As you can see, this PC has gone through alot...

And as cliché as it sounds, what a rollercoaster 2020-2022 has been.

I initially set out for a prebuilt PC and journeyed to my local BestBuy after my HP Envy had died years prior. At the time, I didn't know too much about PC's and thus there was much "Oo" and "Ah" as I first plugged it in- such bright colors and a functional computer was bliss after using just a phone for so long.

Specs (Cyberpower Prebuilt); - Ryzen 3 (3100?) - RX 560 - ASrock A320M Motherboard

The prebuilt really struggled to play graphic intensive games like Metro and such... So it was time to make my wallet hurt. My first "real" build and the following upgrades were done throughout 2020 prior to the 30 series launch. Upgrades here and there was rather potent as I gradually succumbed to PC building addiction- symptoms also include binging Gamers Nexus and LTT videos.

Specs (Upgrades); - Ryzen 5 3600 - RX 580 (8GB)

Then to; - Ryzen 9 3900X - 2080 Super FE - ROG B450i Motherboard - NEW CASE! Thermaltake Core V1 ITX Cube

Now, THIS was BLISS. I was hooked into COD: Cold War when it was initially released and spent quite abit of time on the game with friends. The PC had incredible performance and was absolutely adorable with how compact it was.

But alas, human greed prevails. I sold the 2080 Super with hopes of being able to buy a 30 Series Card- little did I know... It was so cold without my tiny space heater pumping out frames for my games... (Though, in the meantime I ended up buying an ROG G15 3070 laptop for school/gaming which was great.)

THEN BOOM.

Microcenter has STOCK BestBuy has STOCK

'Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo' I drove almost 30miles just to pickup the graphics card same day- the wait is finally over.

I absolutely had to have the Aorus Master due to the abundance in ports- 3x HDMI and 3x DP. The little screen for gifs is just a bonus on top of that. However, I REALLY was afraid that the CHONKY graphics card wouldn't fit into the case. There isn't even enough room for slim fans to slide under the card... The NR200 was honestly just a pretty pick among the other Amazon listings for cases. Clearances between fans and the cables are just held apart with hopes, dreams, and a few zip-ties. The Overhead Noctua fan has a grill that came with the case. Didn't use fancy (Cablemod/PSlate/etc.) PSU cables and just used cables that came with the EVGA SFX PSU.

I don't know about the other folks with the R9 3900X, but the thermals on idle- with the stock cooler- for me jumped and stayed around 60C and that had me abit concerned- all whilst I kept the case open. (Granted, my CPU usage on idle was rather high because "NVRLA.exe" was running in the background. Even when the program was turned off and drivers were updated, the idle temps were still rather unnerving.) Hence, I ended up purchasing the AIO and now have ~48C at idle. The addition of a Noctua fan and AIO redirecting the heat also seemingly dropped the GPU temps from mid 50s to low 40s. A minor gripe with this build is the Noctua fan and of how loud it is... when I stick my head next to the PC. With the fan turned off, the PC is near completely inaudible.

Nonetheless, what a long journey it's been.