2023 Inwin Chopin Max case + Ryzen Pro 5750G (ecc) + Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro Ax (ecc) + 32 GB DDR 3600 MHz (ecc)

[QuantumCookie]

The following is a work in progress, as I am still waiting for the ram sticks to arrive. I thought at first I would take a lot of nice photos but I got distracted.

This is meant to be an ECC build (error correcting code), I've always wanted one, and this isn't meant to be a gaming rig. I'll build a new/other gaming rig later the passive cooling solution from the French 'Monsterlabo' guys.

So the case is the tiny 3 liter somesuch Inwin Chopin Max case. This newest third variant have the more powerful 200W power supply, as well as the added usb-c front panel port.

The motherboard itself doesn't have the internal header for the front panel usb-c port, so I had to buy a pcie card and it hardly fit. Although it sits ok on the mobo, the pcie card is 1-2 mm too tall, something one might easily file off I think. I used a black marker pen to color the pcb edge black for the pcie card.

This Ryzen 7 cpu is a PRO version and does not allow overclocking, but I can afaik still overclock the ram, and make it run better with the integrated apu that runs at 2000 MHz.
Could be, I will not be able to get a 4000 MHz speed on this ram, unsure.

The Inwin Chopin Max case is colored 'Titantium grey' and has 'Inwin' letters written in shiny chrome at the front/side.
The AMD Ryzen 7 5750G cpu, has an integrated gpu on it, so I don't need a graphics card with this build. The free x16 pcie slot, is used for adding a missing internal usb-c header.

Case: Inwin Chopin Max (comes with a 200W power supply)​

Mobo: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro Ax (supports ecc)​

Cpu: AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5750G, 8 core cpu @ 3,8 GHz, boosting to 4,4 GHz. (zen 3, with pcie 3.0 support and not 4.0, supports ecc)​

Ram: Mushkin Enhanced Redline ddr4, 3600 MHz, 2x16 GB ecc ram, CL16, 1.4v. (MRC4E360GKKP16GX2 = black heatsink, MRD4E360GKKP16GX2 = white heatsink)​

Cpu cooler: Thermalright AXP90-X45, full copper cooler (92mm fan)​

Nvme: Some cheap temporary M.2 device (pcie 3.0 speeds).​

Pcie: Beyimei pcie card 5Gbps, type-e usb-c internal header. Super tight fit, actually 1-2 mm too tall, but should work ok. Must be added to the mobo early on (!).​

Fitting the motherboard into the case wasn't too hard. A fun challenge here now is the cable management.
I have started to funnel some cables to the back to hide some of the excess cable length.
In order to plug in the power cable for the cpu (upper left), I have to remove the motherboard, then funnel the secondary power cable through the back, and then put the motherboard back in.
I don't plan to adding any SSD's any time soon at the back, but I think it looks neat and clean already, I don't expect any issues really.

I tested the PSU, powering it on, and the 40mm fan at least is inaudible at the lowest speed.
I have planned to mod the fan, switching it out for another PWM fan and attach it to the cpu fan header with the splitter, to better control the psu fan. Have to be careful though, so the resulting cooling solution is safe and adequate.
With me not doing any fancy overclocking, I don't expect a big power draw later on when (attempting) overclocking the ram sticks by 12.5 %.

Edit: I forgot to say, I will also glue together 3x 40 mm PWM fans and place them over the two ram sticks later on. Maybe not entirely necessary, but I want to try it out.

I removed the wifi card, because I don't need it and I don't want it installed. This meant taking off the big mobo backplate and so I had to buy some new thermal pad and reapply it on both sides of the mobo.

Q: Re. that cpu power cable with 8 pins (2x4), perhaps I could just plug in the 4 at the front and then hide the other 4 at the back? Cpu is only 65W TDP.

Building tips:
1) If your 2x4 pin cpu power cable is to go through the back, best funnel that power cable before inserting the motherboard into the case.
2) Only the very lowest pcie card will fit, and then it is 1-2 mm too tall still, but will fit and proably work.

Btw, I also plan to buy the Noctua NA-FD1 set, which are foam rings that fit the 92mm fans, creating a channel of air all the way outwards until the canal meets the side panel door with the mesh, to avoid sucking in hot air coming from in around the motherboard inside the case.

 

[Nebulous]

Wow, haven't seen an Inwin case in decades. I had an Inwin case many moons ago in yellow & black. That's a cool tiny build!

 

[EarthDog]

Neat build!

Q: Re. that cpu power cable with 8 pins (2x4), perhaps I could just plug in the 4 at the front and then hide the other 4 at the back? Cpu is only 65W TDP.

You should be able to, yep. Read the manual to confirm. It's going to be sealed inside the case anyway, so, I wouldn't worry about and plug both in.

With me not doing any fancy overclocking, I don't expect a big power draw later on when (attempting) overclocking the ram sticks by 12.5 %.

Edit: I forgot to say, I will also glue together 3x 40 mm PWM fans and place them over the two ram sticks later on. Maybe not entirely necessary, but I want to try it out.

Don't bother. They won't need it....even with overclocking and at 1.4V+. Just more noise for no actual gains...save time, money, and effort.

Also, create a signature with your hardware in it. This is the first post I recall that lists it all and I'm always left wondering what's under the hood. A signature travels with your posts so that won't ever be a concern.

 

[QuantumCookie]

I am very happy with how this is going so far. I think the Inwin Chopin Case case is a good quality product. Only thing I can think of that seems odd, is the overly long powercable, and maybe the flimsy looking wiring on the psu, maybe looking odd when they aren't nicely bundled.

The case comes with four sets of colored stickers as well, like a thin strip of coloring outside the case on front and back side.

I decided on this Thermalright cooler, because the Noctua one had fins going horizontally, while the Thermalright cooler had fins going vertically, which I think is nicer if wanting air to move upwards in the case.

 

[wagex]

This is a tiny case compared to my old inwin! mine was the maelstrom EATX. That little guy looks awesome!

 

[QuantumCookie]

I like how this 5750G cpu will be running at 3,8-4,6 GHz with a 65W TDP, which is faster than my old Ryzen 1 1800X cpu, which afaik has a clock speed of 3,2 GHz. I used a passive cooler with the 1800X and so couldn't enjoy the boost clocks, because AMD failed to tell me the perhaps obvious, that the TDP for boost clocks were higher than the announced 95W TDP. :| I used the biggest NoFan passive cooler, which was good for 95W TDP I think it was. Had to alter the mainboard to get this old cooler onto it.

It was a little tricky buying the parts for this build, because the major components are sort of getting to be a couple of years old now and might not be available for long in the stores. I think I was lucky finding that there are 3600 MHz ECC ram around, not that many that sell these. I am mainly interested in stability, but I'll see if I can get a minor overclock going, and hopefully I will get to have error correcting code logged inside Linux later. The 5750G cpu afaik does not have a Microsoft chip in it, unlike newer Ryzen cpu's I think, but there's probably a cryptography chip in it, but ofc Secure Boot (which I read is not supported by my Linux OS of choice) is a Microsoft thing I think. I won't pretend that using a Linux OS is going to be super secure, but at least it isn't a MS OS. Sometime after Win 7, things turned to **** imo.

I want to buy an ultra wide screen, but I am unsure what resolution might be ok, because using a 4K screen with tiny text and rescaled fonts/icons that doesn't work the best, isn't appealing to me. Might go for some ultra wide 1440p monitor to get to have that extra wide space for multitasking. Has to be ISP panel, can't go back to VA and certainly not TN even though they are probably a lot better these days. Maybe OLED might be fun for the darker blacks, unless that is too expensive again. Also don't want a worsened color gamut either, being used to my Eizo screen at home.

I recently learned that curved monitors have an attribute that shows how big the curvature is. 1800R = curvature radius of 1800 mm, 1000R = radius of 1000 mm, then there's 3600R also I think, a gentle curve. Some curved monitors doesn't even have a consistent curved at each end, flattening out near both sides. I think a curvature of 1000R is too curved for my taste.

 

[QuantumCookie]

This was a relief.
It booted into the bios!
(Glad it functions as expected. Also not using an OS atm.)
Kind of scary, because this mobo has NO post codes at all. No numbers, no LED's or anything afaik.

The ram has an XMP profile, allowing a quick change from default memory speed of 2667 MHz (iirc) to the advertised 3600 MHz.
I also upped the multiplier to 40 on the ram, and got 4000 MHz, with a slight automatic increase in voltage.
Both the CPU and the iGPU multiplier on this 5750G is locked in the bios, and the bios just show a value of zero for them.

Default voltage for memory at 3600 MHz seems to be 1.434V.
Default voltage for memory at 4000 MHz seems to be 1.437V.


I replaced the PSU fan (not noisy at all, not pwm) with a Noctua pwm one, while being careful not to touch any component inside the powersupply.
The 92mm cpu pwm fan now run together with the 40mm PSU fan now, via a fan splitter.
I might change my mind and put the original fan back, as I probably wouldn't be able to hear it anyway at full speed.
Admittedly I think changing the PSU fan was rather pointless and was no improvement at all.

I set up fan management in the bios, but until further I have to try keep the minimum fan speed at some minimum 33% so the PSU has fan cooling on idle.
Testing with smoke (incense stick) show air does come out the back of the PSU on idle.
Test showed the original fan ran at 12V and 0.022A, while the noctua one runs at 12V and 0.020A.

CPU idle temp = ca 40 deg C, @ 3.8 GHz.
Ambient temp = 24 deg C

Hm, bios seem to show the PSU's 5V and 12V values being a little high. Probably within specs, but still a little off. At least it is a little higher than ideal, rather than lower.

With no monitor plugged in, case PSU apparently uses 46 watts from the power grid. Maybe the same if looking at the bios, probably runs at the same cpu speed anyway 3.8 GHz. Maybe a little more watt for powering the iGPU. Too lazy to test again with a monitor plugged in.

Also 3600 MHZ ECC ram sticks arrived yesterday.
I live in Europe and so Amazon apparenlty failed to mark the parcel properly and I had to pay even more money for customs fee and VAT. So I had to pay for VAT twice, will try get the money back.

When I first turned on the computer..
..and for the first minute
...all I could see was a black screen.

Turned out I simply had forgotten to switch to the proper monitor mode, I have three display outputs from my monitor, two HDMI and one DisplayPort.
I tried a HDMI port at first, but that didn't seem to work, and then when I tried the Displayport as I should have from the start, all I saw was a black screen and the monitor going into idle and turning itself off.

Heh, turns out that I had simply forgotten to flip to the Display port channel (computer 1) on the monitor, and not the HDMI 1 (computer 2) or HDMI 2 (DAC/bluray/movie).

Things got tricky with the wire management and I had to take the mobo out twice before I figured it out. I snipped some plastic hooks off the 2x4 pin cpu power plug, to make it easier to maybe unplug it later on. I plugged in the cpu fan header after, but that was tricky. I like to think I have an optimal cable wiring now, but it was rather difficult, because there just isn't holes big enough to funnel all cables through after insterting the motherboard into the case, so one has to funnel some of the cables before inserting the motherboard into the case.

Next to last photo show the back side. If the four screws that mount the cooler to the cpu heatspreader is somehow conductive, although the end tip of the four screws do NOT touch the case wall at the back, the four screws apparently WILL come in contact with the painted black case wall if the case wall is press inwards with a finger at least in one spot. Unsure if a big deal. I made sure to keep the wiring at the back flat'ish so it doesn't push back on the case wall.

Last photo show memory SPD info in bios. No mentioning of any ECC functionality there it seems (or anywhere else in the bios from what I could tell at first).

I filed the PCIe card a little lower, maybe removed 1mm of pcb material at the edge. Still a little too tall, but it does fit in the PCIe x16 slot.

HRM, memory stick SPD info IS NOT the same as the Muskhin boxing. How odd.
SPD info says MRX4E360GKKP16G
Ram case says MRD4E360GKKP16GX2
Edit: Apparently the X is indicative of a multi-varied variable, for either a black or a white heatspreader on the ram sticks.

 

[EarthDog]

It booted into the bios! (Without any OS)

That's what it's supposed to do! A BIOS stands on its own.

Default voltage for memory at 3600 MHz seems to be 1.434V.
Default voltage for memory at 4000 MHz seems to be 1.437V.

It's 1.4V... software readings are notoriously inaccurate. 0.03V difference I'd call normal, nkt that it added anything.

I snipped some plastic hooks off the 2x4 pin cpu power plug, to make it easier to maybe unplug it later on.

Lol, wat?!!!! That's there for a reason, dude... to prevent it from being unseated and potentially becoming a fire hazard.

 

[QuantumCookie]

I wonder why the SPD info is off.

SPD info states MRX4E.. ram, however Mushkin website doesn't have any info on that from what I can tell.
I expected it to say MRD4E..

 

[EarthDog]

I wonder why the SPD info is off.

SPD info states MRX4E.. ram, however Mushkin website doesn't have any info on that from what I can tell.
I expected it to say MRD4E...

Off? What are you expecting? A picture maybe would help us(me) underatand...

What are you referecing with MRx4E (and why?)??? That the end of the SKU???

 

[QuantumCookie]

If you look at the SPD info screen in the bios shown above, it says the ram is MRX4E.. not the expected MRD4D.. MRD4E..

 

[EarthDog]

1. According to your bios screenshot, you have the sticks in the wrong slots?? They should be in a2 and b2.... that shows a1/b1. (Info in your manual).

2. Why do you expect MRD4D? Is that on the sticker on the RAM? Does it show the same in Windows (CPUz, SPD tab)?

 

[QuantumCookie]

Ah, I think I know why it says MRX4E, the X probably means any variety, as this third letter tend to indicate either a white or a black colored heat spreader on the ram sticks.
Apparently the zeroed serial number is a common thing with SPD info data.

 

[EarthDog]

Ah, I think I know why it says MRX4E, the X probably means any variety, as this third letter tend to indicate either a white or a black colored heat spreader on the ram sticks.
Apparently the zeroed serial number is a common thing with SPD info data.

Yeah, i can see that from the first post here where you mentioned that already, lol.

You still seem to have the RAM in the wrong slots though.... read your manual to confirm a2/b2 and make that swap.

 

[QuantumCookie]

1. According to your bios screenshot, you have the sticks in the wrong slots?? They should be in a2 and b2.... that shows a1/b1. (Info in your manual).

2. Why do you expect MRD4D? Is that on the sticker on the RAM? Does it show the same in Windows (CPUz, SPD tab)?

I only have two ram slots, so that will have to do.

Ah, **** typo. I meant to write MRD4E.. not MRD4D..

 

[EarthDog]

Oh yeah, ITX, lol...

I was wondering how there were 3 skus, lol... typos...

 

[QuantumCookie]

Any way to re-order the sequence of attachment photos?
The ordering got messed up, no idea why.

Edit: Nevermind, the forum seems to have fixed itself. Photos are now showing in the correct order as before.
Edit: Nope, the issue is back again.

 

[Woomack]

I decided on this Thermalright cooler, because the Noctua one had fins going horizontally, while the Thermalright cooler had fins going vertically, which I think is nicer if wanting air to move upwards in the case.

I was checking both ways with NH-L9i and later L9a and it doesn't really matter. You also don't need fans on RAM ... can use it, but it feels like a waste of money as these Noctua fans are not cheap. I was running at least three different CPUs/mobos in this case and all was fine. The last one was Ryzen 7600/B650E and the problem was PSU ... or maybe not a problem in general, but the noise was annoying. I have the version with 150W PSU (when I got it, there was no 200W option) and it's weirdly loud after about 30-40 mins of "heating up". The noise can be compared to a typical gaming laptop running at a higher load, even when I set the CPU at ~30W and there was one low power SSD, so like 40-50W in total during work. There is no way to get any other PSU as it's InWin standard. If it dies after warranty then you have to replace the whole case. If it was a typical Flex ATX then I would get 300W+. In the end I'm not using it anymore.
On the other hand, you can't find any other similar case. Everything is much larger or with external PSU. This is why I decided on this case in the first place as those with external PSUs are not much smaller but the 150-200W PSU with cables is like half size of the case.

 

[QuantumCookie]

If I have to get a new powersupply for this case: I have plans to mod the case like with what some other guy did on youtube. He sawed the Inwin Chopin case in half on the short sides, and added a metal mesh to the center of the case for widening the case and so get to fit a larger psu. Seemed like an easy fix if you can get some material that filles the center, like a metal mesh.

 

[Woomack]

It's actually a lot of work for this type of PC, and believe me, I was doing weird things, cutting and painting various cases. Sometimes it's not worth the work and time, but this case is quite unique, so why not. Hopefully, you won't have problems with PSU, as InWin has some good quality PSUs, and you have a higher model. I only have that problem with fan noise. Maybe I will find some time and mod the PSU. We will see.

I would consider installing one larger fan as exhaust above the CPU heatsink, chipset, and RAM, as in standard config, the hot air cumulates between the CPU cooler and PSU. On the other hand, this setup should live long at higher temps.

I don't know for what you use it, but considering the setup, it costs about as much as getting a new-gen NUC with the i5 CPU. I got NUC13ANKi5000 two days ago. It's smaller in general and is very quiet during typical work. i5-1340P CPU, so 4P cores and 8E (16 threads in total). I added a 2TB Patriot VP4300 Lite SSD and 64GB RAM. What I like about NUC is that it has most controllers that are in higher series motherboards, like the one that I got has 2x TB4, USB 4, 2.5GBE LAN, WiFi 6E, and BT 5.3. It could have a second M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 (there is a 4.0 but 2242 size and linked to PCIe x1), but I can live with one.