Looking for some advice on choosing suitable parts for a Kolink Void RGB Tempered Glass Case.

[evergrim]

Hey there, thanks for checking.

Have just been patiently waiting for all the parts to arrive and the final lot was all delivered today so I have it all ready to start building tomorrow nice and fresh. Going to take my time with each step and make sure I’m doing them in the optimal order.

I ended up going with an Asus GeForce RTX 3050 Dual OC 8G Graphics Card. Found a good price at Umart for $428 and should have more than enough power for what I need. Also has a really nice small form factor at only 20cm long compared to a lot of the 27cm long alternatives so it should fit in the case nicely.

Also had enough left over in my budget to afford the Roccat mouse, keyboard and mousepad that I had wanted to pair with this new PC.

Hopefully it all comes together tomorrow but if I hit any snags I will be sure to post on here with any questions I have. If it all goes smoothly then I will instead post some completed build pictures and some benchmark results.

[Bruce]

sounds like a plan.
even Superman took his time, read the manual, and made mistakes;

[MEDIA=youtube]Jg6-WLpCZhg[/MEDIA]

love how he forgets the thermal paste, almost puts the CPU in the wrong way, and has multiple attempts trying to get the radiator just right.

[evergrim]

Update: It’s going well so far but I decided to stop about half way through the build today because its too hot in Adelaide (38c) and I don’t have air con so I was starting to get tired and worried that I might drip some sweat onto the motherboard or something. Also doesn’t help having such heat when I am getting flustered by some particular detail or problem that I have to solve. Going to be a nice cool change for tomorrow and weekend so hope to have it done either by tomorrow evening or some time Saturday.

Took my time earlier in the day to open all the boxes, check all the contents and read every manual. Disassembled the Kolink Void Case (was a bit scary having to pull hard on the front panel to pull it out of the peg holes). So far I have successfully mounted the CPU to the motherboard, installed the RAM and the M.2 SSD stick (had to double check to make sure I was putting the graphene sticker on the right side).

Then I decided to install the front radiator and fan and struggled with it for a while. I realized I had to install it with the hoses at the bottom because the screw hole for the hose side was 3cm away from the edge of the radiator while the other side was only 2cm away from the edge. Radiator would only fit with the 2cm clearance so that’s okay. Also a bit of a struggle to get the radiator fan cables routed through the back of the case without them getting in the way of the screw holes but I got there in the end. Radiator was definitely a tight fit in such a small form factor case but it worked out okay.

I also replaced the rear fan that came with the case with a Kolink Void fan and that created a query for me so was wondering if you have advice for me?

The fan that came pre-installed in the case was connected to a male 3 pin 5v cable coming out of the front infinity mirror section. Because I wanted to put a different fan in the back I removed that and took note of it to look into further. The working theory I have is that it was daisy chained to the front infinity mirror LED’s. Should I just daisy chain the new rear fans 3 pin 5v cable to that plug? Or if I wanted to put the rear fan directly to the motherboards 3 pin header is it okay to just ignore that 3 pin plug coming from the front LED panel and just tuck it away somewhere?

One other question I have about the LED front panel is that it comes with a female 3 pin 5v connector which I will attach to one of the motherboards ARGB headers but it also comes with a small plug labelled VDG. I have no idea what that is supposed to plug into or if it is just supposed to be ignored if I am using the other plug next to it. Do you have any ideas?

Next thing I’m planning to do is install the two top fans which I think will be easier if the motherboard isn’t in the way before finally attaching the AIO pump with thermal paste to the CPU, locking that down and then installing the motherboard. Coming along okay so far just following the steps and trying to troubleshoot a few things I don’t understand before I have to plug everything in.

[Bruce]

that VDG and the other female plug seems to be to control the RGB lights.
see if this helps; https://linustechtips.com/topic/1060...-and-rgb-fans/
and this is where my RBG experience will let you down - as said, I’ve only done it once, to get my AiO CPU cooler installed

let’s see if the posse has more experience in this sector - @PeterOz @Pyro @TwitchisMental @georgeks @Malnutrition @Bastet

the rear fan, I would just plug into the nearest FAN header on the mobo.

[Bastet]

Alas I have never built my own PC so wouldn’t know what to suggest.

[Pyro]

Not sure, I’ve yet to really dig into RGB in any systems.

[evergrim]

I have looked into it more and from what I can gather the VDG plug is an optional older technology for people who don’t have the gen_2 ARGB headers on their motherboard. I can just use the 3pin 5v connector instead and ignore the VDG.

As for the other plug I am pretty sure that was just daisy chained to the front panel which also uses ARGB. I could use that daisy chain or just ignore that cable and plug my rear fan into its own gen_2 header on the ASUS motherboard. The front LED panel seems to connect to the top I/O on the case with a button labelled LED so the rear fan would possibly change modes whenever I change the LED infinity mirrors mode with that button which is not ideal.

I think I will instead daisy chain the rear fans ARGB with the two top fans, then give the front infinity mirror panel a header all of its own. And finally have the AIO pump and radiator fans daisy chained together into the third ARGB header. The motherboard comes with three gen_2 headers so that should all work out.

After installing the front radiator I can clearly see that there is no space for the third front fan that I had intended but I think with a case this size it would look too busy with it there anyway so having one less fan actually makes it so that I could give each fan its own header if I wanted. Might be easier to still daisy chain the two top fans together if it looks neater.

Instead of installing the top fans next I am going to lay the case down and mount the motherboard to the case, then stand it up again to mount the AIO pump bracket, then lay it down again so I can attach the AIO pump with thermal paste and screw it down. I see a lot of people like to get their CPU cooler mounted to the motherboard while it is still out of the case but with the difficult radiator installation I think it will be better to do it this way.

[evergrim]

Update: Made some more good progress this afternoon but am knackered after finally managing to fit everything inside this case. I am more than willing to admit that this particular case is completely not sensible and impractical for a first time builder to work with. I blame this ASUS motherboards metal fins over the left VRM’s for barely allowing clearance for my AIO hoses to mount in the orientation I had to go with too. Would have been easier I’m sure with a top mounted AIO.

Also struggled getting the graphics card to fit well with the AIO hoses in the way. Managed after some tense moments to get it in okay. Would have been much easier to just use an air cooler for a first time build.

Just need to install the top case fans and the PSU now and then I can start plugging everything in. After a rest watching some Battlebots I should cool down enough to hopefully get it to boot up tonight. Fingers crossed it will boot up later.

[Bruce]

I feel ya!

I still remember the first few builds, that moment when you reckon you have it all done and it’s time to hit the power button… and bam, it all lights up and works like a charm.

mind you, on more than one occasion, I have been greeted with complete silence and it’s back to the drawing board to see what was forgotten - usually something small and stupid.

[evergrim]

I still remember the first few builds, that moment when you reckon you have it all done and it’s time to hit the power button… and bam, it all lights up and works like a charm.

Yes after triple checking I had actually plugged everything in I turned the power button on for the first time and it booted up into BIOS with all the lights and fans working so huge relief.

Happy with how it looks so far but two of the fans center parts have a slight wobble to them so will have to take those out to check if they have the same wobble out of the case or if its faulty fans or off center stickers on the fans that might be the issue. Probably more of an aesthetic issue but I will try and fix it if I can.

Just installed windows on it from the USB version I had bought and went smoothly. Easy way to do it with those USB sticks.

Here’s a picture of it all working after the successful boot. And another showing the front.

Going to get the internet working and try some benchmarks soon. Probably focus more on that tomorrow to make sure all the parts are working properly and the temperatures are good at high load.

[evergrim]

I have now run some benchmarks (3D Mark to gauge the graphical performance compared to my old PC) and Cinebench (to test my CPU temperatures at 100%). Happy with both results. This is a big step up in performance from my old PC so it should do a great job of the type of 1080p 60fps games I am planning to use it for. Also the fans run super quiet so that’s good. I am happy with the Cooler Master brand of cooling products.

Also very happy with the temperatures I am getting. The maximum temperature I have recorded with the CPU running at 100% using Cinebench was 58c so I should have no worries gaming on hot days in Australia.

[Bruce]

all seems to have gone very well indeed - no thanks to a lot of diligent pre-work research and methodical thinking by yourself.
so top marks for what you have achieved!

be aware - if you leave that thing on overnight, there will be a hell of a mess to clean up in the morning.
every fairy and elf in the neighbourhood will want to get in on that sick disco light action!
I’m picturing tiny party hats, streamers, and rainbow coloured vomit all over the internals.

but seriously… the infinity front mirror looks good. what are all the fans doing - sucking or blowing?
and does the PSU have a sucker underneath and a blower out the back?

[evergrim]

Hehe thanks. It certainly does light the place up at night time. Once I set up all my Roccat RGB peripherals it will be even better.

I have a couple of minor upgrades I want to make. The included Phanteks CPU to PCI-E cables are a bit ugly, especially because it has a redundant second PIE-E daisy chained to it which I just zip tied to make it neater so far. I found some custom Phanteks compatible cables which don’t have the redundant second cable and have a nice braided cord which would match the AIO cooler hoses much better so will look into getting something like this.

Also Because my AIO hoses lay slightly against the left side of my GPU I am a little worried about graphics card sag over time and want to support the GPU better so I have ordered this ASUS ROG Herculx Graphics Card Anti-Sag Holder to try out. This also has more ARGB lights so will fill the empty bottom area of my case nicely and match my ASUS motherboard and GPU. Hopefully it will fit my GPU and case but if not I can return it and try other options for GPU bracing. Cooler Master make a much thinner vertical one that also has ARGB.

As for the fans, the front two AIO radiator fans are sucking air through the radiator and exhausting it into the case. Then the top two Cooler Master Halo fans are exhausting air out of the top of the case, and the rear Kolink Umbra fan is also exhausting air out the back of the case. So I think any warmed up air that is coming out from the radiator is being taken out of the case effectively. Then the Phanteks PSU has a large fan at the bottom blowing air out. I can’t see a rear fan on any pictures of the Phanteks PSU that I bought because it’s hard to see what’s inside the vented rear panel with the power switch etc.

[Bruce]

ok, air flow sounds good.
as to CPU water pipes, have you tried rotating the pump 180 degrees so the pipes are on the other side?
that should get them off the GPU.

[evergrim]

Yeah I tried rotating the pump to the right hand side instead for mounting but I could feel from the resistance that the hoses didn’t want to be bent that way so the only way I could get them to fit was with the hose connections on the left. Ideally I wanted to mount the radiator the other way around so the hoses would come from above but there was a top I/O panel circuit board and wires up in that area blocking it being mounted that way.

The GPU stand I ordered should keep it nice and parallel. It even comes with a built in magnetic spirit level so I can satisfy my OCD about GPU sag.

I think in a future PC build I will get a GPU vertical mount kit and deal with the sag issue that way. Plus have top a mounted radiator next time.