Overview from the right.
Shot on phone.
Overview from the left.
Shot on camera.
Bottom-to-top overview of insides.
Top-to-bottom overview of insides.
2013 version.
After removal of built-in amp and addition of 3-way crossover but before the increase in dampening foam and sealing of bass-port, turning old 30$ PC stereo into equivalent of >380$ in audio quality.
"Arsenal": an utilitarian zero-RGB desktop
- Built for longevity with most resilient "consumer" components in "low-to-middle" price-range.
- All LEDs are stripped or plastered, except for amp's on/off (to avoid rocking the neighbourhood by mistake).
- RAM is 4x4GB of ECC (72-bit) unbuffered DDR3-1600 modules that showed to be capable of running at 2000Mhz (2x Kingston KVR16E11S8/4 + 2x Samsung M391B5273DH0-YK0).
- SSD is actually Apacer Z280 240GB MLC NVMe in PCIe*4-to-M.2 adapter with radiator and fan. SATA HDD boot partition is used to force-boot from NVMe since GigaByte's abandonware BIOS is incapable of finding it.
- GPU's BIOS is customized to limit power usage to 90-120W in 90-100% load by limiting voltage & frequency but also allow unrestrained current bursts.
- The secondary, TN-based monitor is actually BenQ GW2320HDB modded from CCFL to non-PWM LED backlight.
- Audio is Weiliang/Breeze Audio SU0 [32bit XMOS USB + AK4490 DSD/PCM + LM4562 op-amp] DAC + FX-Audio FX502SPRO [TPA3250 + 2x LM4562] Amp + Sven MA-332 [active 2-way 2x20W with open bass-port modded to be passive 3-way 2x70W with sealed bass-port] speakers & Sennheiser HD 215 DJ headphones + stereo lapel microphone from AIWA portable tape player/recorder.
- The case is pre-USB3 non-plus Z11. It has dust filters on all intakes but tends to have negative pressure (thus sucking air and dust via all holes and cracks) due to its big non-obstructed front panel with 14cm fan slot & empty 5" drive-bay's foam cover and 3x 12cm (+1 empty slot) exhaust fans.
- Failed Arctic CPU fan is replaced with 92mm TITAN TFD-9225H12ZP/KE(RB), case fans are 2x 140mm Thermalright X-Silent 145 + 1x 120mm Arctic F12 PWM CO + 1x 120mm de-LED'ed Zalman's stock. Case's 80mm side-exhaust fans are disabled. Power limits and custom fan speed curves ensure quiet operation with under 70 degrees Celsius for all components under full load.
- There is also laptop WiFi module in x1 mPCIe-to-PCIe adapter and PCI analogue A/V/TV/radio capture card.
- There is supposed to be 1000VA (~600W) UPS but it's out of commission right now.
- CPU should be upgraded to FX-8320E OEM ASAP and OC'ed to 4GHz on cores & 2,5GHz on cache & MMU.
- OS is openSUSE Tumbleweed rolling-release GNU/Linux distribution.
Color(s): Black
RGB Lighting? No
Theme: none
Cooling: Air Cooling
Size: ATX
Type: General Build
Hardware
Motherboard
Memory
$ 18.99
Memory
$ 18.99
Memory
$ 28.58
Memory
$ 28.58
Graphics
$ 259.95
Storage
Storage
$ 73.66
Storage
$ 50.00
Storage
$ 169.95
Storage
Storage
PSU
Case Fan
$ 12.24
Case Fan
Cooling
Accessories
$ 44.00
Accessories
Approved by: