Built this as an upgrade from my tired Intel Ivybridge build in 2012 (StormCUBE on mt Builds.GG profile). I set out as i did in my previous build to create PC that would meet all the needs - from my day job as a graphic designer / web developer to watching movies and gaming after hours.

The one piece of the build that set me on the path for Ryzen was the B450 Mortar Titanium motherboard. I had seen this around online a few times over the past year or so and figured that if i'm gonna build a new PC, it better look the part. My previous PC was slick but the Zotac Z68-itx mobo wasn't the prettiest thing on the market at the time. I believe I snagged the last one in existience (maybe?) for a epic deal of $225cad. Anywhere else that has on was selling for well over $350 in April 2020. And so the build began.

With the mobo purchased it was time to source a case worthy of featuring the art piece the MSI board was. MetalicGear, a Phanteks partner/company, just released their V2 Neo case and i'm glad they did! The V1 of their ITX and MATX sure caught my eye but the V2 addressed some quality control and airflow concerns that i had (and the PC building community as well!). With my previous build being ITX in a somewhat large case for the form factor (Bitfenix Prodigy Rev1) i figured a sexy and sleek case that would proportionally fit the hardware was the way to go. I've never be one for ill-fitting components in oversized cases so with a few days of checking clearances and fittment compatability the case was ordered and on its way.

Ram had to be RGB- this is 2020. I went with white heatspreaders to compliment the white tube sleeving on my AIO and the aluminum theme of the mobo/case. 3000mhz may be a touch slow given Ryzen loves more hertz but i've been running the completed system since May 2020 and the 2x8gb kit is definetly more of a bottleneck than ram speeds at this point in time. Will be looking to drop an additional 32gb into the open slots when on sale.

For brains, I settled on the Ryzen 5 3600 as a great balance of everything and paired it with some 3000mhz ram to boot. Was also a treat to hear recently from a LTT video on the topic of "Why is everyone buy this cpu?" (which happened to focuson the my CPU). I've been a big fan of Linus and the team, but also have my own backgorund of self learning and component research and it was a nice virtual pat-on-the-back to hear Linus commend the builders who bought the 3600.

Each piece of my computers ends up having some random story about how i found or aquired it! You can't plan these things, you just roll with it. The current build reuses my existing Nvidia GTX1070 which just so happened to be a auction-site special from the former NCIX (I got it for $500cad on some random/weird firesale - an epic deal considering it was regularly $675cad at the time), PSU (a meh 750w that does the job and for the life of me i can't recall how i even own it), Corsair GTX H100i AIO (Newegg refurb special, that turned out to be new overstock) and some china special "EZDIY" rgb fans later the PC was built.

Some future addons/upgrades will be 1tb NVME drives and a chonky-boy harddrive for longterm storage. I'm also considering replacing the AIO (Corsair GTX H100i) with a new Fractal Celsius+ S24 Prisma AIO that i won through a email newsletter contest Fractal Design had running in August of 2020.

---

Hello 2021 - Rig update!
Well new years resolutions seemed fitting and i finally was able to source a decent monitor for $500 (canadian loonies that is) on discount/special. Out with the decade old 1080p/60hz and in with 1440p/144hz ultrawide! From a productivity view, this is a very nice upgrade- so spoiled. Replace my old and tired SA350s is a single Lenovo G34w-10.

Also a treat, my wife bought me a preorder for the LTT deskpads (lttstore.com). This one is just right leaving enough space on the side for a cup of coffee so i don't get mug rings. And to keep on with the upgrades I managed to score a Radeon Vii gpu off ebay for an alright price (given recent price hikes and stock shortages). It's a beautiful card and it matches the over all aluminum build perfectly. The red leds are a little hard to

The PC has also been bumped up to 32gb of ram and has a sn750 1tb nvme ssd onboard as well. This build is turning out really nice but also a very capable daily driver and gamer.

---

Let me know what you think of my build and though-process/method!
Cheers!