The motherboard is unscathed! 🥳 AMD 9900x PC Build Part 3
In my previous video, I had a bit of a disaster, I destroyed the USB 3.0 connector on my PC case. It's a cheap Fractal Focus case, so there are issues. While attempting to swap the connector to a different header on the motherboard (for better cable routing with another device), things went south, and I ended up ruining the connector on my case!
The broken USB 3.0 case connector, the blue part, and the motherboard header separated.
Thankfully, the motherboard itself is fine. I was really worried for a bit there, but after testing, it seems like the motherboard's USB 3.0 headers are still working fine. That's a huge relief!
Be Careful with USB 3.0 Headers!
This whole experience was a reminder to be extra careful with those USB 3.0 motherboard header connectors. They can be surprisingly fragile. It seems like the cheap case connector was the main culprit. There's a visible physical difference.
A comparison of the cheap Fractal Focus case connector versus another connector from the memory card reader that fits into an expansion bay.
I tried out the USB 3.0 header from the Startech memory card reader that fits into an expansion bay. It has a higher quality connector that smoothly inserts and removes from the motherboard header.
Heatsink Swap
I decided to buy a larger heatsink fan combination for the build. The AMD Ryzen 9900x does have a TDP of 120 with a PPT of around 168 watts, so it makes sense to have a larger heatsink than the one around 90mm I had originally used.
The larger "Peerless Assassin 120 SE" heatsink that will be put in.
Internal SD Card Reader Success!
The most exciting part of this whole build so far is this internal SD card reader.
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The installed internal SD card reader in the bottom bay. I had to use a 3.5 to 5.25" bay adapter.
It worked flawlessly! I was getting transfer speeds of 145 megabytes per second with my UHS-II SD card. That's the fastest I've ever seen with any of my SD card readers, external or otherwise.
A UHS-II SD memory card.
It is exciting to have fast access to my files on an internal device.
The Trials and Tribulations
Building a PC can be a rollercoaster even for someone that has a lot of past experience. There are always going to be a few bumps along the way, but it's all part of the process. I'm still really happy with how things are progressing, despite the USB 3.0 mishap.
I recently picked up a bunch of Thermalright fans for a new PC build, specifically the TL-G12 (120mm) and the TL-C14 (140mm). At the time, they were pretty inexpensive, and the promise of fluid dynamic bearings (FDB) along with PWM control sounded like a great deal on paper, so I bought quite a few of each. In this article and related video I go into detail about their installation and use. Check out the video on YouTube for a lot more information: Boxes for the Thermalright TL-G12 and TL-C14 fans. Specifications listed on the TL-G12 fan box. Specifications for the 120mm TL-G12: Speed: 1500 RPM (+/- 10%) Noise: Rated 23.6 dBA or greater. Airflow: Up to 62.6 CFM Connector: 4-pin PWM with a daisy-chain feature. Extras: Includes rubber pads on the corners for vibration dampening and standard case screws. One thing I noticed on the G12 frame is the lack of an airflow direction indicator, but it's a standard fan design, so it's easy enough to figure out. Specifications shown on ...
I might as well start things off here! I'm working on a second GPU video because I had ended up swapping out the cheap Amazon Warehouse Deals RTX 4060 one for a larger quieter one. I also was able to do 4k tests without a 4k monitor by using the Atomos Ninja V. Starting to look through the results. Here is one in Google Sheets on Affinity Photo 2 using their built-in benchmark. The ASUS Proart RTX 4060 has a performance and quiet mode which is what the PM and SM data lines mean. So far from what I've seen of the data these two modes don't mean much from a performance standpoint, at least on my old i7-6700 based PC build. It feels like a marketing based feature and I'm probably going to leave the card in quiet mode. I'm not sure how much of a difference these scores mean in practice between the GTX 1060 and RTX 4060, but the number is larger! haha
(I used Claude AI to generate this article based on my video's transcript, so keep that in mind it might not be perfect even though I've gone through it to correct any issues I see. Also keep in mind that I've done further testing with an ASUS Proart 4060 compared to the MSI 1060 on my old PC and noticed a few situations where the CPU was limiting performance such as FFXIV minimum framerates.) https://youtu.be/yR6XPvt-F0A I recently decided to take a look at the GIGABYTE RTX 4060 low profile version. This was the cheapest RTX 4060 card I could find as an Amazon Warehouse Deal, and I was curious to see if my old computer would benefit from upgrading from a GTX 1060 6GB to this new card. Low profile! My current system is built around an Intel i7-6700 CPU, which is likely to be the main limitation in this comparison. I was particularly interested in the sound profile of this card given its tiny size. I don't take a look in the video, but potential benefits of AV1 encode/d...
