Have I been naughty or nice?

[shagly]

2 months on from first looking through the window of the toy shop and its finally time to send that letter to Santa (aka press the order button). I’ve cleaned the build list up from my previous thread and listed how it stands now. It is for home use, mostly video editing/re-coding, trying to optimize a small footprint and as quiet as I can get due to our “office” (3rd. bedroom) being located next to our bedroom. Many thanks to everyone, particularly Oussebon for their time and input.
Case
Assuming I can get hold of one to send to PCS - Fractal Design Meshify C
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900KS (4.0GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st & 2nd Storage Drives
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
RAID
RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

 

[Scott]

I don't think the Noctua is going to cut the mustard there to be honest. You really want a water cooler on there. The h100i RGB would be what I would recommend as a minimum.

You have selected RAID on there, this is probably not required nowadays but guess you have gone over this already.

The rest of it looks amazing. The Meshify S2 is available if that's any good?

 

[shagly]

NOOOooo… I thought I’d got it cracked!

I went for the Noctua NH-U14S following a forum suggestion previously. I did quite a bit of Googling then before adding it to the build and the consensus across independent sites was that it would do the job. This view was backed up by Noctua’s own test results - https://noctua.at/en/cpu/Intel_Core_i9-9900K - though that was for the K version not the KS (I didn’t think there would be any additional heat problem) but if it helps, I can go back to the K.

Liquid cooling is yet another subject I know 10% of a quarter of the square root of nothing about so was trying to avoid it if at all possible. I’m not interested in RGB so I’ll investigate the other (quiet) options in the PCS list.

Then the case – I originally went for the Corsair Carbide Series™ 275Q looking for the Q in quiet but again swapped that for the C after advice here. I know I don’t have to look through the window of a case but PCS don’t offer the standard S2 & I’m pushed for space so the 538 length of the S is a step too far.

 

[Scott]

I wouldn't touch air cooling with the high end Intel or AMDs to be honest. The heat-soak with an on-top fan solution is going to be huge compare to that of an intake radiator solution. There's just no comparison.

The Noctuas are about the best air cooling you can get, within reason, but the high end chips put out serious wattage. I'm running a H115i Platinum and it takes all it's got to keep it in check when overclocked past 5.2Ghz. I could run it but couldn't sustain decent temps at 5.4Ghz. At 5.0Ghz it does just fine and keeps temps reasonable even when gaming on VR for hours. For non-overclocked I wouldn't go much lower, hence the H100i recommendation.

Just FYI, the H100i RGB isn't being recommended because it's pretty, it's because it's the best at that level. It's just a bonus that it's pretty, if you like RGB of course

The H100x/H115i Pro have the old cooling plate. They are great coolers, make no mistake, but the new platinum range use Cool-It plates which just upped the game for the coolers entirely. The H100i Platinum performs as well as previous gen 360mm AIO coolers. The H115i Platinum performs as well as some custom loop water cooled systems.

 

[Scott]

The Intel Core i9-9900KS Special Edition Review: 5.0 GHz on All the Cores, All the Time

Intel's Core i9-9900KS arrives with impressive gaming performance.

www.tomshardware.com

<snip>
We turned the same amount of attention to the KS's 5.0 GHz boost as we have with our series of AMD Ryzen 3000 boost clock tests. We put the chip through the wringer in a variety of workloads with different cooling solutions and found that, given adequate cooling, the chip sustains 5.0 GHz on all cores at stock settings, regardless of instruction type (AVX workloads included).

As outlined in the charts above, we stress-tested the chip with both a beefy custom watercooling loop with two 360mm radiators, and a Corsair H115i AIO watercooler. Both cooling solutions facilitated a consistent 5.024 GHz clock rate, but air cooling doesn't seem to be a viable option. We paired the chip with a beefy Noctua NH-D15S air cooler, and at stock settings, the chip often bumped against its 100C thermal limit, which triggered clock throttling to protect the processor. Contrary to some reports, the Core i9-9900KS will obviously not support overclocking with an air cooler.
</snip>

 

[Oussebon]

In fairness, that was with an AVX stress test in AIDA. Though that could be relevant to the OP's uses?

 

[Scott]

Stress testing is something that I do with every system. I want my system to stand up to the worst case scenario so that I know it's fine with everything I'll throw at it. Thermal throttling on a stress test would put me off any system. Most issues on here from users are temp related or temp queries at least.

 

[Oussebon]

I run my 3770k with an AVX stress test in Prime 95, insta 100 degrees. I run Prime 95 without AVX, mid 80s peaks after a few hours in a warm room, which is also what I get in handbrake transcoding and other 100% CPU usage scenarios.

This is why many mobos run with an AVX offset built in where frequency is downclocked 200MHz (often) for AVX workloads.

It seems the AVX offset was disabled in that testing, going by the frequencies - and indeed the temps.

Not saying I'd buy the Noctua for a 9900KS either, even without AVX workloads. Only that if the OP wants a Noctua cooler and isn't using AVX workloads, they need to investigate further than Tom's Hardware.

 

[Scott]

We are all entitled to our opinions. Mine wasn't based on that article, but experience of owning and overclocking a 9900k with one of the best coolers you can buy in one of the best cases you can buy. I know what it takes to keep that chip cool first hand and an air cooler simply isn't going to cut the mustard.

I don't give my opinion based on what someone wants to do, but on what I think is the right thing to do. Limiting a CPU processors ability to do anything due to cooling constraints because of preference is not something I can advocate.

 

[Oussebon]

Without knowing whether the OP intends to OC or give the CPU AVX workloads it's rather hard to pronounce on the right thing tbh.

Let's be clear, I too would probably go with an AIO cooler (as in, an extremely good one) for that CPU on the grounds that regardless of whether the Noctua is enough, I'd want more than enough for the build. But there's no basis in this thread yet to say the Noctua isn't enough for the OP's needs.

 

[shagly]

Blimey! I've now got a centre parting where pretty much all of that went whizzing over my head
As I mentioned, if it helped, I could go back to the K as I was only aiming to build in as much future proofing that I could while I've got the option (and the money) and I won't be overclocking, this build makes my current one (from Dell) look like an IBM XT

 

[Oussebon]

The TL-DR is that you have a very powerful, but also very hot CPU in the form of the 9900KS. And probably both @The_Scotster and I would go with one of the best CPU coolers on offer e.g. H100i Platinum for that, in preference to even an excellent air cooler.

The disagreement I think is mostly over whether the Noctua would technically be enough to cool the CPU.

If you're not existentially averse to all in one water coolers, and if you have the extra money available, you should consider getting the H100i Platinum with that build

Liquid coolers only need the same kind of maintenance as air ones - i.e. dusting. They're sealed units, so you don't refill them or anything like that. They just sit there and cool the components as you'd exist any CPU cooler you're already familiar with.

 

[shagly]

I must be getting better…I understood most of that.

I always take a bow 🙇‍♂️ to superior knowledge and so a Corsair H100i RGB Platinum Hydro Series CPU Cooler it is. I’ve checked out the details and it looks like Corsair’s iCUE software includes an RGB setting for my favourite – black (a.k.a. off).

Case
Fractal Design Meshify C – Unfortunately, Santa seems to have been having problems with the elves. The rumour is that the snow berry harvest has been low this year due to the weather. This means that, the black (solid side panel) C is like rocking-reindeer droppings and if I want the build done this year, I might have to make do with the Dark Tempered Glass version.
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900KS (4.0GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs - RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st & 2nd Storage Drives
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
RAID
RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i RGB Platinum Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Unless, of course anyone has any comments? ⁉

 

[SpyderTracks]

Looks sweet to me, the only question I’d have is the requirement for RAID? RAID is old and rarely the best solution these days.

 

[shagly]

I'm an old belt, braces, a second belt, some string & safety pins sort 😓 that just can't have enough copies of stuff. I've got a RAID 1 NAS that I use for True Image backups but, providing I'm not degrading the setup, I'd kick myself if I lost something.

 

[Oussebon]

Raid is a fairly good way to loose stuff. Since if it goes on one drive - you delete it, a virus gets it - same goes for the other drive. Multiple versioned backups to an external drive, or even the cloud, would be the better way to avoid losing data.

Case
Fractal Design Meshify C – Unfortunately, Santa seems to have been having problems with the elves. The rumour is that the snow berry harvest has been low this year due to the weather. This means that, the black (solid side panel) C is like rocking-reindeer droppings and if I want the build done this year, I might have to make do with the Dark Tempered Glass version.

You can buy spare parts for Fractal cases from Fractal:

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www.fractal-design-shop.de

if you look, you will note that they don't stock a plain black left side panel - only the black right side panel.

However, going by this photo it appears they use the black right side panel on the left side too:

Meshify C

www.fractal-design.com

Which makes sense.

Email Fractal Support to check before buying, but if you get the darkened tempered glass side panel case and decide you really can't stand occasionally seeing components as you glance through the window nobody's forcing you to look at (kidding) then you can always buy a spare side panel. It's like 8€ for the panel and then probably 15€ for shipping.

We had something similar when shopping for the Cooltek Jonsbo W2. There was the black aluminium side panel one for £100 or one with a clear side panel on ebay for £60-odd. We got the ebay one and being able to see in the box isn't an issue. It just motivated me to do the cables nicely when assembling the system. In fact it's useful as a visual reminder to dust!

 

[shagly]

I think that's what the young people these days call "Thinking outside the case box." 🙄 Did I mention I used to write the jokes for Christmas crackers?
Having thought about it, it might be blessing in disguise, as you rightly say, It's a good reminder to get the air duster out.
It looks like Santa might be visiting after all. 🎁

 

[shagly]

The word from Fractal Design is that the two panels (glass/solid) aren't interchangeable so Dark Tempered Glass it is.
Time to hold my breath, shut my eyes, cross my fingers stiffen my sinews and press the Proceed button 😨

 

[SpyderTracks]

The word from Fractal Design is that the two panels (glass/solid) aren't interchangeable so Dark Tempered Glass it is.
Time to hold my breath, shut my eyes, cross my fingers stiffen my sinews and press the Proceed button 😨

Strap in tight!!!

 

[shagly]

I hope that it won't be a bumpy ride! 😱