Pacland's Philippine Boxing Forum

Well folks, the geek bug has bitten me once again. All I ever wanted this time around (initially anyway) was to build a budget rig with a reasonably fast storage/workspace and a decent processing capability to mainly accommodate a few ever-growing blockchains for the crypto nodes that I run and maintain. Besides, my past builds are showing their age though they are still very capable machines. However, as usual, I always get carried away with thoughts of other use case for it (mining, gaming, content editing/encoding/consumption, WIPs, etc.). The best laid plans...blah blah blah, I suppose. It's called a general computing device after all for a good reason. I'm not building a mere PSX or Xbox or the like here. I think it's still a budget build though (i.e. "bang for buck") in spite of my failure to stick to the original plan but at least, it has some semblance of utilizing current tech. So here it is with pictures galore (for those of you who'd rather browse through comic books than diligently read full-on pictureless novels)...thereby qualifying as a gaming-rig porn. Enloy!

The components/parts...

DIYPC J180-BL. A budget case but it doesn't feel like it at all. It's a very sleek and compact mid-tower ATX case. Though it's a couple of inches longer and taller than the case of a Mini ITX I built years ago, it's however a few inches narrower. It's not perfect (nothing ever really is) but it has most of the features and layout/size combo that I was looking for...
https://i.postimg.cc/9f1zP82z/IMG-0013.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/02WC2fFG/IMG-0016.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/28KXXrkf/IMG-0022.jpg

Nice vertically mounted front panel ports and switches; prevents dust accumulation over time and it still has 2 USB 2.0 ports...
https://i.postimg.cc/nzmHM03X/IMG-0017.jpg

Installed 3 anti-RGB black 120mm fans in front...
https://i.postimg.cc/FKgpm44z/IMG-0170.jpg

ASRock X370 Killer SLI/ac budget motherboard. As with other current tech, this motherboard (and Ryzen) supposedly only supports Windows 10. Like many others, I tinkered with Windows 7 before installing W10 on it cuz it was a challenge to overcome and did it successfully so...like many others. As you know, W7 will eventually no longer be supported very soon just like XP was. So we must move on but that's another story...
https://i.postimg.cc/GpVyZgBt/IMG-0026.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/TwnpBdMN/IMG-0032.jpg

AMD RYZEN 7 1700 budget 8-Core CPU. It came with an AMD Wraith Spire RGB LED Cooler but I apparently wouldn't be using it...
https://i.postimg.cc/P5NNTznw/IMG-0044.jpg

XPG Gammix D10 DDR4 3000MHz (PC4 24000) 16G (8GBx2) Memory Module Kit (ADATA). An ASRock-QVL'd budget RAM. It's interesting that ASRock has QVL'd a lot more ADATA XPG RAM models for this particular motherboard than the flagship brands...
https://i.postimg.cc/MTJG7CM7/IMG-0056.jpg

Samsung 970 EVO Plus Series 500GB PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 1.3 M.2 SSD. This would be the boot drive. Well, it's not exactly budget. In fact, it's at the top of the leaderboard speed, reliability and performance wise but it was on sale and priced competitively with the budget ones. So it is in fact a budget buy...
https://i.postimg.cc/gcD0hBYh/IMG-0047.jpg

Intel 660p Series 1TB M.2 NVMe 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4 3D NAND Internal SSD. This would be the fast work drive (blockchains, content editing/encoding, WIPs, etc. It's not as fast as the 970 EVO Plus but it's plenty fast for a work drive and at 1TB with a budget price, it's a no-brainer...
https://i.postimg.cc/yYpYQg3Y/IMG-0053.jpg

Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA3 6.0Gb/s 3.5" budget (bare) HDD. The quietest fast HDD I've ever used. As much as it's nice to have the NVMe SSD speed demons above to do work, HDDs can't be beat when it comes to secure and reliable long-term mass-storage at dirt-cheap $/GB cost. These two HDDs would be striped (RAID 0) to make them twice as fast and for a total of 4TB of storage space...
https://i.postimg.cc/W37sMhPV/IMG-0107.jpg

MSI Radeon RX Vega 56 OC DirectX 12 Air Boost 8GB 2048-Bit HBM2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support. Well, it's a budget card since it's the lowest-priced Radeon RX Vega 56 I could get with a reference blower-type card shroud to boot which is exactly what I wanted for a closed rig (expels all the hot air through the rear exhaust port instead of in the case)...
https://i.postimg.cc/KjHSNTq6/IMG-0110.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/pV1g3DC7/IMG-0118.jpg

Rosewill PHOTON Series 1200W budget PSU. The least expensive full modular 1200W power supply that's 80 PLUS Gold Certified. It's at least half the price of comparable flagship brands...
https://i.postimg.cc/V6kVV6Cm/IMG-0037.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/mZFvfPng/IMG-0040.jpg

CORSAIR Hydro Series H75 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler. Push-pull radiator fan configuration...
https://i.postimg.cc/zGD2BvxW/IMG-0042.jpg

Putting it together...

Motherboard on tray with all power and front panel connections hooked up...
https://i.postimg.cc/g2Bs2DXF/IMG-0091.jpg

CPU on socket and a 140mm exhaust fan mounted on the roof. Sight of that nice-looking white protective shroud over the I/O components on the left would eventually be blocked by the AIO radiator/fans...
https://i.postimg.cc/nzxDFjkf/IMG-0063.jpg

The 500GB Samsung 970 EVO Plus boot/system drive mounted on its respective NVMe M.2 socket that supports the full PCIe Gen3 x4 speed (32 Gb/s)...
https://i.postimg.cc/G2zHbMtv/IMG-0069.jpg

The 1TB Intel 660P work drive mounted on the second M.2 socket which primarily supports SATA3 (6 Gb/s) M.2 SSDs. It also supports NVMe M.2 SSDs but only up to PCIe Gen2 x2 speed (10 Gb/s). So the Intel 660P would still be faster than a standard SATA3 M.2 SSD on this interface. Besides, the cheapest SATA3 M.2 SSD of the same capacity cost more than the Intel 660P (I don't get it). Therefore, it is a budget and a win-win item...
https://i.postimg.cc/4dFs8jn2/IMG-0077.jpg

Corsair AIO installed as well as two 120mm fans on the floor drawing cool air from the basement and pushing it upward...
https://i.postimg.cc/FKrvhhLn/IMG-0098.jpg

XPG Gammix D10 RAM modules on the slots...
https://i.postimg.cc/brkYs3N6/IMG-0103.jpg

Motherboard I/O and GPU ports...
https://i.postimg.cc/BQCsk881/IMG-0156.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/SxNqhy81/IMG-0160.jpg

Cable management was a breeze with this case. Obviously a non-issue front side -- only a coupla small zip ties in the back side and that was it...
https://i.postimg.cc/ZR6XNgpy/IMG-0137.jpg

HDDs and PSU snug and secure in the basement...
https://i.postimg.cc/DZ3M7gHf/IMG-0148.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/RVhX5yhQ/IMG-0153.jpg

Ta-da!...

Even when it's off, the damn RGB LED underneath the PCH on this mobo stays on. Initially, it was annoyingly pulsating in red. It changed to this steady green color after installing the GPU. I haven't even bothered installing and fiddling with their RGB LED app. I left it the way it is. So much for the anti-RGB theme of this build...
https://i.postimg.cc/fW2fKCC3/IMG-0185.jpg

Magnetic dust filter over the top 140mm exhaust fan is pointless but serves as a fan grill dust cover when the rig is off which is gonna be rare...
https://i.postimg.cc/Fz8cQPCD/IMG-0254.jpg

The bling in the dark (no ambient lighting)...
https://i.postimg.cc/q74K06QV/IMG-0120.jpg

Window panel off...
https://i.postimg.cc/Pf98JRKM/IMG-0240.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/QMfF34H1/IMG-0216.jpg

Window panel on...
https://i.postimg.cc/CMXcGYwB/IMG-0245.jpg

In all its glory.
https://i.postimg.cc/tgv39tTZ/IMG-0214.jpg

Out of the box, the RX Vega 56 does around 1680 h/s mining with the CryptonightR algo. I have some RX 570 cards (2048 stream processors) which do around 575 h/s each out of the box. From my experience, an AMD card's hashing performance had pretty much been linearly related to the number of stream processors. The RX Vega 56 has 3584 stream processors; 75% more than the RX 570. I figured that it would hash around 1000 h/s (relatively also around 75% more than that of the RX 570) but such a concept of stream-processor-based linearity obviously does not apply in this case as the RX Vega 56 apparently hashes 192% more than the RX 570 instead. After some undervolting and core/memory frequency tweaking, the RX Vega 56 does around 1900 h/s.

With the same tweak for mining (not necessarily optimal for gaming performance), here are some Unigine Superposition benchmarks in different settings:

8K Optimized...
https://i.postimg.cc/pLSsj9ck/superposition-oc-8k-opt.png

4K Optimized...
https://i.postimg.cc/zBwmpw9q/superposition-oc-4k-opt.png

1080p Extreme...
https://i.postimg.cc/R0ysf3h4/superposition-oc-1080p-extreme.png

1080p High...
https://i.postimg.cc/nhkMC7d9/superposition-oc-1080p-high.png

1080p Medium.
https://i.postimg.cc/V65gkX8z/superposition-oc-1080p-medium.png

Other benchmarks:

Cinebench R20 CPU benchmark. It seems the Ryzen 7 1700 is up there with the Xeons and Threadrippers...
https://i.postimg.cc/wxfJzD5w/cinebench-r20-c.png

ATTO Benchmark: Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD. Well, what can I say? It's a 970 EVO Plus...
https://i.postimg.cc/t45BG2kY/evo-970-plus-atto-c.png

ATTO Benchmark: Intel 660P NVMe SSD. As noted above, the M.2 slot that it is on is only capable of up to PCIe Gen2 x2 speed (10 Gb/s). So these numbers do not really represent its true performance. Nevertheless, it still performs better than a SATA3 SSD...
https://i.postimg.cc/QMZK4RMp/intel-660p-atto-c.png

ATTO Benchmark: Seagate Barracuda (RAID 0). Not bad. It's almost closing the gap with SATA3 SSDs...
https://i.postimg.cc/hj5drhQG/barracuda-raid0-atto-c.png

To put these numbers into perspective, the following are ATTO benchmarks of the drives in the Mini ITX box I referenced in the beginning of this post...

Corsair Force Series GS SATA3 SSD...
https://i.postimg.cc/7hZVGrvh/corsair-force-gs-sata3-atto-c.png

Western Digital WD Green...
https://i.postimg.cc/YCPqT62s/wd-green-hdd-atto-c.png

BTW, the AMD Ryzen 7 1700 does around 490 h/s out of the box with all 8 cylinders firing with the CryptonightR algo.

Nice.....why AMD over Intel btw?

Built AMD Ryzen budget meal too.

Quick specs.

Procee : Ryzen 5 2400G
GPU :Gigabyte RX580 8gb
RAM :Hyper X Fury 16gb
SSD :Samsung Evo 250gb
HDD: WD 2TB
Monitor: Samsung 32 inch Curved

So far ok naman performance considering the small budget.

$/performance value. You can't get an 8-core/16-thread Intel at the current price point of the AMD Ryzen 7 1700 (1st Gen) or even the latest Ryzen 7 2700 (2nd Gen). The theme of the build is "budget" after all. Besides, AMD got it right this time around with the Ryzen compared to the prior Bulldozer performance which was lukewarm (I do have a rig built around one of the 8-core chips). Just read up on Ryzen reviews for more details.

Nice budget build utilizing a Ryzen Raven Ridge 4-core APU chip (with integrated GPU).

Speaking of monitors, my main one was showing its age too. Considering that more and more contents including TV shows and games are now shot/presented in the two-four-oh (2.40:1) CinemaScope/anamorphic format/aspect ratio category, I had to go for a 21:9 ultrawide-format monitors. Of course, it had to be curved especially with ultrawides for all the good reasons (wider FOV, increased immersion, minimize edge distortion, reduced eye strain, etc.). Following through with the "budget" theme, I got this for cheap...in fact the cheapest in this size/type/category but from what I've read, Viotek uses Samsung VA panels on their monitors:

Viotek GN30CB 30-Inch 1800R Curved Gaming Monitor w/FreeSync, 75Hz Ultrawide 21:9 2560x1080p, HDMI DP VESA, FPS/RTS & GamePlus
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71gjlVyolNL._SL1500_.jpg

It's the right size for my specific setup: mounted on an articulating arm via a 75mm VESA mount right by the couch. Perfect for couch potato days and nights in the man cave (feet up on the coffee table with wireless keyboard on lap and wireless mouse on couch . The general consensus/rule is that 1080p FHD monitors would be good up to 24" size at a typical desktop viewing distance. Beyond 24", pixels may start to be noticeable at 1080p (associated with decreased sharpness especially with text) at which point, a 1440p QHD monitor should be considered and even higher as size increases further. Since the Viotek GNC30CB is technically a 2560 x 1440p QHD albeit physically cropped vertically to 1080p for the 21:9 ultrawide format, it doesn't have such pixel-related shortcoming. My viewing distance from the couch is between 30-36 inches so that also helps.

All I can say is, wow! I'm never going back to 16:9 flat monitors.

My budget meal ryzen build is more than enough to play the latest titles, at first I try to use just the onboard vega graphics of the 2400G but not enough for maximum resolution so I jumped in into rx580 dedicated card. Watching movies in 1080p is amazing as well. I didn't join the 4kUHD bandwagon yet because in my eyes there's not much of a difference in terms of picture clarity. But who knows maybe after I upgrade my eyeglasses.

I paired it with Microlab solo 9c floor standing amplified speakers. It has a very nice sounds and more than enough for my midsized accommodation room.

My 2tb HDD is almost full with BluRay copies of FullHD movies.

Cool.....I'm still using my old i7 950 x58 mobo.......it won't die LOL.

That's the key: whatever works for one's needs...and budget. That said, having a mega-size, bazillion-K, ludicrous-HD monitor for personal viewing is pointless and a definite overkill. For group viewing, sure...why not? Get the upperhand in bragging rights and impress the heck out of them.

I experimented with HD projectors back in the Half-Life 2 and Crysis days (mid-2K). I projected games/contents onto an 8-foot wide (horizontal, not diagonal) screen on the wall and viewed from the couch at around 15 feet in the man cave and an 800-Watt 7.1 sound system to go with it. It was awesome and I impressed the heck out of my fellow cave men. It was like being in a cinema/theatre. Later on, I started to realize that by projecting a perspective view of my articulating-arm mounted 24" monitor from my eyepoint at a typical viewing distance (around 2.5 feet) from the same viewing couch onto the wall, it actually covers a wider FOV or viewing angle than the 8-foot wide projector screen. I also realized that earbuds/headphones with a properly calibrated audio software are just as immersive as the mega-Watt sound system if not better as they filter out ambient noise. So there you have it. I still have the threatre/sound system setup in place and functional though gathering a lot of dust.

Another consideration before getting a mega-size ultra-res monotor is file size of contents and the need for a more powerful GPU to drive it. With the 2560 x 1080p UWFHD monitor that I currently have, a content encoded at 720p still looks good on it. I doubt if that's the case with a 4K monitor. All of these aspects are dependent upon a single factor: viewing distance.

Here's an infographic to illustrate FOV/perspective view:

https://blog.codinghorror.com/content/images/uploads/2007/08/6a0120a85dcdae970b0120a86d9495970b-pi.png

...and an informative write-up on curved vs. flat monitors:

https://www.viewsonic.com/library/entertainment/curved-vs-flat-monitors

Why not, man? As long as it still works. I sold my x58 box a while ago. Plan for the eventuality of it croaking on you one day though. It's always good practice to have a backup/redundant system.

More 'puter porn. Some upgrades/mods.

Added another of the same 16GB (8GBx2) Memory Module Kit for a total of 32GB. The price was marked down further so why not...
https://i.postimg.cc/kg7k0ZJH/IMG-0317.jpg

The 970 Evo Plus NVMe M.2 boot drive runs a little warm than I'd like it to be while the system is on high load (full-on CPU and GPU mining). I got these heat sinks for both M.2 drives. I had to peel the sticker labels off of them to ensure proper contact with the silicone thermal pads which also effectively voids the warranty of the drives. I don't get it; they're only frigging stickers and I think they do more harm to the components by restricting ventilation over the PCB...
https://i.postimg.cc/Gt1T0ZPL/IMG-0269.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/N0mghLdX/IMG-0303.jpg

They look very nice on the MB; a lot better than the ugly exposed PCBs of the NVMe drives...
https://i.postimg.cc/Kvg9SHn8/IMG-0308.jpg

The heat sink got the boot drive temp down by 4 degrees Celcius which is significant but I expected or rather wanted more temp reduction. The surface area on the MB around the CPU socket (where the M.2 boot drive as well as the ever-important VRM are located) which is boxed in by default by the video card and RAM modules usually gets some semblance of ventilation or air movement by the CPU cooler fan but using an AIO like on this build takes that away, thereby allowing little or no air movement at all within that boxed-in MB surface area. At least that's my theory anyway. So I got this RAM cooler and it's the only one I found that allows fan direction adjustment...
https://i.postimg.cc/0ysPPwJH/IMG-0324.jpg

Well I'll be damned. The RAM cooler shaved off another 6°C for a total of 10°C temp reduction. Im happy and I'm sure the VRM appreciates the RAM cooler too.

The new look with the upgrades...
https://i.postimg.cc/c1tg39Vc/IMG-0329.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/fb3ZPF72/IMG-0350.jpg

The RX Vega 56 came with 3 free game titles: The Division 2, Devil May Cry 5 and Resident Evil 2. I just started redeeming them. These freebies made it a very sweet budget buy.

Here's a screenshot of the TD2 benchmark. Note that the card or rig is capable of much higher frame rates as shown on the Superposition benchmarks posted on the OP but frame rates (FPS) are effectively capped by the maximum refresh rate of the monitor which in this case is 75 Hz.

https://i.postimg.cc/QdKcg9kt/div2-20190421-20h45m.png

These are more comprehensive and proper Tom Clancy's The Division 2 benchmarks at different video quality presets with AMD's Enhanced Sync and FreeSync turned on (collectively they unlock the frame rate capped by Vsync while preventing screen tearing, stuttering, input lag and latency). CPU and GPU are at stock settings. Resolution is set at monitor's native UWFHD resolution (2560x1080).

Ultra: 68 FPS
https://i.postimg.cc/0jmFyQC5/ultra.png

High: 89 FPS
https://i.postimg.cc/wMV52Yqc/high.png

Medium: 117 FPS
https://i.postimg.cc/YSvHwtT0/medium.png

Low: 166 FPS
https://i.postimg.cc/rmcLb7XY/low.png

TCTD2 benchmark scene (not mine)

The RX Vega 56 card that I got for this build has a Samsung HBM2 instead of a Hynix one which means that it can be flashed with the RX Vega 64 BIOS for even more performance boost. I'll tinker with it sometime.

https://i.postimg.cc/DfPS2T6S/gpuz-samsung-mem.png

CPU and GPU happily mining. In addition to this full-on mining load, I'd also have a game download/installation, at least 3 monitoring apps running and a 1080p content playing among other stuff running in the background (real-time online mining stats and other browser activities) yet the rig doesn't complain. No lag at all and no stuttering on the content playback either...even dragging a window around on the screen on top of all these loads/activities does not show a hint of lag (my litmus test for lag). I couldn't say the same for the other builds I did in the past so this is pretty impressive to me. Happy camper.

Ryzen 7 1700
https://i.postimg.cc/htNs31S2/cpu-mining.png

RX Vega 56
https://i.postimg.cc/d30G0hs7/gpu-mining.png