i5 gaming PC with RX470 graphics

Not a repair but a build.

It's about 10 years since I last built a PC from scratch so when I was commissioned to build this PC, I had a lot of developments to catch up on. No doubt spending the maximum amount possible on components would have yielded an impressive machine but there was also a tight budget to stick to, and a monitor, keyboard and mouse, were also required. The remit included some future proofing so the core components were selected to last. Moreover, the PC was intended to be a surprise Christmas present so eliciting information about its intended use without raising suspicions from the eventual recipient was a further challenge, especially when it came to the GPU. I'm (now) aware (from all my reading) that when it comes to GPUs, the choice between AMD and Nvidea is hotly contested and there seem to be pros and cons in each respect. However (again from all my reading and knowing what I know about the machine's intended use), my choice of an AMD card was carefully considered and deliberate.

Finally, I should also add that several Black Friday bargains helped me out a lot....

All things considered, I think I've hit the spot with this machine.Once it was all built and running, I couldn't help but wish that I was keeping it for myself.

So, the Parts List:

Guts:

Motherboard: MSI Z170A TOMAHAWK
CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K
CPU Cooler: Arctic Freezer 11i
Graphics: SAPPHIRE NITRO+ OC RX 470 4GB
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX XMP 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz
Storage: ADATA 240GB SP550 SSD, TOSHIBA 1TB HDD
PSU: EVGA 650 BQ

Case:

FRACTAL DESIGNS R4

Outside:

Monitor: Asus VS248HR
Keyboard: Roccat Ryos MK Pro
Mouse: ASUS Gladius

OS:

Windows 10 Pro


And now the build. I took photos of most of the build but I got a bit carried away when installing the CPU, etc, and forgot to take any pictures of that.

Here's all the bits, ready to go:

Now some photos of the case. They've certainly moved on since my last build. This case has two 120mm fans built-in. The one at the front sucks in, the one at the rear blows out. That fact determines the CPU fan arrangement (more of which in a moment). The case itself is lined with sound deadening material. Lots of space inside, with plenty of slots and openings in the back panel for cable management, and more fans if required. The hard drive caddies simply clip in which makes installing the drives (2.5 or 3.5) a breeze - simply screw the drive into the removed caddy, and then refit..

And here the hard drives are going in. They mount sideways which helps with cable management.

And now we fast forward to the assembled motherboard, ahem. I hadn't noticed the opening in the back panel which would have allowed me to fit the CPU cooler with the motherboard in place. Still, no harm done doing it all on the kitchen table. The picture below shows the RAM in place, and the PSU mounted in the bottom of the case. The PSU contains a large fan which draws air in from underneath. There is a corresponding opening in the bottom of the case to facilitate that, along with a removeable dust filter.

As for the actual fan and cooler, according to the blurb it comes ready smeared with MX4 paste so I installed it as is. The fan and cooler can mount in any direction (blowing up, down, or to the front or back). Bearing in mind the fan arrangement in the case, I've set it so that it is drawing cool air from the front, through the cooler, to be collected by the exhaust fan on the back of the case.

Whilst I'm on about the PSU and its fan, I should mention a small problem I discovered once I'd put everything together and switched the PC on for the first time. This was a distinct rattling from the PSU fan. On closer inspection, I could see that some of the PSU's internal wiring had moved (in transit?) and was just fouling the fan blades. With the PSU removed and unplugged, I used a thin plastic drift through the grill to gently poke the wiring down, back into place. On the final fit, the PSU fan was totally silent. The wires in question can be seen in the photo below.

So now the PC is sufficiently built to run. I switched it on and checked the BIOS was happy. It was. Very nice BIOS, by the way... Here's some photos of it running. The third photo I took without a flash. The motherboard has some red LEDs on the back which cast a nice glow...

And now the graphics card goes in. It covers two slots on the motherboard. The fan and cooler arrangement is very nice and it exhausts out of the back of the case.The word "Sapphire" also lights up in blue. Note that the case still is still covered in its transit material which is why the view through the window in the side panel looks a bit wonky.

The build, including messing around with the rattling PSU, took about 90 minutes. Most of that time was required once assembly and initial testing was complete, and I was trying different configurations of cable management. I'm probably not going to win any awards for my efforts but its a tidy enough job.

I then installed the OS from USB. The SSD inside made short work of that, then some Windows updates and then installing and updating all the drivers for the motherboard and GPU which took a good while. Finally, over  the next couple of days I ran some burn tests to check that all was in order. Since I'm not a gamer I didn't have any actual games to try, I used a couple of different benchmarking programs. There were no issues with any of that and temperatures remained exactly where they ought to have been. I then did a mild overclock from within Windows using MSI's motherboard utility tool. I wish I'd taken some pictures of that, and the results in general, because it was all very exciting. No doubt the PC's new owner will want to have a play with all of that one day, and do a proper job from within the BIOS, but I was happy to see the PC stable, quiet, and cool, running at 4.2Ghz. That was enough for me.


More soon, no doubt....



D