Ended up getting the gen 3 version of WD_Black SN750 NVMe 2TB. The gen 4 is out of stock until another week and I purposely booked leave from work for next monday and tuesday to build it up. Besides, there was a 70 euro difference between the two and from research I did, for gaming it won't be noticeable.
In the future, I'll get a gen 4 if the 2TB i'm getting starts filling up.
I would say, watch which slot you install them in. Some motherboards, B550's in particular, only have 1 Gen 4 NVMe slot. It would be a pain in the rear to have your system all up and running, then need to swap your drives around, as I don't think the Windows bootloader handles that very gracefully.
You can run a Gen 4 in a Gen 3 slot, but you won't get the Gen 4 speed increase.
Yes, will totally check to ensure I put the Gen 3 NVMe in the Gen 3 slot.
Depending on your motherboard, it might well be better to put the SSD into the Gen 4 slot. In some cases, it's PCI-E 4.0 x4 and PCI-E 3.0 x2 or something like that. The former can run at 3.0 x4 speeds, but the latter cannot. In some cases, a slower SSD slot will even be NVMe over SATA, not even PCI-E, and that's much slower.
I think all the 3 motherboards he linked earlier had at least PCI 3.0 x4 for the second M.2 slot.
But if I had only a single NVMe, I think I'd check how the cooling for both M.2 slots looks like. Then unless the slower slot has better cooling, I'd just place the single NVMe I have to fastest M.2 slot.
Ended up getting the gen 3 version of WD_Black SN750 NVMe 2TB. The gen 4 is out of stock until another week and I purposely booked leave from work for next monday and tuesday to build it up. Besides, there was a 70 euro difference between the two and from research I did, for gaming it won't be noticeable.
In the future, I'll get a gen 4 if the 2TB i'm getting starts filling up.
I would say, watch which slot you install them in. Some motherboards, B550's in particular, only have 1 Gen 4 NVMe slot. It would be a pain in the rear to have your system all up and running, then need to swap your drives around, as I don't think the Windows bootloader handles that very gracefully.
You can run a Gen 4 in a Gen 3 slot, but you won't get the Gen 4 speed increase.
Yes, will totally check to ensure I put the Gen 3 NVMe in the Gen 3 slot.
Depending on your motherboard, it might well be better to put the SSD into the Gen 4 slot. In some cases, it's PCI-E 4.0 x4 and PCI-E 3.0 x2 or something like that. The former can run at 3.0 x4 speeds, but the latter cannot. In some cases, a slower SSD slot will even be NVMe over SATA, not even PCI-E, and that's much slower.
I think all the 3 motherboards he linked earlier had at least PCI 3.0 x4 for the second M.2 slot.
But if I had only a single NVMe, I think I'd check how the cooling for both M.2 slots looks like. Then unless the slower slot has better cooling, I'd just place the single NVMe I have to fastest M.2 slot.
Even then, if it's a PCI-E 3.0 x4 connection to the chipset, that involves shared bandwidth between the CPU and chipset, so it might reduce your net bandwidth. The PCI-E 4.0 x4 connection has a dedicated connection to the CPU without having to share bandwidth elsewhere. That might make a difference or it might not, but unless you're planning on adding another 4.0 X4 SSD later, I'd use the 4.0 slot if the SSD can fit there nicely.
For the time being, I'm sticking to the Gen 3 NVMe. In the future? I might get a Gen 4 to increase space. This depends on how fast will my 2TB ssd fill up.
Till it won't give me issues when I inevitably get a Gen 4 NVMe, I see no problems with putting it on the latest generation.
If you put your new SSD into the PCI-E 4.0 slot, then get another, faster SSD later, you can move the then-old SSD into a different slot and put the new one into the PCI-E 4.0 slot.
Till it won't give me issues when I inevitably get a Gen 4 NVMe, I see no problems with putting it on the latest generation.
If you put your new SSD into the PCI-E 4.0 slot, then get another, faster SSD later, you can move the then-old SSD into a different slot and put the new one into the PCI-E 4.0 slot.
I'm assuming the boot order is the only setting I have to keep in mind when I switch them around right?
Till it won't give me issues when I inevitably get a Gen 4 NVMe, I see no problems with putting it on the latest generation.
If you put your new SSD into the PCI-E 4.0 slot, then get another, faster SSD later, you can move the then-old SSD into a different slot and put the new one into the PCI-E 4.0 slot.
I'm assuming the boot order is the only setting I have to keep in mind when I switch them around right?
To the extent that you even need to worry about the boot order, you'll be able to adjust that in the BIOS.
Till it won't give me issues when I inevitably get a Gen 4 NVMe, I see no problems with putting it on the latest generation.
If you put your new SSD into the PCI-E 4.0 slot, then get another, faster SSD later, you can move the then-old SSD into a different slot and put the new one into the PCI-E 4.0 slot.
I'm assuming the boot order is the only setting I have to keep in mind when I switch them around right?
To the extent that you even need to worry about the boot order, you'll be able to adjust that in the BIOS.
I would be needing to check on the boot order since I'll be installing the operating system on the Gen 3. If/when I get a Gen 4 NVMe, it will be exclusively for games.
Man, is this a major pain in the ass to build by myself. Anyway, I'm using an ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I motherboard and I am having some (major) struggles pinpointing where certain things need to be plugged.
This motherboard has 3 ports for fans, 1x CPU, 1x Chassis, 1x AIO pump. Since my cooling is purely air (noctua nh d-15), I am connecting this one to the CPU port. The rear and top fans of my Tower 100 case are the plugged into the rest. Will this be a problem? there's no other slots for them.
Based on manual the default speed for AIO pump is full speed.
Connecting like that would cause that one fan to run at full speed the whole time. But if you don't care about the noise generated, then there's no problems.
You might be able to change the fan speed for that AIO pump so that it won't be on full all the time from some settings. I didn't read the manual that far.
Based on manual the default speed for AIO pump is full speed.
Connecting like that would cause that one fan to run at full speed the whole time. But if you don't care about the noise generated, then there's no problems.
You might be able to change the fan speed for that AIO pump so that it won't be on full all the time from some settings. I didn't read the manual that far.
go to Advanced mode (not ''Advanced'' which is between AI Tweaker and Monitor), then I had to click on ''Monitor'' and scroll down to AIO PUMP Control. It was set as Disabled and I clicked and turned it into PWM Mode.
Then I went back to ''Qfan control'' and I was able to modify the AIO pump fan rotations!
So I just copied the same lines as the CPU and the Chassis fan.
Then I clicked apply (note that you HAVE to click all three dots of the line in order for the apply button to appear if you don't then the apply button will keep disabled)
And lo and behold the sound went down in an instant! It's whisper-quiet
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
A fan header on a motherboard, in general, will support up to 2A worth of fans - letting you use splitters on a header to run multiple fans from a single header. You will lose accurate RPM indication, but that isn't a huge deal for the most part.
Most fans are under 1/4 A each.
Apart from that, as Asm0deus says, it doesn't really matter which fan you plug into which header, as you can program them in the BIOS to do whatever.
And worse comes to worse, you can get external fan headers that plug into the power supply directly and bypass the motherboard that you can do whatever you want with.
go to Advanced mode (not ''Advanced'' which is between AI Tweaker and Monitor), then I had to click on ''Monitor'' and scroll down to AIO PUMP Control. It was set as Disabled and I clicked and turned it into PWM Mode.
Then I went back to ''Qfan control'' and I was able to modify the AIO pump fan rotations!
So I just copied the same lines as the CPU and the Chassis fan.
Then I clicked apply (note that you HAVE to click all three dots of the line in order for the apply button to appear if you don't then the apply button will keep disabled)
And lo and behold the sound went down in an instant! It's whisper-quiet
Thanks for the information.
Took me a long ass time to construct it. Man, there's no room to move in such small cases xD I will have to open it again later as the led near the power button are not turning on.
I'm 100% sure I plugged them in (like the rest) but we'll see.
Yeah SFF cases can be very challenging builds. They look nice, but man, it's hard to get your hands in there sometimes. I did a couple and then swore them off. Midtower for life here.
I still have an issue with the front panel power led not turning on. The motherboard manual didn't specify they needed to be in a specific order... Now, I have three options:
Strip everything (again) to adjust them.
Get a pair of tweezers + camera zoom and pray (and swear).
I still have an issue with the front panel power led not turning on. The motherboard manual didn't specify they needed to be in a specific order... Now, I have three options:
Strip everything (again) to adjust them.
Get a pair of tweezers + camera zoom and pray (and swear).
Fuck it, leave it as is.
Yup, LEDs have a specific polarity and they aren't always clearly marked. Swapping the wires will fix it, but - yeah... usually you can tell the computer is on because the fans n stuff are running, so, if it were me, it would be one of those things that might get fixed if I had to go in there for something else, otherwise... who else is gonna know.
This is the end result (minus the power led issue) of my first ever build: Overall, I think I did a good job at hiding cables. Hopefully someday GPU prices come to a reasonable level and I can get a new one. I'm not spending a month+ paycheck for 1 item.
Hi again people. So, this seems like a blasphemy on reddit, but I am thinking on getting 2 rgb fans with the possibility of a third one to fill the bottom portion of the case. As can be seen in my previous case display, the air cooler portion is quite dark compared to the rest. I want to make it a light show haha.
The intention is to replace the 140mm noctua fans with these rgb ones. Then I would replace the 120mm fans at the top and back of the case with these. If anyone has this air cooler, what would be your suggested fans?
Hi again people. So, this seems like a blasphemy on reddit, but I am thinking on getting 2 rgb fans with the possibility of a third one to fill the bottom portion of the case. As can be seen in my previous case display, the air cooler portion is quite dark compared to the rest. I want to make it a light show haha.
The intention is to replace the 140mm noctua fans with these rgb ones. Then I would replace the 120mm fans at the top and back of the case with these. If anyone has this air cooler, what would be your suggested fans?
Thanks
Replacing fans is pretty straight forward on anything really. There are three things to look out for:
In general, you want to get the same size. 120mm for 120mm, 140mm for 140mm, etc. That ensures the mounting holes for the new fan lines up with how the old one was installed. If you want to change sizes, you can, but you need to make sure the mounting holes are there for the new size.
Second, you want to match up the power connector. There are 2-wire fans (basic fans that usually only run at max speed), 3-wire fans (voltage-controlled speed), and 4-wire fans (PWM-controlled speed). You can get adapters to make the various kinds of fans work together, but it's always better to get it right out of the gate when you can.
And then third, with RGB, there are a few different standards there. Make sure whatever you are getting works with your controller. That one I can't be as much help on, I have installd it on a couple of computers, but I generally kept it to the same brand name to ensure it would work.
As a side note - Noctua makes some of the best case fans in the business. I wouldn't just throw those out. A potentially easier and more flexible option would be RGB strips to install in the case.
Comments
But if I had only a single NVMe, I think I'd check how the cooling for both M.2 slots looks like. Then unless the slower slot has better cooling, I'd just place the single NVMe I have to fastest M.2 slot.
Just for reference, this is the motherboard I got:
Man, is this a major pain in the ass to build by myself. Anyway, I'm using an ASUS ROG STRIX B550-I motherboard and I am having some (major) struggles pinpointing where certain things need to be plugged.
This motherboard has 3 ports for fans, 1x CPU, 1x Chassis, 1x AIO pump. Since my cooling is purely air (noctua nh d-15), I am connecting this one to the CPU port. The rear and top fans of my Tower 100 case are the plugged into the rest. Will this be a problem? there's no other slots for them.
Thanks!
Connecting like that would cause that one fan to run at full speed the whole time. But if you don't care about the noise generated, then there's no problems.
You might be able to change the fan speed for that AIO pump so that it won't be on full all the time from some settings. I didn't read the manual that far.
Then I went back to ''Qfan control'' and I was able to modify the AIO pump fan rotations!
So I just copied the same lines as the CPU and the Chassis fan.
Then I clicked apply (note that you HAVE to click all three dots of the line in order for the apply button to appear if you don't then the apply button will keep disabled)
And lo and behold the sound went down in an instant! It's whisper-quiet
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Most fans are under 1/4 A each.
Apart from that, as Asm0deus says, it doesn't really matter which fan you plug into which header, as you can program them in the BIOS to do whatever.
And worse comes to worse, you can get external fan headers that plug into the power supply directly and bypass the motherboard that you can do whatever you want with.
Took me a long ass time to construct it. Man, there's no room to move in such small cases xD I will have to open it again later as the led near the power button are not turning on.
I'm 100% sure I plugged them in (like the rest) but we'll see.
I still have an issue with the front panel power led not turning on. The motherboard manual didn't specify they needed to be in a specific order... Now, I have three options:
Overall, I think I did a good job at hiding cables. Hopefully someday GPU prices come to a reasonable level and I can get a new one. I'm not spending a month+ paycheck for 1 item.
What I originally thought was a gpu issue ended up being a faulty cooler.
Good heatsinks give you the same or better performance at a fraction of the cost of a closed loop cooler. Noise level is pretty much the same.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
The intention is to replace the 140mm noctua fans with these rgb ones. Then I would replace the 120mm fans at the top and back of the case with these. If anyone has this air cooler, what would be your suggested fans?
Thanks
In general, you want to get the same size. 120mm for 120mm, 140mm for 140mm, etc. That ensures the mounting holes for the new fan lines up with how the old one was installed. If you want to change sizes, you can, but you need to make sure the mounting holes are there for the new size.
Second, you want to match up the power connector. There are 2-wire fans (basic fans that usually only run at max speed), 3-wire fans (voltage-controlled speed), and 4-wire fans (PWM-controlled speed). You can get adapters to make the various kinds of fans work together, but it's always better to get it right out of the gate when you can.
And then third, with RGB, there are a few different standards there. Make sure whatever you are getting works with your controller. That one I can't be as much help on, I have installd it on a couple of computers, but I generally kept it to the same brand name to ensure it would work.
As a side note - Noctua makes some of the best case fans in the business. I wouldn't just throw those out. A potentially easier and more flexible option would be RGB strips to install in the case.
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=rgb+led+strip&cm_sp=KeywordRelated-_-led strips-_-rgb led strip-_-INFOCARD