[p4inkill3r]

Hey guys, I thought I'd share some pics of my new build.
I have used a Fractal Design R4 as my main case since it was released, and I guess I got tired of it. I wanted to go smaller, sleeker, and with a case that had a smaller footprint, and I fell in love with the InWin 301.

I updated from a Ryzen 2600 on a b350 asus strix ATX to a 5600x on a Gigabyte b550i Aorus Pro matx, retired my Corsair AX750 to a new rmx650, and kept my same old Gskill 3200mhz 8gbx2 as well as my Sapphire 5600xt, because I cannot justify buying a new GPU at this point just to say I have the newest and best.

The biggest obstacle during the build was insisting on using my Noctua DH-14, but its my favorite and I did not want to use anything RBG, which discounts most new AIO coolers it seems. I have a Corsair h100i in another build, but its loud and old. The Noctua look is hard to beat, in my opinion, and using the in-line stepdown connectors makes it damn near silent, so I went with it. The issue I ran into was the clearance between the top retaining clip for the cooler's fans and the overhead shroud for the PSU that is built into the case. I measured the clearances multiple times, but could not get the motherboard mounted without having to put stress on the cooler by the clips making even the slightest contact with the shroud. Some careful bending gave me just enough room, but the build would have been much easier to just plop a watercooler in it.

I put two Noctua 120mm fans up front to exhaust what heat I can, since there's no room in the back for a draw fan. The PSU fan dumps downwards directly onto the cooler, which doesn't seem to be an issue so far as it rarely comes on and is inaudible even when it does.

Max temp during Cinebench r23 is 64.5C and the GPU maxes out at 80C during 3dmark, which seems pretty damn good for the setup. Gaming-wise, I don't play much except for Civ 6 and other RTS games, but there's a marked difference between how hard the machine is working; on the 2600 rig, my GPU was constantly running loud enough to hear its fans, and that has yet to happen on this one yet, even when there are thousands of units and 25 AIs in custom games. That alone is impressing to me.

Overall, I love the case. The way the side panel comes off is cool, its like an oven door kind of, and the tempered glass is beautiful. I definitely recommend it to anyone that wants to downsize, but also would suggest using a watercooler just for convenience's sake.

 

[ozlay]

It looks much easier to cable manage with an ITX board. I had a hard time building in the 301 with an mATX.

Also you might get more airflow. If you bring those front fans back. And i think you have them blowing the wrong way.

 

[p4inkill3r]

I thought about mounting the front fans as intake, but I preferred the look of the fans and the cleanliness of the mounting by using them as exhaust. My temps are very low as is and if and when I start tinkering with an OC, I might reconsider.

 

[N3KKi]

I actually literally just yesterday picked up and installed a 5600X into my system upgrading from a 2600. I ALSO have a Noctua NH-D14 cooler on mine and it is honestly the best thing ever imo. I do move my pc around sometimes in the car making water cool much less attractive an idea, however I did not upgrade my mobo as already had B450 Aorus Pro. Just using the bios auto OC settings managed to get 4.85GHz all core on mem stress in AIDA64 too which is not too bad