Hi All,
Been a good long while since I was an active member of a forum--but with a new job, a full quarterly bonus and a 30% raise all in my first few months--I'm finding it may actually be achievable to build the rig of my childhood dreams over this holiday season, complete with a premium case, custom loop, the works and not tank my financials completely.
Before jumping in--I'd love to get whatever resources you pros may have to offer that may help guide my design & layout of my first WC and all-out build!
The meat and potatoes of my post comes in here: I've found CaseLabs to be a leading candidate (specifically I've been look at the SMA8) for one of the best cases all-around and I'm looking for some feedback on actual user experience and basically get the layman user's "pitch" on the good/bad, why I should get a CaseLabs case, what are the true benefits of the 200-300%+ premium, and on the other side--who the leading competitors are in terms of 1. Quality, and separately and additionally, 2. Cost. Ultimately, throwing down $500+ for a case was not something I thought was even possible and it maybe that my use-case doesn't really require spending this much if I can find something functional and as equally aesthetically pleasing (good luck to me?). I'd also love to know, if any, the niche things there are to know about owning one of these cases that wouldn't be made known via CaseLab's product videos or descriptions (I've never seen so many menu options for buying a case! That's a lot of research just to click buy
) or just general warnings/concerns I should have before I select my options and hit go if I go this route.
My other concern is what type of planning I need to be thinking of as far as design when working with this case and with WC in general? It will be my first loop. My current plan is to build a Threadripper home-workstation and try to pump it @ 4ghz with a dedicated custom loop on the CPU as my first WC build. I was thinking of getting a 480mm Rad but I'm seeing 420mm solutions pop up and am thinking radiator selection maybe one of the most relevant factors. I was also thinking to have the res places somewhere inside (next to Mobo with verticle placement with room to add a 2nd res next to it? Shot in the dark here...) I was thinking to get an entire XSPC loop setup (Res: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074G45WMR/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I3S8O4JJJM8JXA&colid=1XI6Z0RWR01PS , Rad: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074G45WMR/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I3S8O4JJJM8JXA&colid=1XI6Z0RWR01PS)
Most of it would be for professional work and down the line, I'm thinking I'll probably either upgrade my loop or add a 2nd loop for my current 1080 ROG Strix (or something else down the line) to juice the rig further because imanabsolutemadman. Initially at least, it will be a single GPU build as I highly doubt with Threadripper single-threaded limitations and AFAIK, poor support of SLI, a dual-card setup will be necessary or even add any recognizable performance value (I don't want to completely throw my money away). I'm also SO done with teching random **** at the driver/hardware level that I feel like SLI is just asking for bad news. Plus I just don't really game anymore as I enjoy dedicating time to learning programming applications for my job and working in general, but I'd love to build something pretty on my desk that gets me pumped for excel spreadsheets and will make the ladies drop their panties
As a last point, if there is a better place for me to be placing this question as while it is product specific, I really am also looking for general advice for a new build I'm looking for--so sorry if this comes as "yet another build advice thread." Just a prospective user looking for advice
I'VE GOT THE PC BUILD ITCH AGAIN BOYS!
TLDR: Is CaseLabs worth it?
Been a good long while since I was an active member of a forum--but with a new job, a full quarterly bonus and a 30% raise all in my first few months--I'm finding it may actually be achievable to build the rig of my childhood dreams over this holiday season, complete with a premium case, custom loop, the works and not tank my financials completely.
Before jumping in--I'd love to get whatever resources you pros may have to offer that may help guide my design & layout of my first WC and all-out build!
The meat and potatoes of my post comes in here: I've found CaseLabs to be a leading candidate (specifically I've been look at the SMA8) for one of the best cases all-around and I'm looking for some feedback on actual user experience and basically get the layman user's "pitch" on the good/bad, why I should get a CaseLabs case, what are the true benefits of the 200-300%+ premium, and on the other side--who the leading competitors are in terms of 1. Quality, and separately and additionally, 2. Cost. Ultimately, throwing down $500+ for a case was not something I thought was even possible and it maybe that my use-case doesn't really require spending this much if I can find something functional and as equally aesthetically pleasing (good luck to me?). I'd also love to know, if any, the niche things there are to know about owning one of these cases that wouldn't be made known via CaseLab's product videos or descriptions (I've never seen so many menu options for buying a case! That's a lot of research just to click buy
My other concern is what type of planning I need to be thinking of as far as design when working with this case and with WC in general? It will be my first loop. My current plan is to build a Threadripper home-workstation and try to pump it @ 4ghz with a dedicated custom loop on the CPU as my first WC build. I was thinking of getting a 480mm Rad but I'm seeing 420mm solutions pop up and am thinking radiator selection maybe one of the most relevant factors. I was also thinking to have the res places somewhere inside (next to Mobo with verticle placement with room to add a 2nd res next to it? Shot in the dark here...) I was thinking to get an entire XSPC loop setup (Res: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074G45WMR/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I3S8O4JJJM8JXA&colid=1XI6Z0RWR01PS , Rad: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074G45WMR/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I3S8O4JJJM8JXA&colid=1XI6Z0RWR01PS)
Most of it would be for professional work and down the line, I'm thinking I'll probably either upgrade my loop or add a 2nd loop for my current 1080 ROG Strix (or something else down the line) to juice the rig further because imanabsolutemadman. Initially at least, it will be a single GPU build as I highly doubt with Threadripper single-threaded limitations and AFAIK, poor support of SLI, a dual-card setup will be necessary or even add any recognizable performance value (I don't want to completely throw my money away). I'm also SO done with teching random **** at the driver/hardware level that I feel like SLI is just asking for bad news. Plus I just don't really game anymore as I enjoy dedicating time to learning programming applications for my job and working in general, but I'd love to build something pretty on my desk that gets me pumped for excel spreadsheets and will make the ladies drop their panties
As a last point, if there is a better place for me to be placing this question as while it is product specific, I really am also looking for general advice for a new build I'm looking for--so sorry if this comes as "yet another build advice thread." Just a prospective user looking for advice
I'VE GOT THE PC BUILD ITCH AGAIN BOYS!
TLDR: Is CaseLabs worth it?