New Personal Rig Update – AMD Ryzen 9 3950X

I recently finished an all-new build featuring the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X; with the exception of the 2080 Ti, this is my first build in several years that doesn’t use components from previous builds.

My previous builds have used the Fractal Design Define R4; over the years that case has been home to an Intel i7-930 and i7-4790K. I went through many more GPU changes in the R4: first Radeon 6970 Crossfire, R9 290 Crossfire, Asus Strix 980 Ti, Asus Strix 1080 Ti and finally Asus Strix 2080 Ti.

Finally decided to retire that old R4 case and do an ITX build inside the Fractal Design Define Nano S – essentially a miniature version of the R4. I posted the complete build on pcpartpicker.com a few days ago (I even got featured on the front page!) but the primary specs are as follows:

  • AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
  • Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black
  • 32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo 16-16-16-36
  • Asus ROG Strix x570-I Gaming
  • Asus ROG Strix 2080 Ti
  • Corsair SF750
  • 512GB Samsung 970 Pro
  • 1TB Western Digital SN750

I originally built this without the 2x NF-S12A fans on top for exhaust but found that GPU temps were 5-8C cooler with them in. CPU temps reached 75-80C under 30min of AIDA64 and GPU reached 67-68C after 35 minutes of OCCT. What I found most surprising was NVME temps reached as high as 60C when the 2080 Ti was under load and warming up the case.

The x570 chipset itself idles around 60C and can reach as high as 80C during gaming; fortunately I can’t hear the fan at idle but I can make out the whine of the fan when it gets closer to 80C. I might try replacing the thermal pad with paste or a better thermal pad as others have done on Reddit.