Mea Culpa...

[rainless]

Before we even get STARTED... I just wanted to say that, my understanding... of how my old case was MEANT to work...

...was not GOOD.









It was only just this morning that it occurred to me: I've been building computers since I was eight... and I was eight in the eighties. I've never SEEN anyone else build a computer before. Prior to watching reviews for my new case... I'd never even seen a VIDEO of anyone else putting a computer together. Back when I started in the 80s... Nobody cared. MAJOR MANUFACTURERS just shoved everything in there and made it fit. There was no "cable management."

I've seen beautiful computers in computer shops over the years... but I wasn't buying that anyone other than a highly paid interior decorator was putting them together. NO WAY would an actual Computer Guy make a pretty computer... or so I thought.


DAY ONE

Old Case vs New Case



The NZXT H7 Flow is quite a BIT bigger than my old case. I am extremely happy that I didn't SPLURGE on the giant case that I wanted to buy... That would've been completely ridiculous.




Yeah that's a LOT of 2.5 inch drives... there is no hope.




The difference... is... COLOSSAL...

Day One I just wanted to focus on the standard H7 (non-rgb) build. I'll cover Day 2 with all the fans and whatnot in the next post.

First impressions from yesterday? This was WAY more work (as you have seen...) than I've ever put into building a computer. It took roughly half a DAY (the other half was spent waiting for the damned Amazon guy... who nearly forgot the case... to come).

With only the two non-rgb fans it was really no louder than my old computer... quieter even. I was a bit worried that having three fans would be a bit much in terms of noise... but I'll get into that with Day Two.

Honestly... I've NEVER had this much space in a case... but I DESERVE it... We all do. I mean... maybe not Kenrou... but he should have it anyway.

I deserve nice things. I've been building machines my whole life... I didn't just put together my first computer today so that I could play Fortnite. There's no way a 13 year old should have a nicer-looking machine than me.

I'M PRINT-FAMOUS!


This is also a completely new build with CPU/Motherboard/RAM etc... but I'll get to that in the CPU and Games sections.

 

[rainless]

DAY 2 *which I wasn't going to post because nobody commented on Day 1... but nevertheless...

 

[Kenrou]

I really wanted to post to say it looks good... but I absolutely hate white builds in general Seriously, it looks horrible to me Gimme some nice black/gold or black/RGB, and I'll even give you a hallelujah

On the technical side, looks pretty good, want to see some temps and quick benchs

 

[spiritedandy]

Very nice love it well put together and written fantastic job

 

[Kenrou]

Out of curiosity, why is the CPU cooler rotated like that? Is that how it's supposed to be installed, or does it give better temps?

 

[don256us]

Sorry I missed your Day 1 post. Good stuff to be sure. I can see why you are proud of it. Looks great.

I didn't start to build computers until the 90's. I was out of the service so... older than when you started. We were using IDE drives with 40 - 80 pin ribbon cables. Some companies started to split them and managed to make them so that they allowed for better air flow. I always was looking for better air flow as the 80mm fans of the day were LOUD. Fewer fans or under-volting them meant that we had to run cables in a more efficient manner.
You are 100% about the new cases allowing for better cable management. My Fractal brand cases were cheap (read: made from steel) but very roomy and just a pleasure to work in. Hell, back in the day, I had to return a Voodoo2 because it wouldn't fit. My new cases do NOT have that issue. I could install multiple 4090's if, for example, someone were to donate one or more.

 

[rainless]

Out of curiosity, why is the CPU cooler rotated like that? Is that how it's supposed to be installed, or does it give better temps?

SO glad you asked!

DAY 3

EarthDog noticed the fan was turned the wrong way (it was also the wrong way in my previous build) so I turned it around:



...only to discover that my fan, soon after, went completely dead:



(That's the exact FRAME where it happened. Notice the computer is ON... and this is not some kind of high speed photo...)

So I took the original front case fan from the H7 Flow and just plugged it into the CPU_Fan header as a temporary solution:



Which leads us to...

DAY 4





Acqua Elite 360 White V3. (Only 59.99!)

Sorry I missed your Day 1 post. Good stuff to be sure. I can see why you are proud of it. Looks great.

I didn't start to build computers until the 90's. I was out of the service so... older than when you started. We were using IDE drives with 40 - 80 pin ribbon cables. Some companies started to split them and managed to make them so that they allowed for better air flow. I always was looking for better air flow as the 80mm fans of the day were LOUD. Fewer fans or under-volting them meant that we had to run cables in a more efficient manner.
You are 100% about the new cases allowing for better cable management. My Fractal brand cases were cheap (read: made from steel) but very roomy and just a pleasure to work in. Hell, back in the day, I had to return a Voodoo2 because it wouldn't fit. My new cases do NOT have that issue. I could install multiple 4090's if, for example, someone were to donate one or more.

I wish I'd had a nice case YEARS ago. Took me a few decades to realize I deserved one... but eventually I came around.

 

[Zerileous]

I believe the bearing in certain fans do not function well or are not lubricated well in horizontal orientation, more of a problem with older fans like sleeve bearings. I'm guessing the bearing suffered some kind of irregular wear that caused it to fail rapidly when the orientation was changed. I'm kicking around the old memories plus I referenced a reddit thread (I know, but I was just searching for some confirmation on "wait is that a thing") here.

Do you mind sharing what kind of bearing the fan has or the model? I'm pretty sure most modern AIOs don't come with fans that can't be horizontal because its a really common rad location, so not to worry overly about the fate of the new cooler.

I love the build, I'm a fan of white!

edit: got fixated for a minute. It looks like a lot of the fans were labeled as "long life bearing" on zalman coolers, which I'm assuming is a sleeve but I'm not sure. I also found some other references about the hazards of horizontal mounting for sleeve bearing fans and also that they fail catastrophically which also fits the picture.

The Basics of Case Fan Bearings - Which Bearing is Best? | GamersNexus

stub Active air cooling can hold its own as extremely efficient when utilized to its fullest potential -- in fact, in many instances, it's often more cost-to-temperature effective to use case fans instead of liquid cooling. Maybe a future article with benchmarks? This portion of our 'The Basics...

gamersnexus.net

https://appuals.com/case-fan-bearing-types-differences-and-comparison/ (published 9 years later and very similar to the above article hrm)

so yeah, there's a failure analysis nobody asked for, thanks brain.

 

[rainless]

I believe the bearing in certain fans do not function well or are not lubricated well in horizontal orientation, more of a problem with older fans like sleeve bearings. I'm guessing the bearing suffered some kind of irregular wear that caused it to fail rapidly when the orientation was changed. I'm kicking around the old memories plus I referenced a reddit thread (I know, but I was just searching for some confirmation on "wait is that a thing") here.

Do you mind sharing what kind of bearing the fan has or the model? I'm pretty sure most modern AIOs don't come with fans that can't be horizontal because its a really common rad location, so not to worry overly about the fate of the new cooler.

I love the build, I'm a fan of white!

edit: got fixated for a minute. It looks like a lot of the fans were labeled as "long life bearing" on zalman coolers, which I'm assuming is a sleeve but I'm not sure. I also found some other references about the hazards of horizontal mounting for sleeve bearing fans and also that they fail catastrophically which also fits the picture.

The Basics of Case Fan Bearings - Which Bearing is Best? | GamersNexus

stub Active air cooling can hold its own as extremely efficient when utilized to its fullest potential -- in fact, in many instances, it's often more cost-to-temperature effective to use case fans instead of liquid cooling. Maybe a future article with benchmarks? This portion of our 'The Basics...

gamersnexus.net

https://appuals.com/case-fan-bearing-types-differences-and-comparison/ (published 9 years later and very similar to the above article hrm)

so yeah, there's a failure analysis nobody asked for, thanks brain.

I actually find this fascinating! The fan just says: "Zalman CNPS CE Quiet CPU Cooler". No other designation on there.

It worked, for sure, for about a day after I turned it. I don't recall seeing the fan not spinning. The next day it would stop... then start... stop... then start. All day long. Finally, at about 3 or 4am (just got up to get something to drink) I was sitting right there looking at it when it stopped dead). (In fact... I took video of the moment it died.)

I love the build, I'm a fan of white!

Thanks! Practically everything I own is black... I was just sick of it. I think even my next moto will be blue or red. My next guitar will almost certainly be a brown sunburst.

I liked that they made the Playstation 5 white. (No idea, AT ALL, why Xbox made the Series S white and the Series X black... They could've at least added some blue or orange or SOMETHING...)

Plus I figured, correctly, the RGB lights would play nicer off the white case rather than get absorbed and muted by a black one.

I did toy with the idea of "Black Fans/White Case" for a while... but I'm pretty happy with the White-on-White result in the end.

And I'm BLOWN AWAY by my cheap AIO cooler! I'll post temp results soon.

 

[JLK03F150]

Congrats on the new build! Your wire management looks great. You're making me want to update the case on one (or both) of my systems to something modern.

 

[EarthDog]

Looks good, overall. The black mobo and black geepeeyou don't do it for me in a white chassis tho'. Wire management looks solid... defo. some things you can do to clean that up too, but clearly not a rat nest, lol. Enjoy that PC!!!