AMD 3800X Asus Tuf B450M-PRO Gaming Vega 64 Liquid Cooling Extravaganza ;)

[Evildead666]

So.
I was just planning to get an AMD board, becaue my 4K encodes were taking up to 3 days to complete on my PC.

As usual, one thing led to another, and i ended up changing the whole lot except the GPU and most of the water cooling.
My i5 3570k mATX board had very hot VRM heatsinks, whilst not doing much, when I took it apart for a GPU change, and CPU H100i AIO relocation to the front.
The side was off, so the airflow through the case was disturbed i think, at the time.

So, I needed a mATX AM4 board, due to already having a 2nd, new Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 waiting for a couple of years now.
I really like the case airflow and watercooling capabilities, so i bought another one a couple of years ago or so for my next build.
Though mATX was gonna be huge, and i'd get a Maximus Gene or whichever the mATX AM3/4 asus board was.

So good mATX AM4 boards are rare as F.

I decided on the Asus Tuf B450M-PRO Gaming, because I thought it had a really good VRM.
Contrary to what BuildZoid thinks, i think its actually quite good, even if they did only double some of the components.
The Stock VRM heatsinks are actually pretty damn good, even though i'm not pushing things too much yet.

It also has two M2 NVMe slots.
Top One for boot (Samsung EVO 512GB PCIe 3 x4) and lower one for Games (Crucial P1 1TB PCie 3 x4@ PCIe 3 x2).
Both have EK M2 Heatsinks on them (lots of EK stuff here actually lol )

The vega64 is brought over from my old PC, with the EK full block.

The DDR4 is GSkill 2x8GB F4-3200C14D-16GVK, which should be Samsung B-Dies, @3800C16-16-16-16 1.4V
63.1ns latency, so far.
Infinity Fabric at 1900MHz, 1:1 with the memory. Tried 2000MHz earlier, without any voltage changes, and got a hard lock,which required a battery removal (CLRCMOS jumper didn't work).




Only put the 3800X CPU in the board this afternoon, booted and updated the Bios, installed Windows etc, with a 2700 acouple of weeks ago.

Been waiting on the cooling bits and pieces, where I may have gone a bit overboard (overkill for sure ).

I have two HeatKiller VRM waterblocks 80mm and 60mm, which have changeable bottom plates for re-use.
(Still have to drill the holes and mount, test, etc,...)

An EK Supremacy EVO, initially bought for an intel chip, but with multiple mounting/backplate purchases later (story in itself), it fits.

Same SR-1 Radiator, lower noise Noctua fans. 4 in push-pull in the front of the case, all the drive bays have been removed.
Just the two NVMe drives, no Sata.

One Noctua on the rear.

Laing DDC pump with integrated Top reservoir, hidden in the dual 5 1/4 inch bays of the case.
Going to be a sod to fill, but will be nice and out of sight

Have bought thermal pads for the VRMs, high quality stuff, that seems to have about the same thermal transfer capacity as Thermal Grizzly paste by Der8auer.

Loop will be Pump-VRM1-VRM2-CPU-GPU-Rad-Pump.

Just waiting on a couple of Water loop connectors i'm missing to finish the lot.

Thankfully, my i5-3570k graphs are still available in my other thread, so i'll be able to actually do some sort of comparisons, with the exact same gpu. (But everything else different).

CPU voltage and stuff is on Auto for now.

Just thought I could get the memory dialled in before the water sports () and seeing what the CPU can do, with pbo and Auto overclock, and leaving it as is to do it by itself, with great cooling/airflow.

The fans will be a big change, from the Corsair SP120's, to the Noctua NF-A12x25's.
Much, much quieter, at comparable airflow, but double cost.

Should have the final cooling bits by Monday.

Parts List :

80mm HeatKiller VRM Waterblock
http://shop.watercool.de/epages/Wate...Products/12003

60mm HeatKiller VRM Waterblock
http://shop.watercool.de/epages/Wate...Products/12002

Both have replaceable base-plates for mounting on other motherboards, since you have to create your own custom mounting holes.
Means if you keep the block, you can just change the base-plate.

80mm Spare Baseplate
http://shop.watercool.de/epages/Wate...Products/79301
60mm Spare Baseplate
http://shop.watercool.de/epages/Wate...Products/79300

CPU EK Supremacy EVO Nickel/Plexi Waterblock :
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-supremacy-evo-nickel
With adapter backplate and frontplate for AM4...(two separate deliverys...)

Asus TUF B450M-PRO Gaming mATX AM4 Motherboard :
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/TUF-B450M-PRO-GAMING/

Raspberry Pi4 Heatsink to replace the Southbridge Heatsink
- https://www.kubii.fr/raspberry-pi-4/...+4&results=168

GSkill RipJaws 2x 8GB DDR4 3200 C14 Kit (Samsung B-Die)
http://www.gskill.com/product/165/18...5V16GB-(2x8GB)

Vega64 (From previous build) with EK Full Cover Waterblock.
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-fc-radeon-vega-nickel

Thermal Grizzly Thermal Paste all round (except VRM's which have the thermal pads)

Numerous Alphacool Fittings, numerous
- Will eventually list them all..

Alphacool Plexi Laing DDC Reservoir top.

Alphacool 100x100x1.5mm Thermal Pad for VRM's (cut to size)
- 11W/mK

Laing DDC 12V Pump
-Directly connected to the 12V of the PSU.

HardWareLabs Black Ice Nemesis 240GTR Radiator.
http://hardwarelabs.com/nemesis/gtr/gtr-240/

EK Leak Tester
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-leak-tester

SeaSonic 850W X-Series PSU (From previous build) ;
https://seasonic.com/x-series

AMD 3800X CPU :
https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-7-3800x

Two EK Nickel plated Heatsinks for the two NVMe Drives :
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-m-2-nvme-heatsink-nickel
- These are very good so far. The pressure from the two clips is quite strong, so i'd bet the heat transfer is pretty good.
To be tested yet in a case.

5x Noctua 120mm Fans
https://noctua.at/en/nf-a12x25-pwm

Boot Samsung 970 EVO Plus 512GB NVMe drive (PCIe3 x4 @x4) :
https://www.samsung.com/semiconducto...er/970evoplus/

Games (Steam + GoG) Crucial P1 1TB NVMe drive (PCIe3 x4 @x2)
https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/storage-ssd-p1

Asus Xonar AE PCIe x1 Soundcard (Mainly for the Optical TOSLink output)
https://www.asus.com/Sound-Cards/Xonar-AE/overview/

Asus 10G XG-C100C PCIe x4 Network card
https://www.asus.com/Networking/XG-C100C/

Netgear GS110MX UnManaged Switch, with dual RJ45 10G ports, and 8x GigE ports.
https://www.netgear.com/business/pro...#tab-techspecs

Ducky One 2 TKL Backlit Keyboard :
https://www.duckychannel.com.tw/en/D...2-Blue-LED-TKL

Acer Nitro VG270UP 27" 144Hz IPS non-HDR FreeSync Monitor :
https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/conten...l/UM.HV0EE.P01

A pretty standard Swingarm for the Monitor (More Keyboard / Mouse freedom) :
https://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00153630.html


Fun to come

[Evildead666]

Will be swapping out the Black Ice SR-1 for a Black Ice Nemesis 240GTR.
http://hardwarelabs.com/nemesis/gtr/gtr-240/

edit : I think the SR-1 is going to end up as a basis for my 200W TEC home made AC along with the TRUE 120 i have somewhere in a box.

[Evildead666]

So, a little update.

In the beginning, there wuz aircooling.



Then the VRM coolers came.



Then the CPU cooler and attachments came. Still missing a couple to finish it.

[Evildead666]

I was going to use tubing between the different blocks, and they ended up being too close to each other, so I had to order lots of different attachments.
Lots of them.
This way I can get a solid link between the vrm and cpu blocks, and a short tube to the gpu.
Lots of attachments. Quite a few i tried, and ended up being just too short or too long, or not rotating...
The light is appearing at the end of the tunnel, and i hope to be running by this weekend.
I hope.

edit : A lot of them

[Umfriend]

Looks cool.

Just wondering, as this is, amongst others I am sure, about 4K encoding, and you put a lot of effort into cooling and a new MB, have you considered going Threadripper? Why not or, if you did, what made you choose for a 3800X?

[UtwigMU]

Nice build! Congrats. Good that we still have some hard core PC builders on board.

[Evildead666]

Nice build! Congrats. Good that we still have some hard core PC builders on board.

I've progessively worked up to this.
The VRM cooling is a first, and I hope to not burn the whole lot, the CPU VRM block is very very close to the choke solder points.
I'm going to find a screen protector for a phone, and stick a bit on the side, to act as insulator (as well as the thermal pad going 90° upwards in between the chokes and the block.).
Nickel coated block and copper base is a bit of a lightning rod.

edit : First wc was the amazing Barton core, to 2.6GHz.
The the 6800GT to no more than the aircooler.
Then the P4D to 5GHz (5~10mins?)
Then the i5-3570K i had up until now.
I wc the 290 and now a Vega64.

I like Having fun

I enjoy the Benchmarking more than the build itself, a bit more.
Finding the right connectors has become a bit of a quest.
I'll be glad and happy when I get it back up and running.

[Evildead666]

So, it finally fits with the final batch of pieces



And a gratuitous shot from above without VRM heatsinks, but a new Southbridge Heatsink.
Showing off the two PCIe3 x4 drives.



Soon to be leak tested, and run on water for the first time.

[Evildead666]

So we're finally at the Final leak testing phase



Already caught one fitting to the GPU that wasn't fully tight.
All seems good now.

First start in about an hour or so

edit : Just praying it won't just "pop" like a Mofo.
The top VRM cooler makes the motherboard look like, well, "Banana" came to mind.
Needs a backplate.
The left one is in the board more, so less flex.
Also hope neither of the VRM coolers short anything out, i've taped their sides up pretty good.
Left one is super tight fit, but no pressure.
Probably got 0.5-1mm either side, though not at the same time

edit2: Did use an EK Water loop leak tester.
It is a valve, with a guage on it (0->1 bar), and a small bicycle type pump.
It did go down very slowly when I tested first, but even with smoke I couldn't see where it was coming from.
I found the GPU connector was slightly weeping water, when I just went ahead and tested just the loop and pump on a separate PSU.

All of the bubbles have gone now, and its leak free.

Cross fingers

[Evildead666]

No smoke and fire thankfully

CPU seems a little hot, but then its a cooler for Pentium chips, and doesn't have fins that fully cover the AM4 chip.
Have ordered a new EK Velocity block which is specifically for AM4, and has lots more fin coverage.

Maxes out at 81°C full Prime95 burn right now on the EK Supremacy EVO.
Drops right back down afterwards. Like under 5s.

[Evildead666]

Ended up also buying a couple of the extra baseplates for the VRM blocks, to use as back plates, with Thermal Pads on them.
They are 2mm thick copper, and pretty sturdy, should do the trick.

I'm also going to probably build a small black shroud to the right of the PSU, to hide some cables, so I don't have to stuff so much behind the mobo.
Closing the case is too much of a nightmare.

No leaks so far.
Going to do an all round check before doing some more tests.

GPU cooling seems exceptional. Maxed at 37°C.
GPU barely gets warm, the SoC is whats getting warm.VRMs are in the 40's.
Having to re-do all the overclocking on that from scratch.

The PSU does seem to be getting quite a workout though.
HWinfo had the GPU consuming 330W, so maxing out, and the CPU hitting 130W.
Not at the same time, on different benches.

CPU is getting warm, but 67°C maxed out in Prime eventually, with a peak, at 81°C on something that might be wrong.

Going to be doing a few more tests today.

Luckily this last week, new ABBA Bios from Asus, and new Chipset driver from AMD
Latest Video drivers installed last night.
When I booted up with the Vega; i was greeted with a Basic Microsoft Video Driver, and thought my GPU was dead somehow.
Then I checked the video drivers, and saw that they were the ones from 2015, for the LP card i was building and testing it with on Air.
It didn't know what a Vega was lol.
Phew, driver installed, and alls good.

[Evildead666]

Looks cool.

Just wondering, as this is, amongst others I am sure, about 4K encoding, and you put a lot of effort into cooling and a new MB, have you considered going Threadripper? Why not or, if you did, what made you choose for a 3800X?

Its for gaming first.
Will spend most of its time encoding one video in 4K until I get it right.

Took three days before, should be done in less than one day now.
3800X because the 65W of the 3700 would have left me wondering, what if?...and I went all out on cooling to bench.
Stock, PBO, lots to play with before I break it.

The Radiator is a good 4x the cooling of the SR-1.

I'll add a side-by-side pic. They are very different.
SR-1 is for Low speed fans (even tho I had full RPM fans on it) and the Nemesis is for High speed fans (Which will still be at full speed, just Noctua's instead of Corsair SP120's).

edit (also clean vs new, i used a whole can of comp air on the dirty one, and the vacuum cleaner.) :


SR-1 TOP and Nemesis GTR BOTTOM, both 50mm thick

SR-1 alone held a Vega64 at 10-15°C Delta so, the new one should do good

edit2 : The holes look bigger, its the z height difference. There are Fans under the Nemesis GTR.