Very clean and solid parts used! Nice work. I forgot how clean my Dark Rock looked before I roughed it up in my build haha.

Nice build and part selection for a first-timer! I just hope you didn't end up spending $275 on that 580 like it's currently listed.

This doesn't have rainbow puke everywhere. I like it!

Clean and simple. You made it all work well together, nice build.

That heatsink looks awesome. Cool build.

Thanks! Go for it and feel free to share it. I wouldn't call it an inspiration for my personal rig right here, but this computer has been my favorite for years. Hands down, without a doubt, I think this was the best mod I've ever seen. You'll probably like it too:

https://imgur.com/a/381DreC

Also check out his build log on the Corsair forums: http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120607

Flawless work.

It exceeded my expectations, I'm very happy with it and I have no problems dropping a few settings if necessary. In most cases, I'm able to start with the highest preset and only turn a few things down like water textures and tesselation. I don't have a 580 on hand to compare it with and online benchmarks can be a bit deceptive, but I'd wager mine just barely lags behind a 580 after I boosted its core and mem clocks a fair bit. Yeah though, it'll definitely be replaced eventually. I'm gonna hold out until Navi is released and reevaluate.

Women are expensive so this appropriately named for sure. When's the wedding? My RX 570 can be your best man. He's got small man syndrome, but trust me he's there for you when you need him and he can hold his own.

Hear, hear. We're on the same page, I always feel it should be complimentary rather than the main draw. People can do as they'd like, of course, but the RGB obsession has started to rub me the wrong way because many manufacturers have started to cut corners and cater their marketing towards it. Don't charge a premium price because you've put some pretty lights on something when I could buy a strip or solder it myself. Durability and performance should always come first. Looking at you especially, motherboard manufacturers...

Nice work, buddy, love the build! I really wish we'd see more of stuff like this instead of disco balls and laser lights in every other computer. A creative classic that deserves to be featured. Also, hope you get well and take care of yourself. Cheers!

For anyone interested in the radiator shroud I've used, here's a link to a similar example from Koolance:

https://koolance.com/3-x-120mm-fan-radiator-shroud-black

I used their 2x140mm shroud, but looks to be discontinued. This is why I hold on to my components and accessories for years. Ya never know when you'll end up using one!

That's a neat case! Never seen it before.

Houston, we've been robbed. Not enough rainbows and flashing lights to get featured. Lol!

Thanks, man!

Small form factors are the way to go. I don't think I could ever buy a standard case again, especially since Crossfire and SLI setups are becoming a thing of the past. Nice build! How's that motherboard holding up for you? I've considered using it in a few budget builds planned for family and friends.

Weird, your post made me go look around and I noticed all of these motherboards are out of stock. How long has this been the case? Thankfully I picked mine up a few months ago when they first launched for $100 bucks. Shame if they're discontinued or something, I think a strong case could be made for this being the absolute best Micro AM4 board in terms of its hardware and specs.

You might be on to something there! Thanks, appreciate it. I oughta put the thing out in the garage or shop and take some new pics. Yeah though, I thought about adding some rusted sheet metal vinyl or copper on top of the power supply, which would show a bit through the perforation cutouts.

In my opinion, the 570 is currently the performance per dollar king. They're dropping as low as $130 bucks now and they nip at the heels off the 580 and 1060 in most circumstances. I'd definitely recommend you pick one up as a placeholder (if you're looking for a cheap upgrade) until we see what's offered when Navi is released or Nvidia pushes out a 1060 successor that's appropriately priced. I used to be in the same boat as you, rockin' the good ol' HD 7970 for many years.

I'll give you a general idea of temps and frames I'm hitting on some of the titles I play, but feel free to ask if you'd like me to run a specific bench and I may upload it to images if enough people care. I have 3DMark, Heaven, Furmark, Kombuster, and a few game specific benches installed. Anyway, here are some titles I play. I don't have a lot of the latest and greatest, so keep that in mind.

All of these games I run at max or a mix of very high settings @1080p.

Vermintide 2: 70+ fps on max.

Call of the Wild: 60-80 fps, high/max.

DOOM 2016: 110+fps consistently on Ultra, but it's a Vulkan title so runs as expected.

Insurgency Sandstorm: 75+fps, high/max.

Metro Last Light: Well over 100fps, high/max.

Wolfenstein New Order: 90+fps, but I don't recall my settings. Probably high/max as well.

Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider trial: 60+fps on high. These are very demanding games.

GPU never games or benches with temps above 65c while my fans are set at a steady 55% rpm - which is barely audible on this thing. Core and mem clocks are boosted as far as I could go without touching voltages., 1335/1875. Hope some of that helps!

Have a good one! I just recently played through it again to get myself stoked about RAGE 2. Unfortunately not many people play Legends or Road Rage online anymore, though.

Thank you. And yes, I agree. Very underrated game and I'm excited for the sequel coming out in May. The negative criticisms of the first game were definitely valid, though. It's just always been one of those games that's clicked with me.

Sure hope so! That'd be awesome.

Almost too many hours haha, like I said I had to keep myself in check sometimes. But I think I can finally say it's done once I get some fan stickers made and that dang switch soldered. Thanks for the compliment!

Thanks, I appreciate that. My brother told me the exact same thing the first time he saw it haha. I suppose Mad Max works just as well! I really oughta get around to trying that game one day. I like Borderlands as well.

He may not live in the US or Canada (or any country for that matter) where the RX 5XX cards are cheaper. That or the card was used, sold cheap locally, given to him, etc. Beyond that, though, I entirely agree. AMD's comparably priced cards absolutely destroy the 1050ti. Only practical use for a 1050ti in my opinion is a situation where your system doesn't have the extra headroom in a power supply to be able to handle other cards. 1050ti would be an amazing 'plug-n-play' card that could be tossed in any rig... if it were priced appropriately.

Very creative! Good work.

Great mods! Everything turned out clean and I like what you did to the top of the case.

It hardly makes a difference unless you went too heavy with multiple coats that caused weight imbalances.

Great choices! Enjoy it, man.

Very clean build for a first timer! I ended up using a 2600 and 570 as well; they're both the value kings with current pricing in mind. As for your question, to put it bluntly, the most probable explanation is that RGB software across all manufacturers is garbage. MSI, Asus, Corsair, Logitech, XFX, Gigabyte, it doesn't matter. Many of them conflict with each other or outright disable the functionality of other components. I recently had to deal with a nightmare on my girlfriend's PC for the same reason. MSI Mystic Light, XFX Trixx, and Corsair iCue with her Vengeance RGB. The solution I've found is to set your 'board lighting how you'd like it and then uninstall its software entirely before attempting to change the lighting effects on other components. Beyond that, certain updates to said software seem to break functionality as well. You may have to revert to older versions and never update it after that.

Hope some of that helps. I honestly hate RGB stuff and this is one of the many reasons why. If going for a color scheme is the plan, I always go for a case and the hardware that suits it, or neutral colors at least, and then add accent colors through modding, painting, or cathode/strips of lighting that run independent of gimmicky software.

Awesome build! Color scheme looks great together.

Let's Go Preds! Clean build, love the We The People vinyl too!

Top-shelf fans, cooler, GPU cooler, and a case with an emphasis on airflow. This build's overclocking ceiling could rival that of a 500+ buck water setup. Awesome 'no bs' build.

This might be the dustiest and ugliest rig I've seen in a long while - and for that reason I * love it! Looks like yours has been through some wars. In a way, builds like this are a testament to how obsessive and petty PC 'enthusiast' builders really are. The ones who wake up worrying about positive and negative air pressures, orientations of fans and the CPU coolers, thermal paste application, cable management, video cards sagging, push/pull configs on radiators, whether or not a PSU intake should be top or bottom mounted, whether or not the case comes with flashing disco ball lights in it, and gasps if the case doesn't have sound dampening and rubber mounts everywhere because God forbid someone actually be able to hear fans spinning!

Sure, your temps won't be ideal and the longevity of the rig may be shortened a bit without maintenance, but who cares? The point is it gets the job done so keep using it 'til you run that baby into the ground. Guarantee in everyday, real-world usage nobody would be able to tell the difference between yours and one that has the same specs all dressed up pretty in an 'optimal' environment. There's no need to treat a computer like it's a precious piece of glass that'll shatter if you look at it the wrong way. Modern hardware is far more durable than people realize. Also cool to see you've still got the old trust AMD FX going strong.

Cheers!

Love it! Cleanest and coolest rig I've seen all month. In my opinion, the In Win branding on the side of each fan detracts from the build a bit, though. Looks a little too in-your-face compared to the rest of your build. Just sharing some thoughts, keep up the good work!

Yes, I'm extremely happy about AMD being competitive again. Competition is always good for the market. Also, good idea on the CM H500 case. I'd wager it gets better airflow than mine, but most cases nowadays are fine so long as you load up the front intakes with fans. I chose my Fractal case because I like the build quality and the look of the front bezel. It was also on sale for a great price. The only case manufacturers I regularly buy from are Corsair, Fractal, and Cooler Master, but I have my eye set on some of the Cougar and Antec cases for future builds too.

No laptop for me, I've never been a fan of them. I've just hung onto some really old components to get by with (GTX 680 and HD 7970) and there are a few computers in the family that I've built as well. I've been watching the market for about a year now because the prices were ridiculously high 1-2 years ago. Nothing wrong with buying used hardware, man. I buy used cards all the time. I just make sure to message the seller first and get an idea of what he used the component for and why he's selling. It's pretty easy to tell whether or not someone is trying to scam you or they don't know what they're talking about.

Yeah, XMP enabled 3200 out of the box for me. I got them running at 3400mhz with minimal effort after that and I'm pretty confident they could be pushed much further, but I don't want to start playing with the timings and voltages too much. I'm happy with the results I've gotten so far.

As for updating in the future, I'll probably swap out my processor and video card at some point, but I'm okay with riding this thing out until it ages for now. Maybe I'll need to add an additional SSD too eventually. Just depends on how I feel, really, and what comes out at the time. Usually I don't mind starting new builds from scratch rather than updating anyway. Time will tell...

How do you figure? But yes, I've used a lot of different kits over the years. Crucial, HyperX, Corsair's Vengeance and Dom Plats, and a bunch of Ripjaws from G.Skill. I chose these Flare X because they were the best reviewed kit I could find that was optimized for Ryzen and I've had no issues with overclocking yet. Granted, they're a bit pricey and it seems most of the kinks with AM4 RAM compatability were worked out after the first gen. I almost went with TeamGroup's Dark Pro memory because they're another 3200 b-die with good reviews. At my time of purchase however, both were the same price so I chose to stick with the brand I've used before.

Love the idea! This turned out great and I'm sure it was quite a bit of work. Nice choice of colors on that cable sleeving and Merry Christmas to you as well!

Don't watch the show, but love the build and creativity! Keep up the good work!

How to make LEDs actually look nice; exhibit A right here. Nicely done and clean.

Watched the video. Clean build! The Pulse and Nitro cards look so good with those backplates.

Can't go wrong with saving a few bucks, nice build! Been searching for more builds with your case. Think I'm sold on it and gonna use one for the next rig.

What's holding your headset? Looks cool.

How well does that 2200g carry itself as a standalone processor once you added the 970? I'd imagine you wouldn't see many bottlenecks unless you paired it with a $300+ card or pushed some settings @1440p or above? Can't fault you for going down that route when the prices were inflated, though. My brother considered doing the same with a 2400g.

Nice build! If you're looking for suggestions, I'd definitely recommend you replace your motherboard as you plan and upgrade to a better kit of memory. A strong board and better (faster) RAM will give you a nice base to continue using this rig for years to come if you plan on upgrading at any point. The nice thing about AMD is that the AM4 platform will be here for a while; invest in a good board and you'll be able to freely upgrade to a better video card and processor if you ever desire to.

Here are the two motherboards I'd recommend: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/Hy97YJ/msi-b450-tomahawk-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-tomahawk https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/t797YJ/msi-b450-gaming-pro-carbon-ac-atx-am4-motherboard-b450-gaming-pro-carbon-ac

Can find them for about $110 to $140 on Newegg and Amazon. Truth be told, I've never been a fan of MSI, but there's no denying they've hit the ball out of the park with their AM4 boards. I cannot confidently suggest another manufacturer over one of these, but I also don't know your budget so that'll be your call to make. Asus and Asrock have a few more budget options that are acceptable, though. Just avoid Gigabyte for now. I'm speaking from experience as they were once my go-to motherboard manufacturer.

Lastly, for RAM, I'd start with 8gb (2x4) and then add another 2 sticks at a later date to upgrade to 16gb. Aim for something about 2666mhz or higher. Of course, most 2400/2666 kits can clock @ 2800/3000/3200 with minimal effort if they're decent quality. G.Skill, Corsair, TeamGroup, Crucial, and HyperX (Kingston) all make solid kits.

Hope some of this helps! Enjoy your new build.

Right, but I got the 1tb Crucial for 125 bucks whereas the 1tb model of the Samsung (NVMe) 970 is sitting at $227 right now on Newegg. In the lower capacities the price difference may not be as dramatic, but I can't justify spending an extra $75 to $100 on drive speeds when I want at least 800gb of storage. I find that SATA speeds are more than fast enough for me; I'm just a basic user that likes to game occasionally. I'm already satisfied with load times, application launches, and boot startups anyway.

Good on you, this is really generous. Don't see much of this nowadays because people can't be trusted. I'm sure the winner will appreciate this!

Love that case!

Normally not a fan of lights and excessive RGB puke everywhere, but the white builds always look great. Should have took these pics with some snow in the background haha. Nice build!