temperatures exceeding the 60*C and that is something I really never do.

Longevity of components decreases the higher the temperatures go and even more so under sustained use -its basic physics. AMD and INTEL claiming otherwise is not caring about longevity and just trying to sell to the masses. In my opinion computers should last 10 to 20 years. Anything less is being inefficient.

This system is nearing 8 years active I believe and still will handle any and every game I do however if I have to turn down terrain or graphics to get the game to run smooth that is fine for me with the 970. Certain programs may require some more creative or patience to get working on this older hardware but again I am not all the bells and whistles. The system that lays disassembled waiting to be built when the rain stops and snows everything is so tempting to be built but I will resist the temptations. 

So, started my new machine. It started. Nice. No fans can be heard to outside, its even more silent than this old one.
I noticed memory was on EXPO 1 mode, have no idea yet whats that. Disabled bluetooth, wifi, serialports etc. and saved configuration.
Shut it down.

I think I need to make a real plan how to go forward from this moment onwards now. The thing that complicates whole process is our latest track as it needs to be in good form before we send it to the trumpetist, so I'm basically waiting it to land on my table, and maybe after that the download/update/install/disable can start.

But wait, yes I am waiting -- for the audiocard to arrive from germany. Before it is installed, no install can start anyway.

No. There is a realtek chip on the motherboard but its now disabled from BIOS too.
I am waiting for RME HDSPe AiO Pro card. I seem to have hit into a place where the last card left Thomann just before I ordered
Also the thing is, hardware is needed to be together before I can start to install Pace Locked audio software, basically this system checks what hardware you have and writes it as the key. If the hardware changes, the key is not compatible anymore and you'll have to re-authorize the plugins. I want to avoid this and put everything in before install starts.

I do remember PC audio cards since AdLib

I'm sorry, but I don't have a clue.
That's good advice.
EK D5 pumps have a MTBF of 5,5 years, but YMMV of course. That said, it would require going all in, and building a custom loop.
My two cents? I would undervolt first. Get someone capable to do it, so you won't run into problems,

It's not complicated, in fact, I'm sure there are several videos on YT that explain how it's done. I just don't remember how well-versed you are in all things BIOS. Some pointers:

1. Learn the basics, understand what you trying to achieve.
2. Find out what can go wrong, and what to do if something does go awry.
3. Check what kind of results to expect from your motherboard specifically.

I can probably answer some questions next weekend, but I'm most likely busy on weekdays.