The Progress of my Computer

So it all started when I returned from Egypt. I originally tried to find my old Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX, but there was no Evolv available. However, I found an Enthoo 719 just an hour away from me for €10. It looked almost brand new, but it was missing screws. The seller needed to sell it quickly because he was moving to a completely different city and had no space for it. He listed it for only €10 for someone to pick up, and that someone was me. I took the train to Leipzig to collect it since I didn't have a car and felt I had to get it. Starting date of my build is the 18th of September 2024!

Turns out it was bigger and heavier than I expected (who would guess with a big tower?). But OMG, once I saw it, I knew I had to get it. I thought the glass would be damaged, but it only had fingerprints.

So here I was, going back alone on two trains, transporting that monstrosity of a case. It was quite amusing at the same time.

I got it safely to my apartment, looked at it, and used some cleaning supplies to get rid of the fingerprints. I immediately realized that instead of building an AIO cooler inside, I should go for a custom loop. Than my mind came to the conclusion to make it fully black with nearly no RGB

Then, of course, I also needed to get other parts, so I found a fully modular Corsair 750W Gold PSU with sleeved black extension cables for only €50.

One hour after the seller posted it, I drove to him, luckily just 5 km away, and picked it up while also shopping for my groceries.

Then, sometime this week, I had bookmarked the seller's profile because I thought he might sell furniture, which I also needed. I ended up getting an office chair from him for €40. He also had two items: a 500GB Samsung Evo SSD, which he wasn't sure worked (but it did, luckily), and a vertical GPU bracket that he didn't have any use for, so I took that as well for free!

Since I wanted custom water cooling, I searched for parts. I looked for the typical water cooling brands like EKWB, Bykski, and Heatkiller, but not Alphacool, because I don't like their heavy use of RGB and blue or other color accents. I know Alphacool is a good brand, but it's not my aesthetic I also came across a Bykski AM4 block very locally, just 15 minutes away by train, for only €15. It looked like new and had only been used with DP Clear.

The story with the CPU water block is wonderful. It turns out that when I picked up the water block, the seller was very experienced with water cooling and an enthusiast. I asked him for tips since it was my first loop, and we exchanged phone numbers to stay in touch.

The beautiful AM4 BYKSKI CPU Block from him

I asked him a lot of questions, and he was also selling EK fittings and ZMT tubes at a very good price, exactly what I wanted. So, I drove back to him the following day to buy them as well.

I got a lot of fittings and some ZMT tubing in 16/10, including 90-degree and 45-degree angles—exactly what I wanted.

Thank you so much „Steffen“ for your support, kindness and good deals :) Huge Shoutout to him.

I ordered some black case screws on eBay for 3 euro from a corsair case which also fits for my phanteks case without a problem apparently.

Just me being bored and installing the SSDs and PSU already while organizing a bit. The Crucial 1TB SSD i got in Egypt , so i would call this a souvenir ^^

My Collection so far in my deals :)

OMG! Then I found THE GPU—exactly what I was looking for visually. I know the card is slightly older and not the best anymore, but in terms of looks, the GPU block is 10/10. It's an RX Vega 56 with a flashed RX Vega 64 BIOS, which gives me performance somewhere between an RTX 3050 and an RTX 2060 Super. That's still good for me, allowing full HD gaming at 240 FPS in esports titles and around 50-60 FPS in modern games at higher settings. For me, games like Valorant, CS2, and Champions are always played at the lowest settings, where I get high FPS. In Red Dead, I get a decent 50-60 FPS at High-Ultra. So the card is enough for me. It may not be for everyone, but for me, it's still a good-looking and well-performing card.

The Package arrived …

…in it this beauty of a GPU :)

This is how it looks so far.

Went beck to get a EK XE 360 for only 50€

… got a free leak tester

Only „problem“ is the Radiator is white :o

So i had to paint it… …in grey fitting my pc case

I think the paint turned out pretty good

Like how it looks so far Clean and black will continue finishing my build