10/25/2020
Last year we came to the conclusion that the 10 year old iMac we were using was giving us a less than satisfactory user experience. I began looking into what kind of computer would satisfy our family needs for the next ten years. We decided that building a PC was the only reasonable option. This, of course, led me down an all-consuming rabbit hole into the past, present, future and all the many facets of home computer building.
After building the “Family Computer” I was left with the gnawing affliction of PC buildingitis that still claws at my very core. In order to satiate my ravenous appetite I needed to find an excuse to build again. Well, my mother will be retiring soon and she will start to write her memoirs and digitize and organize her many letters and pictures and montages and collages and edit home videos and yes YES… you madam, YOU need a PC!
However, it would take some finesse. The soulless stamped metal coffin that the average consumer is forced to have on display or cram into the corner like Baby Houseman would simply not do. Nobody puts PC in the corner. The computer cases on the market would not fit in amongst the fanciful sheeps head desk, quaint wooden ladder leaning against the wall adorned with whimsical fabrics and carefully curated book shelves in my mother’s room. So why not make a little faux book shelf.
I needed to prove I could do it to myself and to her. This wouldn’t be the final project, just a proof of concept prototype, but it couldn’t be an exercise in futility either. The final project would have two Plexiglas panels set in relief with the spines of books attached to look like a shelf full of books while still being able to peer through them to the inner working of the computer.
To start I would need a computer, something inexpensive but not obsolete. I found a small form factor Dell OptiPlex 7020 with an i7 4790 for about $150.The 4790 is a 4 core 8 thread possessor that still sells for an unreasonable amount of money on eBay today (especially the K version) and is actually the recommended, not minimal, spec CPU for Cyberpunk 2077 (an immense open world game that hasn’t even been released yet.) I de-lidded the CPU and replaced the thermal paste between the IHS and the die with Kryonaut and lapped the IHS.I found a brand new Cooler Master Gemini II for $15 and lapped that too and replaced the fan with an Artic P12.
The OptiPlex came with 8 gigs of 1600 MHz ram which is ok but I really wanted at least 16 gigs. I found a nice set of Corsair Vengeance 1600 CL9 for $50 which was a little steep but not too unreasonable and the kid I got it from was stoked to get the asking price and that made it a little more worth it. However, the Dell motherboard doesn’t support XMP so it runs at 1333 oops. I feel like 24 gigs of 1333 is probably better than 8 of 1600 so there we are.
I wanted a graphics card that ran off the board power but I just couldn’t find one around me. I found a Sapphire R9 270 for $40 and decided to go for it. When I gave this kid his asking price, in a sketchy McDonalds parking lot, he was a little more than stoked he was shocked. When I took it apart I couldn’t really lap the cooler but I did smooth it out a little. I replaced the fans with another P12 after I sanded the outer shroud off and then soldered a mini 4 pin on so that it runs off the GPUs fan header. It is connected to the board with a PCIe extension.
I was afraid that the small form factor power supply would not be too happy with the addition of the GPU so I got a full sized OptiPlex PSU for $15 off eBay. I was going to just use that but the SFF PSU is proprietary to Dell so I didn’t really care to keep it for something else so I hooked up the SFF PSU powers the motherboard and the full sized only powers the GPU. I am no longer worried that there is not enough power.
The computer came with a 128 gig SSD, which I used for a boot drive, and hooked up another 1 terabyte Samsung SSD for $100 to give it a decent amount of storage. Adding a little $25 Wi-Fi dongle, that handedly outperforms my internet service, rounded out the parts list.
The case sides are cut from an antique bedroom set someone gave me. I have used that wood for all kinds stuff around the house and will continue to use it until every scrap of it takes on a new life. The back, top and middle cross member is pine from something that I found in the alleys of Old N.E. many years ago I can’t remember what exactly. Actually the back piece used to be the top of a little play table I made for my son when he was 2 years old. The Plexiglas came from those alleys too as part of an enormous piece of tacky hotel art someone rightfully chucked out. The Plexiglas is held in place with screws from guitar tuner machine heads. The bottom cross member is actually aromatic cider that came from my grandfather and was found in my uncles barn in Alabama. Cedar is mostly a cinnamon color with accents of blond but this piece was just cut from one of those accents. The top cross member is a piece of poplar that has a good example of the dark green hue that poplar can exhibit. I have no idea where that came from but it was the perfect thickness to box in the case fans whish are two led fans from a tower CPU cooler and one of the original PSU fans. Lastly, there is a strip of tiger maple above the fans to help direct airflow which is in from the top and exhausting out the bottom. I couldn’t find much info about this orientation so I was curious to see how it would affect temperatures.
The finished computer will load windows faster than my much more modern “Family Computer” and generally feels just as snappy. I had it hooked up to my 4K TV and had it streaming 4K video with no problem what so ever and actually was streaming video and playing Minecraft at the same time with no issues. It’s not a normal thing for me to do I just wanted to see how it would work. It can run Heaven benchmark (DirectX 11, ultra quality, extreme tessellation, anti-aliasing x8, 1920 x 1080) and stay at about 70c. Playing Skyrim on High 1080p I get 54 fps averages and after well over an hour never hit 75c. Cinebench R20 runs around 70c as well scoring in the mid-1600s exactly where it should.
If you made it this far, thank you, I just now realized that I have written a 1200 word tome.
