Masterclass: Workstation PC

Stretching the concept of an upgrade to ridiculous levels, we give a gaming PC a workstation makeover.

We’re doing things a little differently from normal this month. Instead of building a system from scratch, we’re upgrading one of the office machines to better handle the multithreaded world in which we increasingly find ourselves. The machine in question is the test system I use on a daily basis, and while it has served me well for a couple of years, it is starting to show its age, and as we’re surrounded by so much hardware, it feels like a good time to upgrade to something a bit more current. A bit more future-proof.

The starting point isn’t a bad machine by any means: It features an Intel Core i7-7700K at its heart, along with 16GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card. If there is a problem, it’s on the storage side of things. The Samsung 840 SATA SSD is a little slow (particularly when it comes to write speeds), but at 250GB, the issue is more the fact that it’s too cramped to install more than a few apps on, and I often find myself having to clear out junk in order to stop the drive filling up. This has forced me to turn to the big spinning hard drive more and more, which isn’t exactly speedy.

Not everything needs to be thrown out in the upgrade. The Phanteks P400 case needs dusting, but other than that, it’s a quality unit that will live on after the upgrade. The 3TB hard drive is also worth hanging on to, although upgrading to an M.2 NVMe drive should mean I’m not as reliant on it anyway. Finally, the PSU has plenty of capacity for a serious upgrade, and I’ll be hoping to hang on to that as well. Everything else is up for grabs, though, which makes for quite the upgrade.

OFF THE CUTTING EDGE

There’s one defining factor when it comes to picking gear for this build: the intention to use hardware from the APC cupboard that won’t be needed elsewhere. This pretty much crosses off anything that has just been released; and indeed favors gear that is no longer available. The sort of stuff you can pick up on special offer from online retailers, or eBay if you’re brave enough.

The plan is to embrace the multithreaded landscape of all tomorrow’s parties, so we start by grabbing a Threadripper CPU. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX, to be exact. This last-gen chip may lack the raw bandwidth of Gen4 PCIe, but it still boasts an incredible 24 cores, or 48 threads, and offers the kind of power that was unheard of only a few years ago. Such CPUs are still widely available, and there are bargains to be had if you shop around.

The next obvious component is the motherboard, and here we turn to the Asus Prime X399-A, a solid option. We did need to upgrade its BIOS for it to support the second-gen Threadripper – something to bear in mind if you’re looking to replicate such a build – but having first-generation chips to hand made this a straightforward task.

As for the graphics card, upgrading from a GeForce GTX 1080 is a big ask, but we happened to have a GeForce RTX 2080 that has been retired since the introduction of the Super rendition of the card, so this was a great opportunity to put the original 2080 to long-term use in this build.

The rest of the components fell into place after this, with 32GB of colorful HyperX Predator RAM, a slightly aging 1TB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 drive, and Cooler Master’s ML240P Mirage AIO CPU cooler representing the most up-to-date component in the machine. This was used mainly because we don’t have a lot of TR4-compatible coolers available, but also because it’s a really good cooler.

1 OUT WITH THE OLD

We start as we always do with any build – by stripping down the case to its bare skeleton. As this case houses a whole system already, this is slightly more convoluted than normal, but still isn’t too tricky. We start by releasing the two thumbscrews that hold the retention bar over the expansion slots, and then unscrew the two thumbscrews holding the graphics card in place. Release the clip at the bottom of the card, disconnect the two power cables, and the card slides out with ease. We also remove the rear fan at this point, and set it aside for later.

2 CLEAR THE DECKS

Next we set about removing the old motherboard. We disconnect the power connectors, along with any other cables that are easy to unclip, before unscrewing the nine screws holding the motherboard in place (a magnetic screwdriver is your friend here), and easing the motherboard out gently, setting it to one side. The front panel of the Phanteks P400 case pops off easily, affording easier access to what’s left inside. We initially left the two fans at the front of the case in place, but as you’ll see, had to scrap that idea in the end, and we should have removed them from the start. The only thing left in the case at this stage should be the PSU.

3 IN WITH THE NEW

With the case prepared, we can turn to the core of the new system. We start by installing the CPU in the Asus Prime X399-A. Threadripper motherboards have a slightly convoluted system for inserting the CPU, but the order you release and tighten the three Torx screws is clearly marked, and easy to follow. Once done, we install the M.2 drive by removing the chunky heatspreader toward the bottom of the motherboard, then screw the drive in place using the mounting peg and screw that can be found in the motherboard box. After this, we install the RAM sticks, and the core of the system is ready.

5 BIG INSTALLATION

It’s now time to slide the motherboard into place. Don’t forget to clip the I/O shield in position beforehand. The motherboard is loaded up with the CPU, SSD, and RAM at this stage, and is weighty, so be careful as you ease it in. Screw it down on to the offsets using the nine screws you removed earlier. The next step is to attach the AIO cooler. It’s at this point we discovered there wasn’t room to install the radiator in the roof of the case, so we removed the front fans in order to install it there instead. Fix the radiator in place using standard screws.

4 BUILT TO COOL

All-in-one CPU coolers are great, especially when you’re looking at something as powerful as Threadripper, but they’re still a bit of a pain to set up for the first time. The ML240P Mirage is actually one of the easiest ones we’ve put together, at least. Simply attach the brackets either side of the CPU block (the right way around – align it with the motherboard to check the holes line up), screw them in place, and then attach the fans to the radiator. Be mindful of the fan cables as you do this, because they need to be able to stretch to the motherboard headers once everything is in place.

6 FINISHING FLOURISHES

Slide the GeForce RTX 2080 into place, and secure it with the thumbscrews before attaching the power cables – we couldn’t thread these up from the bottom, because we couldn’t get the clips through, so instead we routed these from the side instead. Speaking of which, you can now connect the rest of the cables – both power connectors and the case’s front panel leads. This is a roomy case, and we didn’t have too many problems here. The only issue we had was with the RGB lighting of the AIO cooler, but we wanted subtle lighting anyway, so didn’t pursue this. We finish off by screwing in the old HDD and connecting its cables, and we’re done.