Overview / Usage

I watched Hot Chips, and then Architechture day, with growing excitment.

I decided Alder Lake would become my next "Home Station". That has previously been occupied by the now long in the tooth 5775C. I'll miss you Broadwell!

My PC serves as HTPC, family gaming station and workstation. I work on it professionally, play on it, remote into it and teach my children on it. As such, it's built to last and perform a variety of tasks, will be overclocked and it's going to be on practically 24/7!

The build is as follows.

The case: Fractal Design Define 7 XL, it's beauitiful, and it holds radiator for days. What's not to like?

The cooling: Hardware Labs GTX480 in the front, GTS360 on the top. Both are configured in push/pull with Arctic P12 fans. The fans are all P12 PWM, but some are PWM PST models. This means they have a daisy chain configuration built in. As such I have 6 PWM PST and 2 PWM on the 480, and 4 PWM PST and 2 PWM on the 360.

All the fittings are high flow 1/2" barbs with gear-worm hose clamps. Hose used is 1/2" automotive heater hose. It's very durable, and easy to replace if neccissary. Also they come in various lengths with a 90* in them, as well as interesting shapes that just happened to fit the bill! As such, the whole setup is easily replicated, and easily repaired.

Coolant is pushed by a PrimoChill PWM D5 mounted to a Watercool Heatkiller reservoir.

There are 2 additional P12s on the bottom on the case in intake configuration and the factory 140mm exhaust fan remains where it came.

The hardware:

The choice of a 12900K was easy for me. 8 lovely little Gracemont cores handling my background tasks so I can leave Golden Cove to churn the FPS? Yes please!

The Motherboard is an MSI MEG Z690 Unify-X. I went with this choice because of the higher overclocking potential of the memory topography and the fact that it is non-RGB to keep the dark factor! This should allow me to test the limits of my DDR5 now, and really let me push the limits later when more mature ICs and PCBs are released.

The dual Intel 2.5GbE is also a very nice touch!

The RAM. 2x16GB Corsair Vengeance 5200MT DDR5. I opted for Micron memory as according to the few QVLs I had a chance to see before launch, the Corsair + Micron combo was the only one to hit 5200MT @ 1.1V, and I don't want to have to push the voltage too high.

The GPU will be top tier Alchemist, once I have that in my hands. Hopefully sooner rather than later if my luck with the Xe HPG Scavenger Hunt holds out!

The Power Supply. A Seasonic PRIME TX-850 850W. I've used titanium rated Seasonic since the last build when Broadwell launched! It has excellent regulation and really good hold up time! Plus being Titanium rated, it's still going to be efficient even under low loads.

The drive(s). Boot drive/fast storage is a 512GB NVME. Bulk storage is handled by a 4TB SATA SSD.

And just for kicks, the webcam is also Intel! Mostly. It's a Creative RealSenz3D, powered by Intel RealSense SR300, because I still love it! My boys still love scanning things into Minecraft with it's depth laser!

Methodology / Approach

This sees constant on time as it operates as a gaming server, a gaming rig, and an HTPC. It's gotta be built to take a lickin' and keep on tickin' with nobody around! And it needs to be quiet and dark! It's going to sit in my living room and I don't want to hear it at night, or see it! Sorry, not sorry, RGB lovers!

I decided on overcapacity in watercooling to keep things quiet even under load and the Fractal Design Define 7 XL was just right to fit a 480mm radiator in the front, with a 360mm radiator on the top.

In order to keep fan RPM low, and thus noise down, each radiator is configured in push/pull with Arctic P12 PWM fans. Some of these are PST models as well, meaning they have a built in daisy chain to make things easier. The case will also have two additional P12 PWMs on the bottom in intake, and it will keep the factory Fractal 140mm in exhaust. Excess openings in the case are sealed with rubberized cork and black silicone sealant.

I also have 2 8 channel fan controllers mounted, such that the fans do not pull power from the motherboard, but from SATA. Only the pump will be drawing power from the motherboard.

This should be more than enough to keep the RAM and VRMs happy even under the most intense workloads, but time will tell.

The hoses are all automotive heater hose! It's extremely durable! 1/2" barb fittings and regular gear-worm hose clamps keep things tight. Both the 90* hose and the curved S shaped hose were sourced right off the shelf from my local auto parts store! This way replacement or replacation is a non-issue.

One of the fittings did require minimal grinding via dremel to get the spacing needed. (see pictures)

When it came time to source the radiator, they were only available in white! So I ordered some of the blackest paint in the world, Black 3.0, and painted it with that! It's VERY black in the dark.

Annoyingly, after starting up the loop for testing, there was still quite a bit of flux leftover. As such, I've installed a fuel filter inline to clean it out before it gets Alder Lake.

Technologies Used

12900K

Z690

RealSense (SR300, and I still love it)

Intel Discord!

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