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[Build Log] Humble SM5 MK2: Even more humbler

4860 Views 22 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Aussiejuggalo, 
Aussiejuggalo
2
Humble SM5 MK2: Even more humbler

Thought I'd get on this build log now seeing I have the time.

So some of you may remember my current build My Humble SM5, It wasn't the a top of the line build, it was rather humble but it was interesting to do and the feedback / help I got wasn't to bad so I thought lets do this again.

This time round will be a little different, all new parts, yet another new desk (don't worry it's already built and setup) and finally new monitors... none of it cheap, money is no problem as of right now but I wont be spending unnecessarily.

So let's start this shall we?

The Parts

Gotten = ✓, Ordered = ✓, Waiting to order = ✓.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 1800X $700. ✓

Motherboard: X370 mATX. MSI B350M Mortar Arctic $149. ✓

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z 32G F4-3200C14D-32GTZKW $459. ✓

GPU: AMD R9 290. Waiting for Vega. Galax GTX 1080 EXOC Sniper White $749 Galax GTX 1070 EXOC Sniper White $599 MSI 1070 Armour OC $527 ✓

Windows SSD: Samsung 960 EVO NVMe M.2 250GB $189. ✓

Games SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 1TB $479. ✓

OBS Recordings HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB WD10EZEX $69. ✓

PSU: EVGA G2 850w $200. ✓

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i V2 $149. ✓

Cables: Cablemod custom length and colours. ✓

Monitors: 27" IPS 120HZ+ Freesync. 3x ViewSonic XG2703-GS $899✓

The Plan

Basically build the biggest baddest PC I can and hope to hell it lasts a few years, it'll mostly be used for gaming and game recording with some photo / video editing and maybe some 3D model's for printing.

The colour scheme I'm going for on this is mono tone, grey, black and white, colour may be aloud if it's not red... I'm OVER red and black damn PC's every other person has one (looks at current pc) so yes little to no colour on this one unless the board comes with nice LED's / paint or I do some modding.

Some of you may of noticed that I stated a CPU cooler but I currently have a custom loop. The reason for this is... basically I cant be bothered any more with custom watercooling, yes it looks amazing but the time to fill and bleed... I just cant be bothered, I want to go back to basics on this build, I want it easy to clean and fix which at the moment is to much of a pain so the watercooling is coming out and will be sold and the money from that may go to Vega, monitors or both.

The Desk

Now actually the desk is already done, I finished that off... well a few months ago but set it up a couple days ago. It's a custom made desk using an Acacia bench top cut down from 2.2m to 1.8m with 5 legs, 4 corners, 1 centre back. The PC is on the floor now, originally I planned to have a shelf on the brick wall for it but after thinking about it, it would of messed with the 27" monitors I plan on getting.

Monitor stand is a WSGF Ultimate Desk Stand v2, cost an utter FORTUNE to get here to Australia but well worth the money, I still need to mess with it a little to get it "perfect" but for the moment it's setup good enough.The lighting is RGBW strips controlled with a Mi Light Wireless 2.4GHz 4 zone remote, basically 1 remote to control 4 of the strips via separate controllers.

I still have some work to do like clean up the cables, get some speaker stands, add some more LED's and put up some of my pictures but for now this is it.





So I think that's everything, I'm hoping to order the main bulk of stuff this week but it depends on what we actually get here in Aus and if there is any damn X370 MATX boards on launch day etc etc. so we shall see.

As always I'm happy to take advice on parts.
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Aussiejuggalo
Table of Contents & Update History

Table of Contents

Update 1.

Update 2.

Update 3.

Update 4 Catastrophe

Update 5

Update 6

Update 7 Change of Plans

Update 8 GPU

Lighting

Small Update

Update History

11/03/2017 CPU, Motherboard, SSD's HDD & PSU ordered.

14/03/2017 CPU cooler ordered.

15/03/2017 RAM ordered.

17/03/2017 CPU cooler delivered.

21/03/2017 RAM delivered.

27/03/2017 CPU, Motherboard, SSD's HDD & PSU delivered.

04/05/2017 M.2 died.

XX/05/2017 Got and installed replacement M.2 (forget the exact date).

19/07/2017 Corsair H100i V2 ordered.

25/07/2017 Corsair H100i V2 delivered.

01/09/2017 PSU cables ordered.

11/09/2017 PSU cables delivered.

13/09/2017 GPU ordered.

18/09/2017 GPU delivered.
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Aussiejuggalo
Final Pics
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Aussiejuggalo
2
Update 1

Got some of parts ordered.



Still waiting on mATX boards and cooler, not sure if I want to go the H100i V2 or maybe the new EK AIO, all depends on availability.

For now that's all I have, I will be doing some work on my desk setup and I have an idea for case lighting that I'll try in the coming days hopefully.

Cables

I did say I was going to get cables done by CableMod but now how, this is the general idea.



They'll also be custom lengths seeing my case is a reversed layout so I don't need a 80cm long EPS, also getting some 60cm SATA data cables because 30cm one's wont reach, probably black for them.
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Aussiejuggalo
28
Update 2

Got all the parts finally.

I had some problems with the store I ordered from, my first order (from the first update) was cancelled because the money didn't go through then I was stuck waiting for motherboard stock, I was originally going to go for the MSI B350M Gaming Pro as a temp motherboard but I changed that to the MSI B350M Mortar Arctic because it's a better board and if no X370 mATX boards take my fancy I should be able to keep it and be happy enough.

Picture Time

AMD Ryzen 7 1800X





MSI B350M Mortar Arctic






G.skill Trident Z 32GB (2x16GB) 3200MHz F4-3200C14D-32GTZKW







Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED Turbo









Samsung 960 EVO M.2 250GB





Samsung 850 EVO 1TB





Western Digital Blue 1TB



EVGA Supernova G2 850W









IT'S ALIVE!!

I wanted to test it first before I ripped apart my old rig to make sure the RAM worked, which it does but it hangs for quite a while on the RAM before booting even with correct timings and voltage, I suppose I can live with it for a while.

I did try 3200MHz... needless to say it didn't work
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, think 2400MHz will do just fine for now.

Temps are a little worrying, CPU temp was hitting 40° with the board heatsinks getting hot enough to almost burn me
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.





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Aussiejuggalo
13
Update 3

Got everything rebuilt and Windows installed finally.

Problems

I had some problems installing Windows, I use Windows 10 64-Bit Enterprise N 2015 LTSB however I was having "clock-watchdog-timeout" BSOD every 5 - 10 minutes on a fresh install so after the better part of the day I realised that I needed to manually install Windows update KB4012606 in order for the crashes to stop. So that was fun but now I've got that done, Windows is installed, most of my programs are installed and games will be installed in the next couple of days.

Before the A.1 BIOS update the fans would run at the full 12v but now they run at the 7v they should so that problem sorted it's self.

However I am maybe having a semi major problem with the GPU, it's reading as running at 8x 1.1 in both the BIOS and GPU-Z.



I'll be installing games either today or tomorrow to test the GPU. I'll be testing Company of Heroes 2, Deus Ex Mankind Divided and Sniper Elite 3. If your wondering why I picked those 3 games well it's simple, they were the ones I had previously installed with built in benchmarks
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Now onto the important stuff.

Case Pics

May not be much to look at, at the moment but it's a beast none the less.





Benchmarks

Old 3570K build

My old build, was a 3570K, 1.3v @4.5GHz, 16GB 1600MHz Corsair RAM and AMD 290 all cooled with a custom watercooling loop.

I did forget to record temps for this one but I remember CPU and GPU didn't go over 70° on full load.







Ryzen Build

1800X stock, 1.35v, 32GB C14 2400MHz G.Skill RAM and AMD 290 all air cooled as the pics from above show.

CPU-Z Validation,

k81yy8.png



Ambient temp was 26°.







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A
Subbed, i really like the build so far and the choice of components, although i don't know if it weren't better if you went with Intel vs Ryzen for gaming. From the few benchmarks i saw Ryzen was behind Intel in some games, by quite a few fps. But i could be wrong, cause i see many people using Ryzen recently.

Also, the benchmarks on the drives look very good.

I really like the case u are using, i wanted to buy one a while ago, but it went out of production. And i went with a Thermaltake X31, which is roughly the same dimensions, but it's kinda meh in quality. I wish i could find one used, in good condition relatively near to me.

You can really do some nice watercooling in it if you wanted, but maybe it's not your thing. I followed your first build too, but...silly..can't remember if you did watercooling then. I'm guessing no though.

Good luck...i'll be following.
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Aussiejuggalo
Quote:
Originally Posted by andre02 View Post

Subbed, i really like the build so far and the choice of components, although i don't know if it weren't better if you went with Intel vs Ryzen for gaming. From the few benchmarks i saw Ryzen was behind Intel in some games, by quite a few fps. But i could be wrong, cause i see many people using Ryzen recently.

Also, the benchmarks on the drives look very good.

I really like the case u are using, i wanted to buy one a while ago, but it went out of production. And i went with a Thermaltake X31, which is roughly the same dimensions, but it's kinda meh in quality. I wish i could find one used, in good condition relatively near to me.

You can really do some nice watercooling in it if you wanted, but maybe it's not your thing. I followed your first build too, but...silly..can't remember if you did watercooling then. I'm guessing no though.

Good luck...i'll be following.
Click to expand...
Honestly this thing hasn't been to bad to game on, I'll do gaming benchmarks in a bit but using my settings I only lose 5 - 10 FPS which is really nothing and wont matter to much once I upgrade to 1440P.

Yeah drives are good but one hasn't been great...

I did do watercooling in my first one but I cant be bothered this time round and I'm glad I didn't right now, I'll be going EK MLC coolers once there released in Q3 (hopefully).
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Aussiejuggalo
2
Update 4 Catastrophe

Well this update was going to be gaming benchmarks and showing how little difference I was seeing but... well... my M.2 died so I lost all the screenshots, game saves etc. I do have most of my stuff on my NAS but I didn't back up the latest benchmarks etc so I have to wait till I get a replacement M.2 which will hopefully only take a week.

I'm not 100% sure what killed the drive, maybe it was defective or maybe being under the 290 got it to hot and it couldn't handle it, either way it's fully dead, I even had a friend bring his PC over and we tested it in that but nothing
frown.gif
. When I get the new drive it'll be going in the PCI-e 4x slot away from the GPU and it my reversed setup it means i'll be getting cool air and the GPU will pull the hot air from it so hopefully it'll run better.

I'll also be ordering the cables soonish maybe within the week, I finally got around to measuring them all but I need to give the PSU a test first just to make sure it's working right and I'll be adding lighting once I get the MDPC sleeving I ordered which will hopefully be this week.

So yeah... fun week
mad.gif
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Aussiejuggalo
5
Update 5

So been slacking a bit with updating this because I've been to lazy to work on it...
redface.gif
, I got my new M.2 in May and I've been running it in the Silverstone PCI-e adapter instead of the M.2 on the board so as to keep it away from the furnace of a 290 and it's been playing nice, the heat from the 290 must of killed the last one.

Speed wise it isn't to bad, I lose half the read speed but aside from that it's basically like running it in the M.2 slot.



Cooling

As for cooling I've made my decision finally, I was waiting on the EK-MLC but seeing that may not be out till September I'll be grabbing a Corsair H100i V2 this week seeing that should be good enough, not that this thing has cracked 80° anyway but still, need a better cooler to play with the volts because I've noticed it likes to max out at 1.45v
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Cables

Cables, cables, cables, still haven't bought them as of yet but I will in the coming months. The main reason I've slacked on buying these is because the computers under my desk now so I don't see it much but I will be getting them soon.

Lighting

Slacked on this heaps to, I was waiting for MDPC sleeving as well which I got months ago, now I've just got to wire it all up which wont take more then an hour or so, I'll do this within the next few weeks hopefully.

GPU

This is a tricky one, I'm still waiting to see what the RX Vega can do however a 1080Ti is tempting because it looks like it'll beat Vega in everything but in saying that Volta is coming soon so it may be worth the wait.

The reason I'm hesitant about going back to Nvidia is because I've had quite a lot of problems with there drivers, the hardware is fantastic but the drivers... kinda meh, because I run 3 screens but only game on 1 some games will disable my other 2 screens which is annoying.

Monitors

These damn things, I was originally going to go the Asus MG279Q but the complaints about panel quality put me off for ages.

I had high hopes ViewSonic would do the Freesync version of the XG2703-GS like they showed on there site for ages but it seems like that's disappeared which is extremely annoying.

Then I moved to the Samsung CHG70 but because it's curved and the viewing angles are crap it's off the list.

This brings me to the Nixeus EDG 27", Freesync range is excellent and aside from those thick bezels it seems to be the best of the lot, one tiny problem... don't think it'll be coming to Australia... and importing 3 of them, well I'll be lucky to get them for $2000 shipped not to mention import tax once they get here.

Needless to say I'm stuck on monitors atm. Actually it's tempting to just buy a G-Sync monitor seeing the quality control is a bit better.

That's about it for now, I'll update when I've got the cooler installed and I might try doing the LED's at the same time
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.

Edit,

Motherboard

Almost forgot I'll be keeping the MSI B350M Mortar Arctic, seems to be pretty good aside from the stupid M.2 placement and with the AGESA 1.0.0.6 update I got my 32GB of RAM running at 3200MHz C14 timings
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Aussiejuggalo
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Update 6

Got the H100i V2 yesterday and installed it just before (horrible photo I know). I also didn't do my usual "product photo" because honestly, I forgot
lachen.gif
.



For those wondering, the fans are pulling in through the radiator, fans in the roof are blowing in and the fan in the back is blowing out, a lot of air is going in but I have DEMCiFlex fan filters and it seems to work pretty well at keeping the dust out while keeping temps down.

Idle temps right now are around 27° and its 22° in my room atm, I'll test load temps soon, the only thing I'm worried about is the VRM temps seeing they don't have fans blowing on them but we'll see how it goes.

Did have a little problem when I first booted because it wouldn't go into Windows with the RAM running at 3200MHz so I dropped it to 2400MHz, once I installed Corsair Link I was able to put it back to 3200MHz. Realised one thing with the Corsair Link software however, it's reading 20° offset that AMD put on all the X versions, very annoying.

Edit, almost forgot the H100i V2 came with an AM4 mounting kit, I bought one because I didn't think it came with one so, just a small note to everyone else.

Cables

Now before everyone starts grabbing pitchforks I know the cables are a mess, the cooler hasn't helped much considering the fan cables are about 5cm to short to connect behind the panel, I may switch the fans to EK Vardar and or extend the fan cables.

As for the rest of the cables I'll be getting to them soon, just need to buy a new GPU first then I'll get some CableMod cables made up.

Lighting

I'll be getting to this very soon, took some rough measurements today so I now know I need about 65cm cable between the 2 strips, top and bottom hence the blue tape showing middle of the case and I need about 35 - 40cm for getting around the back to the controller, I may go a little longer on the controller wires so I can run it along the edge of the case under the PSU but we'll see.
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Update 7 Change of Plans

Change of plans with GPU & monitors as well as some updates on lights and cables.

GPU

Well after waiting for Vega for basically a year I haven't been impressed with the performance and power draw so I've begrudgingly made the decision to go Nvidia with a Galax GTX 1080 EXOC Sniper White. I'll be ordering that next week once I have the money.

It'll match the theme a lot better although I'll probably end up pulling the shroud off to paint it a proper white, don't really like the fact it's an off white but we'll see how I feel once I see it in person and in the PC. I'll also paint the PCI bracket black to match my case like I did for the 290.

For anyone curious as to what paint I use, it's a ceramic based engine enamel, works pretty well without primer, smells like crap but sticks extremely well. Should probably check the conductivity of it though I suppose
thinking.gif
.

Monitors

Now that I'm going an Nvidia card I'll also be changing the monitors to triple ViewSonic XG2703-GS, the reason I picked these ones over Asus, Acer etc is simple, there currently the cheapest 27" 1440p 144Hz G-Sync monitors and they don't have heaps of flashy gamer crap or pointless LED's on them.

The green accents may be a little bit of a problem but if it comes to it I'll either paint them or cover them with vinyl.

Cables

Providing everything goes well over the coming weeks I will be ordering these on the 13th of next month finally, I've got all the lengths worked out and colours so now I just need the money. It'll be pretty expensive to buy them but the colours (well shades technically) I've picked will mean I won't have to change them pretty much ever because they'll go with any build.

Lighting

The lighting is actually in the PC, has been for a week but because the way I've done the power connector it's not actually powered on, it does work though.

Lighting will get it's own update probably in a week or so, I've just got to finish off some more of the lights for my desk then I'll do a big update explaining how I did it all because as far as I've seen it's different to the way most have done it.
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Nice .. about the monitors they look to be great. Did you find them at a good deal ? I was looking at this model too, the design is quite nice, the green doesn't bother me too much, did not see it in person though. Where i am they cost just about as much as the Asus PG279Q. Maybe because they are a new model.

The ViewSonic costs about 880 Euro (with 1 year warranty !??) and the Asus costs 910 Euro (3 year warranty). I found the Acer at a good deal (750 Euro) but unfortunately i don't like it's design, the deal is pretty good though. I like the design of the Viewsonic maybe the best. The Asus one also is quite nice. I don't know about the quality and durability of the Viewsonic though, i would like them to be just as good as the Asus.
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Aussiejuggalo
Quote:
Originally Posted by andre02 View Post

Nice .. about the monitors they look to be great. Did you find them at a good deal ? I was looking at this model too, the design is quite nice, the green doesn't bother me too much, did not see it in person though. Where i am they cost just about as much as the Asus PG279Q. Maybe because they are a new model.

The ViewSonic costs about 880 Euro (with 1 year warranty !??) and the Asus costs 910 Euro (3 year warranty). I found the Acer at a good deal (750 Euro) but unfortunately i don't like it's design, the deal is pretty good though. I like the design of the Viewsonic maybe the best. The Asus one also is quite nice. I don't know about the quality and durability of the Viewsonic though, i would like them to be just as good as the Asus.
Click to expand...
The Viewsonic here in Australia cost $899 which are the cheapest 27" 1440p 144Hz IPS G-Sync monitors, the PG279Q costs $1099 so small price difference. I'll be honest I didn't even look at the Asus, does look like a nice monitor but I'll stick to the Viewsonic just because it's $200 cheaper and all the 27" 1440p 144Hz IPS monitors use the same AU Optronics panel anyway.

I'll be grabbing 1 monitor probably in the middle of September once I get the GPU & cables out of the way then getting the other 2 later on, hopefully I don't have to mess around and return the thing because of bad BLB.
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TheCautiousOne
That white motherboard is pretty sweet.

TCO
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D
SM5 build for me is auto-sub.
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Aussiejuggalo
2
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheCautiousOne View Post

That white motherboard is pretty sweet.

TCO
Click to expand...
Yeah I didn't think I'd like it but after seeing it in person I'm pretty impressed, should look awesome once I've cleaned the cables up
biggrin.gif
.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duality92 View Post

SM5 build for me is auto-sub.
Click to expand...
Thanks. It's an awesome little (big?) case, shame it's been discontinued
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D
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aussiejuggalo View Post

Yeah I didn't think I'd like it but after seeing it in person I'm pretty impressed, should look awesome once I've cleaned the cables up
biggrin.gif
.
Thanks. It's an awesome little (big?) case, shame it's been discontinued
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Click to expand...
you could still make one buying all parts seperate lol

i have a white one
smile.gif


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Aussiejuggalo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duality92 View Post

you could still make one buying all parts seperate lol

i have a white one
smile.gif


Click to expand...
Yeah that's true.

Nice, makes mine look super basic and empty
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Aussiejuggalo
16
Update 8 GPU

GPU FINALLY!

Yep I finally got a new GPU but I had to change from the Galax GTX 1080 EXOC Sniper White to an MSI 1070 Armor OC because I didn't realise the Galax had a really thick backplate, I had trouble measuring to make sure I had space and I was getting inconsistent answers from MSI so I played it safe and went for the MSI card, it goes well enough.

I thought about going a 1080 version but after thinking about it a 1070 will be good enough for now and I'll get a TI Volta next year, I will be hunting a full white Volta card though.





Looks so much better than the Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X that it's replacing.



Cables

I also got around to ordering the CableMod cables to
yessir.gif
.

Ended up costing a decent chunk of $$$, almost $400 AUD shipped, I got custom sized cables as well as colours and finally some 60cm SATA cables and some cable combs.







Bottom combs are the ones I got from CableMod and the black ones are from Mainframe Customs I got years ago, not sure which one I like just yet but I think the Mainframe ones would be a bit better but a lot more stuffing around to get them on.



Build & Desk Pics

I'm pretty happy with how the cables came out but down near the PSU they look like utter crap, still not 100% sure how the hell I'm going to fix that.

The desk was a nightmare to cable manage, I had plastic cable covers like I used for my speakers but because my wall is warped they wont stick and keep falling off so for right now little hooks jammed into the wall will do.







Cable management the left side is an utter mess and under the desk is worse but the case hides most of it
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.



And last but not least, the whole setup, the "pink" is actually more of a violet (look at the reflection on the desk to the left for a more accurate colour) but without heavy Photoshop I cant get a good pic with my phone, I will take a proper pic with my big camera when I replace all the monitors, the greens surprisingly accurate though
thumb.gif
.



Final Stuff

Cooling

I changed the fans around a little so now I have the AIO & back fan sucking in and the top ones blowing out, gotta replace the fans though because I'm not happy with them especially the stock AIO ones, they are just annoyingly loud.

Monitors

I'm going to try and get them by the end of the year, it'll still be the Viewsonic ones unless something really amazing come out, hoping for 1 per month shut up I'm poor.

Cables
The cables are an annoying problem but I'll work on them as well as cleaning up the other ugly ones I have hanging around, I'll sleeve what ones I can and work on hiding them for when I'm done and ready to take good pics
lachen.gif
.
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