Upgrade Advice (How bad an idea is this?)

[dave_the_nerd]

Sig rig - the 3570k setup in the Silverstone SG05. Bought/built the system in March 2013 and upgraded the GPU to the current GTX 970 in 2015.

Been using a stock intel cooler for six years. Got a 4k camcorder for tax refund season and am now hitting workloads (editing/encoding) that cause thermal throttling. (CPU running @ ~2GHz).

I have the SSDs installed in the removable tray, and not sure if my 970 is too long to use a radiator. Browsed a few build threads and it looks like velcro-ing the SSDs to the sides of the PSU is a common strategy, but I'm still not 100% sure if I need a shorter GPU or not.

I have a Corsair H60 and a single-fan ASUS GTX 1660Ti (7.5" long) on hold at Microcenter right now. Do I go buy them tomorrow morning or do I rethink this?

Or is there a different AIO cooler that would work in the SG05 with my existing 9.7" long GPU?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you saying, you need an AIO WC for the GPU, or the CPU?

Why not just slap a Hyper 212 Plus/EVO on the CPU? And put two fans on, in a push-pull config? Should be enough. How heavy is your OC? It can't be too much, if you were previously running on the *stock* cooler, I would think.

I mean, sure, there's no reason not to go water, if it fits. I guess that's your question? I'm not familiar with that case, so I can't help you there.

Even so, with water cooling, I'm not sure if that CPU, lacking even HyperThreading (and it's associated security risks these days on older Intel CPUs as well), would fare with 4K footage, even overclocked.

TBH, my suggestion is to get a Ryzen 2700X desktop, and use that. Or even ThreadRipper, if you really want to spend the coin.

I don't know about doing a Ryzen ITX build, if that's what your current case is, but ... for the amount of "oomph" for processing 4K video, I would go Ryzen all the way.

Edit: Even the Ryzen R5 1600 CPU, at MC currently for what, ~$80, has a whole lot of "oomph". Surely, you could find a decent full-length ATX board for AM4 at MC. (Gigabyte B450 AORUS PRO WIFI, or ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F are both really decent ATX mobos, I have those in my personal rigs.) Or even maybe an X470 ITX board, if you want to save space, I don't know much about Ryzen ITX boards, and OC'ing, although the 2700X and 2600X are capable of decent "boost" clocks", if you keep them cool and supply sufficient power.

Edit: I've got my R7 2700 CPU @ 4.0Ghz and 1.332V on a manual OC, with GSkill DDR4-3600 RGB @ 3400, runs real sweet. Edit: On the Asus board mentioned above.

Edit: I took a look at that case, it's an ITX cube case. Nothing that seems overly special to me, other than it's somewhat small. I don't know if a 212EVO or H60 would fit in that case.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

CPU cooling. A 212 definitely wouldn't fit in here - it's bigger than the case, lol. There are some low-profile coolers out there that folks use, but anything large around the CPU is going to have its own packaging problems. Anybody overclocking in one of these has usually got an AIO watercooler. I should have upgraded to an nCase M1 years ago, but I usually have something better to spend $200 on.

And I'm also definitely never going back to a full size tower. Eew.

Definitely not interested in doing a whole new build. This is plenty fast enough for what I need doing, if it can actually run at its normal speed and I can use the performance I already "have."

So I went ahead and got the H60 and a shorter GPU. MicroCenter has a return policy, after all. Ain't instant gratification a mother?

It works well enough I'm not going to sweat it, but I had to mod the case a little bit, left out a stiffening bracket around the PSU, and with the H60 you have a choice: it's longer in one direction than the other (like 150x120mm or so.) So if you orient it horizontally, it interferes with the circuit board where the power LED is (the case front ends up stuck about 1mm from properly snapped into place.) If you orient it vertically, you don't get an optical drive. Once it annoys me enough, I'll drill new mounting holes in the case about 0.5cm to the left and it will be perfect.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It works well enough I'm not going to sweat it, but I had to mod the case a little bit, left out a stiffening bracket around the PSU, and with the H60 you have a choice: it's longer in one direction than the other (like 150x120mm or so.) So if you orient it horizontally, it interferes with the circuit board where the power LED is (the case front ends up stuck about 1mm from properly snapped into place.) If you orient it vertically, you don't get an optical drive. Once it annoys me enough, I'll drill new mounting holes in the case about 0.5cm to the left and it will be perfect.

Oh, well, GJ. I had an issue with my R7 2700 and my CM AIO 240mm WC kit, and my ASUS R.S. B450-F board, and my Stryker M case. The mobo ended up skewed a slight bit, due to clearance issues with the case and WC, and the built-in I/O shield and cover on the mobo. If there was only maybe 1-2, maybe 3mm more clearance, everything would have seated fine.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

In other news, at some point in the last six years, I told my BIOS to run my CPU/case fans full tilt, 24/7.

Much quieter now.

I was a little disappointed that the H60 came pre-filled and everything. Even had thermal paste applied. Where's the fun in that?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I prefer the "peaceful white-noise drone" of my fans at 100%, rather than the sometimes-quieter, but generally more-noticeable sound of them ramping up under load, and slowing down. Though, that could be used as a diagnostic aid, and generally, the GPU does that anyways, so I can't quite completely get away from it. (When mining.)

Edit: But generally, for my basic browser boxes, I do leave "Smart Fan: Enabled".

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I prefer the "peaceful white-noise drone" of my fans at 100%, rather than the sometimes-quieter, but generally more-noticeable sound of them ramping up under load, and slowing down. Though, that could be used as a diagnostic aid, and generally, the GPU does that anyways, so I can't quite completely get away from it. (When mining.)

Edit: But generally, for my basic browser boxes, I do leave "Smart Fan: Enabled".

I got my server and a 33g fish tank setup in the same room - plenty of white noise.

Running Prime95 now - so far it's been stable; bouncing around at 60-62C, full speed. That's more like it!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

This GPU has the most disappointing accessory bundle ever. Not even a single random pigtail for something.

 

[VirtualLarry]

This GPU has the most disappointing accessory bundle ever. Not even a single random pigtail for something.

Yep. Bought a ROG STRIX RX 570 off of someone here, and didn't even come with the 6-pin to 8-pin PCI-E adapter. (Ok, I had one, but I had forgotten to bring it with me, so I had to make a trip back to my lab to get it, then back to the client site.)