Hello ROG Enthusiasts,
I wanted to take a moment and introduce myself and my latest do-it-all computer build, which is intended for gaming, video editing, and general productivity. So far, my expectations have been reasonable… I went into this build knowing AMD has some early developer tariffs/troubles, but so far I am having a great time and thus far have only run into stability issues running “ultra performance” settings. I would like to go over my parts lists with the forum, and ask for feedback regarding the way I have connected the hardware. I am confident in my hardware choices and connections, but really wanted to gauge input as far as the software control and BIOS. My build consists of the following components:
- ASUS Crosshair VI Hero Motherboard
- AMD Ryzen 1800X CPU
- Corsair H115i AIO Cooler (Using AM4 Bracket)
- G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4 RAM (C16, 2x8GB)
- Samsung 960 Pro NVME M.2 SSD (512GB)
- Seagate Barracuda Pro 4TB HDD
- ASUS Strix GTX 1080 Ti OC GPU
- EVGA G3 850W PSU
- CableMod E-Series ModFlex Basic Cable Kit
- Corsair ML140 Pro Fans (3 for Chassis, 2 for H115i Cooler)
- Corsair 600C Chassis/Case (Inverted ATX Full Tower Case)
- ASUS ROG PG348Q 34” 21:9 Gaming Monitor
- Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
This build will be the first computer I have built for myself, although I do have some experience modifying rigs for friends and I have modified a lot of factory computers in the past. I did a great deal of research prior to choosing parts for purchasing. I have only run into two small oversights, which fortunately do not effect the overall direction of this build. The first oversight was with the Corsair 600C built-in case fan controller… The case fans provided with the 600C chassis are 3-pin fans and I purchased ML140 Pro 4-pin fans to replace the included counterparts. As such, I could not utilize the cases fan controller, and instead used all three CHA_FAN headers on the motherboard. The second oversight was with the H115i AIO Cooler… The H115i requires a USB2.0 header to supply the mini-USB cable connected to the CPU block. Because I only had one USB2.0 header available on the motherboard, I could not connect the cable for the USB2.0 ports on the 600C chassis. It is really no big deal, because I still have the USB3.0 ports on the 600C chassis, as well as several USB 2.0 ports directly on the motherboard.
Forgive my organization/delivery of this information… I only mention these oversights, as it relates to my next few questions and topics. Please let me know if anything stands out as being connected incorrectly!!
- I have the Corsair H115i AIO Cooler connected via CPU_FAN header on the motherboard, and the two ML140 Pro fans connected to the split 4-pin Y-fitting. Researching similar posts for ASUS motherboards on the Corsair forums, several users have insisted on using the CPU_FAN header to tie-in to Corsair software (makes sense, not every motherboard has an AIO_PUMP header). Using only the ASUS motherboard BIOS fan controls, I have adjusted the CPU_FAN to operate at full speed. Does anyone have any familiarity with the ASUS software for fan control, and do you think that would be better than the BIOS fan curves? Ideally, I would like to utilize the ASUS BIOS only and avoid all ASUS/Corsair software. To use the ASUS fan control BIOS would it be better to connect the two AIO fans to the CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT headers, move the cable for the pump to the AIO_PUMP header?
- ASUS FanConnect is a feature that ties in to the ASUS Strix GTX 1800 Ti OC GPU. FanConnect is the inclusion of two 4-pin fan headers, which allows users to sync GPU temps/fan speed to chassis fans. This is controlled by the GPU Tweak II software, and I found an article from ASUS regarding the benefits of such a setup. Anyone trying this out either, any thoughts? I’m sure this will have to be controlled through software, which is what I am trying to avoid.
So far I have had a few crashes, all on the factory BIOS, and I really do not wish to update until the May BIOS is released. I do have all of the latest drivers installed for Asus, nVIDIA G-Sync, Windows 10, etc. System feels a little slow, so this morning I ran the ASUS AI Suite 3 to perform the software-driven firmware optimization. I will begin to manually adjust settings in the BIOS once the revised BIOS is released, as to avoid any duplicate efforts. On first pass, I achieved an 8% overclock, I think it was around 3850MHz clock speed. I ran an extended test when I left the house, and hopefully the software will work while I am away to produce a stable clock speed and ram utilization that will work best for me. This software also adjusts fan speeds, but I am not sure exactly what has changed for fan curves. As a freebie, I was able to download Ghost Recon Wildlands as part of purchasing the Strix GPU. In the program settings, there was an included benchmark. I attempted to run one on Ultra Performance settings, only to experience system shut down before the benchmark loaded. I adjusted the settings down some and ran a High Performance benchmark, which ran and complete to post a result, but then I experienced yet a second system crash shortly after the test went back to the Settings menu. I was able to enable G-Sync on the PG348Q monitor at 100-Hz to limited success (using DisplayPort as instructed). I am going to run a common benchmark like Cinebench when I return home later today, to compare results to similar builds and hopefully I will not get any system crashes. I am getting some flickers out of the monitor while booting Windows, but I think this may be normal and part of the process before G-Sync drivers are loaded.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my build and the issues I am having. If you have any suggestions for me, I would appreciate the feedback. Please let me know your thoughts, and if you would change anything about the build. I will make sure to upload some pictures to this forum once I make it back home and have a chance to get some decent pictures!