Ivanhoe Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Due to an improvement in personal finances, plus concerns over my current system aging in place, I have started acquiring the components for a new build. I tend to do a build about every 3-4 years. This will be my first foray into the world of Mini-ITX. Already dodged a bullet, in that the CPU/PSU clearance is purportedly 83mm, and the Ryzen 5 3400G stock cooler is 50mm high. So I ordered a slimline cooler made by Noctua, 37mm high, in the hopes that the fan gets enough inflow. Worst case scenario, I buy an AIO watercooler rig. Am still checking on DDR4. It looks like my mobo of choice (Gigabyte X570 AORUS) supports ECC, but for desktop memory, all specs seem to be foggy on this point. Sadly, I did not find a 35W AMD chip to my liking, thus the Ryzen. Best band/buck of the 65W designs AFAIK. While USB 3.1 Type C is the Wave Of The Future, not that many mobos support it on the back I/O panel yet. The above board has one C port. Not sure if a USB 3.1 Type A port used with a Type-C/Type-A adapter will maintain full 3.1 speed. My plan (and we all know what happens to plans) is to try Alpine Linux + VirtualBox as the host OS, and use various VMs (I have come up with 3 separate Mint VMs, plus Win10Pro). I may also do some back-alley skullduggery to "acquire" a Mac OSX license and installation ISO so I can create a MacOS VM to play with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Nice! Let us know how it goes. The 3400 is supposed to be a great processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregShaw Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Good luck, I've seen a number of videos on youtube about making 3400 based pc's that are good daily use and even passable low end gaming machines. After I finish my new NAS I'll make a Ryzen 7 based workstation, AMD processors are much more attractive than Intel for the first time since the Core architecture replaced the Pentium 4/D a decade ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 If you can swing it, this card looks good and the price is nice: https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-radeon-rx-570-11266-66-20g/p/N82E16814202363 Or this one for $130.00 https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-radeon-rx-570-100412p4gocl/p/N82E16814202283?&quicklink=true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregShaw Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 The 3400g has integrated graphics so he shouldn't need a graphics card,especially if he is going to be running multiple vms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 The 3400g has integrated graphics so he shouldn't need a graphics card,especially if he is going to be running multiple vms.True, I was thinking if he wanted to do some moderate gaming later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted February 10, 2020 Author Share Posted February 10, 2020 I don't game at all, so on-board video is more than enough. Even if I wanted to, I have about 6 certs I want to knock out this CY before delving into Call of Warcraft or whatever. For purely compute workloads, AMD has been winning for years, especially when bang/buck is considered. For floating-point benchmarks, the FX-4350 still holds it own. Especially single-thread performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregShaw Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 (edited) The 3400g has integrated graphics so he shouldn't need a graphics card,especially if he is going to be running multiple vms.True, I was thinking if he wanted to do some moderate gaming later on. The 3400g is decently capable of gaming as is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVkFKER6ps One of my standard channels for research before buying. I had the impression that cost was a factor, maybe power draw as well. If I'm incorrect the 570 or even a 470 would be good. Edited February 10, 2020 by GregShaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted February 10, 2020 Author Share Posted February 10, 2020 Not power draw, heat output. Its hot enough where I live. When I was using an FX-4300 system as my desktop, running it all day heated the room up measurably. Power should be handled by the new PSU (Seasonic 650W), given no PCIe card. And cost isn't a factor, IF the component gives me 3 years of service. I have a compute server in the early planning stages, so I am trying to not go overboard on the desktop to leave me some shekels for the compute server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregShaw Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Ahh, heat make sense. My den does get hot in the summer due to the number of electronics in the room, including my near 9 yr old I7 2700k overclocked to 4.8 gHz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 The 3400g has integrated graphics so he shouldn't need a graphics card,especially if he is going to be running multiple vms.True, I was thinking if he wanted to do some moderate gaming later on. The 3400g is decently capable of gaming as is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVkFKER6ps One of my standard channels for research before buying. I had the impression that cost was a factor, maybe power draw as well. If I'm incorrect the 570 or even a 470 would be good. Yeah, I have him bookmarked on YouTube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted February 12, 2020 Author Share Posted February 12, 2020 Well, good thing I waited on buying mobo. The bad guys have an exploit that replaces a legit Gigabyte driver with a hacked one which prevents anti-malware software from scanning. Probably wouldn't ever impact me, but Gigabyte's abysmal response takes them off the table. Now looking at an ASRock. Case, M.2 board, and Noctua low-profile cooler in hand. The Noctua looks top shelf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 Are you still looking at X570? MSI seems to have some solid offerings. I tend to ASUS though after my first X370 Gigabyte board bricked, and Gigabyte tech support is horrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted February 13, 2020 Author Share Posted February 13, 2020 The mobo thing is killing me. The X570 chipset supports the 3400G CPU, but lotsa problems from all makers. X470 supports, after a BIOS flash. But can't POST with old BIOS version and new chip; chicken/egg. Likewise X450. ASRock makes a nice (expensive) X570 board, but it only supports an Intel LGA1151 cooler. On an AMD socket. Yes, you read that right. I am now realizing that putting a performance Ryzen in a mini-ITX case is a seriously uphill slog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anixtu Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 I built my first new desktop in about 15 years, mini-ITX with an i5 9600k and an RTX 2060 Super. Ambient temperature here though is usually around 20°C. What case are you planning to use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted February 26, 2020 Author Share Posted February 26, 2020 Cooler Master MasterCase H100 Mini-ITX PC case. update; the Ryzen 5 3400G is out of stock pretty much on Planet Earth, so I just ordered a Ryzen 3 3200G. About 20% slower, 50% cheaper. For what I'll be doing with my desktop, should be fine. Price differential will be going towards my future compute server (probably a Ryzen 7 or 9 octa-core). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anixtu Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 That's a relatively spacious ITX case at 17.6 litres. I built in a Sliger SM550 under 10L - my key criterion was that if possible the case should fit in an IKEA Kallax shelf, with adequate clearance. I found the most challenging issue was mechanical fit of the components and cables whilst maximising cooling - bad experience with hot PCs in the past. For my setup in the chosen case it required one of the lowest profile high performance coolers (95W+ TDP, <55mm), with VLP RAM and it's all quite tight. If I was to start again I'd be very tempted to go with a Lazer3D LZ7 case instead of the Sliger and fit a larger Noctua cooler, avoiding the need for VLP RAM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted February 27, 2020 Author Share Posted February 27, 2020 I can barely imagine running a 95W CPU in a case half the size of the CM. There are some very good mobile processors these days, with TDP of less than 50W, but I have no idea how one would work that into a micro desktop case. Amazon claims delivery of the Ryzen tomorrow night. Currently, the Ryzen 7 3700X appears to be where I want, for my compute server. Only 65W, 23841 CPUmarks on cpubenchmark.net. 2906 on single-thread. Initial build will probably use ESXi so I can run Cisco's VIRL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 I love my 65w 1700 ryzen 8/16 at home. It is almost more computer than I need. If I was getting the 3rd Gen Ryzen I would opt for the 3700x which is the 3rd gen version of my processor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted March 1, 2020 Author Share Posted March 1, 2020 Partial update; got the CPU, put CPU, cooler, and RAM on the mobo. Unfortunately, the mobo's bottom plate interferes with one of the locking tabs for the side panel, so... scheduling a run to Home Depot for a Dremel tool... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 Partial update; got the CPU, put CPU, cooler, and RAM on the mobo. Unfortunately, the mobo's bottom plate interferes with one of the locking tabs for the side panel, so... scheduling a run to Home Depot for a Dremel tool...That sucks. Watch the Jayztwocents videos on case modding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanhoe Posted March 6, 2020 Author Share Posted March 6, 2020 Got the Dremel tool, did the requisite dremeling, did a partial assembly (no drives aside from the M.2). Passed the smoke test. I put in a bootable thumb drive with the ClearOS installer, got to the "choose your language" screen. Of course, as with all Linux installers, the early dmesg output squawked about rape, murder, and various other errors. I guess I need to read the directions on the RGB controller for the front case fan; the button on the controller dongle had no discernible logic. Next step is to try to parse the case instruction sheet and attempt to mount 3 drive innit. Not at all obvious. Cable management is going to be beyond my mediocre skills, I gotta get one of my former students to take a look. I probably need to get a few cable extenders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 Ok, best of luck at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregShaw Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 (edited) Finally got my I7 8700 assembled, stupid thing won't boot. Fan on the CPU cooler (Scythe Mugen 5) spins up but nothing else seems to power on. Got a 4x fan splitter running from the single MB header to all other fans, but none of them spin up. Everything seems to be plugged in, but black cables in a black case are not a good combo for 53 yr old eyes. Edited March 9, 2020 by GregShaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 Could it be pulling too much current from the mobo on the 4x? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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