CHH ID: feijianfei

1. Background This year, as everyone knows, has been quite challenging. Friends from the forum may remember that I have been in the U.S. for many years. This year, amidst the pandemic and the tumultuous relations between the two countries, I consider myself very lucky to still be here. Just before the travel ban took effect, I landed in the U.S., and by March, I was recruited by a big boss. Sometimes, I lie in bed and think about it; it feels like a dream. If I hadn’t acted decisively during the Chinese New Year and changed my flight to return 4 hours earlier upon hearing the news, my life might have taken a completely different path. Some people lost their jobs, but I found a better one. Both the company and the boss are great. So, I work even harder, giving my boss the impression that hiring me is equivalent to hiring several people. The company moved its office to Dallas, and the boss set up a new home there. He mentioned that he needed a new computer for his home office and asked if I could contact the programmer who built his previous computer to assemble another one for him. I said, “Don’t you want to see what kind of computer I can build for you?” Thus, this post was born.2. Assembly Thoughts As a trading computer, the number and arrangement of screens are crucial. Therefore, I chose a four-screen setup: two 34-inch 21:9 screens arranged vertically for market software and charts, and one 27-inch 16:9 screen on each side for browsing the web, emails, documents, etc. I chose a small case, prioritizing a compact and quiet design. The previous computer the programmer built had great performance but was too large and noisy, making it uncomfortable to use. In terms of performance, the budget is ample, so a slight excess is acceptable without wasting money. There will definitely be excess since it won’t run very resource-intensive programs, but it will run many Excel sheets, web pages, and other tasks, often without shutting down for weeks. The key is to pay attention to the installation technique. I will introduce the specific configurations later.3. Main Configuration CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X570-I Gaming SSD: GIGABYTE AORUS Gen4 M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 4.0 GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER Power Supply: CORSAIR SF Series SF450 Fans: Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200/Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM X2 Case: RAIJINTEK OPHION EVO Monitors: Dell Ultrasharp U2719DX X2 / Dell UltraSharp U3415W X2 Speakers: Dell Pro Stereo Soundbar AE515M Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech MX Keys / Logitech MX Master 3 CPU Cooler: ASUS ROG Ryuo 240 RGB AIO 4. Assembly Process (Images taken with a mobile phone, please excuse the poor quality) Group photo of all components. Friends with ITX assembly experience should know that assembling an ITX computer is the most challenging part. First, set the performance indicators, then choose the case, and from the case’s capacity, determine the specific components and cable routing. The limitations of ITX cases are significant, so knowing what kind of case to choose is very important. This involves a lot of research. ITX cases are becoming increasingly popular, with various small custom factories blooming in the market, and big companies are also increasing their investments. There are many choices available. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, all suppliers faced issues with their supply capabilities. Small private factories experienced various stock shortages. However, the assembly cannot wait, so I had to choose the most suitable option from the limited choices. In the end, I settled on the RAIJINTEK OPHION EVO. While it’s not the newest or most extreme ITX case, it was the most suitable for this build, primarily because it supports a 240mm radiator. It’s worth noting that the chosen CPU would not be adequately cooled using a down-blowing cooler of ITX specifications. For the cooler, I chose ASUS’s ROG 240. It’s significantly more expensive than other 240mm coolers because it features an OLED screen on the pump head. Why choose such an extravagant cooler? The answer will be revealed at the end. The motherboard wasn’t given much consideration; I went straight for the best one. This motherboard also features the latest Wi-Fi 6 module, which works seamlessly with ASUS’s AiMesh Wi-Fi 6 router setup, fully accommodating my home’s 300Mbps internet speed. For the SSD, the 980PRO was not yet available at the time of assembly. The choices for 4.0 SSDs in the market were limited, and I found GIGABYTE’s to be the best value, so I went with that. Many people are concerned about file security. Since I work from multiple locations, all files are stored in the cloud with local backups. Therefore, file security is not an issue. For the fans, the stock fans were definitely not an option due to noise. So, I bought three Noctua fans, all of which are silent fans. The two on the left are high-pressure versions for pushing air through the radiator, while the one on the right is a high-volume version, which will be installed at the bottom of the case to bring in plenty of cool air. To maintain a consistent color scheme, I chose gray. I want to mention the choice between air pressure and air volume. You can perform a simple experiment: if you take a deep breath and fill your lungs, then open your mouth wide and exhale, you’ll find that it’s the fastest way to expel air from your lungs. However, if you place your hand in front of your mouth at that moment, you’ll feel that the wind isn’t very strong. This is high volume, low pressure. If you pucker your lips and blow, you will find that the air blowing against your hand is very noticeable, but it takes longer to empty your lungs. This is high pressure, low volume. The same principle applies to fans. Therefore, typically, radiators require high-pressure fans to push air through the heat sink to dissipate heat, while case fans, if they don’t need to push air far, should focus on high volume to bring in or exhaust more air. Now, anti-vibration pads are sold separately! For the graphics card, integrated graphics would suffice for a trading machine. However, to ensure stable output quality across four screens, especially since the resolution of all four screens is not low, a graphics card with four outputs was necessary. After researching, I found that the minimum model to meet the requirements was the GTX 1660 SUPER. Of course, there are lower models, but they are all from the previous generation. As for why I chose the extravagant three-fan version instead of the shorter one, it’s purely for aesthetics. Looks and details matter, and the price difference isn’t significant. If I had chosen the shorter version, there would be a large exposed area on the back that would not cover the cable routing, affecting aesthetics. However, before assembly, I had a sudden idea. Since this graphics card has such a large heatsink and is not meant for gaming, could I remove the fans and rely on passive cooling? This would look better and be quieter, right? It seems the only way to find out if this is feasible is to try. I chose Dell for the speakers, as their business-oriented simple design is very suitable, taking up little space, providing decent sound quality, and including a microphone, which is very convenient for conference calls. However, the original stand is not compatible with the ultra-wide monitor, nor with the monitor stand I purchased later. I had to solve this with 3M double-sided tape. After more than 7 hours of assembly (mostly due to trying various cable routings which took a lot of time, and the case was also disassembled during the process), this case actually supports standard ATX power supplies, but for the sake of aesthetics and ease of routing, I went with an SFX power supply. The results were quite good. Below is the monitor assembly, which was also a major project. I had to select the appropriate mount, fearing that if the monitors were too large, the mount would not be compatible. I checked dimensions and finally found a suitable one. Dual 8K video playback stress test Finally, the passive cooling solution for the graphics card failed. During testing in a well-ventilated area, the temperature could stabilize at 65°C while playing dual 8K videos. However, in the small office, as you can see, there was no airflow in the corner. An interesting phenomenon occurred: the graphics card slowly accumulated heat, starting at 45°C and gradually rising to 80°C after several hours, ultimately resulting in a crash and black screen. This means there was no effective way to dissipate the heat from the heatsink, and it just kept accumulating. So, in the end, I had to reinstall the fans. Thanks to the three-fan design, the fans operate at low speeds and can even stop, so they are not noisy. I can only say it was an interesting experiment. To achieve complete passive cooling, a larger and thicker heatsink and better airflow are necessary. Finally, I made the OLED display on the CPU cooler show our company logo and turned off the flashy lights on the motherboard to restore its elegance and stability. My boss smiled with satisfaction when he saw it. Thus, the satisfied boss sent me to Sim Farm 2020.