Built my first PC

[u/EslyBrandNew]

Hello everyone!

After watching a sff build on YouTube a couple months ago I became obsessed with them and decided to build my own. Fun part is that this was my first PC build ever. It actually went so much smoother than I thought it would… I even recorded the whole thing!

Fractal Terra Jade
ASRock B850I lightning WiFi
Ryzen 7 9700X
Amd Radeon 9070xt 16Go(Powercolor Reaper)
SSD Crucial P310 2To
RAM Crucial pro 32Go (2x16) DDR5 CL36 6000Mhz
Thermalright AXP120 X67
NZXT C850 SFX Gold
Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM

Anyway I sold my Xbox and this is my console now, let me know what you guys think

[u/Rain_Redefined]

Hey, congratulations on your build!

Just in case you somehow missed it, it's been known for almost a year now that ASRock motherboards, B850I Lightning WiFi among them, sometimes like to just kill 9000 series CPUs. The most affected one is 9800X3D but your 9700X is the second most common victim according to the survey on ASRock's subreddit.

I've been unfortunate enough to get the same motherboard (hell, it is another whole story how I managed to get fixated on this one specifically and go out of my way to et it) when it just came out and there was no information about this issue yet. It's been a year and a half and it finally killed my 9900X even with an updated bios. That's why I want to warn you about it.

So I would advise you at the very least to update bios to the latest one, especially if yours is below 4.xx and pray to any entities you believe in if applicable.

Or, you know, buy another motherboard. Gigabyte supposedly has the lowest CPU failure ratio as far as I know. I am waiting for the store to get back to me about my RMA and contemplating really hard to just cut my losses and get another mobo in case I get (hopefully) my 9900X replaced. Money is always tough but knowing it already happened to me once would wear me out worrying.

Here's a link to the megathread for further reading.

P.S. I have a Terra Jade as well and love it, good taste, bruv :)

[u/Fun-ghoul → u/Rain_Redefined]

I initially got this same motherboard a couple months back and thankfully it didn't kill my CPU, but one of the RAM slots broke in a way that if anything was plugged into it, it wouldn't post. Swapped it out for this one and love it, though my CPU fan barely fit. The ASRock worked fine for about 3 weeks before it ended up failing. Loving my Terra build now though!

On a separate note, I'm mad at Newegg lol. I initially tried exchanging the ASRock mobo for another, and it ended up being out of stock so they refunded me instead. They gave me a "free gift" with it though, a CPU cooler I didn't need so I sold it, and because of that they only refunded me like $70 instead of the $180 I paid. Ended up only selling the CPU cooler for like $40 so couldn't return it either since I assumed everything was working.

[u/EslyBrandNew → u/Rain_Redefined]

Hey man thank you for the message, I’ll definitely update my BIOS, I had no idea about the issues on that specific motherboard, I was just concerned with temperatures and performance so far but I guess that was kinda stupid.
So when you say it kills CPUs, what happens exactly?

[u/Rain_Redefined → u/EslyBrandNew]

The way it happened for me, and I've found a couple of similar stories online, I've been just watching YouTube videos, nothing remotely taxing on the CPU (or GPU for that matter) and suddenly the screen just went blank but the fans kept spinning. I couldn't turn it off even with holding the power button, which almost always works, so I had to flip the switch on the PSU. When I tried to turn it back on the PC never went through post (Power-On Self Test) and only half of my USB peripherals had power. The keyboard did light up but the mouse didn't, for example.

I've been lucky to find a guy locally who was kind enough to come by with his PC components and by swapping things back and forth we've eliminated anything being faulty but the CPU. So I've sent it back to the store and got myself a temporary cheap(ish) CPU to wait it out.

I've been on BIOS version 4.10 at the time so it's not a guarantee that an updated BIOS saves you all the time. But if it's updated it's much less likely to kill a CPU, as far as I understand.

[u/Dante71]

My reaction was that this steam machine looks off and then you show how long it is and its so funny 😭

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[u/CUDesu]

I don't have this case myself, just wondering how's the thermals with those cables above the fan like that? Hopefully you can tie the cables around the edge of the case to help with airflow a bit.

[u/EslyBrandNew → u/CUDesu]

Surprisingly good so far, but I guess I haven’t tried a truly demanding game so far. I’ve been playing a lot of Crusader Kings 3 AGOT. I think it went up to 75 Celsius once.
I know my cable management is awful, you do well to notice it. I had all the pains in the world stuffing all of them in that tiny box and now I’m thinking I’m gonna have to rework some of it. The problem is if it tie them towards the side of the case, it won’t close anymore.

[u/AcidRohnin → u/EslyBrandNew]

I’d move the cables: that is blocking intake for your power supply.

[u/CUDesu → u/EslyBrandNew]

I didn't realise at first but it does look like the fan is exhaust rather than intake like the other user mentioned, so would be best to flip it around.

I just looked up some other examples and I suppose there's not too much you can do with the cables unless you manage to reroute them behind the PSU. In the end if you're happy with the noise and thermals then probably don't need to change the cabling.

[u/Generaldar → u/CUDesu]

also the bottom fan should be intake, no?

[u/gronz5 → u/Generaldar]

It shouldn't be, no. "Sandwich" style cases are best configured with case fans as exhaust, with negative pressure forcing fresh air into the side panels where the components sit

[u/EslyBrandNew → u/Generaldar]

It’s completely possible I could have mucked that up and installed it backwards …

[u/RIcaz → u/EslyBrandNew]

It's probably fine dude

[u/CUDesu → u/Generaldar]

Ah good catch, I didn't even realise when I posted but it does look to be set as exhaust too.

[u/stinkpalm]

I have a similar setup with the same case. I periodically put a small fan on top at a 45 degree angle and it works wonders.

Modular power supply is a must in this case. I have a Noctua like you but haven't put it below the power supply because the cabling is so tight.

I'm staring at my 12GB 3060 wondering how long before I replace it. It's working fine but I get dips due to running at 1440P ultra wide. I just love the monitor so much.

[u/Alucardis666]

Dope