This weekend, I've fulfilled a long dream of mine and upgraded my computer to a fully custom waterloop. This is, for a number of a reasons, a complicated process, and outside of general advice, it's difficult to provide an exact guide on how to do this. Custom waterloops are, well, custom. They depend mostly on what computer case you use, and what sort of reservoir and such you've bought. As such, my advice can also only be general.

Plan ahead

Check online for custom watercooling builds in your case. Use those as a guide for radiator and reservoir placement. Sketch ideas out on paper. Measure out the places inside of your case where you intend to place components. Check the your pc case manual, those very often contain info on where you can place radiators and reservoirs.

Some cases are ill-suited for custom waterloops. Consider buying a new case rather than building in an old, ill-suited one. It will save you a lot of pain.

Some cases require modifications. I had to cut into mine with a metal saw to make space for a radiator. Minimal material was removed from the frame, invisible after the case is put back together. I also had to drill into it to place the reservoir. The holes case manufacturers place for reservoirs are best-effort guesses. Unlike for fans, and thus radiators, there are no standards for reservoirs.

Do not rush

Expect a marathon, not a sprint. There will be setbacks. My process, setbacks and all, took me 3 days. And I still fucked up assembling my GPU. The die has bad contact and I'll have to drain the loop, pull it out, disassemble it and put it back together again. A lot of this was also spent waiting for next-day deliveries to show up because I'm dumb and was missing things.

Prefer soft tubing, and do not go for PVC

There are no performance benefits to hardline tubes, and they are a bitch to measure, bend and cut precisely. That 95° angle that was meant to be a 90° is going to be evident immediately, and forever. Soft tubes are forgiving, easy to put into the system and much more time efficient. They also do not require extra equipment dedicated solely to bending hardline tubes. Think about where your build is going to sit. On the floor? Who gives a shit how it looks?

Edit: if you opt for soft tubes, don't get them made from PVC. They very often leak plasticizers into the loop that gunk up your components and reduce performance. You'll need to swap them after some time and they also tend to harden. To minimize maintenance, go for EPDM tubing. It's black instead of transparent, but it's better in the long term.

Custom waterloops are all about you, and if you insist, then you do you. Hardline tubes are the endboss of all pc builds. Be ready for a challenge. Conversely, some folks really want transparent soft tubes. Just know what you're getting into.

Tube sizes

The standard soft tube is 13 mm outer diameter and 10 mm inner diameter, or 13/10. There's a ton of other sizes as well but remember even if the inner diameter is larger, liquid flow improvemets are going to be marginal. Different sizes also need different fittings.

Respect the crink

Soft tubing is a breeze to put into your system, but don't make those corners too tight or it'll crink and cut off flow. Check this especially when you close up the panels of your pc case. Tubing is cheap, comparatively. Don't be afraid to use more than you need.

Money

Custom water loops are pricey. Full copper radiators start at 100€, water blocks are usually hundreds as well, with the tubing, fittings and all it's normal for cooling equipment alone to account for a grand. You're bolting an aftermarket cooling system onto your PC that will turn it into a racecar. A lot of that is finely machined copper. It costs.

Remember the extras

Ya know how I said that I needed to order some extra things last-minute? Thank fuck for Amazon and their fast deliveries. If you live in a larger city, there's also a good chance a specialist computer store somewhere might have what you need.

Leak tester

Those are small air pumps with a pressure gauge. You close of all ports and then pump air into the system, 0.5 bar maximum (!!!), and wait 60 minutes. If the pressure is maintained, congratulations, your system is air- and thus watertight.

Test your individual components before you put them into your case! This way, you know that the components themselves are tight, and you avoid having to pull out a radiator after screwing it in place because you forgot to tighten that one end cap you can now no longer reach. Ask me how I know.

Also test our loop when it's fully assembled. Should you have a leak, divide your loop into two halves and leak test those. Repeat (divide into halves and test) until you have located the leak. If you have tested your comps individually before, it's going to be a radiator fitting you forgot to tighten or your reservoir top 99% of the time. Have a book or a podcast ready because this is a long process with lots of downtime.

Motherboard 24-pin jumper plug

These nifty little things are incredibly cheap and useful. After you wire everything up, you want to fill your reservoir and turn on the pump, but obviously you do not want to immediately electrify your entire system. So you pull the 24-pin motherboard cable of your motherboard and put the plug into it. It bridges specific pins, tricking your power supply into thinking a motherboard is connected. This way your pump turns on without the rest of your system. Once the water is circulating and not catastrophes have occured, you can turn off your power supply and plug the mobo back in.

Common advice

This is advice that's often repeated in watercooling circles for beginners. If you're seriously considering doing this, you will likely already have stumbled upon these. I'm adding these just for posterity.

Do not mix aluminium and copper/brass

Cheaper watercooling components are often out of aluminium while pricier ones are out of copper. You do not want both in your system as they eat each other through galvanic corrosion. If your cooling blocks for the GPU and CPU use copper (they very often do), the rest needs to be out of copper or brass as well, fittings included!

Buy more fittings than you think you need

Remember, per tube you'll need at least two! Check that they have O-rings, as those provide the seal.

Put a drain port into your loop

You should generally drain and flush the loop at least once a year. This will be a lot easier if on low points you have faucet you can attach a tube to and open to drain it. Pulling the loop back apart is generally the last thing people think off when building a custom loop for the first time, so it's useful to know.

Consider quick disconnects

Quick disconnects are special fittings you can put into a tube or attach directly to a port. You can then pull them apart with minimal or no leakage of your cooling fluid without having to drain your loop. Really useful for example the GPU, which tends to be the component that's swapped out most often.

Use cooling fluids over distilled water

Obviously no fucking tap water, ever! But lots of folks also gravitate to distilled water. Cooling fluids like what Alphacool or Aquacomputer make have extra stuff in them, like corrosion inhibitors and biocides that prevent algae build up. You can also mix these yourself if you can get the inhibitors and biocides concentrated but if you're on that level I don't think you need this guide anymore.

Also, colored liquid fucking sucks. Unless you want to pull apart your water blocks and clean them with a toothbrush, use clear liquids. If you want fun colors, put RGB into your case.

120 mm of radiator length per 100 W of heat generation

The two components generating the most heat in your PC are likely the CPU and GPU. Check the specs of those to see how much heat they generate. This number is generally known as the Thermal Design Point (TDP). Radiators come in many sizes fitted to fan sizes, mostly in multiples of 120 or 140 mm, but running this calculation gives you a baseline for how much radiators you need. More is always better! Fit in as many radiators as you can into your case, but if your case can't fit the number of this calculation then you need to look for a bigger case.

Knowing the TDP is rarer for GPUs, you can also use board power or power draw as a substitute. We're doing napkin math here, no need to be precise.

Example:

CPU: 170 W

GPU: 300 W

-> round up to 500 W, which means 5 * 120 = 600. A 360 mm radiator fits 3 120 mm fans. You'd need 2 radiators with 3 fans each to cool your system adequately.

Alternatively, a 280 mm radiator fits 2 140 mm fans. You'd need 3 of those to cool the system.

Radiator thiccckness

Radiators come in different thicknesses. Since what dictates a radiator's ability to dissipate heat is the total surface of it's fins, increasing the thickness improves cooling ability. However, most PC cases, even full towers, are practically limited to 45 cm rad height at most.

Noise

A big motivation for doing this was noise. Cooling everything with a custom loop means that I've lost the 2 fans on my CPU air cooler and the 3 fans on my GPU. What remains are the case fans only, 2x180 mm ones and 3x140 mm. Those can now run at dramatically lower speeds (10% fan speed at idle, ramping up much more slowly) for a nearly silent build even under full load. The pump and reservoir combo I've chosen are isolated from the pc case through rubber standoffs which means that the pump, even when at 100%, runs dead-silent.

Chasing diminishing returns

Switching to a custom loop alone is a massive bonus to the computer's ability to be cooled, because water is a much more efficient way to move heat than air. Case radiators also have much more volume than the heat sinks on your GPU and CPU right now, improving the cooling further.

Once you step into this world, the choices open to you are staggering. Delidding the CPU. Using liquid metal instead of thermal paste, etc. etc. Unless you're planning on overclocking your system, there's no point to doing any of those things that are actively dangerous.

Liquid metal buys you a couple of degrees °C at best, at the cost of being dangerous and difficult to apply and even a tiny escaped drop having the ability to short and fry your GPU for good.

Delidding your CPU is only useful if you plan to overclock. I did it, but only because the company Thermal Grizzly sells delidded CPUs and a fitting water cooling block. If you're doing it at home, the investment is way too large to make sense. Delidding also requires liquid metal afterwards. See paragraph above for that.

If you're in this just because you want a high performing system at less noise, then using a PTM material instead of thermal paste is going to be good enough.

All of these improvements lower temperatures of your components. Delidding the CPU and cooling it directly buys you something like 20°C under load. But the thing is, a good water cooling loop can absolutely cope with a high performance CPU running at 100 per cent. With the IHS on it'll just push 80°C instead of 60°C.

Functionally, there's no difference if the CPU runs at 60°C or 80°C. The only time it matters if if you're over clocking and through that causing the CPU to approach its thermal limit. Then dropping it by a few degrees makes sense.

If not? Skip them.

I hope these help people. Feel free to ask any questions!

Edits in no particular order:

Loop order does not matter

PC custom water cooling loops are not car engines, and as such the thermal differences between coolant and components is much smaller. This means that having a radiator follow a component to immediately cool the water down is much less effective than just adding more rad volume. It also tends to make your tube runs messier and is overall not worth it.

I caught wind of the BC-250 after the Linux on PS5 post where @moocow1452 posted about them and shared a link. The BC-250 is an APU cut down from PS5s that didn't pass Sony QC, they were originally slated for waste but largely got picked up by crypto miners. I hadn't got myself anything for my birthday or promotion, so when I found a deal, I grabbed it for the HTPC I'd wanted but couldn't justify. (Long post, tl;dr at end)

Specs:
6-core AMD Zen 2, stock clock 3.5GHz
AMD custom GPU, stock clock 1.5GHz*
16GB unified GDDR6 RAM+VRAM
M.2 2280 slot
*Stock lock is weird and limited, will discuss

I'm not sure exactly when they got proper Linux support or folks started using them for gaming but I'm definitely behind the curve. You used to be able to get them <$100 but now they seem to be going for $180. I found a "pre build" for $275 shipped that had it ready to go, including a case, cooling, PSU, 256GB SSD, and unlocked BIOS... this isn't too far from what I would've totalled had I gotten the board for ~$80, and saved me some headaches. While the seller pre installed Bazzite, no way was I trusting the OS installed by a random eBay seller.

So what's it take to make one of these usable, what trouble did the seller save me? Let's start with the BIOS -- this needs to be unlocked by flashing though I'm not totally sure if it's required to use it at all but at the very least it unlocks the dynamic 512mb VRAM. 16GB total is kinda limiting today and the default split is 8/8 RAM/VRAM -- a static split isn't exactly ideal -- depending on your game, you could easily be maxing out one with unused of the other. The dynamic 512 reserves only 512mb for the GPU alone and allows the rest to be properly split as needed (mostly, there's still technically a VRAM cap that can be raised with kernel parameters).

OK next saved headache was the cooling. See, these were built as server units with fans set to blow air through them. The heat sink fins are closed off on the top. One can print a sleeve to have a standard fan push air through, but opening the fins up and letting the fan push air through from the middle is more effective, more like your typical consumer GPU. Seller did a messy job, but it is opened in the middle. Some folks use 2 fans and fully open the fins for a cooler/quieter build.

The final headache was minor but they saved me from sorting out the PSU and power button. Since the board is powered just by 8 pin PCIE, for this PSU, two pins on another header need to be shorted to stay powered on, seller already had this in place. Seller also soldered power and reset buttons to the board.

So with the hardware sorted, what does the software end look like? While it can technically run Windows, but it does not and will not have GPU drivers -- though folks have added external GPUs. The main 2 OS options folks recommend are Bazzite and CachyOS. Folks say Cachy is better but benchmarks I saw weren't that compelling, I already use Bazzite and it seemed to have less extra steps so I went with that, standard installation process went smooth and it was basically ready to go from there... So why am I futzing around so much?

Well, the dynamic VRAM can collide with the default ZRAM swap, causing crashes and other errors. So I went through disabling that, enabling ZSWAP, then tweaking config and kernel parameters according to community info. So part of my futzing was comparing speed and stability with the various RAM settings and swaps.

So the next futzing was the GPU clock. The stock is locked at 1.5GHz over 920mV always no matter if load is high or low, but PS5 runs em around 2.3GHz and higher volts. There's a community governor that can decrease volts/clocks under light load and unlock the stock. Folks easily get 2.0GHz at 1000mV but some push 2200+ at 1150. So testing with that was more futzing around, playing in Expedition 33 for half an hour to see if settings were stable. I found the defaults to be fairly aggressive, causing artifacts and crashing. I disabled all their default points over 920mV, set one at 2.0/1000, and called it a day. Didn't feel like trying to squeeze out another 100MHz. Also boosted the bottom 700mV point up by 20 since I saw some graphical artifacts at low loads and that cleaned those up. (<700 locks it right back to stock parameters so that's the effective minimum)

Next up is the CPU, stock has it at 3.5GHz at 1180mV. Folks have been able to get the same clock down to 1000mV, some mad lads pushing 4.1GHz and like 1.3V. There's another community tool for helping with this where you punch in a target clock, voltage, and temp, then it tests it out. I haven't settled this one out, I may go for a bit of an under volt to help keep it quieter/cooler since it's an HTPC, or may just leave it at stock. Folks also recommend disabling mitigations for Spectre/Meltdown as it significantly slows the CPU and you're fairly unlikely to need it for a DIY Steam Machine.

So I was stumbling through this following the community wiki, it had some good and useful info, but it didn't seem entirely consistent and sometimes was just wrong. Turns out, it's an AI compilation of community info. I'd have saved myself a ton of trouble if I'd found this repo and followed their instructions as that's what I eventually found worked best.

Expedition 33 was my main real world benchmark tool. With FSR+LSFG on medium, I was hitting 1440p@90fps, 1080p@45fps without. The site compares it to a 3060, I thought that was mine until I double checked and have a 3070. It does E33 with DLSS+LSFG at 1440p@120fps cap on medium, or 1080p@60-70fps without either. So while the .info site seems to accurately describe the GPU as similar to a 3060, their benchmarks seem to include scaling and/or frame gen based on my limited testing. However, E33 still looked bad and off compared to my Nvidia at the same settings. After a day of fiddling, I looked it up and turns out, E33 specifically looks worse on AMD.

As for HTPC apps, Jellyfin flatpak works great. Official Plex apps are deprecated, both flatpak and snap, they run terribly. Girens (unofficial Plex client flatpak) seems to work well, but requires a mouse and sub menus don't work in big picture. I plan on using a PS4 controller (touchpad works as trackpad) for the time being so this isn't too big a deal, but it's definitely less polished than the Plex smart TV app. VLC with the network drive mapped so we can play direct from file as back-up. And finally VacuumTube for YT smart TV interface with ad blocking. Hardware encoding/decoding does not work and will not so it's all done by the CPU, but it was enough for my high bitrate 4k HEVC decoding test.

It doesn't have proper sleep states. Can't wake from USB/LAN, power button only, and doesn't actually sleep CPU/GPU so it doesn't really save power in sleep. Shutdown/cold boot is inconvenient for a daily use HTPC. Estimated 60W at idle, about $6 a month left on 24/7 for us, perhaps an extra $50/yr compared to a box with proper sleep. However, most it can pull under load is 235W, less than a typical gaming PC. Not enough to realistically break even versus a gaming PC with proper sleep though, so it's probably an expense worth considering in comparison shopping for a similar usage.

Final Verdict: do I recommend it? Honestly, if you're getting bare board for $180, maybe not, but also depends on who I'm recommending to. I seen someone on the discord selling them for $150, others may be selling too, perhaps prebuilts even. Between case, fan, PSU, and SSD you're ending up closer to $400 for a running build -- and that's before wifi/Bluetooth/controller if you don't have extras of those already. At that rate, you may be better off getting a mini PC + eGPU dock + older graphics card, but I'd need to shop around to see how their price:performance ratio compares. On top of that, you'll likely need to do the trouble the seller saved me. Getting the software going is fairly simple nowadays though, so long as you have the foreknowledge to just use NexGen's repo. If you're curious, do some comparison shopping between what you find for these versus a mini PC + eGPU setup. Don't forget to consider the cost of the BC250's idle draw if you don't want to cold boot each day/use. I wanted a machine that could be a media client, do some modest gaming, and to experiment with AMD and unified V/RAM. I ended up with one that can do that and some AA/A, so I'm satisfied, despite the quirks.

Lately I’ve been experimenting with different desktop monitor setups, primarily for productivity-focused work as a systems engineer (coding, writing docs, Slack, email, terminals, etc.). Over the past few years, I’ve rotated through:
• 3× 24” 1080p monitors
• 2× 24” 1080p monitors + laptop display
• 1× 32” 4K monitor + laptop display
• 1× 32” 4K monitor
• Laptop display only (on a stand)

Surprisingly, I’ve found that I feel the most focused and productive when I use only my laptop display and rely on Alt-Tab to switch between apps.

With larger monitors or multiple displays I start to feel scattered. It almost turns into sensory overload, and my focus drops off.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do you find that larger or multiple monitors decrease your productivity? What setup works best for you?

I've never actually put in more fans than what a case comes with, but I have an unraid server that is running hot so I got a pack of 5 fans to put in it.

From what I understand, you want them set up so that there is a solid airflow throughout the case; ie I'm planning to set it up so that the front and bottom fans are intake and the top and back fans are exhaust, so that cool air enters from the front/bottom and exits out the back/top.

However, one of the fans will be going on the side door. I'm assuming this wants to be intake as well (so that the airflow goes through the entire case, as I assume it would disrupt the airflow as exhaust). Or would it be better to not have one on the side and just have an extra fan laying about?

This is how I plan to set it up (shout out to MS Paint): https://ibb.co/KcXx5cgW

Note: The X's are because the installed chassis block being able to put fans there; the bottom one is especially disappointing as it's the HDDs that are mostly getting hot

Just wanted to confirm that that set up looks good and that intake for the side one (where the ? is) is the proper choice

I'm looking to better organize all the computer and electronics parts I have laying around and am looking for recommendations for software from people who are already doing this. I saw InvenTree but wasn't sure if there are other alternatives I should look at. Most of what I found so far is focused on companies and is therefore a bit more than I need. My only major requirement is that I can self-host it, or at least easily export all my data out of it. Ideally, the same software would work well for organizing home workshop parts as well (e.g. bolts, sockets, glues), though that's not a hard requirement.

Also, I'm not sure if this makes more sense here or in ~hobbies, but I figured the computer/electronics focus means it makes more sense here.

I've been having intermittent problems with selecting text. I'm not sure which software it is in, but it is certainly in Slack and IntelliJ. The text I select will often/sometimes not stay selected once I lift my finger up. It will take several times to make the selection last, sometimes swiping in a different direction.

Is it my mouse or the software?

My mouse in made by Inland, model RTM098( J10 ). Probably very old.

I am looking to replace my PC that I mostly use for gaming for close to 10 years. While I used to work in data centers, I've never been into building custom PC, particular the planning and research portion on what parts to get.

I am currently eyeing the Corsair build kit, and wonder if anyone has any experience to share.

Thanks in advance.

Pseudo because upgrading some of the parts might have a knock-on effect for other parts. Might end up leading to an upgrade of the whole system, idk. So here's a list of parts that I've already acquired. I was originally going to use some of them to fill out the Framework laptop that I pre-ordered... but I had an expensive couple of months earlier this year and figured I could wait on it. :(

Now here's what I have in my tower currently.

I'm looking to keep the tower at the very least and reuse it for new components. Right now, I know that the mobo will absolutely need to be replaced IF I'm throwing the ryzen chip in. And with knock-on effect, probably the psu as well since these components are drawing more power. The goal is to get a solid 60 fps on Helldivers (which I can't do at the moment, even on the lowest graphical settings) since it's the most intensive game that I play. With this goal in mind, does it make sense to start using the components I have from the first list, or might it be cheaper to keep them for the framework and get older (still compatible) parts that would fit right in to the system as it stands?

I am a pretty big fan of the PCMR Battle station posts where everyone shares their computers and desk setups. I have never seen one here so I figured I would start one!

Here is my desk, three 32" monitors (two facing the desk, one facing my living room on the back ). I primarily use my lower monitor and have background stuff on the upper (spotify, torrent client, youtube, podcasts, winamp, twitch, discord, etc etc). I have a bunch of old Xbox360 controllers and enjoy playing PC games on the couch on my rear monitor (as well as streaming obviously). The rear monitor also has a firestick and my only source of sound (other than my headset) is an Amazon Echo (which also controls my living room lights). The PC is a prebuilt from iBUYPOWER, it was my first time buying a prebuilt (I was hesitant to do so) and the only reason I did was because I was wanting to build a new rig right as crypto mining was driving up the cost of everything and I was able to get a great deal on this one. So far it has performed great. I still have two RAM slots open so I think that is the next thing I am gonna do.

I built my last computer in 2008 so I was way overdue for a new one and my S.O. has informed me I went a little overboard =)

9200 i7-8700K 6-Core 3.7 GHz | Liquid Cooled | Z370 Motherboard| GeForce GTX 1070 | 16GB DDR4| 1TB HDD | 240GB SSD |

Lets see what you guys have!

EDIT: sorry for the low picture quality, my cell phone is garbage.

EDIT2: forgot to include a screenshot

It's the same background on all three, but the taskbar is basic on the two secondary (and icons are only on the main). And if anyone was confused about the random monitor hanging off of the back of my desk this kinda shows it better.

I'm looking at starting to do a PC build and I'm a bit lost on which way to go CPU wise.

Proposed use case: linux, some gaming (usually older games), possibly trying to learn home lab/self hosting types of things probably in a VM but nothing really heavy. I do want to run Starfield when it comes out and maybe be able to try VR some time in the future.

I'd like to have a bit of a future proof system while getting value for my money, as in I'd like to spend less but I will spend more if it matters. This is where I'm sort of getting lost.

I tend to lean towards Intel because VM's and multitasking should work better (I think) but people seem to believe that AMD is better bang for the buck?

I feel like I'm likely not going to swap CPU's, but RAM, GPU, and storage are easy to swap so I'm not to worried.

My main needs are:

• Not too pricey
• Very low idle power
• At least 6 x SATA

I don't need a beefy GPU (the iGPU will be more than I need) or lots of CPU performance (I'll probably pick one of the cheapest compatible CPU).

AM5 is still pretty expensive and the cheap(-ish) motherboards mostly only have 4 x SATA so I would need an extension card. But I'm considering it because 5nm vs 7nm should improve the power efficiency, right? What kind of improvements should I expect there?

Are there any other reasons to go for AM5? I might prefer it for emotional reasons (the lastest and greatest always feels better) so I could use some input from kind strangers.

I could also just wait a bit longer. When should I expect the low-end AM5 comonents to become cheaper?

Please help lol

I thought it'd be fun to see how some of you keep your computer organized. Do you follow some general scheme, keep it arbitrary, throw everything on the Desktop or in Downloads or just abuse the search bar?

Feel free to go as general or as in-depth as you want.

I have two computers (a desktop and a laptop) that broke down just before my city entered a lockdown. Being able to assemble and fix my own computer hardware is something I have always wanted to do, and if I knew that I would probably not be using a borrowed Macbook Air right now.

I have no immediate need to provide any maintenance services, nor do I require a primer in electronics or anything too advanced. Just enough to know how to assemble and disassemble a machine, identify and fix the most obvious issues without breaking anything.

I tend to learn better from sequential and structure learning materials, preferably in text/images form. But videos are also welcomed. I know the names of the things and what they are, but I don't really know how to put things together in practice.

Suggestions? :)

In terms of

1. Utility: It is useful!
2. Reliability: It will always work when you need it to!
3. Uniqueness: It gives you the option of doing things that would never have been necessary before it came along.
4. Aesthetic: It satisfies your sense of beauty: It gives you the same kind of feeling a painting or a poem would.
5. Transcendence: It transcends the zeitgeist and is the simplest it can and thus ought to be.

Mine are:

1. Vim
2. mutt
3. The Lucas Arts point and click adventure games
4. A Lisp interpreter
5. grep

EDIT: Since a few people now have not realized how old this topic is before making a comment, see above date ↑. :)

My old PC's CPU (i7 930) started to critically fail after 8+ years of being overclocked from 2.8 to 4.0 GHz, so I decided to build a new one based on the Ultra-Compact Mini-ITX Gaming PC Build from TechBuyersGuru.

I went with Mini-ITX this time since my old PC was in a huge Antec P193 tower which weighs 16.4kg (36.2lbs) before components and so was a giant PITA to move around. The new Sugo SG13 case is roughly 1/7th the volume and initial weight so is much more convenient to move (but not build!).

p.s. I was unsure whether to post this 'buildapc' style content in ~tech or ~comp.... thoughts?

PCPartPicker Part List
^{Parts labeled incompatible are not... see "Notes" below in Build Process section.}
Salvaged from old PC:
GPU   -     $0 - EVGA - GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked ACX 2.0+ Video Card
SSD   -     $0 - Samsung - 850 Pro Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive
SSD   -     $0 - Samsung - 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
HDD   -     $0 - Hitachi - Deskstar NAS 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

New Components:
Case -   $72 - Silverstone - Sugo SG13B-Q Mini ITX Tower Case
Mobo - $190 - Gigabyte - Z370N WIFI Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
CPU   - $325 - Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor
Cool - $114 - Silverstone - NT06-PRO 74.0 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
RAM   - $220 - Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
PSU   - $175 - Silverstone - 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply
M.2   - $143 - Crucial - MX500 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
M.2   - $143 - Crucial - MX500 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive

Total:  $1382 (CAD)

Build Process w/ Pictures:

TL;DR - Behold my new Battlestation, IN ALL HER GLORY!!!

After saying goodbye to my old, heavy, oversized, Antec P193 case...
Unboxing the new one, which is almost the same volume as my UPS!...
And prepping all the new PC components for a photo op...
I began the arduous process assembling my new computer.

Everything went fairly smoothly to start. I installed the RAM, M.2 Drives, CPU and CPU Cooler before mounting the motherboard to the case, as instructed in the build guide. The CPU Cooler was a PITA to attach but that's no surprise as they always are.

Note: These "incompatible" parts listed on PCPartsPicker actually do fit together as the build guide said they would. However the RAM and CPU cooler fan are actually touching and I barely managed to squeeze them in together, so the build guide probably isn't lying when it said that particular low-profile RAM might be the only one that actually works with the cooler.

I then mounted the motherboard to the case and began slowly plugging everything else in. This was a particularly slow and frustrating process as I have pretty large hands and everything was incredibly tiny, in incredibly cramped positions, and required more finesse to get in place than I could muster with my fingers alone. As a result I wound up using long needle-nose pliers, including some bent-angle ones, to get most everything plugged in.

This is when I ran into my first major problem though... and one that was not mentioned in the build guide at all. The Case's front panel USB cable wouldn't fit in the motherboard with the CPU cooler fan in place. After trying fruitlessly to get the cable plugged in for 30min I finally gave up and decided to solve the issue the old fashioned way and it plugged in just fine afterwards. (Thanks for saving my ass yet again, Mr. Dremel!)

The other potential issue was due to the CPU cooler and case mounted PSU, which aren't supposed to work together, but once again as the build guide suggested they actually do... with a whopping 3mm clearance between them! At this point I also decided to swap out some of the ribbon power cables that came with the new PSU for some spare braided ones I had from another build since they are much nicer looking and allow for better airflow.

Note: The other supposed incompatibility listed on PCPartPicker is due to the fact that the case only officially supports 3x 2.5" drives or 1x 3.5" with 1x 2.5" but that's easy enough to get around, as explained below.

I also decided to cram an extra SSD under the front case fan, secured with double sided tape to the properly mounted SSD on the case floor panel. It worked just fine and allowed me to get my 3.5" 4TB HDD properly mounted on the underside of the top plate. Linus Tech Tips, in his similar Sugo SG13 build, even managed to squeeze 2 more SSDs above the PSU using double sided tape as well, so I guess that even leaves me with some room to expand my storage later. ;)

The rest of the build assembly process went relatively smoothly and once everything was hooked up, in position and plugged in, it booted straight into windows 10 (which was still on my old 1TB SSD). The moment when a new PC build gets past the POST is always a huge relief, however that momentary relief soon turned to dread as I quickly noticed a pretty big problem; The machine couldn't detect one of my new M.2 SATA drives.

After several hours of frustrated tinkering and much googling I finally found out the reason why, cursing PCPartPicker for not warning me and face-palming pretty hard for not having read the motherboard specs more carefully. It turns out that the Z370N motherboard actually only supports 1x M.2 SATA drive and the second M.2 slot is NVMe only. I had apparently just wasted $140+ on an M.2 SATA drive I couldn't use and my plans to configure them both in RAID 0 was shattered. But that's honestly not the worst part... in order to get the useless M.2 drive back out I had to basically FULLY DISASSEMBLE my entire build again since the NVMe M.2 slot is located on the bottom of the motherboard!

Despite the serious temptation to just leave it in there even though I couldn't use it, I wound up going through with the disassembly purely because I had a pretty good idea for how to actually make use of that second M.2 SATA drive based on something I saw on Linus Tech Tips a few months ago. So rather than leaving it in there or even returning it, after ordering myself the necessary enclosure I now have myself a pretty nice DIY 500GB Thumb drive. ;)

So several hours later after completely taking apart my new build, removing the bottom mounted M.2 SATA drive, and fully reassembling my build once again, I booted it up, it got past the POST and into Windows 10 again. I then reactivated Win 10 on the new hardware configuration (which was surprisingly painless compared to how it used to be where you needed to actually phone Microsoft) and then began the process of installing Linux Mint on the M.2 SATA drive I still had remaining.

Conclusion:
After several days of going at it now, I am finally done and my new computer is fully assembled, functional and ready to use. As always with building computers it was a bit scary, a bit painful, and more than a bit frustrating but ultimately well worth it. I couldn't be happier with the results and can't wait to overclock this bad boy when I get the chance!