u/Beneficial-Ranger238

I have been shopping at the Duluth GA Microcenter for over a decade and after Bawls soda disappeared from everywhere else, I almost always buy one when I shop there. I was looking through my order history last weekend before a trip to pick up a new case and I realized that they are still $1.99 while other energy drinks are approaching $4 now. So I looked back, my online history goes back to 2017, and sure enough, there it was, $1.99 just like on Sunday when I picked up the case.

I wish we could say the same about other parts, but at least we still have cheap Bawls 😂

I probably jinxed it now, but I thought it was pretty wild considering how much has changed in the last 9 years.

Microcenter had the SSUPD meshroom S v1 case on clearance for $55 so I picked one up and put my travel pc guts into it.

It’s a 14400/9060xt system with 32gb ddr5

Had to set it on its side to test because the tiny monitor has a mini HDMI and I don’t have a 90 degree mini.

I have a slim 140mm fan on the way for an exhaust fan, I’ll clean her up a bit after that comes in.

I travel for work and wanted something good to game on to pass the time in hotel rooms. My first build was a 5500/6600 built in a briefcase with a monitor in the lid. It was a neat setup but the 5500 was kinda weak and the thermals were awful in the briefcase so I knew I couldn’t upgrade and keep the case.

I then started working on an aluminum extrusion case with the side panel being the monitor. It worked but it was super heavy, the built in audio was too noisy and I ended up smoking my sfx psu because I mixed up another psu SATA cable.

I wanted the SSUPD meshroom S but I couldn’t swallow the price after I had just bought all the upgraded components for the v2 of my homemade case so I got a used Core off eBay.

Last weekend I was checking the microcenter close outs and they had the v1 Meshroom for $55 so I reserved one.

Today I made the swap and tested the system, everything is working good. I am waiting on a slim 140mm fan for exhaust and at that point I’ll clean up the wiring, so excuse the mess for now.

I also need an hdmi to mini for the travel monitor so I had to set it on its side today.

My real monitor is 18.9”, this little 12” one is what I use to test with, it would be quite silly to have a decent spec pc with an iPad screen but with crappy resolution 😂

System specs:

Asus ROG b760 mb

Intel I5-14400 CPU with thermalright classic cooler

32gb Gskill cl36 6000mts ddr5

WD SN7100 nvme 1tb

Asrock Challenger 9060xt 16gb gpu

Corsair rm750x psu

2x thermaltake 140mm fans

Man, I love the versatility of this game. Ran a four class prototype only race with modern lmp2, 2005 lmp2, Brazilian p3&4.

The two lmp were very close, in practice an older one took fast lap. This was at wgi short, no chicane. Lap times for the first half of the field was 1:01-1:03. The slower classes were doing 1:09s ish.

I’m still super rusty so I suck, dropping from 3rd to 5th quickly and losing the front runners. I then made some mistakes and dropped to the back of the fast pack, 25th.

When the field caught the slower cars on lap 8, I pounced and clawed my way back to 9th. It was awesome weaving through the p3/4 field.

Being able to fulfill the fantasy of 48 prototypes racing together is just incredible.

My heel has been doing well. I’m still doing pt, but everything is coming along good and I finally felt like I could get some laps in. I really intended to drive some Sunday, but the day got away from me, but I did get some prep work done, like setting up the new brake, getting updates done etc, all the stuff you need to do when a pc hadn’t been started in a while.

Today I finally got the chance and did some laps in my trusty Brazilian P3 at Watkins Glen, Daytona, and Fontana. I swore my previous times at the glen were in the 1:48s. I managed a mid 50. I sucked at Daytona, only managing a 1:52. Pretty sure I did 1:46-48 before. I got the high 1:35 at Fontana, I think the best was 1:34 before.

Not bad for not driving in ages!

I still need to get used to the Simsonn brake, I lock it up a lot, but I haven’t driven on it since I got the pedals while I was down with my Achilles problem.

I’m looking forward to getting back into it!

My system:

Intel 12900k, MSI tomahawk Z790 motherboard, Thermalright Phantom Spirit SE, 32gb Gskill 6000mts cl32 DDR5 RAM, Yeston 9070xt, 256gb Kingston nv2 nvme boot, 2tb crucial nvme game drive, Seasonic Focus 850w PSU, Thermaltake Ceres 300 case, MSI 34” qd-oled monitor, 2x NF-A12, 3x NF-A14.

So I had been playing with overclocks using XTU and started thermal throttling with my Peerless Assassin and stock fans so I decided to bite the bullet and go Noctua all around. Everything came today so I installed it all and did some testing after dinner.

I still throttle with any clock increase so I’m just going to give up on that, but I did see a 4-5c decrease in temps on cinebench and in game, so all in all it was a win.

I built this system two Christmas ago, originally with a 7900gre. After I upgraded another pc from a 7600xt to 9060xt I was so impressed that I bought the Yeston for this computer.

I’m really impressed with the 120mm fans on the cooler, you don’t hear them at all until over 80%. The jury is out on the 140mm. I can tell they move more air because I can feel it on my legs, but the sound profile is harsher than the thermaltake fans. These did come with the speed reducer cable to minimize turbulence, I think I will try one to see if it changes anything tomorrow.

I had to go black, sorry, just can’t dig the traditional color profile.

After playing with some overclocks, I decided to upgrade my fans and cooler to try to help things out. I had stock thermaltake 140mm in the case, a peerless assassin & stock thermalright fans on it.

I switched to noctua a12 & a14 fans and a Phantom Spirit SE black.

There is definitely a massive difference in noise. I can’t hear the CPU fans until over 80%, which is nice because I can ramp faster.

Overall, I have had a 5c reduction in temperature. Not worth $250 but I bet I could have gotten that without the 140mm fans, so really it could have been done for about $120.

To only hit 93 in cinebench is pretty insane with air cooling imo.

However, this was with stock clocks. I cannot add clocks without thermalling, even without voltage offset. Oh well, it didn’t add much performance but it’s crazy seeing 220A and 313w pulled. Stock is 191A and 271w.