Right, back!
CPU Vulnerabilities
Done some research, but more required. In brief, it appears that I won't have to disable HT on the 9900K which is a relief, however the software and bios mitigations might cause a decrease in performance anyway - but we don't know yet as not been updated (at time of Computex) - at least that's my understanding of the situation so far, might not be 100% accurate. As far as games go, current ones at least, the 9900K should be fine, but obviously I'm buying this boy for more than just gaming.
If I stick with Intel, I don't have the option of going for more cores without swapping to HEDT and the price for that upgrade is significant (was ~£700 last I checked for the 12-core part), + new chips confirmed so a further wait too; also slower per clock than the 9900K. As stated (many times!) previously I feel the 10-core 'K' processor/9900K replacement would be perfect for me, but who knows what's going on with that... Intel tweeted that the 9900KS will be
"shipping holiday 2019" which to me says late November at the earliest. Though rumours are against it, hopefully the Z390 AORUS Master will support the 10-core Comet Lake processor, at least giving me the option of upgrading later without having to go the full MB replacement route.
Would
like to consider AMD; 12-core on 7/7 with 16-core in the pipeline is certainly appealing, but as have stated many times, due to previous experience they still give me the fear. At least with Intel I know where I stand (vulnerabilities aside...).
Case (NB: TL;DR at the bottom
)
I've pretty much made my mind up case-wise, and I'm sorry to say that it's not the sensible option as 90% sure I'll be going with the TJ11. I am aware of the limitations which are as follows:
- Old design (huge externally, but not great use of internal space due to 5.25 inch bays).
- Old design (hot-swap drive bays, in cages, are only SATA 2, thus require updated backplate: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/silverstone-sst-cp05-hot-swap-sas-sata-6g-module-ca-319-sv.html).
- Discontinued (difficulty in sourcing new power buttons/USB panels if they fail).
- Discontinued (180 mm AP fans only made by SilverStone, hard to source in future).
- 180 mm fans manually set to high/low (and are noisy on high...).
- 90 degree MB results in max GPU limitation of 314 mm, despite the enormous form-factor/height of the chassis.
- Acrylic window as opposed to TG or windowless.
- The cost!
So, now you're thinking: So he know all this, and
still wants the case - what a nutter! ...And you're probably right
.
The Lian Li answered all the issues I (we) had with the TJ07 (airflow and CPU cooler headroom, with the latter exceeding the TJ11 at 180 mm vs 171 mm) and despite being expensive is actually cheaper and more contemporary-looking. It has a useful GPU support, all the SSD/HDD space I could ever require (modular too), will house super-long GPUs and the traditional internal design isn't ever going to cause any problems down the road (that I can foresee), but having watched/read multiple reviews of the TJ11 I just found myself really drawn to the design and sheer solidity of the beast - there's nothing else like it, and quite frankly I'm not sure there will be again... Maybe, in my case, the only replacement for a Temjin is another Temjin...
Here are my counters to the issues above:
- The cooling is excellent in this machine. Steve at Gamers Nexus highly, highly rated the RV02 (in 2018/19, videos below) which has a v. similar layout + there are no issues with CPU cooler height (at 171 mm) allowing for installation of the NH-D15 - so that's the two crucial TJ07 issues solved.
- The fans, whilst proprietary tech and an unusual size (I know, annoying) are still readily available, + SilverStone has 2 updated versions with the latest just announced, including PWM (https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=847&area=en).
- From reviews the 'low' setting on the existing fans is more than adequate and they are pretty quiet at this RPM ('high' increases volume substantially, with only a minor reduction in heat - for me that would mean only to be used on v. hot days or if left rendering for hours).
- GPU max length of 314 mm is slightly irritating, but not the end of the world - assuming we're not going to be in the situation where reference designs start going beyond this... (hence my Q a few posts back )?
- Not massively concerned about the case being discontinued, though obviously I'd rather it were still in production. Power buttons and USB sockets are easily removed and (I imagine) could be fixed by an electrician. The entire case is rivet-less; all screws.
- Acrylic window isn't a big deal for me + no fan of RGB/flashy interiors, but will be nice to check for dust buildup easily .
- I can (and will) update the HDD/SSD racks with the SilverStone replacement part as listed above, not ideal, but meh - oh well... (separate SSD mounts also come with the case in addition to the racks, but I like the location/airflow of the latter).
- The cost - not much to say here other than I like it and hope it'll lasts me a very, very long time... (beyond everything going inside it!).
I was thinking of selling my '07 (it's mint), but now feel more inclined to keep it as a backup/rendering machine as quite like the idea of having both unibody SilverStones in my office, but we'll see. Agree that the '07 could be modded relatively easily to provide sufficient airflow for the 9900K (or similar) but for multiple reasons now feel that the '11 is the better option for me.
TL;DR I like the looks/build quality of the TJ11 enough to overcome the numerous niggles. The important factors, airflow and CPU cooler restrictions, are fully addressed.
Airflow/Raven info here:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otiIWhPKc20
If interested, looks like SilverStone are bringing a new 90 degree MB Raven case to market in 2019, again utilising 180 mm fans, though design is not to my taste:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZmTyF5suBQ
Going forward/Build
Until the vulnerability issues were brought up I had decided to go with the 9900K. My only concern was the GPU as not keen on getting burnt by an update at E3 (2080 Ti pencilled in, exact model linked to in previous post). I have cut the £200 1 TB NVMe drive from the build to help finance the TJ11 and will use SSDs/HDDs for work for now and add the super-fast M.2 later. PSU-wise I'm thinking of going with the Seasonic Prime Ultra 750 W Gold (
https://seasonic.com/prime-ultra-gold). I've found it very difficult to get any info which separates the Prime from the Focus units, but obviously (at the same rating) Prime is 'better.' The Prime 850 W is too expensive (when combined with all my other components) + I have the AX860 in the TJ07 should I need more power in future. I believe Bearmann said 750 W would be more than adequate - would that still be true for a future upgrade, do you think (10/12 core processor), given I have no desire to go the dual GPU route? It's either that or an 850 W Focus/HX/RMx unit - honestly tying to compare PSUs is a bit of a nightmare for me, efficiency vs model and so on...
Build below:
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Master
i9 9900K (stock) + NH-D15
64 GB (4x 16 GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR 4 3000 MHz
RTX 2080 Ti (EVGA Black Edition)
750 W Seasonic Prime Ultra Gold
512 GB NVMe (OS, WIN 10 Pro High End 64-bit)
2x SSD, 2x or 4x HDD
That's about it, I think. More research CPU-wise and whether or not to wait till E3 GPU-wise...