Description
I spent a few months picking these parts up on sale, and for $700, I'm pretty happy with the results. After a while, I finally got the rgb to sync, but it took a while, and even though everything is synced in Aura sync, it is still not recognized in the menu. I didn't include peripherals in the price so you could see what the build price would be without that stuff. The biggest challenges during the build were the front panel connectors (obviously) and the screws in the board didn't seem to line up perfectly with the standoffs, leaving the upper left screw screwed incorrectly. However, you can't see that so I wasn't too worried. Use this for playing beamNG and overwatch mainly, and it slays both games at high settings.
PART SWAPS:
RAM: I originally had some ballistix sport, but I got these on sale. Not much to say here.
MBD: I originally had the asrock b450 k4, but I decided on the strix board because I wanted aura sync support, better vrms/bios for oc. I also found out that the asrock board was .8 inches more narrow than a standard atx board. I wanted something that would fit all my case standoffs.
GPU: I got a 1070 iCX gaming from mid week madness, which was advertised as having G/M/P indicator leds. It didn't, so I got an rma and then found this gem on ebay. Works great.
Part Reviews
CPU
Runs fast, stays cool, and doesn't draw a lot of power. For $80 bucks and 6 cores / 12 threads this thing was a steal
CPU Cooler
Keeps my Ryzen 5 1600 cool (30 idle / 52 load) and looks amazing! I used the black top cover version which isn't available in the pcpp lists. However, the rgb cable is pretty annoying and doesn't like to stay in the header, which makes cable management irritating
Motherboard
Looks nice, and the vrms seem solid. The pre-installed i/o shield is nice, and made the build process easier. However, Aura sync is somewhat finnicky. I wish it was easier to make custom color cycles and there aren't too many white lighting options. I won't knock off a star because of its nice overclocking abilities and easy to use bios. I appreciate the rgb header at the top of the board, it makes it easy to plug in the cpu cooler without using an extension cable.
Memory
Runs at its rated stable speed perfectly, and looks sick. The led hotspots are visible, but the ram is ARGB so that's nice. I tried to oc the timings but that didn't work too well.
Storage
I knew I was getting a DRAMless drive when I went into this, and it's just fine. The system ram is perfectly capable of handling the cache, and this thing boots in just a couple of seconds. Load times are amazing as well.
Video Card
Got this used, and I don't regret it. The RGB is sweet, but the leds on the face of the card are somewhat dim. It may just be overshadowed by my rgb strip, not sure. The G/P/M temperature indicator leds work fine, but don't always turn on until I launch xoc. They are still a nice touch. Interestingly, the ftw badge is rgb but it always has a blue tint so it isn't the same color as the rest of the badge. Performance is insane. This thing is silent, boosts to 2000mhz out of the box, and doesn't ever go above 60c during gaming. It isn't as heavy as a strix or amp card, so doesn't cause a ton of sag. It is rather power hungry, however. It requires two 8-pin pci-e power connectors. That is a perfectly good trade-off for this excellent cooler in my opinion.
Case
Awesome to build in. Tons of room, adequate airflow and looks awesome. The included RGB strip is weird. The 4-pin connector only has a cable about an inch long from the end of the strip, and the other cable just connects to the base and power button rgb. So the strip would have to be plugged in at the base (or top) of the board and just start there, which looked bad. Thankfully, my motherboard included an extension cable, but the case did not. Once I got it working, it looked great. Also, when I plugged in the case fans and turned the pc on for the second time, I heard a beep, a pop, and a cloud of smoke arose from the fan headers on the board. Not sure if that was the fan, the board, or just me being an idiot. Whatever happened, I reattached the fans and now they both work fine. I ended up removing the drive cage since I didn't have any hard drives so I would have more room for cable stuffing. That was pretty simple, so I appreciate the modularity.
Power Supply
Quiet, powerful, and easy to use thanks to its fully modular design. For $60 at Mid Week Madness, a steal.
Keyboard
Nice loud clicks. Synapse is pretty easy to use and rgb is easily customizable.
Mouse
Tactile, awesome accurate sensor, rgb, and 16000 dpi!
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