destroy (gaming)

Purchased built system on ebay. Added 500GB drive and peripherals. I think it was branded as a CUKUSA Axiom Gaming. It is a basic Ryzen 5 2400G system in a small case.

Noticed memory wasn't running full speed. Board wouldn't post with default XMP settings (3200). I upgraded bios to 5.50 then 5.90 (any newer claims to be incompatible with some CPU models). No change in post status. I settled on 3000 and it seems stable.

Also fixed the VRAM to be 2GB like my other 2400G system which might help performance a bit. I noticed, in Biomutant, when I auto-configured the graphics settings it bumped from low to medium, so maybe the VRAM makes a difference there.

This is a cheap upgrade. These gaming machines are running pretty old hardware, but this should give them a little more pep. The goal is to give destroy, and stargazer similar specs.

For destroy, I got a cheap mATX case (Cooler master MasterBox Q300L) to replace the Axiom TS Mini. The CPU will go from a Ryzen 2400G to 2600 (no iGPU). Finally strike's old GPU (RX 460) went into this machine.

I also had to move one M.2 NVMe SSD to a x1 adapter card to free up the x16 slot for the GPU. I added an extra 120GB M.2 SATA SSD in a 2.5" adapter module for a little extra storage space.

I didn't have a good ATX power supply spare, so I got an adapter plate for this 1U style PSU (Sparkle SPI350U4BM8).

I tried to run the RAM at 3200 again. The board still won't post with this different CPU though so it is back to 3000.

I still need to get a slot fan bracket to give the GPU always on cooling.

The machine was shutting off under load sometimes (based on user reports). Just grabbed the cheapest semi-reputable supply. It is a Thermaltake Smart 500W 80+ White PSU. Model is TMT-PSSPD0500NPCWUSW.

Almost went in without a hitch, but I snapped the SATA power connector on my M.2 to SATA adapter. Lucky to have a spare.

Things got a little more cramped with the extra fan I had pointed at the graphics card, but I just left it.

Table 1: Rail comparison

Power Supply	+3.3V	+5V	+12V1	+12V2	+5Vsb	-12V	-5V
Sparkle SPI350U4BM8	16A	18A	16A	16A	2.5A	1A	0.2A
Thermaltake TMT-PSSPD0500NPCWUSW	16A	16A	41.67A	-	3A	0.3A	-

Needed some more space. Swapped my 500GB Samsung 840 SSD from justice for the 120GB Samsung 850 EVO (was in SATA 2.5" adapter).

I'm retiring justice as my gaming machine. The video card went into this machine. That moves it from a XFX Radeon RX 460 4GB, to an MSI Radeon RX-580 8GB.

Seems like a decent upgrade, 2-3x performance for up to 2.5x the power. (75W TDP -> 185W TDP). This is also a newer card that should allow for Windows MR to work, and therefore SteamVR, but I didn't set that up yet.

I rebuilt this machine after shifting some parts around with dreadnought, chaos, and justice (retired).

Part	Old	New
Case	Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L	Zalman i4 Airflow ATX
PSU	500W Thermaltake TMT-PSSPD0500NPCWUSW	750W Antec TruePower 750 TP-750
Motherboard	ASRock AB350M-HDV	Asus ROG STRIX B350-F Gaming
Cooler	AMD Wraith Stealth	Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Memory	16GB DDR4 3200 Corsair CMK32GX4M4B3200C16W	16GB DDR4 3600 Crucial Ballistix BL2K8G36C16U4B

I tried the Corsair RAM with the new board, but it failed to post at 3200. I put in my RAM from justice. It wouldn't pass Memtest86+ at 3600, but it does at 3200 so I'm going with that. It was paired with a 2600X before, and I'm pretty sure I ran it at 3600 then, but this board/CPU combo fails for whatever reason.

This served a few purposes:

• Get the i4 out of my way since I didn't have space to use a full ATX build.
• More power for the RX-580. Had some GPU resets that needed manual driver intervention, and I want to rule out power issues.
• B350-F has spare SATA and PCIe slots for storage expansion, even though the i4 case is lacking in drive mounts
• ASRock AB350M-HDV always had sound weirdness (foreign device driver names, sometimes crackling).
• OS drive gets a full 4x PCIe slot (was on 1x adapter before)
• I had to underclock the RAM for stability (3200 -> 3000) with the AB350M-HDV.

The Hyper 212 has poor orientation with the AM4 clip mount. Pulls air right off the back of the GPU. I reckon the bigger cooler is still a net win for the CPU, and the GPU needs any help it can get.

Under load (Furmark with CPU burner) CPU gets up around 62°C, and GPU up to 76°C.

Windows activation migration went swell this time. (Sign in with MS account, verify, swap parts, verify, switch back to local account). I guess I kept enough hardware to not trigger the invalidation.

I needed one more SATA connector when I set this up, and there was already a bunch of non-modular Molex plugs on the power supply. So I grabbed an adapter from my stash and everything was going fine.

15 days later something smells. I get called from the other room that a machine is burning. Get the power off. Drag it outside. Feeling in the motherboard area and power supply case. Nothing overly hot. Smell is mostly gone so I bring it back in, and pull opposite panel off. The connector and wires have gone melty, and there's some scorch marks up the drive.

I got it pulled apart and cleaned up the drive's connector. It still works, but I'll swap it out. I started using an older 128GB Kingston, but the copy seemed slow so I switched to a 240GB Inland SSD.

I cut and threw out all my molded connectors. Then I went through machine photos and made a list of machines I need to remove them from.