Build your own 4K ray-tracing powerhouse right now!
Take the most powerful mainstream graphics card around, add high-end hardware and a little RGB, and bake at 4K
LENGTH OF TIME: 3-4 HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM
THE CONCEPT
THE BUILD FOR THIS month’s cover feature is laser-focused on value for money, and seeing what you can do on an incredibly tight budget. This build is the counterpoint to that. We barely looked at the price tag during its construction, and didn’t pay much heed to it when we did add it all up. We did, of course, have a pretty good idea what the best value components were, and what sort of ballpark we were going to end up playing in, but on the whole, money wasn’t a factor. No, this machine was all about one thing: performance.
Specifically, we wanted to build a machine that wouldn’t be constrained by bottlenecks. From the off, we wanted to give the Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ROG Strix Gaming OC room to strut its stuff, and once you’ve got a serious bit of silicon like that in your machine, lots of the other components fall into place. The big selling point of this graphics card, and the GPU that powers it, is that it makes the dream of 4K gaming a reality. Yes, even at the highest settings (although there’s an important caveat when it comes to RTX titles: Even this card struggles to maintain 60fps at ultimate settings). Which means that while we generally don’t include screen recommendations on these pages, we’ll make an exception, and suggest that this rig is ideally paired with a quality 4K monitor, something like the ViewSonic VP3268-4K.
So, over the next few pages, we show you how to build the sort of machine that dreams are made of. Maybe not MaximumPC “Dream Machine” dreams, but not as far off as you might imagine. Let’s see what spending nearly 10 times the cost of our budget build nets you....
A FACTOR OF PERFORMANCE
AS WE’VE SAID, we’re not particularly concerned about costs with this build, which gives us plenty of scope when it comes to picking the individual components. We wanted to make sure that we weren’t holding the GPU back, so enlisted the help of the Core i9-9900K for the main grunt work. Until we see how Ryzen 3000-series CPUs actually perform, this is the go-to option in the mainstream space for performance junkies. The Core i9-9900K was still locked under a waterblock in our Dream Machine 2019, unfortunately, so in order to use it here, we had to strip down that beast, which involved a fair amount of foul language, a reasonable number of spillages, plenty of scratches and bruises, and bright red hands at the end of it all.
With the GPU and CPU selected, the choice of motherboard went to MSI’s MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC, because it was fresh in the office for review, and in terms of memory, we went for 32GB of HyperX Predator DDR4-3000 RAM—this should be more than enough for what we’ve got in mind for this build. Storage-wise, we’ve gone for a speedy 1TB 970 Evo M.2 drive, which is fast without being prohibitively expensive. We’ve paired that with 12TB of spinning platter storage, giving us plenty of space for work and play.
When you’ve got such great hardware beating away at the heart of the machine, it makes sense to show it off, which is why we turned to the new Define S2 Vision RGB from Fractal Design. This is a vibrant and spacious case, with plenty of support for cooling options, which is good, because we’re also using the Corsair Hydro H115i Pro all-in-one. It’s is a hefty piece of cooling, but we had some interesting plans for how to install it. So, let’s get building....
1
START WITH THE BASICS
TO MAKE SURE that the core components were working, we slotted the CPU into the motherboard, connected the cooler, added the RAM and M.2 SSD, then connected the power, with it all on top of the mobo box. We hooked up a screen, then shorted the two pins on the front panel block that normally connect to the power button. This core was detected, and it booted without fuss. It’s worth holding the cooler so air can flow freely through it. Once done, we disconnected the power supply and cooler, and started prepping the case. The smoked-glass side panels pop off once the thumbscrews have been removed, while a button at the top of the back panel releases the glass panel roof. We could remove the PSU shroud as well, but didn’t feel this was necessary for what we had in mind.
2
INSTALL THE MOTHERBOARD
THE DEFINE S2 VISION’S main chamber offers little in the way of resistance to installing a motherboard, but the PSU shroud made things feel tight on the bottom edge. Maybe we should have removed it after all. Don’t forget to slide the I/O plate into place before putting the motherboard in, and ensure the clips sit on top of the ports, not in them—which is what happened to us. Luckily, we spotted this before turning it on, so managed to avoid causing damage to the ports. With the motherboard and plate in place, it’s simply a case of screwing in the eight screws that hold the board in position. We don’t usually connect the case cables at this stage, but things were so tight at the bottom of the case that we felt we needed to do so here before adding even more cables to the mix.
3 PLAN TO BE COOL
THE DEFINE S2 VISION supports a variety of cooling solutions, so we were spoilt for choice when mounting the Corsair H115i Pro. Its radiator is big, as it supports twin 140mm fans, and working out the best place to hold it was tricky. One option was to mount it facing outward on the right of the mobo tray, but that didn’t provide optimal airflow. Another option was to install it in the roof, but we found it a bit too close to our memory sticks for comfort. Our solution was to place the radiator behind the fans at the front. One problem was that we couldn’t install all three fans and the radiator, but it still provided sufficient airflow, especially with the rear fan drawing air across the mobo and components. We had to remove the existing fans from the radiator first—easily done.
5 LIGHT AND POWER
WE’D ALREADY REMOVED the two graphics card blanking plates, but if you haven’t, do so now. Slide the card into the top expansion slot, and make sure the retention clip flicks into place as it hits the bottom. Secure it in place with the thumbscrews. Installing the PSU is trickier, which again had us wondering if we should have removed the shroud. This is a modular PSU, so connect the cables you need before installing; adding more after involves trying to plug in cables by touch alone. If you’ve got a similar loadout as we have, a single drive power cable, two PCIe cables, and the 12V CPU connectors are all that’s needed. Screw the bracket on to your PSU, slide it in, and hold it in place with the thumbscrews. Feed the cables as best you can to where they’re needed.
4 AN EXTRA PAIR
TRYING TO HOLD a radiator in place while screwing a fan into that radiator is tricky without an extra pair of hands. Actually, it was only a problem for the first screw, as after that, we could subtly move the radiator, or fan, or both, to make sure everything lined up. Connect the top-left screw first, then bottom-right, top-right, before finishing with bottom-left. Once the second fan was installed, we could look at the wiring. The fans in the Define S2 Vision are all PWM fans, so we could plug the front two into the controller for the H115i Pro. We didn’t need the controller installed by default in the back of the case—it was easy to remove, and meant there were fewer cables to deal with. All these fans are ARGB units, so we installed the Adjust R1 controller, giving access to lots of fancy light patterns.
6 NEAT AND TIDY
THE LAST ITEM TO INSTALL is the hard drive. There are three caddies; for cable management reasons, we went for the bottom one. Cable management isn’t much fun here, as there isn’t a lot of room. We like wrapped columns of cables, but the space available meant they needed to be flattened. We stripped away as many cables as we could, but there are still a lot to take care of, as the front panel has USB 3.0 type-A and type-C ports, as well as a couple of USB 2.0 ports, and the audio cables. We could have spent more time sorting out the cabling, but the ARGB connector came undone surprisingly easily when moving things around—there are only so many times you can open up the case again because the lights aren’t working correctly before you lose the plot.