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Hello Fellow PC Builders,

I have meticulously sifted through each and every component on PC Specialist in the Liquid Cooled PC builder in an attempt to build my dream PC. I do have some questions which would definitely put my mind at ease when it comes to hitting order if anyone can help, it would be appreciated.

Things to note:

  • My budget is £4,000 with a little bit of wiggle room.
  • I want to synchronise as much of the RGB controls as possible so I don't have to have multiple controllers or applications handling them.
  • I plan on streaming my gameplay of Fortnite and Rocket League using my Elgato 60S+ USB Capture Card combined with OBS. I will also think about video editing, playing VR games, 4K games and be ready for 8K games, I may also mine for crypto in the PC's downtime.
  • The case selected in my opinion is super beautiful, absolutely love it. I really want to build my PC around it.

Here is the build:

Case CoolerMaster MasterCase H500M Gaming Case (LS)

Custom Liquid Cooling Kit Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit - Corsair Hydro X

Tubing Clear Hardline PETG Tubing (Bent/Metallic Fittings)

Graphics Card Cooling GPU Water Block - For One Graphics Card!

Coolant Colour EK-CryoFuel Purple

LED Lighting 2x 50cm RGB LED Strip

Overclocked CPU Overclocked AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core (3.4GHz @ up to 4.65GHz)

Motherboard ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!

Memory (RAM) 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)

Graphics Card 10GB ASUS ROG STRIX GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP (Pre-Order Only)

1st Storage Drive 1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)

2nd Storage Drive 1TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)

1st M.2 SSD Drive 500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)

RAID RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)

Power Supply CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Braided Power Supply Cables CORSAIR Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cable Kit Pro - Black

Sound Card Asus Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card

USB/Thunderbolt Options MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Operating System Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence

Price: £4,075.00 including VAT and Delivery

Questions I have regarding the build (I have numbered them so you can reply directly without having to quote them in your responses):

  1. Topic: Restricted water cooling options due to the size of the CoolerMaster MasterCase H500M Gaming Case (LS) case selected.

The water cooling options are restricted to:

  • Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit - Corsair Hydro X
  • Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit - EK

Question: Which of these performs better, I think the only difference I have been able to find is the sizing of the tubes. Is this a cosmetic difference or will this effect the cooling performance, amount of energy required to pump the fluid through them.

  1. Topic: Restricted water cooling options ability to cool such a powerful computer.

Question: As the parts I will be using are very high spec, will the Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit's be up to the task?

  1. Topic: RGB Strip lighting within the CoolerMaster MasterCase H500M Gaming Case.

Question: I have selected two RGB lighting strips, assuming there is only dedicated space for two strips, is my assumption correct?

  1. Topic: The CoolerMaster MasterCase H500M Gaming Case can support up to 3 additional fan(s). I have added the Liquid Series RGB Mid Kit - Corsair Hydro X that comes with a 360mm radiator and quoting from the more info specs 'Up to 4x Corsair RGB Fans'.

Question:

a) Will the radiator be situated at the top of the case with the fans attached; occupying the 3 additional fan slots?

b) Also, the 4th Corsair RGB Fan that comes in the cooling kit, can I request it to replace the plain black fan located at the rear of the PC Case?

  1. Topic: Selecting the right RAM for the ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) Motherboard.

Not knowing if the ASUS® CROSSHAIR VIII HERO WIFI (DDR4, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX/SLI) Motherboard's RAM slots are bi-channel or quad-channel.

Question:

a) Am I best getting 4 x 8gb or 2 x 16gb sticks of RAM?

b) Should I swap the 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB) RAM for the lower MHz 32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 8GB) RAM to occupy all four channels?

  1. Topic: Braided Power Supply Cables.

I want to have purple braided cables.

Question: Are braided cables safer, offer a better quality power transfer, noticeable when they are simply black braided cables, come with some kind of warranty or protection standard cables would not offer? Or, are they just cosmetic!

  1. Topic: Choosing the right sound card for my intended use.

I plan to stream my gameplay, listen to music on (currently 5.1 but will potentially go to 7.1) surround sound speakers.

Question: Has the selected Asus Xonar AE 7.1-Channel Gaming Audio Card got me covered, is it a waste of money, or should I be getting a better sound card?

  1. Topic: HD / SSD / m.2 Partitions

I want to make the best use of my m.2 drive. The things I will be using the most on the computer are:

  • Booting the PC.
  • Google Chrome.
  • OBS.
  • Fortnite.
  • Rocket League.
  • Spotify.
  • Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator.

What should I specify the partitions to be to make these all have priority and ability to sit on the m.2 for quickest reads and writes?

I would really appreciate if you could respond using a numbered system as I am not a wizard when it comes to the naming structure of all of the PC components, so if you could copy and paste this template and respond to each question accordingly it would help me massively:

My experience with these components: Owned / Tested & Reviewed / Watched Reviews / Looked at the Specs / I just know better than you - deal with it!

Q1) Answer

Q2) ...

Q3) ...

Q4 - a) ...

Q4 - b) ...

Q5 - a) ...

Q5 - b) ...

Q6) ...

Q7) ...

Q8) ...

Appreciate this is a very long post, thank you all for taking the time.

Thanks, Doops.

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1 Answer 1

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I can answer some of the questions, but not all.

  1. a. Definitely two 16GB sticks of RAM. With the way ram works the CPU controller can only support two sticks (dual channel) and if you had four 8GB sticks, the CPU would have to split the two busses into four virtual busses, therefore reducing your speed. But I would definitely get two 16GB sticks rather than one 32GB stick. It's also nice for upgradability. If you need more ram in the future, you have two free slots on your motherboard.

    b. Nope

  2. Not sure about warranty, but it does definitely add a layer of protection to the cables, With all the metal components in a computer, having bare rubber coming in contact with metal, the cords would degrade faster than if it had a braided sleeve.

  3. I've heard good things about the Sound Blaster AE-5 plus. Seems like a good choice given it has support for 7.1 surround and a built in amp for headphones up to 600 ohms.

  4. Don't go partition crazy. Keep all your programs in the Program Files folder on your C: drive. The m.2 drive will be able to keep up with all of these without the partitions. All the partitions will just make you go crazy ;). Also, make sure to get an m.2 NVMe drive, not an m.2 sata drive as it will have much, much higher speeds.

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  • Thank you very much. Would you be able to give me more details on how you would partition please? Are you indicating to not partition the m.2 and request the OS to be on there, then I don’t need to partition as I can continue to store stuff on the m.2 without the partitions?
    – Jason Is My Name
    Commented May 17, 2021 at 15:48
  • 1
    Exactly. With an m.2, there is no need to partition unless you’re doing advanced things on the computer (ie. dual booting).
    – Salocor
    Commented May 17, 2021 at 16:04

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