LENGTH OF TIME: 2 HOURS
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM
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SO, THE HARDWARE has been selected—a fairly stock-standard mid-tower ATX build. There won’t be a lot to write about, then? Not quite—there are still some decisions to be made that are open to personal style. At its core, the most crucial element, aside from figuring out whether the 4070 Ti Super plays as well with the 7800X3D as it does with the 14900K, is that chassis. It is phenomenally cheap for what you get, almost to the point of being better value than the Corsair 4000D Airflow, our go-to chassis for blueprints for an age. It’s nice because not only does it not compromise on the cooling front, but it manages to do that without necessarily costing the earth, or swerving away from the modern style of chassis that we’ve all come to know and love .
It’s the one key component that we’d actually suggest remains the same in this build, regardless of what else you’d change. For instance, you could opt for an Intel Core i5-14600K instead, or a Ryzen 7 7700X if you want a bit more multi-core goodness. Alternatively, you could drop down to an RTX 4070 Super, or change up the storage to something slightly more affordable. There are numerous options you could choose, but it’s challenging to find a better-value proposition than that thing right now.
Speaking of tweaks, one area we’d suggest you do consider is that CPU/ GPU combo we mentioned earlier. Super cards are seriously pricey right now, certainly when you’re not buying direct from Nvidia. If we’re honest, the 4070 Ti Super is a solid unit, but still falls short of the value proposition that the 4070 Super represents. One other point about the H6 Flow to bear in mind is that this is quite a short case. It’ll only support graphics cards up to 365mm in length, so any number of 4080 cards might struggle to fit in this one.
CHASSIS SHENANIGANS
Bet you can guess what’s coming. Yep, it’s our favorite time of the build, the chassis teardown. We should probably ask Ifixit to sponsor this step. Yep, it’s in every build log we do, and with good reason. Not only does it reduce the weight of the chassis and protect the panels of your pristine, shiny new case, but it also gives you a lot more wiggle room to work with.
These fishbowl cases are unique in their design, however. For example, NZXT’s H6 Flow actually relies on that front window to provide structural integrity to the entire frame of the unit. By the looks of it, you can actually remove the panel if needed, but we’d advise against it, unless you intend on spraying or modding the thing. That aside, the bulk of the panels can be removed fairly easily. Both the rear side panel and glass window have a single thumb-screw securing them in place. The roof simply pops off underneath your hand, and that angular side intake can be removed by pulling from the top as well (although you’ll need to remove the roof cover first). Once done, you should have a very bare-bones case that looks like this [Image 01]. We’ve gone one step further and removed the front intake fans here as well.
Given our penchant for aftermarket fans, we generally tend to remove all of the stock-included fans anyway, but it’s worth noting that they’re all well routed and cable-managed into the back of the chassis, if you do want to keep the stock ones in there.
FIRE THE PHOTOGRAPHER (JUST KIDDING)
This journalist should have paid more attention. If you cast your eyes to [Image 02], you’ll notice a very nice, clean, closeup shot of the installation process behind the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Now, we specifically asked for the motherboard box the mobo was sat on to be included in this shot. Clearly it hasn’t been. All fool on us for not double-checking, but for your reference, it’s always worth preparing your motherboard on top of the product box itself, as it acts as a fantastic anti-static temporary workbench. Just remember not to put it on the outside of the antistatic bag on top of the box, because that, er, conducts static.
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