2022 PC Build - StormBorn

Pile of parts. Everything arrived at almost the same time, except the GPU (video card) which I ordered from Hong Kong.

And here it is - the star of the show - the GPU! I was very lucky to even get one of these, they are sold out almost everywhere.

ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 V2 OC Edition 10GB GDDR6X PCI Express 4.0 x16 Video Card ROG-STRIX-RTX3080-O10G-V2-GAMING

The motherboard straight out of the box. I bought a good one because I want this PC to be upgradable for several years. I have always used MSI boards in the past, this is my first ASUS motherboard. This is a high-end board and I am very impressed with all the included heat sinks!

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII HERO

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) in place on the motherboard

Intel Core i9-11900K

The RAM (Random Access Memory)

CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 1.35V

RAM in place on the motherboard. I have 2 empty slots I can fill if I decide to upgrade but 64 GB is a LOT of RAM to start with! I doubt I’ll ever need more but you just never know - good to have the option.

My main hard drive - the one I will install Windows and my programs on, this is it in place on the motherboard before I screwed on the heat sink. The empty slot next to it (with the blue protective film) is where I thought I would install the second one but doing so disabled some STATA ports I needed so I ended up installing it in one of the other slots. The motheboard supports 4 NVME drives (M2 - solid state drives that attach directly to the motherboard for the fastest possible access - no cables.)

Western Digital SN850 1TB Gen 4

The empty case after I prepped it for my build which basically meant taking out everything I could to make room for everything I wanted to put in.

Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW

Motherboard installed in the case.

PSU (power supply) initial install - just to check for fit, this had to come in and out several times before I was finished.

Corsair CP-9020180-NA RMX Series RM850x 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

Back of case connections. This high-quality motherboard had them all preinstalled (instead of on a separate plate) which was very nice. The connections are much sturdier this way.

Just a shot of some front panel connections so that I could refer back if something wasn’t working - all was fine though.

Nice of Asus to include this right-angle connector, it was necessary to get that angle.

Just more connections.

The pump for the liquid cooled radiator installed over the CPU.

CORSAIR HYDRO SERIES H150i PRO RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler

The actual radiator and fans installed. You can just see the fins of the radiator behind the fans here, the big braided tubes transport cooling liquid to and from the pump and the radiator.

Fans in the top of the case.

Fans in the front of the case.

Radiator and front fans.

All fans blow air into the case. The fan at the back is for exhaust which I will connect to a through-wall duct fan to suck the heat out of the case and out of the room. This may seem like overkill but I had a lot of problems with excess heat in my room with my previous build. The fans run on an AI that controls when they come on and how hard they work, so when the machine isn’t working to hard they are very low and quiet but they have the ability to push a LOT of air if required.

I bought this custom cable kit after the build was complete because the stock cables that came with the PSU were way too short for the size of the case and the 3 8-pin cables the huge video card required were stretched and at a very extreme angle where they connected to the GPU. Everything worked but I knew that over time with heat they would fail so I decided to just get proper cables so I would have peace of mind that the system would last as long as I needed it to. I wanted plain black ones but I was lucky to get these at all - sold out almost everywhere. These arrived from China and smelled like they were manufactured the same day they were shipped. Stinky!

These are the new cables installed. You can just see the 3 Solid State SATA drives installed below the cables here. I had a heck of a time getting them all working before I realized that one of my SATA ports was disabled because of where I installed one of the M2 drives (the ones that connect to the motherboard). But once I moved that second M2 all was fine.

I really wanted to do more with cable management (above) but this was the only way I could get everything in and connected properly and still be able to close the door on the case. This is a pretty big case but if I knew what I know now I would have gone even bigger. You can see the back of the radiator here down the left side. The fans are installed on the other side of the radiator.

Everything installed, hooked up and ready to go! I totally underestimated the size of the GPU, it is enormous!

Jan 30, 2022 - I am finally ready to call it finished. Here it is in place and running. I turned off all the RGB lighting effects (fans, motherboard, GPU, radiator pump) because it’s just not me. I am more than pleased with this build, it is so much faster and more powerful than my previous build and it has really sped up my productivity in my work quite noticeably.

I would not say it was a smooth build. I went with a different brand of motherboard that had significant differences. It was my first time working with a liquid cooled radiator. I underestimated the power cable requirements of that huge video card. I had never come across ports being disabled when an M2 drive is installed in a certain spot (spent a full week trying to get all my SATA drives working because of that). I installed Windows 11, which I hadn’t used before. I orignally named it StormBorn because it was build during the worst storm of the winter but considering the issues I had with the build, it’s aptly named. However, now that everything is done and it’s working, I am absolutely in love with it. Thank you to my wonderful, amazing Dad for helping me financially to make this happen!

PARTS LIST

CASE
Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW

MOTHERBOARD
ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII HERO

PSU
Corsair CP-9020180-NA RMX Series RM850x 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply

PSU Cables
Corsair CP-8920228 Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cables Pro Kit

CPU
Intel Core i9-11900K

COOLER
CORSAIR HYDRO SERIES H150i PRO RGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler

RAM
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 64GB (2 x 32GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 1.35V

GPU
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 V2 OC Edition 10GB GDDR6X PCI Express 4.0 x16 Video Card ROG-STRIX-RTX3080-O10G-V2-GAMING

EXTRA FANS
6 x Corsair ML120 120mm PWM Magnetic Levitation Fan (CO-9050049-WW)

SSD DRIVE
2 - SAMSUNG 870 QVO Series 2.5" 4TB SATA III V-NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
1 - 250 GB SSD (moved over from previous build)

M2 DRIVE
Western Digital SN850 1TB Gen 4 (main drive with Windows & programs)
Samsung 860 EVO M.2 1TB Internal SSD (moved over from previous build)

USB EXPANSION CARD
Rivo PCI Express Riser USB 3.0 Card 5-Port PCI Extender Card

SPEAKERS
Logitech Z625 Powerful THX Sound 2.1