joseph zhong

Building a small PC [1/N]

Learned lots of stuff so far

  1. I like quiet! Quiet is good! https://www.quietpc.com/ is a good place to look up fan air-flow capability vs. max noise vs max RPM.
    • Higher noise is a function of smaller fan, and higher RPM.
  2. Small cases are great! This is a big, big change from 2014-2019 deep-learning builds thanks to the Ampere architecture (RTX 30x0 and A100 GPUs)
    • Basically we don’t need 2-4 GPU setups thanks to the 24GB VRAM available in the 3090 / A100.
  3. PC Part Picker doesn’t know specific things: whether a motherboard will fit, whether a GPU will fit, whether coolers will fit, inside the case.
    • Best is to look up build videos on Youtube and see how people use the case. Regardless of what components they actually use, watching others gives a clear sense of what are the pros and cons of a case (some need smaller PSUs, some have less GPU space and need additional cables such as PCIe riser or angled Male-Female GPU power adapters).
    • Second best is to look up your part dimensions against the case that you want https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AddRvGWJ_f4B6UC7_IftDiVudVc8CJ8sxLUqlxVsCz4/edit#gid=1459265577
  4. Mesh is not always best: in an small-case air-cooling setup, you can achieve even lower temperatures by restricting air-flow by sealing up holes to only where the fans and heatsinks sit. This will be applicable on a case-by-case basis and is highly case-dependent, but seems worthwhile: in this example the someone got -3° C GPU and -5-6° C CPU cooling by actually using the glass panel, and selectively sealed the rest of the mesh to only allow air-flow through fans and heatsinks.