kevosaurusrx
Description
Christmas bonus + some parts received as gifts led me to create a total overkill build. Intended for 75% gaming and 25% general/work use. Some of the parts were cannibalized from my previous build.
The Corsair H115i Pro barely fits in the NZXT H500i case (and, in fact, the case claims to not support 280mm rads at all). But it does in fact fit. I removed the wire management bar and was able to make it push-pull, even.
My first 9900k died on me on its second-ever boot. Thankfully Amazon sent me a replacement.
My 2080ti was acting funny with the fan curve. As soon as it reported 70*c, it would spin the fans to 100%, no matter what. I tried messing with fan curves and even just setting fan speed manually, but no luck. So I ordered and installed a hybrid WC setup. In the process, I found that the stock thermal paste did not completely cover the GPU die. My theory is that, even though the temp only reported 70C, certain parts of the die were much hotter and it was spinning the fans to 100% to compensate. With the new hybrid kit, temps are under control; speeds are stable; and the computer is much quieter.
3dMark TimeSpy on stock numbers was 13,200. With CPU at 4.9, new hybrid cooler, and GPU at +125/700, it hit 14,330.
Part Reviews
CPU
3 stars for now. CPU worked on first boot to bios. It somehow died when I went to reboot and install windows. CPU failures are so infrequent, but it seems there are several others who have experienced random and sudden 9900k failures.
Edit: new 9900k works like a dream. Temps are reasonable. 4star for price and holding hyperthreading hostage. Next stop, 5ghz.
CPU Cooler
With stock fans on a moderate profile, it keeps my 9900k around 28C idle and 70C under full load. Fit and finish are good. Install was relatively painless. I just wish there was a better way to route the USB cable off the block.
Motherboard
Decently priced, good power delivery, good feature set. RGB is nice but unnecessary. BIOS is....not great. But I can overlook it for all the other positives. It's not like the BIOS is missing features; it's just horribly organized.
Storage
Not much to say about this. It works, and it crushes every benchmark. Fast as balls.
Video Card
Runs suuuuuper hot and doesn't OC as much as I hoped. I lost the silicon lottery here.
That being said, it pulls 80+fps on BF5 at 1440 with all settings maxed and DXR on ultra. Guess I can't complain.
If I could go back in time, I would either wait for the XC2 or just get a Founder's Edition and watercool it.
Edit: my temp issues may have been caused by incomplete coverage of the stock thermal paste.
Case
First time building with NZXT, and it did well. The fan/RGB hub is pretty simple, effective, and unobtrusive. Fitting the AIO rad was pretty easy, but do note that the case technically only supports 240mm rads.
Cable management on the backside was pretty decent, but there was no good way to lock down my unruly 24pin cable.
Overall, it's pretty snug in there. While you can technically put a 140mm fan on top, in reality the 8pin CPU cable will get in the way. I wish the case were maybe 10% bigger. Otherwise, great case.
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