PC/HW Assembly

Current Rig:

• Case: Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL ROG Certified ATX FULL-Tower Liquid-Cooled PC Setup with HP omen and two LG ultrawide monitors – "more RGB ~= more speed". RTX 4090 – Used for AAA gaming and fine-tuning LORAs (primarily running Ollama models). 8TB of storage(4TB nvme gen5 and 2x 1TB gen4. 2TB HDD), Corsair 64GB DDR5 6000Mhz, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-core, 16-Thread Desktop Processor with AMD 3D V-Cache, Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX WiFi 6E PCIe 5.0 Motherboard

• Viture One Pro XR Glasses – For multi-monitor setups and portable Nintendo Switch gameplay anywhere. (we gonna settle with two form factors i believe: one is immersive for gaming/movies/High-Precision-Medical(like Quest and Vision Pro(returned because of less content and cost/weight)) and one for non-immersive simple productivity usecases like reading/navigating/watching/playing simple vids/titles (spectacles form factor like Meta rayban (upcoming orion) or Viture (many others like this) with less FOV(mean better PPD within the available microled pixels density))

• DJI Neo Drone (with FPV piloting with goggles and RC/Motion Controller) – Ideal for scouting unknown terrains when feeling lazy, with potential for 3D modeling or neural radiance field (NeRF) generations (drone photogrammetry to 3D models/NeRFs).

• MacBook M3 Max – Prioritized for battery life and easy airpods switch ecosystem.

Lessons from PC Building: (will try to keep updating this section. Tooling Might be slightly outdated as im more focused on energy efficiencies at architecture lvl now.)

• Energy and Cooling Efficiencies – If not using a liquid cooler for overclocking, Optimize fan airflow speeds for different temps by doing a stres test(front in-out directions (cpu dual tower heat sink(make sure dual tower heat sinks dont block ram slots) and cooling fan directions) and hot air rises up strategy) , place case on flat surface rather than mat and replace gpu thermal pads now and then. Have Isopropyl alcohol and good compressed air canister for cleaning out dust from heatsinks and cooling fans often.

• Power Supply – Trade-offs between dual-rail and single-rail power supply(check if they can deliver max power in single rail), 80+ gold/platinum certified (standard preffered) psus usually dont need to worry about with rails and also modular is better for cable management. Have 300W extra buffer (after all component Wattage calculations) in psu for future upgrades atleast 2 years from now. As performance per watt might not be priority every generation for the companies.

• Use Correct system ram slots (DIMMs) for Dual Channel memory configurations and BIOS profiles for clockspeed overclocking and check cpu/motherboard compatibilties(and also ram generation DDR3 to DDR5) & higher clockspeed compatibilties ( CAS latencies (has like ~5% performance gain) > lower is better)

• Pci Gen 5 ssd Cooling Challenges – Addressing airflow issues within the case for better cooling performance. Custom heat sink sizes shudnt be big blocking the airflow.

• Also buy motherboard with many M2 nvme slots (they come in different form factors and sizes like m2 2280 vs 22110 ..make sure they are compatible with the nvme ssd form factor you are buying and if motherboard supports(usually motherboard manualls has which m2 nvme and pci slots can be active at any moment of time and which slots shud be traded off to not block other pcislot components like gpu/custom nics)) and wifi 6E and bluetooth 5.2 for better range and speeds for wireless controllers support. Also be carefull while installing the screws which mount on the board..as little carelessness extra tightly screwed screws can cause permanent damage and mount will fail (uneven mounts cause heating issues and can cause other components to fail as well) and will need to be replaced.

• Memory Coherence Issues – A lesson from the GTX 970's infamous 3.5GB VRAM controversy. (where 500MB was on slower bus speed and 3.5GB was on faster bus width)

• Nvidia Driver Tweaks – Leveraging the Nvidia Control Panel by overriding the default settings(like Occlusion, DSR, Anti-Aliasing etc).

• If buying monitors for gaming (once you get used to 144hz on OLED with infinite contrast ratio you will never go back.), GSYNC is super worth it!. check for VRR support and Gsync/freesync compatibility. (Gsync is better for faster response times and less tearing but can be expensive and needs a compatible gpu to work).

• Community Engagement: Regularly dive into subreddits like r/buildapcsales, r/pcmasterrace, r/Nvidia, r/AMD, and r/Singularity to stay updated on various PC configurations, deals, and aesthetics. These communities provide valuable insights into current price trends (Demand and supply of various components), user experiences, and potential issues with new hardware/drivers. Additionally, actively engage with the YouTube PC building and overclocking community, following channels like Gamers Nexus, Linus Tech Tips, JayzTwoCents, and UFD Tech. These sources offer in-depth reviews, benchmarks, and tutorials that are invaluable for staying on top of the latest developments in PC hardware.

• Overclocking Tools – ## HWmonitor/GPUZ/CPUZ: for temperature monitoring statistics and clock speeds and hw serial info ## CPU/GPU stress testing: Cinebench R23/3DMark ## CPU overclocking: AMD(has inhouse ryzen master software), Intel(XTU) ## GPU overclocking: MSI Afterburner(uses RivaTuner i think to show On Screen Display(OSD statistics) for overclocking core clock and memory clock speeds and setting core voltage and memory voltage(Be carefull while tuning voltages as it can start Unintended fire lol ..Dont overclock above 10% stock clock speeds for component durability...check with the community as silicon lottery plays a huge role in the overclocking stability) ## Storage: CrystalDiskMark for storage performance stress testing and tweaking read/write speeds and IOPS.

• Almost every generation(gpu arch) upgraded from GTX 9400 to RTX 4090. Better to not compromise on case size(full tower vs midtower) as GPUs are increasing in size every generation. (to not face gpu sag issues need some extra space to install support brackets)

• Built Multi GPU setups (even for modular laptops) (previously SLI, CrossFireX, and now NVLink) for gaming. Alongside handling power consumption and cooling, memory coherence across GPUs can be a bottleneck, especially with increased bandwidth demands in modern systems. Extra fans or advanced cooling solutions might be needed, as thermal limits can affect overall performance. Take into account the challenges of cache coherence and balancing GPU memory to ensure efficient scaling across setups.

• When buying a UPS ( make sure it is pure sinewave not simulated/step sine wave) for power outages and blackouts to not lose unsaved work when loads are at 100%.

Back to Timeline